A Tiny Community With A Big Heart, Container Homes to Haiti (Haiti 1to3)

As we speak, there are over 60.000 homeless  on a little island southeast of Florida.
Hundreds lost their lives l during last week's storm.
Thousands were injured.

In 2010 an earthquake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale nearly destroyed the island.  I is said to have taken nearly 220,000 lives.  They had not gotten far in their recovery when Hurricane Matthew came, taking an additional 800 plus lives.

As of this writing there are two Navy ships and four Marine units on their way to help with the initial search and rescue which is still ongoing.  What next?

Friends have been sending us pictures of the path of destruction left by these disasters and after the initial search and rescue by the hardworking experts.  Next is the rebuild.

Right now people there build homes with whatever they can find lying around.  Right now, many are sifting through the debris to find shelter and thinking about how to move forward with their lives.

So when WE think about what's next our thought is how to rebuild those houses.  The sadness of this situation is that there are so many unwanted opportunities. As they rebuild, how do we help them do so in a safe and eco-friendly way.

Our mission for 2017 is to offer help to those in need in Haiti. How do we empower a nation?  How do we help those in need. How do we rebuild a community?
We are shifting our goals to building container houses.  Four of them to be exact and one will be taken to Haiti along with a group to build and install in May.

There is a reason we learn theses skills...

We are building bee hives and for every three we build here in the U.S, we will be able to send one to Haiti

We are building compost bins and for every one that we build here, We will give one to Haiti.

We can answer these questions and when we look at who we are as people, we can see that we are Tiny House People, with big hearts.  We leave in June.  We hope that you will share this experience with us.

A New Hope: Starting a new kind of off-grid community

We have celebrated two Christmases here.
We have celebrated two Halloweens with the nine of us opting for a community harvest dinner (and still dressing up) as opposed to driving into town.
Twice, we have dug under our garden and twice we have reaped the benefits. 

We do all sorts of things here and sometimes we go for days without seeing each other.  Carol sometimes rents her house out for three months at a time to people she trusts.  We had parties when each of us made our last payments on our houses and our land.  We are a family.

For the past week I have been talking about everything that is wrong with City in the Woods and how hard it was to start.  I talked about how annoyed I was with other people and how of the many who reached out to us, a very select few were chosen and in the end, nine of us found happiness.  Yes I talk a good game about all of the things I hated about this, but things have never been better.

Now we are on to the next thing; The next city in the woods.  We are going to break it down for you, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  We have been looking for people.  We have been deciding on land and we are thinking ahead.

Next step: Forming a tribe or going alone...

Tiny Houses in Tiny Towns, Gossip Kills.

Why is this movement so hard?  Can we even call it a movement?

We found the whole thing really interesting when we started out because there was no movement to our moving.  We wanted something very simple and were very clear about that when we got started.  The main thing was that we were not interested in the thing itself as a business.  See, it was never our intent to be a great big thing.

The reason that we would call it a movement is because there are so many people interested in it.  Still, we had to ask ourselves how many people were actively interested and how many were Pinterested (a word that we came up with).  When we say that people are "Pinterested" we mean that to them it is something that looks cool and that they are willing to participate in on line.

I am not trying to be mean when I bring up people like this.  There are a lot of people who are interested in a lot of things and who only engage on line.  The problem is that projects like ours take place in the real world and thus there are stakes to being involved in a project like ours.  This was another reason that I said what I said about money (see previous post...). 

The moment something like this comes around there is interest.  Ears perk up.  For the most part, that interest is harmless, but then there are times when it translates to meeting some interesting people.  One of the first questions we asked was that people have a timeline and be actively engaging in a transitional life.  Are you starting to save?  Are you starting to learn?  What are your price ranges? and so on.

The best place to do something like this, we found, was in a small town adjacent to a large city.  We wanted to find someplace where the land was cheap and all of the major amenities were within a half hour drive or so.  The problem with this plan and what we were doing was that there were only small towns and those small towns led to people spreading the word about things they knew nothing about.

It started slowly at first, with people showing up at events that we did not invite.  That was ok.  We were happy about that at first.  Then we had people who said that they were in charge of it. We had people show up on the property unannounced during construction and calls from the cops and neighbors saying that people were camping in our woods.  More and more people wanted to take over this thing that was ours, yet not be involved.  At a certain point, we stopped talking to people, but it didn't end.

The final straw for us was when we got an Facebook email from the closest town.  We had opted for unincorporated acreage and technically, we were not even a part of the town that was writing to us.  We were a part of the town on the other side.  The email was ominous and bold and it came on a Friday afternoon from a new Facebook account back at a time when you could be anonymous on Facebook.  It was addressed to one individual in particular and it said that he had to contact city hall on Monday.

That night, we met up at Carol's condo in the city and thought about the whole thing.  We thought about how uncomfortable it made us and what must have happened.  Someone was talking.  There were 8 of us at that time and none of us had contacted anyone related to the government, local or otherwise.  What made it more suspicious was that it was the wrong city.  there were other things.  People would approach members and say that they had talked to our real estate agent about our project.  Several people began to talk about all the ways they were going to build things on our property.  Several people began to talk about how they wanted to volunteer in exchange for being able to live on our property.  It was interesting to say the least.  Frightening at worst.

I have said it before, I will say it again... Once you figure out how to get away from everyone, everyone tracks you down to figure out how you did it. 

I am going to continue to write this blog and these first couple of posts are pretty much about how City in the Woods came to be and why we d
o things the way we do them.  We are, so far, a secret little town of 9 and we aim to keep it that way.  We are going to start doing more though.  We have a few classes lined up and some big discussions in the works about sustainability and more.  We have achieved something amazing and we want to duplicate it.

If you are in the NC, SC, GA area and you are ready to make the leap, you can join our group here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1631743643802914/

The Tiny Community Truth...Problem 1: Money

We all like to sit around and play "what if".
What if a bunch of us got together and drank bad beer in the garden and asked "what if"
It was 2013 but it seemed like forever ago.  We were in the garden in the fall, just three of us at the time.  The air was getting just a little cooler, but it was still mid-September in the south which meant it was still hot...muggy.  Still there was a hint of fall in the air.
I had just graduated from Clemson and was looking for a job.  Carol had come down from New York, and others had come from goodness knows where.  We were lost.  Still whenever there was a party or a meeting about sustainability or being off grid, or local politics, there we were, beers in hand, playing "what if"
When people ask me for advice on how to do something like this, whether to live in a tiny house; how to go off grid, and so on, I always tell them about the choices that you will have to make.  People will not understand what you want to do, so you have to decide how much you care.  It is going to be a lot of self guided work so you will have to see how motivated you can keep yourself.  The biggest question, I think, is whether or not to go it alone.
It is easier with friends, that is true.  You can all split the common work and the bills are a cheaper.  You will always know your neighbor and have someone to look after your stuff when you are gone, or your kids when you are away.  And so on.
We encountered a lot of downsides when we looked at what we wanted to do, so fair warning.
We are at nine people now.  The basic idea was to get 10 acres on a plot of land out in the middle of nowhere.  This would have been ideal because land in rural areas now verges on $1000- $1500 per acre.  This would also have been ideal because land in the middle of nowhere is expandable.  Keep in mind our initial goal was to start with 10 acres and expand to hundreds as we brought more and more people into the community.
We had no intention of "going underground" at first.  In fact we wanted the exact opposite.  We wanted to make this an inclusive community where people could visit and would be an example for others.
Problem one...Money.
The key to anything like this is investment.  People have to feel as though they are a part of something and the people around them have to feel as though they are committed.   If you are trying to start anything like this, you need to know that people do not part with small money easily.  Rather than have a part of a place like this, a whole place where they OWN the land, people will often opt to pay MORE money to a structured institution.
Our first iteration, called for a $2000.00 investment from each person who wanted to be involved.    As we talked to each person, we broke down how much we were talking about in terms that related to them and their lives.  $2000? for some people that was two months of rent in
Greenville.  For others, it was their clothing budget.  It was their food for three months and so on.
For some people the price was really cheap and for some it was really high. Still, with each came the promise of independence and freedom.  The people who contacted us would not do it.
I would recommend doing one of three things.  If you are going to get people to go in as a group, get everyone to buy into it.  Make sure that each person has an equal share in the core of the property and have them contractually obligate themselves to it within a specific time frame.
We set very specific guidelines and goals for those who wanted to get involved at first and did not waver.
OR
Get one person to pay for everything at first.  You might have long term problems at first, but you do have the benefit of  a consolidated front.
OR
Stick with friends and a small number of friends, at that (I will get into that later).

Rest assured, we are just getting warmed up.  These past two years have been an adventure and I really think that people should have a good idea of what they are up against.  The core of anything that you deal with for the foreseeable future is going to be money.

A City Underground... The Truth About Starting a New Community

Many people ask why we do things the way that we do.   There is a beauty to being off the grid.  There is a beauty to having only one connection, a strong one, to the earth.
We set out on this mission for the sole purpose of engaging more with our own lives and creating a corner of the world that is ours and ours alone.  We never wanted to be role models, or beacons on the hill.
It was never our goal to teach or to be a part of a movement.   That is why, nearly two years ago, we dropped out.  We opted to have our little piece of land in the middle of nowhere that was shared among 9 people.  We started as seven, but then Carol got married and Carol got pregnant and then we were 9 and we were ok with that.
Facebook would not take the page down.  There were sites where we were linked that eventually led back to where we were. 
How hard is it to get off the grid? Not very.  We all have lives of course.  We all have jobs off property and we go into Greenville just about 30 miles away at least twice a week. Some of us have Wi-Fi in our homes and we all have phones.  We are not out in the middle of nowhere.  We are not savages!
We chose to go "underground"  so to speak and I am going to share some secrets with you.  We chose to go underground because some of the stuff we are doing would be frowned upon by the city.  We have also found out that things are a lot easier without politics and silliness.  We are talking about our lives here and so we keep visitors to a minimum or not at all.  I am going to continue this blog and do some other things as well, but I think people need to know the truth about what they are up against when attempting something like this.
When we first got started, there was a lot of talk.  I mean A LOT of talk.  There were people who were not involved who were saying they were.  There were people who were trying to get involved and were immediately turning around and telling the city what we were doing.  There was gossip and frustration that we just did not want to deal with. The problem was that what people thought was fun and games was our livelihood and belief so we attacked if from a different angle.
My home is 420 sq. ft. and I put every stick of it together myself.  The same goes for the other residents here.  The only way that we were able to do it was by not telling anyone what we were doing.  Yes, it is great to have a support system and people to ask about things in construction that we could not do alone, but for the most part, the internet, Lowe's, or the local library could answer any questions we had. 
So there is an irony to our way of life.  We have worked so hard to get away from everyone that people are constantly tracking us down to find out how we did it.
I am a scientist by trade and one of the true traits of the scientific method is whether or not the results can be duplicated.  We have built seven houses, but can we build a city?  We are preparing to take the next leap in our philosophy and grow our concept.  We are going to do the same thing that we have done before someplace else.
This blog is going to talk a lot about specifics of construction and the process overall but the main thing that we are going to tackle is the reality of doing what we have done with City in the Woods and how you can do it...if you can do it.

Ceres.

Ceres is the community outreach coordinator and you can follow along with this blog to find out more about what we are doing and how we did it or join us HERE on Facebook!

A Community of One.

Lesson one in the movement is to know yourself before you can live with others.  There is a lot to consider when one embarks on this life.  The temptations and conveniences of modern life can be very tempting and it can be hard to let go of some of the things that we have gotten very comfortable with.  Creating something of your own, carving out some small part of your own world requires internal negotiation.  It takes learning what you can and cannot live with out.  You have to barter with yourself.  Do you need the new I-phone?  Can you do without having a pizza delivered?

For many, these choices are simple and there is not much negotiation involved.  A simpler life and things within arm's reach goes a lot farther in the mind than living. 

We are writing this blog and proceeding this way because when we first started the idea, it was one person with the idea and the thought that a group of other people with similar thoughts could all come together to live in an intentional community and everything would be just fabulous!

Needless to say, that was not the case.  People came into it with their own prejudices and baggage.  People began to try to control it and even tear it apart and a desire to get on television or in the paper grew to the point where it nearly tore the entire thing to pieces...nearly.

A core group of trusted individuals held together learned about ourselves first, then each other and then how we could come together to solve these issues, build our homes and then build a community...a city in the woods.

I am writing this today because I cannot tell you how many people come to me and others in the group and asked if they can "stop by and check it out".  At first, we were obliged to do so and we even offered tours but no one wanted a tour.  People just wanted to swing by.  At our previous property this led to people showing up and attempting to camp on the property which led to nuisance events, illegal hunting, and even some property damage and theft.  I visited a town amongst the redwoods out in California that was even more secretive than we are and they say they are because it was not unusual to find beer cans and trampled flowers from people wanting to take pictures.

There are seven of us now (soon to be eight as Carol enters her second trimester and prepares to bring a baby into the world) and we started out with nearly 20 with a few (literally) hundred more wanting to stop by or people wanting us to audition for shows and more.  We had no interest in that so we have gotten as far off the grid as possible, yet still able to do our jobs and create.

We want you to be able to do the same, but, and we are sorry, not at the expense of our lives as we choose them, so we are going to take turns tapping away at this blog, talking about the things that we are doing and how we are doing them.

We make no claims to have all the answers, just what we have learned works for us.  It is one thing to be born into a family, but quite another to try to construct one of your own!  We will acknowledge that once we stepped away from the world, things got a lot easier.  It became a lot easier to do it once we stopped asking for permission or dealing with the politics and the unsubstantiated gossip.

We have emerged and are ready to write this now because we are getting settled in and going about our daily business and sometimes scattering ourselves to pay the bills on our small homes and our modest land.  Our desire it to see communities like this pop up all over the place and they are slowly but surely beginning to dot the landscape.

The first thing you want to do is form the foundation and that means laying the cornerstone a
nd that cornerstone has to be stable.  So our first piece of advice is to know yourself.  Know your heart and why you are doing this.  Know what you are willing to do.  Know how far you are willing to go and then find others who feel the same and are willing to go that distance along with you.

Thanks!  Judy, Carol, Mel, Jason, George, Alex, Val, and Ceres

Follow along and we will tell you the next step!
If you have a question or a comment, you can find us on facebook here City in the Woods