Consultant Campout Creativity

We are winding down on an absolutely beautiful Sunday afternoon here at Moosicorn (76* and sunny with just a slight breeze). The dry wallers called it a half day and all of our guests from the consultants camp out this weekend have headed home.  Sadie is plum tuckered from our exciting weekend full of company and walks about the property and is moving today for the sole purpose of adjusting nap locations.

We’d would like to thank Alex Mann (landscape architect), Tosh Drake (architect), and Bob Gregson (farmer/author) for joining us yesterday.  These amazing individuals came up with a ton of ideas, loads of great conversation and were incredibly fun to share the day with.

The goal for this weekend was to begin the process of developing a masterplan.  We have given a lot of consideration to what we’d like to include here at Moosicorn, but refining these ideas, developing a programmatic design concept and  eventually a complete set of plans for much of the work here will be key to doing things right.

We spent a good majority of the morning and early afternoon hiking about with Alex Mann and Tosh, taking time to absorb, survey and reflect on many of the subtleties this ecologically diverse property has to offer.  Taking walks about the place is a daily passion for us, and it was wonderful to not only share that experience but to have it enriched with fresh perspectives and enlightened conversation from folks that not only seemed to have an intuitive sense for the design concepts discussed, but also a visceral aptitude for identifying and appreciating the intricacies of nature around them.  Good times.

We broke for lunch, enjoyed sandwiches and a beer while we turned the conversation to philosophical and programmatic imperatives we should set for the designs we will eventually work on.  Before we tucked the fixings away, Bob Gregson appeared bouncing down the gravel drive an hour and a half after leaving his Spokane home on a sharp red scooter.  He joined us for lunch and spent nearly two hours sharing his wealth of knowledge on intelligent organic farm design.

After lunch, the rest of the day was spent planning out the next steps and taking random jaunts to different areas of the property to refresh our “feel” for the space or to point out new areas and spaces to consider in our planning.

Before Alex Mann had to head out sometime after four, we decided on our next steps in the planning process. Tosh (who was camping for the weekend), and us spent the rest of the evening daydreaming about concepts for the cottages.

When we get the survey maps back from Dan Sampson of Survey Solutions, we’ll pass them along to Alex Mann.  He’ll then begin to loosely define characteristics of certain areas in a “bubble model” and overlay those onto the plans.  We’ll share that online with each other and with the readers of our blog as we begin to firm up the vision on the master plan.

So many creative ideas were born this weekend and we can’t wait to bring them to life. What will come first? Bathhouse? Artist in Residence cottage? Raised beds in the garden? Pond for the critters? Wading pool made from a water trough? Treehouse? Dwelling on the ridge? We’ll keep you all filled in on the progress of our plan.