Truly inspiring, gives me hope for the future.

Austin Hay is still in high school, but he's building his own house. It's only 130 square feet, but it makes him a homeowner without a mortgage at just 16 years old. Right now, it's parked in his parents' backyard, but he's built it on wheels so he plans to take it to college and then wherever he goes after he graduates. He's been sleeping in his tiny home for a few months now and he's already decided not to return to big (his parents' home is 1800 square feet). "Living small means less bills, living big means more bills," he explained from the tiny stoop of his new home. "I don't want to pay big bills". Hay's 130-square-foot home may make him the youngest member of the growing Small House Movement. Hay expects to spend about $12,000 building his home (the used trailer cost him $2000) and he's paying for it working two summer jobs (at a camp and at a park snack bar). He's cut his costs in half (the home's estimated DIY price is $23,000) though this is a considerable discount from the home's estimated price of $23,000 because Hay has scavenged everything from doors, windows and flooring to the kitchen sink (the hardwood floors were $25 at a salvage yard and so was the stainless steel sink).

Welcome to 

The Dreamworx Project.

 A journey in sustainable living.

As we travel this road on the journey called "life", we often come to a cross roads and have to decide which way to go. Do we continue as we have or do we pursue other avenues?  We (my family and I) have decided to follow our bliss, that is to say, do what we love, what we have always dreamed of. Living closer to the land, being more a part of our environment. This includes living more economically, and not merely where money is concerned, because the only thing money is good for is getting you stuff. If you have what you need, you don't need much if any money. We want to disengage from the monetary system wherever possible.

It also means leaving the urban metropolis we've called home and moving to a more urban environment. For a couple of lifelong city slickers, this might prove to be the biggest challenge. But we believe we're ready to follow our bliss.

So, we've broken it down into sections and researching and preparing to make our big move. "Getting our ducks in order" as the saying goes. This involves a great deal of thinking and planning, because as you sit down and really think about what it is you want from life, and what you are offering same, you really must take stock, inventory and decide what is worth your while keeping and discard the rest.

For us, this includes getting down to the bare essentials, most especially where personal stuff is concerned. Having a massive moving sale at the end of summer and taking that money and reinvesting it in ourselves.

Here we shall chronicle that journey and share with anyone interested what we found works for us and what doesn't. We only offer our experience and knowledge, and on occasion our opinion, but at all times it is the honest truth (as we have experienced it). There is nothing to buy, no club to join (though if you find the info presented worth your time, you may want to subscribe and keep up to date), otherwise, it's all part of the Resource Based Economy philosophy. We believe we can achieve more as a species by openly sharing information and knowledge, than hording it and charging for it.

It will however take some money to do this. How much? Well, I guess it comes down to how you want to live, the quality of life, or standard of living that you want to maintain. That will dictate in part how much it will cost, but unless you are independently wealthy and can just throw money at this endeavour, the rest of us have to budget. For us, it is two adults and a cat, and we're not so high maintenance and fairly adaptable. We have also simplified our lives already. We don't have cable, or internet (don't ask how I work online) or phone (land line) and we don't have a great many expenses that are ongoing (aside from rent and food and such). So, we figured that we wouldn't mind scaling down some more, to basics and essentials. My point is, you'll have to be the judge of your budget and what you can reasonably accomplish. 
The two biggest investments you'll have to make is shelter and land. As far as the land goes, there might be a work-around solution (see related tab), but so far as shelter goes, there are many options to choose from. The more moderate the climate you live in the more options you have for year round living. For us, in southern Ontario, we have to consider winters, so the further south we can go, the better. It also increases our growing season. Ironically, thanks to climate change, the winters are nowhere near as long or as brutal as they were when I first moved here in 1975. So....there it is.

Take everything you read here as merely our experience and use what suits your needs, ignore the rest. There will also be areas and topics that we may not cover because they don't pertain to us and we never considered them, so we're open to any additions you feel beneficial to add.

In this way, you're also welcome to email us with any tips, tricks, info, knowledge that you want to share or general feedback/comments.

Welcome to our journey, please sit back, relax and take in the view.

Be the Change You Want to See In the World.

That famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi has been running in my head for some time now. Over and over like a broken record or a dripping faucet, just when I think it has stopped or gone away, POP! it reappears. So, I figured that must be for a reason, and have been giving it a great deal of thought. Simply, what does that phrase mean, what does it mean to me? Simply understood, I take it to mean, behave like you have already arrived at your destination. Become the person you want to be, simply by "being so".

After all, who would we be waiting for to make us who we want to be? Do we leave it up to someone else? The ones that are only interested in knowing us so they can better market their products and services to us? They are not going to look out for us. We have to look out for ourselves and each other.

Let's not sit back and wait for others to do. To those in the Zeitgeist movement with me, both internationally and locally, let's start being the change we want to see. Let's start implementing the Venus Project ideals today. Here and now, let's start living the dream. We can't sit back and wait for Jacque, Roxanne and Peter to do all the hard work and hand it to us ready to go. They are but three people, they can only do so much. Not to mention that Jacque is nearing the century mark.

You know what needs to be done, you have the brains and resources to start doing it. Time is our biggest "enemy". Let's commit to working together to provide all of humanity an alternative for when the excrement interfaces with the rotating blades, and it has already started to, so that we're not left at the mercy of the power elite. They will create a void in order to come along and offer a "solution" to fill that void. We can be an alternative, but in order to do so, we must be as organized and committed as those that would seek to keep us on our knees.

To those that are not in the Zeitgeist movement, I say, do whatever you can to educate yourself in order to be better prepared for what is coming. Shortages, long lines, hyper inflation, job loss, uncertainty and instability. The more reliant you are on your purchasing power to attain the basics of life, the more you will be at the mercy of those that control those commodities. If you're mostly self reliant, living primarily off the grid, or very low maintenance and upkeep, good for you, now go out and help teach others. We will need to work together to not only survive, but thrive our way into the Venus Project.

Therefore, before we can start focusing on the machines and how they will build this and that for us, and how a resource based economy is the only real future alternative we have, we need to start changing how we think and therefore how we conduct ourselves and how we work together. We can't afford to sit around and wait for "government" to do this or that or really, to make any meaningful changes to our lives. Nothing in a positive realm anyway, historically speaking, the only direction government takes the people, is down. But that doesn't have to be the case this time.

It's like George Carlin said, "what if they declared war, and no one showed up?" Well? What if we just ignore the powers that be and their agenda, and start living the life we all agree is the only sane way to go into the future? What are the powers that be going to do then?

There was the French revolution, what a bloody mess that was. There was the Russian revolution, another costly uprising. The Velvet and 1848 and Matrix revolution. We've tried them all, but notice one thing they all have in common? They all just basically shift power and money, from one group to another. But the fundemental structure remains. They are all monetary based.

I guess that might be the biggest challenge for most of us, how to start thinking about getting things done without money. We first need to change our hearts and minds and how we feel about money. What it really means to us, and how we will deal with not having it as a means to and end.