Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Step one: Make a blog

Ok, so I'm not quite in Chile yet. In fact, there will be 12 more moons before we make the move, but there is some interesting stuff going on now. A house must be built for us to live in. This is not a simple task when you live 5200 miles from your destination. This is not a simple task when you are so off the grid that you don't have a postal address. So we will be trying to innovate, making the best house possible with the resources that are limited by location. We are going to explore alternative energy options, such as geothermal and solar energy. We expect to use water recycling systems (like greywater) because water is in very short supply there. We will be a distance from any city, so we plan to grow a kitchen garden for fresh produce.

Two other minor roadblocks before we go... It happens that I don't speak Spanish, and I have zero confidence in my language-learning skills (I took five YEARS of French and can barely speak it, albeit I'd probably fare ok in France). Also, neither Nick nor I know the first thing about agriculture. Well, maybe the first, but we don't know the second-through-one-millionth things, and those are probably more important. We have a lot of reading to do, and I'll post any of it that is interesting.

So consider this my soft opening, practice for when the really interesting stuff comes. As ever, feedback is appreciated.