Uprooted, an eco/travel blog

Hostels, done right, are some of my favorite places to stay. They aren’t always awesome (see Abominable Snow Mansion), but the ones that have their act together are great places to meet people, live (and eat!) for cheap, and generally get the most out of whatever town you’re passing through.
I’d heard that the Austin hostel [...]

It started out innocently enough: it was a sunny Friday afternoon, and everybody at Zephyros was ready for a break from work. On Fridays, most of Paonia heads to Revolution Brewing. Daphne and all the interns (except Siwar, who was too young and therefore tasked with cooking dinner) hopped in the Subaru to go have [...]

This is a story of different attitudes toward nature. We’ve all got our own way of looking at the natural world: some of us don’t understand it completely, some of us think we understand it all too well. Some work to preserve it, some work to eradicate it, and then there are the NARPs.
Utah Phillips [...]

Even the best ideas can be taken too far. The story of a beautiful home, and how it was lost.

So, in my last entry I showed you what a viga run looks like. But there’s plenty I didn’t show you! Including the fact that the entire escapade took place at R.E.A.C.H., the original Earthship community founded in 1989.

R.E.A.C.H. (or “Rural Earthship Alternative Community Habitat” if you favor flavor over brevity) is a PRIVATE community, [...]

Bottle Brick Bathroom, originally uploaded by Earthship Kirsten

If you’ve been following my Earthships adventure, you know that it is actually possible to build houses using garbage. Can and bottle walls—literally walls made out of mud or cement, with cans or bottles set like bricks—are one of Mike Reynolds‘ time-tested innovations, a building technique that can [...]

Because it’s just barely springtime, this group of interns is lucky enough to work on a brand new Earthship build. It’s pretty exciting, and by “exciting” I mean “OH GOD MAKE THE PAIN STOP”. Why? Because the way you start an Earthship is to pound hundreds of tires full of dirt.

Work started here last Friday, [...]

My arrival at Earthship Biotecture kicks off a green-building adventure in the snowy desert springtime of Taos, New Mexico.