An Old Idea Revisited

Over the years I have toyed with creating my own farm, city, town, getaway, community, village, home.  My mediums have gone back and forth, from cob, to rammed earth, to log cabin or just plain wood planks.  I have gone so far as to create my own communities using graph paper and copious notebooks filled with statistical data and relevant information leading to a village that was almost completely self reliant.  I know it's radical and I always wanted to find about 10 to 100 acres of farm land, real cheap outside of a small town to try my experiment on.  I love the idea of creating Utopia, but then there are rules and as I would talk with my friends, they no longer shared my vision, control of this enterprise was being yanked from my grasp and suddenly I would play only a minor part in my own creation because someone appointed themselves in control of my ideas.  It all came down to rules and what should and shouldn't be allowed and as visionary as my ideas were, without money to back it up, things fall by the wayside.  However, I loved creating the towns, coming up with the ideas, re-inventing the wheel, so to speak.  There is also a certain sense of ownership when you have copywrited your ideas in some way, protected your creative process and you walk out with the file of creativity.  My closet is full of those (I have a temper) ... lol.... most of my ideas don't make it beyond the initial planning stages, but I am nothing if not prolific.
As I was tooling around with that idea of being a hermit, which I like to harbor every once in a while because for some sick reason I get solace from these thoughts, it struck me that I really miss (more than words can ever say) living in touch with nature; in the thick of things, where you can tell the seasons by the way the days feel on your skin and the aromas of the various aspects of each season in succession.  I had that when I lived on the Queen Charlotte Islands, but I had no way to hold onto it, and I have been feeling sort of lost ever since.  All my feelings about gardening and housing, community and market, friends and family started to come together last night when my partner went to work.  I downloaded Google Earth and found this picture:

This picture by Uncle Bob from Google Earth map.

It's a picture of Westwood Lake from the Mount Benson side.  You can see the lay of the land and one edge to the other, even hints of where the sun hits the land.  Wow it's really awesome to see the way the Lake is nestled between the city of Nanaimo, with the harbor beyond, and Mount Benson.  As I continued to look, I wondered, wouldn't it be cool to set up a garden just beyond the back of the lake, a little, but not too far off the beaten track.  Like a secret garden, with possibly even a small orchard.  It shouldn't be too hard to set up something like that and to find a custodian who will take care of it when I am gone, either from this area, or from this life.  If for any reason I move, I can create a new one.  I need never be without a garden again.

This picture by Uncle Bob from Google Earth Maps

Here is an old cabin on the bluff that overlooks Westwood Lake below.  It was something that I had considered putting in the garden, after all, who knows if the day is long, you may need a place to hang your hat for the night.  Although in some ways, it would fit in with the surroundings, I wanted something different.  For a long time I had been in love with cob building, as well as daub and wattle.  The very idea that everything that you need for a house was right there on the land waiting for you.  I think what I would like is to fence in an area... an acre or two (not really so big as you might think in the scheme of things).  The more I thought about it, the more an idea has begun to set it's roots in my mind.  I think it's time for me to sit down with pen and paper, do a little graph work, toy with a garden and some out houses (not a toilet) and a bog (a natural toilet), even a stove.  

Now where's that notebook and pen, I gots some ideas festering. :D