DACHA PROJECT, INC.
LUTZ, FLORIDA

The Dacha Project , founded in 2008, is a do-it-yourself, egalitarian and educational homestead. We are comprised of seven friends and an extensive circle of supporters and community members. Situated on 16 acres in Finger Lakes region of New York, we originally built an off-the-grid, earth-bermed, solar-passive house, powered by active solar and a diesel generator converted to run on waste vegetable oil. Recently, we have connected to the grid, but are expanding our solar array. In addition, we built, or rather sculpted, a straw-bale cottage, are working on a fruit and nut tree orchard, and are ever-expanding our gardens. We are almost entirely owner built, with innovative designs for our energy, heating, water, waste and agriculture systems. We are still learning the art of homesteading and always experimenting with new ideas of sustainable living. We aim to live in conjunction with the land that supports us, to present alternatives to wasteful practices, and to have ample time to follow various individual and collaborative pursuits, be they artistic, political, economic or anything else. Most significantly we work to facilitate and inspire community building here locally and everywhere, because we are continually awed by the power and fun of collaboration. The Dacha Project, founded in 2008, is a do-it-yourself, egalitarian and educational homestead. We are comprised of six friends and an extensive circle of supporters and community members.   Here are our bios! And here I am – part of this experimental homestead project. I live with people who are my friends and family. I’ve been on a crash course in sustainable living and building. There is still a lot to learn, but I like this lifestyle. I’m pretty hooked. The waterfalls around here are kinda helpful, too. As my parents moved my sister and me to New Jersey, they got comfortable in the suburban lifestyle. Even though I was grateful for the security of the burbs, I always had an itch to see the world. So immediately after graduating Rutgers Business School, where I tried to lose the Brooklyn accent, I packed a bag and have been vagabonding and couchsurfing ever since. Now, I like to enjoy a crafter-noon making a puppet with old fabrics, beading with stones, sewing a costume for a Lady Gaga Party or playing with wire gadgets and old bike tires. Sometimes, I name our bull frogs “Freddy” and follow butterfly highways around the ponds till Bill Murray, our Dacha ground hog, nods a good morning in my direction. I joined Dacha in 2015 Our canvas tent was a semi-temporary structure that lived at the Dacha on a platform. We used reclaimed pieces of lumber to frame it, and make it a door. Unfortunately, it was difficult to maintain it in the winter since no one was living in it, so it went to someone who would use it better. We still have the platform and frame and hope to change it into a garden shed and hang out place in the future. If you have ideas and want to help us out with this project – get in touch! The difficult step was finding a tank to store the water. There are few tanks that can handle the higher temperatures we are dealing with. Also, the tank has to be able to handle the wear of water storage. There are companies that make exactly what we were looking for, but we couldn’t possibly afford a $2,000 tank at this point. (Who can?) We settled on a galvanized stock tank – the kind generally used for livestock. We coated the interior with waterproof outdoor paint from Tractor Supply. Even with the generator as the only source currently heating the water, the Dacha is able to have really awesome hot showers! However, it is still summer and we’ll have to improve the system for colder weather. We’ll keep you updated, don’t worry. For now, you may be assured that we are clean… well, cleaner anyway. From 2008 – 2014 we were off-grid, using solar and veggie power to make our electricity. Currently, we are on grid, using very old batteries that are charged by solar panels and grid power. We have 9 solar panels on the roof, a 2kw system in all, as well as a solar hot water heater. We convert the DC into AC with a pure sine wave inverter. We are hoping to get more solar panels soon. With these systems we are able to have lap top fun, charge all our various phones and cameras and doohickeys. We can cook on an induction stove top, we can run fans, lights, a washing machine and play electric guitar. We don’t have a refrigerator but we have a chest freezer which we turn on for a few hours to keep things fridge temperature. One of the Dacha’s goals is to be able to provide a good amount of our own food, as well as being able to feed our friends and visitors. We aim to be organic and sustainable in our methods. Another thing we are looking forward to is the fruit from our orchard. We planed about 60 trees with the help of donations from our friends and families. Soon we will be feasting on a variety of plums, peaches, apples, cherries, pears, and maybe paw paws. This summer WWOOF came by the Dacha Farm to take some pictures and check in on how we’re doing. Some of us have participated in WWOOF – learning about farming and agriculture through direct experience on other people’s farms. Now that we have our own little farm, we offer it to others. Here’s the short video they made: