Looking to Join a Community

Hello, my name is John Eklund and I am looking to join a community. Below I am listing what I am looking for in the community.

LOCATION

• Temperate Climate
• Safe from Tropical Cyclones
• Low Tornado Rate
• Low Humidity
• Higher than Average Rainfall
• Lower than Average Snowfall

This is the ideal location for a long lasting, easily maintained community.

LAND

• 160+ Acres
• Mostly Flat
• Trees Preferred, but Not Required

Flat land and a lot of it. This makes for easy building. Any growing community needs a lot of land to keep on expanding.

COMMUNITY

• Works Together to Build New Structures
• Shares/Trades Produce
• Educates Each Other on All Aspects of Off-Grid Living
• Has a School System or Plans to Establish one
• Has Temporary Housing for Newcomers
• Raises Chickens and Goats (possibly Rabbits too)

I would love to learn how to raise some livestock as well as learn to farm.

ME

• 30 Years Old
• Work as Part-Time Mover
• Experienced IT/Networking/Programmer
• Own a Tiny Web Hosting Company (doesn’t make much money)
• Treasurer of Local Non-Profit
• Have $15k of Server/Networking Equipment
• Have $10k Cash Savings
• Have $20k in Other Assets
• Able to Design Blueprints and Have Designed my future House
• Learn Very Fast
• Animal Lover (Cats, Dogs, All Animals)
• Easygoing (takes a lot to anger me)
• Great Sense of Humor (able to see comedy in most things)
• Shy (but very charismatic once I open up)
• Respectful (I quietly observe others to figure out how they wish to be treated. The “Golden Rule” doesn’t always apply since all people may not like to be treated how I wish to be treated)

I am willing to work as part of a community for the rest of my life. I am simply tired of living in the “system” and I have tried to create my own business to free myself, but it has yet to take off. I am the treasurer of a local youth girls fastpitch softball organization, so I have a lot of experience volunteering my time. The off-grid lifestyle has now become my greatest passion. I am ready to live a life where each finished day feels like an accomplishment. I want to build and grow things with my own hands. I want to be closer to the Earth as I am helping to save it. I want to spread the word to all who will hear it to make sure this off-grid wave never slows down. I truly believe that sustainable agriculture and housing is the singular solution to most of the world’s current problems.

Being a mover, I have no problem lifting heavy objects. I am very smart and quick to learn, in fact, almost everything I know is self-taught. I am willing to put in long hours, day after day, to make the community a success. As long as I have a place to sleep, with a roof over my head, food to eat and water to drink, I will be working hard and happy to do it.

I plan to bring my server with me. I have hosted file sharing websites on it and have rights to a lot of eBooks, music, movies, TV shows, games and more. I plan to build a small structure to house this server. The structure will take care of all the energy needs of the server. I will then network it to all members of the community so everyone has access for education and entertainment purposes. If this is not wanted or already exists for the community, then I will sell the server for additional funds, however the $15k I already have invested in it will probably only liquidate to $5k if I am to sell it within a reasonable amount of time.

My house design utilizes Earthship concepts with even simpler building techniques and uses common building materials. I have designed floor plans for many other types of buildings and am currently turning my house design into a 3D model, which is almost completed.

Without utilities, appliances and furniture, the cost to build my design is estimated to be $68,000 + $15,000 in tools that can then be used on all future houses. $38,000 for utilities such as solar panels, Tesla PowerWalls, wind turbine, A/C, water pumps, wiring, etc. $27,000 for appliances and $17,000 for furniture. Total coming to $165,000 fully-furnished. Earthships of similar specifications are currently selling for $1,500,000. I really recommend that we all gather the money to build one of these somewhere and sell it for $500,000+ to help grow the community.

Please let me know if you think I will fit in with your community. I have attached screenshots of my design. Looking forward to your comments.

Thanks,

John Eklund