Adult 50 plus Commune Idea

?The Kingman area is hard rock. There was heavy mining in the area in the 1800s and early 1900s. Water is hard to get the farther you get out from town. Ashfork Arizona is a little father east and also very hard to get water. Water has to be trucked in at most locations. The winter time weather is often nice. Solar power is the way to go.

 

I love the idea of the village square with campfire. It says "Democracy!" Everyone is equal and everyone gets to vote!

 

Hi everyone! we are still alive and kicking. We have been having the time of our lives. Our travel plans had to change a bit regarding staying in the southeast. so we were able to ramble a bit. we will still be heading to the east coast mid-July.
Since May 1 when we left Florida- we went to Memphis, to Palo Duro Canyon in Tx- to Colorado (yes Virginia recreational mj dispensaries really do exist..haha)...we have been free camping in T or C New Mexico this week until we encountered a nasty flu bug - we had to get out of the heat and sun and leave our lovely camp on the banks of the Rio Grande and get a hotel for some good rest, a shower and some AC ...We are leaving here tomorrow- heading to Arizona for a few.
I love reading everyone's ideas and listening to your passion! Also glad you like the name Second Life Farm. A few words with a large message.
We really loved Colorado- not so much NM- maybe its the fever talking but i need to have grass under my feet at least sometimes and not dust from the desert floor! lol....but we are content most anywhere we can hang with some similar people.
Keep us posted. I'll check in again asap.

Keep the Faith all and live the LIFE you dream of!

L & S

 

There have been some rather neat variants of Vawt turbines lately that do well in low wind conditions, even if I end up having to build 10 of them from mainly scrap materials it's ok really. It's something I can service myself for the most part (Though having a box of rectifier diodes on the shelf for the alternators will probably be a good idea, making diodes is hard, replacing them not so much. ) Was figuring near Tucson at least having 2 sets of blades for the high / low wind seasons.

Water, as long as there is *some source* not too worried, Sulfur spring / salt marsh etc. all can be distilled. Ideally a Sulfur spring for me as it's a handy element to have on hand especially for a Biochar maker. But I could cope with a freshwater well if I had to and naturally setting up 5,000 gallons or so of a rain catchment cistern is a given.

Basalt is nearly everywhere in one grade or another throughout the state so the materials cost for construction of housing / cisterns / granary, etc. once the VAWTS /PV etc are set up will be nearly nill short of the "time is money" factor AND of course, in the right regions could even prove profitable depending on the other minerals one finds in the process.
http://reynolds.asu.edu/azgeomap/azgeomap_home.htm

Another thing folks thinking of the Tucson area will want to check out if they're unfamiliar with the "local bounty of the land", these Folks are cool.
Mesquite is hard to beat.
http://www.desertharvesters.org/

And for those thinking of making their own Molasses or "Ethanol" OR,,, maybe just eating Sorghum as a cereal grain?
https://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/general/resrpt2007/article9.pdf

 

?Hi Fritz, I like your thinking on wind power. In Colorado we had to be concerned about wind over 145 mph, because that would burn out the alternator and prop. I don't think that would be a problem in Arizona. When I camped at Elephant Butte in New Mexico, the rangers had set up tanks on the roof of the bath-house. There were reflective metal sheets to redirect and concentrate the sun rays on to the tanks. Early in the morning the water was still a little cool. BY 11 am it was hot enough to scald you. So I know solar works for water and for electric. As for the earthship idea, I love that building style with available scrape and discarded stuff. We can get a lot of used stuff at Habitat for humanity, like doors and windows and dry wall screws and so on. Habitat in Fort Collins even has used furniture.

 

Well in case you Folks do stick with the Chinook winds maybe this might help conceptually, depending on just how much extra mechanical crap you'll want to have to keep lubed of course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant-speed_propeller

Another Dome I'd like to do using the Basalt materials will be for water processing.
Nice, 2'+ thick wall, dug in a bit to get good geothermal cooling effect and keep the stone nice and naturally chilled, perhaps go as far as painting the outside white, OR more likely Berming completely.
Inside the Dome, a nice indoor pool, heated by solar thermosiphons.
("Nice" if the smell is tolerable at least http://hotsulphursprings.com/ )
The idea essentially is to manifest a concept I had at 7 while visiting the indoor pool in the town I grew up.
Heavy brick structure, when the Pool would get heated only slightly by the morning sun and those walls stayed nice and chilly for the better part of the day, they had to cut 6"x4" drainage channels into the floor around the base of the walls to prevent the concrete from becoming a water slide due to all the moisture that would condense and run down.
I'll just have the channels built directly into the walls, maybe 2-3 rows?

Like a big ole' glass of ice water on a hot day, just a reverse of the principal, an old school Air well on steroids if you will
We'll see,,, (On a related fringe note,,, ask me how I think Moses drew water from the stone in the desert someday. )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_well_(condenser)#Zibold.27s_collector

P.S. Screw Academia and Wikipedia, the Air well is not "Zibold's", it IS an ancient relic of the Byzantine Empire, and most likely a much much older thing than even that, but then we can see how Human Tribes tend to hide ideas they want to claim as their own further down the road once most folks who cant read have forgotten the existence of the previous culture to begin with,,, ooops, I'm veering off topic. Better get some coffee brewing
http://gobeklitepe.info/

https://phys.org/news/2016-03-world-neanderthal-denisovan-ancestry-modern.html

 

I love the idea of collecting rain water and snow melt water off our own roofs on our own land. It's legal in some states and not legal in others. I've known Hippies who collected rain/snow water for years without anyone telling them not ton do it, or ticketing them. You can set up a stealth system that would not be seen from the road or some government spy drone. A small group of us would need very little water. When I camped in the past I was able to get by with less than 20 gallons per week for cooking, coffee, washing dishes and clothing, and bath water. So, I am thinking eight people should be able to live on 800 gallons per week...not counting water used for the potty and water for the garden. If you want to live in Arizona, water outside your home would attract bumble bees, wasps, and maybe even Africanized bees. They like to build nests inside the housing around hot tubs and jetted tubs. Snakes will also make nests under hot tubs and jet tubs and swimming pools. If you want to put a pool inside a dome, we would have to build a tight structure to keep the critters out. Around Tucson and Wickenburg we would have a ton of critters seeking our water. We might even end up with porky-pines and Javalinas coming by for a drink. That is why I was thinking of putting a 1200 gallon tank up high...may e in a loft or attic...so it would gravity feed into the kitchen and bath room. I would put in a 60 micron and 120 micron and a charcoal filter system (at a minimum) to make the water drinkable. A friend of mine in Virginia Dale Colorado pu his hot tub inside a greenhouse. The result was awesome. All their garden plants love the hot humid air. They had a lush veggie garden.

 

Stormountainman, keep me on your list, though I may be away for a while.

Also, see about either buying a large rock saw or building one. If you have the rock, and you have the saw, you just found a good chuck of your building materials.

 

Would sure save some energy (And time) if I (Or anyone else that wants cheap housing / infrastructure / Villa or garden walls to keep out Javalinas / cisterns etc.) could just fuse massive blocks of Basalt into place together like steel plates instead of melting it all.

http://waterjets.org/archive/waterjet-equipment/general/building-your-own-waterjet/

 

You got it, Logan5. You shall always have a place with us. I will look at a rock and tile saw after we get the land and start building. I had a buddy who cut geodes and opals from Wyoming to sell to the gen shops. It's a way to make a little extra during rock and gem shows. I really like the style of building that goes with earthships. I also like the idea of building a big pyramid shaped structure of wood or steel frame then cover it with house-wrap then with Portland cement. In a pyramid shape we could build an entire second floor and even a good size attic. If we do a couple or even three mobile homes, we could bolt them together some way and save a bunch on building materials. I think that was what Snowtigger was getting at. We could get cheap land near Bullhead City/Laughlin...maybe even Lake Havasu City. We'll have plenty sun for a solar system. I am going to read up on what is involved with a perc test so we could have an idea of what it would cost us to put in a basic leach field. I think six or eight of us could cover all the basis on this. Democracy works...Everyone gets to vote!

 

Thanks!

Well, the typical rock saw is for that- geodes and rock samples/specimens. Look at one, see how it’s made, and look at making your own saw. So instead of chopping down a baseball sized geode, you’re chopping rock into 4"x6"x10" brick, or larger. If you have multiple people you can chop bigger rocks into bigger bricks. The romans and greeks did it.

Hmmm. Try sketching out a few ideas and sharing them. We can add to your ideas if need be.

That is something I have done before, and about to do again. Mobile homes can be manipulated really easily, it is amazing what you can do with them.

A percolation test helps determine the absorption rate of the soil. Generally, you dig down 6 feet or so, then pour water in it. Time it. Then after that water has drained, do it again. Back years ago the test took six hours. I don’t know if they changed the standards or not. I know some places already have communities mapped for the previous perc tests, and all you might have to do is tell them where at and they might tell you without having to do another test.

As for solar, keep in mind that solar is not a "cure-all". Instead several different types of energy production. Essentially the best system is designed around what you want to do with your place.

An idea of how much it’ll cost to be part of this would help a lot. If I can’t afford it, no sense in participating.

 

Kind of already on this myself, I'll be sure to share "the gems" of info gathered when done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgn7d6NZuPA

Depending on the type of rock you find, aka basalt being rather impervious to hammer drills needs something like above.

Down in the Ozarks, the Sandstone was much much easier to deal with using only hand tools, though I'd have accomplished far far more with a hammer drill.
Kind of devised my own feather wedges and a star drill using rebar and a shingling hatchet / pry bars for separating the slabs along their cleavage line

 

On the pyramid structure, back in the 1970s me and a friend designed a pyramid house where we would build each of 4 sides in triangle shape framing and use a hoist on a 4x4 jeep to pull them up into position. After that, we could build the inside walls and second and third floors...maybe a loft. On the solar system, I have put a lot of time on it. My idea is to use 12 volt lights and 12 volt appliances from an rv (motor home). That way we would not need to invert so much power into 110/120 volt standard system. Everything you can think of in a regular house is available to truckers (to work in the truck sleeper compartment) and to RV fulltimers who live "Boondocking" which is another way of saying "off grid." In the twelve volt system, I found that 1000 CA truck batteries worked best, as I did not need to slow charge them for 28 hours like the deep cycle marine batteries. So, with enough panels, we could charge say 10 commercial truck batteries and that would last until the sun comes up again. Germany gets something like 80% of its electric power from solar...and they don't get as much sun as America's southwest states.

 

That is the way the people of Malta cut their limestone blocks for building homes.

 

I got into the project after finding out that in the Ozarks on a Hillside you're going to have about 2-6" of soil at best before hitting Rock.

After observing how pretty much all the leaf mulch and good nutrients from the trees were running on downhill, I opted to start terracing directly into the stone as a means to create permanent / erosion-proof swales to hang on to all that Mulch Mother nature was providing along with more moisture.
Was using a sort of "Terra Preta" blend to fill the 3' deep pits I was quarrying out.
Just a blend of 50% local soils & forest mulch with 50% crude BioChar added.

Family got to thinking I was a bit nuts and wondered "Why grow our own when Walmart is just 15 minutes drive into town? Just go get a job!!",,,
I just kept digging...
Wish I'd have dug faster but hey, it is what it is...



The goal was to cover at least 50% of this slope in similar rows with a natural pool / pond up top and run it essentially like a Terra-formed Aquaponics system,
Hammer drill and a portable generator would have been handy, but of course there was no work back in 08' to be found in that area.




If anyone is near Houston Missouri and has a camera phone, I'd love to get a peek at whats become of the "project", see what might be sprouting in the few plots I did get completed.
It's all the way down by where there used to be another Mobile home on the property, right about where the slope sort of levels off and near the tree line.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17590-Knox-Ln-Houston-MO-65483/2094916289_zpid/

 

Hey, if you Folks do end up going with Arizona, I found a nice interactive map for checking out the generic geology of the areas where you might land (So you'll know what sort of rock saw you'll need to bring or build. )

http://data.azgs.az.gov/geologic-map-of-arizona/#

 

Just asked Google the temp for Wickenburg az. 111 degrees and Phionex 119. Nasty.

 

I still say Wickenburg is a cool place. It usually is cooler than Phoenix. What do you think about Saint George Utah? It might be even cooler yet. This time of year it might go over a hundred even in Montana! Where I am in Indiana, there are counties with very loose building codes to let the Amish build what they want according to their religion...homes without electric power and so on. I want sun for solar and a good water filtering system. Ground water is likely to be contaminated in an area where heavy farming took place. We would have to filter out the glysophates and nitrates and all that other big FARMA crap so we can have safe food and safe drinking water.

 

The Benson Az. region is looking pretty nice too, and a bit cooler at 4,000' than a lot of the other areas.

Some not-so-bad parcels outside town too. Nothing *Huge* but 10-30 ac, would be good land for Sorghum cultivation Poly-culture style among the mesquite trees and other indigenous "Superfood crops" I think

Decent "smallish" hospital in town in case of emergency, access to big chains for any "needed supplies" and Tucson not far away for major med. emergencies & culture, also a few year-round flea markets for peddling of wares if any were produced as well as plenty of Farmers markets within reach and some opportunities for employment in both surrounding towns.

 

Also on the subject of Alt energy, I came to find we actually trash about 12 to 15 million cars a year in this country,
Even estimating that only 70% of the alternators in them would be worth a shite, that's still 8,400,000 units capable of putting out 0.78 kwh per unit.
We throw out 6,552,000,000 Watts of peak power production *potential* at the least year after year. (Which is still 4,632,727,226.4 RMS even after axing 30% of the salvage supply line from the equation)

Even if society implodes there will be centuries worth of these laying around to utilize in multiple banks of 5 or 10, driven by simple homebrewed VAWT turbines.
And if it doesn't, they were going for about $10-15 bucks a pop at scrapyards last I can recall. (Salvage auctions could produce a lot of 1,000 for about as many dollars I'd imagine as well)

I currently have about 150+ Milk jugs saved, HDPE melts at 350F and soaks in nicely to any cloth you spread it on while molten, insanely firm and durable stuff once you get it greater than 1/4" thick.
Basically, I'm thinking of using bed sheets to form my turbine blades, easy peasy. At least once I blend in a bunch of Char (Made from mesquite prunings and Sorghum stalks per plan so far) to help protect it from UV rays similar to how carbon black is added to HDPE for making some types of irrigation piping.
Maybe a rear axle to mount the blade assembly including an outer hub to help ensure the blades don't get to wobble and wear on critical components? Not that far into my "Thinkering" with the idea yet, just figured I'd throw it out there,,, here too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpXq6mnbCus