Help Build our Teaching Homestead
Donation protected
We need help building our Teaching Homestead. A homestead that we will use to teach others how to eat better, be more self reliant, decrease their spending, and utilize renewable energy sources.
We are Chris and Aysha Ross.
About eight months ago we hit a brick wall with our lives and realized we had to make a change. Chris works full time while Aysha works from home and takes care of our four children. We were making just enough money to pay our bills and maybe pay for both food and gas to get to work. This a very frustrating place to be, and wasn't working for us anymore. Chris grew up on a homestead farm while Aysha has a degree in biology with a focus on ecology and animal behavior and had always dreamed of running her own homestead. We sat down one night and drew up a plan of what we wanted our life to look like and how we could get there. This is what we came up with:
We wanted to purchase 5+ acres of property, build an off-grid home ourselves without a bank loan and using mainly recycled or repurposed materials, start a homestead, and be debt free in 5 years. This all sounded fantastic to us but it wasn't quite enough. There was still something missing. We realized that what we really wanted to do was help people acheive the same goals. The dream was complete and Moonlight Farms Homestead was created.
This will be a place where people can learn to take control of their lives by becoming closer to nature. We want to teach people to grow and raise their own food, develop better ways to conserve their resources, and cut down on their monthly expenses by taking advantage of what the earth has to offer us. We will also be constructing a health department approved kitchen that we will use to process our goods to be able to sell inexpensively.
Once we had the dream we went to work making it a reality. First we found the perfect piece of land, a 10.5 acre plot of land in Pleasureville, KY that we were able to obtain via a seller financed loan. Next we started planning our home. We picked the perfect spot on a hill to put the house and started working with an architecture student to get our plans together. We decided on doing a modified earthship as our house because the property is perfect for it and it has very little energy consumption without the use of heating and air. if you aren't familiar with an earthship check out our blog https://0tohomestead.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/what-is-an-earthship/
This weekend we finally broke ground, which was really exciting. We rented a hydraulic excavator and dug out the hole that will be our house. The next step will be to add the pipes for the plumbing, which will hopefully happen next weekend. Here is where we need help: The once the pipes are down we will be adding the gravel and the concrete pad foundation. We have called and gotten estimates and figure we need about $5,000 to get this part done. If we wait and save it ourselves it will take at least 5 months to get together, which will take us into winter. our original plan was to have the outside of the house complete by winter so we could work on the interior instead of having to stall construction. So here we are, asking for help funding the concrete pad that will be the foundation of our house. Once this is complete the next few months will be working on putting up the tire walls and the greenhouse windows (which will be from old glass doors), we will use this time to save for the other larger projects, like the solar/wind units.
We will also be offering incentives for helping us! $10- $100 donations will receive gift baskets of that value in homestead goods, $100 or more will receive gift baskets and will have their names on a plaque on the farm.
Thanks again for your help! Keep checking for more updates and subscribe to our blog !!
We are Chris and Aysha Ross.
About eight months ago we hit a brick wall with our lives and realized we had to make a change. Chris works full time while Aysha works from home and takes care of our four children. We were making just enough money to pay our bills and maybe pay for both food and gas to get to work. This a very frustrating place to be, and wasn't working for us anymore. Chris grew up on a homestead farm while Aysha has a degree in biology with a focus on ecology and animal behavior and had always dreamed of running her own homestead. We sat down one night and drew up a plan of what we wanted our life to look like and how we could get there. This is what we came up with:
We wanted to purchase 5+ acres of property, build an off-grid home ourselves without a bank loan and using mainly recycled or repurposed materials, start a homestead, and be debt free in 5 years. This all sounded fantastic to us but it wasn't quite enough. There was still something missing. We realized that what we really wanted to do was help people acheive the same goals. The dream was complete and Moonlight Farms Homestead was created.
This will be a place where people can learn to take control of their lives by becoming closer to nature. We want to teach people to grow and raise their own food, develop better ways to conserve their resources, and cut down on their monthly expenses by taking advantage of what the earth has to offer us. We will also be constructing a health department approved kitchen that we will use to process our goods to be able to sell inexpensively.
Once we had the dream we went to work making it a reality. First we found the perfect piece of land, a 10.5 acre plot of land in Pleasureville, KY that we were able to obtain via a seller financed loan. Next we started planning our home. We picked the perfect spot on a hill to put the house and started working with an architecture student to get our plans together. We decided on doing a modified earthship as our house because the property is perfect for it and it has very little energy consumption without the use of heating and air. if you aren't familiar with an earthship check out our blog https://0tohomestead.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/what-is-an-earthship/
This weekend we finally broke ground, which was really exciting. We rented a hydraulic excavator and dug out the hole that will be our house. The next step will be to add the pipes for the plumbing, which will hopefully happen next weekend. Here is where we need help: The once the pipes are down we will be adding the gravel and the concrete pad foundation. We have called and gotten estimates and figure we need about $5,000 to get this part done. If we wait and save it ourselves it will take at least 5 months to get together, which will take us into winter. our original plan was to have the outside of the house complete by winter so we could work on the interior instead of having to stall construction. So here we are, asking for help funding the concrete pad that will be the foundation of our house. Once this is complete the next few months will be working on putting up the tire walls and the greenhouse windows (which will be from old glass doors), we will use this time to save for the other larger projects, like the solar/wind units.
We will also be offering incentives for helping us! $10- $100 donations will receive gift baskets of that value in homestead goods, $100 or more will receive gift baskets and will have their names on a plaque on the farm.
Thanks again for your help! Keep checking for more updates and subscribe to our blog !!
Organizer
Aysha Tapp Ross
Organizer
Pleasureville, KY
