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!