How much personal space do we need to live in? Not just survive, but to thrive in. How much space do we need to meet our needs? And when these needs are met, what do we do with the rest of the world outside our back door? We care for it. We fulfill our joyous duty of being stewards of the earth.

What started as simple desire to create a smaller footprint has grown into a moving, shaking, grooving, living practice. Reduce, reuse, and recycle evolving into all aspects of our lives. The way we move from one place to another. The way we create space for ourselves.

To occupy space, to create your own environment, is pretty neat. And we are rethinking how it’s being done. From floor to rooftop, people are consciously choosing to downsize their living quarters, and even take them on the road. Tiny homes have gained speed in a world rapidly outgrowing itself.

Within the last 15 years, average family size has decreased, while average house size has more than doubled. With most floor plans in America coming in at around 2,500 sq. ft, the tiny home counterpoint of 125 sq. ft. seems pretty radical. But consider the whole system. Utility costs can be decreased from around $163 to $10-$40/month just by reducing your living area. And on the front end you could end up saving $200,000, only spending around $33,000 on average to build a tiny home. That’s so much money saved, reducing your overall debt, and freeing your mind to construct more creative and celebratory ways of living and enjoying our earth!

We can have more time for each other. Time to listen and really be a part of our community. And this means community outside of your zip code. With a tiny home comes the freedom and ability to move. People outside your own back door are the next great idea waiting to be discovered in conversation. So go outside, play and talk with each other!

This year, Nomad’s Nook is excited to present their Mobile Nook! Headed by village elder Jacob Izzo, we are building a sustainable, up-cycled, educational workshop on wheels. Our Mobile Nook will be touring the nation spreading the good word of permaculture and sustainable practices. In connection with Lucidity’s Permaculture Action Course, this project is a living and evolving construction of the Principles of Permaculture.

Wood from past projects is kept and is being used if it is still sound building material. Plus we have been scouring commercial waste lots, finding old Christmas commercial walls to be up-cycled and scrapped windows and doors to be refurbished. Trash can become treasure. Realizing how much we have to really work with is exciting!

These systems are all interconnected; we are learning the relationships between them, and how to work with them. Just like any other living relationship we are in, mother earth breathes and needs. She needs more room to breath, to regenerate. To thrive we must work together, and learn how to apply these principles to all aspects of our lives.

As we take these practices from our living rooms and backyard greenhouses, out to the public we are met with the opportunities of communicating about these principles of sustainable living.

The Mobile Nook is our platform for this message. Participating in Permaculture Action Days across the nation, whether they are at other festivals or community events, the Nook has the opportunity to inspire change. While capturing and storing resources, such as rainwater, is physically important, socially, we have the opportunity to capture and store social wisdom and knowledge.

The new paradigm isn’t coming, we are living in it. It’s our choice to keep building the old one, or build a new one. In this new one, there is no room for gratuitous consumption. So we move forward, taking this tiny home on the road. Paving the way for new growth by leaving more room for it to happen, by minimizing our footprint.

Anyone interested in becoming a part of the project can contact us here:
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And thank you to Isaiah Womack, Kevin Eagan, Jens Amundensen, with our partner Structures Construction, for coming out and volunteering your skills and time. Team work makes the dream work!