Freeville Earthship Internship

September 2nd-6th we will have two Earthship Biotecture crew members here to work on plastering the final two bedrooms, back hallway, and hopefully the entryway and back patio walls.  People who are interested in working alongside them are welcome to email me at courtneyjdevoe@gmail.com.  On-site camping is available for those who would like to stay the night!

Growing a Greener World

Last week we had Joe Lamp'l, host and executive producer of Growing a Greener World® and his cameraman/director Carl Pennington from Georgia over for the day to tape a segment for their show.  We had a lot of fun with them and can't wait to watch our episode on October 19th!  They have a really great show about sustainability and gardening, and are on their 4th season.  All of their episodes are worth checking out, and are posted online here:

http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/

Joe and Carl preparing to tape the introduction to the episode

Carl setting up the living room for our interview

the promotional picture of us and our earthship

July Updates

As you can see the Airbnb advertisement located on the upper right corner on our blog, we started renting our master bed and bath as an earthship bed and breakfast.  Throughout July and now into August we've enjoyed hosting about a dozen different parties (individuals and couples).  It's been neat to share our space with interested people, answer their questions, and tell stories about what we've been through to get to this point.  Sign up to stay with us by clicking on the Airbnb image!  

Here are some pictures from around the house, including our ever-growing greenhouse plants:

finished the bottle wall over the living room entryway

chicken coop and fruit orchard (should produce fruit next summer)

cucumbers in the back branch-trellis planter

watermelon growing on the wall of the back patio

bell peppers

we grew a red pepper right in the greenhouse (it was green for at least 3 weeks!)

San Marzano tomatoes

heirloom tomatoes

herb garden

broccoli

I'm painting the entryway a terracotta orange

entryway

Ellie and Darwin enjoying the evening sun

Chad pollinating the tomato flowers with a small paintbrush

huge basil harvest! (turned into pesto) 

pumpkin growing outside

garlic harvest from our outdoor garden

Another big project we've been working on is our back patio.  I had a vision of a mosaic-ed wall, wrap around bench, unique bottle fence background, and a fire pit.  It isn't done yet, but it's coming along!

tire wall to form bench, can wall fire pit

posts added to support the bottle fence 

20 pieces of rebar set vertically will form the posts on the bottle fence

whole bottles with labels removed and holes drilled through the bottom will slide onto the rebar forming a bottle fence

my Kokopelli mosaic so far (one blue one left to go!)

And finally, Chad's been chipping away at his brick oven.  He adds rocks on the outside almost every day, and started lighting some curing fires.  And then, we finally started cooking some food and some pizzas!  It is soooo good!

Chad added copper tubing to the dome which will heat water to be pumped through the floor of the back hallway.

rock work

Light a fire,

watch the smoke get sucked up the chimney.

Once the bricks get to 900 degrees you push the coals to the back of the oven and wipe down the surface with a wet rag.

Then slide your pizza in with a peel!

Yum!