365 days in allerton abbey

I have mentioned in a few places that I would like to have somebody finish the wofati and stay in it, rent free, for 365 days.  

There is some cob work to be done, and some carpentry.  The big thing is to finish it and then proceed to test the ATI.  

I would prefer a couple lives in there.    They must both have listened to at least 200 of the podcasts.  

The work would need to be done in the first 60 days.  

The site is part of our tour, so the site must be kept "tour ready" from 8am to 8pm.  We've had some people insist that they would do this and it turns out that they think something super messy is "tour ready".  

Soembody is thinking about it and asked these questions.

Are dogs allowed?

Yes.  Although I don't allow dogs that bark at me, nor am I okay with dogs that bark at visitors.  If somebody is on an ant plot or deep roots plot, I don't mind so much.   But for allerton abbey, I need to set up this restriction.

Does the Wofati have electricity, running water, etc.  

The solar voltswagon is currently parked at alelrton abbey.   It is possible that this could change, but I currently have no plans to take it away.  

Running water is currently being worked on.  But I suspect it will be another year or two until this is realized.  In the meantime, people have been carrying water.

Paul said the Wofati participants would be on their own (how alone), are visitors going to be coming up (since it is part of the lab).

Allerton Abbey is really close to ant village.  There are currently about a dozen people living on the lab.  

Visitors will be coming by, unannounced, probably no more often than twice a week, between 8am and 8pm.



Any other questions?

One question I didn't see answered is: Would the couple be living in Allerton Abbey be living there rent free? Question rephrased a different way: Would they be paid by you for the upkeep, or need to pay to live there?

Nicole Alderman wrote:One question I didn't see answered is: Would the couple be living in Allerton Abbey be living there rent free? Question rephrased a different way: Would they be paid by you for the upkeep, or need to pay to live there?

Paul Wheaton paraphrased wrote:rent free for 365 days, but the work must be done within 60 days

Ah, thank you! I must be blind today...  

I've continued to edit and update the best, simple summary of all things wheaton labs thread. I'm gradually morphing it into almost like an FAQ format. The initial description of wheaton labs explains the the lab is off-grid, and base camp is on the grid with wifi.

I tried to make it easy to scan or skim through the rest of the details for topics like food, work, dogs, kids, tenting/camping and more.

I can see why there has not been anyone who has taken you up on your offer of free rent for a year. While there has been some terrific work done on AA it seems based on my experience seeing it a year ago, and reading a lot of the posts, AA has a long way to go to be a real home. It would certainly help to have some hearty souls live there and fix some of the problems that still exist. At present it's a pretty groovy log/primitive, off-grid cabin. Please don't misconstrue my intentions here. I think this is a terrific experiment that a years residency would yield many benefits to the permaculture community.

If there was any incentive to the couple for staying the entire 365 days I think there would be several volunteers who don't mind going without water, electricity etc

Will they get the two weeks off like our intrepid ants got in the ant challenge?

Would firewood be available to our daring duo to heat AA? Water?

Would the chateau de poo be located more closely to AA or would our heroes be expected to make the trip every morning? or perhaps a private "chateau de poo 2 or 1/2" can be built?

Is there or might there be the possibility of building a solar shower near AA?

What happens if something happens that makes AA unlivable? ie: a tree falls on it? lightning strikes? snowed out? flooded out? grizzly bear shows up? burns up?

What if our couple were the ones that burned the place up, would they be held liable? Insurance?

Will they be allowed to have firearms with them?

Can our brave people have outside jobs? Could they work for the ants?

Can they do bounty work once the 60 days have passed and they have completed the work on AA?

What level of participation in the Base Camp/Lab community will you expect from our terrific twosome?

What happens if the couple decides to breakup but one wants to stay?

Once our brave couple takes up residency at AA, will others be allowed to use AA, like the ants or will AA be their private residence, except for tours?

Hope I don't get banned for saying some of these things. Good Luck!

My desire is to be constructive and helpful. I envision the 365 days in AA going something like this.

Our couple arrives April 1 2017 at the Lab. They begin by unloading their meager belongings into AA. They unpack their sleeping bags, (its still nippy out this time of year) their cooking supplies, some food and clothing. They let the dogs explore their new home for the next 365 days. They get the lay of the land, they get an idea of what needs to be done to repair or improve AA. By now it's been a long day as the sun begins to set

April 2, 2017 Paul arrives to discuss what his expectations are for the improvement and repair of AA. An agreement is reached as to what is expected to be completed in the first 60 days. Besides the work of AA, the following tasks need to be completed and identified

1 -  Build a mini chateau de poo
2 -  Build a solar shower
3 -  Firewood lots of firewood 4 cords minimum
4 -  Garden construction, maintenace
5 -  Fetch Water
6 -  Feed the dogs
7 -  Do the daily post to Permies.com about the doings at "365 Days in AA"
8 -  Make Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
9 -  Get up at sunrise, go to bed at sunset
10 - etc

April 3 2017 - April 1, 2018 Do items 3 - 10 over and over and over again.


Anybody else?

What I've seen in Jesse Grimes' videos, Allerton Abbey looks almost like my Dream House But some things keep me from contacting Paul to say I'd like to live there:
- I am not a couple, only 1 person (female, 60 yrs of age)
- I only listened a few of Pauls podcasts
- I do not have any building experience, my skills with tools are very limited
- Missoula is very, very far away from where I live now ...

I think the biggest issue is that the gub'mint will probably be weird about somebody from outside the US being here more than 90 days.

paul wheaton wrote:I think the biggest issue is that the gub'mint will probably be weird about somebody from outside the US being here more than 90 days.

yes I think so too Paul

I would have said you will be so remote they wont know you over stayed your visa until you go back a year later, but after yesterday it is hard to say, there might be chances of roving squads of troops looking for foreigners.

As for AA when I was there in June it was having serious structural issues due to settling.  I am not sure if Mike worked on them, I  know he was trying to get the front door working again but had not succeeded when I left.  I guess I would describe it as a bit dank, and vermin infested.  I felt sorry for Janet staying there and the mice ruining all her food so I got her the two buckets with screw lids.  Also on the outside the ground squirrels were nesting on top of AA so it was not clear if they breached the umbrella.

Other thing to note for cobbing,  it is not like there is a huge piles of clay, sand and straw sitting there ready to go.  

Tom, in addition to the buckets for Janet, you left behind gobs and gobs of gifts to make life better all around wheaton labs - THANK YOU!!

Yes, the settling in Allerton Abbey, and the rodents, are problems. Janet starting making inroads to keeping the rodents out cobbing up some of the worst gaps in the walls. The settling remediation is very much a part of the plan to revitalize Allerton Abbey. It's possible that the couple staying in the wofati do not need to know the higher level skills to fix the more challenging things like the settling, though it would definitely help!

I think Paul likes the idea of a couple staying there, just because it can be FAR easier for two people to tend a fire, cook hot meals while still getting work done, hold up two ends of a board, fold the burrito tarp while stomping cob, etc., etc., than one person alone. I think it could even be a platonic couple, or friends; it just seems that folks who already know how to live together might have a better chance at feeling really good about living and working together in rustic, off-grid circumstances.

As for the showers and the chateu de poo - some folks are more amenable to the still-a-bit-primitive life on the lab than others, to be sure. The chateau de poo is actually closer to Allerton Abbey than any other structure on the lab, and while there is no shower currently provided by wheaton labs up on the lab, this has not been a deal breaker for the +/-12 residents who are living up there currently. Some have set up their own solar showers, do spit baths (or whatever you want to call it with a bucket or some such), or are fine with showering at the Fisher Price House at base camp on weekly feast nights.

Most of the lab residents now have their own kitchens, so as far as I can tell, they are no longer using Allerton Abbey as a community kitchen. Perhaps a lab resident might like to chime in on that aspect of lab life.

I felt some images were worth adding/repeating here.

The umbrella and porch on the front of the Abbey have been modified and improved since this picture.



And this is the new back porch that Jesse built, looking all cozy and festive last winter:

When one party has the inkling to try out this plan but has to introduce another party to the idea it would be helpful to have more complete pictures to show. Could someone please step over and take current pictures of the front, back, and interior? Looking through the AA threads I can see plenty outdated pictures of a charming building.

Here is the most recent picture of the front:



Most recent picture of the bedroom(?):



Most recent picture of the batch box heater:

lorance romero wote:

4 -  Garden construction, maintenace

How big is the allotted space around AA?

Also, only being at episode 152 I am not sure if people are carting water into AA from onsite or offsite.

Patrick Kniesler wrote:When one party has the inkling to try out this plan but has to introduce another party to the idea it would be helpful to have more complete pictures to show. Could someone please step over and take current pictures of the front, back, and interior? Looking through the AA threads I can see plenty outdated pictures of a charming building.

Here's not just pictures, but videos for you.

See Jesse's August 2016 video of Allerton Abbey - he tours AA at about 16:40 in this video. I'd link directly to the video here, but I want you to see his comments and more in his thread.

See Dirtpatcheaven's video of Allerton Abbey starting at 4:20. The first part (and the pic that shows up on the video) is all about Cooper Cabin. The inside of Allerton Abbey had a lot of buckets and stuff lying around (as in Jesse's video) from cob work going on inside, so it's either that or lost footage which is why Dirtpatcheaven's video didn't include inside AA. Dirtpatcheaven visited in early September 2016.

Patrick Kniesler wrote:How big is the allotted space around AA?

There are over 200 wheaton labs acres around Allerton Abbey. Which is to say, we have not defined a "lot" that is exclusive to the Abbey at this time. It's a short hike through the trees to get to the tipi or ant village plots, so the Abbey has a least an acre or two around it that are fairly private in that you don't see any neighbors. Only the ant village plots have boundaries at this time, and all residents are welcome to forage, garden, hunt, harvest wood, etc. on the entire 200 acres - respecting folks' private spaces and using good woodland, wildlife and land stewardship, of course.

Patrick Kniesler wrote:Also, only being at episode 152 I am not sure if people are carting water into AA from onsite or offsite.

As Paul wrote in the first post of this thread:

paul wheaton wrote:

Does the Wofati have electricity, running water, etc.  

The solar voltswagon is currently parked at alelrton abbey.   It is possible that this could change, but I currently have no plans to take it away.  

Running water is currently being worked on.  But I suspect it will be another year or two until this is realized.  In the meantime, people have been carrying water.

When people carry water in to their residences on the lab, it is typically water from base camp, which has very good, very abundant well water. The other water on the lab that is being worked on is used for a small portion of water needs by some lab residents.

140 days till the 1st of April, 2017

Just saying!