On Narrow Pond in Ant Village

Thank you Orin!

Thanks for the reply Orin.I pmed you some history.Mainly a lightening god that once lived there haha.I don't wanna take away from your blog.Dwarfs redoubt awesome name.Any plans for the wofati by lemontree site?

Ben Skiba wrote:Thanks for the reply Orin.I pmed you some history.Mainly a lightening god that once lived there haha.I don't wanna take away from your blog.Dwarfs redoubt awesome name.Any plans for the wofati by lemontree site?

Nothing taken away Ben. I've watched all the videos I could find including on Jesse's youtube channel so I could understand the past in order to find a path in to the future. The amount of heart and work that went into some of the structures, the wildness of the place and the following loss was something I wanted to understand....and build a bridge into whatever comes next.

Naw, the Dwarf's Redoubt is a narly awkward name, picked to reflect the fact there is no solar gain, difficult in its placement with regards to flooding, and yet that I still want to save the pit portion to preserve the internal feel of the old structure ....maybe I will rock the entire thing in (nubian vault comes to mind). On the other hand, On Narrow Pond, has more than one meaning and reflects the person who hopes to shape it :)

I understand the shortness of the building season and the race too which pushed people to build with less regard to long term viability than to immediacy.... my critique of the shelters is biased by my own shelter, water, fire and food goals, and certainly not about the  people who built them nor the events which ushered out their era on the Upper Wheaton Labs.

Had the lighting god gotten lighting perhaps On Narrow Pond would never exist!  Where the Bear Den once stood, there will either be a cool tribute to the first group living in Ant Village or a mere clay water basin good for catching rain and directing it to a narrow pond -time always tells the story.

The Lemon Tree site is being worked by Clayton now. He is having to replace the six main poles holding up the roof; not an easy task to say the least!

Orin Raichart wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Orin, I have a question.
You are in Ant Village now. I used to follow the Ants before, who were busy building some nice little houses there. But all of them left and didn't return. How many Ants are there living in Ant Village now? What happened to the houses the others made?

There are three Deep Roots people on Upper Wheaton Labs right now. Paul is really encouraging Boots to transition to the Deep Roots program rather than the Ant Village Program; I believe he is trying new methods since the first Ant Village experiment resulted in many Ants leaving. In the USA, living in community isn't easy for those of us not born into the Amish or Hutterrite traditions. Since I am interested in creating a functioning example of shelter, water, fire and food before I experiment, I've chosen the Ant Village program where in I have time....when I want to contribute to the community, I can. The Deep Roots people have much less time to create their own shelter, water, fire and food systems. Because I feel the Ant Village program makes the most sense for me an others like me, I invite new Boots to seriously consider the Ant Program. I've failed in this endeavor; I am the only Ant besides Jaqi. Clayton has chosen the Deep Roots program, and is working on the Lemon Tree site as his acre should he complete two years in the Boot Camp.

So that makes six people actively engaged in Upper Wheaton Labs currently.

As to the houses other Ants made, the first lot is rented and managed by a woman whom I've never seen nor met since she does this remotely. Clayton almost chose Lot 2 upon which Evan and Kai built and lived. Both of these buildings exist but were never really completed...except for maybe Kai's.  I say never finished because, when I consider a shelter I ask: where is the kitchen?, where is the rocket stove?, where is the shower?, where is the humanure repository? where is the bed? So Kai has a bed, has a kitchen stove but no sink, no rocket stove, no shitter,  and no shower. Kai did do something I really liked: he collected water off his natural roof! -he was the only one with who attempted this. Evan used to have a rocket stove and Walker stove but he took it with him, but no sink, and his shower/shitter wasn't finished. I think, don't know, Evan's bed was the bench of his rocket stove. I like the fact that Evan's place is the best thermal performer in the summer (keeps it cooler than all the other buildings). Lot 3 and 5 have nothing left worth discussing. Lot 5, Jesse's acre has a shelter which Jaqi chose. And there is lot 6, now named On Narrow Pond, which I've claimed. There are two buildings which have major issues requiring that I rebuild them or tear them down. There is also Hill Billy Mansion which was built with banned building materials; I've agreed to demolish Hll Billy Mansion for any allowed building materials I can reclaim AND to take the banned materials to the dump.

I feel that Ant Village has a chance of success once one person actually creates the scared four: shelter, water, fire, and food. Without a full example of the scared four on the land, I feel few with realize what an opportunity this really is.

Neat to hear about how things have aged. The village seemed like it was off to a great start when I saw it in 2015, but man, community is hard.. getting set up fast enough to overwinter is hard... and the assorted Paul Rules definitely add to the challenge!

If I remember correctly, one of the previous ants had hand-drilled a well; what became of this?

Good luck!

I think the Boot to Ant or Deep Roots is a big improvement on Ant Village. It allows people to get a feel for Paul's personality and management style before they commit. And more importantly, it also allows people who don't have the skills to build a house or rocket stove, etc, the opportunity to learn those skills. I know I couldn't build a house right now. But, I think I would learn a LOT through Bootcamp that would teach me how to do just that, especially if I did the SKIP and Permaculture Design Course and Permaculture Technology Jamboree, that you can do as a work-trade through Bootcamp. There's a lot of opportunities for people to gain the skills they need. And, there's a huge opportunity for someone like Orin who's already got a bunch of skills to get an acre of land without any money spent.

Bootcamp isn't an option for me--we already have property and kids and are pretty well rooted. But, I really think it's a great opportunity for many people!