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Details
Description
We are a couple who are dreaming of and working toward building a kin's domain community in Southern Colorado, 30 minutes southwest of Pueblo, Colorado. We are retired hard working people with a powerful dream for a truly sustainable community bringing back the ancient Vedruss Culture described in the Ringing Cedars Books by Vladimir Megre. At present we have one other living here on her own domain plot. We are building our own domain parcel off grid on raw land and can normally use plenty of help during the warm weather months. We have built a cabin and added an earth wall two story addition. We are learning by doing as we build our dream and discover more and more ways to make our lifestyle more harmonious with Nature and life. This spring and summer (2022) we have fewer projects as I am recovering from some health issues. Our guests stay in a camper near our home and prepare most of their own meals (solves the problem of various and incompatible dietary preferences). We provide the food suitable to your diet preference along with clean sheets, towels and washcloths. We live off grid and finding ways to make that more and more sustainable.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
DIY and building projects
Creating/ Cooking family meals
General Maintenance
UN sustainablity goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
You could interact with people who are committed to living in harmony with nature and are transitioning to that lifestyle. In fact we prefer and give priority to workawayers who are planning their own transitional lifestyle. We speak English with a bit of Spanish; during certain projects you could learn and experiment with alternative building methods, and try out our transitional off-grid lifestyle. You could have many wonderful discussions about alternative lifestyle elements we have tried. Some have worked and some have not. Some still need improvement and those could be stimulating discussions and experiments as well.
If you love being in Nature, want to deepen your connection with Nature and thereby deepen your connection with your own true nature, this is a great place and group for that. Our collection of expertise includes the legalities of community and structure building, the function of Government and Law in relation to community, construction styles and materials, off-grid systems and possibilities, the transition from modern lifestyle to a more sustainable lifestyle. Communicating with Nature, and good hard work, relationship between the inner personal world and the outer world of physical and emotional experiences.
Ben is a fully trained Lakota Sioux pipe carrier and qualified to offer you a Lakota Sioux (native American) pipe ceremony for whatever intent you may desire. You only need to ask.
Help
Because of our very rustic lifestyle and cold winters we do not accept guests from October through March. We are generally warmed up and open for guests again by late April through September. We are building a kin's domain community in southern Colorado and our projects are mostly building and planting trees. We have worked on projects like building a manually pumped water system to move spring water from our canyon to the canyon rim 200 feet above. We have path building projects through a steep forested area (leading down to the river canyon). We have shelters ready to be cobbed and shelters ready to be roofed. The roofing help is both framing and installing metal roofing. We have holes to dig for trees and at certain times of the year we have trees to plant in those holes. We also have people building their own private domains (5 acre plots) who come here off and on but don't yet live here. There is a lot of digging needed here and there, and we also have a river to swim in depending on the season, places to explore or meditate in nature's serene beauty.
IMPORTANT for some people: We are at an elevation of 5200 feet. Some health conditions will make it difficult to help in this altitude (low for Colorado but high for many visitors). Healthy people will only experience more heavy breathing especially when hiking up from the canyon.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Intermediate
Accommodation
We live off-grid in a relatively remote area with no public transportation access. Cell phone service is limited for some signal servers. Being off-grid we have no land-line for phone. We do have satellite internet but our allotted bandwidth is very limited so not generally accessible unless you use the wifi access provided with your phone account. Life and accommodations here are very rustic.
For our guests we have a camper that sleeps six (small propane refrigerator). The camper has solar for lighting and phone charging but is not enough for charging most laptops or notebooks. In cold weather the camper is heated with a small propane "buddy" heater (We supply the propane). The camper has no plumbing. Water is supplied via a five gallon water bottle dispenser (we supply the spring water). We will provide food, of course, and you will prepare most of your own meals although that is flexible depending on diet preference. You may prepare all your own food if you prefer, or share in our evening family meals. We will provide you with linens or you can bring your own (sleeping bag is fine also). Sheets will be clean but blankets are not washed after each guest leaves. The camper has a propane stove and oven and is furnished with basic cooking utensils. It's more like camping than visiting someone in an ordinary house. If you are one who does not adjust easily to cool weather this may not be a good choice for you in autumn or early spring. Spring and Fall temperatures range from 30's to 80's Fahrenheit which is great for outdoor help. Much of our help would be more pleasant with a good pair of work gloves.
We can accommodate children if they are involved in the work exchange but absolutely no pets. We are in a ranching area and ranchers shoot coyotes and dogs (even cats) they don't know. You may hear the occasional gun shots of a rancher clearing his land of perceived predators. We have no fenced areas for pets and we share our land with natural predators (coyotes, lynx, bobcat, mountain lions, bears, hawks, and owls). We love them but pets may be dinner for them. We have been developing a very nice relationship with the wild animals around us. We have a herd of 13 or so deer that consistently graze and bed down near our home and campers. We a have a family of skunks that we have become quite comfortable with and even friendly with. Two foxes frequently come around and have become fairly comfortable around us. We love these wild animals and have found that family pets don't co-exist harmoniously with these pre-existing animals.
What else ...
If you actually did want to leave this beautiful place to go see other interesting places (if you have your own vehicle), we are in the foothills of the Wet Mountains, a range of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. We're an hour from Pike's Peak, and Garden of the Gods, a great tourist area. Every road and highway leads to beautiful scenic views, camping, and historic sites. There's not a lot of reason to leave for these views because they exist right here on our land along with limited hiking, river exploration, quiet meditation spots and lots of wildlife. We have deer, antelope, bobcats, bears, mountain lions, badgers, coyotes, huge turtles, snakes, prairie dogs, and more but mostly they stay off in the distance or are visible only through their scat that they leave in the night.
Except for the founders, Ben and Joyce, only one other domain builder lives here so far. We have a certain amount of social time but we're normally pretty focused on our projects because our dream is so big with many completions needed.
Here's what we don't want: Please do not come here because of Colorado's Marijuana laws and please do not come if you are using any drugs either recreational or medical of any kind. We are not a good location for recreational or medical drug lifestyles. On the other hand, if you love being in Nature, want to deepen your connection with Nature and thereby deepen your connection with your own true nature, we are a GREAT place to spend some time and energy.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (6)
They were generous from the first contact we had with them and took great care of us while we worked on their property. They were always open and honest with us about their expectations which helped both the hosts and… read more
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They were generous from the first contact we had with them and took great care of us while we worked on their property. They were always open and honest with us about their expectations which helped both the hosts and… read more
Joyce has a deep well of wisdom, insight and experience to share. I found my perspectives challenged and expanded through our conversations, and still have a lot of her insights to process over the coming weeks.
We were visited fairly often by members… read more
The work was easy (loads of time on recycling/ insulating walls/ carrying around stuff for construction work to finish the barn they built), but i totally enjoyed… read more
Me and my Fiance stayed a month and not only got… read more
