Issues
Think of some members as “coming of age” and wanting to move on, like children who grow up in Amish communities. †Perhaps savings accounts would be appropriate for each member, a percentage of all income going into personal or collective investment account to cover future down payments on outside parcels, college for our collective kids, etc.
This parcel, as is, can support maybe three families, possibly twice that with minimal outside inputs, thrice that with serious outside (business) inputs, and families are always going to have kids that grow up way too fast. But those permanent residents do not necessarily preclude temporary ones too. The parcel should be added to whenever possible. What better investment? [7 years of feast ...]
Housing based on current situation: What if the ‘house’ (earthship) Ruth and I built was communal space and members had only private rooms (or "suites") (at least for the first year or two) (or “Tiny Houses” also – our art school plan involved each cohort designing and building one each year)? Rooms: Abby’s, Torri’s (two glaringly different types vis-a-vis heat), build new room on roof at road side (heat from same source as bath + Abby), new “wing” on south side of greenhouse, or where greenhouse is now, move the GH,, ...
Common space, cooking, eating, talking, communal meetings, canning, (laundry?), “entertainment’ (but electronics has made private media easy), “getting ready for … (school as one example), shelling peas (as a metaphor; peas are likely to be shelled on a porch),
- Bedroom/private space (issues?); (Individuals / couples / kid’s dorms?)
- Toilet (composting) not connected to any other functions (except hand washing);
- Bathing room(s) (warm but does not need view/natural light [skylight cool] – share with cistern???);
- Laundry (could be in common, but noise?);
Heating plan: currently, Abby’s room and the toilet room utilize waste heat (towers only go so far due to surface area) Wood = enough for me … but not to stretch very damn much farther (additional building sites = additional woodlot) … elec heat in winter vs solar shortage in winter (heat pumps do moderate in 6 month ways, then elec only runs pumps and fans, BUT still must be reliably generated daily) (Sahlstrom's pond in drought!)
Housing Future Cluster (Tracy style housing?) for single heat pump installation? “Pods.” Communal laundry plus … kitchen? Baths?
Temporary Dorms? Worth the investment? Or do like we did with the great room in Lucerne, intentionally re-purpose at other end of dorm needs (granaries, shop, storage of what?).
Bathing options (warm weather: outdoor showers, cold weather: well heated, totally internal room (divided how, some want serious privacy), whole booths with changing cubes to high school locker rooms gamut possible. Cold weather room could easily be part of a water and hot water complex. Costs (individual) come down as numbers go up and a group may warrant an earth sheltered complex where water tanks are kept from freezing and hot water is generated (waste heat serving to keep water above freezing, or even heated bathing and laundry room / complex)
Food prep and dining: I want some communal food / meal. Builds community, allows for casual discussion (even of important issues – helps everyone balance and understand each other), and fosters group celebrations (birthdays, etc.). So, at least a largely mandatory group meal weekly? Daily?
Bear in mind the need for extensive canning seasonally, and the possibility of needing to meet commercial kitchen standards if we produce value-added foods for sale. Even only weekly mandatory meals together require infrastructure. Dovetail commercial kitchen?
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