Giving Up Your First-Born, Dirt is for the Rich & Other Matters...
In one of my pre-earthship build posts, I know I mentioned that our goal was to be under-roof by winter 2014 so that we could work on the interiors during the cold months. However, we are looking more short-term at this point, as we realize long-term deadlines have no place in the realm of earthship construction! Our new short-term goal is to be DONE with the tire wall by the beginning of this October (2014). We are on the 5th course and will have four more courses after this one to complete it.
Tire pounding goes much more quickly these days as long as all the components used to make it happen are in working order. The past few weeks have been spent preparing for "the next big push." Zac repaired our tractor which we use to move dirt and then had to repair it again when it broke down recently. Then, his truck broke down and that needed to be fixed as we use it every time we make a run to get materials for the build. After putting out those fires, Zac was able to focus his energy on using the remaining dirt on our property to build up the berm level with the 4th course so that we could start on the 5th course whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Fortunately, that very weekend, we had a volunteer stop by (Thanks, Anthony!!!) who worked tremendously well with Zac and the two of them were able to go through the rest of the fill dirt on our property and build up the berm in basically one day's time!
Speaking of dirt, we had NO IDEA just how expensive sourcing suitable dirt can be! We assumed people would just want to get rid of fill dirt and that we'd have no problems finding some for free. Boy, were we wrong! Dirt apparently is gold these days and no one wants to get rid of it unless you promise them your first born child. We have purchased 120 tons of dirt thus far and have paid nearly $2,500 for it. Our original plan had been to dig a giant hole on our property and use that dirt for our build but that would mean renting the equipment to dig said hole and then hope that the dirt was suitable for our building purposes.
All dirt is not equal for earthship building purposes, my friends... another lesson we've learned. When working with local geotechnical engineers to test the soil we had on-site and were planning to use for the beginning the build we were told immediately by sight alone, "It won't work!" It still had too much organic matter in it and not enough clay; which is found deeper down. Thus, we went to plan B which was to buy dirt as we didn't have enough time to keep digging on our land in search of something more suitable. Truthfully, I imagine that we could get the dirt we need for our build on our property but both time and money come into play there and to be honest, it is so much easier to call someone up on a Monday, order dirt, and have it dropped off Tuesday! Pick your battles...
In the spring, I called TONS of local excavators, concrete companies, etc. in search of free dirt and came up empty-handed. In the past couple of months, I've been so burnt out, I haven't thought of doing it again despite our moaning about the cost of dirt. I tried my hand again at calling around Monday with no luck. However, I think we may have found a cheaper source and will try to get the rest of the dirt we'll need for the build delivered next week sometime unless the dirt fairy shows up with a GIANT dump truck to save us.
Now, while I'm so over lofty goal-setting, Zac is still super pumped up and says that he would STILL like to attempt to get our home under-roof by Winter... the insanity is one thing I very much love about that guy!
Anyhow, we are planning a HUGE work weekend coming up (this weekend; August 30th, 31st & September 1st) and have a small handful of people who have sold us their souls for various parts of the weekend. With that said, if you'd like to come on out and share the beautiful work weekend with us, we'd love to have you out! We plan on working all day each day (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) and on Saturday, we're ending the day at the Clifton Art and Music Festival (literally across the street from the land). We will be renting the ginormous air compressor I've spoken of in past posts and in assembly-line style, plan to work through the rest of the 4th and 5th courses of tires; if not begin the 6th!
If you've come out to help in the past, I assure you, work is much less physically demanding than it was in the when you helped out (unless you are Zac wielding the Ergo-Tamp, of course) and goes much more quickly! So please join us a day or two this weekend if you have the time.
Tire pounding goes much more quickly these days as long as all the components used to make it happen are in working order. The past few weeks have been spent preparing for "the next big push." Zac repaired our tractor which we use to move dirt and then had to repair it again when it broke down recently. Then, his truck broke down and that needed to be fixed as we use it every time we make a run to get materials for the build. After putting out those fires, Zac was able to focus his energy on using the remaining dirt on our property to build up the berm level with the 4th course so that we could start on the 5th course whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Fortunately, that very weekend, we had a volunteer stop by (Thanks, Anthony!!!) who worked tremendously well with Zac and the two of them were able to go through the rest of the fill dirt on our property and build up the berm in basically one day's time!
 |
| Anthony- the awesome volunteer who helped us bring the berm up! |
Speaking of dirt, we had NO IDEA just how expensive sourcing suitable dirt can be! We assumed people would just want to get rid of fill dirt and that we'd have no problems finding some for free. Boy, were we wrong! Dirt apparently is gold these days and no one wants to get rid of it unless you promise them your first born child. We have purchased 120 tons of dirt thus far and have paid nearly $2,500 for it. Our original plan had been to dig a giant hole on our property and use that dirt for our build but that would mean renting the equipment to dig said hole and then hope that the dirt was suitable for our building purposes.
All dirt is not equal for earthship building purposes, my friends... another lesson we've learned. When working with local geotechnical engineers to test the soil we had on-site and were planning to use for the beginning the build we were told immediately by sight alone, "It won't work!" It still had too much organic matter in it and not enough clay; which is found deeper down. Thus, we went to plan B which was to buy dirt as we didn't have enough time to keep digging on our land in search of something more suitable. Truthfully, I imagine that we could get the dirt we need for our build on our property but both time and money come into play there and to be honest, it is so much easier to call someone up on a Monday, order dirt, and have it dropped off Tuesday! Pick your battles...
In the spring, I called TONS of local excavators, concrete companies, etc. in search of free dirt and came up empty-handed. In the past couple of months, I've been so burnt out, I haven't thought of doing it again despite our moaning about the cost of dirt. I tried my hand again at calling around Monday with no luck. However, I think we may have found a cheaper source and will try to get the rest of the dirt we'll need for the build delivered next week sometime unless the dirt fairy shows up with a GIANT dump truck to save us.
 |
| I wasn't lying... he's certifiably insane! |
Anyhow, we are planning a HUGE work weekend coming up (this weekend; August 30th, 31st & September 1st) and have a small handful of people who have sold us their souls for various parts of the weekend. With that said, if you'd like to come on out and share the beautiful work weekend with us, we'd love to have you out! We plan on working all day each day (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) and on Saturday, we're ending the day at the Clifton Art and Music Festival (literally across the street from the land). We will be renting the ginormous air compressor I've spoken of in past posts and in assembly-line style, plan to work through the rest of the 4th and 5th courses of tires; if not begin the 6th!
If you've come out to help in the past, I assure you, work is much less physically demanding than it was in the when you helped out (unless you are Zac wielding the Ergo-Tamp, of course) and goes much more quickly! So please join us a day or two this weekend if you have the time.
We will be working from 9:00 AM- 5:00 PM each day and the address is 2687 S. River Rd. Cedarville, OH 45314. Online directions are a bit off, but we are essentially on the corner of S. River Rd. and State Route 72. We have the first gravel drive on your right once you've turned onto S. River and you can see our shipping container from the road.
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