March 2023 Update

Building a fence, spring flowers, and NextCity forum.

Much of March was spent building the cow fence. An experienced fence-building friend came down from Seattle to lead the construction. The fence is intended to prevent cows from falling in the pool and is a prerequisite for the rotational grazing program with Cabin’s neighborhood zero. We made good progress but were slowed down by hard rock and a hidden propane line. As of writing there are still about eight posts yet to be installed and we’re missing the gates.

Spring has sprung!

Spring hit hard this month. Grasses have returned, the red oaks grew leaves, the live oaks are refreshing their canopy, and we have wildflowers galore. Bluebonnets are out in force near the house.

Unfortunately the wildflower meadow we sowed in the fall hasn’t really developed. It only has about four bluebonnets and not much else. At this point it’s unclear if we did something wrong with the sowing or if we just need to give it another season. Bluebonnet seeds take a 1-3 years to break down and sprout. As an annual this allows them to survive bad years.

SXSW and NextCity forum

SXSW was this month and I attended a number of social events related to distributed cities and the network state. Cabin and Kift hosted an unconference in Austin where I got a demo of Spectra Cities’ VR city. I encourage you to read the Spectra Villages paper which is very much aligned with what we’re building at Montanoso.

Looking forward

A number of people have expressed interest in parking a van, camper, or tiny home at Montanoso. This makes me think we should prioritize the infrastructure spine. Delineate the streets, install the utility spine, and then folks can enclose a lot to develop. The goal of building a traditional village remains the same but having affordable short term housing allows people to stay and build the village.