Energy Band

One Room Global Model

Welcome to week three. I left home five weeks ago. I didn't expect to miss Chico so much. I actually miss my land and housemates incredibly. I strongly encourage everyone to take vacations to have some solo and quiet time for oneself, as well as to take the space from the folks you love. It really puts things into perspective.

Door bucks and framing up and braced to receive vigas on Wednesday.

Keeping this blog is an interesting experience. I think about who my audience is because I want to keep it interesting for you folks. There is of course all you community and co-op peeps (foodies & co-habitating stewards), you burners, artists and spiritual comrades, and you guys who are interested in exploring sustainability, autonomy, and alternative architecture. I seriously rack my brain on how to structure this blog without re-writing any of Mike's books, and to keep you all interested. I'll let the pictures tell the story this time around so I can just stream my consciousness to you.


All things divine.

Scaffolding. Still need to dig out dirt to create even subfloor.

I live on the very compound Mike Reynolds moved to many, many moons ago. It is the very location where his vision began to take shape. It's truly an honor to be here living with the Castle. (I'll include photos later.) What makes Earthships so effective in maintaining temperature? Thermal mass. Allow me to reiterate, it is not possible to live in an Earthship. One lives with it. These homes have character. They actually have rhythms and a nature that your biology has to become accustomed to.

Creating structure, the framework to take and distribute the roof load. This is the backbone of everything. Tire walls are the foundation.

Backtracking a smidge to thermal mass, the idea is these rammed earth thermal mass structures, can or bottle walls, act as a battery. These walls absorb the heat of the sun throughout the day, while keeping the space cool. In the evening, or early morning, as the temperature drops, the stored heat in the walls - or batteries - releases into the home warming it up during the coolest part of the morning. Depending upon some variables, the mean average temperature inside the dwelling ranges right around 70 degrees (plus or minus two degrees).

My sleeping rhythms were shocked by my new home. It has taken about two weeks or so to finally acclimate. It was rough. I'd go to bed tired and beat from doing hard work. I expected to sleep solid through the night. Did I? No. Why? I'd fall asleep then wake up because I was too hot. I'd kick off my bag, toss and turn a bit, then get out of my bunk to go to the bathroom or grab some water. I'd crawl back into bed and fall back asleep. Then I'd wake up because I was cold. I'd snuggle back into my bag and fall asleep again . . . in between worrying if I'd roll off the top bunk. I'm just on my sleeping pad on a bunk with a lip, so I have plenty of room. Psychologically I worry about rolling off my mat, thinking I'm going to roll off the bunk. (I still do that.)


I'm cozy and sleeping. Then the sun comes up and shines through my window right on my face. I've got a system where I prop up my pillow in the night so I can sleep a little longer. This off and on sleeping was wearing me out. As we learned about thermal mass, I found myself having a language to describe my sleeping changes. Before I knew it, many of my fellow Academy students and I were all experiencing the same thing. After we talked about it, I've been sleeping well. Assimilating into the Biotecture life.

1 of 3 buttresses. Smooshed concrete into lath and covered can wall, which levels the tires for the roof.

I share a room with three women, and a bathroom with 8-12 people. Speaking of housemates, Phillipe (originally from Chile, now living in Spain) just brought me a crepe with dulce de leche inside. Glucose is brain food! Delicious. Okay, so there's 4 guys staying in the pod on the property (a simple Earthship), 4 guys in the other room in the castle and us ladies. We all take turns spending the night out in the pyramid. It's aligned with the cardinal directions, solar activity, and magnetic fields.

Can wall base lined up with buttress. Will go to ceiling. We are digging the dirt floor 1" below the base of these cans to create an even subfloor.

Everyone who is involved in the Academy brings so much to the table. I'm really honored to be swinging pick axes, sledgehammers, hammers and shovels with these people. I'm surrounded and immersed amongst well-traveled, talented, brilliant, articulate, innovative and respectful people. Folks who are filled with passion and vision, willing to do the hard work and to live a life of autonomy in community. There is so much energy and excitement, along with the stressors involved with living in tight proximity, doing intense work in raw conditions and being immersed in social situations.


It is necessary for everyone to break away, to take some down time in order to have space.

The threshold in brown, Tyrex (1'6" each for 3" total), and 1" lower to the footing is our guideline. Dig down 1" below to create subfloor. 

I feel at home in the desert. I've missed her.

This job is a bitch. Pick axe, shovel, buckets. Jackhammer to break up volcanic rock. See those big rocks? I dug that shit out today.

This last weekend I got caught up in some high anxiety. Fears. Tears. Hard decisions. Communication. Really having to let so much go. It was intense for me. Here I am in the midst of the Academy, with a build or two ahead of me before heading back to California. I don't fully understand what I'm doing or how it's going to happen. Will I return to Cali in August? September? October? November? Nonetheless, my mind has this fierce desire to know how. Structure. Organization. Planning. Ah, sigh. Mike calls this letting go of the dogma and getting into the flow, intercepting natural phenomena.


My entire situation has changed due to unforeseen events and expenses. So this was the reason for my freak out. I went to the mountain to get grounded. I set up my lawn chair next to the river, along with a friend, and just listened to the river flow by. It's my way of being grounded in the flow. To honor the flow of energy and to root into the earth, into my inner knowing is something I have to do to keep my sanity. I think it is also becoming necessary to practice rituals and ceremonies for the shifts of energy within and around me. I travel with a broom for crying out loud!

Example of digging down to the subfloor. Lesson learned: Hire a back hoe to come in to level out the site before construction begins!

I work with energy. Cleaning space, moving space, creating space and moving energy is something we humans have been doing for a long, long time. It's literal, figurative, and metaphorical. I like to bring healing to places and hold space for healing for people.

Air tubes. 30'. These cool the house through convection with the greenhouse.  Concrete scratch to left and right over lath. Adobe pack out above.

I'm currently exploring three different projects.

North side of air tubes. Have Tyrex boxes as a vapor barrier and keep critters out.

1. One is to find employment with the company while I am here so I can feed myself, pay my bills, put gas in my car - while here, on builds, and on my way home.

Almost buried cisterns, tucked in with insulation to keep from freezing.

2.The second project is seeking help with logistics so I may line things up to do my second phase of my Biotecture degree, which is a start-to-finish build - while currently being in phase one. I lit that fire today.

Can wall above with the beam to take the load of the vigas and roof. Vigas are being planed or de-barked as we speak!

It's looking like I may head to New York with a couple friends to do the Ithica build in August. I'm hoping to catch a ride with some of the core team back to New Mexico to do the Albuquerque build in September. There is also the possibility to get involved with the autumn Academy for a month. I have a friend who has offered to take me with him to another job site to learn some finishing detailing work. Texture stuff. I have a feeling it will be my forte.

I never imagined I'd work with concrete. 

The third phase of my degree is to do an independent project. I am doing these two builds so I am ready to be a project manager / foreman (with an experienced team and guidance if need be) to build an Earthship on campus - to offer a class to college students, to offer experiential learning for interns, apprentices, and future Academy students. (I'll be working on this after returning to Massa Organics.)

Respect the concrete.

3. The third project is a remodel proposal on the Castle. I ran it by today. I need to type up a point-by-by-point memo for it to be run by Mike because he knows this structure better than anyone else. I would then be leading a remodel side-by-side with Mister Reynolds. Fucking awesome!

Builder. Creator. Grower.

"The human being can surrender to a greater consciousness just as a caterpillar surrenders to a butterfly. The energy band is the natural evolutionary 'current' that energizes these transformations. Surrender to what you are and become it. This will lead you to your energy band. When you find your energy band there will be no more barriers." - Mike Reynolds