Earth to Dome is about turning raw mountain land into a homestead, from infrastructure and forestry to homebuilding and raising food.
In 2016, we moved from the city and purchased 20 acres in the Smoky Mountains that hasn’t been lived on for 100 years. It has, however, been farmed, grazed, and logged. While we shape parts of the acreage into livable space, we’re working to support the diverse native ecosystem to take back the majority of the land. Partly because it’s beautiful and serene. Partly because it feels like the right thing to do.
Homesteading comes in different forms – off-grid, prepping and survivalist, political, religious – we’re none of these but respect all approaches.
Our adventure may not appear as radical as homesteaders who trade full-time jobs and indoor plumbing to strive for self-sufficiency in the deep woods, but make no mistake. Even with grid power and central air, our lifestyle and world view have shifted profoundly since leaving the city.
While we embrace modern conveniences and grid power for now, we are…
- Creating a living space in harmony with the land that our loved ones can enjoy for generations.
- Becoming progressively more self-reliant and more cognizant of our impact as humans.
- Being productive in a culture where it’s much easier to mass consume than to create, especially when it comes to unconventional things.
- Cultivating essential skills that humans are forgetting.
In summary, we’re secular, urban-exodus, on-grid homesteaders. We’re also geodesic dome people rather than traditional, tiny, yurt, haybale, hempcrete, earthship, cob, cordwood, or other-cool-types-of-housing people. Hence the name, Earth to Dome.
Making this life happen has been the hardest and most rewarding thing we’ve ever done. We’ve been comforted and encouraged during our process by others who share accounts of homesteading online and hope sharing our experiences inspires others to live life less scripted.
EARTH to DOME 