Jh Sheridan

I struggled with choosing which forum to put this in, so please let me know if there's a better place for this message.

I'm part of a group of 3 guys + our partners/families who are looking to "get back to the land." We all grew up together in a small town, so the trust levels are high. Two of us got out of that small town and into much larger cities as is a natural inclination a lot of people who grow up that way. We're now all in out late 20s/early 30s, and are all itching to get out to the country and form an intentional community for ourselves.

I'd say we're pretty typical for guys our age. Some of us have a little bit of debt, but nothing that's life-ending. We are all now at least a few steps into our careers. None of us are making TONS of money, but we all have good, stable, above-average incomes.

We've prioritized paying off debts and building up some basic savings with left over money. Those of us who aren't already self-employed are looking to start self-employed side-gigs to generate some extra revenue. We have weekly phone calls to check in on each others progress and are all pretty dedicated to making this work.

My question is this: besides increasing our revenue streams and saving/investing money, what else can we be doing in the short term to prepare for our move to the land? One thing we've discussed is all trying to choose a skill to develop that none of us currently have that would be beneficial to the group as a whole on the homestead. Things like 3d modelling, welding, carpentry, etc. What else can we do? Are there items we should be looking out for good deals on that we will definitely need in the future that we could hoard now? Maybe something like used/damaged solar panels we could fix up? Maybe water storage barrels/tanks that other people are getting rid of?

Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance!

The website is great! I gave you a follow on your twitter as well.

As I mentioned before, we are still maybe 2 years from purchasing land, but I'm trying to do as much research now as possible so we can hit things full speed when we have the $$$. If natural building fits within our requirements, I think we'd definitely be looking for workshops or something similar to get some hands on experience with people who know what they're doing. It seems like a skillset worth investing in.

Thanks again for all your help.

Sheila,

I am currently in Europe and will continue to be through most of the rest of this year. I'm from South Carolina and plan to make WNC my permanent home eventually. I'm also open to eastern TN. Just somewhere in Appalachia relatively close to family in SC.

I have not heard anything about building codes specifically, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that they are strict in most of NC. I assume this is a county by county issue though.

Where I last lived in WNC was about 30 minutes north of Asheville. The property I lived on had a few other people living on it, and two of those people were sharing a yurt they built themselves from mostly scavenged materials. If you are near that area, I'd be willing to bet they'd show you around and tell you a bit about how they did it. It's a really cool place.

Keep me up to date on your journey. Seems like we have similar plans.

oh man... this is a goldmine. Thank you so much!

Have you built any structures like this yourself?

We don't own the property yet, but according to a friend in the area cob structures are relatively common, so I guess that's a good sign. I think one thing we will have in abundance is labor since we're all around 30 years old and willing to get our hands dirty.

One of the places I stayed in the NC mountains recently happened to have "The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling" by Daniel D. Chiras. That was my first introduction to the subject, but it all just made so much more sense than constantly pumping warm/cold air into a building like your regular old HVAC system.

Can you or anyone else recommend any great books or other resources on cob, strawbale, or rammed earth building?

Thanks so much for the information. I'm excited to have found such a seemingly great community.

Hi all,

I am relatively new to the world of permaculture, and I'm looking for some help with a starting point for research.

I'm on about a 2 year plan to buy a decent sized piece of property with some friends in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Climate-wise, that means low to mid-80s in the summers and snow in the winters. We're currently just saving up money for land, but I'm trying to begin research how we should build our homes. There's so much information around, and it's hard to tell fads/pie-in-the-sky ideas from actual worthwhile, time-tested, durable ways of building that will actually save you some money compared to regular construction once it's all said and done.

I've read lots of surface-level stuff on shipping containers, cob, stawbale, earthbag, compressed earth brick and a few other things here and there, but I want to get more down into the details. I was hoping this forum could lend some knowledge on what's worth looking into and what's not. And if you have any good resources on those things, that would be wonderful as well.

Thanks from a newbie. I'm looking forward to being part of this community.