Blue Rock Station,
1190 Virginia Ridge Rd.
Philo Ohio 43771 USA
+1-740-674-4300 (phone)
+1-740-674-6303 (fax)
Or contact us by e-mail.
1190 Virginia Ridge Rd.
Philo Ohio 43771 USA
+1-
Or contact us by e-
Copyright 2008 Blue Rock Station, All Rights Reserved
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Earth Day at an Earthship
By RACHEL STREITFELD
Staff Writer
By RACHEL STREITFELD
Staff Writer
GAYSPORT - Walking onto Blue Rock Station is like crossing into another country.
Llamas bounce around a yard enclosed by a woven fence. The house, guides tell you, is made of tires filled with clay and is positioned to catch the sun's heat during winter. Chickens roaming the grounds will soon be moved to a coop made mostly of trash.
Our goal is to have a place where our granddaughter would learn all the values that had been taught to us by our families," said Annie Warmke, who built the Gaysport house with her husband Jay. "We're showing how you can use what's locally available."
The couple invited visitors to the station - the Australian term for a farm - to commemorate Earth Day on Saturday. Annie and Jay show off their animals and their home to anyone interested in self-sustenance. They call their home an Earthship, the name for independent, solar, thermal homes made of natural and recycled materials.
For example, the clay-filled tires hold in heat during winter and keep the home cool in the summer months. Each of the 2,200 tires weighs about 300 pounds. Water from sinks and showers drains into an indoor garden, and the toilet is self-composting.
"It's a machine," Annie explained. "It's not really a house, in that it knows what to do and when to do it."
Visitor Doug Swift has toured the home several times, and hopes to bring children from a home-schooling network to learn about coexisting with the environment.
"I like people to see the possibility that you don't have to live with a lot of resources," he said. "To see you can break an addiction to resources."
The Warmkes began building on the property in 1993, and often invite people in for workshops to help build structures made of refuse.
Visitors enjoyed the spectacle, but some said they couldn't bear to leave city life.
"It's amazing what they do," said Julie Francois, who attends Zanesville High School. "But you have to be patient to do it ... I'm just too used to my comfort things."
rstreitfeld@nncogannett.com
450-6772
450-
Originally published April 23, 2006
TREVOR JONES/Times Recorder
Blake Swift, 8, and Jay Warmke place brush into the woven fence. The living fence stretches 250 feet. It is made from brush created when the area for the fence
Blake Swift, 8, and Jay Warmke place brush into the woven fence. The living fence stretches 250 feet. It is made from brush created when the area for the fence
