Self Sustainability continued, A visit to Mountain Homestead Community
Today, some friends & I toured Mountain Homestead Community.
Description (found here): A Permaculture homestead in the midst of 365 acres of preserved temperate rain forest in coastal Oregon. Gravity fed water, solar off grid electricity, eco-forestry, natural building, large garden, and a design for much more. Buildings are built with as local and sustainable materials as possible (and as cheap as possible!), which means timber framing from trees cut on-site, cob, strawbale or bale-cob, and milling our own wood on site. Increasingly, we earn income from commercial Eco-Forestry, thinning dense stands of Red Alder, selling the larger logs, and replanting mixed species of trees. In the next few years we will be building a wood processing shop, with hydro-electric powered mill, lumber drying facility and a shop for making value added wood products, as we will be transitioning to making all income land based.
This is a picture of some of the wooden structures built with recycled materials or materials logged on site. The building with the solar panels is an off grid solar electric shed. The long building in the back is a dorm. The building in the foreground is a bathhouse. 
A room in the dorm implementing wood & cob building techniques.
The Cob Chapel. An open air cob structure, with a free flowing cedar roof.
Custom made Beams support the roof. These free form roofs are complicated & we were told can take months to complete. 
A earthen oven & a cedar sink under construction. My favorite aspect of cob building is the sculptural component.
This is the north side of a earthen roof on one of the buildings that also houses a root cellar.
Three of my favorite people browsing in a section of the the year around intensive garden.I was impressed with Mountain Homestead Community. It is an amazing place where self-sustainability is not just a concept but a recognizable goal.
posted by Rita @ 4:09 PM
21 Comments
21 Comments:
Some peak oilers insist that this is one of the most likely ways to survive the impending societal collapse. Others insist that the population density of homesteads like this can not support the global population as it is presently.
I am a big city person, I admit. But, I would certainly love to stay there....
All good stuff Handmaiden. Do they have any plans for living in a dome environment anytime soon, or are they just going to continue to allow clouds to pee on their solar panels?
Speaking of sustainability, you might enjoy this article: 11 Socially Responsible Inventions to Save the World
This comment has been removed by the author.
....just joking about the clouds over the solar panels and the glass dome thing, those look like beautiful skies and those are very nice trees and bushes in that picture. That is neat, score for sustainability :)
cute house.
whos the chick in the background>?
phil plasma Well, for my purposes, I wanted to see a self-sustainable & permaculture based lifestyle in action & also reinforce my connection with that group of people in our community.
I realize that not everything they do there has a practical application for everyone, for instance urban folks.
But, a community working toward self sustainability could only benefit from any education towards those ends & IMO, for the city of Coquille to move foreword into being a self-sustainable community, we need the help & support of these experienced people who already understand the concept.
Prash I bet you would enjoy it. You know they do accommodate guests in the summer. They also have workshops where you can stay there & learn how to build your own Cob cottage, among other things.
qf Loved the link. Actually, they have plans for a hydro-electric source of energy,to use in the winter that you probably would find interesting. They are even going to have a surplus of power!
no rest for the wicked That happens to be a good friend of mine, who is working on her own project of sustainability, a low profile, high efficiency wind turbine & generator.
"Aren't these people commies? Looks like what comrade NObama would force people to live in."
I am afraid that is the reaction you might get from some of the sore losers around here.
Actually, it looks like a page out of the whole earth catalog.
Summer holidays with friends in that place really tempts me ! It could be cool in such a place and learn something and be with friends and completely forget the mundane activities of the urban life.
rev Well, they better get used to us "Obambanites" from the "Obamanation" :)
It stymies me how some people just refuse to have a shred of hope for the future.
I guess if you've been told all your life the world is going to hell in a handbasket, it's hard to be an optimist.
This economic crisis has created a need for a sense of community at least in rural areas. We pretty much have that anyway, but I plan to capitalize on it, to bring my ends of self-sustainability together.
Prash They get people from all over the world coming there. Actually a lot of young people like yourself. When I went for my tour, my friend Ryan who live there (the guy in the foreground of the last picture) cooked us a fabulous lunch made of the produce from the farm. I would totally recommend the food & accommodations. It is not like a luxury hotel though...
This comment has been removed by the author.
More in alternative energy....The Green Beast
Cool, but is dosen't sound very practical. I do like the window that deters children from sticking their hands out.
Do thing any child ever actually lost a arm from sticking it out the window? My parents used to tell us that all the time.
Most likely when in the drivethrough, going mailbox smashing, when bypassing a wide load truck,when driving offroad or through alley ways, or poorly maintained landscaping with trees sticking out into the lane.
urban legends The folly of sticking your head out the window.
nice :) but i prefer the comforts of modern life :) It will of course be a nice change :)
That's the nicest cobbing I've seen since cob came to cobtown!
Also, I answered your question on my blog about your template.
Thanks gyrobo. He looks great hanging out at my side bar.
If anyone else wants an Obama countdown widget like mine go here
This is a very interesting post. The place looks cold, wet, and muddy.
Not sure why disconnecting from the electricity grid is an optimal situation. (I wouldn't recommend that for a whole town!)
How exactly do they get solar power -- solar photovoltaic or solar thermal? I'm assuming at that small scale, it's the former. It must be tricky between November and May.
I see President-elect Obama in your blog now !
regulus The place looks cold, wet, and muddy.
Sounds like a statement from somebody that has spent time in the Pacific Northwest.
As far as solar electricity goes they do fine, it runs the lights & electrical appliances. They also have lots of wood for heat, including heating water. Taking a shower involves building a small fire under a water heater. I would think they would further utilize this by communal bathing? As a matter of fact the shower area in the bathhouse looks like it would accommodate quite a few people.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home