I live with my favorite artist in the world. Andrew is a woodworker and a master-mind builder. I do not say this lightly or because I love him so much either.
Four years ago I trusted him with my life and
future when we decided to build an Earthship. I only knew then of one
semi-major project he had done, restoring our airstream travel trailer. Restoration of Airstream Blog But something in me said, “Let him go
for it. He can do it!”
And so we bought a piece of property in north
Georgia and started on our new path. Since then we have spent most of our
annual income each year building it. In the words of the original Earthship
creator, Michael Reynolds (our biggest hero) “an Earthship is a radically
sustainable off-grid home”. Which has come to mean to me that there is no other
model like it, in the world that we know of, that is less consumptive or lives
with the land more than an Earthship.
Our Earthship collects all of its water from rain
from the sky in underground cisterns and all of its energy from the sun,
through solar panels. Instead of HVAC for air conditioning, cooling tubes run
underground from the back of the house and up to the ground, where they pull
cool air through the earth and into the home. At the front of the home, air
vents open in the roof to release any build-up of hot air in the house.
Brilliant Michael Reynolds!!
The greywater cell runs under the plants in the
greenhouse, collecting used water sent from the washing machine, bathtub and
bathroom sink. Then the greenhouse plants soak it up for their own use and
filter what is left, which is then reused to flush the toilet. I love
that!!
The first time I ever saw one I was in Taos when I
was 19 and I said, “I want to live like that one day”. Then I kept on with my
journey and forgot all about it until Andrew and I watched the documentary
“Garbage Warrior” for the first time 4 years ago. Andrew had been in transition
of finding a new career and when the movie was through, we both looked at each
other and said, “This is it!”. Thus the journey began and Andrew went to Taos
to intern with Earthship Biotechture two months later.
Now five years later, I have seen Andrew build the
ship 90% single-handedly. He spent the first year just designing the structure
to meet standard building codes. First off he had to change Reynold’s first
principle to build with used tires for the foundation because they would never
meet code (I was sad to see them go but it made sense). Andrew has also found
ways to improve some techniques (keep in mind that these have been built for 30
years now and there were a few things that he felt needed rethinking), such as
the vapor barrier layers in the floor, putting in a French drain and engineering
new parts for the greywater cell to name a few. He has spent thousands of
hours over the past 4 years to make our Earthship the most efficient, state of
the art structure to date and one that can pass building codes anywhere in the
world.
We have incorporated one of
Reynold's reuse techniques by adding bottle bricks to a few walls in the house,
which adds lots of color, lighting up like jewels when the sun shines directly
on them.
I will never be able to tell you just how brilliant
this man is. Words cannot describe him…. but he is… and someday the world will
recognize it too. Andrew Hickman is my hero and I feel
honored to share space with him, in a home that honors and respects the earth
as it always should be.
For too long, houses have been built without the
preservation of nature in mind. Or without even the understanding that all that
we need to survive is given to us for free, from the sun and rainwater!
What person in their right mind would not want to
live like that!!
