Need help with a project...

Hi guys, it's been a long time since I've posted with ya. I still love ya and wish I could hook back up with ya in some of the games you've been playing. Money, however, has been an issue. Anyway, on to the purpose of this post.

 

My friends and I have been working on a project. The main idea of this project is to escape the current system of working too hard for indirect rewards - like work for hours and hours a week, make too little money, and then spend it all on bills ya can't afford to pay. As with all things in life, this project is going to take MUCH more money than we can put together in a few years. As such, we are working on getting a website up and running to put the word out and get supporters. Problem is that none of us are experienced enough to build such a website, nor can we afford to pay someone to build one for us. If any of you can help, we'd be absolutely grateful. Also, if you'd like to know more about the project, just say so. It is - in my opinion - an excellent idea, and will hopefully serve to secure many families from the ravaging problems in the US for many, many years.

Well, I'm certainly curious.

Ok, so I guess I should have just gone ahead and explained the whole deal. So here's a basic overview of the project - it has yet to be officially named, but we generally call it "the fort project."

 Basically, our goal is to remove the dependency on money in daily life. To this end, we devised a plan: buy land, build a medieval style fort, populate it with a community, and farm for food. This, of course, is just the basics.

Step 1: Buy land. We need about 400+ acres of land for this project. The fort itself will only take up about 5 - 10 acres, where the rest of the land will be needed for farming, hunting, and pasture/meadowland.

Step 2: Build the fort. The fort is more than just some kids' dream. Our goal is a modified Motte and Bailey from the Norman invasion of England. This consists of two walled rings: Ring 1. A main "town" type area containing stables, a blacksmith, weaver, tanner, potter, etc. We even want a combined veterinarian/clinic place to care for the inhabiting people and animals, as well as a unified chapel for people of all spiritual paths. Ring 2. The keep and residential area. This area is raised on a tall hill and contains a keep which would be primarily used for community things like meetings, cafeteria-style eating, and entertainment. Circling the inside of the wall is where the homes would be, each built with 3 bedrooms so families would have room to grow. Also in this section is a Japanese-style bathhouse, water tower, and anything else more for personal use.

Step 3: Start a community. We know that not everyone will be interested in this lifestyle, but we also know that there are a lot of people like us who would prefer to live more simply without fear of failing to pay bills. Everyone in the community would help in farming, raising livestock, hunting/fishing, and making common goods needed for everyday life. It's certainly a lot of work, but it's all direct and nullifies the need for money altogether...kinda. Obviously, such a community would never be allowed to exist without paying SOME kind of money to the government. We have a plan for that, too. The town ring can be used as a host for rennaisance festivals, providing a very unique stage for people to enjoy a taste of history - as well as a way to spend money on keeping us afloat. Also, since we intend to keep some modern technology around for entertainment use, the excess solar and wind electricity we get can be sold back to the power companies for sustainable income. There's more to all this, but I'm trying to keep it somewhat short.

 

Well...I think that's a good enough basic idea for ya. I'm sorry it's so long, but I could honestly write pages and pages of information and still have more to explain. Crazy? Kinda. But we think it could be a saving grace if things go as far downhill in the U.S. as we think it will.

Sounds like you're building a commune (albeit not one of them carazy free-love types).  I'll probably be knocking upon your giant gated door when the apocalypse makes its lazy way here. ;)

This is something I've thought about in the past, but my love of modern technology (both my profession and my consumerist tastes). I mean, I could give you some ideas about how to get the word out sometime, if you wanted. There's a lot of work that goes into planning such an endeavor, as you've no doubt discovered. I don't have time to build a site or anything, but I could help you get started with something easy enough to use initially until you had time to develop something new. Let me know.

-L-
 

Jim Jones tried this minus the medieval take, didn't turn out well for anybody. :)

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Unfortunately you will find that solar and wind power are prohibitively expensive and not without their drawbacks.  A decent wind turbine can power 1 small-mid sized home off the grid.  The problem comes in with the fact that in order to avoid having to dish out tens of thousands (hundreds even) of dollars for a transfer station the turbine has to be close to the home.  This is a problem since while we all imagine turbines to be silent free energy machines, they are not.  They sound like a small plane taking off (well not quite but they are annoyingly loud and can be heard for a good distance).  Have enough to power your community and nobody will be able to hear the flutes at the fair.  Then there is the fact that they are not reliable and if you have 1 in a location with good winds, expect to pay a small fortune in repairs and upkeep.  They also work best on hills or on open plains, so with build your commune on a mountain or an empty wind swept plain.

 

Then ther is solar power.  Currently solar power is even more expensive and unreliable then wind power.  For a small community an acre of solar panels may do the trick if you are far south enough, and that will run you a few million dollars.  Obviously solar power is really only good on sunny days and best in the summer months.  You can get panels that absorb lower energy wavelengths (that penetrate clouds) but the cost increases and the power output decreases the farther down you go (which is why few bother now, just not cost efective/efficent enough).

 

Unless you have a shitload of either of these, don't plan on reselling power (and many utility companies won't write you a check, you'll get credit towards energy use when your production is lower and you need to buy power).  And if you do get a shitload of these, you'd have enough money to simply not buy them and invest the cash and live on the interest thus solving the money problem(I would suggest scamming people out of their life savings, taking the wad and moving to a nice island somewhere thus solving the whole problem for you.  weee!).  Solar technology is rapidly increasing though and there are several companies working on inexpensive panels, but that could be a long way off. 

 

You could always go with biofuel energy but right now you'd probably have to devote all 400 acres to growing biomass for fuel production to power a small community.   Maybe wait until hydrogen bonding technology is better and then it will be a very viable option.

 

A combination of techniques could be employed to provide heat and meet energy needs however.  Adding a greenhouse on to each home and using fans to circulate the warm air in the winter will help offset the needs for heating by alot.  A mixture of solar panels and homes designed for convection can really result in cool homes in the summer.  Hot air rises, build a house specifically to harness this and you can really do amazing things (a few architects are doing this with amazing results).  Maybe some sort of compost/stirling engine setup could help produce energy (I am really convinced there is a way to make it viable).  Geothermal heating/cooling is wonderful, but better in more temperate zones (which aren't as good for solar power) and cost a fortune.

 

basically though, if you want power (electrical power not "muahahah" power) you either have to pay through the nose in order to live off the grid or suck it up and pay for it.   You cannot live off the grid cheaply and maintain any modern electrical standard of living without a decent sized fortune to get started.  Ideally though, if you could conquer some nice island (say St John in the Virgin Islands) kick out all the people living there and set up solar and wind stations you could do just fine.  That I am down for.

 

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Comparing this to Jim Jones? Harsh! Nonetheless, I'll forgive that. It was rather amusing. I appreciate the suggestions given, and we'll certainly take it all in consideration. As for power, we're not talking about what everyone considers everyday living. Total power consumption through the place is intended to be somewhere around that of a small apartment. Perhaps a bit more, but that'll be up to further deliberations. All that's neither here nor there, though. For now, I'm just worried about getting a site set up so we will have a web home for the project. Larith, I'm all ears.

Alrighty. Well, register a domain and get a hosting service, making sure they allow for MySQL and PHP access. I use GoDaddy's shared hosting for my wedding page, but you could really use anything that does that.

After that, I used a program called.Serendipity to set everything up. It's a really customizable blog engine with a lot of enhancements and open source support. They have an install process listed on their site, but if you needed help, I could talk you through it.

-Ken-
 

Awesome. Thanks Big-L. I'll get on it ASAP. I doubt I'll need help with it, but I'll keep your offer in mind.

Something else to consider(maybe I missed it though) is looking to Canada for the land.  They have shitloads of it, very few people, and can be readily bullied.  It is also a lot easier to heat than to cool given the power restrictions you are suggesting working with(ie, lots of wood in Canada just there to be burned and heat your greathall but no good air conditioners that would run off just a few watts) so a cooler climate might prove more advantageous.

Margrove:

They have shitloads of it, very few people, and can be readily bullied.

Isn't that the truth. I remember hearing about how some native indians were causing all kinds of trouble, forming roadblocks and cutting down telephone polls and such. If Canada sent them a symbolic gesture of tattered and old blankets I bet they'd have settled themselves down. Fucking maple syrup whores. 

 

Bump.  This thread deserves a sticky.