One Earth - Bottle Wall by Charleen Touchette

Stacking glass bottles with adobe mortar is an economical way to recycle bottles and create retainer walls to curb soil erosion. In an afternoon, we built this 3 bottle high, 9 1/3 foot retaining wall to stop erosion on a steep hill and create a terrace for planting.

I've been designing a One Earth Bottle Home and brainstorming how to make it sustainable using renewable energy for years.

Our family started collecting bottles when our four children were still at home and I couldn't bear to see all the glass bottles not be recylcled. We've been gathering bottles for fover 17 years, so we now have a collection of thousands of bottles sorted into color and size.

This bottle wall is made of clear, green and cobalt blue glass bottles in honor of our daughter who was an afficiando of mineral water in her teens.

We dug a shallow trench a little wider than the length of the bottles parallel to the contour of the slope between two pinon trees. Then we put down a loose layer of small flat rocks, which we covered with a layer of gravel dug from the arroyo. Then we spread a layer of fine sand from arroyo, smoothed it and placed the first row of bottles alternating top to bottom. Tip - point open ends of bottle slightly downward to avoid water, bugs and algae getting inside. We forgot on this wall, but will do it on the next wall. Make sure bottles are placed on an even plane. Mix adobe mud mortar in pit or wheelbarrow. Combine 50-70% sand dug from center of arroyo with 30-40% clay mud dug from edges of arroyo and some straw and/or crushed pottery shards or small stones and add water until mud is good consistency to adhere and pour slowly. (Note - we should have added more water to adobe mix.)

If the earth at your place not suitable for making adobe, you can substitute concrete. But I like the idea of using the earth itself like the indigenous people in the southwest have done for millenia. Using earth from your own land is ideal. You eliminate energy and greenhouse gases spent to bring in store bought materials. To test if your earth will work, fill up a clear glass jar with dirt, cover with water, shake and leave overnight. The soil, clay and sand will separate out and if your sample has 30-40% clay, it should work. Using adobe from your own land is simple and you can't beat the price.

This bottle wall is a good first try. We may put on another layer of mud and a cap of flat rock to protect the adobe from rain. It is rough, but will make a good retainer wall and taught us what we need to do to make stronger walls that will eventually be used to build the sauna and the One Earth Bottle Home prototype.

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Photos, text and bottle wall by Charleen Touchette 2010

www.OneEarthBlog.Blogspot.com

Tipi of the Soul and DNA Girl

New Art by Charleen Touchette - Spring 2010








"Woven into Four by Four"

"Woven into Star"

Movement of water and vibrating light catalyses healing. Light and dark limit and define each other with millions of slight variations that ignite and illuminate.

"Circle into Eight-Pointed Star"

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Tipi of the Soul emerges woven of threads of light in layers of time and place, light and water, falls and ascensions. Panther's piercing eyes illuminate and reflect the rising sun.

"Tipi of the Soul"

"Tipi of the Soul Meditation"

"Golden Tipi of the Soul"

"Meditating Mother"

"Maiden Butterfly Transformation"

"Golden Triangle Meditation"

"DNA Girl Metamorphosis"

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Centering, going deeper within reveals DNA Girl in the center in butterfly metamorphosis, flanked by dancing spirals.

"Jaguar Peers through Golden Threads"

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Art by Charleen Touchette 2010

Finding our Way Back for the Future

by Charleen Touchette 2010

Indigenous elders often tell us to remember our original instructions.
These instructions, wherever you live, are to live in balance and harmony on this earth.

At the core of most spiritual traditions is the belief in the Oneness of all as it is expressed in the diversity and multiplicity of Creation.

The Diné call this harmony, Nizhoni, which is also translated as Beauty.
Diné healers perform the Beauty Way Ceremony to re-establish balance.
This concept is expressed in ancient Asian philosophy as Tao, or The Way, which embodies the dynamic relationship between, yin and yang, female and male, dark and light.

The Medicine Wheel or Four Directions symbol embodies teachings of how to achieve balance and wholeness by learning the lessons of each direction and bringing them into the center.

Our original instructions are to live in balance and harmony with ourselves and all our relations, whether human or animal, animate or inanimate.



We can choose to overconsume non-renewable energy, or choose sun and wind power that are clean and sustainable.

This balance is not easy to achieve, but it is not impossible to strive for and attain from moment to moment.

Inherent in the balance for which we work as individuals, families and societies is the reality that it is not static and requires awareness and constant readjustments to maintain and renew continually.

The Lakotah say, Mitakwe Owaysin, All My Relations to acknowledge our relatedness to all life and pray not only for all the colors of two-leggeds, but as well for the four-leggeds, winged, insect, crawling people and the grandfather rocks, plant people, stars, clouds and all beings, everywhere.

Indigenous people of the Plains call this path, The Red Road, and contrast it with the Blue Road of violence and addiction.

The Diné Beauty Way, Plains’ Red Road and the Tao,
embody dynamic balance that is constantly upset then realigned back into balance by action, prayer and ceremony.

Indigenous ways emphasize responsibility as well as freedom for individuals, families, clans, and nations.

Thinking is based on the circle which acknowledges the circular movement of the stars and planets and the cyclical nature of the seasons and all life. In this way, indigenous thinking is diametrically opposed to the linear thinking of the Western world, which is not sustainable and depends on conquest and inequity to survive and progress.

Indigenous societies are organized to ensure survival of the people and the environment that makes life possible. The earth changes the world faces today were long ago prophesized by visionaries in many different indigenous nations across the globe including the Mik’maq, Six Nations, Hopi, Blackfeet, Navajo and Maya. While these prophesies may seem magical, such as the Hopi foreseeing the landing of a man on the Moon and the two birds flying into the twin towers,
But much of what was seen was seen just by using common sense. Our indigenous ancestors knew long ago that if we took more than we gave, destroyed the cleanliness of our own earth, sky and water, and mistreated our fellow human beings and animals, birds, plants and other living things, there would be dire consequences.
It is a no-brainer. Every culture has stories about when people forgot their original instructions and were greedy, violent and selfish. And every culture has stories about the consequences to human actions from floods to tornadoes to earthquakes, plagues, famine and disease.

So when asked, what is the biggest challenge people in the world face today? the answer is, that we have lost our way.

The solution to world problems is to shift our minds back to the wisdom of our indigenous ancestors who knew that living in balance is the key to sustainability and survival for human beings and all our relations who share this marvelous finite planet earth.

If we want to have a healthy future for ourselves and the next generations, we need to find our way back to the fundamental teachings of living in right relationship to assure sustainability and survival. Our ancestors knew by direct observation how to live in harmony and balance with the earth, sky, water, animal and plant beings and each other because their survival depended upon it. Now, more and more everyday, so does ours.

One Earth. Think About It.

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Text and Photos by Charleen Touchette 2010

http://www.oneearthblog.blogspot.com/

Affordable Simple Solar Solutions + Update

The sun emerges from behind Overlook Mountain on the northeast slope after Vernal Equinox.









At Winter Solstice, the morning sun appears just above the rock outcropping far down the southeast slope of the same mountain.

Mountain covered with snow on Vernal Equinox.

Bright sunshine and over 300 sunny days per year make the southwest a perfect place for solar energy.

Spring snow quickly melts with strong solar gain on southwest side of home.

Spring snow and high cost of filling propane tank makes urge to switch to solar energy strong.

Affordable Simple Solar Solutions
By Charleen Touchette Spring, 2010
http://www.oneearthblog.blogspot.com/
Spring Equinox sunrise on northeast shoulder of Overlook Mountain reminds me of how far the sun has traveled towards its summer home from the frigid day of Winter Solstice when it rose far down the southeast slope of the same mountain. Day lengthens and night shortens each day as we move towards Summer Solstice and the Sundances in mid-June. The movement of the sun brings thoughts of how to turn our energy use for space and hot water winter heating from non-renewable propane gas to solar. The high cost of $1200 and upwards to refill the propane tank makes these thoughts more urgent. So, I have been researching and brainstorming about different ways to switch from non-renewable energy sources to renewable sun and wind. The good news is that there are plenty of resources and websites out there worth looking to for information and supplies. The difficulty is finding sites that present simple, affordable and easy ways to make this earth friendly change. I've listed a few of the more interesting and clear sites on solar energy solutions. Will continue this research and update you on what I find on future One Earth Blogs.

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Passive Solar

http://web.me.com/davidbainbridge/Waterwalls/Solar.html



Solar Water Heating –


at Build It Solar – The Renewable Energy Site for Do-It-Yourselfers
http://www.builditsolar.com/
Welcome To Build-It-Solar
Plans, tools and information to do renewable energy and conservation projects.
Hundreds of projects -- from changing a light bulb to building a solar home.
Design information and tools for building renewable energy projects.An Experimental section for backyard inventors.


http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#1KSolarWater
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/PEXColDHW/Overview.htm
An attempt at a $1000,
cold climate,
high performance,
long life,
low maintenance,
easy to build
solar water heater.

This system can save $300+ per year in energy costs and reduce CO2 emissions by 2 tons. Full and free construction plans provided below -- it will cost about $1000 in materials.
As of late April 2009 we have lived with this system for 8 months. It has been trouble free and provided a solar fraction of 94% over the cold Montana winter. Aside from the failure of an off the shelf controller, it has required no maintenance. The drain back system has seen temperatures down to -30F with not even a hint of a problem.I believe that the system has been and will continue to be the functional and thermal equivalent of commercial systems that seem to be going for around $7000+ these days.


http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm#Example1KSystems


Solar Space Heating

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/Space_Heating.htm

Solar Space Heating for radiant heat using $1,000 solar water heater system and 6 4 x 8’ collectors or 24 x 8’.

This Solar Water Wall sounds perfect –
It combines all we need for the One Earth Bottle Home –
1) Simple
2) Low cost
3) easy to build
4) use inexpensive materials
5) low-maintenance
6) no need to use energy to work

http://web.me.com/davidbainbridge/Waterwalls/Solar.html
Water wall passive solar buildings
By David A. Bainbridge

The most economical solution for heating and cooling most buildings is passive solar design — using the elements of the building to collect and store solar energy for heating and using climate resources for natural cooling.


Passive solar systems use energy from the sun and climate resources to provide both heating, cooling, and ventilation.

They do not rely on auxiliary energy sources to function. Because there are no pumps or controls, they will work even if the power is off.
They are simple and relatively low in cost.

They combine collection and storage. They have a long life and need little maintenance. They use energy-inexpensive materials.
They can be built and installed by the regular construction trades without special equipment.


Water wall passive solar buildings are usually the most attractive type of passive solar home. The key element for a passive solar home is thermal mass — and water provides this mass at a lower cost than either concrete or phase change salts.

This site by Solar Roofs has lots of good info on buying their solar systems and do-it-yourself help as well.

http://www.solarroofs.com/SolarSpaceHeating.html

Bob’s brilliance again – simple and elegant – this can be the prototype for the OneEarth Bottle Home – once it is made beautiful by a woman. A home based on an ice house - appropriate for a Canuck girl.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/SolarIceShack/SolarIceShack.htm
Bob's Solar Heated Ice Shack

This is a really simple, efficient and cost effective way to heat an ice fishing shack using solar. It appears to work very well.
Thanks very much to Bob for providing this material!
If Bob can heat an ice shack with solar, what are you waiting for!

From Bob:

Being retired and already having installed Solar Domestic Hot Water and an active Solar Air Heater on our house I was impressed with the ability to capture meaningful heat even in frigid conditions. Since I ice fish on the Lake of the Woods and have a friend who owns an 8 ft X 12 ft ice fishing shack I began thinking about how I could heat the shack with Solar. It came to mind that such an application would have some key considerations in its favor.
1) There is no need to worry about buildings or trees blocking the panel’s exposure to the sun.2) Since the ice shack is portable a southerly alignment is not an issue.3) The use of the shack is typically only during the daylight hours.4) The reflection off the snow should give an added boost to the panel’s performance.

The insulating, sealing and installation of the panel was done on dry land last summer.I was fortunate to acquire 8 used 4 ft X 8 ft boards of 2” foil faced polyiso insulation so I insulated and sealed the shack first.

Interior of the ice shack. The 2 X 6 plank resting on the barbeque is to stabilize the shack during transport.
For the Solar Panel design I decided on Gary’s double screen mesh passive design.Since this was to be a low cost/ no cost project the glazing used was 6 mil poly rather than the more durable, better looking but more expensive clear corrugated polycarbonate panels.
The treated 2 X 4’s were recovered from a deck replacement project.Even the black paint used on the shack was only $10 because it was a wrongly mixed tin that I just had them add black coloring to.The only other actual expense was for the 4 ft X 7 ft times 4 bug screen that was used for the flow through absorption surface.The construction of the panels was very simple using 2 X 4’s on edge for the frame and 2 X 4’s ripped in half to support the bug screen.

This is an interior view of the panel wall with slot cut through for the thermal siphoning heated air to return into the shack.



There are 4 identical holes under the bench to allow cooler air to enter the bottom of the panels.
Back draft dampers are installed over the top holes to reduce back flow on non sunny days.
I initially used 6 mil plastic for the dampers but found they were too heavy and impeded the weak thermal siphoning forces.
As suggested by Gary these dampers have since been replaced with light weight garbage bag plastic which do work better.
This interior wall was left uninsulated to take advantage of the radiant heat emanating through the wall which appears to be quite significant.





Results
Yesterday February 18th on a beautiful calm sunny day with an outside temperature of 31 F I was pleased to find temperatures in the shack varying from 90 F at the ceiling to 55 F at the floor. Midpoint temps were perfect if not slightly too warm at between 70 and 80 F.
Tips
When installing the plastic glazing it is important to do it on a sunny day otherwise it will stretch and become baggy.Sealing and insulation of the structure being heated is very important.Overall this was a simple cost effective and satisfying project that I hope others like minded fisherman will find useful.

Bob

Bob will answer email questions -- you can reach him at:

Bob Allan: ballan AT kmts DOT ca (replace AT with @ and DOT with a period).
Kenora on beautiful Lake of the Woods in Ontario Canada


Gary Feb 20, 2010
Contact/About Legal Disclaimer Copyright 2005 by Gary Reysa
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Build an Outdoor Solar Shower

With propane prices at an all time high, I decided to build an outdoor solar shower.

The most simple solar shower is a coiled garden hose place high in a tree in full sunlight. I am clearing a spot in our outdoor bathhouse that is under construction for a solar shower. The plan is to dig a basin with a drain into our garden to irrigate with runoff from shower. I will tile shower floor with stones and pebbles from the surrounding area.

Check out these websites for ideas and plans to make solar showers.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/Solar-Shower.aspx

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/1979-09-01/A-Homemade-Solar-Water-Heater.aspx

http://www.motherearthnews.com/uploadedImages/articles/issues/2009-06-01/MEN-JJ09-lore_outdoor_shower_2.jpg

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Build-Your-Own-Outdoor-Shower&id=3472317

The article below is a good explanation of how to build a solar water heater that is simple and affordable. Thanks to author William Weber for doing the research and figuring out how the average person can make an easy affordable solar water heater.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/1979-09-01/A-Homemade-Solar-Water-Heater.aspx?page=2
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These are just some ideas to get you started. I will post more information on future One Earth Blogs. In the meantime, go to the sites mentioned here to learn more and get on your way to taking your first steps to sustainable solar energy for the health of the earth and everyone living here.
One Earth. Think About It.

One Earth Blog by Charleen Touchette Copyright 2010 by Charleen Touchette

Forest Beings - Art by Charleen Touchette

Forest Beings - Art by Charleen Touchette - Spring 2010

The view within this tangle of pinon tree branches became the inspiration for a new art series.

When I layer images from earth and sky, then play with them, faces, figures, animals, plants and energies magically appear and change as the eye travels across the image. There is a kinetic energy within the image that interacts with the viewer. It appears from my initial observations that different people see different unique faces and entities looking at the same piece of art.

As I repeatedly double, flip and manipulate layers of the forest image, geometric shapes and structures emerge resembling complex mosaics, Navajo and Persian rug patterns and Medieval stained glass windows.

Bringing focus to center reveals a complex geometric hexagon, the number six. The hexagon, or Jewish Star, combines two triangles, the three of the isoceles triangle representing male energy with the inverted female triangle, thus embodying balance of male and female or yin and yan.

Multiplicity distills into eight points radiating from four directions out of center circle.

The core is the number one at the center of the number four. The oneness of being at the center and crossroads of the four directions. Creation manifests outward in diversity and multiplicity and is at its center one. God is One.

Forest Beings - Art and Writing by Charleen Touchette, Spring 2010

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http://www.oneearthblog.blogspot.com/