Hello wonderful Permies community! My name is Kyelle, and I was born and raised in Berkeley, CA. I'm 20 years old and I've been familiar with permaculture principles and practices since childhood, having spent many months out of every year living with cousins on their farm in the Sierras. I've always felt drawn to living close to the Earth, and am particularly interested in natural building. In fact, next year I will begin my studies to become an architect, with my ultimate goal being to make a living designing and building homes using only local, natural materials.
Aside from just saying hi, I'm also looking for some connections! It's the dream of both my father and I to build our family home with our own labor. Between us both we have the skills and the brain power, and the only missing piece is land. Maybe some of you would be able to help, or maybe you could point us to another section of this forum where it would be more appropriate to ask about this? We're trying to stay on the California coast – all of our family is here, and for a multitude of reasons it is where we feel safest. We especially love the Santa Cruz Mountains, as well as the area surrounding Monterey and Salinas. Of course we also love the East Bay west of Mount Diablo, and would consider the North Bay south of Guerneville or so. We don't need a lot of acreage, but of course a mix of trees and open space and some water would be the dream. We know that finding affordable land within these parameters is a long shot, so we feel that our best bet is finding some personal connections. Know anyone who's thinking about letting go of some land, but doesn't want it to fall into the hands of a developer who will destroy it just to put up a McMansion? We've got a tentative budget of $100,000 or less, plus an offering of our services (my father is a seasoned journeyman electrician among other things). Can anyone point us in the right direction? My dad likes to say that "we gotta flip the script" to make our dream a reality, so hopefully you all can help us do that. Thank you so much!
