If you're reading this there's a good chance we want to meet each other
. My name is John-Finlay, I'm a
permie searching for a place to ground in, send down some
deep roots, and call home. Perhaps we can help each other out...
The short story:
I'm looking for a place to setup a home base. I would like to live somewhere in a rural community, perhaps with a town within an hour or so, somewhere in either Washington (preferably North or Central or West) or potentially Northern Oregon probably towards the coast, or if things feel right New Zealand (I've been thinking about moving there for a while now and I have some family there, but I'm not really into flying.) Exactly where isn't as important as with whom.
I would like to live with and around people who share complementary interests, intentions, values, and skills who are wanting and able to collaborate to build, maintain, and/or develop a permie paradise. I want to focus time,
energy, and finance to restore ecological health to landscape, grow food and medicine, raise animals, practice social forestry management, host workshops and gatherings, and build a place of full of health, love, beauty, creativity, resiliency, meaningful
experience, deep connection, and various other healing life experiences. I want this type of work to support us financially and to enable us to practice these these things fully.
A little bit more detail:
I would like to live on a medium to large plot of
land, I think 20 acres minimum unless it was directly connected to National Forest. I would like to have easy access to natural resources such as woodlands and streams and I would like access to wilderness without having to drive (at least not far.) I would also like the land to already have some clear area that gets sun and has agricultural potential (I'm not looking to colonize the Forest.) Most significantly I would like to live with other permie people who are wanting and able to execute permie projects. I would love to live with some experienced and/or inspired farmers or gardeners and at least one person wanting to collaborate on some building projects. And I would love to live in a place that has other farming communities around it. Does this place even exist?!? Well these are all ideals, and I know it takes a lot of work to create such a place, and I want to contribute to that work, and I'm able to adapt I many different situations.
A little bit about me:
I have been in this body, on this planet, for the past twenty nine years. In that time I've called myself an artist, an architect, a planner, a teacher, a designer, a chef, a builder, a landscaper, a forester, a permaculturalist, a laborer, a juggler, a welder, a wonderer, a witness, a sky watcher, a tree hugger, a dirt worshiper, a lover of life, a deeply spiritual being following the path of intuition toward love, light, and liberty, a guy wondering through life looking for a place to be in this crazy world, sometimes feeling a bit lost but knowing that I am being held, you know, one of those alternative types.
I am all these things, and more...
After getting multiple architecture degrees I found myself in one of those towers downtown working one of those soul crushing corporate jobs designing the buildings that I had just spent the last decade of my life learning are morally wrong to build that we cannot go on building much longer. All because I was told I needed to do so. Nine months of this passed before I couldn't take it any longer, so something had to shift...
Six years earlier I had, by chance, in an architectural book store happened to find myself reading a book: building green, a 500 or so page DIY construction manual for building a tiny home with four different natural building wall systems and a green roof. I instantly knew that this was the type of building I wanted to participate in and read the whole thing with deep infatuation. School kept me busy with other projects for the time being, but the seed had been planted and was waiting to sprout.
Zooming back to my corporate life, realizing that something needed to change. I e-mailed a natural builder whose work I had admired in Portland and within twenty minutes she got back to me telling me that her neighbor was building a
cob house and needed help. Good timing! So after freaking my folks out and getting a good amount of moral support from my friends I was off on an adventure to find a different way of being in this world. That was now about three and a half years ago, although it has felt like a lifetime. Since then I have been focusing my time, money, and efforts in getting as much experience as possible, especially with hands on design/build projects. I have taken as many permie workshops and gotten stuck into as many design build projects as I have been able. I've primarily worked for farmers and have specialized my studies in housing, agricultural buildings, meeting spaces, timber frames, and natural building techniques. I have made large and medium site plans, designed homes, designed large meeting spaces, designed a brewery, a pavillion, and a creamery, and am now looking to focus my energy on designing and building off grid tiny homes made from primarily natural materials. I have built a few small homes and structures and have built a few cob ovens and rocket stoves and masonry heating devices, I have designed and installed a large rainwater harvesting system (10,000 gallons) I have gardened and cooked a lot of delicious food for a lot of beautiful people, I have painted a few very nice signs, and made
art, and I have tried to have as much fun as possible while doing so. All the while I have been connecting with many inspiring people and places. And I am so grateful to be able to be on this journey. It is a wonderful
gift! And I'm excited to see where it all takes me next.
I feel I've been building and developing many useful skills and ways of thinking required to bring a permie paradise into reality. And now I am feeling very ready to find a place to ground all these skills and studies and transition fully into that role. And I know that I cannot do this alone, that is not possible and would be completely missing the point.
And that's where you come in
....
I am not familiar with Washington or New Zealand (I have lived in Oregon for the past six years) but I feel inspired to head either of those directions (I'm at a bit of a cross
Roads.) If I do stay in the states I have a lot of great friends who would be willing to help out in various ways. What I need is to find a place to be. And to connect with the right people there. And to be given permission and support to fully pursue these types of permie projects. So can you help me out? Do you want to create something beautiful together?
This could look like a lot of different things, and I am keeping an open mind to all sorts of possibilities. Perhaps you are an already established community looking land owners and/or a design builder to live and work with. Or an individual land owner just starting out, looking for help planning and/or getting some projects done. Or a farmer wanting but buy in on something. I don't know, but I'm open and would like to chat with you about whatever ideas you have.
My Highest Intentions:
I want to be of service to the rise of this movement we are witnessing: the awakening of a higher consciousness and the formation of a regenerative culture focused around bringing nourishment and healing and love into this world. My intention is to heal my relationship with myself, to heal my relationship to other people, and to heal my relationship with our environment and all the beings that reside in it. I want to develop deep and meaningful connections with the other beings of this world, which includes in large part people, and to offer my skills and service as best as I am able to increase the general well being of all being. I want to form collaborative, cooperative, creative partnerships aimed at bringing about these regenerative cultural ideals into practice. And I want it to be fun, lots of fun.
If you're interested in any of this please let me know, I'd love to hear from you. Comments, questions, suggestions, whatever...
My email is:
PeaceLovinPermie@gmail.com
Much Love always and forever,
J-fin.
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