Heather pointed at me, I was a deer in headlights. “This girl can do bottle walls, she did this one all by herself”, she dropped me in it, I was been taken off-site. I grabbed my bottle buddy and without as much as a word to Dylan I was whisked deeper into earthship country. To be honest it was a relief to be going somewhere new, Survival 3 was getting old. Damien was another earthship builder who I hadn’t met before, half Mexican half Swedish he had arrived some 20 years earlier from California to do a build with Mike Reynold’s son and never left. As he said Taos just sucks some people in and spits others out. When we arrived on site I had a moment of mental confusion and I saw another Damien outside the truck, he didn’t mention he had a twin. Of course hijinks ensued, they liked a joke, one at someone else’s expense was their preferred M.O., it was refreshing hanging with people who really didn’t take anything too seriously. I felt at ease to ask questions about the cement, the cans and the good production. Regarding cement they said that the Simple Survivals really weren’t all that simple and the global works far better with less cement and even Phil the head builder has questioned the cement use, good to know. In regards to using the aluminium cans, in New Mexico when earthships were first created New Mexico did not recycle them at all, he agreed that perhaps now they are recycling an alternative should be considered. In regards to the food, the greenhouses and black water systems could produce quite a lot of food but you can’t force people to grow food, and with inexperienced gardeners the greenhouses can get overpopulated with bugs and disease. Interesting stuff, it made me feel relieved to see that people were not just blindly following the cult of Mike Reynolds and it was in some part a more collaborative effort, although it might be better if it was even more so. The bottles the New Mexican government just crushed and put on the roads in snowy weather.