Bob Ruby ll

My 2 Cents in the form of a video of a commercial version of the homebuilt Dianne is mentioning in her post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd8j03CtgEA

I was referred here via the podcast with Davin and the link in the podcast summary.

Since before paying to start the Ant thing, I have been thinking of the possibilities of tours and or weekend outings to allow the "normal" people to experience the Permie life on a dip your toe in first kind of trial.

Things I planned for my area of the Ant Village is a communal "pea patch" garden using hugelkultur, that folks can stop at part way into the tour to have a little snack of the crop du juor. I'd really like to have a cut-away view to show off what lies beneath and why it works.

We would also be willing to house in our structure guests, or build a small shelter for overnight stays for those who want to dip their whole foot into the Permie way.

As far as $$$ goes, I had gone with the assumption that whoever was organizing the tour would be paying all expenses and whatever is necessary for cleanup. e.g. Missoula MUD brings a bus full of MUD people to show them the lab, they pay their own gas, workers/volunteers, and a security deposit or small fee to cover road maint. and any cleaning/repair of things like the pooper(s) and the pristine land at the lab.

Knowing humans, we would be better suited to have a "Visitor's center" reception area, where folks can "visit" the lab all without leaving the basecamp. Loaded with miniatures and conceptual drawings and "how to" manuals ets. (monetizing their visit). I hate paying for tours but love spending all the cash in my pocket at the giftshop. This would satisfy many folks' curiosity and leave the lab in pristine condition.

I'm a firm believer in vetting visitors, and allowing them access to only what they've shown they are capable of respecting, or even understanding. Ever been to one of those horrible things called a Zoo? They attempt to make the animals feel at home, sometimes spending millions of dollars to recreate the look and feel of their habitat, when any inconsiderate boob can redecorate with a popcorn box, pop can or even themselves. The priority should be on mitigating the damage of "normal" humans, before they do irrevocable harm.

I think there will be some tour worthy (Worth paying for) items in the future. I think folks would be willing to pay just as they do for things like MUD workshops, for a look into an alternative way of producing crops and living. I think too much.

- Bobsquatch

Here's a sign I made using Montana's trespass law. I figure at least the honest folks will treat it like they do any official looking sign vs. all the trite, cute, witty, or offensive and threatening signs.



I worked at a company that had a sign in each stall of the restroom that read: "Be considerate of your fellow employees, flush the toilet", and all I could think was; considerate people don't need signs and inconsiderate people don't read signs.

DAVIN thank you so much, now we can start planning using more than "Oh I think it was over there" type planning. ; - )

Got to bring a friend (Denny) to the Ant Village he is definitely going to join the Ant community. I had a feeling a 2nd acre would be the right move. He's all about getting the village to become a "community", already found an awesome place to create a circle-type gathering place, surrounded by our hugel beds/berms. I'm excited about that in a big way, it was just a spot that happened to had tree stumps that outlined a circle shape perfectly.

We also couldn't help but notice the abundance of BERMs, I personally think we should refer to this as "Bermies" I plan to have a good time with that turn of phrase. Starting Friday we'll have a "Weekend at Bermies". I know that's an old reference, I'm old, it's what we do.

We put ribbon up (at least as much as the wind would allow) to get an idea of what kind of space we have to work with.

We met Jesse last night, shared out cookies and chatted, we're so close to getting moved in at the tiny house village, then it's full-time work out at the Ant Village. Dianne was so excited to see all the cool bit on the property that are all ready to go to the bottom of our Hugel beds.

One of her 1st goals is to do a full blown debris shelter to finish one. She's never been anywhere that she was allowed to make one completely.

I have a basic idea of what the layout of our respective parcels of land will look like, now we need to finalize the exact size & shape.

See y'all friday if not sooner.

Bob
(Below is the concept for a T-shirt for Paul there will be more of these in the future, just for fun)

UPDATE on the beginning of our Tiny addition to basecamp.

1) Well the ground FLOOR (only) of what will eventually become the utility room is done. Now the walls & trusses are now cut to length (a little cutting for notches needs to be done). Battery powered (And Quiet) tools from this point on. I'll be making full use of nonpowered tools too, i have the COOLEST old hand drill.

2) Surveyed the location for not only our Tiny but the whole village of tinies, Tinys, Tine Es <- (Apparently spell check approves of this phonetic approach), anyway, drawings of proposed layout and concept of the future of that will be forthcoming, as I have a place to sit on site and observe the weather and lay of the land. I can already see evidence of long term deer trails and scat old & new to guide our layout so as not to interfere with these folk and their traditional routes. I'd hate to make THEM re-route for food, rather than US move to a location that we can better observe them.

Soon to be 3) Now if we could just get our FLOOR up the hill to the site. Question: How many Gappers, Ants & friends of family does it take to move an 8X12 floor up the hill at basecamp? The answer is no one knows, but I know how many couldn't do it. Thanks to all those with muscle, know-how and the ability to remain calm while a loaded trailer careens past them and through the woods. Special thanks to the gods who kept Sparrow & the Love Shack safe. No one came to mental or physical harm, so I consider it successful albeit not complete.

Onward & Upward.

- Bob Di & Sparrow As a side note; our "Elder" friend asked why I didn't take pics/movies to put on the Internet. I can't believe I missed the 21st Century way of staffing, 1 Supervisor, several workers & someone sitting back recording and laughing at the whole thing. It was pretty entertaining and if we raise our roof where it sits we'll have an excellent vista of the Love Shack. Is that voyeuristic?

So many ideas swimming and churning sometimes boiling in our heads...

As we gather these thoughts, filter them and begin to plan our escape, we will continue working on getting a "Tiny" structure onsite at basecamp to work from.

Here's where the status of that is:
https://permies.com/t/49412//Tiny-House-invade-Permies

Just in case you don't see updates here on a daily basis, it's because we are still way over there in base camp.

see you soon.

-UBS

Forgot the actual pics of our progress yesterday & today. Here they are:
First Stop - Home Resource for a cool $300 savings in materials:


We actually went back again today for more of the same.

Then we played in the sandbox (Turtle Lot):


Sparrow helped with handing us nails etc. for framing 101:


Then Sparrow built her SandChair 3000 using what she calls "Quick Cobb" and a nice stairway


And of course we finished with another Blob-O-Materials:


Gotta sleep now to get up tomorrow and get things ready to be hauled up to the Village, see the floor of the structure is going to be used as a sledge to get the rest of it to the top.

-UBS

Edited by moderator to fix photos

Rose Pinder wrote:Plog! I like it! (presumably short for permies log or permaculture log?).

You got it!

-UBS

Hi,
We are Ants 5 & 6 (Bob & Di & Sparrow, I know the math is all wrong but just roll with it.

We intend to get into the ant village within a month (T minus 42 days actually). BUT FIRST, we are building our tiny house in the soon to be designed, tested and low impacted, Tiny House Village at basecamp. It takes time and effort to dissociate from the world at large, there are incomes to replace, food & habit changes, we're not ready for winter but we can do this to buy time to OBSERVE, REFLECT, and ADJUST to our NEW SELVES. We're totally psyched about it and have even talked a friend into joining the party (More in by PLOG soon).

We'll be posting in the Forums as we go. Here's our baby steps so far:

WE considered this at first:


UPSIDE It has a cool porch, kitchen area & lofts:


relatively inexpensive, $14,000 total with free delivery, and they are right in good ol Montana (Plains), no credit check they just finance themselves (I imagine reclaiming your entire house on the same trailer it was delivered is their insurance that you will pay them.

DOWNSIDE(s):
It is $14,000, and when compared to building your own framing that's about $8,000 too much. AND... I chose to change the layout of the place anyway, because it didn't make much sense to put the windows UNDER the porch overhang. Or for that matter to lose space with the porch and door next to the "kitchen" entrance.

If the pic above doesn't work try just putting the link straight into the address bar - https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1lfJdS_KGDZD8M5-G4tTeYRI8jgUpdqd2BsFNsGozfc0/edit?usp=sharing

SO, after considering it fully we are going with our own layout and will start by building what will eventually be the "utility" room (off the side of the house in the drawing above).
We're gonna keep it under 500 square Ft. but will also do greenhouse wallipini or something with a small footprint, and try for a combo of wind & solar, not only for electric but using the vertical windmill to generate actual mechanical power for things like doing laundry or anything that requires motion that would otherwise burn up all the stored electric.

Love Life & Light,
Uncle BobSquatch (UBS for short)

Edited by moderator to fix pics