Weekend Goat Workshop On A Earthship

A couple of Sundays ago I went to a goat workshop at Ohio's first Earthship. The place is called Blue Rock Station. It is about 2 hours away from me. A earthship is a house that is made out of old tires, recycled trash, and is half way covered by the earth. Collects it's own water from it's roof and saves it in a cistern. The only windows that it has all face south to collect the sun's rays to warm the house in the winter, and the window are angled in such a way the it blocks a lot of the sun's rays in the summer to help keep it cool. It is a very self sufficient house. Well they were having a goat workshop on using herbs and natural thing to help keep your goat healthy. The workshop also showed how to make some types of cheese. It was a very interesting workshop I learned a few new things about taking care of a goat. I took lots of pictures so I will give you all a tour of the place.

This is the owner Annie, with her goat Tudy. The goat is a French Alpine breed.

This is a picture of the goat barn, where we did the first half of the workshop. I learned a lot about what helps keeps a goat healthy. I really enjoyed this part of the day. After we were done in the barn Annie's husband gave us a quick tour of the property, so that Annie could go down to there house and get the second part of our workshop ready for us.

As you can see it was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining and the red buds and other trees were blooming. They raise lamas, goats and chickens on the little homestead.

This is their pop bottle greenhouse. When they do a project on the property they always try to use recycled thing to build them. They also had a solar heated shower, and a composting toilet.

This is their chicken chalet (chicken coop). It is made out of all straw bale construction, and designed to collect all the water that the chickens may need. See the rain barrels on the side of the building.

This is the front of the earthship. Inside those doors was where we had our cheese making class. All the doors except for the two front darker colored doors where put in as windows, and they were recycled from houses that were being remodeled. It is made of a straw bale and tire earthen wall construction. The small holes and one large hole above the door was actually made of colored glass bottles. And from the inside it made a beautiful stain glass kind of thing. You will see what I'm talking about a little bit later, because I have put up a picture a little bit lower in the post taken from the inside of that room. I'm almost sure that everything that they used in building this house was recycled or given to them.

This is also in the front of the house. See how the window are angled to catch the winter's sunlight, and angled in such away to keep out most of the summer's sunlight. At the very end of the building is a solar water heater.

Here is Annie again. She is showing how to put the cheese curds in a press. Before we had our cheese classes we were invited to partake of some English tea and cookies, and to try some goats cheeses the she had made ahead of time.

This is that picture that I had talked about earlier in this post. See how it looks like a stain glass window in a way. The straw bale walls are covered in a stucco made out of mud, straw, and sand.

This picture was taken a little farther into their house. The main part of their house was very open. the kitchen and the main living room are connected together. See how the sun comes in and lights up the whole room. See how the ceiling is slanted in a V shape. That is so the rain water will collect at the bottom of the V and run into their cistern. That wall behind the ladies talking was made out of old tires pack full with clay soil, then stuccoed over.

This is Annie and I. In her living area. That wood burning stove is the only thing that heat their whole house. The wall behind us is another wall that is made out of tires and stuccoed over. I had a very good day of visiting and learning. I will be inviting Annie to come to my house sometime this June for a 18Th century tea party in my garden. Well hope you all enjoyed the post
Kelly