The back story

The influences leading to this building project have been many and varied, coming from our diverse backgrounds: Extension work, back-woods businesses, building boats, gardening, metal working, studying and reenacting history, reading Jack Henstridge and Rob Roy, years of MOFGA's Common Ground Fair, reading James Howard Kunstler , Barbara Kingsolver, and Michael Pollan . . . experiences that, over time, inexorably pointed us in a certain direction. Our growing awareness of the increasing global demands for limited resources such as oil, water, and food finally moved us from thinking to planning. After a long search, we found a piece of land big enough to farm, small enough to pay for, in a community with like-minded people.
One challenge was to figure out how to cut our expenses enough to change our lifestyle (or is it the other way around?)—keeping in mind that one of our four children still needs to be put through college. So we began the process of eliminating debt. If all goes well, we will end up without a mortgage.
The process of self-education has been a fascinating journey. We read a lot of books on alternative building and attended Rob and Jaki Roy's Earthwood building school. A deed restriction prevents us from tying into the electric grid, so we are learning about solar electric and gravity-fed water systems. In researching options for septic systems we stumbled upon Joe Jenkins' brilliant Humanure Handbook. In our search for an environmentally friendly house foundation, we discovered Frank Lloyd Wright's rubble trench concept. We will talk more about all of this later, but right now we have just broken ground and are VERY BUSY!!!