Maya Creek Ecovillage

The Plan

There are various phases and aspects to the plan and these are constantly in flux as new ideas are incorporated and more research is done. Nothing here is set in stone, it is simply the way it is currently envisioned.

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Phase I: Build Essential Infrastructure

Straw Bale Common House

We are in the process of constructing a 600 sq. ft. load-bearing straw bale common house to provide us with basic shelter from the elements. The building utilizes passive heating/cooling and contains a rocket stove with attached thermal mass bench for additional heating in the winter.

Rainwater Harvesting

Well water in the area contains large amounts of sulfur. We have decided to harvest the more than adequate rainfall(41"+ annually) in the area off of the common house roof which will fill a cistern. The water will then be filtered and pumped as needed for drinking, cooking, showering, laundry, etc.

Greywater

Waste water will be filtered through a series of aquaculture ponds and allowed to harmlessly enter the Maya Creek water system.

Composting Toilets

We are using a simply bucket composting system described by Josheph Jenkins in his book, The Humanure Handbook.

Electricity Production

We are currently producing all of our electricity from a small solar/wind hybrid off-grid system. We have also just added a bike generator to fill the gaps in sunshine and wind when necessary.

Internet Access

We have a highspeed wifi router from Verizon which allows us 10GB of bandwidth per month. This is enough to large amounts of basic browsing/emailing, but is not sufficient for downloading multimedia files on a regular basis.

Guest Cabins

We are currently building our first prototype straw bale guest cabin. We intend to build a number of guest/bunk cabins so that future volunteers, residents, and students will have clean and comfortable personal space while they are here.

The guest cabins will not have running water, but will likely have electricity run from the common house.

Road/Trail Improvement & Parking

We would like to further smooth the driveway by adding more gravel. We also intend to make more parking area and to improve the current parking areas to facilitate turning around.

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Phase II: Develop Sustainable Food Production/Preservation System

We have already started on a few of these, but plan to focus on expanding and improving them once the essential infrastructure is in place.

Staple Garden

We are currently growing potatoes, dried beans, flour corn, and squash as our main staple crops. We would like to grow significant amounts of upland rice and flour as well.

Edible Food Forest

The food forest is a permaculture idea, although it has ancient roots around the world. The idea is mimic a forest structure using custom selected species for edibility or medicinal use to fill the different niches. Once a sustainable system is found it can continue indefinitely with only minimal effort yet provide enormous amounts of food.

Kitchen Garden/Herb Spiral

The kitchen garden and herb spiral will be located directly outside the kitchen door of the common house. The kitchen garden will hold many non-storage/staple seasonal crops like lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, etc. Because of their close proximity to the kitchen are more likely to be harvested and used frequently.

Seed Saving

We have already saved seeds from some crops, but we would like expand until we are saving all of our own seed. By taking control of this aspect of food production we close the loop and become more sustainable. It also allows us to breed crops to our specific soil, climate, and uses.

Root Cellaring/Dehydrating

Currently we are using a solar dehydrator built by a 2010 volunter. We're drying large amounts of squash, tomatoes, and fruit for preservation. We do not yet have a root cellar, but right now we'd be happy with small temporary one, until we can build it to our full needs.

Bees/Honey

Bees provide so many useful functions that we would be severely lacking if we did not inlcude them in our vision. We could be growing our own sweetener, getting increased fruit/vegetable yields, and there are countless uses for wax.

Chicken Tractors

Ticks are a problem here, and the best form of elimination is to turn them into healthy chicken eggs. We have experimented with guineas which range further and eat more ticks, but we have found their noises to be irritating, and they do not reliably produce eggs where you can find them.

We're currently considering setting up a number of predator-secured coops around the perimeter of the campground and common house to protect guests from ticks, while providing truly free-range healthy eggs.

Mushroom Log Cultivation

Shiitakes have been our most productive variety so far, but we have not given the logs very much attention and are sure with more time and experience we could reliably produce a large amount of delicious and medicinal fungiis.

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Phase III: Design and Orchestrate Workshops and Classes

Develop Curriculum

Once we feel competent in certain areas, we would like to develop specific workshops into a useful and efficient format. Even intimately knowing a skill, does not mean that you have the skill to communicate that information effectively. In this phase, we plan to develop those skills.

Guest Teachers

No one can know it all, and we would welcome experts in different fields to hold their own workshops and classes here. Finding those experts and networking with them would be an integral part of Maya Creek.

Retreats

Apart from workshops and classes, Maya Creek will make an outstanding retreat location for groups and organizations wanting a beautiful, quiet place to recharge.