Environmental Health

My family and I are stewards of a 40 acre homestead that we call Terrapin Hollow. We harvest rain water, solar energy, and wind energy.  We have two dogs, two cats, and a bunny. We have a small flock of chickens. During the early spring we let the chickens free range so that they can eat their fill of the blood sucking ticks that would otherwise eat us alive. We have learned to coop them up at night and in the winter, for their safety and because they are quite a nuisance.

We are working on building an Earthship house out of dirt, old tires, cans, and bottles. It is an ongoing process. The materials are dirt cheap but it takes a heckuvalota work to pound the dirt into the tires. By the time each tire gets packed it weighs around 300 pounds. 

There's a wonderful old bluegrass song with the lines "And it all comes down in the end, all the works of your hands. Though built of stone and honesty, no earthly house shall ever ever stand."  These earthship homes are meant to last, but we have had a few set backs.  Torrential rains have eroded some of our progress. Lately it has us feeling a bit like the Itsy Bitsy Spider, taking two steps forward and one step back.  But we keep trying because it will be worth it to have a gorgeous, artistic, hand made home that is radically sustainable.

Over the 10 years that we've been here we have learned a great deal from nature about ourselves. 


Blog posts that fall under the category of environmental health include:

• Castles, 4/23/15
• Inner Ecology, 4/28/15
• Elemental Living, 4/28/15