If you've got the opportunity, homesteading can be a great idea.

I would begin with a compartmentalized tent found at Sears for around $100 and insulate it in various ways, and then expand upon its original frame with additional rooms out the front door. It might be difficult to secure such a tent but with some simple tools and materials and a woodworked frame it can become a secure area.

Township of 150

Every town has certain requirements that make long term living comfortable.

1. Dwelling
2. Transit
3. Trade
4. Production/Agriculture
5. Power
6. Communications
7. Civics
-Organization of Society: FD "PD" healthcare
-Spirituality
-Education
-Celebration

There are many ways to construct each of these, and dozens of good and very conscious options.

Dwellings can be of many architectures. Traditional dwelling space is above ground and poorly insulated, using a large amount of energy for heat. While using less energy is a goal, living in a spartan manner is not a goal. Underground or earth-insulated houses are low-labor high-efficiency dwellings made of cheap and easily available material. The majority of buildings could benefit the town by being built in this architecture.

Each building could aid the town by being rooved with a garden. This will help the town provide its own food, contributing to production, and will further insulate the homes. More information about gardenspace at production below.

Transit would likely be on a personal basis in a small township. Traditional automobiles add to the town's external requirements through fuel. Automobiles running on clean and sustainable fuel sources will be critical to an efficient township free from multinational corporate interference and large oil networks. Our technologies should allow us to perform without relying on oil shipments. Larger communities would function using

Trade is human activity. Regulation of capitalism within the town shall be important to its function. This should not be tribalism, but true just communism similar to the early Christian church. Close and open personal social relationships are the fabric of society and should be compassionate community-based counseling. Being able to account for common perception on both sides of a social equation allows those involved to examine what is geometrically deeper.

The town will group bargain for goods. It may be possible for group and private ownership to overlap without either being sacrificed, with both being interchangeable. This would be the place of 'state run industry' existing to compete alongside any private enterprise. Ideally, our technology should eliminate materialism and provide us with all the power we could ever need. With this power we should be able to produce automated machines and time to turn raw materials into goods without added cost, making us a production superpower per capita.

Production would be the town's way of supporting itself and producing more things than it needs. The town will be a powerplant grid and sell energy to surrounding communities and may also use plasma combustion to handle other towns' trash and certain wastes. Additional production of specific goods using this energy should be on a town-wide and small group basis.

Furnaces and ovens should be easy to make and fuel using energy and plasma. These can be used to smelt, refine, and shape metals and glass and bake goods. This is an entry-level technology that will allow the town to machine or handmake anything it needs.

The town will grow foods and plants in greenspaces, greenhouses, grow houses, and fields. Hemp can be useful for oils, fibers and foods, and producing basic organic foods and animal products will help provide for the town and serve surrounding communities with clean healthy foods.

Water will be collected and cleansed on a public basis and through individual dwellings. Monitored rainwater and groundwater collection will help water crops and quench thirst, and may be used in home heating.

Power is listed at www.thepowercompany.blogspot.com. Power decentralization and low density living with greenspace will be part of the town design.

Communications can be conducted on a townwide free voicewire network, as well as programming a townwide LAN network, attachable to global networks. For global direct communications a software defined radio web should be built to transmit on local public signal. This can be picked up locally in the town and in surrounding areas to be sent through the town LAN to telephony.

It will be critically important for the town to be able to use the software web to mass-boradcast signal in the form of radio and CB. Any user should be able to access the town web to get all local radios to broadcast the message. 150 people, with perhaps 40-75 sets in the town broadcasting at up to ~110 watts each should reach an 8000 watt range. A town amplifier can increase that power geometrically. The 8000 watts from the town radios would be broadcast via antenna and prototype membrane antenna.

It is expected that television signals will be brought to the town via the LAN or SDR rather than cable or satellite.

Civics will be organized by town assembly. The town will need to provide its own educational services, elementary healthcare, fire and militia services, spiritual organization, and it is wholly expected that numerous townwide festivals will be held.

Education for the town's youth can be provided on a curiosity-based group homeschooling system. In combination with the town's sufficiency and LAN, students of all ages can fulfill their curiosity in an environment that mentally stimulates them. The town library may also be an excellent schoolhouse. People approaching the library should expect to learn and engage issues intellectually.

Dwellings made of cement and earth are fire resistant but not fire proof. Townwide alarm systems should be installed in combination with normal communications systems to indicate emergencies for fire, militia, and medical attention.

Anyplace can be a 'church' if the people there are focusing on spirituality. A churchbuilding could be more of an altar area or festival focus center. Spirituality is the duty of the township and individual to revere and love as it is a personal psychic relationship with God and those who worship God.

It may be possible for the town to be charismatic by holding numerous rock and culture festivals put on by the people of the town. All who desired would assemble to rock out and produce and trade and share and make art and love. Dude, it'd rock. Everyone from town is clearly invited and other folk should provide tickets and bring their art and love too. This may be one of the best ways to spread our town's knowledge, ways, love of God, and to increase our membership and plant seeds like ourselves and improve other communities.

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Living Skills

I have no interest in beauracracy or writing a formal letter or battling insurance or banking institutions, or competing with neighbors to see whose lawn is greenest or most evenly done to the point of eclipse.

I am not interested in supporting massive wasteful and polluting industrial systems or corporate systems that impoverish billions of humans worldwide.

I am interested in designing my own efficient home. I want to have suitable work serving society and help plan the rest of it. I will make my own food. I will do my own laundry in a Bunker Dryer. I will build and tool a water splitter and possibly a biodiesel lab. I'd love to have a greenhouse and grow some vegetables.

I need some DSL to have my information communication and education machine functional. I need shelter from the elements. I'd like a place to entertain and a vehicle to move in and carry found objects. A well and septic system for my water cycle.

I am not interested in becoming rich or gaining massive power. I am interested in a wealth of knowledge and spreading it. I want to forge and maintain a society and community of love and service to God.

Ultimate Secure Home

This is an intense level of security. I would be concerned about the sacrifice of social conditions if I entered such a dwelling, even if it is entirely secure and lovely.

However, a similar style dwelling can be produced for about half the price of a conventional house, and with a tiny fraction of the annual maintenance costs and labor.'

First I would pack down earth and lay a level over an area about 30' square. I would embed corrugated metal tubes in the earth about 3-4" wide every ten feet and on top of that, lay the house's foundation using 1/2" chicken wire, suspended by small posts into square segments every several feet [5-6' square to hold up the chicken wire would be fine]. Pull the wire taut and stack more chicken wire to a point of perhaps 5-8 layers deep. Then pour in Portland cement evenly until it fills over the top at least 1/2".

This will produce a ~4-7" foundation of ferrocement capable of holding 550kg/cm2. That turns into 16500kg/foot. With a 7" foundation, every centimeter of your foundation will withstand about 17 tons of pressure before breaking. This is outstanding performance. The roof will withstand the same. You could build a normal house on top of this house, and you just might...

You can either put boards over the cement on the metal sections to continue work before allowing the floor to dry or you can wait and walkabout.

After the floor is set I would have the prearranged layout [I hope you read the directions before you started] iced up with the metal poles and chicken wire arrangements, and set in any metal pieces you'd choose onto the chicken wire and leave the window spaces. Add kitchen countertops and shelving or cabinetry if you choose. It is also possible to make swinging one or two layer cement doors. Then trowel the cement onto the standing wall chicken wire, probably two wire layers thic. The premixed cement should stick in between the chicken wire and hang there until dry.

You will also probably want to install a woodburning stove, which you can build with cement right into the structure, or if you'd like cast iron put a modest attachment, and build the cement or thickmetal pipe going up as part of your wall arrangement. You may choose to have this chimney reach 10 or 15 feet above the top of the house, for the possibility of a naturally heated greenhouse above.

Then the walls are done. Do the same chicken wire setup for the ceiling of the single-layer/floor home and cement that in as well and you are finished with the houseframe. Once this house dries, give it about two weeks to become ~90% hardened, you should bury it with dirt, except for wide portions around the windows, of whatever size you have chosen. You may also want to put reflective portions on the hills beside the windows to bring more light, or add cement shutters for those blustery days.

The roof of such a building needs to be domed to spread weight from the earth and structures above. This can be done with masses of cement or a freespace inside the cement, probably a wooden box or somesuch. You may want to put plastic over this dome to ensure that water does not leak into your home from above. That was what the pipes below the house were for too. Pipes here might not be a bad idea so long as they are sealed from the outside.

Then a layer of cement over the dome, and you're ready to totally waterproof the top portions and bury the roof. Give it about 3-4' of good earth and that earth will be good to you. If you made a side opening in the house with stairways leading up to the roof you can encase that portion and have it lead to walk on top of the house, where you will build a greenhouse.

This greenhouse might be made of wood frame with a metal framed ceiling and have the warm chimney pipe running through it to its glass or plastic roof where the smoke would disperse. This is also a good place for a windmill or solar paneling. Give the structure a 3-4' lip of cement or wood to offer some privacy and then plastic or glass walls, plant in the unfinished floor, and you've got a greenhouse.

In the home, lay down rugs, paint the place whatever color you like, and be sure to include piping and wiring in your home's internal structure. It should stay cool in summer and warm in winter without much effort or fuel.

Use methods described below to dig a well, build a ferrocement cistern next to the house, and you might want to hire someone to lay a leachfield for the septic tank. But the tank is just three big boxes with connecting holes in them and some bacteria leading to these long beholed pipes in a field. And then you've got a dang house and it's yours on the cheap. Form plain land and using only about $15-20K of building materials. The cement should be about $8K and you'll probably need about an acre and a half of chicken wire for the whole project, which should come to about the same as the cement, maybe a little more. It's home.

"Techno-Amish"

I just found this amazing listing for sale on the Pennsylvania/New York State line. I've been thinking about that line...

Cherry Hill Farm

It is downright amazing! Fruit orchards, solar paneling, insulated house, earth-sheltered solar greenhouse, plans for a windmill! Singing Amish neighbors! I would live there in about 2 seconds.

The price is amazingly good too. My father could retire to that place and love it so. I must contact them and see if they mind me posting pictures or links of their material here.

Even still, they have provided the model of homesteading. I wonder if they use solar panel trickle pump water in a slow sand filter...

Only one way to find out!!

Permaculture.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/
http://frugalliving.about.com/ -it's a good exercise
http://4dw.net/peckofsalt/index.html -a good comic ad a nice place to live

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NEWS UPDATE:

The phone number to this site is out of service, so I presume it to be freeware. The place is a lovely Amish efficient farmhouse built recently. Asking price is $113,000. That is considerably cheaper than a conventional house, and they said they pay $2000 taxes and $200 propane annually for their energy costs.

Homesteading = Great

If you've ever considered homesteading, you know, getting away from it all, you may want to use this magazine to bring together resources to help you do it. Short on cash? You can homestead your own ranch for about 2/3 the price of conventional living, and still have DSL. Try it!

Earth-sheltered housing is using the earth's natural year round ambient temperature of ~54*F at about 8' underground to heat and cool your home. You can pay less for your home's heating and AC costs, as well as use less fossil fuels and electricity using this method.
http://www.daviscaves.com
Ten bucks a square foot -and- low maintenance

Housing materials can be very expensive and require a lot of maintenance. Building your house out of ferrocement is the strongest possible choice. Cement is strongest when within 1/4" of support structure, even chicken wire. You can build a 10,000 square foot house out of ferrocement with building materials that will cost you under $15,000. Rugs and paint are extra.
http://www.ferrocement.com

You can even drill your own well. Well drilling is a service that can cost $10,000 or more. Using a tripod or Kelly Bar to drill your own 75' well will cost you much much less and produce the same water. You may want to seismographically test the ground before drilling, but this is a natural andnon-intensive method to get water from your land.
http://www.lifewater.ca/ndexdril.htm
You Can Drive Your Own Well -popular mechanics 1970
Improvements in Well Drilling 1980

And you can filter your own water too with sand clay and microorganisms, like the earth does.
http://www.slowsandfilter.com/
http://sthig.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/02/slow_sand_filte.html

Put a greenhouse on top of this earth-sheltered home, carve out bays for spacious high R-value windows. You'll insulate your home and have a lovely second-story window's peak, a private conservatory, and you'll be able to produce a considerable portion of your own foods.

Next I'll show you how to add a ferrocement pool to the joint that will require no chemicals to maintain.
Natural Swimming Pools

And if you've got some good space you can rig up a permanent magnet windmill to produce a few kilowatts for your electric bill. You may want to invest in some 3D-printers to turn your shed into a machine workshop, if you've got enough money for a new car and want to start a business. Add to this setup a biodiesel car and you've got an earth-friendly family sized dwelling that will show up from bare land for under $100,000 and be yours forever.

We can live like this if we want.

What is true

I may write and say many pieces of fiction and theory, but one thing is true. Life is good. Life is for good. Those who wish for and say otherwise are far from God.

Who is that good looking mayor?

Since I have a history of suits, and a few extra inches than my compatriots, I am the liason to the surrounding townships. We negotiated the transfer of land and group bargained for many resources. I have hosted town meetings, I have walked with CEOs and dissertated about policy. Together with my compatriots in the field, degreed and degreeless people, skilled folk attracted by community, peace, and loving life, or refugees, we pump the handle at the well of life.

I've helped chalk out a pretty good life for most of the people who live on our land. I would do it all again, even if I knew. This is the life I am destined for, and that our humanity is waiting for.

Life grows on love. Love is worth protecting, but it is also worth defending, but it is also worth experiencing, and it is also worth making.

I live on land.

I live in my garage, which is also a lab. It's written off as a business expense. I have a PO Box in town.

My attitude and the places I have access to are the backbone of real living texture that I lay upon reality. I built the garage with my compatriots from chicken wire and Portland cement. I could park my RV on the roof.

It is a three bay garage with rooms off to either side, containing a stairwell to the roof and the office. I am planting a garden on the roofwork.

There is running water and power for the computer. I keep my costs low and work doing whatever I want. Which turns out to be removing garbage from people's garages and attics, hauling vegetable oil from restaurants, painting every now and then, making using and selling biodiesel and ethanol, and a little bit of repair work on whatever rolls my way or gets dropped off.

I built the cistern. I cook my own food.

I arranged my own house. I am one of the civic leaders of a rural commune in West Virginia.

We grow hemp. We grow jimsonweed. We grow tomatoes and violets, liquor stills and foodcrops. Some guy down the road owns cows. I tested the dairymilk for Strontium-90. Lower than the national average.

I live on land.