Striking Distance/UK Earthship Completion

So at the end of week 3 we have the entire Earthship finish plastered on the exterior, EPDM installed in the gray water planters, with gravel and sand on top, the bathroom rough-in plumbing complete, kitchen ready for finish plaster after lathing and scratch coating the funky, nasty barn wood (sorry everyone who loved that detail, you are men and you never clean kitchens!!) Light fixtures are in the main room, bottle walls started in bathroom, Hut ready for finish plaster, skylights nearly done...more to come...whew!!!

A Visit from the Fuzz

When I look back on my Earthship adventures I will certainly never forget that the solar panels on the Brighton Earthship in Stanmer Park were stolen by a crack addict named Psycho Tom who lives in a van and is a "cage fighter" (lock two men in a metal cage and don't let them out until one is unconscious). There once were 18 solar panels on the Earthship, special ones, that work best with diffuse light, the gray skies most common here. We could've run all the power tools and the cement mixer off of this system. But, alas, Pscyho Tom the Cage Fighter "nicked" them (stole them). Then last Friday, a sudden break and the police recovered two of the panels, serial numbers scratched out, strapped on top of a van. We probably will never see the other sixteen but were treated to the sight of 4 uniformed officers standing on the roof of the Earthship, comparing the scrapes on the panels with the brackets from which they were pried and taking evidence photos with their cell phones.

Brighton Earthship

So we've made it to Jolly Old England to finish the Brighton Earthship in Stamner Park. Justin, Ron and myself are here for four weeks to put a lot of energy into a project that has languished for 3 years. The design is the same as the Hybrid Earthship at Greater World. We are focusing on fixing the skylights, installing the gray water system and finishing the bathroom as well as making the building LOOK GOOD! Here's our friend Dave installing the frame for the "truth wall" that shows the building is made out of tyres...also a shot of Ron "rendering" the east wing wall and Justin in the bathroom trying to sort out the plumbing. Yipes! That has to be finished in three weeks!!! And a group shot of us...I'm the grubby one as I have been mixing mud by throwing clay into the cement mixer to make a slurry first, very very sloppy!! More soon!! xxoxo kirst