What kind of land resources are we looking for, Timberland?
Jammie Gregory
Public
Seen by 18
The resources on the land could have the most impact on the success of this venture, and we will need financial success in order to expand, compete with, and eventually make obsolete the old system. I've been researching types of land and their usage. When most people buy land it is to use the resources of it in some way to pay for the cost of the land. To go in and utilize a small area of timberland seems like it would be an easier and good investment, but unlike logging, if we actually turned most of the wood into finished artistic products that would maximize returns...after cutting down the good stuff, leaving small regrowth, building organic farms in and a self-sustaining eco-city around the clear cut areas, demonstrate it's practicality, and maybe resell the whole establishment back to RBEers for a lot more than we bought it for, I'm not sure though, it would basically come down to a lot of wood working, and artistry, that would be the bread and butter job of the community. I'm looking on Ebay at small uncarved gunstock blocks of exotic marbled walnut wood selling for $300 and thinking hmm.
Jammie Gregory Sat 17 Aug 2013 7:03PM
Yeah I agree, nice and clear flat land would be the simpler choice...here is what gets me thinking though:
I found an osage tree among the knocked down trees of a messy logging crew, they leave a lot of knocked downs to get to the choice ones- if I were to cut it into staves and cure it I estimate it's worth to be $400-800 on ebay parceled out in staves, as it is considered exceptional self-bow making wood, with an investment time of maybe 10hrs, and I can get all the wood I want for 10$ a rick off my neighbors property. If I had the skill to make a real osage bow($150ebay), the same tree might be worth 2000$ and come out to something like a $40-60/hr job.
Blaine Smith Sat 17 Aug 2013 9:37PM
I don't know if we should be looking for land specifically for it's value, but more that we live there comfortably and easily. I'm not saying that a forest area wouldn't be good eventually, but we just don't have the skills, time, or machinery to make the best of it. I think it would be best to leave something like that till later, and right now just focus on getting a simple piece of land that we can work with minimal effort and time, that might also mean that it would be cheaper. Which brings me to the question, should we be buying a piece of land or should we first look for someone who already has one and is just waiting for people to move in?
Jammie Gregory Sat 17 Aug 2013 11:33PM
Maybe, but If we just move to already owned land, then everything we build will not be our own or part of the community organization, people would have to ask permission to the land lord for everything, it would become a dictatorship, and if we were all doing really well for ourselves, the land lord might decide everyone needs to pay them rent or get off the property, or if there is someone they don't like, see what I mean. I feel like if I'm going to invest all my own time and money into this, I want to be damn sure that no one can hijack and take it over and basically cheat everyone else out what they have built.
Blaine Smith Sun 18 Aug 2013 12:42AM
I was thinking more like people in the RBE movement thing, people who would also maybe be joining us on the land
Jammie Gregory Sun 18 Aug 2013 1:43AM
I'm not sure what you are saying, anyway after some thought, I do agree that finding a comfortable piece of land is more important than wood working projects, to which most people probably wouldn't like doing anyway.
Brian Korsedal Sun 18 Aug 2013 5:48AM
We we're thinking about doing a trippy tree village with our 3D printer tech. We have a 3D scanner, we'd scan in all the trees and build blobby structures around the trees, with them growing up through the structures. Then connect them all with steel space frame bridges. We could really do it pretty cheap too. www.arcologynow.com
Brian Korsedal Sun 18 Aug 2013 5:52AM
Wherever it is, it would be useful to not have any building codes. To my understanding there are parts of Wyoming, 15 counties in Colorado, one in Arizona and a few others (they slipped my mind). I'm looking at buying land near Crestone, Colorado.
bit.ly/1cPBVor
Blaine Smith Sun 18 Aug 2013 3:50PM
Your waiting till the beginning of next year though right? (to buy the land) or did you change your mind?
Thomas A. Anderson Wed 21 Aug 2013 4:36AM
this is why I say the skills are priority one, and priority two are the tools :)
I work wood all the time and have quite a bit of skill with it (or so I am told) as well as having a CNC machine already. drying and curing wood is just a time consuming job, and not really a hard one. especially if you get arid land like colorado, or arizona to work from. also the type of wood matters as you noted Jammie
all good observations for sure. Owning the land by the collective is essential too. no reason to trust an outsider with our work.
this would be a good opportunity for people to work in various skills to turn resources into finished or nearly finished goods, and might well yield extra cash for the purchase of the land.
Blaine Smith · Sat 17 Aug 2013 5:09PM
That would mean that a lot of the people joining would have to be sufficiently skill to wood with the wood. Also, before you can do anything with wood, in order to have good quality furniture and what not, the wood must be dried and cured. Live wood is incredible wet inside and will warp and bend if not done correctly. this means it would take a while before you get an kind of return from it. It is very labor intensive and requires a lot of skill. I would say just get a simple area of flat, not so interesting land, and grow food on it or other things ;) That way it is less work, requires less specific skill sets, and will give back sooner than the forest option.