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Home Solar Living Center
A historic flood on December 31, 2005 caused over $150,000 damage to our educational facilities, and caused a fire to erupt in the interns’ dome dwelling forcing a middle-of-the-night evacuation and subsequent boat rescue. The response from the community to this difficult situation has been extraordinary. Individuals and companies have provided over $250,000 to help us restore and redevelopment our site projects and replace damaged equipment.
Damage included our brand new yurt floating 150 yards away and the top was crushed; two pickups, a van, an intern's and an employee's car were submerged and destroyed; much of our SolFest signage and event materials were destroyed including the SolFest stage; most of our natural buildings were damaged or destroyed; all of our storage areas and our maintenance shed were gone; many of our site tools were damaged or destroyed; and additional damage was done to landscape, fences, the dock, and the road. The good news was no one was hurt, and nothing was damaged to prevent our workshop program or SolFest in 2006 from continuing uninterrupted.
Since one of the founding principles of permaculture is to view every problem as an opportunity, we looked at this disaster as an opportunity to build a better and more flood-proof Solar Living Center. Using the outpouring of human and financial energy, we held a charette on March 18, 2006, to develop plans for rebuilding and improving the site. Among the many changes and enhancements include:
- Classroom Yurt Relocation – Our deluxe, 30-foot yurt donated by Colorado Yurt Company has been moved to a beautiful new location adjacent to the ponds and the organic vegetable garden.
- New Intern Village – A new intern village, including an industrial-strength kitchen, will be located adjacent to the Central Oasis.
- New Strawbale Wall – The largest straw bale wall in North America has been built connecting the new intern village to the new SolFest stage area.
- New Storage Areas – A mobile storage unit has been installed to allow for flood-season relocation of supplies and equipment.
- New and Improved SolFest Facilities – A new stage and storage unit will be built
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