Be Your Own Herbal Expert

This is a free 8 part course by Susun Weed on learning herbal medicine.

Here is her online magazine.

Cool Links

A cool site with info about tipis, yurts, and domes
Tons of info on yurts.
A guy in his yurt.
This site has useful stuff like a prefab kitchen/bath house. Perfect for use with yurt or tipi setup.
Great off the grid seller with awesome costumer support.

Solar Thermal Water Heater For Less Than Five Dollars

CLICK HERE

Essentials Oils to Repel Bugs

Essential Education:

Essentials Oils to Repel Bugs

For plants infested with insects, use one of the following essential oils. Fill a mist spray bottle with 4 oz. of water, add the essential oils and mist the infested plant. Use as little as possible. Several applications, a few days apart, may be necessary.

ANTS Peppermint Spearmint

APHIDS Cedarwood Hyssop Peppermint Spearmint

BEETLES Peppermint Thyme

CATERPILLARS Spearmint Peppermint

CHIGGERS Lavender Lemongrass Sage Thyme

CUTWORM Thyme Sage

FLEAS Peppermint Lemongrass Spearmint Lavender

FLIES Lavender Peppermint Rosemary Sage

GNATS Patchouli Spearmint

LICE Cedarwood Peppermint Spearmint

MOSQUITOES Lavender Lemongrass

MOTHS Cedarwood Hyssop Lavender Peppermint Spearmint

PLANT LICE Peppermint Spearmint

SLUGS Cedarwood Hyssop Pine

SNAILS Cedarwood Pine Patchouli

SPIDERS Peppermint Spearmint

TICKS Lavender Lemongrass Sage Thyme

WEEVILS Cedarwood Patchouli Sandalwood

The Pickens Plan

Earthquakes on Wednesday

There were four earthquakes yesterday all a magnitude 6.0 or higher in Chile, Iran, Japan, and Indonesia.

Here is a link to a map of earthquakes that happened in the last 7 days.

Josh was inspired by Dana's drawings, so he made a 3-d version!
*****CLICK THE PICTURE TO SEE A BIGGER VERSION*****

Overall Community View

Above the village will be a dam and a pavilion. The Pavilion is colored gold and will be equipped with a rain catchment system. We may also have a well with a pump to fill the water tank as well. The water in the tank will be used to provide a gravity fed water system to the community house and may also be used to fight fires. It will not be potable. All potable water will be produced on an as needed basis via solar still. The dam water will be used to water the garden. The pond below the house will be a greywater oasis. If we are low on water we can build a second dam (the one on the right), which would be filled naturally and via solar pump from the greywater pond. This would only be used to water appropriate vegetation.

Permaculture Zones

Here is the house with all the permaculture zones. The purple is zone 1. The orange is zone 2. Zone 3 is yellow and 4 is green. The brown building in the smaller tan yard is the chicken house and the one in the larger tan yard is the goat house. The blue shape is the greywater pond.

Community House

In this drawing the bedrooms are green, shower and washroom is light blue, toilet room is purple, kitchen and dining area are pink, front entrance/mudroom is yellow, library/computer room darker blue room, Music/arts room is orange, nursery/playroom.

After further thought the bathroom will not be attached to the showers since the junction of the three buildings junction may pose a drainage issue.

Main House Kitchen, Bath, and Entrance

Above is the Main Entrance/Mud Room (Yellow). It will have some storage, gardening calendars, and the electrical systems (breaker box). The light blue room will hold the showers and laundry area. This room will have door to access the green house. Extremely dirty people can go directly to the shower from outside. They will be able to shed their dirty clothes there and there will be a closet where we can keep clean clothes, towels, and linens. The purple room will contain a composting toilet. The pink room is the kitchen. There may also be an outside shower hanging off the bathroom located in the trellised garden outside.

Bedrooms

The top graphic above is one half of a bedroom. It contains a closet, bed with storage cubbies underneath and a chair. A piece of wood on the bed will transform it into a desk. A curtain can be added to the middle of the room for privacy. There will be a door leading to individual patios/decks off of each room. The bottom graphic is the overview of a bedroom suite.

Arkansas Bound

I will be in Arkansas in 1 week. Today I got an email from a lady named Dana. She lived in the Ozarks for years. She still lives in the Fayetteville area, I think. I hope she can shed some light on good locations for us to put down our roots.

Small Cabin Website

http://www.small-cabin.com/small-cabin-off-grid-water-supply.html

Soapwart Shampoo Recipe

Here is a link to a Soapwart Shampoo Recipe: http://www.pioneerthinking.com/
shampoo2.html

The Massey Clan is going to NWA

We are going to visit Northwest Arkansas in a couple of weeks. August 22-25. I can't wait to report back to you guys!

-Dana

Projects of Friends

Today has been very interesting and exciting. I talked to a high school friend that I haven't spoken to in years; his name is Cosmos. I wanted to tell him about the community. He and his family are living in North Carolina. They are moving back to Louisiana to start an organic farm and are going to build themselves an earthbag house! We talked about the possibility of helping each other during construction. He plans to start planting this Spring!

I also spoke to my Mom who has been talking to about having a community garden in her backyard for a while. Today she had a meeting with two ladies and they decided to start planting in the spring! My Mom is also starting a business soon. There is a small building on her property that has be used as a beauty shop since my grandmother built it. She used to do hair. It is empty now and my Mom is going to use is for her healing business. She also has one other lady who does healing that will work out of it. Cosmos is building his farm in Duson (which is right next door to Scott where my Mom lives) and he is a massage therapist. He may also see clients out of my Mom's shop too!

It amazes me how many other people are doing similar things.

Underground housing

I just ordered a book on-line called "The $50 and up underground house book". Saw it on one of Dana's links. Looks interesting and I think this is a good way to go if anyone is willing. I'll have to do more research on underground housing when it comes in though. Can't wait!!

What is the deal with these agents?

So I mentioned to the real estate agent that I was wondering about how to get houses tested to see if they had ever been used for meth labs and she never replied! It is like she has dropped off the face of the earth! It makes me wonder if she know that those properties with houses are cheap because of that very reason.

That is another reason why we might consider just getting land without an existing structure.

I think I will go to visit NW Arkansas soon.

The Goat Source

Brook forwarded me the email below. Thanks, Brook!

At The Goat Source, we have many inexpensive ebooks for you.

Quick, concise, and informative. Learn the basics for beginners in an easy to read format. We are adding video now , too! Visit Youtube to see what is new! Build your own mineral feeder - see how here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgE54LEoMYI

Look at what we have available:

Resource Document for Goat Owners
Resource Document for New Goat Owners
Advertising Manual for Goat Owners
Digital Beginner's Guide for Goat Owners
Haybuyers Guide
Hay Grading Guide
Cooking with Goat Products
Raising Kids Begins With Pregnancy
Goat Toys You Can Make
Parts of the Goat
MoonJump - an Illustrated Children's Book
Forms for the Goat Owner
Breeding Your Goat
Goat Source Quickcourse - A Quick Start to Goat Ownership

These ebooks are very reasonable in price (many are free!!)
Check out our website for more information!!
www.goatsource.com


Leslie, The Goat Source

hobbit town u.s.a.

I just spoke to one of my fellow Energy committee member's of the Sierra Club. He works for a guy who not only builds really cool waste heat recovery systems that work off your air-conditioner, but also built his home such that the first floor is underground. He doesn't need an air-conditioner and doesn't have to worry about hurricanes or flooding. It sounds pretty cool (no pun intended) so I plan on visiting it soon. It was also on our local news this month. Looking forward to it.

DEA List

Dana talking about the possibilty of meth labs in NW Arkansas reminded Josh of an article we read a while ago that was about a website that lists all the meth houses in the country that the DEA has busted. Here is the link if anyone wants to check it out:
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/seizures/index.html

There is also a site that lists criminals living in your neighborhood:
http://www.criminalsearches.com/neighborhood/

-Lilith & Josh

Buy Now or Buy Later

I was considering flying out there this weekend to look at properties. I thought I could go ahead and pick one out and buy it....but I then spoke to a friend that lives in NW Arkansas and she was telling me that many of the vacant houses in the area are used by meth heads to hang out and some to actually make meth. I don't want to buy a contaminated house or to buy a house and leave it vacant for meth heads to use in the mean time. So now I am thinking that it may be wise to wait until someone can move in. I am moving out there around March. Josh and Lilith are moving out there around June. I am not sure about Sarah and Jim's time line. Jamie wants in...but is not ready to move out there. Drew will help us build, but I don't know if he wants to live there. Another option is Lilith's Dad. She is going to see what his schdule is like.

I have written the agent to told her how I am feeling about buying property to far in advance.

I have been scouring the interent looking for kits to test if a house has been a meth lab. I haven't found any good ones yet. I guess I need to call the local police or maybe the university could help me get the prespective places tested.

Homesteading School

Anyone want to go to homesteading school?  I will pay for the classes. 

School Website

Realtor Info

I wanted to mention that I told the new realtor that we were interested in natural building techniques and we needed to know places with no or more lax building codes.  She emailed back saying that she new a couple that built a house with tires.  I think this realtor is going to be good for us.  Another cool sign for me is that she has the same name as a really nice and helpful lady that I used to work with.  I didn't even realize what her name was until she emailed me :)  

Hello

Hello!
To those of you that don't know us, this is Lilith and Josh and we are committed to getting this farm going. We just bought some informational books today; we got a book about making cold cellars, a cheesemaking book, a guide to butchering meat and game, a book on different methods of preserving meat, fish and game, and a book full of useful info about "country living and know-how". We can't wait to make some cheese!

-Lilith & Josh

Still Looking for Land

The real estate agent that was helping me out seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. I emailed another agent today. I hope to hear from her soon. I will keep you posted.

-Dana

Organization Status...or would it be stati

The grants look great, but it seems as if there are some hurdles we would have to jump in order to apply for them. The housing grants seem to require that were are a private or nonprofit organization and one of the good ones required that the grant money be matched by additional funding. I think that it was that same one that would not allow any of the money to be allocated towards construction.

The business grants look great as well, but again, there are a few things we would have to consider and it might be best to have the land first so that we know which states' laws we will have to conform to. I think that it would be good to put all of the possibilities on the table and to meet up and discuss what we want to accomplish as a business or non-profit, or any organization for that matter. More research definitely needs to be done on this though. I definitely also want to look up grants I could apply for as a native american and if I would even be eligible being that I'm such a small percent.

Thanks for posting those federal docs D.B.!

Starting a Business

In order to qualify for any of the grants listed in the Funding Opportunities section of this blog we have to start a business.  Are you guys interested in becoming business partners?

Earthbag book arrived today!

YAY!!! The Earthbag book I ordered arrived in the mail today!!! I can't wait to dig into it tonight.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

I spoke to a family friend who lives up in Northwest Arkansas. She said that she thought Eureka Springs would be a nice area to build the village. She said there was already a self sustaining community there called Little Portions. After some research I found small organic farm there that is offering classes on gardening geared toward those wanting a more self-sustaining lifestyle. I emailed the real estate agent to ask her to look in that area for us. I also emailed the farm to inquire about classes and ask for input in regards to possible locations for the village.

I just read an article on the website of the guy who wrote Gaia's Garden. He and wife left the city and set up shop in the country only to find that they missed their friends and didn't fit in with the neighbors. Community is important so they moved back to the city. So I was thinking it would be nice to be near others who are doing the same sort of thing.

So I think Eureka Springs is a great possibility for us......I will put that on the list.

I spoke to a real estate agent

So I spoke to an agent about some land that I had seen for sale in Arkansas. She said that she thought someone was buying it, but offered (of course) to look around for me. So here is what she found. I like the 20 acre property that already has a normal house on it. We could stay there as we build the rest of the project! It is also next to a river...so we can hop in a boat and paddle down the Mississippi to Louisiana. It is not the Mississippi, but it is a safe bet that is is a tributary. We need to go check the property out to see what else is around it and if rain and water shed passes over our land before getting to the river....we don't the neighbor's un-organic gris gris touching our land.

Here is the list of properties she thought might work for us:

http://SheilaVines1.nwa.mlxchange.com/?r=422299727&id=323030383432.304 

Just as an FYI- when I spoke to her I told her that we were setting up this first Self Sustaining Community (SSC) as an example. I told her we are starting a consulting business that will help others plan and build their own Green Eco-Villages. She thought with oil prices like they are that our business is going to do well. I just want to get along with our neighbor's. If they see us as anarchist/unpatriotic/hippie/save-the-world types they may not be nice to us. We just want to be left alone.

Climate Zones....Oh My!

Take a close look at this map (the link is below). I was starting to look at properties in Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming. I think I would rather deal with an earthquake or two than to live entire winters in those extremely cold places. I think Northern Arkansas is as far North as I would like to go, they only get to lows of -5 Fahrenheit. That is cold enough, thank you very much!

I am only half joking...I would go where ever the group decides.

US Climate Zone Map -http://permed.com/Climate_zones.htm

Maybe Central America is where it is at! I'll just need to learn Spanish.

Visit the blog of the Aurthor of "The Long Emergency"

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/

Permaculture Questions

I was wondering about containing the chickens/ducks/goats/whatever we choose. Can we learn to make nets and use that as a barrier? Do we have to use metal (chicken wire)? I gues goats would eat the net...but do they need to be contained anyway?

I was also thinking about dogs. We need to find out how many dogs can work in the system we are building after we have more planning done and have a better idea of the size. I was wondering what sort of dog(s) we'd get. I know that the Catahoula is a good working dog. I know that pitt bulls are good working dogs too....and can with stand many dog diseases that other breeds can't.

Any ideas?

Viva la revolucion!!!

I have to say one more thing. I hate George Bush. How can he possibly blame democrats for the increase in oil prices? That's like those crazies who blame people who voted for Nader for giving good ol' george the vote. fuck that! Why not blame the people that actually voted for Bush for having him re-elected. So don't blame the lefty's. Blame big oil. Ahhh!

bitter builders

So I talked to the guy building the earthship in florida today. Their new website is www.earthshipfloridaproject.com. It was kinda strange and there's definitely some weird politics going on. The first guy I talked to, named Mark, who's number is on a website was really bitter because apparently this other guy Brian and his girlfriend, along with the P.R. company that Mark hired joined forces and booted him out of the project. He's now supposedly working on building an eco-resort though that would have several smaller homes made of all of the possible working materials like rammed earth, straw, etc. It would basically be a research project on the best material for florida. i plan on following up with him in the spring on that.

So anyway, got Brian's number and it turns out that building has been held back b/c of permitting issues. But he said that it's actually a positive thing b/c they've had time to prepare for better things, e.g. now they're going to have a machine that recycles glass and all of the concrete will be made of this.

Building should begin in mid-August. I'm going to register when I know i can get off of work. There's going to be permaculture and it's all going to be built near wetlands. If anyone wants to come, all you need is a tent and cash for food.

Brian's number is: (727) 793-7808
Mark's number is: (727) 644-8228

Onward and Upward!
jamie

Home Schooling

Are we going to home school the kids in our community? I guess this is another thing we need to research. California just changed the law and home school teachers here are required to have teaching credentials. I doubt Arkansas has a similar law. I know we are collectively smart enough to give children a proper education.

I just wanted to throw this idea out there. Any comments?

I am soo Excited!!!

I am soo excited that this is actually happening!!! It is amazing how it all took form. This is just such a radical change. You may already know, but I just wanted to say that I am in this %100. I am ready to embrace this new life style. I truly believe that this lifestyle will be very common in America in the coming years. I hope we can help others become self sustaining in their own communities.

Arkansas Land

I found 36 acres of land in the Ozarks for 21k. I called the real estate agent to inquire. Before we buy any land we need to become either a regular company or a non-profit where we are all on the board of directors. We still have alot of learning to do. I think this topic (becoming a company) is covered in some of the permaculture books by Bill Mollison, the father of permaculture. I have ordered his introduction book and Sarah has a copy on the way as well.

I guess while we are learning more we should start thinking about a time line for our village. Also, I have invited you all as collaborators on this blog so feel free to post your thoughts, ideas, etc here on the blog.

Council Training

Before we all move in together I want us to go to a council training program. This place is about 40 miles from my house. Here is a link to the training.

http://www.ojaifoundation.org/Content/council_intro.php

Brook's cousin , Rachel, lives and works there. Here is a link to a workshop that she is facilitating in August.

http://www.ojaifoundation.org/Content/calendar_details.php#081508

Permaculture

I don't think there is much to debate about on this topic. I think a permaculture system will be key in providing our self-sustaining food source.

Brook is looking into going to the two-week Design Certificate Course in Costa Rica and is considering getting a goat to start her our mini-permaculture system in her backyard.

Earthships and Earthbags

While Earthships are totally cool they are expensive. Earthbag homes are more affordable. I read that you can berm earth on 3 sides of an earthbag home to get the same temperature stabilizing affect that you get in an Earthship.

The other thing I like about Earthbag homes is that you can build them and add electric and plumbing later. The are also VERY similar to the the homes that the Native American used to live in in Southeastern America.

Jamie has contacted the Earthship folks to inquire about volunteering to learn to build one. This information will be very valuable no matter what sort of shelters we build. For example, She can teach the rest of us and we can be a mobile Earthship building team. It would be a good way to make money until travel is no longer possible.

This earthbag house cost $920 to build not including windows and doors:
http://www.networkearth.org/naturalbuilding/honey.html

Location, Location, Location

So right now we are trying to find out where we want to build our community. I was thinking somewhere in the Rockies. Drew thinks Canada is a good option and Sarah and Jim are leaning more toward Central America.

We are researching our options. I met a wonderful lady yesterday. She is a Buddhist that lives in Miami. Her group has bought retreat land. I think she said it was in the Ozark foothills. The land very scared land. She said there are tons of crystals there in the land and meditating there is a very powerful experience. She said they are selling the land for really cheap. I am not sure if you have to be a student or follower to get a parcel. I am researching it.