8-9-09
Burney Earthships Potato

The Northern Plains Resource Council, who is the environmental group that is active in helping to keep our river clean as well as trying to stop the Tongue River Railroad from coming down through our valley and cutting the ranches into pieces, held their annual meeting in Burney. There is always great food at these events and this year was no exception. I was going to ride on up and camp the night but decided to ride up with Roger and Carla in their van as it gave me a chance to visit with Roger while he drove. I have put on many miles with Roger traveling to and from Helena to deal with issues that effect our farms. The Northern Plains Council has been about the only group that has been interested in helping us and it is nice to be in a group that is so connected with the land and trying to preserve it for future generations.

Wally McRae read a couple of stories from his new book. Wally is a famous local Cowboy Poet and has traveled all over the world with his poetry. He comes from a long time ranching family as most of these ranches go back several generations.

A couple of the local Indians from across the river came and sang a couple of songs for us. The guys name is Otto and I had a chance to visit with him for a bit. I was telling him that when I was down in Globe, AZ, I went to a couple of the PowWows that they have down there. I told him that it was there that I learned the difference between the northern Indian singing and the ones that come from the southern United States. He was surprised to learn that someone understood the difference, especially a white guy I think.

They always hold a silent auction of things that people bring and donate. This is a fund raising event that helps with expenses for our group. I always try to bring a few pieces of silver that I have made into hair clips and earrings for the auction. So far they have always found new homes. Here they are auctioning off a set of elk antlers. They were a really nice pair as they are seven points which is known as a Royal rack.

They had this gal for after supper entertainment. I forget her name but she has played at several meetings and it is always nice to hear her sing. Unfortunately the acoustics in the new machine shop were not very good and even with amplification it was hard for me to hear very well.

Last Sunday evening I took a ride out to see how Scott’s house construction was coming along. As I topped the hill on the road coming in, I was amazed to see how much had been done since I was last here.

It had been a nice warm day and all the vents were open as they were trying to dry out the plaster and cement work that was going on inside.

The end walls were filled in with bottles that have been cut in half and two bottoms put together to make an insulated small colored window.

Here is Scott and Carla taking me on a tour of their new home.

Detail of the ‘artwork’ that is being done. These nice details are sure a nice touch.

This will be the shower when it is finished.

This is where a light will be installed. I really like this type of unconventional detail on small things that would normally be just quickly done and plain.

This will be really nice in the morning with the sun shining through. Notice that there will be two doors here and at both ends of the house. This will give the house an airlock entrance at both ends. This house should be able to heat and cool itself as well as collect its water from the roof and make its energy from solar panels on the roof.

Some of the vent work.

This is another nice use of the colored bottles for a stained glass effect.

It was evening time and the sun was setting in a cloud. What a magnificent view of the river and Kinsey farming area they will have. The bridge you see here is the old Milwaukee railroad bridge that is now used for car traffic. It sure is nice to be able to use this bridge and not have them scrap it as it cuts off many miles for those that use it to get to town.

Here is a little detail of the roof water collection system. The water that comes off the roof is collected and this is the first filter of water that will be held in three or four large underground tanks. The water will be further filtered for tap use. One thing I found very interesting is the copper pipe that runs along the length of the rain gutter. You may be able to see it here. This pipe will be filled with ethylene glycol and heated with a couple of solar panels so all the snow and ice that collects on the roof will be melted and captured in the storage tanks. I think there are also loops of this heated glycol that run under the skin of the roof to melt it and cause it to run down and be collected.

Scott opened the box that has the batteries that are charged by the solar panels. This will be the energy bank for the house. There is no electric service up here so the house will be self contained and able to provide what is needed for occupants. Everything is done first class and hopefully done this way by people that have done it before, there should be no problems with it. Well maybe one or two little kinks that will need to be worked out….J

I went over to Tucker and Glennas place and was pleased to see that he has been working on getting the front wall of his earthship framed up for his south wall windows.

Tucker has a nice bottle wall too. Some of the walls in Scotts house are made of cans like this one under construction here. This wall will be plastered on both sides. It sure is a simple way to make a wall and recycle cans too. 

I like this of Tucker and his wind charger. He will use the windcharger as well as solar panels for his energy needs. It is going a bit slower on Tuckers project, but then there are not 20 young people working their asses off on it either.

This shows my potato patch and the damage that the beetles and hoppers have done to some of the plants. I guess they like different varieties of potato leafs. I have three different kinds of spuds planted. This started off as a dry land potato project but after I saw how well the spuds were doing and how after a dry spell they needed some water, I decided to borrow a water tank from Mark Weeding and give them a drink. I know it is a sorry looking potato patch for an ex potato farmer, but I thought I would give it a try as a dry land project and hopefully I will be able to get a few spuds that I can keep over the winter (in someone's basement) that I can use for next years potato crop which I will plant down by the ditch so I can water them easily and wont need the tank. The tank is 450 gallons and I just went down to the ditch and pumped it full with my little pump. It actually isn’t that bad a deal but it would be nicer to not have to drive and haul water. This is a nice little piece of ground, as it is covered with a nice blanket of old manure. It is unfortunate that this is a bad grass hopper year as I think I had a pretty good control on the potato beetles after I finally got some BT which is an organic control substance that gives the beetles constipation and they die full of their own shit.

Here you can see how the hoppers and beetles have removed almost all the leaves from this kind of potato plant.

The famous Colorado potato beetle. My fingers are a little stained from squishing them.

beetle at work.

Damn grasshoppers are think this year. When I ride my bike down the road I feel them hitting my legs and when you walk through the field, they are like a small cloud that erupts in front of ya.

I am not sure who this is but I bet it was here for lunch too. It sure is a beautiful insect.