What is a Residency Like? Undergoing a Residency with Smart Shelter is to integrate education and ramping up of Natural Lifestyle and Living Space Creation into your life on an ongoing basis over a period of time....in the living space of your choice....integrating what you learn into the way you live as you progress. Typically this takes a few years. This is an educational concept in sharp contrast to the typical workshop programs currently offered by other institutions. We recommend it as a followup to self-study or workshop education...it also works without them...as a complete and independent "on-th-job-training" curriculum. Residency Programs can also be undertaken by partners or community groups studying together.

You need to live in relatively close proximity to South Western Colorado. You live in the space of your own choosing (the one you're in now, if you already live here). You meet regularly with the instructor, who functions as a consultant, mentor or coach, and begin working through a diverse set of subject areas, all dealing with natural lifestyle and building, case studies on homes built in the areas, reports on various issues and systems. Treatises and resource files are transferred to you digitally (we're Macintosh Computer Based) as your work progresses so that you develop your own personalized resource base/library which will be your references for your new future or career...from which there are myriad choices not limited to natural building alone. You may remain with the work you currently do and add this knowledge to your lifestyle. The curriculum is meant for people who want to build a natural home, revamp an existing one for nontoxic living or natural energy efficiency and comfors....for those wishing a lifestyle change, or those seeking new career paths in the sustainable community. It could be that you would find yourself in all these categories.

You also will work your way through the Smart Shelter Library of publications, case studies, videos of home tours and past presentations, audio radio program recordings, and reports...which is extensive...unparraleled regionally, perhaps nationally. The pace and the fields of study are determined by your own readiness and interest. Emphasis is placed on proceeding at a pace which allows you to try on or integrate the changes in your own living environment and lifestyle as you proceed...without being overwhelming or lost. Do not let anything said here or any fears you might have about not knowing enough about these subjects deter you from perusing this course of study. It's overwhelming if taken too quickly...that's why it's spread over time. Every single one of the people in this field, including the instructor...all began with no knowledge at all. You can too.

This is not a course you study now and use later. You learn as you do it...with enough time between sessions for you to digest, play with and integrate or discard what is relevant for you and what is not. The curriculum is not mandatory, it's expanding in terms of your awareness and possibilities. It's circular, because all of its ingredients are interconnected. Each time you return to something already encountered, you will realize it has changed through your growth and integration of other aspects of holistic living. It's like a corkscrew winding its way through time.

You meet other Residency participants and members of the regional natural lifestyle community....some of the work may be done with them. You typically maintain your current employment and, as your life and needs simplify, that is ramped down (which is up to you) and a career or project is ramped up in the sustainable services field of your choosing and passion. We encourage residents to become advocates, educators and presenters as part of their education. We learn most readily by teaching.

The sessions usually take over half a day each and focus on answering the questions and needs you develop and moving you forward into new curriculum. Some of the sessions may include working on your own environment or that of others. We find that activism takes root best with people in motion, rather than sitting down. If appropriate, Smart Shelter attempts to place you in working environments for your new field in this area. Emphasis is on creating in you a contributing member of the community which builds sustainability professionally in this region. We believe that the future of environmentalism lies in creating the viable services which support the biosphere and the practitioner and are engaged by the community on an economically viable basis...legitimized as they supersede the conventional and the unwise.

We emphasize minimalist living and many of us live in "Micro" living environments (which are explained below). Typically, as your life is detoxified, your stress load is reduced, your energy level rises and your spiritual and artistic states are activated (as part of the curriculum just as important as any of the technical information). You begin working in the global solutions (instead of perpetuating the unsustainable treadmill dilemmas of most conventional work) your enjoyment of life should increase dramatically.

You may choose to make significant changes to your present living environment. We strongly suggest you not attempt designing or building anything until you're well along in these studies. This curriculum and program were developed as a result of watching repetitive, unnecessary train wrecks predictably follow attempts to design, change or build homes when the person thought they knew what sustainability and natural building were about and didn't. This lifestyle and building system invariably amount to a complete change in just about everything for the typical person...which is the way it ought to be...although it seldom seems so to us at the time.

Not all persons are suited to this program. We are very careful and scrutinizing in the screening of applicants...for your sake and ours as well as the community's. If this turns out not to be a fit for any of those concerned, fair and graceful avenues of termination are honored. We seek to train those of high integrity, great imagination, profound dedication, necessary patience and a willingness to work, change, learn and contribute. Little about this system is solely academic...its hands on and it can be exhasperating...just like life itself, if you're living it near your limits.

History...Smart Shelter is in its 8th year. From the beginning, it has accumulated practitioners who continue to learn from its research and development. Six years ago, the introduction to Natural Building and Lifestyle was released as a video and text course, enabling distanced learning. From that series, several students emerged who went on to garner further education and to design and build (or have built) their own homes...all very successful in their own right...indicating we were on a track well worth perusing, but still fallings 30-50% short of what we now know to be possible by taking the time to integrate the accumulated and verified ingredients of advanced environmental lifestyle into our living space designs. Four years ago, our first formal residency began (followed quickly by a second) in which a complete transition was effected from burnout/overload professional state to a detoxified, minimalist-living, art expanding, Micro-homed and delightfully happier individual now well on her way to an aware and contented lifestyle completely changed from the original...now with the eventual dream (and many of the pragmatic capabilities) of building her own small solar strawbale home (that transition took four years). The second residency involved a young, experienced strawbale builder wishing to acquire advanced architectural design capabilities as well as ramping up the natural lifestyle techniques...which ended up with him living in a Micro too. His program goes on hold whenever his work calls him out of the area...when he returns we pick it up where he is a proceed. He's going into year three at this time...but on hold.

The residency program works so much better than the workshops, remote course, providing consulting or design/ building services for people in a hurry and uninformed that we have curtailed most of our other services and concentrated almost exclusively on its development as the future for Smart Shelter. In the mean time, the depth of our resources and accumulated advocates and regional practitioners have formed an entire world of their own here in Western Colorado. It's such a wonderful world to live in, we've pretty much decided not to remain invested in quicker-fix solutions to myriad lifestyle programs. Instead, all energy in our education realm is being concentrated on documenting and refining technologies which work here and archiving them for Residency work. We much prefer developing ongoing and meaningful relationships with our students than trying to learn their names in a weekend workshop of fifty people and then wondering who they were because they were gone by the following Wednesday.

Concepts Discussion of comprehensive concepts used in our research and Residencies is much to diverse to do justice to here. But here is a smattering of representative principles we hope you will find illustrative.

We know for a fact that you cannot design or build a successful home until you have already integrated the ingredients and lifestyle changes of things like renewable energy, detoxified environments, negative emissions sites, permascaping/native landscaping, gray-water recycling, aerobic waste treatment and sustainable materials sourcing into your present living.

We know for a fact that a successful natural home approaching the maximum potential we now know is possible cannot be built without first understanding and integrative native lifestyle changes...then spending at least on full yearly cycle on the land. Beyond that they require at least a year to design and probably a year or more to build. There are no successful exceptions to these observations....and we have done 250 case studies here that document that as a fact...which is the underlying premise for our Residency Program.

We do not generally support anyone leaving a substandard, toxic or unsustainable living environment for someone else to clean up, while they go build a healthier one. We encourage you to clean up the one you have and hand it with integrity to its successor before you move on. There are obvious exceptions where this is not possible or advisable...but in general, that's what we think.

We no longer support the creation of new structures in this area...which is already shredded in extent by growth and new development (although it seems pristine to most who come here from more impacted areas. We strongly advocate and support the acquiring of existing structures...usually the worse condition they are, the more we like it...and integrating all this technology into converting them to natural, energy efficient, solar, permascaped, healthy, happy homes and work places. Every single technique you would have used in building a new home can be successfully integrated in the retrofit of an existing one...ususally with a lot less hassle and expense. Plus, as you learn and work, you can reside in an existing home. You can't in one that isn't built yet...right???? Duh...

We...like Chief Seattle ("...how can we own the earth")...are not at all convinced that people can or should play the "illusion of real-estate game". This is especially true now with regional land and housing prices going through the roof...which only escalates the work and living stress of competent...non-consumer oriented souls. We prefer instead, generally...though not exclusively...to create our own mobile, "Micro", de-toxed, off-grid, comfy and cute living environments and use the thousands of dollars per year we don't pay in mortgages, insurance and taxes to work fewer hours, spend more time with our children and this beautiful land, develop our art, wander the world and build stronger, more democratic and richer communities.

We believe that the biosphere is infinitely more intelligent and benevolent than we are and that by understanding and living close to it we will find contentment, richness and fulfillment conventional treadmill structured, debt and expectation riddled lifestyles never will. We choose not to wait until we have enough money to do that...which will typically never happen. We do it now and trust the universe to take care of things later. As Joseph Campbell said, "Don't do anything for money. Follow your bliss."

Well, that should give you an idea. Now, on with the details.

Residence: As we've mentioned before, you provide the residence of your own choosing in the Montrose area (or within a reasonable driving distance...maybe a couple of hours). Typically, much of the work involves changes in your own living environment. These can be adjusted to be appropriate to rentals, or the current home you own. If you're relocating, we can assist you in finding housing. The "Micros" most of us live in are older converted mobile housing (typically 20 year old-rv's) which have outgassed to the point of being relatively safe for those with Environmental Illness. These structures are inexpensive, easily moveable and we remodel them extensively to attain comfort, energy efficiency and function as well as appeal....often "off grid". Typically, those of us who have acquired and tailored a "Micro" to our lifestyles would not consider going back to the expense, hassle and toxicity of conventional housing. If this is an avenue that appeals to you, we can help you acquire, set and revamp your own as part of your curriculum...an approach we seriously recommend.

Employment: The typical resident either remains in the job or career field of their present employment to start. We concentrate on reducing cost of living and de-escalating work load to an optimal half time. If appropriate, we can assist in placing you in a new sustainable career field or ramp up your qualifications to enter those fields as part of your curriculum. One of Smart Shelter's networking functions is that we track and list regional service providers in all areas of sustainable services (see the Smart Shelter Web Page "Green Pages" listings to give you an idea). We know the best there are and stand a reasonable chance of finding work for you in time, given your qualifications and work ethic. We find that people who work about 20 hours per week attain the best balance of spiritual and artistic integration...which is the only condition under which a fulfilling lifestyle can be attained. That isn't always immediately possible.

Doing a Residency as a Group or Couple...We have not as yet...although we don't see why we couldn't...do residency training with more than just an individual. If you are paired with a partner, it might be very advisable to do a residency together. The ideologies and changes typical of the curriculum might lead to divergences if you don't. If you are at a greater distance from Montrose than we might typically handle, or have a group formed that wants to study together...we could discuss and try out a group regimen. Fees would need to be adjusted, but its seems reasonable to assume that it could be done at a reduced cost per person than would be afforded by our individual programs. The drawback, of course, is the lack of individualized attention...and this could be a problem, because as you would soon see, the attention you will need will be significant. The advantages are the diversity of talent brought together by a group and the fact that you are creating your own community in the process of the Residency....which could easily seed a significant following in your community.

Job Markets in Sustainable Services....We believe that without a doubt, sustainability will be the bottom line in career and business viability in the near to distant future. Your choice is probably whether you get into it now or later. Smart Shelter has documented and networked a Natural Building Industry in Western Colorado...see the "Green Pages" on this website and bear in mind that the total picture is 3 to 4 times the people you will find listed there. The reality of this new lifestyle is that practitioners and clients are dispersed and often need to be convinced or created to maintain a business. Hundreds of us do on a daily basis here...year in and year out. There are some fields...such as design and renewable energy providers who are enjoying robust markets because the avalanche toward their chosen technologies has already taken hold. We're pretty convinced that similar patterns will follow for the rest of the services...already evident, for instance, in the demand for competent strawbale builders. One of Smart Shelter's additional functions is to create public awareness and demand for these services and direct clients to area service providers...which supports the end result of your education into the future. This is no panacia...but over time it works for the dedicated and high-integrity provider willing to become thoroughly trained and pay the dues necessary in terms of longevity in the region.

Costs...Fees for Residency per person are assessed on a monthly basis for the duration of training and usually require a one year minimum commitment. They start at $200/month ($2400/year) which includes regular half day instructor sessions (minimum one monthly), publications received as part of the curriculum, job finding and networking as appropriate, assistance with your living space and help as needed between sessions and access to our documents and resource library. Fees are payable at the beginning of each month. There may be start up costs determined by your present computer system (or lack thereof), etc. Those are arranged on an individual basis following screening and determination of your admission to the Residency.

Duration...Since this is an unstructured program and each Resident is at a different levels of development and need, assessing a specific timeframe for completion is impossible. A year minimum is deemed the shortest period of time period necessary to give you a significant level of awareness, integration and change for this comprehensive field of study. At four years, our first resident had achieved a suddenly apparent level of autonomy, her lifestyle and career changes were firmly in place and her readiness to move on was apparent to both herself and the instructor indicating an end to her need for residency study. She now lives a natural, nomadic and vastly healthier (and happier lifestyle) as a result of her training. A young, talented and fairly experienced bale builder is undertaking design instruction (currently on temporary hold while he builds a family home in New England) He is using the jobs (located through referral and screening with Smart Shelter) along with his "in progress" Residency training to add to his professional career capabilities. He's is at an indeterminate state at two years. It would be conceivable that he would attain significant design proficiency with another couple of years Residency and work/project experience.

Certification...Smart Shelter issues a Completion of Residency Certification at the end of study as appropriate. We are not accredited, nor do we seek to be. We depend on regional reputation and personal productivity of our programs for viability and gauges of integrity.

Subject Areas... Here is a sampling of several specific issues and technologies typically dealt with in a residency. Our experience is that it does not matter where a resident starts in the curriculum, over time everything in the teaching cycle will surface for learning. The value of a more "horizontal" approach is that diverse subjects find relevant interface when deal with as a "bundle" and dealing with issues and needs as they come up (and there is never a lack) means your readiness for the information and changes is ripe...which, of course, is the single most important ingredient to learning and productive change.

Detoxification...MCS and associated illnesses...Maybe you are at a significant level of healthy diet, household products, detoxified living space. Maybe not. These standards for those of us with Environmental Illness/ Chemical Sensitivities already are very high...organic foods, personal care and household products made from native or natural ingredients, intensive attention to reduction of exposure to measurable electromagnetic fields and nontoxic materials in living structures. This regimen is formulated and workable for people with up to level alpha two multiple chemical sensitivity. Smart Shelter has considerable information, resources, networking with several hundred regional E.I.s and an extensive, arsenal of solutions that work (mostly developed the hard way)...it's up to you to determine what you need and what you use. All interfaces with Smart Shelter need to be fragrance and smoke free. It is now posited belief (and we strongly suspect) that there is no one who isn't allergic to the chemical soup our world is quickly becoming. Awareness of E.I. symptoms and issues can help you self-diagnose (which is the only usable diagnosis) or prevent your developing the immune problems that have disabled so many of us.

The EI Standard...Smart Shelter is now developing a thorough description of Environmental Illness and a comprehensive system of natural and nontoxic solutions for a cleaner lifestyle. This syllabus is used in personal lifestyle training as well as serving as a set of standards for health home construction or renovation...including "Micro Living Habitats". We believe that all houses should be built to the EI Standard.

Micro Living Spaces...these are extremely space efficient, usually portable, chemically free and state of the art energy efficient (often off-grid) living environments typical of what many with advanced allergies find functionally necessary in terms of providing safe home environment and capacity to relocate in instances when local environmental pollution proves untenable or unwise....(for instance during crop spraying season or in urban areas with heavy wood stove air pollution). Many "Micros" begin as converted RV's retrofitted for nontoxic living, geared up for energy efficiency and down for levels of EMF. Some are moderately portable 150-300 sq ft solar "hogans"...all provide a significant decrease in cost of living and a radical ramp-down of our footprint on the planet. They usually (depending on their level of development) employ composting toilets, water catchment, gray water recycling, passive solar design, multi-fuel heating systems, passive cooling, and natural decor. "Micro" living is an option you may or may not elect, but you would benefit extensively from knowledge about them, especially as on-site temporary housing for site location and building or working projects..

Retrofit of existing structures...every single technique of state of the art natural building and native lifestyle can be applied to an existing home...even rentals and is much preferred to the scenario of abandoning an unhealthy or poorly functioning structure to build another. You don't need to move or build something new to start using native and natural building technologies. They will work fine right where you are. Smart Shelter has spent significant energy collecting "retrofit" systems you can easily ramp up as your knowledge and desire permit.

Base Line Solar...this is a series of techniques developed to allow anyone to begin using solar energy for basic household functions at the absolute lowest cost investment possible...in sharp contrast to $5,000 solar hot water systems and $15,000 photovoltaic systems and $800 energy standard laundry machines. Instead, laundry, dishwashing, bathing, cooking, etc are accomplished with cheap, readily available...often reused or salvage...containers, insulation and glass. They are cheap, portable, silent, efficient, provide 100% graywater reuse without any plumbing changes and can be transported and stored in a car. Entire systems for laundry, dishwashing and bathing can be attained for $50 or less...the solar ovens are around $200 new or you can build your own for about $50...and they won't heat up your home in the summer and you can take them along camping...try that with your dishwasher, washer, clothes dryer, bath tub and gas/electric kitchen stove.

Negative Emission sites...these are residential home sites from which there are no emmissions...no garbage...no trash...nada. Not only do all the normally discarded refuses or your own life, but also some of your neighbors get returned to your site's biosphere as compost, glass gravel and the like. This is the ultimate of personal environmental responsibility and guaranteed to make your consumerism conscience-based.

Naturo-scaping...rather than mowing your lawn with an aluminum manufactured mower burning middle eastern petroleum and irritating your neighbors (not to mention your mechanic every spring)...instead of mowing it, you eat it. Much healthier landscapes are possible when you stop the short-grass abuse cycle and the surprising diversity of edible and herbal plants hiding in what you think is just grass blossom...so do the birds and butterflies. Naturo-scaping goes a step beyond permaculture...basing the first step in a natural landscape on what grows naturally, which can easily provide about 20% of your organic food source in season....much less water...much less work...much cooler in the heat of August....and a delightful jungle for the average cat....not to mention natural invasive plant control in the process.

Stress/ Income Reduction...this is pretty much covered above. Life lived for the sake of consumer slavery isn't living. Our health, our families, our spirits crumble under the workaholic treadmill. It starts and ends with our own values and consumerism. Changing those can grow such a wonderful, rich, fulfilling lifestyle.

Artistic Expression as the bottom line...art is the voice of the spirit...kindle it and you will fly. It needs to be one of our first priorities, not what we'll do if we ever get caught up. After that adjustment...all goes much better.

Career Path Development in Sustainable Services & transitions..many of us feel conflicted about the value or legitimacy of what we do for a living. That isn't necessary. We have on our hands a necessity to invent an entirely new world of systems based of sustainability. The only way that will sustain itself into the future is if it has a business and employment basis...that can be yours too. Career changes...second or parallel careers...there are so many possibilities here in the Natural Building and Native Lifestyles arenas that there is no way you won't be able to fit into one, provided you're willing to change, learn, explore and risk.

Ramping up your own Innitiative...it's not a necessity that your undertake creating your own soapbox and inflicting it on the world in the field of sustainability...solar cooking, adobe plasters, environmental illness education, design, interiors....but we think you should. Shooting your mouth off about your heart's passion will grow you and your community faster than any one single other thing. We consider this a very advisable undertaking to be included in a residency program. Your choice.

Natural Building Design...every home, workspace or educational facility can be converted to a natural-based environment. To understand and develop skills along those lines involves understanding buildings, the biosphere, toxins, fields, energy and art. We can teach this to depth and remarkable levels of effectiveness...if that's what you want. A little design skill development, scale drawing, understanding of the architectural problem seems to help empowerment immensely, especially in alternative fields.

Natural Building Trades, Skills and Careers ...whether or not you seek trade or professional career training in natural building, the personal empowerment of learning to do some or all of the work in converting your current home or building a new one can be an invaluable asset, seen as a key objective of a Residency Program. Stellar surveying, site locations and design, natural building blocks and plasters, strawbale construction, wiring, plumbing ...none of this stuff is beyond the grasp of anyone, given the time and help needed to learn. All of them are valuable time and money savers whether you go on to become a service provider in the natural building trades or just use the skills in your own home.

Ingredients of Native Lifestyle ...it's impossible to build a natural home or live in a bio-regional responsibly without understanding the climate, seasons, native habitat, wildlife, edible and medicinal species and the uses of native resources for creating shelter and life supporting systems. This region of South Western Colorado is particularly rich in scenery, bio-region and micro-climate diversity and still, thankfully, enough of the native flora and fauna left intact to render it work saving and to be used as a basis for establishing symbiotic life relationships. Time is spent exploring and learning the nature of nature as a base stone for developing the sustainable and environmentally responsible methods of acquiring our own health and shelter....even our art.

Systems of Transcendent Governance...the recent complete collapse in national and world democracy followed by the intentional and sadistic shredding of the only middle eastern state even approaching workable women's rights, oil-profit funded national medical, dental care and education points out that we have on our hands a complete disintegration in our 230 year old system of governance...which was created at a time when multinational corporations and the internet were not even dreamed of, much less protected against or planned for. That leaves us with the necessity of inventing and putting in place today the workable, updated system that will work to protect and enriched us...as well as healing the wounds we've inflicted on the world...into the future. These systems are blossoming as we speak...many active now in this region and simply must be incorporated in any conscious method of living to assure their ascendancy once this system has collapsed....which it appears may be sooner than later. Using the transcendent approach to determining where we put our personal and political energy today makes the long term difference between a sense of futility and dispair...and the hope that our efforts should be riding on.

Community/Political/ Environmental Activism..that would seem like a no-brainer at this point.

Chi Energy Work...the ingredient which has made western medicine such a toxic and expensive failure (in the areas of immune system maladies) is that it is missing an entire metabolic system in the human body and environment...one nearly every ancient culture the planet ever sprouted knew about and used. We remedy that by integrating Feng Shui design, Jin Shin accupressure tuning, etc. in daily living. We and our environment begin and work from energy...we credence this first...after which all things go much better. Of particular interest is the physical reaction of chi to electromagnetic fields so prominent in our conventional living and working environments. We test, measure and remediate them.

Spiritual development and Integration...spirituality and religion are probably mutually exclusive. We concentrate on the first and leave the latter to dispute. Individual, intuitive, meditative, non-religious, non-dogmatic integration of actions along spiritually based principles(of your own choosing and comfort)...that's what seems to harbor sanity and health. But you do need a value for a spiritual basis in your life. We believe that addictive use of any substance or behavior has a spiritual maladjustment at its origin. Drug and alcohol use, extreme codependency are deterrents to attaining any significant state of spiritual well-being and problematical to native lifestyle certainly. There are myriad effective solutions available for the addictions that probably all of us, in the long run, face to some extent.

Community Identification and Creation...the individual study in these arenas is critical...but it finds very little real effect until it is taken out into the community. For that reason, we emphasize community profile and awareness as part of the curriculum.

Links to the Inside of the Natural/Sustainable Community in Western Colorado....over these past 8 years a wonderful community of hundreds of practitioners of the aspects of sustainability have been identified and connected in this region through the Smart Shelter Network and its sister organizations. They can become your community...business associates...friends...soulmates. We can show you where and who they are. Western Colorado is easily the national hotbed for natural building and very possible native lifestyle.

Texts ... Smart Shelter has substantial published reference documents, books, catalogues, videos etc supporting sustainable building and lifestyle. In addition is has a healthy paper-based resource file on regional issues and a currently developing digital (computer) resource base as well...which we will be transferring to you as relevant to the progress of your studies. The network has published hundreds of reports, essays, articles, etc on Natural building, which will become part of your library as applicable. The objective is to give you access to these plus the video and audio libraries to copy and develop your own resources which will become the basis of your profession ( if you develop one) or lifestyle assistance. This is all free as part of the curriculum for Residents.

Computer Base Must be Macintosh based or compatible. We will coordinate software, sometimes we can find you the machines, recommend the I Book. Besides being a vastly superior and infinitely more human-accessable computer system, MacIntosh is also the only computer company on the planet that does not manufacture warfare weaponry.

Teaching Philosophy It doesn't matter where you start. Your curiosity will lead you and that's what drives the issues and content being studies. The curriculum is circular/helical...eventually we will get to everything you need for a complete life by moving from one thing to another as your intuition and pace dictate. We find little or no need for didactic curriculum structure or time frames and a critical need for extended periods of interface and time. If you are not comfortable outside of a structured or scheduled program, a Smart Shelter Residency is definitely not something for you.

Instructor Background, Credentials...Gary Duncan is a 35 year veteran of the building industry having experience in architectural design, consulting, contracting, contract management, carpentry, foundations, plumbing, wiring and cabinetry. He contracted alpha two level Multiple Chemical Sensitivity 12 years ago from exposure to formaldehyde based building products and pesticides. He established the Smart Shelter Network in 1996 and has dedicated the time since to networking the regionally chemically sensitive, documenting and distilling the regional experience and prescidents in natural building, doing education and advocacy work with building officials, bankers, insurance companies and appraisers in the field of alternative building. He is a researcher developing native lifestyle systems (living solutions which originate from the native bioregional environment). He is also a musician, founder of the Telluride Writer's Guild, creator of the Telluride Bluegrass Academy and Workshop Series and author of over 100 texts, essays and articles regarding natural building elements. He is regarded as one of the top 10 natural building/native lifestyle consultants in the United States.

Making Application/ Screening/qualification We cannot accept residency applicants with substance abuse problems which are untreated. We consider motorized recreation as incredibly destructive to the environment and cannot support any owners or users of OHV's such as ATV's, dirt bikes, skidoos or jet skis. If you support the current political regime, or think the Afghan and Iraqi wars are justified, think they are ever justified, you will be seriously outgunned and on dangerous soil with this organization....in short, we will eat you for lunch.

The program necessitates a very open mind and willingness to reconsider and examine and change what to most of us are very fundamental belief systems and habits.

We prefer spending a lot of time talking to you or emailing back and forth until there is a clear understanding of you and us before delving into the Residency. To begin that process, simply email or call...stating your intent, background, desires and present situation.

Getting More Information....contact us email at: gd@smartshelter.com