Hey everybody! As some of you know, I’m now up in Montreal, Canada working on the Valhalla project, which was introduced in the ‘How We Can (Actually) Change The World’ blog series. Here’s a quick update for you.
We’ve rented out a massive house 1 minute driving from the land itself. Currently 9 people are living full-time or almost full-time in the house with more trickling in over the new few months. The land itself is absolutely gorgeous and MASSIVE. 60 acres is a lot of land. Thousands of dollars worth of trees and plants have already been donated and planted on the land. We tried out our first home-grown peaches yesterday. Delicious. We’ve dug a large pond (> 20 ft. deep), which will eventually serve as a fishery, swimming pool and visual gem. A Canadian company has committed to building a huge patio with furniture next to the pond in exchange for videos of the installation. Speaking of sponsorship, we’ve attained some hefty contracts building websites for some local businesses in exchange for capital and resources.
In terms of building, we’re going to meet with a local woman this week who has mastered Earthship style building. Apparently the clay found naturally in the ground in Montreal is the perfect material for insulated housing. The winters here go far below 0 degrees, and this woman only had to use her heater once last winter. Clay goes a long way!
The group we have here so far is amazing. We put together 10 committees last night to take care of the different parts of the project, and the variety of skills and interests in our group spread out perfectly. Currently I’m working with some people on finalizing the logo, and then the website.
In expanding our plans for the community, we’re placing a special emphasis on allowing those outside of Montreal to help out online and in their own communities. So if you can’t fully commit to this project now, rest assured there will be a role for you. As large of a role as you would like to take on.
However if you are interested in joining Valhalla full-time, please message me saying why you are interested & what you can contribute to the effort! Please only message me if you are serious about making the trip over here because my time is now more precious than ever.
If you have any questions, please first refer to Part 3 of the articles series (comments too!), then ask them below.
Much love to all of you <3
Jordan
