Staying at an Off-the-Grid Colorado Earthship

DOLORES COUNTY, COLORADO – The car bounced along…

“Where are you taking us?” asked Kate.

We were in one of the most empty and desolate parts of America yet.

Giant fields extended to the horizon, where they met mountains… the Abajo Mountains to the west in Utah and the San Miguel range to the east in Colorado.

We passed a small town – population 700 – a few miles back, but now there was nothing. Just high desert for miles in every direction… and the dirt road we were driving down.

Another track approached off to the right. The instructions said to take it. We turned.

A few minutes later, we turned down another.

The GPS hadn’t been able to find this address. We were following special instructions we’d received by email.

We made another turn onto yet another dirt road.

“I’m not sure,” I said to Kate. “This email is the only information I have. Maybe we’re in the wrong place?”

We were now miles off-the-grid. We came over a hill… and that’s when we saw the house…

Couch Surfing Across America

Greetings from 10 feet below the surface…

My family and I are couch surfing and camping our way across America. We started in Florida and we’re now in Colorado.

It’s taken us almost three months to get here… and dozens of driveways, yards, barns, and campgrounds.

This morning we said goodbye to Janet, our mining guide and host from yesterday. Then we hit the road again.

Here we are saying goodbye to Janet…

And here we are on the road today…

I’m writing to you now from Dolores County, Colorado, where our hosts for tonight live.

(I can’t reveal their names or the exact place where they live. They asked me not to; they want to stay private.)

We’ll be staying the night in an off the-grid “cave” house…

Off-the-Grid in a Colorado Earthship

I’ve written before about “Earthships.”

An Earthship is a special type of house designed to be off-the-grid and “radically sustainable.”

For example, it’s partially buried to keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter without using electricity or gas, no matter the outside climate.

It has giant south-facing windows to capture the sun’s energy. It has an indoor garden to purify the air. And it has giant cisterns in the wall to store water.

An architect called Michael Reynolds invented the concept in the 1970s and gave it its name.

There’s a fantastic documentary about his fight with the local government in New Mexico for the right to build these cave houses.

It’s called Garbage Warrior. (He makes the walls of his houses out of used car tires and beer bottles.) You can watch the trailer here.

Kate and I have been interested in the idea for years. But we had no idea we’d be getting to spend the night in one…

Far From Urban Centers

Our hosts tonight are a software millionaire, his wife, and their three children.

They live off-the-grid in a sparsely populated part of the country.

They chose it specially for its distance from urban centers. (The nearest big city is Albuquerque, a six-hour drive away.)

That’s all I can say about them, but here are some pictures…

– Tom Dyson

P.S. Michael Reynolds teaches a course on Earthship construction in Taos, New Mexico. Kate and I had the idea to take his course and then start building Earthships with the kids.

Our idea was we’d a) generate income by listing our Earthships on Airbnb, b) build permanent economic assets, and c) teach our children about thermodynamics, botany, engineering, architecture, and how to build a self-sustaining house.

P.P.S. Tomorrow we head to Arches… the most strikingly beautiful landscape in the USA…

Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [email protected].

One reader wants to know how global trade may affect oil tanker stocks, which Tom started talking about back in April…

Reader comment: Hi Tom and Dyson family, thanks for sharing your insights. I appreciate your cutting through all the noise and making data-driven, fundamental observations.

Your Postcards have become even more rich in their content as your family started interacting with your readers in person by accepting their invitations.

Great writing + traveling family blog + geography and history lessons + economy/personal finance + people affected by financial systems + comments from your readers and your responses to them = a blog very rich in its content.

I have a question regarding tanker stocks. If the volume of global trade gets reduced by one third at some point, how will it affect these tanker stocks?

Tom’s response: Tankers are in the business of transporting energy products. They won’t respond well to a reduction in global trade or energy consumption.

That said, I think they’ll outperform many other investments in your scenario as they have very cheap valuations and are already “priced” for a depression.

Others are curious about Treasury bonds… a gold correction… and whether the U.S. government could short precious metals…

Reader comment: Hi Tom, I understand your reasons for not owning bonds of any kind. I mostly share that opinion, though I’m wondering how you feel about TIPS, the U.S. Treasury bonds whose value is tied to U.S. inflation rates? Seems this would be a satisfactory way to hold some cash equivalents. Best regards to you and your lovely family.

Tom’s response: I don’t like TIPS. They only protect their buyers from consumer price inflation (CPI). I don’t believe CPI is an honest measure of inflation, so the pricing power of TIPS will “slip” over time. Also, I estimate gold is both safer and offers more upside, so why would I buy TIPS? Finally, and most importantly, I wouldn’t lend my hard-earned money to the U.S. government under any circumstances.

Reader comment: Hi Tom, Do you see any correction coming in gold? Two resources I follow seem to think it would help increase the price long-term.

Tom’s response: If I could see the future and I told you I could see a correction coming, would you sell your gold? I wouldn’t. Because the big money is made in the holding, not in the trading. And by the way, all markets correct. Including gold. A lot. It’s the nature of the business.

Reader comment: Howdy to you, adventurous folks. Based on further potential erratic rises of gold and silver, plus the mines, is it reasonable to expect the U.S. government to massively short both gold and silver in an attempt to cool the prices in relation to the U.S. dollar? I’d love to extract some of my profits, in anticipation of buying back in for the next pricing eruption.

Tom’s response: No, I think it’s more likely the U.S. government will support the rise in the gold price as a way to depreciate the currency and lessen the burden of its debt. But anyway, I’m not trading gold and silver. The big money is in the HOLDING.

Reader comment: Hi Tom. Thank you immensely for Postcards From The Fringe. I very much want to follow your lead with gold and silver, but I recently retired with 95% of my 401(k) (mostly stocks) now in a tax-deferred IRA and 5% in a Roth IRA. How would you suggest I manipulate these funds to purchase gold and/or silver?

Tom’s response: I cannot give you personal investment advice, but I imagine you could easily buy gold and silver from within your IRA accounts. If your current manager won’t offer precious metals, can you move your IRA to another provider who does?

Meanwhile, readers worried about the Dysons’ health will be happy to know they’ve broken their fast food habit…

Reader comment: Your kids have grown a lot taller!!! Your oldest is about the same height as Kate now! Hope your family figures out how to deviate from fast foods more often while being on the road. Scientists say cravings are what our gut microbiome wants based on what we’ve been feeding them.

Tom’s response: We haven’t eaten fast food in over a month. And Kate and I have been eating much more healthily. We feel much improved.

And finally, a theory of connection between two readers… more book suggestions, after Tom mentioned author Louis L’Amour’s “tough but kind cowboy” depictions… and travel recommendations…

Reader comment: Hello Tom and family, I realize that this may seem a bit out of the ordinary. But I am extremely curious about whether, by chance, the lady who moved from the U.S. to Ireland with her husband and five children might be the wife of the now-deceased Victor McKay.

Mr. McKay was my Latin teacher for two years back in the first half of the 1960s at Allegany High School in Cumberland, MD. He was – and will always be – my favorite teacher of all time. I recently became aware that he married after leaving Cumberland for D.C., and, indeed, eventually had five children (all of whom he and his wife took to live in Ireland). Amazing, at least to me, if this lady could be his wife.

Reader comment: In addition to the Sackett sagas, Louis L’Amour also wrote an amazing book called The Walking Drum, about the rise of commerce in the Middle Ages, and another favorite, called The Walking Drum (about the rise of commerce in the Middle Ages) and another favorite, called The Last of the Breed (about an American Indian in the Cold War). I bet the kids would love it. As a Colorado College alum, I am thoroughly enjoying your trip. Try not to miss the Garden of the Gods, just North of Colorado Springs. You and the family will be delighted to spend an afternoon there.

Reader comment: Tom, if it is not too late, I recommend going by way of the Navajo Reservation and the Four Corners, where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico all meet. I also recommend the Navajo police novels by the late Tony Hillerman and his daughter, Anne, who picked up almost seamlessly after his death. Definitely not two-dimensional.

Reader comment: I love to hear about your travels with your family. You are truly giving your children the best education they will ever get with you and your wife traveling the world. Happy traveling.

Reader comment: Do you love national parks? If you start at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and head north on U.S. 89, you will come within hailing distance of nine national parks. And, I know of no better way to take the pulse of rural and small-town America than a drive up 89.

We live on a little farm in northern Sanpete County, near Fairview, Utah. If you come this way, we would be delighted to host you and your lovely family. Been following your work since The 12% Letter. Love your Postcards.

Reader comment: Because I have always enjoyed traveling, I enjoy your Postcards. I have driven all the way across the USA twice (once in each direction). One was basically a southern route, and one a northern. I drove in all 50 states and have visited over 100 countries and islands as well.

Since I was alone on most of these trips, sometimes there were unexpected dangers. Once, shortly after visiting the source of the Nile, I encountered a couple of shepherds driving a herd of sheep down the road, taking the whole road. My choices were to follow them for who knows how long, or to pass. I chose to carefully pass without making the sheep panic. The shepherds apparently didn’t like my choice, and one threw his spear, which luckily bounced off my VW, instead of me.

Tom’s note: As always, thank you for your kind messages. Please keep writing us at [email protected]. We read every note you send us.