Stephen, of Solarmax Farm, wrote to me the other day describing the long-term, communal-style survival plan/idea he has. It was interesting enough, different enough, that I asked him to write a guest post on it. What he describes below is a newer, long-term prepper idea that I’m seeing more of. There is an interest in gathering like-minded people to live in a communal way. In a long-term, post-event situation, cooperating with others is key to survival.
Is this a good way to prepare? Living together, supporting each other. Or is it more akin to housing associations? Neighbors fighting over what everyone can/can’t do in their yard.
I don’t know.
- Ranger Man
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OK, you’ve prepared for the first year after the “Event”, what ever situation occurred that will make you and your family bug out to your emergency survival camp or hideout. You’ll survive on the supply’s you collected and stored in preparation. You will be able to adapt to your new environment and your family will be safe for the next 12 months. But what are you going to do at the end of those 12 months? Have you prepared to live off the land, do you expect to return to the cities under darkness and cover to scavenge and collect more food and supplies?
Are you prepared to compete with others for the same resources, will you be willing to engage in combat if necessary? Even if you are able to resupply, will those supplies support you and your family while you work to create a farming system adaptable to your new location and capable of producing enough food for you and your family, let alone enough to trade with others? Will you be able to protect your supplies and survive if a group with more firepower than you decides that they are more deserving than you to live?
The truth is that if there is an “Event” bad enough to lead everyone to take flight in the first place, then it’s going to bad enough to kill off most of the initial survivors within the first years even if preparation have been taken. So unless you have taken action to support you, your family and your community long-term, and long-term means making preparations to rebuild and reintegrate people in large enough groups to support each other with a breeding population large enough to prevent interbreeding, you’re doomed any way.
Even if you do reintegrate you local population, have you made the necessary arrangements to support your “first level” supply production (first level being the ability to take your harvest and produce those goods services necessary to support life)? Examples are preparing livestock for trade or storage, preparing your harvest (saving enough viable seeds to continue planting new crops every year), manufacturing tools and equipment for use or trade that can be further worked to produce “level 2” finished products. Level 2 being goods and service supported by level 1 that are the tools and machines used to recreate communities.
Of course you can take all the free time you have in the first year to learn or relearn all those skills and put together the information your going to need, but doesn’t it makes more sense to do the work ahead of time and have everything prepared for the long-term? Solarmax Farm, and other facilities like it, represents that preparation.
My initial interest in off the grid living was sparked by the “Next Whole Earth Catalog” and my living situation at the time (home was Big Sur, CA.). I felt it was necessary to consider the long-term when approaching the problem of survival and so I began looking at the next step after surviving the initial event. What evolved design has become more involved with environmental and educational concerns in the last years, but the core of it was how to create a resource that would help jump start the return to a more stable society. To accomplish that I spent the next 20 years learning about, researching and experimenting with all aspect of agriculture and related disciplines (Tech knowledge, skills and tools)
What I came up with is a project called “Solarmax Farm”. Its designed to support up to 300 people, providing crops and livestock for up to 80% of their needs year round. It will be capable of growing more than 1000 different fruits, vegetable and fungus in soil, hydroponic and under artificial light. Able to raise up to 50 different kinds of livestock in pens, in fields, in a Food Forest or using Aquaculture and Aquaponics. A complete set of greenhouses will allow year round farming and provide controlled environments to grow crops from around the world.
After harvest it will be able to process crops as fresh, canned (metal cans and glass jars) or dried. Prepare Fruits and Vegetables for long term low temp or frozen storage. It will have the facilities to care for (Vet clinic), butcher and process fish, fowl, meat and milk (cheese). It includes a full size feed barn and crop support supplies storage.
It’s designed to produce bio diesel and ethanol fuel, collect Solar Thermal Energy (used for heating and electrical production) and direct sunlight (photovoltaic), harvest wind and collect rain (enough storage and by using water recycling system to be able to survive a 10 year drought). It has shops capable of maintaining farm and transportation equipment, to build and repair metal or wood construction and able to test, repair or build electronic equipment. The man with a working computer (protected prior to the event) will have a distinct advantage and a valuable information source.
It will have more than 700,000 cubic ft of long term storage space, including root cellars, refrigerators and freezers (40, 32 and 0 degree), under vacuum or under CO2 & Nitrogen atmospheres. Its water system is capable of storing up to 1 million gallons of water in tanks, pond and small lakes. It will be able to extract water directly from the air and provide heating and cooling using solar driven equipment. It includes both a health clinic and an operating lab (Organic & Bio Chemistry).
It will be able to produce small quantities of wine, beer and distilled alcohol (the same stills will be able to handle distilling of methanal, plant extracts). Its beehives will produce honey (resulting in plant pollination) & wax. Its ponds will be able to support a dozen species of fish, crustaceans and amphibians. It will be able to process hides (for leather and furs) and Ag reources into paper or cloth, produce blood and bone meal fertilizer and capable of processing up to 200 tons or more of compost per year.
Though not deliberately designed in the original conception, its design also offers security and protection from intruders with high ground observation and metal fencing. There are additional systems to provide protected communication and security. It’s capable of housing up to 50 adults and children.
Using both hard copy and digital storage its library will contain information necessary to recreate industrial and manufacturing processes, plans for building equipment that’s capable of recreating most of our current technologies (these tools are being developed by such groups as OSE.org [Open Source Ecology] and OSRliving.org) and complete copies of current educational & scientific knowledge, hardened against flooding, fire and EMP.
The project was designed with the intention of creating a place of Learning, Teaching and Training. The design philosophy was Organic Sustainable Permaculture but the rest of its capabilities came as a result of just putting the pieces together
You can find the design prototype at www.Solarmaxfarm.com This design is worked up for the Pacific northwest but it can be reworked for any environment location. It could be built after a disaster but several of its vital features would not be available for several years, it will work more successfully if it is built prior to the collapse or catastrophe, which is what I am trying to do. OSE.org is working on simple tools, attempting to help recreate tools to preserve our technology level but “Solarmax Farm” is a Super tool and it is intended to jump start a larger community by producing and processing Crops and Livestock in a first level production designed to support a local community.
If you have ideas or come across some new/old tech that you think could go towards making Solarmax Farm work even better, I’d sure like to hear them in the comments section below.
If you have any question or wish to inquire you can contact me at Stephen@solarmaxfarm.com. I am in the process of redsigning the web site to support more services (information and resource connections) so you may find it down for a few days around the middle of February and if so you can also reach me spahl@mail.com if that happens.
Solarmax Farm
Stephen
intensive agriculture/gardening is a good thing, wherever you can fit it in. “permaculture” and “organic” even better. there will still be lots of mouths to feed, and transportation to the “market” will only be more difficult after the “event”. any land that can be reclaimed from “suburbia” for this type of project would be a good use of community resources. (people will need to adjust their sensibilities regarding smells, etc however. manure stinks. planting and harvest don’t always follow normal business hours)
this almost sounds like a secular “monestery”. as an alternative, for people without the funds to aquire their own 30 acres, i’ve often thought about building my retreat near a college town. (with a good agricultural school)
…and this isn’t an entirely new concept, although locally we call it by a different name: Pennsylvania.
reply t/ IrishDutchUnk:
yeah, Jefferson had a similar idea… he called it Monticello and the University of Virginia!;)
This is an awesome idea and I agree with your secular monastery analogy. Land is such a diminishing resource, not theoretically because there are wide swaths of land in most states but more cost prohibitively. I wish the federal government would sell or auction off some of its vast holdings for projects like this.
In the event of a total economic collapse Solarmax farm and projects like this could be the lynch pin of society and start the rebuilding process for a better a future.
the great universities of europe mostly began as monesteries, during the middle ages. they became a magnet for the survivors of the plague.
I think SolarMax Farm’s premise is a good one, but I’d also like to point out that it’s not unique. Joel Salatin’s Polyface Inc. meets many of SolarMax’s goals, and because there are now four generations living on the farm, you could say they’re living in a communal manner. While I support the basic idea of the farm, and I think there is a lot than can inspire budding permaculturists, I would caution casual readers against thinking that a concept like SolarMax would be easily obtained. Use the idea as inspiration, to learn what we need to learn, as it were. Use it to make lists. But never assume that we could all pull off something of this scale.
Stephen, I applaud you for undertaking such a massive plan, putting 20 years into this and putting it out on the web. You’re very brave for putting your vision out there on the web. But I recommend proof-reading before you hit “send” or “publish” The idea is very inspiring, but the typos were distracting.
I think this is a fantastic model, almost has an Amish flair to it.
The only 2 issues I see are pretty obvious:
1. Funding. The cost to build this – infrastructure, land acquisition etc. will hit easily into the seven figure area (depending upon the area). Supporting that debt load will be a serious accounting job & require substantial agreement.
2. Having a collective agreement with all residents as to that common goal. While it may be romantic to live off grid with a band of like minded people, that wears off as the labor begins to intensify & delegating becomes a political position.
There loads of neighborhoods across the US where they have Homeowner Associations to manage a very small infrastructure – pool, common grounds & water, exterior insurances, parking restrictions, maintenance etc., and they have great difficulty managing the various personalities. What some (individuals) see as great need, others think those issues are silly, yet all have an equal stake in the game.
Generally, people start off with the best intentions but when intention meets reality, problems can snowball. How does one divest their interest if they decide to move on?
That being said, I think this model & concept is good & may be more suitable on a far smaller scale like 1/2 dozen families maybe. The important thing is the concept is good, just remain fluid as to the application.
I built a model for handling a large scale national problem. It was primarily menu driven, user friendly & I created fail safes & background redundant systems to keep the integrity in check.
Getting corporate heads to agree how to disseminate the process was a complete nightmare, even though all the beta tests were as perfect as it could get. Intelligent people who could not agree how to push a button. It crashed and burned before it could get launched.
One thing you can count upon is people will be people & will never be in complete agreement about … most anything.
Everyone working together towards the common goals of the community, and the rewards evenly distributed. What could go wrong?
How does that work within the average family?
This particular design (arrangement and systems included) was dictated when I decided to redefine this particular design to be more research and development oriented with education and training. I would expect that a more dedicated compound design would have a completely different make up of features and resources.
Funding is an important question of course. For Solarmax Farm I’m looking for any source, from individuals with small donations to a single person or corporate sponcer. Any serious development would probably come from a single person or family with the funds to support the design and construction by themselves
Political and religious factions would be its biggest source of disputes, so they would have to be avoided at all cost. I can’t imagine a homeowner association being a factor, chances are they would have other serious concerns, like not dying to cause much trouble. I don’t imagine that some who take this course of action would construct it anyplace where someone else would have any say so about the project. Not so much Amish I think, the current design includes the idea of making SXF an Internet and GPS hot spot, using AI systems, RFID tags and animal conditioning with 24/7 web access (online conferences, classes and training services)
The general idea was to organize a design that was as close to a closed loop as possible thereby creating a location that reduces or eliminate the need to be on the road to survive. It would do a better job of supporting community afterwards than a piece of property picked at random or because its convenient. Solarmax Farm is an artificial layout arranged to provide support for Agriculture Research and Study. Its design is intended to provide a secure long term environment for students and researchers. Its layout and capabilities came about as a result of trying to meet those needs.
What it represents is a design that with very little adjustment could be re-tasked to serve as safe and secure location for an extended family group. It could support a larger collection of people if necessary and would have the tools and capacity to go far above that and be able to kick start a community reintegration if that what you wanted to do with it. If there were a serious event, existing structures and infrastructure destruction, without facilities like Solarmax Farm (just an example, hopefully still standing), would make for disorganized scrambling instead of coordinated rebuilding.
It’s the integration of smaller sub systems (in a mechanical environment simplicity is key but in living systems complexity is the key to long term stability) that was the exercises goal for SXF itself. The intent was to create a operation that was more self regulating and self supporting with tools and resources that could offer support services as people came together in larger groups.
If I was designing for purely survival reasons I’d make the project more robust and simpler, but I’d still want it to have the the tools and knowledge base established that I could bootstrap from. The idea is to have a facility already constructed that could provide safe haven with out the unpredictable results of a thrown together group of people in the aftermath of confusion and fear..
I’d like to hear more about the model that Jason talks about (if possible). One of the things that I would hope for would be a loose collection of sites like SXF already established capable of organizing and coordinating their efforts. The more organized, connected and coordinated prior to any event the faster and more completely we would be able reestablish transportation and trade and the better chance we would have of resisting Government and civilian groups going Feral.
The reality is that if the “Event” was serious enough to result in severe lost of infrastructure there are going to be a lot of fatalities (80-95%) within 6 months and it could take years or decades to recover with out island of skills, tools and knowledge already established. Solarmax Farm and other creations like it could be the tipping point to recovery. It took 150,000 years to get to this level of society (not 100% great, but close) and there is nothing to say that any survivors wouldn’t be wiped out by conditions because they didn’t have a support structure already in place.
So simply, whats in for me. Well I’m looking for support in developing Solarmax Farm further (I’m really interested in the science and education aspects of the project), creating an organization to expand the Recovery Island concept, (a dedicated group of coders and hackers should be able to create a information structure that could survive most events and could be up and running soon after recovery efforts started) and the opportunity to design and work on a project like this.
There are a group of people who are working on projects that run parallel to this and they can be found at http://www.OSRLiving.org , http://www.OSE.org and other places on the net.
This is the CliffsNotes version & an overview of my model. It probably won’t have direct application to your concept but the context may be helpful.
Essentially, my concept seemed counter-intuitive to the industry but when I isolated the problem then applied all available solution possibilities in a non-judgemental mindset, the solution surfaced.
I reversed engineered & began at the problem & worked my way out to the known solutions, which is the normal or elementary way we solve problems.
Example problem: I’m thirsty.
Solution: water, soda, milk, beer, Gatorade etc. What is readily available? What is best long term, short term etc.
In my case – problem: banks are underwater, losing millions in terms of actual dollars & time which, is their biggest issue. The more they stagnate & F around with the power struggles, the worse things get. It is my belief that they realize now, for the first time, is the consumer is the dog & they are the tail that can no longer wag on its own or, in other words, the consumers are in control.
Their solution – cut costs, labor, get tax payer injection, placate consumers, bury information, hire PR firms to paint rosy portraits (giving a pig lipstick) etc.
My solution – move into the problem & increase customer help & support BUT go outside the current bank control model by using a 3rd party type, independent vendor. It is David vs Goliath BUT David has all of Goliath’s known battle strategies (the public can easily find the options).
I created a linear process that addresses the fixed conditions with a trust entity because nobody trusts banks anymore.
My beta tests worked perfectly because I/we sold the solutions to the consumer & gave them a direct access vehicle through someone interesting in solving their problem only & taking away that painful interfacing with the faceless money monolith.
Have you noticed how local banks are now more friendly & ingratiating to consumers than ever before? That is your hint as to the depth of the problem but the oil & water relationship will continue to exist – banks want money, not you. They created the distrust & will be pushing a rock up hill in order to solve the problem.
Their return on investment was huge – at least 1,000 to 1 & did not include any of the natural PR we conducted for them. It was their relinquishment of “control” that killed me/us. What was funny was they controlled all of the financial programs we just administered a palatable sales process.
I got one on ones with some very powerful people whom all agreed it was it was the best concept but kept looking at how they can retain control – thus, exacerbating the problem with a their antique model/mindset. The answer in my opinion, is expansion, not contraction – move into the situation not away from it or look at it from on high.
Hope it makes sense – it was a solid 4-6 months of writing, number crunching & study plus, a year of actual beta tests.
Not to mention, I have 24 years experience with this type of specific volatility from several angles both consumer & bank.
Stephen, you talk mostly of learning farming & similar traditional skills, but you speak with knowledge of technology, electronics, etc.
Keep in mind that (especially in a rural setting) you may be among people who already have a lot of agricultural/building knowledge if they survived a year of disaster, but not so much of the arcane chemistry/electronics knowledge (especially in America where our math&science skills are already dismal).
It’s ok to be entranced with visions of an herb garden – ahem – but in reality, wire could be more useful.
if the science, and the teaching are the most important things, why wouldn’t you want this project to be affiliated with a college?
nevermind. Jason just gave me the answer…
BTW, after reviewing the site plans I did not notice where you were putting your #1 cash crop – marijuana. Is that going to be in the greenhouses??
When the SH’sTF, you’ll need plenty of it in order to keep the residents happy & the enemy … to join the group.
now i remember what this reminded me of:
the “Emma Goldman Arts Co-op and Biodiverse Living Center”, located in Hardyville.
unless you’re growing some really good sh*t, don’t count on it as your “cash crop”. it only has value now because it’s unlawful. the stuff will be growing wild everywhere once it’s decriminalized or we’re WROL…
Agreed, sounds like a self-sufficient university. Stephen, I see why you would want it to be independent… but a lot of communes fell apart since people were differently-motivated. That is one advantage that religious communities usually have – similar motivation, and similar deterrents (The Amish actually have a rule, that at a certain population they split the community, since otherwise they’ve found tensions arise and productivity goes down.)
If you arrange for frequent turnover, but have a structure that sets out personal goals, that is one advantage of the univ system, a.k.a. an apprenticeship. Wasn’t entirely kidding about Monticello/UVA… look at some of the more unusual liberal arts- agricultural schools.
You should arrange land FIRST. Don’t wait for grants & donations – start earning your keep now. (You’d be amazed what local gov’t “community gardens” can charge for rental plots rent). I’ve seen stories of ex-hippies who started their own communities just by pooling income to buy land, just as a housing development, and it became a community. Make it something people want to be in, not as a worthy cause or an obligation, and you’ll probably be turning people away already.
Course it doesn’t necessarily take a lot. Look at the guy in Chicago who started a community garden in an abandoned factory. Look at the Dervaes (you probably already have). Look at Davis, CA. Look at Gaviotas in South America. Look at John Todd. Look at the “minimites” (ex-Mennonites & back-to-landers).
There was a great Canadian history show, ‘Pioneer Quest”, where instead of reenacting the 1800′s all by themselves, the young participants were visited by neighboring “old-timer” farmers who helped & showed them how to do things. Nobody lived in a vacuum back then – everyone got help. Very good idea you have here, and glad you are including education as a prep, to be done BEFORE shtf. Just don’t get so wrapped up in trying to reinvent the wheel that you overlook any & all existing resources. (Reinventing the wheel will be on the curriculum later, but you know what I mean.)
New Bicycle designs come from previous design, sometimes taking the best part of other bikes and then sometimes they come from a radical new idea.
Solarmax farm is a blend of both, its an experiment in farming using the best I can find from history and from the best of today (Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, Sepp Holzer and others). The purpose is to find ways to convert the highest percentage of sunlight that falls on any given acreage into food and energy using Biological and Mechanical means. It’s an attempt to create the most self sufficient Farm to this date. Not withstanding that in the past there have been many attempts, some being quite famous in their own right (Washington and Jefferson being a couple the more well known) Solarmax Farm is intended to explore the boundaries of Organic Permaculture using new knowledge and understanding, to offer up a location for research and attempt to produce up to 20 times the output of any other farm its size.
Simply put, there is no other design currently out there that could offer all the tools and support for anyone attempting to create either a self sufficient farm or Survivalist compound able to function up to 10 years (after system maturity ) without outside support.
My only question is does it function as designed and can it do what I claim, the engineering says yes. There are no merits to the design to discuss really, your interested or your not. If your looking for an already completed design and want to build something like it for yourself give me a call. The nice thing about engineering is that it either works or it doesn’t. All the numbers say this is a viable design so I’m looking for land and a sponsor with a vision.
If your a survivalist and you expect to survive a worst case scenario (cities and town are unsafe locations) for more than a year, you had better start thinking of something like Solarmax farm, if not, it doesn’t matter what you do, its back to the 17th or 18th century for you. Even those who are living off the grid and seem to be self sufficient will find that their lives are going to be a whole lot worse if it hits the fan. It wont matter what you do then, there is a very slim chance that you will have the tools, skills and backup support you need to survive. If you want to find out just how difficult it will be to survive at any technological level I suggest you take a look at two BBC documentaries “The Victorian Farm (6 parts) & The Edwardian Farm (12 parts)”. No matter what skills you have and preparations you have made will not be enough, Your going to probably die of malnutrition, starvation or injury. Life expectancy will drop by 50% or more, childhood and delivering moms death rates will increase 10 fold and recovery will take decades longer without projects like SXF to jump start it.
It might take years for Solarmax to be built but in the meantime, I’ll be running a simulation (using websites with tools) to determine the operation strategy, supply needs and production outputs. The Solarmaxfarm.com website itself is under reconstruction with new tools and features to be added and will be back up shortly.
If you don’t want to take my word for it and why should you, you should heed the advice of over 300 survivalist experts and start planning a whole lot bigger and further down the road. If it ends up being as bad as your planning for your chances of surviving without something like SXF to back you up approach – ZERO.