Looking to start a Vegan Eco Village in Snowflake, Arizona. Zone 6 - Now Costa Rica

Hello,  My name is Tim. I have a small family of 3, my partner Nadina and my son Helios. We have a 43 acre property in Snowflake, Arizona that is in Zone 6. It has a small 2 bedroom home on the property that is almost fully fenced with barbed wire. We haven't started to develop on it yet. We plan on trying to move there by April of 2018. So ideally we plan on the property being mainly foodforest with fruit trees. We will also be growing our firewood, lumber, and different types of timber bamboos. We also plan on using about 5 acres to do a bio-intensive garden area. With that being said we plan on using mostly perennials for it; As we don't want to continually be replanting annuals. We'd also plan on having a nursery as we won't have time to keep replanting annuals. Since we are Vegan we don't plan on raising any animals for slaughter. If we do ever have animals or birds on the property they will be rescues or on the endangered list. The permaculture farm that we are trying to start will be called Roots To Heal Farmacy.
        We are looking for either an investor, partner, entrepreneur, volunteer, or just someone that wants to join a like minded community. I'm not a man of alot of money, with that said we will want someone with vision, slight experience, or permaculture schooling. We are going to try and start this farm with little to no money. One of our goals will be to raise money from grants and crowdfunding online. We want to try and be debt free, so that we can give affordable/cheaper prices on our fruits and vegetables. We feel as if we won't be losing money out of pocket we can beat competitors prices. With their being a large retirement community not to far from where we are. We thought we would give cheap prices on our food we sell.
         I myself have never taken any permaculture classes, But I have been studying from books and different YouTube videos. I  have had a little experience from renting a house from my best friend and he let me do what I wanted on the property. So I experimented with the foodforest and I can say that I now know what I did wrong the first time. That's why I know the first thing that needs to be done is all the earthworks. From the swales and ponds, to the different roads and trails throughout the Farm. Then we plan to start to plant the trees and plants throughout the Farm. Also we'd like to plan on building each family there own home on the Farm. We'll be using sandbags and /or cob techniques to do so. We will be like the Amish people and everyone will join the building of the new homes for different community members. We have a pretty good idea of what we want to do on the Farm. It would be nice to link up with someone with some design experience, So that we can take it to the next level!! We have very big plans for our permaculture Farm community! In the future if we are successful we plan on purchasing land in 2 more cold climate areas and 2 more tropical climate locations. Our end goal is to have enough property to keep all our families housed and fed. Plus we don't want to feel trapped in one location. So we will buy in places we would love to travel to. I'm not getting ahead of myself I just have a big vision. If you are interested we can go into more detail as we don't want to continue rambling on about the subject, we could go for miles! We send our love and light to you in hopes this resonates with your being!

Love always,
Tim, Nadina, and Baby Helios

Hi, I am an environmentalist looking for a parcel of land to rent to own or pay off through manual labor, time, and education. My intention is to build a partially private, partially community based permaculture paradise. I have experience but I have a lot of educating ahead of me as learning is a never ending process. I can provide more information, a resume and credentials upon request.  Thank you.

Hmm, hot summers, cold winters and not much rain.  Sounds challenging.  

Best of luck to you and please keep us posted.

Howdy Tim, welcome to permies!  Could you post a couple of pictures of your land? Might help get a few more responses?

Hello sorry it took me so long to repost I got busy at work. Kimberly Scaliatine I would love to see your resume. You could send it to rootstohealmovement@yahoo.com. We might be able to work something out. Unfortunately I have a road block and I won't be able to move out there until September instead. Unless I find another way to make money out there. But it doesn't mean we can't work something out.

Peter VanDerWal, Im located in snowflake, Arizona. I'm not in Phoenix where it's a 120 degrees. It might reach 100 but nothing like Phoenix. Plus snowflake has one of the biggest Aquaphors in the country. But I still do not plan on drilling any wells for water use. I plan on harvesting rain water for everything. But yes it will still be a challenge since I'm not loaded with cash.

Here are some pictures I took of property last time we were there. It is pretty much a clear slate. There not the greatest pics but this is what the area looks like.

Thanks for the pictures Tim ! I love that sunset.

So have you been there during any rain events yet? Can you see where water flows across the land when it does rain? Any gullies or washes?

Have you met any of the neighbors? Or are you pretty isolated? Anybody else doing anything that looks like permaculture?

Nice to have a fence, gives you more control of any wandering cattle that might be around.

Speaking of animals, there are ways to use animals to help you develop gardens and grasses with out using them for food. ; )  Chickens are hard workers and would be good companions.

I have seen a few parcels for sale down that way for pretty good prices, if I was a lot younger I would be tempted to see if I could be your neighbor.

Hi Tim

Not as hot as Phoenix for sure, but remember burning ants with a magnifying glass? Come June you're the ant. You will spend June looking forward to the July monsoon clouds.

I am Northeast of you near at the edge of the petrified Forest. You get more rain than me. We are in a five year drought so cross your fingers for a thundering monsoon.

I have a pit greenhouse but that just means you are that much closer to the critters. Late last year i built an above ground greenhouse and i will see how it does this growing year.

I am successfully killing hundreds of seedlings but i think i now i have a handle on it.  I have a decent source of tree seedlings that grow in our area. If you want any info let me know and I'll give you my email.

My only neighbors are four miles away. I see them maybe ten times a year, that's about a community either of us want to be.

  Miles Flansburg, hello, unfortunately we have not witnessed the rain fall on the property yet. Everytime I get there I have just missed it. But I have seen where there is washes and gullies I might be able to work with.
  We don't have any close neighbors either the closest one is about quarter mile away. But the best part is they won't be bugging me about anything I'm doing on the property. There is a couple people practicing permaculture people about an hour away. One already has a farm and is selling there vegetables. And the other one is just getting started. I'm hoping we could all help eachother out here and there when needed.
  We do plan on using animals on the Farm to help us out. But we will have to set it up so we don't have to buy any food for them. I got ahead of myself before and had to buy most of the food for all the animals we had and it got kind of pricey. But like I said they will all be rescues or at least endangered. We know they are important to a farm.

Kevin stewert, hello, what is a pit greenhouse? Is it like this picture I just posted. Because I was planning on building a few of them eventually to help get plants started during winter. At least that was the plan. I was going to try out one first and see how it works.
  We would love to get the info on where to get tree seedlings cheaper. Please feel free to email me with the info my email is rootstohealmovement@yahoo.com.
  I'm trying to find a place that has good prices on rental equipment. Because the place I had called seemed a little pricey. As I will be renting a skip loader and a escavator. That way I could work on the trails, roadways, swales and ponds

Hi
I will send you an email but i will cover some things here because they should be shared.

The nearest Earth moving machine near me is Holbrook at 65 miles away. I would have to hire someone with a big truck to bring the trailer. I have heard that there is a local (within 30 miles) man that does driveways so maybe i will look into that.

I dug a pit greenhouse to keep out of the wind. It gets nasty.there was also some thought about the temperature inside being affected by the soil. I originally built in wood and covered it with 6 mil plastic. It might have lasted six months in the sun and wind.  Now i cover it with 80% shade cloth and I'll worry about flowering plants later.
There is talk on this site about heating a greenhouse. To my thinking it's too much money and effort. I want to look at winter vegetables. I have grown lettuce that had snow on it. Not much, rabbits ate everything.

I grow in large trays that get water from a water pit with a solar pump. I drive up from LA and find the pit empty, the pump broke,  or a pipe came loose and dumped all my water.
This year i fill the pit (pond liner, 2000 gallons) and put in fat head minnows, a fish that breeds between lunch and dinner, and maybe some crayfish, if the little bastards don't dig a hole through the liner.

You will not be able to grow anything on the ground like in the picture. Bunnies and kangaroo rats will take everything.  That is the problem with the pit greenhouse: ground level.  My above ground greenhouse is PVC hoop covered with 80% shade cloth.( Think that's too much shade? Wait till June) the trays are off the ground.
To beat the wind i put plywood walls at each end. The hoops are bolted to the trays and the shade cloth is sewn (badly) to each hoop. It gets tested this year.

I get antsy if a post starts getting too long. I expect i will add more later.

Hey! Two pictures got lost.

Kevin stewert, thanks for the info and pictures. Yeah I know what you mean about the rabbits and the kangaroo rats. I had a problem with them where I used to farm. Plus we had ground squirrels everywhere. So far ground squirrels have been the hardest to deal with. I haven't seen them on my property yet so that's a plus. But those rabbits I seen on my property our the size of my 2year old son. They are a little intimidating especially when you see the size s the holes they live in.
   Do you have a foodforest on your property? What type of farming are you going focus on? We should keep in touch seeing how your not to far from where I am. What type of trees are those seedlings?

Hi

I'm only at my place a total of two months a year. I drive from LA when i can.
There is no farming where i am. I plan on greenhousing everything,the soil is in bad shape. My land is littered with cow Pat's that are four years old. I try to read Mr redhawk's writings on soil, eventually i will print them out.
I would love to have a Spanish style walled garden where I'd use his techniques. (Yes, with a raised wall goldfish pond.)

My goal is to prove that you can grow food out here. I also spend time and a lot of money fencing off my land. The more I'm around cows the more i become a rabid environmentalist. I sometimes stand at a fenceline trying to determine if the protected shrubs look taller than the non protected.

I have dug swales by hand, usually a spade or two wide.i filled them with cow Pat's and twigs from shrubs and four years later (drought) there is no improved growth and the biodegradable didn't.
I will say that the grass growth along a damn berm i built is impressive.
My future plans are to wander my property digging small pits in the open spaces. Places to collect water.

The seedlings you see are some plants the Gallup Walmart were getting rid of in October. Those stupid towering junipers, the blue tips.  Thing is, i transplanted them into bigger pots in october and when i went to put them in the ground in January there was impressive root growth. I thought they would have gone dormant. As they get tall i will lop off the tops.

Kevin stewert, So you are not allowed to farm on your land? Are you allowed to reforest it at least? There is a man named Sepp Holzer and he wasn't able to farm either. But he was able to reforest his land. And as Long as none of the fruit trees had labels on them. He could do it. Not trying to tell you what to do or anything just something I thought I would share.
 I know what you mean with the swales I have thought alot about them. Since where I am is like a desert(I'm sure because of cows).  I think I'm going to do different sized swales. I even plan on putting in a really big swale which will be more like a channel. Plus a few ponds that connect to each other. That is if I ever get a chance to save money to rent the equipment needed to do such things. I'll be doing it myself as I am a equipment operator in road construction. I have never used the equipment needed to do the job but I pick things up pretty fast. Thanks for your email as well I needed some of those seedlings they have on there list. So it works out perfectly.

Alright so plans have recently changed again. This week while visiting my property. My Dad sent me a add about a job so when I got here I stopped by and filled out a application and they called me back soon after. So I got the job, now we are finally moving from southern California to the Arizona property. We already got a family dog out here.  Now we are ready to get things started on the Farm. We could really use someone interested in a challenge. Please if you are interested at all write me and I'll get back to you very soon. So if you have a tent, Yurt, van, or a tiny home on a trailer. Your welcome to park it on the property. Please feel free to contact me and we will work something out. And please remember we are just getting started. So there are no fruit trees or gardens started yet. And we have no water on property so it will be a bite of a challenge to get started.

We are now living on the farm. We are trying to get things started out here. I got a trailer with a water 275 gallon water tank on it. So we could get water from town. I have a 150 trees started by seed for a wind break. They are 4 different types of trees as well which are all drought tolerate. They are also for privacy and to keep other big wildlife out of the garden area as they have nice thorns on them.

   We want to make this a income sharing community and to start excepting new members. We wouldn't mind if there is people who have money to invest in the community. But if not we could still work something out. Since there is no income being made from the farm yet. I have to go to work everyday to pay the mortgage on the property. Everyone have to put in a certain number of hours on the community farm or if you have a job that counts as hours being put towards the farm. We also think that we should all have our own living spaces. But if there is some who don't mind living together we don't mind that either. So everyone who we add as members will eventually have there own tiny home. We think all members should help build each other's natural tiny homes as well. Unless they bring there own tiny home of course. We do believe in communal eating. We want to create a kitchen for us all to eat together as a community. We are big on family as well and are looking for members with a family. Some of these income sharing communitys don't really want people to have children. But we are not like that. We think that there needs to be more people like minded people in income sharing community's. So having kids who live this lifestyle will help. And we will just have to expand our acreage to accommodate. And as we already have said we want to one day expand to the tropics as well. That way our community has other options if we don't want to live here all the time. I haven't seen any other income sharing communitys do that. Hope to hear from you soon thanks for taking the time to read this.

Hello Tim and Family,
Congrats on being able to settle and grow together in magical Snowflake, AZ. I love it up there (I am about 275 miles south of you in desert, hot, hot, hot Luna-Tic County and the SW New Mexico).

I just wanted to mention that you might want to look into also cultivating and growing Pinon trees for their delicious nuts. You are in a good zone and the profit margins in relation to labor and water costs involved with them are phenomenal, at least $8 per pound profits these days.

If you are not familiar with the Pinon tree, Please look into this idea.

klee-pjp88029

Hello Tim I am interested in being a part of a vegan community who lives to learn and love. I am a single man, 19, with a passion to escape this day to day job live fully. I have interned at a farm for this summer in north east indiana, learned some about medicinal herbs too. Willing to relocate to an eco village that can provide a place to pitch a tent and live as a minimalist in exchange for work and anything that needs to be done. I want a learning experience with people who are like-minded. Email me: mindvacuous15@gmail.com if this seems reasonable to you. Namaste

Sorry we have recently decided to make this happen in Costa Rica instead. Thats where I originally had wanted to make it happen. We want something Tropical instead of a dessert climate. Life is to short to live where you don't want to live. I made a new post on the intentional community section. you can message me here doesn't matter. Pura Vida

I am sorry I forgot to mention that we are only looking for people who are already eating a plant based diet, preferably vegan. This is more of what we really want our community to be like. One of the cool things is we will be the only income sharing community in Costa Rica. We looked far and wide before we decided we wanted to start one ourselves. Pura Vida

kevin stewart wrote:Hi Tim

Not as hot as Phoenix for sure, but remember burning ants with a magnifying glass? Come June you're the ant. You will spend June looking forward to the July monsoon clouds.

I am Northeast of you near at the edge of the petrified Forest. You get more rain than me. We are in a five year drought so cross your fingers for a thundering monsoon.

I have a pit greenhouse but that just means you are that much closer to the critters. Late last year i built an above ground greenhouse and i will see how it does this growing year.

I am successfully killing hundreds of seedlings but i think i now i have a handle on it.  I have a decent source of tree seedlings that grow in our area. If you want any info let me know and I'll give you my email.

My only neighbors are four miles away. I see them maybe ten times a year, that's about a community either of us want to be.

Geoff Lawton ( I think that's spelled right?) Has videos on youtube about re greening the desert and he has a cool video about a lush area in the middle of Arizona desert, pretty cool stuff, it can be done.