20100530
Sola Roof Guy initiative for DIY Food projects for summer 2010
More than ever I want to provide the emerging Sola Roof DIY community of Open Source developers and users a greater level of support through this spring and summer.
Your farm could be one of the sites where we implement the low-teck solutions for DI Yers. You will just need to contribute costs + a contribution to support my ability to dedicate my time to this "cause": DIY Food. I would also like you to be one of people in our Open Source community who accept the Pay It Forward voluntary commitment to help others out of poverty and disaster by contributing what you can (as a DIY user of Sola Roof) in this "non-commercial" phase. The DIY goal is self-reliance; local exchange economy and I am totally satisfied if this community simply gives back by accepting to support the Pay It Forward principle and cooperate to implement the DIY Food Challenge.
Because you are very busy, I want to make it very simple for you. You commit to a budget for your DIY project - out of that I will optimize the size and scope of the build and get it operational. I will split my time between you and other similar projects. I hope to see 3 or 4 implemented as Demo sites for DIY Tunnel Greenhouse know-how. This will take 3 months - so you need to decide what you can spend as a contribution to my time (2 to 4K per month) plus the construction cost. A budget for construction is $10/FT 2 - and a project size is 1000 to 2000 square feet. I will also ask you to cover my travel and living cost for the time that I need to spend on-site.
I need to know within a couple days if you want to be one of these key DIY projects that I will personally project manage this summer. I really hope that this simplifies your first step - since you can put the entire activity into my hands. I will keep you informed and I will need the support of your farm staff.
With the implications of the BP Oil Disaster, it is very important that people everywhere have a solid and progressive option for DIY Food. Your action on this will not only get you positioned for an ambitious commercial scale development in 2011, it will also position your farm as a hub for sustainable technology and will generate interest from far and wide.
Regards, Richard