Read how fine wood artists Scott and Stephanie Shangraw from Shangrila Woodworks live on a small scall and as green as possible.

We strive to live as green as possible and to leave a small carbon footprint on this earth. We believe that giving back to the earth is important for her to be healthy and last for generations. Our lives are as simple as we can make it. Meaning that we try and take the time to enjoy our beautiful surroundings, relax when we can and take in all that God has given us. We moved from the hustle and bustle of the city, to a secluded, quiet and peaceful area, so we could learn to take the time to enjoy life, get back to nature and be better individuals from it. We do not have satellite tv, instead we choose to save the money and receive Netflix to watch things we really want to see. Not having tv wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. We read more, Scott sketches new design ideas and we work in the shop and on the cabin more. We do have satellite internet and if anything major is happening in the world, we eventually find out, one way or another. Since we live in such a rural setting, an hour from any city, we try and not waste any unnecessary driving around by staying home more. That means we have to do some serious shopping when we do go into town, so everything lasts us, we mailorder most supplies and coincide visiting family, friends and seeing new places with traveling to art shows and making deliveries. This cuts down on the amount of gas we spend and wear and tear on our vehicles. And it keeps us home working and playing.

Our home is kept to a small scale. Right now we live in an approximately 390sft cabin. This small space encompasses a main living/sleeping area that also has our kitchen and a nice size bathroom. We made sure to have lots of cabinet/storage space along the walls and under beds. We have several windows for natural light and airflow and french doors to look out at the view. It's easy and cheap to heat and cool. We still have some finishing touches to do, but it's livable. A screened in porch is our next project, to not only give shade to the west facing part of the cabin but for sitting out and taking in our gorgeous view. We do have plans to add a sunroom on that would not only serve as an entry area to drop off muddy boots and hang coats, but we plan to have tall raised planters with storage underneath to do year round herb and vegie gardening, along with have all my house plants and a small pond that not only would serve as a humidifier to warm and cool the cabin but a relaxing sitting spot. Many windows will serve their purpose for light, airflow and viewing the wildlife. Next we want to add a small bedroom addition along with a guest quarters. Since we have family, friends and customers that like to visit our lovely area, a guest quarters would be great to give them their own space. This would be kept to a small one room area as well, that would have a small bathroom a kitchenette setup and a living/sleeping area. Not to mention windows to look out at the view and watch the elk that occasionally pass through. In the future I would like to add a courtyard to serve as an entry to our cabin and to have certain plants that might not otherwise make it out in the open areas where the weather is much harsher.

Our shop is a smaller size compared to many woodworkers. It is a 24 x 24 building that has greenhouse panels on the south and west facing sides to let in natural light. This allows us to not have to run the lights as much and lets in a lot of natural light. Right now our wood storage is along those paneled walls, but we will be adding an outside covered area to house most of the larger lumber and logs. We do have plans to add an 8ft x 24ft entry off the front of the shop where we can finish and house completed projects and have windows to open up for airflow. This would enable us to close this area off from the rest of the shop and heat it when we reach extremely low temps. This will be a priority project to get done soon.

We use all our scrap wood right now to heat the shop in a wood stove and once a stove is added to the cabin, we'll use the scrap there also, along with wood taken from forest and private land owner cleanup. All our sawdust gets used for mulch and pathways and we also burn most of our paper goods from our household waste and used sandpaper etc from our shop. This cuts down on the amount of trash we have to discard. All our water usage (shower, sinks & washer) gets turned back into the earth by running our graywater out through pipes to trees, plants and a system that runs under a grass area in the fenced in yard area. Since we opted to not put in a septic, we instead use an incinerating toilet, where the waste is burned and then put into the compost pile. My compost pile has been building and hopefully will start being useful soon. I have placed it in a raised planter with three planters surrounding it to plant vegies and herbs in eventually. Since our soil is clay and the stickiest mess I've ever encountered, I either have to really amend the soil or will be doing lots of raised beds. Our weather also makes gardening here hard. It might be 17 at night and get to 60 or higher during the day. These temperature swings, along with the intense sun, sometimes high winds, snow and flooding rains have proven to be quite a challenge in finding what will survive, but I won't give up.

Even though we are on the grid, which is vital to our business right now, we do have plans to add solar to both the cabin and shop. This will lessen our need for electricity and come in handy when the power does go out. Luckily we have a generator for times like that. Right now we have to haul water, but when we can, we plan to purchase the land next to us, that has a well. We are implementing a water collection system for both the shop and cabin and will use this water for plants. Some further areas of our landscaping will be more xeric to cut down on water and add a different element. We have plans to do both vegetable/herb and perennial gardening. Along with adding more trees throughout the property and tall grasses up at the road for dust control.

Our home life isn't the only thing where we try and think of our fragile ecosystem. We use only sustainably harvested lumber for our furniture, from the domestic hardwoods to exotics. Our carved vessels and sculptures come mostly from Forest Reclaimed woods such as, Alligator Juniper, which only grows in the mountains of NM & AZ between 6300 and 7600 elevation. This wood is mostly collected from forest cleanup or private landowner cleanup, to help prevent forest fires and improve the water shed. Some of these trees can be over 1000 years of age. Another wood used for furniture and carved vessels is mesquite, which is normally bulldozed and burnt on the ranches in Texas. It is a nuisance tree, that is considered a weed to most ranchers. It is a tough as nails tree and very hard to work with, but it has incredible beauty and character. We also work with walnut, cherry and other logs that we come across.

We try our best to live a simply life with little impact on this earth. And we hope that in doing so, we will leave this earth a better place for future generations. We also hope that by creating beautiful works of art that are built to last for generations, we are lessening what ends up in the landfill and leaving our artistic mark in this world.