not impossible, just not very hippy compatible

if serious able people get involved it will be done in no time

proper planning first, i personally don't have time right now to do it. If it ever happens i will come and invest my time and resources, but not anytime soon.

how hard can it be to plan an ecovillage...

all kind of intentions have been stated, work done on proper planning 0%

state
what, who, when, where, why
or simply
flow of goods, information flow, processes, regulations, finance, human resources, risks

all of these topics and maybe more need to be assessed, brought on paper or pixels so that a team of planners can decide what the best approach is
Once a layout frame for the whole thing has been done it gets much easier to fill in the unknown gaps

but thats real work and noone seems to be interested enough to do it so lets just scrap this

I agree with bindu that this sounds very far-fetched, but the idea is very promising. I really hope that people take the initiative and make this become a reality. I'm not a very prominent figure here and I voted great idea/can't help, but if this project really begins to take place I would love to be there firsthand. I will continue to save up money throughout my time in college just in case this takes place and contribute to this project if things begins to solidify. I will definitely be keeping an eye out on the progress of this project so I know when to start packing and where to book my flight!

No one's demanding you (or anyone else) be a part of this. There are at least a handful of things going on behind the scenes that have not appeared in this thread. Those of us who started the conversation that led to this thread are more than aware that this may well equate to nothing. We are trying to approach this as realistically and pragmatically as possible...I'm not sure what "real work" you are claiming no one is interested in doing...or the "us" you are appealing to to "scrap this"...but as already stated, no one's demanding that you be a part of this.

I like your idea. But to be really independent and sustainable you need tech, equipment, and a lot of work.
I think you need at least 30 grand to do something down there.
+ Who really wants to give up his whole life..
I mean.. nothing personal, but to me it sounds kinda odd! To just leave my life behind for food and drugs.

I think .. for vacation maybe ..

Haha! It's actually funny we have the exact opposite thinking pattern kyrolima. To me, I think 'Why would ANYONE want to continue living this wasted life of capitalistic material rationalism? I just want to be FREE of it all!' To each their own right?

For me it's always been for lack of a good solid plan and I'm just not smart enough to put something like this together. Best I could come up with was, like I said earlier, selling all my possessions and living in a van just traveling the country.

Snozelberry, please keep me updated about the status of this project. I'd like to contribute in any way I can, but I don't know how to help or where to start. If you and some other members are getting the preliminary research work done on this potential project, would you please keep me in mind as someone who is 'on board'? I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

As an aside, coming from a devout Christian background it always puzzled me that Jesus said 'leave all you have and follow me'. I would ask my sunday school teachers about why we as Christians didn't really do this, to which was always responded that Jesus didn't REALLY mean that he was just using an analogy for attachment, you don't REALLY need to give up everything, in fact our American society condemns it. It's almost a hilarious joke to me that after waking up through psychedelics, without even realizing it, I'm longing to do what Jesus prescribed! If there was a plan today where someone could tell me 'ok we have a community setup we're going to live without money and adopt a peaceful lifestyle of community, shared values, and psychedelic exploration of conciousness all you gotta do is leave your lifestyle and come join us!' I wouldn't even bother selling my house or anything, I'd pack a bag and I'd be gone!

Funny you say that - I come from a similar background as you (K-12 Christian schooling, renounced Christianity, etc.) only to find the use of psychedelics puts me very much in-line with the teachings of Christ, dogma aside. (I think he was a secret mushroom fiend and maybe found an aya admixture out in the desert somewhere - say rue + acacia tree?).

I see good things happening for this project over the next few years. While I disagree with the location choice, the intent is good and I can't wait to see what comes of it.

A friend and I daydream often about creating a ecovillege/communal plantation.




From scratch: If you're buying a totally undeveloped piece of land, and starting from scratch, a good idea would be to lease your property for a local logging company. Not all of your beautiful leaved friends, but enough to clear a space for garden, houses, etc. The supplemental income + having someone else clear all those trees would save some time.

Shelter: Depending on how many people are living in the community at any given time, more housing would need to developed, obviously. The second matter would be, are these individuals, couples, or actual families with children.

Actual houses would be reserved for whole families, couples could have smaller places (think townhouses-- 2-3 spaces per actual building, all with front doors, etc), and individuals could possibly live in dorm style housing (think single story apartment building, again each with a front door).

The issue with any of this would be fairness. Is it fair someone with a child has a bigger house then a single individual, regardless of work ethic? BUT, with hard work and enough resources, everyone could ultimately live in their own house (down the road).

Common areas: I think it would be a great idea to have a community area, both indoors and outdoors. To mingle, to relax, etc. Possibly a small library, art studio, workshop, etc.

Food: This is where it gets fun!

Grains, veggies, fruit trees, culinary herbs, nuts, etc. Have a few livestock: work horses, riding horses, milk cows, cows, chicken and pigs for meat.

Energy: I'd say this is mostly dependent on the climate in which the community is located and money on hand. Obviously a renewable resource - wind, solar, hydro, soy oil (or, cannabis oil?), methane(?) - or any combination.

Human waste: This provides the biggest head scratcher of the equation. With enough money and labor, the whole community can be constructed. What to do with the daily pounds of liquid and solid waste that each human expels?

Sure, you can bury it once it's sit for a while, but what to do until then? Burning it isn't very eco-friendly. You could possibly use the methane as a power source, charging battery cells for later use, but who wants to have that job? And again, that would probably cause some type of combustion, which isn't very eco-friendly.



With enough initial start up funds, and enough dedicated people the entire community could be build in the matter of 6 months. Something near the equator would be nice!

I like what you've done here Red. I think that with the areas you've outlined above plus some additional ones, we could assign roles to those that were on board. We could break off into our own focus groups to develop a strategy, for instance a team of us could work out the waste problem you describe above and then offer the collective group our ideas about waste management and things we could do to reuse our waste, recycle, or dispose of it.

for waste all you need to do is take a dump in a bucket with sawdust and throw it into a compost bin. months later you'll have great fertilizer



liquid waste you just dig a hole, and then place a bucket in the hole, pour your collected urine into the hole (NOT THE BUCKET). cover the hole with a tarp and place a small rock on the tarp over the bucket. the water from the urine will evaporate and drip intp the bucket (water runs downhill towards the rock over your bucket) and you'll have potable water.

I may be confused as to the point of "living off the grid". What is the point, to you? In my mind, if one is going to throw away most of society to live in a self sustaining community, I would think that the self sustaining community is supposed to be somehow better than regular society. What is appealing about blood, sweat, tears, lots of back breaking work, and being indifferent toward your fellow inhabitants? It seems to me there is plenty of that stuff available in the grid. Just wondering.

No one said everyone is indifferent to everyone...that's a total straw man. It's simply that you don't need to LOVE everyone all the time.

The point of being off the grid is growing your own food, managing your own life and ultimately living without interference from people who don't align with some general core values. Just because people share the same general core values doesn't mean they love each other all the time and express that love in non-stop gushers of limitless affection.

What's appealing about blood/sweat/tears and backbreaking work? Having a little piece of land to call your own...knowing that the food you eat/grow was not only the product of your labor/love but was grown as "naturally" as possible...knowing that you have built something from the land and can maintain that and pass it on...living away from herds of drones and mindless consumerism...knowing that the blood, sweat and tears you expend goes towards sustaining yourself and ensuring your well-being rather than going towards generating profits in a capitalist ponzi scheme...living somewhere where people (and the government) will generally leave you alone to do things that interest you, even though they may clash with the accepted norms of the geopolitical state in which your residence is located...the list goes on and on, but I think that's sufficient reason for now.

this is the best fuckin idea in the entire fuckin world! woot woot!!
*dances around like a madman*
it will truly be a paradise
i can only contribute by participating since i'm still an undergrad student, but my loving vibes and inspirations are headed to Peru and you beautiful people<3

i also think that we should look into moar properties, since there are many beautiful properties available in <3 Peru <3 at cheap prices. a 10 second google search found this property (rainforest refuge) for example: http://www.viviun.com/AD-163338/ this one is 125,000$, but even if a land is expensive, we can still buy a portion of it. this is just an example, and I would suggest to look into more lands before making a final decision.
i also like the Kickstarter idea. we should be able to get it funded. again..we should look into more funding alternatives before making a conclusion. i love you all<3

ok, your description is pretty good.



Alright, you don't have to straw man up the place.



you must not have read the last few posts in this thread.

I'll concede that

Alright, I know I'm a bit late coming back into this....

but... hmm... the community certainly isn't bland, but it is very functional in a way that can survive having people come and go. Instead of it being one big family with everyone sharing that bond, it's more like a small village in which everyone was good friends, some people near-family, and there is plenty of common space. The difference is that not everyone was super-involved in everyone elses' lives to the extent that i necessarily caused conflict.

The thing is, as great as kinship-bond communities are, it's really difficult to just open it up to people entering and leaving unconditionally, as much as we're all Nexians, we don't all know each other in THAT way. You have to have a BONDED GROUP to make that sort of community work, and that bonding takes work. Trying to force it will just cause trouble. If the inhabitants of the community are going to be flexible (in the sense of people coming and going), you need flexible relationships...

(not sure if that made sense, will check back later and find out)

I don't know what you meant but I'll punch you in the face if you eat my bacon.

This may be relevant to discussion, depending on abundance of waste where ever the ecovillage is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

I just wanted to chime in and add a few things as far as goals are concerned. Please note that this is just throwing some ideas out there. None of the following is etched in stone nor is it intended as such.

Also, thank you for the suggestion Red Eclipse. I'll cover some of the housing ideas I have in mind later in the post.

Back on track...

When I think of this community, the first things that come to mind are peace and abundance. I realize that not everyone will get along all of the time. So everyone would need to know at least some basic conflict resolution strategies so when disputes do arise, we're all prepared on how to deal with it. If everyone knows the information then there will be no excuse not to use it when conflicts do arise. There also needs to be a code of ethics, which everyone should agree with. I believe that mutual respect for each others boundaries will be key in most situations. I think that the good vibes post in my signature is a good starting point for our basic ethics.

The next thing is abundance. We would need to be as self sustaining as possible. Permaculture, Food Forests, Aquaculture, Earthships, Eco-Domes and hybrids of all these systems seem to make the most sense in the grand scheme of things. It takes more thought and planning at the beginning but requires significantly less manpower as it matures. With proper planning, we'll have an abundance of food and rich, fertile soil in no time.

This particular property already has fish ponds but we don't know for sure yet that this is the property we're actually going to get. Considering Hyperspace Fool's insights into the Amazon in this post, I'm reconsidering if Peru is the best candidate as far as location goes. Granted, it's not completely out of the question. There might be some really great insect repelling plants that we could place throughout the property. I just want everyone to be open to other avenues if they are possibly a better fit.

The ideal land in my mind would include the following:

1) Abundance of fresh, clean water would be the top priority. Preferably somewhere with a waterfall so we could utilize not only hydro-electric power but we can also build a Trompe to power anything that an air compressor could power. For more information on how a Trompe works, check out the Permaculture Design Course torrent that's available online.

2) The property would preferably be as square as possible to make designing zones a bit easier.

This video shows the basic ideas behind creating zones.



We want to flow with nature and work smarter, not harder. By planning out the entire property before anything gets built, we can evaluate all aspects of the build to make it as productive as possible.

3) Some kind of road access so that getting supplies and materials isn't too difficult.

4) It needs to be somewhere that gets plenty of sunshine.

I'm sure there will be some other property requirements as well but these are the top things I could think of right now.

I feel that we need to create a list of goals and separate them into Short Term, Mid Term and Long Term.

Short Term would include (but not limited to):

Finding out exactly who is on board to contribute to the initial design, planning and building processes. These people need to be in good health and able to work long hours in harsh conditions. Like Snozz said, this isn't going to be a cakewalk by any means.

Next, we need to find out exactly where this will take place. I believe that the drug laws in Portugal are pretty laid back and the area is a bit more hospitable. India is also a possibility in my mind. I'm not sure what the cost of living is like in either place, so we definitely have some more research to do.

Once we agree on who will participate and the general area we wish to pursue, we need to all get together for a meet and greet to make sure our personalities will work well with each other.

After we get our pioneer group, we need to start raising funding. We could actually start that right now somehow. The Kickstarter idea isn't bad at all. We'd just have to establish what perks comes with a financial donation.

Mid Term:

Provided that we have enough funding, we find, survey and purchase the best property we can get in the best location for our intentions.

Once we have the property, we need to map out the zones and sectors, we need to find out exactly where the sun is at any given time throughout the year. We also need to really evaluate all of the native plants on site to see what already works on the property and how we can benefit from them. So basically what I'm getting at is that it's going to take around one full year on the property to do the proper research and planning for everything that is to come. We could speed this up by finding an expert botanist with knowledge of the area we'll be working. As it stands now, we'll be starting from scratch so it's going to take some time.

I recommend that the initial team of pioneers are all familiar with permaculture theories and concepts even if you don't have any hands on experience with it. There are tons of torrents available on the subject. I figure if we're all out there loaded with the same knowledge, there is a higher chance of one of us remembering that critical piece at the critical time when we need it. Also, the more minds working on a problem, the more elegant the solution becomes.

Once we figure out exactly what we're up against and how to benefit the most from it, we start construction.


Long Term:

This is still open to debate. What exactly are we wishing to accomplish in the end? Are we just going to build a community that only caters Nexians? Are we going to help the existing communities around us? By building something like this, we open up a lot of potential for good things to happen.

These are just some ideas to get us started on the planning phase. Feel free to critique/optimize however you deem appropriate.

http://www.dancingrabbit.org/

Some ideas might be found here...