Maya Creek Ecovillage

Spring 2009 Plan Details

As soon as the weather permits, Tao will return to Missouri and begin work on the plans they will be laying out over the winter. Building a composting toilet and setting up a simple solar water heating system will be priorities. A small solar power generation setup will also be in the works early next spring.

Once a comfortable campsite has been established and the essentials taken care of, work will begin on the Visitor Lodge. With some volunteer and visitor help, construction could be accelerated but we will plan for the worst case scenario that it will just be us two the entire time. View the detailed visitor lodge plans.

Water

We have yet to determine the necessary size of the cistern but will need it large enough to capture almost all the rainwater that hits the roof. The plans for the Visitor Lodge put the square footage at around 900 square feet. With an average annual rainfall of 40", that means we have the potential to collect 18,000 gallons of water!

That would be more than enough for a few people but because the Visitor Lodge will potentially have a large number of people showering and cooking in it, it's possible that we will have to conserve water whenever possible. While we were camping I was able to take a quick solar shower using only 3-4 gallons. With low flow shower heads and water conscientious bathers I would estimate the average shower to be 10 gallons, meaning roughly 2,000 showers a year.

If the Visitor Center is only used in the warm months when camping is a possibility then we can divide 2,000 by 250 campable days and get 8 showers a day. Based on our camping experience I believe it would be reasonable to say that cooking and washing dishes could account for 10 gallons per day on average. If that were the case then 7 people could take showers each day. While that may not be seem like enough, we were only showering once every 3 days while camping.

If it turns out not to be enough water we may consider either increasing the rainwater harvesting area somehow or even drilling a well if necessary.

Garden

Coming soon...

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