And now for something completely different...

Things are better than they have ever been. Life is amazing.

We have been trying out how to make this happiness sustainable. We have been blessed to have not had to work very much since we've been in the US, and because of that time together we are learning and discovering the most interesting things, fully self-lead discovery. Nick thought that he didn't like to learn new things, but he is discovering new interests and ways to explore them. He is, truly, a new man.

The conversation about income had to happen at some point. We do still live in "the real world" after all. We only needed to talk a little bit about the subject to come to the conclusion that since life was feeling so just right already, our answer must be to be doing what we're doing already, but on a commercial scale. For example, we're loving getting into frugal, super wholesome eating. We are sprouting all kinds of legumes and our staples are fresh daily almond milk and wholegrain organic spelt bread. Nick loves all of his kitchen processes, and he loves sharing all of our amazing food with people. Surely we could find a way to do what we're already doing and find a way to make some money from it.

Our idea was to get a small farm thing going on. We both want to work, neither of us are averse to earning our keep, but it's super important to us to do this on our own terms. For us, we need to be close to our children, and the children could fully and happily participate in a small farm operation. We could finally start to grow our own and work towards the self-sustainability we have been talking about for years. Maybe we could even progress to an on-site cafe/restaurant - completely farm to table. Nick would love that.

I got very, very excited about this farm idea. The main obstacle was, again, the money stuff. So we don't have the money and we don't want to have a mortgage. How on earth were we going to find ourselves the 5 acres we decided we would need to start a small farm? We were optimistic that just the right thing would happen. We waited it out.

Enter The Friends. The Friends live on 5 acres in McMinnville. Between them, they have a bunch of kids and a huge desire to homestead, and not nearly enough time or human-power. They are looking for community, self-sustainability, healthy vibrant lives, and natural upbringings for their children. We mentioned our farm idea, and we spent a few weekends out playing with them, exchanging visions and ideas, and experiencing such peace while the kids were blissfully outside in fresh air and dirt for days. We all, almost shockingly quickly, decided that the very best idea would be that we share their 5 acres with them and do the farm thing there.

We will need a dwelling, and that money issue still exists, so we easily landed on cob building. Our research immediately reinforced that decision. (Check some of it out; I'll throw up some links at the end.) Cob is easy: anyone can do it and it is safe for kids. It is very cheap, being made from the soil we will accumulate when we clear the land, clay which is abundant there, sand and straw. It is a real physical effort which I can only imagine will mean that it will be incredibly rewarding. We can incorporate passive solar to efficiently use the sun to heat our house, solar panels for power, rainwater tanks for water. What an experience it will be. I mean geez, imagine designing your own house, quirks and all, from the earth up. Cob requires a good solid roof and a good solid foundation, and all of the information one could possibly need or desire is available on the internet. People who take on cob building projects clearly love the process so much that they have to share it all, because their stories are everywhere. The fact that so many people seem to add extensions to their houses every year makes me feel so excited to get started.

We already spent a weekend out there starting to clear the land. We go back out this weekend to really get down to business with land-leveling and gardening. I can't wait.

Stay tuned...

Meka's Cob Cottage

Another random 'building with cob' video

Cob Wiki article

greenbuildingelements.com

The Year of Mud