06/27/01...Wow, it haS BEEN a long time since we've been on site!! and, this is truly on site. I'm working in the little trailer office out here on the property... here to work for the summer. We have building permits to start the work. We've had a few joint work sessions and we've expanded the area... ...although we have run into a problem on the main site, we are working to resolve the discovered easement conflict. We'll keep everyone updated. 10/15/98... We're expanding!
Today we added a new section of remote property to the trust co-op compound... with the intent to develop a rustic retreat over in the San Pedro River valley. We are just over a mile in off the main valley road with luxurious vistas of the Rincons, surrounding valleys, and distant peaks. Our acreage adjoins public lands to extend our recreational possibiliites to thousands of roaming acres. We'll be building an adobe compound with cluster units... primitive bedrooms lit by oil or candlelight and warmed with wood burning stoves...but cooled by evaporative coolers. There will be a fully equipped community/cooking building with full utility service.
The fifteen+ units will share three or four bath
buildings, numerous meditive/reflective courtyards,
various gathering area, an amphitheatre/fire pit
area, walking trails, and workshop areas. The
emphasis will be for a true get away retreat...
...but we hope to develop some full time residency.
Longterm there is a plan to allow visiting artists to
live/work on site year 'round, subsidized by the
trust.
There will be two primary emphasis: rustic aesthetics and cost affordabilty. The plan is to allow a broad based participation through co-op memberships earned through both shared costs and a heavy portion of member direct labor. Everything will be built by the members... their time will be a big part of their obligatory "dues", reducing the dollars necessary to realize the development of the retreat.
MEMBERSHIP
An ....about the adobe cabins and the grounds...
They will be small, snug but airy spaces. Each one will have a wood burning stove for warmth, both in the physical and emotional sense. It is planned to orient the front to allow for exceptional vistas from the front covered porch area. Exiting the rear door you will enter a small, accented courtyard recessed into the hillside... giving each dwelling an outdoor privacy area. The detailings both inside and out will be simple but unique. There will be sleeping nooks and cozy sitting areas... bancos sculptured into the walls. Rough wood and mud will prevail.
The lighting in the adobe cabins will mostly be provided by candles and oil lamps...providing a unique feel to the setting and minimizing the glare to the outside so as not to distract from the night time experience for the rest of the retreat. There will be electrical lighting in the space, but it will be very limited... intended for entry movement from the door to the candles. There will not be indoor plumbing in the cabins. There will be toilets close by clustered throughout the compound, and very nicely developed bath houses with both indoor and outdoor showers and soaking tubs. We may develop a few spaces that have kitchen facility, but at this time the emphasis is towards enhancing the cooperative experience, so all of the food preparation capacity is being concentrated in the large common kitchen and community building.
Within the community building area there will be multiple food prep areas developed... to allow for a variety of efforts to be ongoing at any one time. It is desirable for people to coordinate and combine their food preparation, coming together for common meals, but there will be facility to accomodate individual meal preparation. Likewise, there will be a variety of indoor and outdoor seating arrangements that allow for both large group meals and small, intimate dining. We will also set aside special courtyard dining with characteristic limits such as total quiet... areas where talking is restricted. As the compound develops we will attempt to add more quality of experiences where ever we can.
In addition to the adobe cabins and the community area there will be a variety of areas, both open and walled, that will have special use applications. Again, there will be space dedicated to quiet. There will be outdoor exercise areas. We will have walking paths and numerous places to get away and enjoy the sense of the outdoors. The development will emphasize the natural high desert surroundings. We will not be trying to create any artificial lushness. The only non-native plant introductions will probably be in the area of highbred mesquite trees.
The final augmentation in improvements will be the workshop areas, both enclosed and open air. These will be spaces dedicated to arts and crafts: painting, pottery, sculpture, furniture making, and whatever is desired and reasonable. Much of the specialty accents built into the compound will flow from these areas.
We are considering setting up a weekly shuttle service from Tucson to Cascabel, possibly leaving Friday and returning on Sunday... more frequently if the demand justified the cost. We would use a 12-15 passenger van with a small trailer for supplies. Members would be able to have free or low cost transport to the retreat, ideally giving us greater continuity of activity and opening up the retreat to those who do not have adequate transport to the site. This service would not begin until we have cabin improvements adequate to house 10-15 people.
There are a few other long range plans, but they are not overly impactful at this juncture in time. We will probably see a core of full time activity develop over the years, such that visits to the retreat will become as much touching base with the activity there as it will be getting away from it all, but we will not lose the "getting away" quality.
December 20, 1998
Our first work weekend went very well. We hauled and mixed and stacked and ate...! paused... then did more of the same. The basic outine of the first unit is well along. With soft, curving lines we defined a large kitchen/den... dining nook that should hold 10+ people... entry mud room... and two neat little bedrooms. It's twice as large as initially planned, but it's already getting praise and positive attention. The aesthetics are nice and once the windows are placed we may have a very nice living space. Diana and Michael and Jeannie and Michael provided the labor for this first weekend... we are all looking forward to the next bout of improvements.
April 1999...
Things have been moving along!!
The work weekends in January, February, March and April saw the initial "work house" take form. We now have a very rustic, handbuilt space from which to stage the development and building of the retreat. We have a large kitchen-living-dining room, and two bedrooms. The well is drilled and we are intalling a double pump system (both hand and electric submersible). We have sited the first seven cabin sites and cut the access trails to them and the first two bath houses. The perimeter walking trail has been started (looks to be about two miles long).
The electric and water system lines are laid out and we are to get our electric connection over the next few weeks.
We have bought an additional set of acreage, giving us another little valley and providing expansion and buffer space.
The work weekends are now a full week long each month. We head out on Tuesday before the third weekend and return the following Monday. It is hard,fun work.
May 19, 1999
The work continues...
...we hit the property with a bit of heavy machinery this week. Michael and Darien dug and trenched out the pads for the first strawbale house to go in by the entrance, and did the basic work on the utility and septic lines. It was an experience. We set the well, again! This time it works!! 441 pumps to the first bit of water... then around 30 strokes per gallon. Fits well with our work ethic. Nina helped on the cleanup and courtyard work. Bob and Mary dropped in for a visit. Kathleen, Nancy and Karen stayed over one night. Some missionaries happened by?! All in all, a good work week. In June we go out for two weeks!!
July 20, 1999...
well, it's sort of a month off for the rural retreat activity. The monsoon rains have us refocused at the LaEscuela Compound, but we made up for it last month with a 14 day work period. We hauled and trenched and hauled and dug... and we have the beginnings of a water system. Michael trenched in nearly a mile of system pipes. He dug septic tanks and water lines and sewer lines. The whole place is torn up!
Jill joined us for the work and we are now slowly moving towards filling all of those trenches with pipes and dirt. Our electrical connections are being installed sometime today...that will give us a feed to the first strawbale retirement home. We hope to build that unit this fall.
We added a great wood burning cook stove to the log cabin... a special trip over to an antique store in Silver City provided that and a few other neat items. We are having fun.
August 28, 1999....
Michael continues to work away on the water delivery system. He's out by himself for three weeks this month. We should be ready to upgrade the well by mid September and add in the water tower tanks.We added in another storage room and hooked it into electrical service; we now have cold food storage and ice making capacity
October 10, 1999
...just closing out an amazing month of heavy duty dirt work. We have new roads, we buried many of the old roads, we have building sites and picnic areas and newwww trails. We have a massive new pavillion area. Our water tower really towers. We managed a fewww exciting mishaps but made it through with the radical changes injury free. We are back to third weekends through February, then we will start our houses next March when we will be out for the entire month.
there's lots to do...
there's lots to get done... more to come