Thank you Richard for the useful information and your responses to my questions.

Our community will be in the mountains of Arizona at about 6500 to 7000 ft elevation.  There will be four seasons, yet lots of sunshine.  I understand the weather is never too extreme there.

We are only in the planning stages.  Although the actual number of people has not yet been determined, it will be in the range of 20 to 50.  I am not sure about the number of animals, but there will be chickens, cows, and maybe pigs.We will be farming but we would like to make it as automated as possible using ecotechnology.  I have been looking at hydroponics and aquaponics and like the benefits.  However we want to use natural means of providing nutrients rather than chemicals that we have to purchase, living machines sound like a possible solution.

The community will be fully self sustaining and utilize only renewable energy.  I have done a lot of research into methane digesters, as well as solar and wind energy.The part I don't have a complete grasp on is using the slurry that comes out as a way to provide nutrition to our crops. I would really like to find an example system and get information about its initial cost, its ongoing cost of maintenance, the person hours required to operate it, the number of people and animals it serves, and what is produced that will be of value to such a community.  I can then scale those numbers to our size and use them as a starting place when considering the feasibility and resources we will need to provide.

Thanks,
Michael Skowronski