We found land!!!

An aerial view of 5.5 acres.

My heart is pounding as I tell you this.  We haven’t officially signed the papers, but are financially prepared to move forward with an offer.  First, though, we need your feedback.  The land and earthbag building will not be just a private residence, but also an educational headquarters for countless workshops, trainings, meetings and more, both as a base to work online (think podcasts) and a physical location.  Note: we do not intend to have large groups at the physical location – but visits by appointment are welcome.  Think of it as a more interactive visitor’s center at a national park, but on private land without “public access” in order to limit traffic and destruction of habitat.  Native species habitat will be restored and protected, and the facilities will (to the best of our ability) be available for future generations to enjoy after we are gone.

The view from the road (down the street from the land)

Facts About the Land:

The location is near Brentwood, east of West Fork and south of Fayetteville .  It’s peaceful and feels sacred, with abundant wildlife that greeted us.  Several large rocks and a wet weather creek are part of the south-facing, gently sloping land.

This is raw, undeveloped land with access to the grid and city water if we choose to use them in the case of not being successful with rainwater harvesting or solar panels.  The trees include elm, oak, maple, hickory, and others.  A few flat places big enough for our very small building are near the road, which is well-maintained.

High water and flooding makes the main access to the road impassable, but there is another route available.  The owner is very sweet and not in it for the money.  Although valued at almost double the asking price, the owner asks for $15,000 for the entire two tracts, totaling 5.5 acres.  We will be located en route to Winslow and places like Wattle Hollow and Devil’s Den State Park.

Why Does Ripples Need a Location?

Yes, we began as a blog that can be written anywhere.  And we decided, back then, to build our home from earthbags and go off-grid to reduce our impact on the planet.  But since we started all this in September 2011, Ripples became a lot bigger than us!  It’s growing into a community, and several projects are emerging.  We expanded to include a newspaper column, several resource Wikis, an online class for youth leaders in NGOs worldwide, technology consultations and other services for non-profit organizations.  (Yet we’re still at the very beginning, and under-developed, potential-wise.) See our full brochure for details: Ripples_Brochure_Complete_8-9-2013

And now, Ripples is expanding to include more people.  We want to make as many ripples as possible with the decisions we make in our lifetime.  That’s why we decided to open our future home (and Ripples itself) to the local public and international community online.  From this point on, it’s this community and network of Ripples supporters that will be co-creating the Ripples project – that’s you! – and making decisions together on what workshops and services are most needed (both locally and internationally).  We need volunteers to both help build this earthbag headquarters, as well as online contributors to Ripples Resources in areas like gardening and non-profit management.

For a brief glance at this dream, see page four of the brochure (below):

https://makeripples.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Brochure_Template_pg_4.pdf

Thoughts? Expressions? Questions?

USE THE COMMENTS (below) for discussion.

You will not be added to lists, emailed, etc. Disqus is a reliable commenting feature, we trust it.

1. Should we buy this land?
2. Are you excited about the potential for Ripples to expand its services?
3. Do you have ideas or criticisms about this decision that could help improve it?
4. Are you personally willing to be involved either at our potential location or online?

We Need You!  Every Droplet Counts. 🙂 Thank You for Reading!