History and Background
The Beginnings
In 2003, with my strong intentions and the support of those close to me, I (Edwin Basye) started envisioning a new small community based on sustainable living practices, holistic health, and spiritual intentions. In December of 2003, I journeyed from Rochester, New York to the land that was donated for this project. Since that time, there has been slow but significant progress toward that goal. In late summer of 2004, Mike Fallwell joined me (Edwin Basye) with the goal of developing a new revolutionary windpower machine. Although we were not able to build a viable prototype, Mike's ideas have been pursued by other windmill researchers. We acquired many items from Windtree Ranch in 2004, which no longer had use for the items. Among these was a motorhome and three pickup-style camper units. Initially we powered the site with a generator acquired from a neighbor, but in the fall of 2005 we installed a modest solar system consisting of two 120-watt panels and six golf-car batteries, which has done very well powering lights, running a laptop computer, small 12V cooler, and various appliances and power tools. 
More Recently
In the last two years, a few people have expressed intentions to join or have helped with the project. Two college students drove from Washington State in February 2006 and were a tremendous help in getting some fruit trees planted and enclosing the "roof" of the circle garden with chicken wire. We have also made major progress capturing run-off by creating dozens and dozens of check-dams and gabions, and a 600ft-long swale.
About the Area and the Land
Douglas is a town in Arizona on the border of Mexico and is less than 50 miles from New Mexico. It seems to be on the verge of a significant growth spurt. It has grown from about 15,500 people in 2004 to about 17,000 today. A 500-home development is underway just outside of town, and homes are selling well. There also a 90-home development underway. Douglas has generally mild winters but occasionally gets down to single digits. The winter of 2007-2008 has been very mild -- our first hard frost date was December 10th! There is often a 35 to 40 degree temperature difference between overnight low and daytime high, so a rare cold morning of 10 degrees could end up being a fairly pleasant 50 degrees by afternoon. The land is approximately 12 miles from Douglas. The land has many small ravines and one large central ravine where erosion has occurred, partially due to open range cattle over-grazing. The soil is generally sandy and rocky in spots, especially on the upper slopes. Some of the lower portions of the land have red clay beneath the one foot of topsoil and decomposed rock. The flora is dominated by mesquite, a leguminous (nitrogen-fixing) plant which has edible green beans in late spring. and mature beans during the monsoon season (July/August) which can be harvested and ground into flour. Mesquite can also be harvested for limited amounts of small firewood. Other flora include various wildflowers, sage, chaparral (creosote bush), grasses, cacti, century plants, and a few juniper trees and oak trees. The notable fauna are deer, javelinas, coyotes, skunks, ringtails, ground squirrels, cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits, quail, red-tail hawks, owls, hummingbirds, many varieties of lizards including the Gila Monster, and rattlesnakes (which are rarely seen). All neighboring lands are approximately 40 acres but can (and a few have been) be subdivided into smaller (min. 5-acre) parcels.