Friday 8th August 2008 - GW

GW stands for the Greater World which is the name of the community where I am working, with the crew, on an Earthship which is of a new "global" design. More about that later.

Friday was the third day (for me) of tyre pounding. I'm not used to such physical labour, not to mention the fact that I am at high altitude, approx 7200 feet, so I'm really feeling it. It makes getting to sleep easy.

Beer o'clock came early (4pm) and beers and payment (for the crew) was handed out at "The Corner Cottage" which is an almost finished, new, above ground Earthship (as opposed to the typical dug-out design). There were no drinking games today but many of the partners of the crew came out, with the kids, for a beer and a chat - which was cool.

I learned a good trick for leveling a tyre which is way off level. It is a two person operation. One person levers the tyre so that it is level - using a shovel or pick - then another person pounds directly downwards in the area that needs to more dirt underneath. The cardboard in the tyre gives a bit under the pressure causing it to bulge out further, thus making the tyre level - or somewhat more level.

Getting tyres level seems to be one of the key ingredients. These guys are fastidious about getting the tyres level. They use 4 foot levels. Another big deal is the "batter" which is the angle of the wall. The design has a long tyre wall on the east, west and pole-facing (north in the northern hemisphere). There are no internal thermal mass walls. It is important that these long straight retaining walls lean into the earth berm slightly for structural engineering reasons. In addition to the batter, internal walls made of concrete can-walls are used to buttress the retaining wall. For the "modular" designs (curved walls) this is not necessary. The batter is 1.5 inches for each course of tyres.

I also learned that you can squeeze a tyre into a small gap and then pound dirt into it.