Tasmanian Earthship PART II


Click here to see Part I

Part II (Beginnings)

Last October (2013) I went down to the site and had approximately 2 acres out of 5 cleared so that I could get a better look at the lay of the land and find the supposed dam which I remember had been mentioned when I was looking to buy the block.

The fabled waterhole

My then 6 year old son and my good friend Noel came with me from Sydney and in three rainy days we somehow put in a compost(tyre) toilet,slab floor and a small shed , a 13.500 L rainwater tank and a level pad for construction.

Fast forward to April 2014 and I, along with my young bloke, wife and another family (more friends) who were keen to help were greeted upon arrival with the the level pad for the building site made by the excavator clearly in need of some kind of drainage from the hill above plus the rainwater tank tilted languishing in a mud pond (which would later become our source for clay) which had been formed due to it's placement and lack of drainage around it on the previous whirlwind visit!

So instead of pounding tyres, the first week was spent:
(A)  making a proper foundation with drainage and moving the rainwater tank over to it.
(B)  Digging a gargantuan trench and filling with ag pipes and gravel for drainage around the Earthship site.(Thanks Ian!)

leveling a  pad for the tank




part of the drain and re-positioned water tank

The result of our labour on that first attempt in October was a reflection of the hurried half assed way we tried to cram everything into three days but in the end it cost more than a week of work.
making the drainage trench

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