Hello SuperForest!
I posted an Ask Me Anything about Zero One and was super inspired by Zoe’s questions. I decided to start an on going interview where you can ask me anything at all, and I’ll answer in the form of a new post. As long as you keep asking questions, I’ll keep posting answers. Maybe there will be just this one. Or maybe there will be 101. Who knows! Here we go…
SuperForester Zoe says:
Oooh, questions about Zero One, yay!
I know you guys have chickens on the land and that you sometimes eat meat that you buy from the local market – do you ever eat your own chickens and/or do you have any other animals there and what do you use them for?
I’m also really curious about what the living quarters and facilities are like – I know one person mentioned in a post about having a shower outside – are all of your washing facilities outdoors? What is the water situation like?
I am very excited to learn more about what life is like at Zero One – it sounds pretty awesome from everything I’ve read so far!
Thanks :)
Hi Zoe! Thank you so much for your questions.
Chickens: We began with four Buff Orpingtons (the yellow chickens) in August. We have lost and gained chickens since then and are now at three white Ideal chickens and three wild chickens who we caught and mostly domesticated. One of the wilds is definitely a rooster, and there is potential that there is another. At this point, they are not old enough to be laying eggs. It usually takes about six months. Since we’ve lost all the original Buffs, and the original wild that we caught is a boy, we’ll now have to wait until around March until we get any eggs. These chickens are too small to eat, but we will consider eating them when they’re no longer laying. We’ve also been toying with the idea of getting a BB gun and eating some of the wild roosters that wake us up at 3am. The only other animal we have is the volunteer cat who showed up and decided we were his humans. We are considering getting a goat in the near-ish future for milk, entertainment and lawn mowing.
Living Quarters: There are two houses on the land in addition to a tipi and the Airstream trailer. The main house has one bedroom, a living room, bathroom and kitchen downstairs with a loft area upstairs. The guest house is a combination of the garage/workspace and a two story apartment space. Downstairs, it has a bathroom, a small kitchen sink, and a living room area. The upstairs is the bedroom.
Mea, Augustin, and their 11 week old baby, Naia, live in the guest house. Jackson and I move around between the various sleeping spaces depending on whether or not we have guests. We are currently sleeping in the main bedroom until Jesse’s sister arrives in a week. Then we will move either to the window nest in the loft area or to the Airstream trailer we are currently renovating into our more “permanent” sleeping/work space.
The main house is a communal space. We share the living room and kitchen with Augustin, Mea, Naia and all guests that happen to be here.
Both houses have bathrooms with the standard equipment: sink, shower and toilet. Jackson primarily uses the composting toilet for poo times and shares his pee times with the plants. I alternate between the composting toilet and the regular toilet. Depends on my moon times. And I primarily pee on the plants. Augustin and Mea pee on the plants and alternate between the composting toilet and house toilet.
We call the composting toilet The Tree Machine. It’s a hole in the ground that is roughly 5 feet deep and 2 feet across, covered by a little wooden platform and a bamboo and palm frond hut. We do our thang and then throw a couple of scoops of dirt on top. When the hole is filled, we plant a tree on top of it and dig a new hole. It’s really quite simple, and the trees love it!
We also have a tipi, which currently has three beds and the Airstream, which has one double bed.
Water Situation: Each house has an outdoor shower, which are the primary showers. And we also have a beverly hillbilly hot tub; an old cast iron, claw foot tub that is filled by a hose connected to the on-demand hot water. We are currently in discussion with Jesse and various people on island about putting in a water catchment system. And we are currently on county water that has a restructuring filter system for showering, washing machine, dishes (hand washed), and reverse osmosis filtered drinking water. We also regularly collect drinking water from a natural spring further north on the island.
Electricity Situation: We are also still on county electricity and are putting together estimates and budgets for a PV (solar panel) system to get the house completely off grid. Because the land and the project is constantly evolving, it’s taking time to figure out exactly what we need. We have met with three solar installers and are finding that we still don’t know exactly what we want. So we’re waiting. Until what? Don’t know. Until it feels right.
I am so grateful for your interest in this project. If you’d like a question answered, please post them in the comments section of this post, and I’ll respond asap.
So much love + aloha!
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