Saturday, April 28, 2012

My Dream

I've made various references to my dream home, my dream life, where I'd like my family to be, but I'm not 100% everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about, since it is pretty out of the mainstream, so I thought I'd spell it out in one post.  All I need is an acre and I'm pretty much there....

First off, my home.  I want to build an Earthship.  For those that aren't familiar, an Earthship is a passive solar house made primarily of recycled materials.  They are semi-underground so the north side of the house is insulated against heat in the summer and the cold in the winter to keep it a moderate temperature year round.  The south side of the house is windows at such an angle to let the sunlight come fully in during the winter and not as much in the summer.  They use rainwater for the water system, utilizes the graywater for toilet use and to irrigate the indoor greenhouse.  They are typically powered with solar or wind power so are usually entirely off the grid. The outside might look something like this:

I wouldn't have the pavement in front of the house though.  I'm thinking, as far north as we are, I'd probably put some fruit trees in front of the house to shade it in the summer and allow for the sunlight to come through and heat the house in the winter.

The inside would look something like this:
If you are wondering what it entails to build a house like this, I have pics of that too:
The site that this picture is from has lots more info about the "how tos" of building an Earthship as well.
More Earthship pictures are also available on my Pinterest board about them, Dreaming of a Home.

Heading out of my imaginary house and into my "yard", which is actually my homestead, I plan on putting together something like this:
From the book The Backyard Homestead, one of the most inspirational books I've ever had the privilege to see.
With my unconventional house being somewhat underground, I could actually put some of the raised beds or animal pens or something going over the house itself.  I am thinking an acre, rather than the quarter acre depicted here, because I want to have goats for dairy and meat.  I don't really want the pigs shown but I definitely want the chickens, rabbits, bees, and gardens.  I'm also imagining having a fish pond, but that would actually be inside the Earthship, so we could have fresh caught fish year round!  I also would like a larger piece of land than a quarter acre so we can (hopefully) produce enough to sell, either at a roadside stand, farmers market (that's the least probable of my ideas), or through contract with a local restaurant or two (definitely one the first year, then maybe expand, if it works out well enough and I can produce enough).

In addition not needing the entire footprint of my house dedicated solely to living space, by utilizing the land on top of it, I have a few other space saving ideas that could further improve the efficiency of my land use:
like a chicken coop like this, maybe right outside the goat enclosure, so the chickens can be let go out into the goat pen when I don't want them getting into my garden.
Maximizing vertical growing space would also be key.
Without needing to buy food, pay for utilities, a home built mostly by ourselves (or help from volunteers that just want the experience of building an Earthship) once our land is paid for, our expenses will be minimal, so this is our plan for my husband's retirement.  It is a good life, a simple life, filled with good, healthy hard work and lots of love through the time spent with family....and the only thing that is currently keeping us from getting started is owning an acre of land.

15 comments:

  1. oh.my.god.yes. the way every one should and can live! love love love this. keep on keepin on!

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  2. As I've mentioned before, this has been my dream house for about 15 years. I used to work with Matt and Beth Farner, who built an earthship in Hastings. I think they've built a couple, and a straw bale house. Needless to say, I love it, and when you are ready to build it, I'm more than happy to volunteer. :0)

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    1. You know I'm going to take you up on that, right?

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  3. Yes, my dream as well!! Found these guys about a year when this journey started for us...and have dreamed of it since then! Best to you and yours!

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  4. Have you considered moving to northern new Mexico? Earthships abound here and land is cheaper. Water is scarce but folks know how to grow lots with little.

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    1. I have considered it, but ultimately, we rejected the idea because our aging parents and other family is here so we didn't feel it would be right to move so far away.

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  5. Thanks for sharing! My dream is similar...though I have a post and beam structure with straw bales :-)

    btw, I thought you might be interested in this post: http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/2012/04/how-to-get-free-food-week-2/

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  6. An acre works well. We're just shy of an acre, and we have room for enough garden to feed the family "most of the year" (sis wants a "front lawn" *ick* so there's a chunk of edible space taken up by useless grass lol). We have room for the hens at the end of the yard, as well as room for meat chickens (they're only around for a couple of months or so anyhow). We might have room for a goat, if she was willing to give up her lawn. ;)

    This year's garden is much smaller than I'd like but we're dealing. I had to go with what I could handle by myself, at least right now, with the understanding that I can expand year to year. We'll have the garden this year (four 10'x3' raised beds, two 5' across interior diameter tractor tire raised beds equaling about 20 sq ft, the apple tree, rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, ground cherries, and asparagus). Next year come the hens, maybe earlier if hubby gets the job he's been promised. Goats... the year after that. But we have access to raw milk locally, if we save our pennies up.

    I'm about to offer my personal labor in helping butcher a pig for a stack of ribs and raw bacon, hubby got fishing license and a 6 year old daughter who's so eager to fish that she dug up all the worms BY HAND the other day, and we'll hunt in the autumn. With luck and a bit of produce from the local CSA/community garden, we'll be partially self sufficient.

    And you know what? I went from having an entire acre for garden (microfarming) to having a bit less than an acre with house and garage and cement driveway all part of it... and instead of panicking, I planned, thanks to this blog. :)

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    1. Yay! Glad to help!

      We definitely won't have a lawn on our dream property. The closest thing would be where the goats are.

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  7. What a very well thought out plan. That could work for people all over the world. People would not have to feel so helpless.

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  8. I've always wanted to have that kind of house that can sustain itself. Very country, very green and eco friendly and I must agree with Cynthia that it's a very well thought out plan. I hope you get your land soon so that you guys can build your dream homestead.

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  9. Your dream is so close to mine its amazing, my house dreams are a bit differnt and we would like 5-10 acres as my husband and daughter would like horses and living in northern BC are growing seasons are so short you need to plant more space to get what you can get more south in less. We were so close to getting what we would love and then right as we were reaching for it everything fell thru at the last minute but well try againg. I love your blog its very inspirational thank you.

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  10. I love this idea so much! I've seen homes of this sort built on lifestyle TV shows, such as grand designs, but sadly the cameras don't stick around long enough to chronicle the business of day to day life off the grid! I would love to coem help you build your dream, but flying from Australia to build a sustainable home would be a bit contradictory! Perhaps I will try to find some folks here living this way..

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  11. Yay, love your dream. It is mine too. We have acreage, but we are in fl, no hills and probably to hot in the summer no matter how you tilt the windows. :/ but I will keep dreaming. Good luck.

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