Help Raise the Roof on a New Agrarian Settlement

This GoFundMe fundraiser is no longer receiving funds. 

If you wish to make a donation, please go to our Mil Abrazos Paypal account.

Thank you!


My name is Poki Piottin, Director of the Mil Abrazos Community Land Trust  in Dilia, New Mexico.

I am currently building the basecamp for the creation of a new agrarian settlement.

After a year and a half of construction and land work, building a caretaker’s unit, public bathroom, shop and bunkhouse, I have erected a steel frame addition that will add 2,200sq.ft. to the existing structure.

The finished building will feature a dining hall for 30 people, camp kitchen, ADA-compliant bathroom, office and lodging for visitors and interns.

I am seeking to raise $50,000 to finish the building.

Once the basecamp is completed, I will be engaging the community's creativity to wisely design this settlement through a series of facilitated gatherings (see program here).

Ultimately, it will be a farm with affordable housing, school for life skills, demonstration center for appropriate technologies and place of practice for cooperative lifestyle. The education of the youth, as well as aging and eldercare, will be carefully considered in the design of this settlement.

My goal is to develop a reproducible and scalable model that fosters the establishment of sustainable human habitat to ensure food and community security in our region.




BUILDING ELEVATION





BACKGROUND
20 years ago, I left a cozy, corporate, urban existence in search of solutions to some of the problems our world is currently facing.  Since then, I have initiated a variety of culturally impactful community projects (see bio here), and have been immersed in farming.

My experience as a resident and Board member of the Evergreen Land Trust  in Washington State (2000-2003), revealed the complexities and challenges of creating land-based community.  It made me keenly aware that farming must return to its historical ways, where land is held in the commons and farming is a collective enterprise.   In addition, other creative cottage industries must co-exist with agriculture to ensure a community's financial prosperity.

Seven years ago, I created Gaia Gardens, a popular farm in Santa Fe, NM, that became the poster-child of urban agriculture, and inspired the city to pass a new urban agriculture ordinance.  While operating Gaia Gardens , I founded the Mil Abrazos Community Land Trust  , a nonprofit with a mission of regenerative agriculture, affordable housing, land restoration and permaculture education.



SETTLING IN
In the winter of 2017, the Trust purchased 32 acres of irrigated land in northern New Mexico, along the Pecos River.  Shortly after, I moved to the property to begin a year-long permaculture observation and immerse myself in the local Hispanic community and culture.  I was soon elected a commissioner of the local Ditch Association, charged with caretaking the 12-mile long acequia that irrigates the 3,000 acres of pasture in our area.   As commissioner, I realized the utmost importance of finding creative ways to bring young people back to the land, so that they can care for the irrigation ditches, contribute to communal food production and reconnect with the value of traditional ways of life.



BUILDING RESILIENCY
I have come to understand that resiliency itself begins with community.  A thoughtfully designed agrarian settlement is one of the very best ways to face the uncertainties of climate change and tool ourselves for the difficult times ahead.  In order for an agrarian settlement to be successful and serve future generations, it must be engineered using indigenous wisdom, sustainable construction, community governance, regenerative agriculture, land-based education and permaculture principles.

There are many more aspects of this project and its ramifications for supporting local culture.  Please visit our website  for more information, or contact me directly with any specific questions or inquiries.


FLOOR PLANS                                      



                       
                                                            See here for larger drawings 


BUDGET

                                                             See here for a detailed Budget 


LOCATION


                90 mi from Santa Fe  • 30 mi from Las Vegas • 116 mi from Albuquerque



TEAM OF ADVISORS            See Advisors Bios here

• Paul Larmer - Executive director of High Country News 
• Mark Nelson Ph.D.  - Chairman of the Institute of Ecotechnics 
• Amanda Bramble - Director at Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center 
• Laurrien Gilman - Co-founder of CultureSeed  & co-creator of Atlan 
• Rich Pecoraro - Director of the MASA Seed Foundation 
• Tom Dixon - Farmer, Green Tractor Farm 
• Robert Godreau - Licensed Contractor, formerly worked with Econest and Palo Santo Designs 
                                     



I deeply appreciate your generosity and welcome your involvement. 

Please share this campaign on your social network.

Thank you!

Poki
Executive Director


NOTE: This is a nonprofit campaign.  Your donations are tax deductible and upon donation you will receive a receipt that may be used for tax purposes.  Funds will be received by the New Mexico Foundation , our fiscal sponsor, and will be dispersed towards construction cost.



The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility.  To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.
Wendell Berry 


Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems, which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is a set of design principles centered around whole systems thinking to create a harmonious integration of landscape and people providing food, shelter and other needs in a sustainable way.  These principles and strategies must be applied to take degraded land and create increasingly self-sufficient human settlements.  
Bill Mollison  Permaculture- A Designer’s Manual



Special thanks to the Will Atkinson family for donating steel posts and trusses for this building.