McAllister Ranch: The First Walk Through

In this post I will be reviewing our first visit to the site we've now put so much thought into: McAllister Ranch. We first visited the site on October 4th 2023. McAllister Ranch is a historic site that is currently owned by the city, but does not have a purpose right now. Boasting several acres, and old barns, the site offers great potential for a permaculture design. Hence, for our permaculture class we are working on a permaculture design to create a community growing site. There are several old buildings that have been envisioned to possibly hold farm animals, including working with the local 4H to involve their animals as well. Below are photos of the permaculture class students exploring the barns. 

Permaculture Students inside of one of the old barns at Mcallister !

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An overhead picture of the two barns

There are many other interesting aspects of the site, including an old farmhouse, a large cistern tank, a broken down greenhouse, an old well, and the Flagstaff Urban Trail System (FUTS) which runs right behind the site. The old house is being proposed to be used as a community kitchen, and shared space for tools. Unfortunately the large cistern leaks so it could not be used for watering the site. The greenhouse (shown below) would be rebuilt and a great addition to extend the growing season. The well is open to the site, and FUTS makes the site very accessible by bike or walking. 

The current state of the broken down greenhouse.

The old well on site

The FUTS trail behind the site

We got to walk around the site, and envision how we could implement what we've been learning in class into reality. We also broke into groups and got to interview several important people from the city and knowledgeable people of the site. My group interviewed Summer who works with Flagstaff's Office of Sustainability. She gave us more history on the site, and how other sustainability efforts that the office has done correlates to our project. Summer spoke on what she pictured for the space, and how she wanted a farm incubator in the space. While it is not promised that our group will get the land for our design, it is an exciting opportunity, and it was great experience to create a permaculture site.