LOTS of Updates for you!

Once again, we've been working hard and I haven't updated the blog in awhile.  When I don't get to it Sunday night, I end up starting a new project throughout the week and think "I'll update it after this project so I can include it in the posting"... so here's a month's worth of our earthship projects!

giving "Sustainable Cortland" a tour

I installed the star lamp my mom got for us

we decided to stain the entire dining room/kitchen dark

I raised our bed up

and added this handy shelf since the wall slants backwards

we started framing out a closet in the back hallway

I polished up the "circle floor" back airlock

Chad's been working on the greenhouse ceiling

airlock bottle art

I cemented around the orange tree and built a little ledge on the far end so we can walk on that to access the greywater pump

I built a little mudroom coatrack thing out of extra wood and scraps

the finished product!

sunrise bottle light at the eastern doorway

before: last coat on the greenhouse planter cell tire wall

after: brown concrete! (We bought a concrete pigment that mixes into the mud from Direct Colors Inc.)

our beautiful focal point with the right sun angle to shine straight through it!

baby oranges!

snap peas 

summer squash

strawberry blossom

tomatoes 

baby lemon

avocado tree covered in buds

more strawberries

we have 3 large vents in the greenhouse to let out the rising hot air

they are held down by ropes, and when we release the rope...

the vents are counterweighted on the roof and open

looking back into the 100-foot greenhouse

someone got outside!  our indoor cat Darin loved the sunny grass!  Sorry darwin...

Chad's been working on an outdoor vegetable garden

the orchard and chickens

peach tree blossoms

a close up of the beautiful peach blossoms!

our "parking lot": when we needed more subsoil to pound tires, our excavator scraped the topsoil into a big pile and dug up some subsoil 

the topsoil pile, rock pile, and brush

me on top of the topsoil mountain, looking at our backyard view!

earthship view from the topsoil mountain

brush and cutoffs ready for a big bonfire!

a view from the corner ("parking lot," topsoil pile, earthship, barn)

future awesome back patio!

our beautiful tree trellis made by Jacob from the earthship crew.  Chad planted cantaloupe in there, which will have little net hammocks to support them when the fruit grows

driveway: swales with berry trees to help with surface water

little snapping turtle slowly making its way to our pond!

view from on top of the vault: bottle wall and garden

evening sun shining through the living room bottle wall

brush/cutoffs pile bonfire!

I spy burning viga cut-offs

front view of our earthship at night with the greenhouse lights on

in the greenhouse with the lights on at night