The Knapp's buy new land to build upon!

Here are some photos we took of our new lot we just bought in the Chalet II are of Baca Grande in Crestone, CO. The ½ acre kite-shaped lot is up in the foothills of the Sangre De Cristo mountains, has full utilities available, and is located about two miles east & 510 feet higher than our current straw bale home down in the valley.

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Our truck is pointed approximately east to the entrance to our lot with the Sangre De Cristo mountains in the background. There are taller 14K snowy peaks hidden behind these first 13K visible peaks. Above the truck can be seen a deep canyon that Cottonwood Creek aspen greenbelt passes through just a block or two south of us. Notice the two trees and large rock that are located in the center of our new cul-de-sac road entrance. The trees have grown sufficiently to block passage of vehicles around them to the south.

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Notice the land to the left of the truck is sloping off to the north. Our building site is fairly level although very slightly north sloping still. We are very close to the Cottonwood creek greenbelt where it starts dropping off to the south with increasing frequency.

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This view is looking south on Baca Grande road at the entrance to our cul-de-sac Radiant Overlook. You can clearly see the aspen greenbelt just two lots to the south with a large arroyo running down the center of the next lots south of us (dip in road before aspen greenbelt). At the top of the next rise in the road is the turn-off to the Stupa going up to the left.

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We are looking up our 220 foot cul-de-sac road giving us a nice buffer space from the main road. Notice the two trees in our cul-de-sac have forced the center of the circle to be to the right slightly, which has also impacted all of the lot lines going around the circle. The mountains in the background ARE really as big as they seem, if not bigger!

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This is a view to the north on Baca Grande to illustrate how fast the northern slope drops away as well as to the west into the valley below. The mountains in the background are the San Juan mountains that reach over to the Sangre De Cristo mountains to the north and east to form Poncha Pass which runs down to Salida, Colorado.

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Simon and I are sitting against a large west-facing rock in the offset center of our new cul-de-sac. It is nice and warm to sit here on the soft pinon pine & juniper needles where the afternoon sun at 8,300 feet has created a micro-climate that makes it feel 30 degrees warmer than the 30 degrees afternoon temperature suggests. The neighborhood is full of rocks this size and much, much bigger!

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This view is looking west from our new 220 foot cul-de-sac driveway towards the San Juan mountains 50 miles to the west. Our current strawbale house is 510 feet lower just down the valley two miles from here.

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After a 3-mile walk around the neighborhood I feel a siesta coming on any second now!!!

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Can you tell Simon knows I have a dog treat in my left hand?

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This is the entrance to our driveway (tree to the right is in the center of our access right of way, so the driveway will be to the right or left of this tree). These rocks were brought to the surface when the water department ran in the water lines to the cul-de-sac. Many of these rocks will be forming the exterior surface of the walls of our domes in our future passive solar heated home. There are some larger rocks on the property that just may become part of our living room walls!

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This view is to the SSE at our building site.

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This view is looking northeast at our building site. Notice the HUGE rock about where our north berm will end. We have just got to get this rock into our building plan somehow.

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Another southeastern view of our building site. The tall pinon pine in the center will partially shade our master bedroom dome in the early morning, but then the mountains to the east will give us an hour delay of sunrise anyway! There will be plenty of unobstructed sky to stream on our solar panel array nonetheless.

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Where I am standing by our truck in our cul-de-sac is at our driveway entrance to the west. Our truck is pointing approximately east-west toward our building site. The shadow in the foreground is from a neighbor's pinon tree with the afternoon sun at approximately 4 PM position. The tree clump to the left of me is the off-set center to our cul-de-sac. The town of Crestone is located about six miles directly north of here in the background about 300 feet lower.

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I am pointing to our house down in the valley below. I am standing at our driveway entrance. The greenest tree to the right of my hand sits just to the east of where our master bedroom will sit (behind the stump). Although the lots are small up here, the dense trees hide most of the neighbor’s homes from view.

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Another view of our building site from the west. The rocks in the foreground on the edge of the cul-de-sac circle were brought to the surface when the water lines were laid. Notice how our delayed sunrise over the mountains will work nicely with the trees we are leaving on-site.

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Another view to treasure!!!

A round of applause for photographer Sheila!

Dave

What Happened to the Knapp's?

Well, it has been some time since we posted! While we were house-sitting in Crestone during April 2005 our Illinois house sold in just eight days! We had to act quickly to find a new place to live. Unable to find anything suitable to rent (with enough space or that accepted our beagle house dog), we bought an off-grid straw bale fixer-upper that was about 90% complete (and needed lots of rework). In the mean time I quit my aerospace job of 17+ years and we headed out to Colorado with a 25 foot Penske rental truck loaded to the maximum. Our intentions are to finish this place before we start construction of our new passive solar Earthbag/Earthship hybrid home. We have just purchased land we will build upon and have maybe another year of construction and rework to finish on our straw bale home yet. We will publish photos of our SB house soon! Sheila, Dave, & Simon the beagle have been having a great time here on many different adventures, some of which we will relate as time goes by!

Things are happening soon!

For the past 3 years we have been preparing for our move to Colorado as our son finished high school and we completed necessary remodeling our our current home in Illinois. We looked at a half dozen earthships for sale, but the timing wasn't right for our move. Now several things have come together for us, our remodeling is nearly complete, our son is finishing his first year in college, and it appears my quest to telecommute 1300 miles for my current employer of 17 years is going to be successful (story in itself). Also on our plate has been where to live once we get to Colorado and whether we will be living in an RV, tipi, renting a house, buying something, or doing something else totally unexpected. Some good friends of ours are on sabatical traveling in Mexico. They have offered to rent us their passive solar home in Crestone, CO if we'd consider helping them with their business while they are traveling. This will certainly allow us to gain first hand knowledge of living in a passive solar dome-style home using Earthbag & Papercrete Natural Building alternative construction techniques as well as to experience the Colorado Mountain climate first hand beyond viewing it from daily weather reports. Telecommuting from my new home office will also give us a welcome buffer to find our ideal passive solar building or buying opportunity under less pressure than doing it remotely from Illinois. We expect to put our current house onto the market sometime in May and we hope to be in Colorado before the end of June. Stay tuned for more timely updates. Beyond our telecommuting and helping our friends in their business, we also plan to fully develop our EarthenSun business of specializing in solar and natural building products. Things are starting to look very exciting for the Knapp's!

Knapp's building EARTHenSun Blog

Dave & Sheila are switching to the Blog format for posting our journal entries for building Earthensun. This is where we will update our building progress, show new photos, post family news, and give links to supply sources, services, IOI, & more for family and friends. Comments & questions from everyone are encouraged as we learn together here. Our website is http://www.earthensun.com