Welcome!

These pages chronicle the dreams and progress toward the dream of the Hermitage: an off-grid, remote home in the eastern part of the world’s largest alpine valley, the San Luis Valley, in southern Colorado.

If you’re curious about me, there’s more personal information available on my other website, www.Leland1234.com . Thanks for visiting!

What’s new on the site

2/28/2008 Good grief. I haven’t summarized the changes on the website in almost half a year. Many photos of the exterior and interior progress of the house are on the Hermit Blog link at the top of the page. The weather station is back online! Click on the Weather link at the top of this page and check it out.

9/19/2007 The wall and roof panels arrived!

9/9/07 Garage shell is complete. Inverter is hung. First solar panels are up. Garage door is installed. Garage door opener is installed. Lumber for internal house walls has been delivered. Hermitage Construction calendar is now available online.

8/7/07 Wow, what a lot has been done. Concrete has been poured for the house. The roof is on the garage. The gate is done. The final plans for the walls and roofs are in the hands of the SIP manufacturer. Check out the blog for recent updates, or check the HermitCam on the Weather page for near real time photos!

6/30/07 Work continues on the garage. Some rafters are up, and an incredible rainbow showed up, as if in approval of the project. The underslab plumbing for the house is done, and awaiting inspection by the plumbing inspector. You can see the progress through the eye of the HermitCam on the Weather page.

3/7/07 Sad story about recovering data from crashed laptop. I’ve got most of the pages restored, and a new GPS resource page has been added.

12/21/06 I’m creating a storefront on Amazon.com, giving direct links to a selection of things to help with building an off-grid home. I’ll get a tiny percentage of sales generated from the page, but mostly it’s just to help folks find things that I’ve found helpful. Check it out by clicking here. I’ll be adding more items and descriptions as time goes by, but this is a start.

12/20/06 Well, the weather station is down again. This time due to a software glitch. Ok, maybe operator error. I was moving the weather station from one computer to another, and now I can’t get it to work on either one. I’ll keep working the issue until it’s back online. But the HermitCam still works just fine.

The Philosophy

Before land is purchased, before a spade of dirt is turned, living spaces are founded on philosophy. It can be a philosophy adopted without thought: “Bigger! More Expensive! More!” Or, it can be a rationally consideered philosophy: “A soft footprint on the land. Sustainable. Harmony within the greater community and environment.” Here are the three dimensions of the Hermitage’s philosophy thus far:

1. •Harmony
   

I want the Hermitage to be in harmony with its geographical and environmental surroundings, with its human and non-human neighbors, and with my own wants and needs.

To attain harmony, there are some considerations with every action taken to plan, build, and live in the Hermitage: Is anyone or anything harmed? Have I minimized any negative impacts that are unavoidable? Will this action benefit as many people and as much of the environment as possible?

That’s pretty much it. Do no harm. If harm is unavoidable, minimize it. Benefit others. Not so hard in words. We’ll see how easy it is to implement in reality.

1. •Sustainability
   

Insofar as possible, the Hermitage should be self-sustaining in energy, in food, in every way possible. In fact, the goal is slightly more than sustainability. The Hermitage and its occupant(s) should create slightly more than it consumes. I’ll know I’m successful if the Hermitage’s inputs are limited to some small amounts of energy (propane, and perhaps wood), some food, and communications paths (satellite internet and entertainment).  Its outputs should be slightly more food than needed, marketable ideas from the creativity it will foster, and peace and quiet.

1. •Hospitality
   

The Hermitage must be a welcoming place, for the owner’s friends, family, and neighbors to come to relax, either with or without the owner present. Additionally, it should accommodate small parties and get-togethers. This hospitality implies a certain level of ease of use. A mark of failure will be if it takes 20 steps to get the water flowing, or to get the electricity to light the bulbs. There are limits, however, that are set by the sustainability factor of the Hermitage. The Hermitage will never be expected to support use of 3 blowdryers, and 10 loads of laundry a day.