Calling all volunteers. State your name

September 19, 2006

Joel Akin

Where did I first volunteer? I think that is a question of time. I used to volunteer by helping at our church. Back then our church was small and dad would ask me to come help him clean the church. Now I don’t have a lot of specific memories of cleaning the church. After all you can clean just so many bathrooms or sweep so many floors. Volunteering was ingrained in me and I’d like to believe it produced a person who cares.

Caring for others means giving up time so that you can spend time with others. Every Tuesday night my sister volunteers at the Seniors home. Before my health got bad I had a number of old folks I’d visit and help with things such as mowing the grass or shoveling snow or my favorite which was trimming hedges. I was pretty good at it too.

Yet now I am in a place where time is about to change and I have hope that someone out there is wanting to be a volunteer. So who will it be?

A while ago an acquaintance of mine from Michigan by the name of Joel wanted to to help me start up an Earth Sheltered Society for North America. At present there isn’t one. I’ve had several people show interest in being part of such a group who would be there to formulate standards for the industry. I believe its an idea who’s time is come. It is nothing new per say as they have BESA which is British Earth Sheltered Association but I believe the reason we don’t have such a program is simply lack of vision. We need people in government who are willing to help us run with this idea. A yearly grant would be ideal.

So listen people who work in government. Or those who have experience in seeking grants. Help us out so we can put together something that will last. I don’t want just one years grant but something that will last for the far flung future.

Now you may ask why and I’ll tell you. I have searched and researched every type of home on the planet. There is no style like the earth sheltered style. It is the home of the future not just for earth but for other planets as well. Now don’t be surprised if we end up going to other planets to live and perhaps sooner than you think. I started up a web site called Mars Outpost simply because I am convinced Earth Sheltered homes are adaptable to any place and any kind of terrain except perhaps swampy ones or wet ones. And in those locations floating homes are ideal.

We need focus and we need people who are sincere in their push to help take Earth Sheltered homes and begin to perfect them. In one way they’ve been around for thousands of years but there has never and I repeat never been a time in history when ES homes are adaptable because of our understanding of the earth and technology. I get excited by them because I see a chance to create a home that is adaptable to the future. And not just adaptable to the future but to any country on the planet. And not just adaptable but malleable so they can change as our knowledge grows.

Its hard to say when my interest in them started. As a child I cut out articles on the planets and the Apollo missions. I grew into Science Fiction and survival on other planets back when I was an early teen in the 70’s. In high school I studied shelter building as part of a class I took. In College I wrote a term paper on Solar Energy. In the 80’s I studied Mother Earth News and other publications like it. And when the Internet arrived I grew into the knowledge of it so I could build a site on Earth Sheltered homes. I didn’t start out with that plan. I wanted to find someone who had done the work for me. The fact is after months of research I realized not a single person on the planet had done what I believed needed to be done. Now there were builders like Joe Davis and people from Formwork’s and Monolithic Domes who were in the field doing things. But they were in it because they needed money. They had a vision like Malcolm Wells and Michael Reynolds of Earthships. There were Straw bale and Rammed Earth styles. All these were adaptable into the Earth Sheltered homes though it took me a long time to see many of these connections.

Frankly I was a child and I learned slowly but I’ve come a long way. And I realize that after 8 years I still know almost nothing, maybe 1% of what I can know. Maybe less. I realize ES homes are potentially the only home that will protect us from works of nature and man. And that doesn’t mean we have to wait for war or storms to build one. And they shouldn’t be the only reason we build one. There are other reasons including working with nature instead of against it. Building a home that merges with nature so that you can walk by such a home and see beyond it instead of it covering up your view. Imagine a row of ES homes next to a lake and all have grass roofs and all are built so you, from the road, can actually see the lake. Nowadays our views of beauty are cut off by fences and houses and garages. 

But my dream for volunteers goes beyond that. I need help on a scale that is beyond my present finances. Put it this way. I want Earth House to be interactive. I want professionals who are there to answer questions. I want videos and stories and news articles. I want plans and architects. I want a newsletter and people to interview and eventually a TV program or even a TV station dedicated to the world of Earth Sheltered living.

I need help because I’ve run low on energy and I need a real holiday. I haven’t been able to really get away for ten years and I want to travel and sit by the ocean again. I would like to find a quiet place to fish and a cabin to rest up in where the sun rises in the morning right as rain. I want people to take authority of Earth House and create it into a professional site worthy of the objectives I’ve tried to instill. I’d like to be like a Consumers report so that products can be tried and tested. From doors and windows to geothermal products and solar and wind and air condition and water storage. Civil engineers to study weight loads and people to create concepts for new types of greenhouses which are integrated into the Earth Home. I want to be able to see other integration of other materials such as Rammed Earth and Strawbale.

Let there be light and ways of adapting lighting, skylights, fiber optic lighting and so on to the home. Let there be volunteers who want to be part of the ongoing process of building Earth House into a vision that will withstand time.

For me its a question of faith. I have fought for this vision because of my trust in God and I believe He wants me to have the power over the direction but to give authority to people who are meant to be part of it. People who will come in and take it to the next level. Where we can show people that there really is a new house style and it can change North America if we allow it.

Volunteers are needed because without them this vision can’t go anywhere. It needs people who see themselves doing something but don’t just want their name on a list. But people who are willing to help pick up the slack in a solid and personal way.

Volunteers are wanted because I want to work with people who have a vision for the future like I do. People who can change the way we live and build homes they can pass on to their grandchildren. Homes that will be integrated with technology designed to last. Not a year or ten or twenty but up to fifty years if needed.

Volunteers who are called. And that might be you? I need help but I need it in a definite clear way. I know many would say “What can I do...” But help me and pray and then come back and say “Here is what I can do today. Let me know if you need more help tomorrow...”

write me

Joel

Earthhouse@gmail.com