TinyFest Texas
Tour tiny houses, van conversions, skoolies, backyard cottages (ADUs), shipping container home, adventure rigs and more! There were builders and people who were living and traveling tiny every day at TinyFest Austin 2021. As part of the festival, there were several hands-on workshops, speaker presentations, Q & A Sessions and Panel Discussions to answer common questions and “tiny” hurdles.
Pioneer Farms
TinyFest Texas was held Sep 25th – 26th, 2021 in Austin, TX. The festival was located at Pioneer Farms and hosted by TinyFest Events. Pioneer Farms is a 90-acre living history museum depicting life in 1800s Texas, with five restored historic sites and a village. The property also conducts pioneer life skills like glass blowing, blacksmithing, weaving, and carpentry just to name a few!
Parking lot entry sigh 
Western houses and general store
Austin Trip – Green Gate Farm & Village Farm
Green Gate Farm and Village Farm Tiny House Community
After my time at Community First! Village that morning, I went less than a few miles down the road to Green Gate Farm, across the street from an up-and-coming tiny house community, Village Farm. I had no idea about the Village Farm tiny house community, so that was a nice surprise I stumbled across! Unfortunately, I didn’t read the entire website for Green Gate Farm, only the tour page, which hadn’t been updated to reflect the tour connection to the farm stand seasonal hours.
Austin Trip – Community First Village
Community First! Village Tour
I came across Community First! Village a couple of years ago while researching online, so I was really looking forward to visiting it in person! Knowing that this planned community for the chronically homeless sprouted from Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a christian-based mobile food service for the homeless, was very inspiring – so I made sure this was a pillar stop on my trip. And yet again, I had my mind and expectations blown sky high!
Austin Tour – CMPBS
Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems Site
I was really looking forward to visiting the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS) after I met Pliny Fisk III a couple of years ago at the CMPBS booth during EarthX Expo 2017 in Dallas, Texas!
“The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, established in 1975, is a non-profit education, research, and demonstration organization specializing in life cycle planning and design. We undertake projects based on their potential contribution to site, regional and global sustainability and human health, and actively pursue collaborations with associate organizations, businesses and professional firms.
Projects emphasize regional contexts as bases for responsible resource use relative to materials, energy, water, waste, food, and meaningful employment. Our expertise is accessible through green planning and design services, conference presentations, public lectures, and published papers.” — CMPBS Webpage
LV Residential Life – March Highlights Pt. 2
Before I left Lost Valley at the end of the month, I planned a few excursions in the area and around Portland, Oregon.
There was a SquareOne Village tiny house community, Emerald Village Eugene, grand opening for the public in Eugene, and I was really looking forward to seeing it! Most of the houses onsite were finished in terms of their exteriors, and several already had residents living in them. It was great to see a city supported, experimental community for the chronically homeless. The model they operated on was that after a rigorous interview process for residency, community members were given a fully furnished space and were required to pay a percentage of their personal income to cover costs. Many of the current residents relied on bicycles and public transportation for travel to their jobs, and some of them were married and dual incomes that helped them financially afford to get back on their feet.
- Published in General, Lost Valley