Hi,
My family and I are just NE of Toronto, Ontario (Zone 5ish). We currently inhabit your typical suburban house, though I do like to garden, so there is
permie influence already afoot.
We've seriously caught the
permaculture disease and are making plans to buy property and build. We have a bit of theoretical knowledge, but no 'real'
experience. Where I'm going with this post is that I'd really like to draw on your collective research, wisdom and experiences to help move this
project in the right direction.
Our current timeline for the jump is <2yrs, Spring of 2013 ideally.
What we want to do - build a
sustainable lifestyle that feeds our family and helps to regenerate the planet through multiple means. The intention is to end up with a well designed home and property that requires little in the way of inputs.
Ultimately, founding a PRI Ontario could be a goal.
I'm currently fixated on the house and what concepts and technologies to use. Current thoughts are:
[li]Compost toilets[/li]
[li]Rainwater harvesting, 100% household supply is the goal[/li]
[li]RHM, if required[/li]
[li]High Thermal Mass home[/li]
[li]Earth Tubes[/li]
[li]Natural materials/finishes, etc.[/li]
[li]Temperate Food Forest[/li]
[li]Aquaponics & Chinampas - Holzer/low input ponds[/li]
We are currently searching for:
[li]Land, so if you're in the area and have thoughts where/how to look...[/li]
[li]Creative ideas for financing the land. [/li]
[li]Thoughts on using a consolidated earth technology (Rammed, CEB earth block, etc) to construct our home. Perhaps some hybrid with strawbales. We will have to conform to code.[/li]
[li]Any good links, resources, indispensable books, people to speak with, cautions, warnings, etc. ALL appreciated.[/li]
If you've done this sort of thing or are doing it now, we'd love to hear from you. Please, I suspect most of you are planning the same sort of thing, to one degree or another. Feel free to make this
thread a repository.
Sorry for the length, I've cut a lot of details to try not to scare people away.
Thank you,
I will be establishing a blog at www.permacultureontario.org shortly, please check it out.
