Hey everybody just felt like posting again because with research and much thought to much has changed about my plan for the original post to do it justice. The date Im looking at actually having this ecovillage off the ground and self reliant is the begining of june 2006. The main reason for the wait is that is about the time its gonna take to raise the $9,000 I beleive it is going to take, as well as the fact I have not yet been trained in cob construction or permaculture yet. To be entirely realistic I don't exactly expect an upswell of willing workers right now, yet I just wanted to keep people informed so they could have a concrete possibility to think about if they wanted to go all out, and we may be able to provide some temporary lodging for some apprenticeship, for those who aren't so sure about the direction of our ecovillage, or who are unsure that this lifestyle might not be what they were looking for. THINK ABOUT IT! __________________________________________________________________ The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious ; it is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. -- Albert Einstein Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free; so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license"; and they will define and define freedom out of existence. --Voltarine de Cleyre
Just figured I should include the details Ecovillage Project A. Ideology -Objectives: 1. Creation of a Ecovillage from natural on site building materials - Cob, Logs, Adobe, Staw etc. (maybe bring in some recycled concrete for foundations) 2. Creation of a permaculture system surrounding the commune producing a wide variety of produce for year round village consumption 3. Creation of a sustainable energy system on or around ecovillage dwellings - Solar, Wind, Batteries 4. Implementaion of microlivestock system 5. Mandating that there be no source of power in the commune, and authority shall be non-existant. People of the commune shall be entirely self-governed, and it shall not be mandatory they follow any beleifs or regulations other than their own, whatever they be (short of murder, stealing, rape and that sort of rubbish of course). The social order of the village shall thrive on good karma alone. -Initial Requirments: 1. The village shall consist of people with an openness of mind, and good karma of being. 2. We plan for the people of the commune to live well with nature, so we hope there can be an intial funding per person of anywhere from 3,500 to 5,500 dollars. (cost will be expained more in depth later.) And you should have a steady 400W of surplus power to use, along with water, and all the land you could desire at least 1.5 acres to the person probably a good bit more. B. Bringing it to Life -Training Courses 1. The first thing that is needed to create such a thing as this is abviously the knowledge, and for this I have outlined a number of training courses that may be used to obtain the most crucial of information twards completing such a project. - Permaculture Design Certification Retreat with Rico Zook and Josho Somine Cost: $750 Time: 7/31/05 - 8/14/05 Location: New Mexico Source: http://www.lamafoundation.org/permaculture_design.htm - Natural Building Immersion Cost: $800 Time: 7/10/05 - 7/18/05 Location: Tennessee Source: http://www.thefarm.org/etc/courses.html - Solar Installation with Ed Eaton Cost: $490 Time: 5/4/2005 - 5/7/2005 Location: Tennessee Source: http://www.thefarm.org/etc/courses.html 2. I'm simply stating here that I and my freind will be taking these courses, and it is by no means a requirement to join that you plan to take any or all of them, yet it would probably be a huge plus if you did. -Size/Location 1. The land used for this project will be anywhere from 10 to 40 acres, as we hope we may be able to give each person at least one acre, probably more 2. The final population size will be anywhere from 6 to 12 people. 3. The land will need to be somewhere with a decent grow schedule and mild winters, so the final land's biggest requirement will be that it is cheap and south of Nebraska, or around the southern half of Nebraska. 4. Ideally the land will also be next to a reliable water source, as this will save great amounts of time and toil, as well as provide for much more entertainment possibilities. -Dwelling Costs 1. There are a number of costs figured into the initial cost along with land and some may not be figured as so much essencial for yourselves. Though for self reliance purposes we'd reccomend these. *More Essential - 180W Sanyo Solar Panels X2 $725 - 400W AirX Wind Generator X1 $787 - Lumber Costs X1 ~$250 - Battery Charger X1 $163 - 12V Household Batteries X4 $65 *Less Essential - Various Grow Formulas X1 ~$150 - Numerous Seedpacks X1 ~$200 - T5 Tek Light (4X5000 lumen) X1 $270 - Mylar Sheeting 4'x50' X3 $45 - Ruck Tube Fan 100mm X2 $100 Total ~$3,865 / 2 or 3 (note this calculation does not include land furniture or food storage, yet this is intended to be devided amung at least two people, if you were thinking of going solo on the dwelling you could probably subtract about 850$) -Example Blueprint 1.This is just a realistic example household, the actual walls will definitely be much more curvular and creative seeing as we plan to take a full advantage of the freeform nature of our building medium (cob) *Hope this plan gave you some idea of what my vision is and wether or not you would like to be a part of it. If youre intrested and the initial costs are getting ya down we definitely still want to try and work something out. We only care about great minds not great wallets*
thanks, I really like to give people the heads up of what I'm going for, yet it kinda troubles me at the same time because with all the specifics, all that I really want to spell out for sure is how free form and abstract this has the potencial to be while convincing people how livable there situation can remain. Though in the end, I really like to keep my angles covered even this early on, assumption is the mother of all F=-0 ups.
