Jorgensen had good news for Mike when they returned to Wisconsin. The bidding had gone above eleven million. “I don’t think you’re going to do better than that.”“It’s a million or so more than I was expecting. Accept the tender.” He gave Jorgensen Sara’s number. “She’ll be handling some work in Missouri for me.”Jorgensen nodded. “I’ll contact her. I guess when this is done that’ll be it.”It was Mike’s turn to nod. “You’ve been good to us for a long time. We’ve all appreciated it. I wish I could explain better why I’m doing this, but I can’t. I’m not sure the reasons are entirely clear to me.”“Well, it’s your prerogative.” Jorgensen grinned. “Don’t spend it all in one place.”Mike could only manage a shallow laugh. He pretty much was going to spend it all on one place, if not in one place.The survey was completed within two weeks and Sara had negotiated the price of the Ozark land down from five hundred an acre to four twenty-five an acre. That was $272,000 of the eleven million, plus the odd fee here and there. Mike decided he’d better get used to it.Sara sent him a standard bill for the work she’d done in helping him acquire the property. “From now on,” she said, “I’ll be doing whatever you need me to do as part of the project. No fees. How about expenses?”Mike nodded and took the packet of papers Sara handed him. “Call me if you think I can be of any help of any kind. I want this project to work. I think bad times are coming and I want a safe place to relocate to if they arrive.”Again Mike nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”Homeless now, albeit someone with eleven million dollars minus the land costs, Mike looked for a place close to the property. He found a run down farm on a paved county road. The elderly couple had been wanting to retire for a few years now, and welcomed getting out from under the farm.Mike hired a contract farmer to tend the fields and moved into the farm house as soon as the previous owners had moved out. Next, Mike contracted a logging outfit to go in and cut trees where he wanted clear land. They would start in the spring and be finished early summer.It was a strange contract for them, for instead of the trees being hauled and taken to a lumber mill, the trees and larger limbs were to be trimmed out and moved to a storage area that Mike pointed out to them. When asked why, Mike replied, “I like being warm. Firewood.” They could think him crazy if they wanted, but they did as he asked.Always a-tuned to the weather, having grown up on and then running the dairy operation, Mike watched it with even more diligence than before. Winter ended, more or less as usual, and when the loggers were well into their work, the earth movers he hired started their work. First it was to take out all the stumps left by the loggers. The stumps were gathered into large piles for later use.The logging road was improved down to the county road, being made into an all weather gravel road with good drainage while one D8 Cat was doing the stumps. The faint remains of another logging road, in much worse shape, but going to another county road, via a couple more logging roads, was improved enough for four-wheel drive vehicles to use, as an alternate in and out.Finally, with the logging completed and stumps removed, the heavy work of turning a hill into a plateau began in earnest. In the latter stages Mike was taking it for it, or buying all the animal manure and topsoil he could get in a five hundred mile radius to improve the ground. That went with the truckloads of sand that gave the ground better farming consistency. Fall cover crops were planted over all the terra-formed property to be disked in the following spring when construction could begin. Half a dozen large stockpiles of the local dirt mixed with sand for use as fill for the earth sheltered construction remained.Mike took a large travel trailer up to the site and had a large propane tank installed. He’d live there until the place was completed. When the forecasts for the winter started indicating that it would be a bad one, Mike had wind breaks built around the trailer. The one-ton GMC diesel dually four-wheel-drive pickup that he’d used to haul the travel trailer up with became his primary transportation. He needed the truck to get in and out of the place that winter.He did quite a bit of traveling during the winter months, wheeling and dealing for all sorts of acquisitions for the project. Not the least was working with the architect on the design of the buildings that would be constructed. It was unusual enough to see earth sheltering on this scale, much less with every housing unit having three types of heat.Each of the apartments and other human spaces had natural gas heaters, as well as dual fuel wood/coal heaters. Kitchens were set up the same way. Natural gas ranges, with wood/coal back up stoves. It had cost a premium to get a natural gas line run to the property, but Mike had thought it worthwhile.Mike went to some of the best horse ranches in the country to arrange for quality animals for the place, both draft animals and riding/harness stock. He did the same thing for the other farm animals. He made deals with various breeders for genetic diversity so they could do cross breeding for several years to come without endangering their herds and flocks, just as he’d done for the horses. There would be breeding animals as well as production stock for milk cattle, beef cattle, swine, laying chickens, and meat chickens. With the help of agri-business specialists working with the architect, the second earth-sheltered structure was designed to handle the large animal population the estate would have.In a similar vein, he visited fruit and nut tree orchards and bought for future transplant, trees just coming into bearing age. They would be transplanted during the last construction phase.After locating a museum with a noteworthy collection of antique farm implements, Mike contracted their staff to help him find enough appropriate horse drawn equipment to work a 320 acre farm. He didn’t need that much, but he wanted spares. Then he essentially bought a machine shop and steel supply operation to keep the equipment and everything else at the estate in operating condition for years.All the construction contractors were chomping at the bit to get started the following spring, but it was slow in coming. It wasn’t unusual in itself, for there had been later springs. This one just had more precipitation than usual, even for a late spring.But spring did arrive and work started, with several projects going at once. There was a hill to the north of the building site that Mike had, as an afterthought, had cleared of trees. A new virtual forest of 300 watt photovoltaic panels went in banks of massive submarine batteries The batteries were placed in a large earth sheltered structure that also housed four natural gas/propane engine generators, any two of which would supply the power needs of the estate, with the energy conservation attributes being built into the structures. The building had all the main electrical switch gear for the estate, to run on commercial power, solar power, or generator power.Four deep wells were drilled, two within the confines of the footprint of the buildings. One of the other wells was at the corner of the crop area for irrigation and had its own triple power station of solar, generator, and commercial electric. The forth well was inside the foot print of the power station building and piped to both the crop well location, and to the buildings.Just as water is needed to sustain human and animal life, so is waste disposal. Three small scale sewage digesters were obtained to handle the waste effluent of the humans and animals to turn it into useable methane gas.Six ten-thousand gallon propane tanks were delivered and set in a fuel bunker area as backup to the natural gas. Conversions from natural gas to propane were obtained for every gas appliance. Next came four ten-thousand gallon diesel tanks and two ten-thousand gallon gasoline tanks. The tank farm contained other smaller tanks for other fuels, oils and the equipment needed to handle such things. Close by was the building for the stills that would produce alcohol for vehicles. The alcohol produced would be perfectly fine for human consumption, but that wasn’t a factor in the installation. A pair of bio-diesel production units were also installed, along with the oil presses that would be needed to extract the oil from crops grown specifically for diesel production.The foundations and support buildings were installed for twenty large greenhouses, which would produce much of the food for the estate, with enough left over to sell as truck farm produce. Four of the greenhouses were large enough to handle trees that couldn’t grow in the current climate, much less the coming climate.Mike kept himself available to inspect the construction as it progressed and sign off on projects when they were complete. And write checks. Lots of big checks. But it was going about as expected. And with the performance bonuses Mike had seen were written into the contracts, people were getting the job done on time or early. They were doing a good job, Mike’s frequent inspections saw to that.There were a lot of comments about the tunnels going in with concrete pedestrian underpass units to connect all the different buildings that were not built side by side.Sara came out once during the summer and stopped in to see the progress. Mike didn’t have much time for her, but she looked around on her own wearing muddy steel toed boots and a hardhat. She seemed satisfied and left smiling.It was good that Mike had included the bonuses, because had not the last contractor finished up early the way he did, the early winter would have caught him putting on the finishing touches, the last of the sod around the buildings.Mike moved the Chevy and the trailer into the cavernous garage next to the dome that contained his living quarters and moved in. Permanently. Though he’s seen them as they’d gone up he’d been here and there seeing details. He hadn’t really got a good look at everything as a whole. He decided to look it over and see what it all really looked like.There really wasn’t much to see from outside. The occasional small window of the domes. The large garage type doors in tunnel ends that broke the easy slope of the earth berming. It was the same on all the buildings.Mike found the tunnel access in his dome and went to the power house. It was quiet with the commercial power going. He touched the switches that would bring on the power of the generators and solar arrays. All three sources of power were synchronized to allow any combination of the three to run the estate. He made the long walk to the tank farm building. Everything was in readiness.Ditto the two long greenhouse support buildings, each with five greenhouses winging off on each side. It took a long time to walk to the equipment building at the nearest point of the crop grounds. And just as long to walk back after looking at the empty building. The equipment would be there the next spring if all went as planned. For now the farmer he’d hired had his mechanical equipment stored in it. The cover crop was again growing and would be disked in the following spring, along with more mulch and manure to build the crop land up.Mike walked through the empty housing unit, stopping and checking a few of the apartments. He looked out over the atrium with its large pool and open green areas. Next he went to the barn building. The lower section was for the animals, with the upper section for support functions and processing rooms. When he could find suitable animal handlers he would start bringing in the animals. There were already stocks of grain and hay for the animals in the lofts and the automated feed, water, and waste systems were ready to go. They would make caring for the animals much easier, quicker, and more efficient.The three fodder machines were ready for seed. They would produce nutritious spouted grain fodder feed on a continuous basis. The three machines were long conveyors in which seed was placed in one end, and the finished sprout mats would come out the other end to be cut into portions and fed to the animals that did well with fresh feed. Greenhouse space would be allotted to grow the grains to seed stage to feed the fodder machines.Mike went through the second of the two domes. The clinic and small hospital, dental office, pharmacy, and similar facilities were in it, along with other task rooms, including school rooms, study areas, and a library.Finally Mike entered the first dome. It was the command, control, communications, and intelligence center. It also contained Mike’s living quarters. He looked over the gleaming installation that would someday be the hub of the entire operation. If things went as planned. Mike went to bed satisfied he’d done all he could for the moment.The next morning, in his large office off his living quarters, he began to the final phase of populating the center. Despite the fact that only in the last stages of understanding that an Ice Age was upon them would many of the people come here. He touched base with the candidates and informed them that they were still in contention. He invited each one out to see the place. At their expense. On a whim he called Sara and told her the project was finished and invited her to come out, too.Others Mike wanted here as soon as possible, just to maintain the estate at a level of readiness that would allow a quick integration of the rest of the people he had selected. He used the telephone and computer all morning, and then fixed himself a light lunch, before resuming work.The afternoon was spent with paper and internet catalogs, ordering a myriad of items with which to equip the facility. He checked his bank balances on-line. The eleven million had dwindled to five million after the orders had gone in.It was nearly dark and the weather instruments told him that it 31 degrees F. outside with twenty mile an hour winds when the annunciater went off that told him someone was on the gravel road into the place.Mike picked up the Para-Ordinance P-14 pistol lying on the desk top in an inside the waistband holster. He slipped it into place, put on his jacket and headed downstairs to the main entrance doors. He waited at the outer doors of the air-lock entry for whoever it was to park and come in.He held the door open and said, “Hello. Come in out of the weather.” It was starting to snow a little. Very unusual this early in the year.“How can I help you?” Mike asked, leading the way into the small reception area.“Jeremiah Johnson. Like the famous one, only no relation. Buddy of mine told me about this place. Worked here with one of the contractors. Said you were going to have a farm and needed a work foreman.”“Well, I’m not sure how he got that idea,” Mike said. This didn’t feel right.“Well, from what I can see of it, which isn’t much, which tells me, from how much work Barney said was done, this is a large scale survival retreat, with most of it underground. Gonna need a farm to be self-sustaining. Just logical.”Mike noticed the man was watching him closely as he spoke. Studying his face. “For the new Ice Age that’s coming.”It was about what Mike had suspected. Number One and Number Two weren’t satisfied. Mike’s actions would have been easy to track. So he was ready. Mike chuckled. “Ice Age? I watch the Weather Channel all the time. They’ve not said anything about a new Ice Age. I recon they’d know. So would the National Weather Service. Haven’t heard anything on the news about it. That would be big.”“Oh, I’m quite sure there is one coming. From my own sources. Why else would you build this place? You must have sources, too.”“Well, sure, I have sources. I’m on half a dozen… actually nine emergency preparedness sites, most with forums. That’s part of the reason I started this. Do you know how many different things can happen that will disrupt normal civilization? The possibility of war with China that started making the forums a couple of years ago started it.“Ice Age, hunh? I sold the family farm in Wisconsin to get to somewhere warmer. I’ve never liked bad weather. If you really know something. Have some kind of inside track, you should contact FEMA. They’re the agency that would need to start the ball rolling to prepare people for it. I’ll stick to my nuclear wars and biological attacks.“But I tell you what, I’ll take your résumé. I am actually looking for some farmer types.” Mike softened his voice and leaned forward to half whisper, “This is kind of a retreat, but I’d just as soon it didn’t get around.” A sudden thought occurred to him. “Gotta keep the rif-raf out. This is a subscription facility. Got to pay in to get in. It is negotiable, based on qualifications.”The man frowned. “I see. I don’t think I’m prepared to take that step. Thank you for seeing me.” He didn’t quite storm out, but it was close.Mike held his smile until the man’s car turned around and was heading off the property. Then it turned into a frown. “Those two FEMA goons are up to something.” He did smile again when he thought of what he’d told ‘Jeremiah’. “That’s not a bad idea.” It had come up before. He went to bed, mulling the idea over in his head.The next morning he set about implementing the new concept. He called a graphics design house he knew about and set up a meeting for three days hence. He would need to get a guard in here to watch the place now that he needed to be gone occasionally, before he got residents.It took a month to get some nice brochures printed up. Sara came out to see the place finished during a break in the weather. Mike told her then. “What do you think? You still want in?”“This stinks! How much?”“Depends on the qualifications. Or, to put it bluntly, anything I ask. I told you I wanted full control. But I’m having some difficulty getting people interested. It occurred to me that if the person had to pay, they might think it more worth it, than a free association. But to avoid misunderstandings, I’m going to need a contract and CC&R written up. Obligations on each side. Minimum and maximums they can bring into the place. Required equipment and such. You seem to know quite a bit about emergency preparedness. Can you run up something for me to take a look at?”A sweet smile, with a steel lining appeared on Sara’s face. “If that’s my cost in. And I’ll submit to the contract and CC&R.”Mike grinned and then laughed. “Done.”There had been nothing in the initial contacts with specific people that precluded the approach Mike was now taking. Sara e-mailed Mike the first drafts three weeks later. By Christmas time they were finalized. Mike spent Christmas through New Years alone at the facility, going over the information he had on people that had expressed an interest in being a part of the project.He decided he had enough money to hire a staff to begin the animal activities and greenhouse operations. That meant he would need to keep the road open for safety. And access, too, since they would be getting items in from time to time. Mike bought a Caterpillar roadgrader, a D8 crawler tractor, 966 loader, and the first of several Unimog U500 utility trucks. This first one had a snow blower. The deal he cut included four more with a selection of attachments for them.When he heard a radio announcement of the Bobcat 5600T it intrigued him. They were so versatile, like the Unimogs, he wound up buying four of the Toolcats and four of the Bobcat A300 skid steer/4-wheel steer units for the facility for the lighter work. With the Unimogs, which could be used like tractors, they would be the main equipment for when fuel was available and horses weren’t.Mike ran ads in agricultural college newspapers for long term positions at the facility for post graduate students. There would be pay, not a lot, but enough with room and board and use of the facilities to make it an attractive proposition. He began to get responses from the ads. With the various disasters being reported, and the strange weather, he began to get a few serious inquiries from a few of the people he had contacted earlier.Those he wanted, though they agreed to the contract and the CC&R, Mike furnished at reduced cost the prerequisites the documents stipulated. Most of those that came and saw the facility signed on quickly. He managed to find a few that would take up residence in early spring. Enough to start operations. Others would be transporting the things required in the spring but would take up residence only when they deemed their personal situation warranted. Mike breathed a sigh of relief. Things were coming together. And he still had some money left.There was no spring that year. The winter weather stopped and summer weather started. Mike was glad he’d brought those students in that had agreed to come for the start up of the greenhouse operations. The horses were coming in and though some had been trained to harness, there was a great deal of work left to do to get the horse herds to the shape he wanted them. The actual production animals had arrived and that was going well. Several of the former students turned real farmers rapidly got the hang of the equipment and operation. So did the animals.The refurbished and recreated horse-drawn farming equipment arrived one muddy Monday morning on three tractor trailer rigs. The front forks mounted on the Unimogs made short work of the unloading. The farmers got them moved over to the farm equipment shed. The horses handled the task admirably. Mike was pleased. As soon as the ground was dry enough the actual field farming could begin. Everything else they would need would be in stock by the end of the week.Mike was watching the news every day, waiting for the story to break about the coming Ice Age. Still nothing, except, ‘exceptional weather’ from both the Weather Channel and the National Weather Service. Mike wondered what FEMA was doing. What they were up to. How could they let this go without warning the people.The emergency preparedness forums on the internet were full of it. The speculation of another Ice Age was rampant. “If they only knew,” Mike said softly as he turned off his personal laptop and got ready for bed. The next Monday was going to be a busy one.Not only was Sara arriving, so was the shipment of arms and ammunition Mike had ordered the previous fall for delivery now. That had allowed the national distributor he’d contracted with find everything Mike wanted.Individuals were welcome to bring whatever weapons they wanted, in fact, were required to furnish a semi-auto long arm to help defend the facility if needed in time of crisis. That had been a stumbling block with some of the students. They refused to have any dealings with firearms. They weren’t selected.It had come up with a few of the people Mike had contact with from other walks of life. A few, like several of the students, wanted nothing to do with guns, even for their own safety. A few more were willing to pitch-in and provide a weapon. For someone else to use. Mike was committed for the operation to be as fair and equitable as possible. If you could help out somewhere, you would. The safety of the facility was everyone’s responsibility. Every housing unit had a gun safe.There were a few exemptions for lack of ability to use a weapon, but everyone that was over sixteen and was healthy would be required to shoot occasionally and participate in the defense of the facility if it ever became necessary.Sara had arrived shortly before the delivery van with the weapons and ammunition and watched as it was unloaded. Everything was taken to an armory room in Mike’s building. Rack after rack of several different military and hunting style weapons were filled. Sturdy shelves held accessories and the ammunition.A separate delivery of reloading components would arrive in a few days. They would be stored in the room next to the armory with the reloading equipment already there. Working supplies of powder and primers would be kept in safety cabinets in the reloading room. The rest would be stored in a bunker at the outer edge of the facility.“Looks like we’ll be ready for trouble,” Sara said. She held up a gun case. “I brought my own.”“Take whichever housing unit you want,” Mike said, signing off on the delivery. Of all the things he had bought or was buying, he hoped the weapons would be the least used. But he wasn’t counting on it. That’s why he had them and why the contracts read as they did. At some point in time, when things became obviously bad, he expected the facility would need to be protected from outsiders. “Or FEMA,” he muttered under his breath. Jeremiah’s appearance was still bothering him.“You need some help?” Mike asked Sara as the delivery people left. “We have some carts available to move personal belongings.”“If you don’t mind,” Sara replied. “I don’t have much but some of it is a bit awkward to carry. And that’s a pretty good ways to carry stuff.”Mike laughed. “Everyone here should be in good shape, after they been here for a while. Riding the horses inside isn’t allowed, so you have to walk.”Sara smiled, and Mike followed her to the housing unit she’d picked out. She was single and didn’t have that much stuff she was bringing, so Sara had chosen one of the small efficiency apartments. She probably would have chosen it anyway, but the contracts read that each family unit would use the smallest housing practical for them.There were a hand full of large four-person dorm rooms for same sex singles that relied on the facility for most of their needs, to one-person efficiencies, up to four bedroom, three bath apartment units for families with children. So far the family units were unoccupied. Most of the former college students had opted for the dorms. They were sharing cooking chores in the community kitchen, as well as cleanup.Sara put the cased long arm in the gun-safe. Mike showed her some of the features of the apartment and they headed back to the parking garage to get the rest of her things. They’d just come back down to the reception area when a car pulled up outside. They could see it on the parking lot monitor behind the reception counter. No one was expected and the two exchanged a glance. It was a FEMA vehicle. Not one of the unmarked black ones, but a marked four-wheel drive SUV.The not so subtle motion of Mike hitching his pants slightly where the holster resided did not go unnoticed by Sara as Mike walked toward the entryway.“Good morning,” Mike said, courteously, holding the inner door of the airlock entryway open. “How can I help you?”“I’m looking for Mike Buncie. I’m told he is in charge of this place. Amanda Trotter. I’m with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”“So I gathered, from your vehicle. I’m Mike Buncie. What can I do for you?”“I’ve been instructed to seek your assistance in a matter.”Mike drifted toward the reception counter and Sara. “What matter would that be?” Mike asked, leaning against the counter.With a quick glance at Sara, Amanda said, “It might be better if we discuss this in private.”“Sure. Come up to my office. Follow me.” He looked at Sara. “Could you hold down the fort? I’m expecting more things to come in today.” Sara nodded.Mike led the way up the stairs, and then into his office. “What is this all about?”“I can’t divulge very much, but I need to ask you about a meeting you had with two people with FEMA shortly after your sister died. What was discussed?”“That was over two years ago. I’m not sure I remember.”“You do remember the meeting?”“Black helicopter and all,” replied Mike. He couldn’t keep all the distrust from his voice.“Yes. That would be the meeting. Can you remember any of the conversation?”“They were asking me questions about what my sister might have said to me during our last conversation before her death.”“I see. That is the information we have, but can you be more specific?”“Sure,” Mike’s voice was even. “She wasn’t sure the ship was going to make it through the bad weather. She wanted to talk to me, just in case.”Amanda referred to a small notebook she took from her bag. She looked up. “Have either of them contacted you since?”Mike shook his head. And then he hesitated. This Amanda seemed straightforward. “Actually though, I think they might have tried, just the other day.”“Tried?” Amanda frowned. “What do you mean?”“A guy stopped by and asked about a job here. Very strange. Kept insinuating that I built this place for something like nefarious reasons. Not just because of all the trouble in the world. He mentioned an Ice Age several times. Is there something that FEMA isn’t telling the world, Miss Trotter?” Mike’s last sentence had an edge to it.Amanda looked up a bit startled. She frowned. “That’s what we’re trying to determine,” she said. “But I’d appreciate if you didn’t mention that to anyone. What was this mans name? The one that contacted you.”“Jeremiah Johnson.”Amanda looked at her notes again and her frown became deeper. “I see. There is a connection, but I’m afraid I can’t say what it is. If any of the three men contact you again would you please contact me?” Amanda took a card from her bag and handed it to Mike across his desk. “Or if you can think of anything else that might think helpful.” She stood and Mike did as well. She offered her hand and Mike shook it.“Thank you for your help in this matter. I can find my way out.”“That’s okay. I need to go back down, anyway.”They walked silently back down to the reception desk. Sara was talking to someone at the counter. Amanda stopped at the double glass doors. “I wish you the best of luck with this place. I wish places like this weren’t necessary, but I fear they are. You aren’t the only one preparing for the worst.”“The worst what?” Mike asked.“We don’t know. And that has several of us very worried. Thank you again for your time.” With that she was gone, out the doors and headed for her vehicle.Sara called Mike over. “This man has a sizeable delivery for you and is expecting a C.O.D. check.”Mike got lost in the daily routine and forgot about Amanda Trotter. For the moment.With the news on, while he was having supper, Mike’s ears perked up when he heard a news blurb. He quickly turned up the volume.“The Tip Line is open for any information available from the public about a black Suburban with damage to the right rear quarter-panel. Do not try to interfere if you see this vehicle. It was used in what appears to be an attempted murder by use of a motor vehicle.”The text scrolling under the graphics listed Springfield, Missouri as the location. The heavily damage small SUV carried the FEMA logo.“Hum,” Mike said, mostly under his breath.
Part three will be the end of it next week
Earth bag Building
Building with earthbags (sometimes called sandbags) is both old and new. Sandbags have long been used, particularly by the military, for creating strong, protective barriers, or for flood control. The same reasons that make them useful for these applications carry over to creating housing. Since the walls are so substantial, they resist all kinds of severe weather (or even bullets) and also stand up to natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods. They can be erected simply and quickly with readily available components, for very little money.
Earthbag building fills a unique niche in the quest for sustainable architecture. The bags can be filled with local, natural materials, which lowers the embodied energy commonly associated with the manufacture and transportation of building materials. The fill material is generally of mineral composition and is not subject to decomposition (even when damp), attractive to vermin, or burnable...in other word it is extremely durable. The fill material is generally completely non-toxic and will not offgas noxious fumes into the building.
Earthbags have the tremendous advantage of providing either thermal mass or insulation, depending on what the bags are filled with. When filled with soil they provide thermal mass, but when filled with lighter weight materials, such as crushed volcanic stone, perlite, vermiculite, or rice hulls, they provide insulation. The bags can even act as natural non-wicking, somewhat insulated foundations when they are filled with gravel.Because the earthbags can be stacked in a wide variety of shapes, including domes, they have the potential to virtually eliminate the need for common tensile materials in the structure, especially the wood and steel often used for roofs. This not only saves more energy (and pollution), but also helps save our forests, which are increasingly necessary for sequestering carbon.
Another aspect of sustainability is found in the economy of this method. The fill material can be literally "dirt cheap," especially if on-site soil is used. The earthbags themselves can often be purchased as misprints or recycled grain sacks, but even when new are not particularly expensive. Burlap bags were traditionally used for this purpose, and they work fine but are subject to rot. Polypropylene bags have superior strength and durability, as long as they are kept away from too much sunlight. For permanent housing the bags should be covered with some kind of plaster for protection, but this plaster can also be earthen and not particularly costly.
The ease and simplicity of building with earthbags should also be mentioned, since there is much unskilled labor available around the world that can be tapped for using this technology. One person familiar with the basics of earthbag building can easily train others to assist in the erection of a building. This not only makes the process more affordable, but also more feasible in remote areas where many common building skills are not to be found.http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/
This is my abosute favorite shelter community here. http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=650.0
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