Diary of a first time Eco builder Part 1 | The creation of my life’s dream, a totally off-grid self sufficient home - Earthship Karuna

in #life7 years ago (edited)

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I am so happy to finally be penning down what is for me, the most exciting, great and long lived achievement of my life. Anyone who has known me as a young adult will testify that I would talk about not much else except Earthships. I just couldn’t help myself! I got the bug back in the year 2001 after a lecture by Earthship inventor Michael Reynolds. That was the day that my life changed forever. After listening to Michael talk, I knew that this was my mission. Someday or other, I would build my own fully sustainable off-grid Earthship home. It really felt like an amazing idea, and one that I had no idea how I was going to pull off. I had no building experience, not much money, and no clue even what country I wanted to live in! There were a lot of question marks, but also a lot of passion and determination.

So this is a story of my great challenge, in total a 16 year mission! It is a story of soul searching, patience, passion, determination, and magic. It took me 5 years alone to find my spot, after extensive travelling, and living in several countries. The path took many twists and turns, but I never forgot the dream.

To all of you who also dream of one day taking the great journey of self-building, I hope this story and diary will provide you with a lot of good information, advice and hope. Perhaps I can inspire you to achieve the great accomplishment of becoming self-sufficient and off-grid. This is a diary of the milestones and details that I came across on this journey, and also a very humorous look at some of the unique challenges that I came across whilst trying to achieve something very challenging in an even more challenging location. All this and more you will discover as you read my story.

I will post at least once a week, and will have quite a few pictures of the build itself so you can see how I did it. There will be many parts to this, and so I hope you keep reading and discover the trials and tribulations of an inexperienced self-builder, a very ambitious design, and all done on the side of a mountain in the South of India with no road access, no power lines, and no skilled labour. The fact I managed to pull this off at all is a miracle. There was so much magic and divine timing on this project that I know I was supported by the great cosmic brotherhood in ways that even I will never fully know!

So that is my very simple and short introduction.

Please stay with me, and next time we will start this journey, meeting Mr Michael Reynolds for the first time! I was not looking for this, I was quite busy learning to make websites and make money. But then one day, totally out of the blue, my phone rang and an old friend randomly suggested I should go and see this lecture in Brighton UK. I had no idea what he was talking about, but for some reason I went! That is one of the crazy things about life, the smallest thing can take us on great detours!

Whilst you wait here is a great movie from the Valhalla Movement on Earthships

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Awesome!
I have built earthshps with Michael and have done a lot of sustainability projects.
I am excited to see eco content here on Steemit and to see a lot of positive response to this post!
I will follow you and check out what you have to share as sustainable building is of the utmost importance. The more sustainability being shared the better!

Im glad you agree! This is so important these days. Being self sufficient is real security and also what our planet needs to be able to heal... im also very happy to see SO many Steemians support and appreciate sustainability.. theres so many conscious and aware people here. I know this will be time well spent writing this story finally...

Glad you are following!!

Yea!

SteemON!

Hey Quin,
I'm happy to let you know I have written a lovely full length article for Chapter 2 of this adventure!

I have also added a little email notification system if you do read it and dont want to miss future posts.

Thanks again for your support and interest!
Check it out here!

https://steemit.com/writing/@eco-alex/the-remarkable-diary-of-an-earthship-eco-builder-2-the-dream-was-born-why-earthship-s-are-amazing-the-need-to-be-self-sufficient

Very professional!

yes yes yes, I can't wait to follow this project, I have many friends that have built earth ships and domes, some up the side of a mountain with no access like yours.
How exciting, an Earth ship on steemit.
Resteemed

yay! this will be fun! I got too many hilarious and also hard stories and life lessons to share.

Brilliant. I'll read with interest...I have Earthship 1 & have wanted to build one for years too :)

happy to hear! Earthship 1 is a good start! its SO technical its a bit hard to read...

try and get water from the sky! that is one of the best reads and is a lot more 'readable'..

thanks! added to my amazon wishlist.

absolutely brilliant. i'll be watching with great interest!

Glad to see you "launch" this initiative! Steem on!

😄😇😄

@creatr

thank u.. You wont believe some of the stories i have from this build!

Can't wait!!!

This is so wonderful. I am trying to lower my carbon footprint through vermicomposting and reusing of bottles as containers instead of buying plastic containers.

My compassion regarding the environment stems from my love of my family and human beings in general. Our earth is being destroyed by greed. The blame should not be placed solely on Corporations and the rich, but on us as well.

It is so much easier to throw things away instead of repurposing items. It is our current downfall.

I am very proud of you and your friends in your efforts to preserve and use our natural resources responsibly. May your God bless you and my God bless you as well for all your efforts.

In admiration,
@sargento

beautiful comment sargento! and i agree with everything you just said wholeheartedly!

Thank you for a great comment!

@eco-alex
Is your construction complete? I take it that it is. Mad props to you! I have looked into earthships quite a bit, but never had the location or oppotunity to take it more than that!

I did hear about a compacting tool, maybe two years ago, that cuts the labor by 1/10th. It does most of the packing and ramming....which, I understand, is a most important aspect of earthship construction!!! I don't think I would even try without this resource...but don't call me lazy. I have worked back breaking work enough in this life to do SMARTER, not HARDER.

I look forward to seeing this project unfold and illustrated! Thanks for bringing this to us! We need more DOING and less 'just talk about doing.'
Peace!!

Thanks em3! To be honest using power tools for ramming is really not very effective unless u have an ultra small team. The best way is to get a good team of volunteers and do it by hand. It takes just a few weeks or maybe a month and is by far the most fun part when done in a group.

If u use power tools then you can only work on one tyre at a time. To buy 10 or more costs a lot and they are not fun tools to work with. So its actually much slower and much less fun! Also ramming can be done by virtually anyone so u can get the cheapest labour or volunteers. Ive had 6 year olds and 70'yeat olds ramming with me.. we put music on and had a
Blast!!!

And yes i 100% agree we need more doing and less talk!!!! Just do it is my motto!!'
;)

I'm happy to let you know I have written a lovely full length article about the beginning the Earthship Eco Build..

I have also added a little email notification system if you do read it and dont want to miss future posts.

Thanks again for your support and interest!
Check it out here!

https://steemit.com/writing/@eco-alex/the-remarkable-diary-of-an-earthship-eco-builder-2-the-dream-was-born-why-earthship-s-are-amazing-the-need-to-be-self-sufficient

Thanks!!

That's going to be a nice journey, can't wait. Hopefully also including some tips and tricks, do's and dont's from India's number one eartship builder @eco-alex, let it come, let it come...

absolutely! plenty of tips, tricks, do's don'ts and many things in between! GOnna be writing for years!

Yes, finally! That´s the kind of stuff I want read on ecoTrain.
Tales of blood,sweat and tears . :-)

yep all of that ! thanks!

Love this and looking forward to seeing your project come to life. We definitely have the dream of building a sustainable home too but we are still in the traveling and looking for a destination phase.

Im happy to hear this! As they say location location location!! Its so important. I lived in four countries over 7 years before I found my spot. And when i did find it i knew instantly.. it was a profound Eureka moment!! Wishing you a wonderful journey! Im also here to help people with advice and ideas when the time comes...

There will be a time and place! I'm sure of that. Thanks for the tips and tricks. Wonder if you have any ideas for Earthships in areas that are prone to flood if we decide to stay in Cambodia.. and Earthship on stilts... would that be possible?

You could raise the site with dirt and stones, if its really bad raise it a lot. Then you wrap the entire base of the house in epdm membrane which is totaly water proof.

Thanks for the tip! Since we fell in love with the tropics I bet raising the house is what we will need to do or find a spot on the mountain.

Beep beep. Hi @amy-goodrich!
You have used tip! in your comment - that`s my magic word for sending tips ;)
Click here if you wish to learn more!

Hi Amy,
I'm happy to let you know I have written a lovely full length article for Chapter 2 of this eco build story. I think its a great start and want to let people who sounded really passionate know about it.

I have also added a little email notification system if you do read it and dont want to miss future posts.

Thanks again for your support and interest!
Check it out here!

https://steemit.com/writing/@eco-alex/the-remarkable-diary-of-an-earthship-eco-builder-2-the-dream-was-born-why-earthship-s-are-amazing-the-need-to-be-self-sufficient

Another great post! Looking forward to the next episode ;)

Thank you amy! I think around tuesday the next one is coming. If u want to be sure to catch it just scroll to the end of the post and subscribe to email notifications...

Thanks for the tip! looking forward the rest of the story ;)

Beep beep. Hi @amy-goodrich!
You have used tip! in your comment - that`s my magic word for sending tips ;)
Click here if you wish to learn more!