Emerging Patterns

2. My process began with taking stock of the land that I have available for the Homestead
site. I am using a 2 acre by 2 acre square of flat farmland in central Michigan, which has
historically been used for corn, soy beans, and wheat.
I then began to focus on possible ways to attain self-reliance and sustainability – which has
become a major goal. This in turn led to numerous items that became my main categories.
Some items overlap into multiple categories but I ultimately I decided to allocate them to
only one category. For example, I have the categories “Animals” and “Food Sources” in
which my chickens could fall in either.
I did not experience much difference between the various iterations of categorizing the
cards. In fact the only real changes came about when certain items could be slotted into a
second category, which led me to re-think the categories. Also, the categories “Security”
and “Income Sources” showed themselves not to be as important to me at this point. I
believe they may be areas that could become relevant in the future, but I left them out for
now.

3. Main Categories

5. Animal
Housing
People & Plant
Housing

8. Thermal
Rain
(collection)

9. A Second Reshuffle
I tried re-categorizing my cards, but I really didn’t come up with anything
profoundly different. It turned out to be more “re-naming” of my categories
and I decided to stick with my originals.
However, it did make me realize that “Plants” would eventually become a sub-
category of “Food”. And further categorizing would lead to Plants being labeled
as perennial, annuals, etc. So the exercise of re-shuffling does provide a chance
to think about each item further.

10. As I look at the categories I have created, some overall goals begin to present themselves.
• Being able to produce nearly all my own food
• Creating the ability to produce my own power (off-grid capable)
• Comfort – living the way I want to and providing adequate space and
protection for my animals
• Working toward the development of Home Based income sources and the
ability to work Remotely
• Creating an environment in tune with nature while remaining actively involved
with the rest of society – no hermits!
Some larger goals

11. Going through the exercise I did not include much that seemed odd or out of
place. I did leave out “Security” as that doesn’t necessarily have as much to do
with the course as the other categories. I will certainly include that category in the
overall design of the my property, but it felt like the odd man out for this particular
exercise.
Also left out was “Income Sources”. I began to realize that this would/could
become a future project sometime down the road. It wasn’t what I wanted to focus
on though initially. I feel as though this area will flesh itself out naturally in time.
I really like the idea of using hydroelectric power but my site does not include this
option presently.
What doesn't "fit" or seems out of place?

12. I took a “dream big” prospective for the project. I’ve realized that it will be an on-
going process to include all that I may want for the Homestead. There always
seem to be a new idea or better way of engineering a process that I stumble upon.
Overall, I feel this is a beginning that will provide a flexible foundation to continue
developing.
It is also a project that will take some time to implement. Some of the follow on
questions I have for myself are:
• What order to implement the plan?
• Cost? How to create a baseline for the project?
• How much Time will be needed to maintain the property?
Some final thoughts…