SHV Earth Tube Shed Construction Progress; Grow Utah First Lease Signing

by Sterling D. Allan


This past Saturday we started our first earth bag tube structure on our Safe Haven Village at White Hill property.



The polypropylene tubing serves as a form to hold the dirt in place while it is shaped then tamped, then plaster is placed on the outside and inside to complete the structure, which is essentially an adobe type construction. Our intended purpose of the structure is for an approximate 120-square foot storage shed for the outdoor kitchen area.

With earth tube construction, you basically take a long section of polypropylene tubing and fill it with dirt, then compact the dirt – we're talking the dirt that is under your feet is making the structure (dirt cheap). It's like the earth bag construction we did on the first 5-6 rows of the RS shed, but instead of bags we use the tubes, which resemble play dough rolled out and stacked to make a beehive shape.

I had hoped it would go faster than it did, but we did make some good progress.

One thing I'm finding with this type of 'sustainable' building is that while the materials might be cheaper, the process is extremely labor intensive. Rather than spreading the labor and cost through a lot of different industries, it is all focused right there on the spot where you build, at the time of construction. For me, it helps me get a sense of connectedness with the earth and with a simple way of life, in contrast to the non-sustainable, unnecessarily elaborate methods modern society has adopted.

Here's a video I shot Monday summarizing what we had done and the process involved. Is share this in part as an invitation and instruction to any of our local friends out there who want to come help us pound dirt, but also to show you how inexpensively you can build a structure.



We had ordered the polypropylene tubes from NYC-Corp.com. Going with the 20-inch size, we thought that was the flat dimension, but it turns out that it was closer to the circumference. When we realized this, we thought we were going to have to be shipping them back to get a bigger size, but we decided to give that small size a try. Filled with dirt then tamped down with our 10-inch square tamperer, they end up being around 11 inches wide and 4 inches high. It looks to me like they will work for these smaller structures.

Our first step was to excavate out some of the dirt to make a flat surface (floor); and dig a 6-inch trench around it for a French drain, into which we placed a corrugated, perforated 4-inch pipe, then covered that over with rubble (smallish rocks).



Over the pebbles we placed flat rocks on which we laid our first course of earth tubing. The end of the corrugated drain was fastened to a regular 4-inch PVC pipe heading south, downhill from the structure.

Debbie, Karen, Susan, Renee, Torg and Travis helped with this phase, along with Debbie and Karen's three children, Tabitha, Reikley, and Joy. (Travis, Debbie and Karen also managed to slip in about four batches of cob on the RS shed as well.)



At the entry, with a fence post digger, I dug two 2-foot deep holes to put two treated 4-inch wooden posts into.



To make a funnel or conduit we could bunch the earth tube around and dump the dirt through to fill the end of the tube, Torg and I took three five-gallon buckets and cut the ribbed tops and bottom off, sliced down the side so they could go into a smaller diameter, then duct taped them together for a 3-foot.





Before using the dirt we had excavated, we needed to add some water so it wouldn't be so dry but could compact better. I just added some water to a section of the dirt pile then used a shovel to mix it in so the soil was slightly moist. I'm sure this could be done with a cement mixer, but we didn't have one there, so we did it by hand.

After the tubes were filled, the top side was oval in shape before we tamped it flat. When I tamped, I would move the tamperer about 1-1.5 inches with each hit, and make at least three passes.

The next step was to lay a strand of 4-point barbed wire (so it pokes in 3D and doesn't flatten between the layers) on top of the completed course, and fasten the ends to the wood posts with screws. The barbed wire helps keep the rows from slipping against one another.

John and Michelle helped with the next two courses of earth tubes.

By the end of the day Saturday, we had completed a little over 2.75 rows.

On Monday, I came back with some Terrazyme, "a safe, effective, non-corrosive liquid enzyme soil stabilizer that significantly enhances the properties of the soil used in the construction of road infrastructure". We plan on using it when we construct our roads, but we thought we might also use it with our compacted earth structures. The enzyme basically enables the soil to compact more tightly.

It comes in a highly concentrated form that needs to be diluted 1:1000 into the water that is used to dampen the soil. I had a good wheel barrow full worth of dirt left over when I was done, so I thought I'd try it out in the entry way to see how it would work there. I dug down about 4-5 inches with a shovel in an area about a meter square, then dumped the wheel barrow of Terrazyme-water-moistened dirt and compacted it with the tamperer, smoothing it out by stamping on it with my rubber-soled shoes.





Thus completes the threshold of the shed.

Here's Torg working on the stone wall perimeter of the outdoor kitchen area, next to the cob oven.



Last week, the ladies baked three pizzas, a cake, and a pie, using about as much firewood as would be consumed in about half an hour's worth of a medium campfire. The oven is heated up with the firewood, then the coals are removed and the residual heat bakes what is put in there – nearly five batches in this case. The last item, the pie, took around 1.5 - 2 hours to bake, but it was perfect when it came out.

On Sunday, in conjunction with Summer solstice as well as Father's Day, several of us drove up a mountain to the southwest of the property and had a ceremony organized by Renee and Torg.



The purpose was to honor the coming balance between male and female aspects, looking forward to that time when the male-dominated leadership, with all its wars and control, will be replaced by something that gives dues respect and place for the feminine qualities of intuition, nurturing, peacemaking, and respect for all life. The guys dressed in black and the women in white. There were about twenty of us in all.

Susan Carter did a write-up on this in our SHV-ning blog.

Here's my family, at the conclusion of the event. Our property, down in the valley, is located about where my neck is in this picture.



You can't really tell in this photo, but on the mountain behind us is a mile-wide clearing of juniper trees that forms the shape of an eagle soaring over the valley.


Lease to Grow Utah First

Before we headed up to the mountains Sunday, we had a signing ceremony for Grow Utah First, who will be using 10-20 of our 90 acres to begin an agricultural project, to demonstrate the feasilibility of some growing methods that have proven well in impoverished areas of South America. We want to demonstrate their use in our less-than-ideal desert climate soil, pushing toward local growing of food.

One of the challenges will be water, since they will have to truck it in, and replenish it through the walipini and high tower greenhouse methods. Supposedly, just wise use of rainwater can work substantially toward providing adequate water.

You can read more about this in the blog post by Susan on this subject.