Tao’s 2 Cents

I always imagine that I’m going to have more time to write than I do.  I suppose it always falls down my priority list and after a few hours of doing web work I just need to get away from the computer.

We’ve just got done camping for the last month and a half and have got a much better idea on how to approach our massive homesteading ecovillage project.  The first couple of weeks we did a lot of exploring, getting used to the woods, dealing with tick and chigger bites, and generally figuring out a routine that didn’t involve a refrigerator, hot water, or easy electricity.

The ticks and chiggers did a good job of discouraging us from exploring the fields very much and chickens and guinea hens are certain to be the first animals we introduce to the land apart from our cats.  The cats for their part did a good job exploring the woods around the campsite and seemed to really enjoy themselves.  We worried about them for the first week or two with all the coyote howls off in the distance, but they seemed to take pretty good care of themselves and neither the coyotes nor any other critters snuck into our camp looking for a snack of any kind.

We set up our tent settlement on a flat ridge near the north end of the property behind an area that used to have a cabin on it.  The road along the ridge is still in good shape, so it was easy access and the bugs weren’t too bad around there.  Having easy car access was extremely nice and ended up influencing our future plans.

Originally we had been planning to start construction on our first place out in the middle field, far back in the property, but the old road back there crosses another man’s property and even if he were to be ok with us crossing it, he would probably have a problem with amount of traffic we will eventually have.  Not to mention the road itself would need quite a bit of work before it could be used.

Rather than deal with the road first, we’d like to get to the point we can begin building a place to spend next winter in as quickly as possible. So we’ve decided to build our first small cabin on the site of the old cabin near our campsite.  The area is still mostly open and after spending several days clearing out an area where the old garden used to be we should have a good sized garden ourselves next year.

There’s a lot of things I could tell you about how we intend to build the place, but I’ll just briefly mention how we plan on using it.  We’ll live in it next winter and most of the following summer but we still plan on making our dream home in the middle field where we hope to establish the center of the ecovillage.  The cabin we’re building will eventually be used for the campground lodge.  A place for visitors to use while camping out.  It will be designed to have a large cistern, several showers and composting toilets, a kitchen, mud room, hangout area, and screened in porch.  We think it will be nice to have a place for visitors not in the middle of the ecovillage to give members a little more privacy and give the visitors a more unfiltered wilderness experience.

We’ve also come up with a name for the ecovillage, Plan B Ecovillage, inspired by Lester Brown’s book not to mention I think it expresses what we’re trying to achieve, which is a different way of doing things that’s more personally gratifying while creating a community environment that is ecologically friendly and indefinitely sustainable.  A lifestyle we can be proud of, a lifestyle that works.

I’ve already got a rough template for the site up.  I plan on adding some more graphics to the template, not to mention some content.  The site can be found at: www.planbecovillage.org, keep in mind it’s still just getting started.

We’re on our way back to Virginia to spend the winter and start work on more detailed plans for next spring.  I’m also going to be spending some time before the election working for the Obama campaign.  Can anyone say swing state?

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Tao, The Farm, Permaculture, Dreams, Travel, Energy, Environment. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.