In the News

Following the featured article in the Montrose Daily Press was another article with more detailed information about RMSC.  We wanted to thank journalist Carole Ann McKelvey for her wonderful writing of this article and her support for this project.

 

RMSC hopes to purchase Earthship

Vision is to turn Ridgeway property into classroom for environmental education

  • By Carole Ann McKelvey Montrose Daily Press News Editor

Image5The Sunridge Earthship of Gerry and Dennis Weaver is currently on the market with a price tag of $1.3 million. Following the passings of the actor and environmentalist Dennis Weaver, and recently of his wife Gerry, the family has decided to sell the luxury home and property.

Weaver described the Earthship home in Colorado as becoming a “celebrity in its own right”.

“Primarily it’s a solar/mass house,” Weaver noted in his book “All the World’s a Stage”. He said people understand the solar concept and how to use it as an energy source, but it’s the mass concept of the house he feels is more interesting. Mass in a house tends to stabilize temperature, it holds energy. “The Earthship operates on the same principal as being in a cave,” Weaver explains, “where the air is cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter due to the surrounding mass.” It’s the same as how the Earthship he created, but by using automobile tires (250,000 of which are thrown away a year in the US).

The Weavers named their green-built, energy-efficient SW CO. home, ‘Earthship’ and the property “Sunridge”, because it takes advantage of the area’s natural solar.

When one arrives at the main entrance of the home, with San Juan Mountain views on all sides, Dennis Weaver is quoted as saying “it feels as if you’re walking into the earth, with the mountains as your backdrop.”

An antique doorway leads to an tiled entry and the upper level of the home and a vista that is designed to envelope one in warmth, space, and peace. Looking south, through the full glass windows, one can see across the meadows, pond, and creek toward Pleasant Valley, Ralph Lauren’s ranch and the Sneffels Range.

To either side are guest rooms, each a U-shape to hold in heat through “mass”, and each with a kiva style fireplace, custom adobe headboards on the wall and private baths. At each end of this top level are an expansive master suite and the library, which can also be used as a media room. In the master suite one finds a large master bath, rocked jacuzzi corner tub with waterfall, walk-in shower with glass walls and  mountains outside, and a private walkout deck. The library features a sculpted tree, created by Dennis Weaver himself.

In building the home the dirt was rammed into the tires to produce density – the greater the density, the greater the mass; each tire bulged with the more than 3 wheel barrels of dirt rammed into them by sledgehammer.

Weaver called them “tire bricks” and when each was filled it weighed close to 400 pounds. Then the tire bricks were laid in courses, like regular bricks, to form the walls of the house inside and out. This surrounded every living space in the house with a huge amount of mass. The home needs no air-conditioning or heating ducts, although there are backup energy sources. Weaver said walking into the house feels like walking into nature, plants love it. It was one of his and Gerry’s goals, to grew organic vegetables year-round in south facing planters – tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, chard, cucumbers and spinach, and geraniums.

The temperature in the house ranges, from it’s coldest at 58 degrees to 78 degrees, no matter how cold or hot it is outside. Weaver said one just needed a sweatshirt in the morning and by the time the sun hit the house it warmed up comfortably.

LogoFinal500Rocky Mountain Sustainability Center

A team of sustainable living advocates are attempting to purchase the Sunridge EcoRanch.Their plan is to give the epic “Earthship”‟ home and land its second stage of evolution.

The Rocky Mountain Sustainability Center and community members have set a goal to raise funds for the property, just outside of Ridgway, with an eye toward eventually placing it into a Community Land Trust.

The community group is building its advisory board with members who have been long-time sustainable living advocates and national leaders in the movement.

The group’s first task will be to raise the $1.3+ million to purchase the home and property. Fundraising efforts are currently underway.

Project Director Darlene Cavallara is spearheading the acquisition campaign and plans to establish the Rocky Mountain Sustainability Center (RMSC) and a “Low Impact Sustainable Development” agency on the site.

The vision sees Sunridge being the headquarters and offering educational classes on sustainable living technologies, systems and structures.

The late Dennis Weaver and his wife Gerry built the iconic home in 1990, which was designed by alternative builder and architect Michael Reynolds of Earthship Biotecture in Taos, New Mexico.

It is built from recycled materials such as rammed earth tires, mud, aluminum cans and beetle kill lumber.

It was Weaver’s desire that his home be living proof to everyone that a large luxury home can be built beneficially into the landscape and made from recycled materials to help save the planet’s resources and environment. The year 2015 marked its 25th anniversary.

The RMSC agency also has as its goal establishing new zoning rules and building codes in the United States, based on criteria established in 2008 in Wales.

“It is crucial at this time to have new zoning and codes for sustainable community development in the United States to offset the negative effects of global warming and give local governments the ability to work with a community agency that will offset the fiscal burden of oversight and development,” said Cavallara.

Besides an education center, the group will also be demonstrating the use of both old and new technologies that allow human beings to have a positive lasting impact on their environment. For more information contact Cavallara at director@rockymountainsustainabilitycenter.org.

Some History of Sunridge

June has been an intense month of our team pulling together funding to purchase Sunridge and we have been blessed with more visionary benefactors coming to our table to put together a strategic plan for our successful acquisition.  The Montrose Daily Press ran a featured story about the history of Sunridge that we wanted to share.

Saving a legacy, Gerry and Dennis Weaver’s Sunridge Earthship

Tires, cans and dirt, oh my

  • By Carole Ann McKelvey, Montrose Daily Press News Editor

Image1   Dennis Weaver, of television fame (Gunsmoke, McCloud, etc.) and his beloved wife, Gerry, have left Mother Earth, but their legacy lives on in the couple’s magnificent tribute to sustainability, their Sunridge Earthship.

People have long marveled at the dedication this Hollywood legend made to Planet Earth.

With the passing of first Dennis on Feb. 24, 2006, and Gerry this spring, their story lives on. Dennis Weaver wrote eloquently of their vision and legacy in his book, “All the World’s a Stage” (2001, Hampton Books). He wrote of his and Gerry’s dream home and property, Sunridge, and his Earthship in Ridgway, Colorado.

In addition to being recognized world-wide for his contributions to acting and producing, Dennis Weaver also became known as a spokesperson and activist for fighting hunger in the world and his environmental concerns.

“My dad was a devoted environmentalist and with the house (Sunridge Earthship). He was attempting to shine a light on renewable resources,” said Rusty Weaver, himself a performer and environmentalist. Rusty Weaver noted the house was built out of blemished and recycled tires and cans.

“Dad was attempting to enlighten people that there are other ways of building that don’t require cutting down a bunch of trees.

“One of his greatest loves, after acting, was taking care of our planet and feeding people. Dad was an entertainer for the money, but his real passion was taking care of the planet.”

Image2“Sunridge,” Weaver’s son states, “It is living proof of that. He wanted people to know you can recycle and still live in harmony with the planet. That this planet needs attention.”

Rusty Weaver explains that his father invented the word “Ecolonomics” and he founded the Institute of Ecolonomics, so that people realize they can make a buck by cleaning up the planet. “That’s what my dad was trying to teach. That you may have to give up something to take care of the planet, but it can also be profitable at the same time.

“My mother, she made it so he could do that. “She (Gerry Weaver) was the organizational force behind all his endeavors. You know they were married for 63 years.”

Rusty Weaver and his brothers, Rob and Rick, were instrumental in helping their parents with their vision of the Earthship. Together they made a documentary of the building of the home, which was used to promote their father’s word about living on the planet in harmony.

In the summer of 2005, Dennis and Gerry Weaver sold their 2,500 square-foot beachfront home in Malibu. Then they began their quest to realize their dream of helping the planet.

In his book “All the World’s a Stage,” Dennis Weaver writes of the “passion,” he had for 15 to 20 years and he says, “that passion still burns strong within me – to be part of the great wave of people that have become aware of the way we have trampled and abused this beautiful Earth and are determined to correct it.

“I have joined those who wish to create a sustainable future, so that generations to come can enjoy the sweet pure air, sparkling clear water, and the great diversity of life our Creator lovingly placed in our care.”

Image3Noting in the book that he doesn’t have a lot of letters after his name, and isn’t an expert on the environment, Weaver states he did, however, graduate “from the College of Common Sense” and he’s learned the simple lesson, that every living thing needs a proper environment in which to live, without that it dies. Weaver notes that human beings are “doing the unthinkable … destroying that which allows us to live … How stupid can we get?”

He cites sobering warnings issued by concerned international scientists, first in 1992 and again in 1997, about how humans and the natural world are on a virtual collision course. At the Kyoto Conference in Japan, Weaver quotes those scientists as saying:

‘That a great change in the stewardship of the Earth and life on it is required, if vast human suffering is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.”

The warning, Weaver writes, was issued by more than 1,600 of the world’s renowned scientists from seventy different countries. It was not a fringe group at all, he notes, but prominent scientists.

Weaver states in the book that mankind is headed toward an unparalleled catastrophe if things do not change. He and Gerry made up their mind to not only talk the talk, but to walk the walk, by living sustainably.

Oh, they were mocked and belittled. Many can remember how they endured ridicule  as they set about to build a “sustainable” home on this planet. And out of tires and cans!

They finished that home 25 years ago on 20 acres in Ridgway, just up the road from Montrose.

The “Earthship” has 3-foot-thick walls built out of compacted earth, recycled tires, and cans. Weaver describes their Earthship home in Colorado as becoming a “celebrity in its own right.”  It has been the subject of many newspaper and magazine articles around the country. The home has attracted many film crews from a variety of TV shows and networks, from The Discovery Channel, The Today Show, Home and Garden TV and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

Weaver notes in the book (tongue in cheek) that “when you build a house out of cans and used automobile tires, it gets a lot of attention.” His son Rob Weaver produced the documentary film staring Weaver, Rusty Weaver and activist architect Michael Reynolds of Taos, N.M., documenting the building of the Earthship. It starts with the laying of the first tire, to the finished and decorated home. The documentary played on PBS for several years and at service clubs, churches and such.

Dennis called the home “Earthship” and the property “Sunridge.” Asked what an Earthship is, he explains in his book:

“Primarily it’s a solar/mass house.” Weaver notes people understand the solar concept and how to use it as an energy source, but it’s the mass concept of the house he feels is more interesting. Mass in a house tends to stabilize temperature, it holds energy. The Earthship operates on the same principal as being in a cave, Weaver explains, “where the air is cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter due to the surrounding mass,” but by using automobile tires (250,000 of which are thrown away a year in the US).

Image4In building the home, the dirt was rammed into the tires to produce density – the greater the density, the greater the mass; each tire bulged with the more than 3 wheel barrels of dirt rammed into them by sledgehammer.

He called them “tire bricks” and when each was filled it weighed close to 400 pounds.  Then the tire bricks were laid in courses, like regular bricks, to form the walls of the house inside and out. This surrounded every living space in the house with a huge amount of mass. The home needs no air-conditioning or heating ducts.

Weaver said walking into the house feels like walking into nature, plants love it. It was one of his and Gerry’s goals, to grew organic vegetables year-round in south facing planters – tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, chard, cucumbers and spinach, and geraniums.

The temperature in the house ranges, from it’s coldest at 58 degrees up to 78 degrees, no matter how cold or hot it is outside. Weaver said one just needed a sweatshirt in the morning and by the time the sun hit the house it warmed up comfortably.

Ironically, Weaver notes in his book that he and his wife spent “a bunch of money” building a luxury house that county building officials classified as “experimental.” Weaver says in his book that the house used 3,000 tires and “several coats of adobe to give the house the beautiful Santa Fe look.” He gives credit for the house to his “project engineer” Don Haskell, who helped with every aspect of the building of the Earthship.

In his book, Dennis Weaver says he and his wife Gerry felt the Earthship was the best house they ever lived in and they never tired of it. It was the last place either of them called home.

The Passing of Gerry Weaver and Loves Legacy

0b392d791dbef3798b7438d13c934cf022Our hearts and souls are with the Weaver Family in both sorrow and celebration of Gerry Weaver’s recent transition from this world into loving reunion with her husband Dennis.

When we began this quest to carry the torch of Dennis and Gerry Weavers ‘sustainability’ legacy and carry it into the next 7 generations through this projects mission, Gerry Weaver, Dennis Weaver’s beloved soul mate and wife, told us that she was very happy and gave us her hearts blessing for the project.

After meeting her and listening to her stories about how they built their home together and how each tile in the house her and Dennis had lovingly placed had special meaning our team felt a deep intense love that can only emanate from true soul mates.

Soul-MatesAlthough we did not know Gerry long or even what would be called deeply, she was the kind of woman who you only had to be in her presence once to have your heart explode from the love, compassion, and kindness that poured from her.

She was small in stature yet a giant humanitarian with a fire that refused to be squelched in the face of injustice and cruelty.  When she spoke to us of her late husband all of us could feel her powerful love and life long connection with him that obviously did not end with his passing from this world.

Bio13Dennis-GerryWhen you are fortunate to meet a person who is tied with their soul mate there is a magical transference that occurs that awakens all of our deepest longings for that kind of love and her passing from this world opens a portal of love that has left everyone whose lives she touched truly blessed.

Our heart song to the Weaver Family sings of deep gratitude and our prayers join with the prayers of true soul mates who are reunited.  We will carry your heart torch into the future and continue the work of creating a sustainable and regenerative future for all children of Earth.

 

Permaculture Research Institute Article Published!

PermacultureResearchInstituteNewsLogoWe are happy to announce that we were invited by world famous master permaculture educator Geoff Lawton to submit an article about this project and our goals for publication on the Permaculture Research Institute News.   The article was published yesterday and we are so grateful to Geoff and his editors for giving us the opportunity to share more in depth the layered dimensions of our mission and work.  You can read the full article here.

Geoff Lawton’s work in the world teaching and demonstrating how permaculture design, principles, and practices has shown clearly how if we re-orientate how we approach growing food, managing our water systems, and taking care of our environment we can solve most of the world’s most pressing and basic issues of food, water, and shelter.

Geoff-LawtonSince 1985, Lawton has undertaken a large number of jobs consulting, designing, teaching and implementing in over thirty countries around the world. Clients have included private individuals, groups, communities, governments, aid organizations, non-governmental organizations and multinational companies.

Lawton’s aim is to establish self-replicating educational demonstration sites. He has currently educated over 15,000 students in Permaculture worldwide.  These include graduates of the Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Course and courses focused on the practical design of sustainable soil, water, plant, animal, energy, structures, legal and economic systems. Lawton’s ‘master plan’ is to see aid projects being replicated as fast as possible to help ameliorate the growing food and water crisis.

Geoff Lawton publishes videos that can be watched on YouTube.

When we succeed in our acquisition goal the first priority after we set up the Community Land Trust is to establish an international permaculture training center that will be focusing on Low Impact Sustainable Development globally.  You can read more about it in the article!

 

Visionaries and the Passing of the Torch

Torch“You still stand watch, O Human Star, burning without a flicker – perfect flame – bright and resourceful spirit. Each of your rays a great idea – O Torch which passes from hand to hand, from age to age, World without End…” ~ Karel Capek

Arcosanti4The torches that burn brightly and the hands that carry them forth – I just returned from Arcosanti in Arizona where I spent 3 days immersed in the manifested vision of architect Paolo Soleri (1919-2013), the founder of Arcosanti. After visiting Arcosanti I felt another deepening of our commitment to our chosen path of regenerative community development.

Through his work as an architect, urban designer, artist, craftsman, and philosopher, Paolo Soleri explored the countless possibilities of human aspiration. One outstanding endeavor is Arcosanti, an urban laboratory, constructed in the Arizona high desert. It attempts to test and demonstrate an alternative human habitat which is greatly needed in this increasingly perplexing world. This project also exemplifies his steadfast devotion to creating an experiential space to “prototype” an environment in harmony with man.

Arcosanti1In his philosophy “arcology” (architecture + ecology), Soleri formulated a path that may aid us on our evolutionary journey toward a state of aesthetic, equity, and compassion. For more than a half century, his work, marked by a broad-ranging and coherent intellect (so scarce in the age of specialization), has influenced many in search of a new paradigm for our built environment.

While visiting I learned more about Paolo Soleri who passed from this world in 2013.  I also learned that sometimes the torches that visionaries like Paolo hold are not easily passed to the next generation and currently Arcosanti is at somewhat of a pause in its development.  While there I had a vision of a time in the not so distant future after we successfully establish the Rocky Mountain Sustainability Center when students are able to make field trips to Arcosanti to learn more about Paolo’s work and have visions of their own….the passing of the torch.

Submitted by Darlene Cavallara May 5, 2016

Flying with the Eagles

FlyingWithEagleThe crowdfunding campaign is going well for the first week of it’s Earth Day launch and we wanted to give special thanks to our new founding contributors!  Crowdfunding is so much more than just achieving monetary goals – it is really about community and all the good energy that gets generated from even the smallest one dollar donation that comes from the heart.  Each contribution is like a major YES that pulses energy into the engine.  When we saw the first contributors we felt a soft spring breeze lift our wings and we were reminded of Poem Rock at the Dennis Weaver Memorial Park outside of Ridgway.  We wanted to share it with everyone…..

I saw an Eagle in the sky today

Flying free upon the wind

In my dreams I touched its wings

Caught the wind and flew with Him

 

Oh what glory it was for me

Flying free up in the sky

For dreams become reality

If in our souls they never die

 

PoemRockSo seize the moment which is now

For your Eagle lives within

Hold the vision of your truth

Dream your Eagle and fly with Him

~ Dennis Weaver

 

 

Crowdfunding for Sustainability

CrowdfundingWhen we first began this project our team had talked about ‘crowdfunding’ and using that as a method of raising funds for the purchase of Sunridge EcoRanch.  At that time we came to a consensus that it was simply too large of an amount to successfully crowdfund but after watching the success of other crowdfunders with even larger goals then our and even political campaigns raising enormous amounts of money through very small donations we decided to go for it!

Yesterday was Earth Day and we launched the campaign with a great deal of excitement.  We have already received some donations and now we are working hard sharing the campaign with friends, associates, supporters, and local community members who even if they cannot donate they are sharing with their networks.  Deep gratitude to everyone for helping us to kick this campaign off!

FoundingContributorCertificatewithBackgroundWe are learning about crowdfunding platforms and are still trying to figure out how to post contributor ‘gifts’ like our Founding Contributor Certificate and other offerings we would like to make for folks who support this project. For example we would like to be able to offer discounts to future workshops and even opportunities for a overnight stay at Sunridge when we get things established.

We also learned that the more activity we have then the more exposure we will get on the GoFundMe website and community so even if you can only give $5 please do not hesitate…a mountain starts with a grain of sand!

Earth Day Everyday!

EarthDayIt is the eve of Earth Day and our team is launching a crowdfunding campaign to help our community group purchase Dennis Weaver’s Sunridge Ecoranch.

Over the past month our team has been very busy preparing for this critical fundraising effort alongside helping team members launch their personal campaigns….

Kris800Kris Holstrom, our Director of Permaculture, is running for the San Miguel County Board of Commissioners (3rd District) and we are super excited to be supporting her campaign.  Kris has owned and operated Tomten Farm for decades up on Hastings Mesa just outside of Ridgway where she grows high elevation organic food and teaches permaculture classes.  It is astonishing that she has also been an active member of the San Miguel Planning Commission for 20 years as well.  Kris is a strong advocate for local food and agriculture.  You can read more about her background and experience here.

3StewardsLogoGreenBorderAnother associate of ours, Michael Cundick, who lives in Utah has been working with a group to launch the 3 Stewards Society.   Michael attended our team summit on January 22 and presented to our group an idea that he and team member Jordan Larsen had come up with that would create a platform for the emerging reIMG_6324generative society that is birthing in our culture.  We have been helping to get that launched parallel with RMSC’s crowdfunding campaign.  Here is a link to the website where you can ‘Declare Your Interdependence’….

So Earth Day is everyday really for our team….we work everyday towards our collective vision of a sustainable and regenerative future.    Tomorrow we will light a fire and honor the day with heartfelt prayers and gratitude!