Alison and me have found our retirement house, we just don't know where we will put it.

[puerco-bellies]

Here is their website: www.earthship.net

This is the "Open House" in their headquaters just west of Taos New Mexico.



Alison in the main/living room of the demo house. The whole house faces the sun and just inside the windows is a green belt that serves as the filter system that treats the sink and bathing water to be reused as water for the toilet.



There will be a T.V. show on the guy who has founded this movement

Garbage Warrior; on the Sundance channel.

These houses are off the grid homes built out of recycled material. The water systems needs 8" of rain a year and recycles the water 5 times from drinking to waste treatment. These homes are completely solar powered and self sufficient. We are going to build somewhere along the central to northern California Coastal Range. For them to come out and do it will cost us $175 per square foot for a turn key ready to move in hippy home.

:hippie:

[SallyMander]

1. First of all -- that's bad-ass

Second of all -- is that your Vanagon??? We have an '82! :D

[DarkTirade]

3. Heh, replies at the same time...

saying almost the same thing.

[SallyMander]

4. GMTA!

:hi:

:hug:

[puerco-bellies]

6. Yep that our Vanagon Syncro. We call him "Ol' Hippy".

This is Ol' Hippy on the slopes of Crescent Valley just east of Battle Mountain Nevada.



Heres Ol' Hippy on the top of the foot hill that is the Pixie Mine in the western slopes of the Cortez Mountains which make the eastern boarder of the Crescent Valley Nevada. When we pulled up to the Mine owners house, Brian said that our van could never make it to the mine site. He was shocked to learn that it is a 4X4. As always it had no problem getting up the very steep and rough track to the mine.

[SallyMander]

10. Oh, that is TOO COOL!

How long have you had Ol' Hippy?

We just bought ours last summer but i'm already madly in love. It's currently in the shop getting a turbo put on the engine so we can actually make it up hills at >5mph. :D

Then the next project is to convert it to run on veggie oil (it's a diesel)! :woohoo:

[puerco-bellies]

11. Dupe, with a gratuitous picture

Instead of saying cheese I told Alison to say stripper.. I made about twenty yards before being taken down from behind.

[SallyMander]

17. LOL!

Love it! :rofl:

[puerco-bellies]

12. We have the sink/stove/fridge unit that we plan to install.

We also plan to convert it to a diesel in the future for more power, our current uphill speed is backwards. The real problem is that on large highway slopes we have to watch the heat. Our van is an water cooled 86 Syncro. What saves us on off road slopes is the granny gear that syncro's come with.

[DarkTirade]

2. That's rather bad-ass.

[puerco-bellies]

7. We did not know what they were all about when we took the tour.

We stopped just west of Taos and bedded down in the best R.V. park we have ever stayed at, the Bella Montevista. The owner just retired from the army and a Iraq tour. Very cool guy who hates what the "leadership" is doing to both the people of Iraq and his beloved fellow soldiers. He told us that the unusual houses we asked him about were build underground and that they had an open house we could tour.

After coffee in Taos we headed over to the site and were blown away. It is every thing we wanted and fit in with our own ideal of how we should live. We are now looking for a place to build. The only catch is that my workshop will have to be separated from the main home. Alison will not let me move my work bench in here or our next home.. :cry:

[ThomCat]

5. I would absolutely love to live in a house like that

with active and passive solar and maybe a single small wind turbine, water collection, filtering and recycling. Making the home out of recycled materials sounds fantastic so long as there are no alergen issues.

Of course, I'm a woods and swamp lover. That's the type of area where I grew up. So I'd want my house in a very different location. :)

[puerco-bellies]

8. The house can operate with sufficient power on solar alone.

We are going to add a windmill for extra power for my workshop.

[Sanity Claws]

9. What a lovely home for the two of you

It is very homey. I can see a couple being very happy and comfortable there. Good luck.

[puerco-bellies]

13. Thanks

We could be very happy anywhere I suspect.

[Critters2]

14. I've heard of Earthships! Very cool--especially in great setting like that!

I love the hippy home!!


I've recently learned that it is "customary and appropriate" for clergy in my denomination to retire to 10,000 square foot homes with four-car garages and space for an indoor pool or theatre in gated golf course communities. All the while contributing to suburban sprawl. It's a dream come true! And to think, I was worried about where I'd live after retirement.

Still, I think I like yours better. I know my conscience would.

[puerco-bellies]

15. You could start a new trend for the servants of your faith.

It will save you or your denomination money as well.

[Critters2]

16. It actually is a good idea. And makes a much better statement

than mansions on golf courses (not that any clergy I know--well, one that I know--retire to gated communities). I was assuming I'd end up in a duplex in a retirement community with an agreement that I would go to their nursing home when the time came. No kids, no spouse, so someone's gotta take care of me.

Still, I like your idea better.

Here's where I was thinking I'd land:
http://www.mayflowerhomes.com/html/photos.html

[puerco-bellies]

18. Cool..

Where are you going to park your chopper?