How the Fooy plan is evolving.

Fewer standalone amenities; one useful core

Earlier direction: separate structures and resort-like features occupied space and attention. Current direction: organize the home, basecamp, and shared utility functions around a barndominium-style core, with RV-height bays where the project needs workshop or equipment access.

Why: reduce duplicated infrastructure and make the first phase easier to use and maintain. A detached shop remains an option where a process needs separation for dust, noise, heat, or safety.

Remove the guest house and pool from the first plan

Current direction: leave those amenities out of the practical first-phase layout. Use the recovered space for an orchard and other productive landscaping, while combining the water feature with the site’s water-storage plan.

Why: the early priority is a livable, useful pilot that supports food production and land restoration. Leisure features can be reconsidered later if the site, budget, and operating plan support them.

Existing excavations become candidate ponds

Earlier exploration: collection at high points and distributed storage could support outer home plots, with roof catchment as one possible source. Current Ground Zero priority: make suitable existing excavation sites the primary pond candidates, with natural runoff, swales, and roof collection feeding a larger site-wide system where conditions allow.

Why: reuse disturbed ground and make water retention a defining part of the landscape plan. An excavation is only a candidate: soil permeability, groundwater, catchment, slope stability, water quality, spillway design, and permits still have to be checked.

Use elevation and terrain instead of forcing one layout

Current direction: collection may happen at higher points and be stored or distributed where gravity, pumps, and access make sense. Smaller collection points can also serve outer home plots when the land and structures call for them.

Why: one pond or one roof-catchment design will not fit every slope or parcel. The system should follow the contours and the existing structures.

Keep this collection concept non-potable

Current direction: collected water is being considered for farming and other suitable non-potable uses. No treatment system is assumed in this concept. Any greywater reuse would need its own plumbing separation, health review, and local approval.

Why: keep the early water plan focused and honest about its intended use. Drinking-water supply and treatment are separate decisions and are not solved by a pond or rainwater tank.

Orchard and gardens take priority over unused amenity space

Current direction: put an orchard, garden, greenhouse, and useful landscape buffers into land recovered from dropped features. Co-locate livestock functions efficiently; an integrated barn chicken coop is worth evaluating where husbandry, ventilation, sanitation, and access work.

Why: the first site should contribute to food resilience and daily use rather than carry a large amount of nonproductive footprint.

Keep a timber belt, but shape it around the wind

Current direction: retain at least two rows of timber trees along the outer boundary as a starting concept, with spacing and openings shaped to the prevailing winds and site access. A wind turbine is a possible addition only where measurement supports it.

Why: a tree line can provide shelter and future timber, but a solid wall can create turbulence or block useful airflow. The final species, row spacing, fire breaks, and turbine location need local study.

Put solar on structures that already need to exist

Current direction: evaluate the barndominium roof, barn roof, solar carport, and porch awning for generation and shade. Size panels and storage to measured loads and the roof geometry.

Why: use roofs and parking shade for power while leaving more open ground available for food, trees, and grazing. The array layout and microgrid capacity must follow a real load study.

Do not count wind or micro-hydro before measuring

Current direction: study a turbine if wind data and setbacks support it. Study a small creek or stream hydro installation only if reliable flow, elevation drop, ecological review, and permitting make it worthwhile.

Why: these are site opportunities, not guaranteed generation. A small dam or a windy-looking ridge does not establish safe, dependable output.

Match each workshop to the work

Current direction: the Ground Zero barndominium can provide RV-height workshop and equipment bays as part of the basecamp. At individual homes, the preferred plan gives the metal CNC a purpose-built maker shed; a standard home can start with a three-axis-capable benchtop mill, while the user's own setup is planned around a four-axis-capable mill.

Welding, dusty work, and other higher-hazard operations should have purpose-designed separation when needed. Industrial five-axis machining stays at the shared LAVA factory rather than in every home.

Why: combine functions where that saves space, but separate tools when noise, dust, heat, ventilation, or safe operation calls for it.

Compare terrain, water, access, and excavation history together

Current direction: investigate candidate regions and former or active excavation sites as one combined question. Compare rainfall and watershed, slope and soils, road access, utilities, restoration potential, local rules, and realistic development costs before choosing a property.

Why: a pond concept only works where the geology and catchment support it; a beautiful hillside can still be a poor or expensive site. Several regions and excavation leads are being compared; no location is selected.