Katy and Kyle

We Practice What We Preach and We Teach What We’ve Learned

When you take a class with us we teach you how to build but also go a lot deeper into alternative living.

Katy and I have been trying to living an alternative lifestyle for almost two decades. In 2011 we created an urban homestead in a run down house that we fundraised to buy within the city limits of Reno, Nevada, USA. Over 200 people contributed to that effort because they knew we would create something especially unique and inspirational. 

Our boys were 2 and 5 when we moved into a little shed out back while we renovated the main house. The house was in really bad shape and we had no money. So we put our natural building and permaculture skills to use (with help from good friends) to rebuild walls, fix floors, develop soil, grow food year-round, create systems for solar and wood stove hot water, and become an active part of our diverse neighborhood. 

We started developing soil and raising animals right away. The soil was as bad as the house! With a lot of work and help our half-acre is now a verdant and productive oasis full of plants and trees and birds and insects (including honey bees) and worms and beneficial microbes. 

Simple Living, Natural Building, Permaculture, and Appropriate Technologies

For eight years we lived without fossil fuels or electricity on site. We did not own a car and biked and bused to get around town. We also lived (and continue to do so) below the poverty line to create a context for consuming less while being more creative to meet our needs as well as to avoid paying war taxes. 

Prior to establishing our urban homestead and nonprofit “Be the Change Project”, we lived in strawbale and cob cabins both in Reno and across the country while investigating and learning from intentional communities. The Possibility Alliance in Missouri was especially integral in helping us form a vision for our own project in Reno. Service, simplicity, activism, connection to people and place were all guiding principles from the start. 

In 2018 we got a small solar panel and battery and also an electric vehicle (which we could only charge in town:). Our kids were growing up and getting them to sports and friends was getting too hard to do and we didn’t want them to be limited or resentful because of our different way of life. 

The solar expanded in 2021 and now we have a 400 watt system that we use for lights, charging power tool batteries, and running a small fridge. In 2023, after building a couple cobby cabins to rent out in our back yard, we connected to the grid so heating would be possible. Our house today is a hybrid of solar and grid electric.

We’ve designed and built lots of simple and effective systems for simpler and lower impact living over the years. We have a greenhouse and have used cold frames. We have a solar shower and used a thermosiphon hot water system connected to our wood stove for years, we make use of reclaimed materials, have raised pigs, rabbits, chickens, and goats, we compost and vermicompost, we used bucket toilets and alternative septic systems for years, and we’ve grown a ton of organic food. 

And of course we’ve been developing our skills and sharing what we know about natural building through the years. We have four cobby cabins in our backyard and one down the street, our main house has been “earthed-out’, we’ve built two cob ovens on site and one at a neighbors, and we have several garden walls and fun elements like a treehouse with a deck and crow’s nest, and even a little front yard pond. 

Unschooling (or Natural Learning)

Until our kids wanted to go to middle school, we unschooled them. We were committed to spending more time with them as they were growing up and incorporated them into our lives and work. In addition to games, drawing and crafts, telling stories, Legos, and whatnot, we also got them in the garden, feeding the animals, on the trails, with grandma down the road, on bikes, in the mud for natural building, and just around the people who visited our place and took our classes. As a result we feel they developed self confidence and a deep understanding of who they are and how they tick with solid values.

Teachers

Katy and I both taught in public and alternative schools for several years. We met at the Eagle Rock School in Colorado where I did my student teaching in science and Katy was a Fellow. We have both taught in the inner city, in rural small towns and mid-size cities, at-risk and honors students, and at a few charter schools including a Montessori one where we designed and created the middle school program. Katy still teaches math part time at a local Waldorf School. 

Since mostly leaving regular school teaching, we have taught natural building, permaculture, carpentry, and run loads of classes on good books, personal growth modalities, integral nonviolence…

Community Engagement

Since 2011 we’ve volunteered with a food ministry that collects and distributes food every day. We volunteer on Thursdays each week and fill a truck with great food that is spread across town to pantries and nonprofits.

We have orchestrated nine big public murals and a big tortoise sculpture over the years along Wedekind Road which is behind our house. Pride of place and to combat graffiti. 

We carol each Christmas with a crazy group of friends and neighbors.

We distributed over 15,000 articles of clothing to those in need through a partnership with Patagonia.

We interviewed undocumented immigrants and produced a play called Liberty’s Children with Jeanmarie Simpson

We’ve put on free music concerts in our local park

Kyle ran (unsuccessfully, thank God)  for county commissioner in 2022 to bring awareness to housing and environmental issues 

Firsts in Reno and Nevada

• We started the first food waste collection and composting business in Nevada in 2015. We called it the Reno Rot Riders and collected upwards of 150,000 pounds of food waste from local restaurants (and then residences) largely by bicycle over three years. RRR was renamed Down to Earth Composting after we sold the business to a friend who grew into a thriving local business serving over 1000 residences. 

• We built the first single family home to be put into a community land trust for affordable housing in 2020. This was a house I built on our block and worked with the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada to make this a reality. Katy also developed a thriving garden on the property which is now used by a market gardener. 

• We conducted the first microplastics testing of the Truckee River in 2018. It’s full of them, it turns out:( This research led to us work with the Desert Research Institute to develop best practices for sampling microplastics and to bring awareness to the public. Since we started it DRI has expanded the work to include Lake Tahoe, Snowpack in the Sierras, and watersheds in Las Vegas.

• We created the Reno Garlic Fest in 2017 to encourage local organic food production. This was a wildly successful event that we passed on to Reno Food Systems who still incorporate garlic growing programs as a way to get people in the dirt.