Need People to Start WA STate Commune

Discussion in 'Communal Living' started by Passionflower, Jun 6, 2004.

  1. Remoover

    Remoover Guest

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    Hey, I am wolf and I am sorry I didnt post, I lost this site address, glad Im back. Let me answer all the questions here. The minerals we have found are lots of quartz and lots of magnatite. Those two together are supposed to signify gold. My phone number is 509 308 9966. We are really serious. The types of crops are up in the air, we just need to act. Nothing has ever been done on the land, it is 5 miles from the nearest anything, which is a wine vineyard.
     
  2. Sagewise979

    Sagewise979 Member

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    Would love some more info on this. if you could email that would be great reid1007@yahoo.com
     
  3. ywarpeace

    ywarpeace Ye Old Soul

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  4. Remoover

    Remoover Guest

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    We are really getting this thing going!!! I have a few people of craigslist now that are not full of crap and really want this to work. I want some feedback from you guys on the structure of the community. We talked about splitting up parcels of property,but each plot of land given, is one taken from the community. We are thinking about starting a corporation, where the members are board members and thus have a vested interest in the community. This would allow us to set up bylaws, codes of conduct and such. The community will be led by a committee instead of one person. We all prosper when the land prospers.
    Anyway this is the idea we are tossing around right now. We are open to more people joining us, if you want to live in an eco village in Eastern Washington, come on!!! You will earn your keep by the work you do. Build your home and work where you live.
     
  5. FritzDaKatx2

    FritzDaKatx2 Vinegar Taster

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    Collective rule sounds like it would eventually be a good idea depending on the individuals making up the collective. Might want to consider maintaining the lead role untill you can be sure you dont have a comittee of fools at your side.

    Just some general questions here for ya' Wolf,

    What if any sort of tools & equipment are at your disposal out there? (tractor, garden implements, hand tools etc.)

    And is there anything out there in the way of part time work to help supplement the income and growth of the Community untill such a time as whatever sort of crafts or income producing ideas you develop become profitable?

    Lodging of any kind available ie. a bed in an RV or mobile home or something till new arrivals can cobble some sort of shelter together for themselves?

    Any sort of on site power available for laptops or is internet access reserved for trips into town?

    And Remooover, just a suggestion but you might want to just start a thread specific to your property, just to keep the Q&A for your place consolidated and avoid any confusion with the OP's thread.

    Glad to hear of things heading in a positive direction with your plans.
     
  6. Remoover

    Remoover Guest

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    That was a great set of questions. Tools: I am a Union Boilermaker/Blacksmith right now, but I also am a General Contractor when Im not working on a Boiler (which is quite a bit now thanks to the economy) So I have MASS tools. Part time work is an easy grab around here, and as for shelter there is an RV out there right now. I have seen videos of people making earth bag buildings (sandbags that are really long and wider than normal bags) and you cam make a pretty large structure for under $1000 in materials, with help, in a few days. Thanks for the questions. I plan on really interviewing before I let just anyone in, I want to make sure I don't end up with a bunch of fools like you said. I have been posting on Craigslist, and my inbox is flooded. I have started making scripts so I can copy and paste all the information that people are asking.
    Oh..POWER!!! Well I have a 750Watt generator that I have actually used to power my power hungry house in a blackout, and it supported this load. Wind power is a hurdle that I am working on tonight, I am making the parts to my first wind generator.
     
  7. FritzDaKatx2

    FritzDaKatx2 Vinegar Taster

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    Ok, I've been checking google for images of the area and it seems the region is a pretty wide mix of landscapes.
    Lots of what appears semi arid high desert like land with allot of baren, rocky ground and heavily wooded areas scattered about, certainly seems like some good areas for gathering building materials for either masonry or wood structures.


    Is there much clay around the area to work with for mortar & or later crafts once things are a bit more established?


    How many of the 100 acres are Wooded, is there at least 10 acres we can devote to using for firewood in a rotational harvest of 2 acres per year?


    " " " are level, flat areas and how much is in the hillier areas if any?

    Have you had the well water tested for impurities or parasites? Same for the ground rivers. Being as from the satellite images there seems to be allot of farming in the area one thing to watch out for would be pestecides and fertilizers making their way into the water supplies,,, not good if we want to go the organic route for the farming but it could be worked around if we took the water off season and stored it in cisterns (granted that would be a big project) but if water contamination from neighboring farms is an issue we're not going to get much help from the rainfall according to the annual averages I saw (Still a solvable problem of course).

    And while I didnt see any, have you noticed any Adams needle yucca growing in the area? Just curious as the root makes a great natural soap.

    I'm sure I'll come up with more questions, glad you like them. (And hopefully lead some others to follow suit)

    And even Craigslist does seem to have some half decent job listings,,,

    It's sounding more interesting by the minute from where I'm sitting.

    Any pictures of the place you can post perhaps? Give potential visitors a better feel for the place they may want to head to?

    Just helping you fill out that script really, I'm interested but trying to sort out a few things for myself before I take off once again, Transportation mainly and the job market is past dead around here so it might be a little while before I can be of much assistance beyond just another voice on the internet to brainstorm with. Feel free to add me on Facebook if you use it at all and want the "live chat" element for idea tossing & so forth.

    OH! And are there any good scrap yards in the area for gathering odds and ends bits for mad scientist projects?
     
  8. Remoover

    Remoover Guest

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    Here is the property http://www.yakimap.com/servlet/com....RTHO_LIST=None&CHK_CAO=CLICKED&MAP_SIZE=Small

    The area is all desert, but this video and permaculture books have inspired me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gPvsl9ni-4 to know there is another way around the desert. The problem we have out here is cheat grass, and it is the plant worlds worst enemy here. The grass kills itself off early, dropping its seeds, then fires wipe out all the native plants (thank WSU for cheat grass, they introduced it here) but the cheat grass takes over the next year. Areas that have shade or moister, cheat grass can not flourish. I believe getting some trees established will stop the evaporation process.
    As for clay.......OHHHH BOYYYYY do we have clay. The whole area is clay, and we have developed our own concoction that is kinda like cob that makes a perfect natural cement. We have made pillars that are now 2 years old and have been exposed to the elements. No cracks have shown, but there are signs of wind and rain erosion, as would be expected. Had these pillars been rendered, they would still be perfect. We screwed a screw into one and it still is solid today. We use cheat grass to take the place of straw, mixing up portions of clay and sand, into a slurry instead of a drier mixture that cob building normally takes. Using a mold, the slurry pours and compacts itself, while drying it shrinks a bit off the mold and becomes REALLY HARD. You don't get any more green than that, hell..straw bales take fuel, cheat grass takes none.
     
  9. Remoover

    Remoover Guest

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    Water quality...I have tested the water, and it came out perfect. I expected there to be a higher level of nitrogen, because of all the wild horses (35k was what was shown last) but none showed in the testing.
    Woods, the forest is close by, and I believe it could come back if there were some trees established, and I think the swales could be an option.
     
  10. FritzDaKatx2

    FritzDaKatx2 Vinegar Taster

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    Yea, Desert is great, and it proves the very point that where there is water, things will grow. But then there's even some plants which thrive on arid conditions like Ephedra (Mormon tea is some of the best stuff on earth if you can get past the "look" of it.)

    I was working at a resort out near Death Valley a couple years ago and planning on an Anasazi styled Waffle garden, borrowing their basic "structural design" and using Terra Preta as a growing medium. The owner was all supportive of the idea right up until the time came to start doing the work, then She freaked out for reasons known only unto her but I'm guessing it had to do with a shallow fear of what her neighbors and local friends might say about "the crazy guy trying to grow food in the desert". Of course the most these people ever attempted was to toss some seeds in a flowerpot, add some water and sit it out in the sun,,, OR planting in the local soil, trying to grow Tomatos in a pH of 9 thanks to all the salt present... And yea' I've got similar ideas as far as shading the plots, in Tecopa I had planned to weave together dead palm branches (Palm trees everywhere) as a partial shade screen but again, that never came to pass. It's funny just how resistant to "different" ideas some people can get when preconceived notions get engraved in their minds, reacting almost as if you're askng them to dance with the Devil himself or something.

    And yea' if that clay is anything like what I've seen in CA or even New Mexico, no doubt in my mind it's durable stuff. Speaking of which, do you have any experience with Blasting? Just asking because thats about whats needed to put a dent in that type of ground unless it's been presoaked. Or driving in rebar spikes with a maul to loosen up the area then going at it with a pick axe and shovel (And a REAL pick axe, not what you're gonna' find at Lowes, those just fold up on themselves when they hit that stuff) And I'm guessing you already know this, I'm just putting it out there for the sake of others.

    And while the cheat grass sounds like a potential pain in the ass,,, it does provide a useful resource if managed properly, as a building material and a potential fuel as well as additional organic matter for the compost pile if harvested early. Compost is one of the biggest challenge out there, getting the organics together in bulk to help add some give to that soil, to let the roots penetrate more easily, but again not impossible to accomplish, just need to dig a pit and pile it in and keep it damp,,, (Heck, I wonder if the Cheat Grass seed could even be ground into a flour?)

    And as theres not much in the way of trees onsite for firewood & such, you might want to consider something like this when they replenish supplies

    http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/SeedlistA-AK.htm

    And in case you never caught wind of Terra Preta, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
    Certainly worth a google, I made some while in the Ozarks and it did well for growing my tobacco and some other veggies. It's pretty much a fast track method to replenishing desert soils like you're wanting to, I know theres the "natural method" of repeated seasons of composting, slowly building on it for years and years, but with Terra Preta as a topsoil, it's all up to you as to how fast the garden space grows.

    Interesting variety of plant life for a "desert" out there. http://www.wnps.org/plant_lists/counties/yakima/yakima_county.html
    I wonder if the region was always arid like that or if this is the result of heavy logging from the 17-1800's?
     
  11. Remoover

    Remoover Guest

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    I hand dug my well, with a shovel, so blasting is not necessary. It took my older brother and I 2.5 years of weekends to do it, but we did it. There is nothing wrong with the soil, in fact it is super fertile. Here is my nearest neighbor, (5 miles away) http://www.redwillowvineyard.com/ The soils around here have been compared to France, so have really been booming here for grapes. The land is anything but infertile, the slightest irrigation around here blooms everything up, and the landscape is easy to see where underground water pops up, because it looks like a little oasis of trees here and there. I am going to look at your soil in a min here. Thanks for the advice.
     
  12. FritzDaKatx2

    FritzDaKatx2 Vinegar Taster

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    Well it's good to hear the soil is less than concrete unlike the ultra alkaline stuff in Inyo county CA, to me Desert always brings to mind a buildup of salts in the ground to such a point where it's hard to grow much of anything regardless of how many nutrients are present. Thats about what got me interested in Terra Preta about 5 years ago when I was in the Ozarks.

    It's really just a mix of compost and pulverized charcoal, had a very dirt-like feel to it but with the added benefit being the charcoal hangs onto any nutrients like a water filter hangs onto chemicals, keeping them in the root zone as opposed to downstream with the next heavy rain, it also helps provide a good space for the beneficial mycellum to hide out, much like the compost did in the swells they discussed in that video you linked but with more carbon based microscopic nooks and crannies for it to take refuge in meaning it's better able to survive when or if the soil is disturbed (Not sure just how that works out but it's what I read somewhere.)

    I really need to hurry up and find a job so I can get a Pickup truck and head out for a freakin' visit, sounding cooler by the minute.
     
  13. Remoover

    Remoover Guest

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    Tell me what you do, there is plenty of work here. This area is a kinda bubble that is away from the rest of the economy. We have a nuclear reactor here that really supports everyone. There is PLENTY of work though.
     
  14. FritzDaKatx2

    FritzDaKatx2 Vinegar Taster

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    Ill shoot you my resume but it's mostly field service and industrial maintenance in a variety of environments with a bunch of general residential handyman work thrown in between. Just hit a fubar point as the economy collapsed, lost vehicle and tools etc.

    My main worry is logistics both out there and when there, it's already killing me not having a car here as most industrial jobs in the area are in a 20 mile radius and generally not public transportation friendly. This has also been a problem in the 4 other cities I've drifted to on a less than shoestring budget in the past 3 years.

    Amtrak is a 46 hour ride out there and I thought 31 hours was enough to drive me mad with the limited smoking and all but I guess if I can stock up on supplies properly for the trip it wont be such a problem.

    In any event I'm sure something will work itself out, the more I look at those swales on the greening the desert video the more I'm liking the idea of hooking a plow onto something and swerving all around the landscape :D
     
  15. FritzDaKatx2

    FritzDaKatx2 Vinegar Taster

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    Oh nice,,,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap6lUqXAWKI"]YAKIMA WA (2).3GP - YouTube

    :cheers2:
     

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