Blogs

Celebrate and welcome Michael Grainge, who has joined the Sanctuary. He is committed to permanent residency and brings a wealth of talents to us.  He has a degree in Agriculture (plant pathology) and is excited about helping organize and plan our future.

Welcome Michael!

I am nurturing strong intentions for significant progress this year. I am receiving some strong  positive intentions  from both Michael Grainge and Florbella Monteiro. Michael has committed to join the community in March or April. 

Our goals for this year, subject to revision and refinement as people join and participate in the process:

I received the emergency shelter book from Cal-Earth. It has many interesting designs for small adobe housing, suitable for visitors. Trying out a few of these will be a good step toward learning how to build with this method in preparation for the larger permanent residence eco-dome housing, and will provide more comfortable spaces for visitors to stay.

I continue to focus most of my energies on the business (Sites That Grow LLC) to generate capital for the project. I have taken on a part-tiem teaching job, which is keeping me busier than ever.

We recently had a visit from Patricia, a woman from Tucson, who is interested in the project and can draw out a housing plot for us -- she is an interior designer.  We hope to have another visit from her soon.

We also received an inquiry from Mark, of the Oracle, Arizona area.

Another man named Mike G. has also expressed interest and may come to visit sometime in 2009.

Recent Activities

• We have had very good monsoon rains, above normal rainfall in July and August
• Continued  to bury the water pipe which runs from the well to the storage tank area.
• Bought MycoGrow to encourage growth of trees, bushes and annuals.
  

Recent activity:

• Diesel generator to run the well pump is now working. We estimate this to save up to 75% of fuel costs for water pumping
• The spring garden is coming along. More attention is needed to weeding and a few more plantings.
• We planted 2 more fruit trees to replace ones that died last year. Hopefully with more water they will survive.
• Added 40% shade cloth to the garden canopy. This is an experiment to see if even sun-loving vegetables grow faster, bigger, better.