Barb Allen

Thanks for sharing your journey with your cob privy as well as your health.  We are planning a similar thing on our land, and I am dealing with a similar physical journey as well, so I found it interesting, inspiring and useful.  Thanks for taking the time to share it.

A southern Oregon Hipcamp
My young cottage tenant, Vanessa, and I (an 85 yr. old widow with a life long passion for gardening and nature) set up a Hipcamp last May on my 5 acres of woodland that includes an acre of gardens.  We started with 3 rv sites that I had created back in 2022 to bring in some extra income.  I had originally planned to rent the sites monthly to long term renters with RVs, but the county restrictions kept me to one.   When my last tenant moved on last spring, Vanessa suggested that we might try doing a Hipcamp with the sites instead. I liked the idea of sharing my 17 yr. old permaculture project and beautiful woodland with people, so that is what we did.  

We already had an "outhouse" with a built in sawdust bucket toilet and compost bins for the waste, and each site had water and electric hook-ups.
https://hipcamp-res.cloudinary.com/f_auto,c_limit,w_740,q_auto:eco/v1721884422/campground-photos/mys4xlfq3e28e4l8txfn.jpg  

We added a firepit sitting area to one site, and I bought a propane firepit since most of the camping season here is also "Fire season" so wood fires would not work.  We added an outdoor table and chairs that I had and wasn't using, to the site, and Vanessa painted some signs to help guide people from the road to the sites.  We had 66 bookings our first 7 months. Most of them were couples and families, often with a dog which we allowed on leash.   The guests were nearly all really nice folks who were grateful to have a nice peaceful place to camp.   Many were traveling and used us as a simple place to park for the night.  A few stayed a bit longer and enjoyed the area... We got some wonderful reviews!
https://hipcamp-res.cloudinary.com/f_auto,c_limit,w_740,q_auto:eco/v1721884661/campground-photos/vdflq0eszvqdjmrk30gs.jpg

In mid-summer we created a tent site on a level area in a very private part of our 5 acre woodland, with a picnic table, two hammocks, a firepit and a combo outhouse and cold water shower that we built with recycled materials I had on hand.  Campers had the whole site to themselves with no other campsites nearby.  This immediately became our most popular site.   I really think if you have space to do this one type of site - totally private - that it could be a simple way to make extra money from your land.

I did a couple garden tours early on (for a small extra fee), but then had to stop after a fall that I took several months to heal from.  

I am now working on turning a small storage building next to the rv park into an overnight rental, with a combo shower (this one will be a hot shower) and bucket toilet setup.  This will increase the work a little but bring in a whole different range of guests - those NOT camping. The building already has water and electric brought to the outside.  

All in all I would say that this has been a positive experience for us as well as for our guests.  I have wanted to find a way to share my "permaculture" project with people who are interested, and this was a very nice way to do it. And I love that we are giving people a truly peaceful camping experience.   The guests always left things tidy, and we had no unpleasant experiences with any of the perhaps 150 or more people who stayed here.   I think Vanessa meeting them and talking to them for a few minutes - making sure their needs were met - made a difference.  People didn't see us as a faceless entity. We were a couple women sharing our space with them...      

If you would like to look at our Hipcamp website to get an idea of how they set things up - here is the address:  https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/land/oregon-wild-azalea-eco-camp-mxvhxz95?adults=1&children=0&srid=b3d966a7-8c17-4c2d-908b-12070920492c

One of the things we found especially nice about this experience was HIPCAMP!  They brought the people to us - they collected the fees, and took a small percentage for themselves (10%) - and sent a payment to my bank account every Tuesday.  They will even send out a professional photographer to help you get good pictures of your site.  AND they have wonderful insurance to cover you if anything goes wrong!    

Although it's a bit of a learning curve getting the whole thing set up - they are nice to work with and really make the whole thing doable!  I highly recommend it if you have the space and the desire to share what you are doing on your land with others - as well as make a bit extra from your land.   Keeping it natural and rustic is appreciated and no one gripes about using the bucket toilet.. It's part of the experience!  :-)

A southern Oregon Hipcamp
My young cottage tenant, Vanessa, and I (an 85 yr. old widow with a life long passion for gardening and nature) set up a Hipcamp last May on my 5 acres of woodland that includes an acre of of gardens.  We started with 3 rv sites that I had created back in 2022 to bring in some extra income.  I had originally planned to rent the sites monthly to long term renters with RVs, but the county restrictions kept me to one.   When my last tenant moved on last spring, Vanessa suggested that we might try doing a Hipcamp with the sites instead. I liked the idea of sharing my 17 yr. old permaculture project and beautiful woodland with people, so we that is what we did.  

We already had an "outhouse" with a built in sawdust bucket toilet and compost bins for the waste, and each site had water and electric hook-ups.  

We added a firepit sitting area to one site, and I bought a propane firepit since most of the camping season here is also "Fire season" so wood fires would not work.  We added an outdoor table and chairs that I had and wasn't using to the site, and Vanessa painted some signs to help guide people from the road to the sites.  We had 66 bookings our first 7 months. Most of them were couples and families, often with a dog which we allowed on leash.   The guests were nearly all really nice folks who were grateful to have a nice peaceful place to camp.   Many were traveling and used us as a simple place to park for the night.  A few stayed a bit longer and enjoyed the area... We got some wonderful reviews!

In mid-summer we created a tent site on a level area in a very private part of our 5 acre woodland, with a picnic table, two hammocks, a firepit and a combo outhouse and cold water shower that we built with recycled materials I had on hand.  Campers had the whole site to themselves with no other campsites nearby.  This immediately became our most popular site.   I really think if you have space to do this one type of site - totally private - that is could be a simple way to make extra money from your land.

I did a couple garden tours early on (for a small extra fee), but then had to stop for most of the summer after a fall that took several months to heal from.  

I am now working on turning a small storage building next to the rv park into an overnight rental, with a combo shower (this one will be a hot shower) and bucket toilet setup.  This will increase the work a little but bring in a whole different range of guests - those NOT camping. The building already has water and electric brought to the outside.  

All in all I would say that this has been a positive experience for us as well as for our guests.  I have wanted to find a way to share my "permaculture" project with people who are interested, and this was a very nice way to do it. And I love that we are giving people a truly peaceful camping experience.   The guests always left things tidy, and we had no unpleasant experiences with any of the perhaps 150 or more people who stayed here the last 7 months.   I think Vanessa meeting them and talking to them for a few minutes - making sure their needs were met - made a difference.  People didn't see us as a faceless entity. We were a couple women sharing our space with them...      

If you would like to look at our Hipcamp website to get an idea of how they set things up - here is the address:  https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/land/oregon-wild-azalea-eco-camp-mxvhxz95?adults=1&children=0&srid=b3d966a7-8c17-4c2d-908b-12070920492c

One of the things we found especially nice about this experience was HIPCAMP!  They brought the people to us - they collected the fees, and took a small percentage for themselves - and sent a payment to my bank account every week.  They will even send out a professional photographer to help you get good pictures of your site.  AND they have wonderful insurance to cover you if anything goes wrong!    

Although it's a bit of a learning curve getting the whole thing set up - they are nice to work with and really make the whole thing doable!  I highly recommend it if you have the space and the desire to share what you are doing on your land with others - as well as make a bit extra from your land.   Keeping it natural and rustic is appreciated...

As for beaked hazel nut leaves, my chickens have been spending their days in a grove of these native trees for 12 yrs now and have never had a problem.  I prune the trees frequently and drop the branches with leaves on the ground. I can't say I have seen them eating them, though, so I can't say for sure.  But my guess is they are okay.

I missed many of the pages of this thread, but just came across the ones talking about working toward being surrounded by community as you age.  One of the things I started doing years ago was looking for property that had the possibility of supporting a small community. I have spent the last 14 yrs. on 5 acres in Oregon planting gardens and orchards and creating water catchment.  Then - just before covid hit - I began creating a tiny RV park on a section of land...  My youngest son (53) had his business wiped out by covid and moved up here to work on the project with my older son and I. I managed to talk the electric company into bringing in electric to that part of the land and routed water over there and put in greywater gardens and compost bins and an "outhouse" for compost bucket toilets.  

Our first "tenant" turned out to be a close friend - an 82 yr. old who lost her husband a few months into covid.    

Then - after a short break we started work on creating a rental cottage next to my home last spring... We are nearly finished.    One of the goals, of course, is to earn enough to cover most of the expenses here, but a really huge part of the vision is to create "community" - to attract like minded people to our permaculture homestead who love and appreciate nature as we do - who want to learn and grow together. Not just be tenants.  

Paul Young wrote:
So, bottom line, have a dream/goal that you are passionate about,  keep working towards your dream/goal, don't spend your days sitting on your behind watching TV or with your nose on the computer screen, and you're likely to stay healthier and never be bored.

I so agree Paul.  I feel very fortunate that I am now living my dream - of creating a permaculture homestead and living surrounded by forest.... I am also incredibly fortunate to have two sons in their mid and late 50's who now share the land and dream with me... It's the dream of all the interesting things we can and are doing here on the land - and all the things we/I have done that are now showing results - "fruiting" in a sense. There is always something interesting that drags me outside to do something physical - winter and summer.  I notice if I sit at my computer involved in some project - I start to stiffen up... So pain actually pushes me out the door and gets me moving - because it's the thing that makes me feel better.  My son's are discovering the same thing.  

In some ways the main thing I am harvesting from my land and all the wonderful things I have planted for food and medicine - is the BEING in it and working with it every day. I have come to feel the forest trees are my friends! I never feel alone here even when there are no other humans around.      

The experience of working on something this big with my two grown sons is also something I am very grateful for. It took us some real effort and hard work to get to a place where we could all work together.  These two years of covid gave us that opportunity! And it's probably one of the best things I've done here!  

It was really interesting to read what others are doing to find ways to "age in place".  I have been on my land for 14 yrs. now and have done many of the things others have mentioned.  I'm 82 now and am still learning ways to make things work.  I had never lived anywhere more than 5 yrs. before - so - although I planted fruit trees and berries and grapes everywhere we lived - I often didn't get to harvest the fruit and more than anything - I didn't get to experience the challenges you run into with gardening in the same place for many years.  I am continually learning.

But the reason I decided to add something to this forum - is that I had an experience that feels worth sharing - just as food for thought. When I first moved here the forest had recently been selectively logged - and ALL the debris left behind - scattered throughout my five acres of woodland.  The first winter (I'm in Oregon) I started burning that slash.   I had a back I had messed up working as the head gardener of a 16 acre garden in Ojai, CA. and when I began the project I would last about two hours and would be in so much pain I would have to quit.  I was determined to clean up that mess and so nearly every day I got out there and hauled and sawed and burned... By the time spring hit I could put in 7 hr. days and my back had quit hurting me and it hasn't in the same way since then.  

That experience has changed my way of looking at hard work and pain, made me realize that some of the pain we suffer from is caused by not using our muscles enough.  

I'm not saying this is true of everything.  I spent from the time I was 30 until I was 50 with a messed up hip - no cartilage between the hip bone and socket and the hip bone worn down from rubbing... That was pain that definitely got worse the more I did.   A new hip at 50 changed my life!   So I know there are things working harder won't fix. I just want to suggest that maybe sometimes we give up moving because it hurts -  when that's the very thing that will help us.  

Greg - "It's like very slow motion fun!"    I just had to tell you how perfect and brilliant that simple description is of gardening! I have often thought how people who require instant gratification would have a hard time with some of the best parts of gardening...  I am still waiting for my paw paws and English walnut and persimmon to fruit... going on 7 years now... so you give me hope.  And inspiration to try a few other things in my shady garden... Thanks!

I don't know if this is okay to do - but here is a blog post from my website that tells lots of other things I did for food for my chickens which you may find useful -- from sprouting seed and grains to raising Azolla on our small pond, growing an everbearing Mulberry in the big wild hazelnut grove pen, where I also dump the huge numbers of oak leaves from our giant trees each fall, for the chickens to turn into compost and worm food over the winter.       https://theholisticgardenblog.com/2015/08/30/feeding-my-chickens/

Here's a couple things I did for mine a few years back..... built a bed INSIDE the pen that had chicken wire covering it on an angle. The chickens could get at whatever I grew in there - but not until it was big enough to handle being eaten.... Then on the outside I grew Daylilies on one side and Comfrey on another and they just ripped off the bits of leaves they could reach through the wire fencing.