History

The Founders

Together Michael and Alexandria have developed the skills needed to bring together business, the public and education to build a way to live that gives more than it takes. Michaels hard skills and knowledge of everything from sourcing to distribution provides the macro perspective needed to weave our goal into every aspect of business while still making a profit for the organization. Alexandria's expertise and talent in the soft skills provides the micro perspectives needed to weave our goal into the fabric of society.

The Business

Our society is a multi level marketing scheme, each level needs another buy in. Before we are allowed to improve our lives we have to prove our willingness to sell ourselves out to the system through credit scores. Everything we have is set up to profit those on the top, they make billions in passive income from our labor but when the ones they exploit ask for just enough supplemental income to survive, they are denied and villainized

I wanted to make a business that didn't sell out, that gave the people working for it as much as they put in. I designed and wrote many business proposals but no one would help fund them without me selling out ownership. I went to school for engineering, hoping to get the credentials to get funding, but was told ideas are only worth something if you sell them out. I built a profitable business to get me through college, but life decided that was not the direction I could take.

Those lessons taught me that there can be another way to live, not just for me but for everyone that wants to give more than they take. Looking for what I needed to grow made it obvious the aquifer has been overdrawn, the world needs a way to do business that provides more to people than they give, a way to do business where everyone profits.

The Mission

Death is a part of life that we all must come to understand. My Grandpa was an important part of my life, he was an outdoors man that loved to hunt and fish. I have fond memories of driving with Grandpa along country roads on the lookout for oak trees among the clipped grass of cow pastures. We would pull into the driveways and ask the farmers if they minded if we hunted squirrels on their land. We would walk on the carpet of leaves, still wet with morning dew that would steam up where the sunlight managed to break through the canopy in a patchwork of light. The faint smell of cows would mix with the decay of leaves turning to soil as we slowly made our way through the brambles and brush that were left for better grazing. We would watch for squirrels, scampering around with boundless energy, their carefree rustling the only thing breaking the meditative murmur of livestock. The squirrels would pause their concert of rustling when we approached to run up a tree and scold us, careful to keep on the opposite side of the trunk from the invaders in their homes. One of us would circle the tree so the other could get a clean shot to quickly end the squirrel's life, the energy it brought to the woods gone forever.

My grandpa was not an uncaring man, he looked down on those that killed for sport or trophies, his convictions straining his ties with his trophy hunting brother. We took the lives of squirrels to keep our lives going, it was something he needed to do during the depression to keep his family going and it was that same respect of one life traded for another that made this more than a simple outing for us. It taught me that even though the life of the squirrel was gone, its life had still affected me, it affected the forest, trees grew where squirrels had left their nuts and fed entire new generations of squirrels. Maybe it was this deep tie of the energy of life still going on after death that when my grandfather passed I didn’t mourn his absence as much as I appreciated the changes he had left. Maybe it was the memories of those cathedrals of oaks, temples of the cycle of life and death, growth and decay, that when my grandfather passed I didn’t say goodbye but simply said “See you later”

My dad carried that same message, leave a place better than you found it. The farmers I worked for taught me to take care of the soil, plants and livestock and they will take care of you. The wilderness hikes I would go on taught to leave no trace. Economics classes taught me that resources need to work or they lose their value. The big old oak that was my reliable friend, shelter and playground taught me that some things are irreplaceable when someone cut it down to make a shorter path for their ATV. It's not just respect, if you take but never give, you die with nothing, you get more out of sharing than you get out of hoarding. The rest of the world needs to learn this lesson before we have nothing left.

The people who have made it their life work to build on the knowledge gained from millenia of life works tell us we are running out of time, that my children have no future. There is a time for heroes that will save the planet from destruction, that time is now, those hero's need to be me and you.

The Community

My summers as a teen were invested as a volunteer counselor at a camp for troubled youth. Each one of us there simply did one small job, but the changes we made were immeasurable. There has been a piece of my life that has been missing ever since, a community of people that want to work together to build something greater. I did not have all the luxuries or comforts that life has to offer, only the necessities, but it was the most content moments of my life.

The idea of the community started out as a project called "Medieval" where we would start a town using medieval technology and build a society to modern day technology using nothing but sustainable methods and solutions. We would build a sitcom based on the community, inviting visitors to experience it in real life, focusing on media and hospitality. The people that lived and worked there would have all the necessities they needed while sharing in any profits. The problem was finding enough funding to make this happen, so while our strategy has changed, the ultimate goal has not.

Medieval may still happen if that is the direction our board wants to go and enough members want to join in the project, but we realize that everyone is different and may want to live in a different way. Since there are many ways to live, many environments and many solutions that need to be tested, we will buy and build what people need, where they need it, creating unique communities with unique opportunities. We want to make sure everyone's needs are taken care of. You may not have every luxury or every comfort, but we can promise we will work to provide what you need to be content, share the profits equally and give you the freedom to live a life that makes a difference together, and in the end, that is a luxury and a comfort that few people get.

If a hundred people are stabbing an elephant to death with needles, the elephant wont be saved with the actions of a single person, but the elephant won't be saved without the actions of a single person. You acting alone won't save the planet, but the planet can't be saved without the actions of people like you. It's time to join the Aquifer Project