Hi From OK, BIG ideas inside.

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself Here' started by Joshua Morgan, Oct 27, 2015.

  1. Joshua Morgan

    Joshua Morgan New Member

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    Greetings all! I've lurked here and the rest of the net for a few years now and purchased a small 5-acre property to start testing my ideas.
    Some of the things I've started set in well and some ideas I had to change but I've learned a lot.
    In a year or 2 I plan on taking Geoff's online course to get my knowledge honed.
    My 5 acre property now has 20-30 new fruit trees, and several places growing perennial foodstuffs like Sunchokes and Rhubarb. I will be turning this into a market farm over the next couple years and will some day move on to "larger pastures" and bigger projects.
    But during my nightly research I came across an interesting property I would love to convert.
    Its a dilapidated old nuke missile silo on 25 acres. Its 1/16th the price of similar properties elsewhere because the silo itself is flooded and needs complete renovation.
    The land however looks prime to me for creating a nice huge permaculture site.
    Its $260k USD so out of my immediate price range however I already have a farm I will be getting into market-able production fairly soon. If all goes well in 6-8 years and a lot of work I could have profited enough to purchase the property.
    That's all well and good and I'm going to set that as my goal. However since it is a huge undertaking and is quite the statement, turning a base of destruction and death into a place of growth and life, that maybe more people would like to have a small part into its creation.
    So I thought maybe a crowdfunding campaign to purchase and start renovations/earthworks would allow us to re-claim the property and get its transformation started sooner.
    I could have the typical freebies for funding to include a website/forum to follow along with the changes, a plaque/honor board with the names of funders, tours, callouts, and such.
    Either way I would be shooting to claim the property, the later would enable it to happen sooner.
    Is it a pipe dream? I always think HUGE and thats not always a good thing.
    Its something of a passion of mine to reclaim the old/ugly/broken and fix it so its equal or even better than its original condition.
    I fell in love with my current property because it was a mutt and nobody wanted it due to the difficulties of farming and such. I have taken 3 vehicles from the junkyard and made them usable again. My current car, an ElCamino, I will eventually convert to electric.
    This property gives me goosebumps thinking of what it was built for and even more thinking of what it could be turned into.

    Should I even attempt to crowdfund my dream project or keep things slow and simple and hope the property stays available and out of hands who would turn it into some billionaires giant carbon footprint?

    I'm welcoming a tug back into reality, but if I don't seem insane some motivation would be nice. :)
     
  2. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Hi Joshua and welcome!
    Nice price on the missile site ... one recently sold around here for nearly $1M (although it wasn't flooded).
    I'd say go for the crowdfunding! Are you looking to build a community there? Zone 7 says northern tier of the US somewhere?
    Have you seen Paul Wheaton's community building approach and implementations?
     
  3. Joshua Morgan

    Joshua Morgan New Member

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    Thanks! I love the idea of making a permaculture community, and would certainly love to have visits, tours, and even classes at the site.
    I do follow Paul Wheaton and his ideas are great.
    Yes, sorry I forgot to really mention where I am and an idea of where this place is located. I am currently in central Oklahoma, US. I believe the silo I'm wanting to buy is roughly 8 hours north of where I am and in zone 6. I need to check my maps again.
    Right now I'm plotting on how to just obtain the property. Since once I have rescue it I can take my time fixing the living areas after setting up the long term food forest systems of course.
    The flooding isn't an issue other than the rust its created, it goes dry in summer and has been pumped dry before. It has a lot of open-air skylights that need new doors put in place to stop the flooding. I've discovered the rocket exhaust tunnel is perfect to turn into an underground fish pond for use in aquaponics. I have spent a few sleepless nights thinking up ways to use the amazing spaces in the silo itself. of course a 20-ish acre food forest is nothing to sneeze at.

    These are some schematics of the site:
    https://www.atlasmissilesilo.com/documents_atlas_e.htm

    I'm just worried someone might buy it before I can save up for it and turn it into some huge energy waster home or dose it and make a parking lot.
    I think I'm gonna start recording a video and do some drawings to maybe start a crowdfunding project and see where it goes.
    I certainly have a lot of things to consider and plan.
    I will be spending this weekend making my plans for the crowdfunding to see if its feasible.

    Ill always keep all my permaculture friends updated on status and new ideas. :)
     
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2015
  4. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    It seems that the most successful crowd funding offers the contributors a piece-of-the-pie (at least for larger donations). Have you considered a way to offer big funders an option something similar to Paul's "Ants" (i.e., a piece of the property to do their own Permaculture thing for a set period that contributes to the greater good)?
     
  5. Joshua Morgan

    Joshua Morgan New Member

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    Yeah that's an idea and one that's on my plate of ideas. I'm trying to think of ideas for incentives that are actually possible. Since I'm a single person I couldn't do much within an acceptable time but I've got a few ideas. All would include all above its level of course.
    Small amount donated gets name on a "thank you" page of the website Ill build.
    Some more and ill make a plaque/wall with names of funders to have on site.
    Around 100 or so for having a tree planted in your name with tags/marker saying their name.
    Maybe 250 getting some seeds from what is planted, but that could take years if its the trees and people usually don't like to wait.
    Above that is what I don't know what to do that's actually possible. However I wouldn't really want a few large sums donated, i would like best if 300,000 people would donate a dollar ya know. haha
    I'm thinking of what I would do/want from (and have done) on other crowdfunding systems.
    Its also only for the purchase of the site, Id be using the money raised from my own farm to do the work and repairing of the silo. so its gonna be many years before its "done".
    The swales and tree plantings should be within a year or 2 of course. I'd also be setting up a live cam(s) on the site so people could watch its conversion.
    I also don't want to say you can visit only if you give me $1000 or more, I want everyone to visit and have a good time and learn something even if they only pitched in a buck.
    I want to trade seeds, host events, host woofers...
    Id like it to be more of a park than a community though, so people from the cities can come and explore and relax.
    I am still open to that idea for sure, just trying to narrow down and organize my ideas and how to best suit mine and the communities needs best.
    Thank you for the ideas for sure. It might evolve into something very similar to Pauls "Ants" project.

    And of course, again, even if it wasn't crowdfunded I will still shoot for purchasing it myself. I'm just excited by the possibilities and want to get started yesterday instead of 5+ years. :)
     

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