15 years ago, Dan Schultz sold his 2600-square-foot home in Flint Michigan and bought 160 acres of raw land near the California-Oregon border to start a village shaped by his values. For $225,000 he bought land packed with wood for lumber, gravity-fed water, and plenty of sunlight for solar and growing. He had to clear road, build a bridge and construct homes, cabins and community spaces and huge gardens and terraced hillside for growing most of their own food.
source.image: Kirsten Dirksen
The earth ship solarium, which stretches across the hillside nearly the length of a football field, provides year-round, produce and potatoes. Goats chickens and ducks provide milk and eggs.
Schultz, who’s an unabashed prepper, says there is plenty of food on the property to survive any kind of disaster scenario. He focused on milk and eggs as ideal survival foods: “You know milk and potatoes are nutritionally complete on their own, you can live forever. The Irish tripled their population with milk and potatoes, right?”
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Dan says it costs just $5000 per year to maintain the property. This includes taxes, propane and supplies for building more cabins. His nightly rentals, like the popular hobbit hole, treehouse, a frame, and half moon cabins, pay for any expenses.Right now there are eight people in his community, but this number fluctuates based on applications. Members don’t pay any fees to live here, they simply help with farm or community chores.
