Zachrey Helmberger
2 Star Lane
Greater World Subdivision
505-613-4108
zachrey@greaterworld.org
I am a member of the Greater World Land Users Association, GWLUA, and my wife, Nicole, and I own and live in the coolest home we could imagine! We drink water that is so good we brag about it to others. Whenever we have people visit our house, we always offer them a glass of rainwater we caught off our roof!
Since rainfall is so precious out here in the high desert of New Mexico, I have volunteered with the Community Collaborative Rain and Hail/Snow Study, CoCoRaHS.org, to carefully measure precipitation at our house on a daily basis (see www.cocorahs.org for more info) as of March 10, 2005. I am station number NM-TS-1, the first CoCoRaHS volunteer in Taos County!!! As of November 22, 2005 we have had a whopping 10.57 inches of precip (rain, snow, hail, etc). I've been told that we typically get 6 or 7 inches of annual precipitation out here on the mesa. For details, see the webpage: CoCoRahs Station Precip Summary. Enter nm-ts-1 for the station name and enter 3/10/2005 for the start date and today's date for the end date to see how much rain we've had so far.
WHY?
Why did I liquidate everything I owned to live "off the grid" out here in a wind blown, tumbleweed infested, drought stricken subdivision?
Good question! Good question!
Ever since I was a kid and my brother, Marshall, told me about solar energy during the Carter years, I wanted to live in a solar powered home. There was something so beautiful and simple about having the sun provide everything you need, warm temperatures, hot water, electricity, cheerful winter lighting, etc. Little did I know that earthships could provide all that and so much more.
Nicole and I met many years later after creating vision statements of our ideal life with our ideal partner at an organization called LifePartnerQuest. We both envisioned living in an intentional community. I envisioned living in a sustainable community, inventing appropriate technologies to provide for ourselves food, income and other necessities. She wanted to be reasonably near a center of art and crafts.
After we had been together for a year or so, we saw a slide show about natural building with cob (a mixture of soil, straw and sand) in Berkeley, CA. At the end of the show this fellow showed a few pictures earthships as an example of cob construction. I thought, "I remember hearing about these earthships!" I got online and looked up earthships and discovered there was a 650 acre subdivision under development that was to have nothing but earthships! I called Nicole over and we discovered it was near Taos, NM, Nicole's favorite place for arts and crafts. Hmmm....
So be careful what you ask for because you just might get it!
Good answer! Good answer!
There are other reasons, too. Both Nicole and I are aware that the planets natural resources are dwindling as we consume more and more per capita and our numbers continue to increase exponentially. Carbon dioxide concentrations are increasing exponentially as are species extinctions. What better way to express our committment to living as lightly as possible than to build an earthship and enhance the biological activity of the land it rests on.
We have been blessed with an abundance of resources for enhancing the land we live on. Shortly before moving from California to New Mexico, Nicole and I completed a three day "Grow Biointnesive" workshop with John Jeavons (see GrowBiointensive.org). I've had the opportunity to work at Seeds of Change Research farm near San Juan Pueblo, NM and met several people, there, who will support us in creating an abundance of food for ourselves and habitat for wildlife... to be continued!
Here are some pictures of our home!
Here are some pictures of our outdoor contained blackwater planter creating habitat for wildlife!
Here are some pictures of my first vegetable bed! In 2005, the bed was flooded by runoff several times. I dug swales, little canals, and holding ponds to direct rainwater runoff to the vegetable beds.
Here are some pictures of our land!
My first year of food production notes and data
Phone: 505-613-4108