Hi Crooked Foresters!
There’s so much happening, that I need to slow down long enough to write it down. Here’s an update that comes with an open invitation to Get Involved with any of these projects that might interest you. Because we need some help to make all this happen.
- Starting a local building training program:
We have reached out to Finance New Mexico and the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Program (NMMEP) to explore funding and financing options for these priorities (and we’ll do whichever is the path of least resistance first!) We need funding first.
- Starting an Adobe Construction training program here in Grant County based on the one at Sante Fe Community College and jumpstarting with Adobe in Action’s Online Education Courses. We would like to optimize this course for people who are transitioning their careers and want something more local that would MAKE OUR COMMUNITY MORE AWESOME! A school that makes homes!
- We would like to explore kick starting a compressed Earth block program as part of the above and based on this program started by Adobe in Action’s founder with municipal or county partners that understand the utility of a locally sourced building material that could have a rapid impact on homelessness by creating sleeping pods and tiny houses like in this amazing program in Oregon.
- Joe Kennedy, natural building architect, is working on our 4 house designs and 3 Community building designs. Our plan is to have them all green-lighted for our prototype campus in 2023.
- Starting an Adobe Construction training program here in Grant County based on the one at Sante Fe Community College and jumpstarting with Adobe in Action’s Online Education Courses. We would like to optimize this course for people who are transitioning their careers and want something more local that would MAKE OUR COMMUNITY MORE AWESOME! A school that makes homes!
- Liaising with Local Government
- So far I have had brief initial meetings with the Council of Governments (CoG), the Community Development Dept and the County Government to simply introduce the idea of Community Land Trusts as a powerful instrument to meet their needs of community security, cleanliness, function and dignity as available to ALL residents in our community.
- Explore the creation of a Grant County based Community Development Corporation. So far as I can tell, the nearest one is in Deming, NM. Check out this role model organization from Tempe, AZ that is a combined Community Development Corporation AND Community Land Trust (CDC/CLT.) We need this here in Grant County, along with an Earthen Building Training Program.
- We need government partners who are visionary enough to see how solutions that are working well in other cities can be implemented right here for our communities future. Contact us if you’d like to help with this!
- So far I have had brief initial meetings with the Council of Governments (CoG), the Community Development Dept and the County Government to simply introduce the idea of Community Land Trusts as a powerful instrument to meet their needs of community security, cleanliness, function and dignity as available to ALL residents in our community.
- Organizing a Natural Building Slam (Need Help!)
- A SLAM is 10 speakers, 10 slides each and 10 minutes each. This is an example SLAM. This event will bring together the awesome array of natural builders in New Mexico and film them talking about what makes them excited about the skills and materials they work with. We’d like this to become an annual event and kick off the first one in 2023. Contact us if you’d like to help with this!
- This annual event will highlight traditional building skills that we cannot forget because our economic, water and food sovereignty will absolutely depend on them in the coming era. We are already seeing how unreliable our supply chains are becoming for delivering building materials, machines, parts, food, etc, and we need to be forward thinking in designing for the future infrastructure needs now.
- Why Natural Building? It’s just like having clean water. Because it’s the healthiest way to live. People with complex-chronic illnesses almost always need extremely clean places to heal. “Clean,” in this case, doesn’t mean “sterile,” it means “populated by an old and intact microbial ecosystem and almost no chemicals,” like in a wilderness setting. If it works for sensitive people, it works to help everybody thrive. Plus the resource is everywhere.
- A SLAM is 10 speakers, 10 slides each and 10 minutes each. This is an example SLAM. This event will bring together the awesome array of natural builders in New Mexico and film them talking about what makes them excited about the skills and materials they work with. We’d like this to become an annual event and kick off the first one in 2023. Contact us if you’d like to help with this!
- I have been working behind the scenes on getting our podcast recording equipment studio set up so we can really hit our stride! I’ve also been getting our social media accounts integrated with this website to get our broadcast out there seamlessly. Deep Thanks to one special donor ❤ who gifted us with enough to set up our studio!!
Lastly, our last post told you about our prototype tiny house for a sensitive person. While the design needs refinement, I am thrilled to report that the owner was able to move right in and is thriving! She is warm, sleeping in a real bed for the first time in 30 years and her dog is happy! We couldn’t be happier.
LET’S BUILD 100 MORE.
Let’s get from community survival mode to community THRIVING mode.
https://crookedforestinstitute.org/
crookedforestinstitute.org 