On Narrow Pond in Ant Village

Thank you Greg, it was a bit of work :)

Hey Orin i'm enjoying following your posts both bootcamp and ant village.I appreciate your hardwork and determination.There is an animalistic feeling and tranquility on the lab.Stare at the clouds but not to long.Stay in the woods and your good.If you think you got enough firewood cut twice as much.Once you have a village you our as strong as the steppe.I like the rock cistern idea pretty sweet getting a Nabataean feel to it.Narrow ponds reminds me of EarthSea books.Keep it up brother lookin good.You got any pictures of old structures?how has bearcave aged?

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?

Ben Skiba wrote:....I like the rock cistern idea pretty sweet getting a Nabataean feel to it.Narrow ponds reminds me of EarthSea books.....

I knew the only way I personally could bring water to my acre is to store it from rain; rocking in clay walls seemed the natural answer. Since the Upper Labs are a glacial rain forest in the winter (complete with misting freezing rains), and a high desert in the summer, narrow ponds, whose depth are greater than their diameter, seemed like the answer for hot weather evaporation in the summer and collection during the winter.  

Ben Skiba wrote:Keep it up brother lookin good.You got any pictures of old structures?how has bearcave aged?

The logs and small poles used for the walls/ceiling were not barked and as a result now are full of white fungi which are rapidly breaking the poles down.  Additionally, many of the poles and logs were not long enough to meet at the center or the roof line; this means at some point in the future, when the tarps degrade (which they will due to not having dirt or brush cover at the top 3rd of the roof), the roof will have holes in it in many places.

The clay sides are now caving in near the cut in seats and cut roots due to water.

My solution to this is to remove all the brush, remove the tarps, cut new poles of the correct length. remove the bark, and replace the too short and too rotten poles.

Since I will basically re-design and replace most of the building (I suspect only the clay floor and mid thigh clay walls will remain), I'll rename the new building the Dwarf's Redoubt. I use this name because the site has no solar gain unless I remove many trees.... I might redo it in rock entirely to prevent the clay from caving in. It won't be my living space; I have ideas and plans but I'll wait to see how the place evolves.

I don't share pictures of what I do on Narrow Pond to the general public; those who provide material support get that kind of information.

I see you are near or on Dine land. I love the southwest in a way not easily explained. I hope your own scared four are well established or on the way to being so!

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.