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mini excavator on new driveway
CategoriesDevelopment

Project Update (Year-end 2022)

2022 ended much as it began – with a big dump of snow and a deep freeze. Tough reminders that homesteading and tiny house winterization aren’t easy.

But in between the extremes this year, we enjoyed a quiet, steadily productive year at Big Calm. We ticked through a lot of core to-do’s – including:

Selective Logging – We worked with Acreshakerr, the best of the best, to carefully cull the property’s woods of dangerous leaners, open up some grown-in trails, and generally clean up fuels for wildfire mitigation.

forest trail

Driveway – We also rebuilt much of the kilometre-long driveway leading up to Big Calm. Straightened, widened, ditched, and smoothed with 96 loads of gravel, it is a big improvement on access. (It’s still strange to see the FedEx truck come around now.)

roller packer on long rural roadlandscaping feature

Campaign – One of the bummers of the year was launching an equity crowdfunding campaign on Equivesto just as the world was starting to talk inflation and recession. Investors stayed sidelined, slowing our community buildout plans.

Shangri-loft – After a series of supply-chain delays and more than a few painting/flooring/trimming all-nighters, the property’s centrepiece, the Shangri-loft, was finally completed.

partially finished room with wood stovewoman painting by window

Garden – It was a cool, wet spring this year. Despite the slow start, we made positive inroads with the garden – learning a little bit more about what grows where. The winners: tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, apples, and some very happy sunflowers.

yellow tomatoessunflower on sunny day

Getaway Guests – We opened up bookings for The Pocket Getaway in mid-April and, aside from an odd lull in June, we were pretty much booked solid until fall. And so many heart-warming notes left in the guestbook!

compliments on guest signtiny house in winter wonderland

Tow-ins – And of course in 2022 we welcomed our first long-term residents and their two beautiful new pro-built tiny houses – Petrichor and Marillian – to Big Calm!

tiny house in distance tiny house at night

Be sure to sign up to our newsletter and follow us online for continued updates. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2023!

laptop in hammock

Aerial view of a rural field with earthworks
CategoriesDevelopment

Project Update (Year-end 2021)

2021 wasn’t an easy year in which to build a project like Big Calm. Slow bureaucrats, busy contractors, wildfire evacuation (just as crews mobilized), supply chain hold-ups (from septic field sand and insulation to doors and appliances), and, oh yeah, that persistent pandemic thing.

Despite all that, we’ve made good progress on the project. Here are some photos of the work done to date.

Power, water, and tech lines were trenched out to the Shangri-loft (which will eventually serve as the shared community space). This includes stubs for a well and future solar array.

A snowy open trench with conduits

Septic tanks were placed at the Shangri-loft and the Type 2 community septic field was excavated and, with the long awaited delivery of sand, partially activated. This is the biggest component of the whole project.

Aerial view of septic field excavation in field Construction of a rural septic field

Earthworks were also completed on two fully serviced tiny house pads – one by the old homesteader cabin and one by the Shangri-loft. The former is now home to The Pocket Getaway and the latter is reserved for the arrival of our first long-term renter this spring.

Aerial view of mini excavator grading a pad

Much of our focus this fall has been on the Shangri-loft itself; renovating a beautiful, unfinished post-and-bean barn-loft that will be Big Calm‘s centrepiece common area (laundry, bike/ski storage, social space). Work included shoring up its foundation, framing in a bathroom and kitchen upstairs and a laundry room downstairs, and, currently, implementing various electrical and mechanical systems.

Framing inside a barn-loft areaInsulation and drywalling in-progressFramed in mechanical room in barn

We’ve been part of Starlink’s beta rollout since March and have been very pleased with internet connectivity on-site.

The fiery summer stunted some of our permaculture plans – at least those in the garden. Nonetheless, we enjoyed a tasty harvest of potatoes, carrots, and Jerusalem artichokes. And we had time to observe – where the water flows, the wind blows, the plants grow, and the animals roam.

So what’s next? In 2022, we plan to grade the access road, extend earthworks out to the community pad sites, install the well, and finish the remaining phases of the septic system. We are working on investment financing to accelerate the buildout to meet the very high level of renter interest.

We’re optimistic for the new year and are looking forward to the community starting to take shape. Be sure to sign up to our newsletter and follow us online for continued updates.