Thanks to TVOntario

I fell in love with Earthships about 12 years ago and I think it all had to do with TVO.

I was flipping through the channels one day in my cramped apartment in Toronto when i stopped on TVOntario. I'd always loved their programming for as long as I can remember and I always remember to check it for some quality programming. This time some weird structure caught my eye, was it a house or a secret lair?

I stopped and watched as the narrator took me through an amazing self sufficient house. One that didn't need to be hooked into the water or sewage grid, One that didn't need power transmission lines coming from some far off polluting power plant, One that you could grow your own fruits and vegetables in year round, One that could power itself AND feed excess electricity back to the grid if necessary.

One by one, each a different design, but all with the same concept, To harness the power of the Earth and live sustainably and maximize efficiency.

This was the Earthship

I watched intently as they spoke with many of the builders and inhabitants of these structures. Regular people who just wanted to live with the Earth in a sustainable manner rather then consume our ever scarce resources.

This wasn't just a new concept in design for me, it was a whole new way of thinking.

After watching the broadcast I jumped on the interwebs and started to research these "Earthships"

I learned that a man named Michael Reynolds of Earthship Biotecture had been working on these structures since the 70's in Taos, NM. with great success and some failures, but you have to learn by trying.

I was hungry for more information so I contacted my sister Erin who worked at a major news organization here in Canada and asked her to find out what she could for me.

Being the awesome sister that she was, a package arrived without warning in the mail a few weeks later. Inside were books on how to build your own Earthship as well as some other really great material.

I started reading the books from cover to cover to find out what I could about this concept.

I knew I wanted to build my very own Earthship style structure someday and have been saving up so that I can abandon the rat race and return to the quiet solitude of nature.

If you would like to help me achieve my dream of building my Earthship Retreat you can help by donating here.