Forever Farm - Our "Pheonix Farmhouse"

We love our yellow farmhouse!

The Oregon autumn rains have finally begun. Our gardens have (mostly) been retired from summer production and we have time to turn our attention to indoor projects (like catching up on our five-month hiatus of posting to this blog-site :-). The purchase of the Sharing Gardens land is complete! We spent the nine months from Oct 2013 until early July renovating the 1875 farmhouse that came with the land. The house was considered a "tear-down"; more of a liability than an asset. It had not been occupied in over seven years and in that time all windows and doors had been busted; there were gaping holes in the floor that looked straight down to the ground below and vandals had marred the interior walls with spray paint and sledge hammers. Originally we pictured ourselves fixing it up just enough to use as a work-shop and materials-storage but as we progressed in the renovations it became clear that the house was basically solid and that we had the skills to bring it back to a fully habitable dwelling.

This is the house after considerable work had already been done; doors and windows installed; tangles of blackberries and other overgrown weeds removed. January 2014

Same view, September 2014

Our living room in the early stages.

Now, isn't that cozy!

Dining room: We put rigid foam insulation on the insides of all the walls, and then paneling over that.

Because of the insulation, the house stays cool in the summer and is quick and easy to heat in the winter.

We did most of the renovations ourselves - both inside and outside.

View from the rear. September 2014.

Do you foresee yourselves living off and away from society?

Some larger houses like this, would be ideal.

We picture ourselves as having varied housing options -- some that are rural and some that are city-based. Wherever we are, we would like to maintain contact and interaction with the larger society, retaining just enough autonomy to maintain cohesive values of sharing, cooperation and service amongst ourselves. We do not wish to be seen as  'opposing' anything, but rather as 'for' something better.  We are not about running away to some 'safe place' but rather having the faith that we will always be safe wherever we are if we are putting others needs at least equal to our own. Currently (Summer 2012) we live just outside a small town of 700 people, about 20 miles from Corvallis, Oregon. Our demonstration project, the Sharing Gardens, provides common ground for community members and volunteers from all walks of life to interact with each other, and with the others we serve - at the Food Bank, Senior Center, and other distribution points for our fresh produce.