Should We Form an Intentional Community or Join One?
We would love to have a community on our current property. Most of the land would be shared and owned by the collective members of the community in a trust (or however it’s usually done). But looking at the processes involved in starting one, and in maintaining the books, accounts, etc… it makes me a little nervous. I’m trying to get away from bureaucracy, not have more of it in my life. If we met the right couple of founding members who enjoy doing that sort of thing perhaps we could make it work. Otherwise…
We could offer a 99-year lease on some of the land, or sell off a piece of it to the right people to form more of an intentional neighborhood with perhaps some piece set aside for shared use.
Or we could try to join an existing intentional community that makes a good fit for us and vice versa. I might go check out EarthHaven again soon, and have been learning more about a local community called Abundant Dawn. They seem to have a pretty good balance between Autonomy and Community, which are both equally important to us.
Five years ago if you’d asked me if I would ever consider living in a “commune” I would have said “No Freaking Way!” I don’t like people getting into my personal business, like what color I can paint my house or what kind of food I can raise. And I don’t like income-sharing schemes. I don’t like drama either. So yea – no way.
But then again I hadn’t really been around intentional communities much, and I had only a very immature understanding of them as being like an HOA from hell. Fortunately, that isn’t the case at all with most communities that I have since come in contact with. They come in all shapes and sizes. You can read about some of them here.
I also have learned the hard way that this “simple life” is very – VERY – difficult to do on your own if you have a mortgage and a young child. I thought I knew how difficult it would be, but really I had no idea. What you need is a community to help share the labor and projects (and for “community” and friendship). It’s easier to raise a dozen chickens and get your pork from a neighbor in exchange for eggs than it is to raise six chickens and a pig. Likewise with dairy products and even various fruits, nuts and grains. Can you be an organic gardener; an orchardist; carpenter; veterinarian; farm hand; spouse; parent; employee; forester; hunter; farmer; domestic engineer; book-keeper… all at the same time? If not, think twice before moving to a big property and “going back to the land” unless you are doing it debt-free and/or with other people. I’m not saying it can’t be done. If everyone involved is gung-ho about it and you work really hard it can be done, as I’ve seen people do it. But we’ve decided that it would be better for us to have other people around – good people. People we can learn from and with whom we can get along for what could very well be the rest of our lives.
So that’s where we’re at. We can’t do it alone, but I am still very much passionate about this way of life and we will find a way to make it work. We “think” that way has to do with building or joining a community that fits our needs, preferences and personality types. The question is: Do we do it here or somewhere else?
With that in mind, I think I will be attending the Twin Oaks Communities Conference this Labor Day to see what it’s all about and to educate myself on options.
Here is a question for our readers: Would you consider joining or forming an intentional community? And, if so, what kind of community would you be looking for?
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- The front of our house built circa 1932.
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- View of the house, pond and barn from the goat hill.
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- A vew from across the pond with chestnut tree in front of house.
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- View from top of main pasture.
Category: Simple Thoughts, The Transplants
Everett writes about voluntary simplicity. This blog catalogs his search for "the good life" as he tries to strike a balance between work and play, freedom and responsibility, simplicity and comfort.
Yes to both. I agree with your comments about autonomy and community as well. But I also don’t want so many regulations I can’t experiment with a cob house or some crazy soda bottle cement gazebo, if I want. So more hippyfied that many are now. I also like the idea of community meals but not every night maybe once or twice a week. I really fear the places that control all your income, and were you don’t have the option of your own door to close.
This place is right down the road from me in Northern Va. but is seriously cost prohibitive, for me at least:
http://www.ecovillages.com/
But the philosophy is really spot on, except not having pets outside and having to built their approved homes.
Wow, your land looks gorgeous! I’d love to live there, help you with your web stuff (I do SEO now) and start a medium scale aquaponics project. If only I could convince the girlfriend to uproot and settle in Virginia…
LOL… Well if you have to “convince” her too hard it wouldn’t work out for the two of you out here anyway. But it couldn’t hurt to bring it up!
Thanks Kara. Doesn’t sound like it’s for us either.
Kara, I wouldn’t sign on to any community that “required” people to eat together, but feel that sort of thing would just happen organically and completely voluntarily. It sounds like we’re on the same page about some of those autonomy issues. Here is what our friend Scott said on Facebook:
“I’d most prefer individually owned land adjacent to many other like-minded folk. I’ve tried community a few times, in different countries, and it ain’t for me, for all the reasons you mentioned. Only a community where interaction is entirely voluntary would suit me.”
See I’d like to have that kind of community here. If you don’t want to be much involved in the day-to-day political and economic planning, etc… aspects (i.e. meetings) you don’t have to. You lose your voice in the community, but that’s the way it works in the larger community anyway. Some choose to be active and some don’t. The squeaky wheels tend to get the grease, which sort of ensures a certain level of active participation for everyone in a more organic and voluntary sort of way.
Of course, this is all “theory” for me. I’ve never lived in an Intentional Community so it’s probably easier to sit here and pontificate on autonomy-centric communal living than it is to implement and maintain that balance.
The Twin Oaks Communities Conference is a great next step. It’s an awesome way to learn how “everyone” else is doing it. You could come back bubbling with new thoughts/opinions around either turning your place into an IC or joining others….and, I might want to ride down with you!
I’d definately join/form an IC. It’s been a dream of mine for some time. Important things to me are shared food supply, family-like environment, equality, sustainability…
Your land is beautiful, I would have a hard time leaving it if it was me. For me, I didn’t realize I wanted a community around me, but found one and couldn’t be happier. I rented an apartment in what used to be a hotel. Most of the apartments are exactly the same size, which means the people here had to want small and realize they couldn’t have a stove. I began clearing the field in the back and planting a garden bed, from there everyone began to join in. Since we all rent there is very little we can do to the actual living spaces, but each of us has planted and tended their own preferences in food. When the food is harvested we share with others. There is no meal sharing on a whole, and for privacy everyone is good about it. I will get a text asking if I’m up to company from some, others see my door pushed over as a sign I want to be alone. It works well for me. I hope you find the community you are seeking.
I think engaging more deeply into the neighborhood and/or community is a great solution to the problem of trying to do it all yourself. I don’t know that I’d live in an intentional community, based on some experiences I’ve had with volunteer groups. I prefer the idea of having autonomy, yet still having close friends and neighbors that you trade with for food, help with projects, and sharing skills.
When we bought our place as weekenders, we found that we had a core group of 3 other couples that liked to come up and camp with us. We joked about having a commune, including our older full-timer friend (who would be the “guru”.) We all have different skills and interests – some into animals, some more into gardening, a forester, a hunter, a vet, a tractor nerd, etc.
As it turned out, one couple had 2 kids and don’t come up much any more. But the other two couples bought their own land nearby. So while none of live here yet, we still help each other out with projects and trade what we’ve grown in our gardens. The hunter is very generous with venison. We take our tractor to the other properties and help with road building and such. We have meals together when we’re all up together, and often look at our plates and say, wow – pretty much all of this was grown locally.
So while I don’t think it’s anywhere near to the simple life you want right now, we’re slowly moving in that direction in baby steps.
Wow. This is the million dollar question, right?? And I too am going to Twin Oaks! So maybe I will see you there! Feel free to email me.
Your place looks amazing
We’re pretty close to the same page as you, both in your views on IC and trying to do it all yourself.
There are so many blogs and books on this simple life concept, and quite often they make it look feasible with just two people. But upon getting to know quite a few of those couples, almost all (if not all) have a full timer on the farm and a full timer working outside the home. Even then it’s long days and nights for both people, and so often the farm emergencies happen just when work chaos is at its height. Or child care emergencies for that matter.
Recipe for insane stress, which is we’ve downsized what we’re doing. Dabbling in dairy animals and an LGD was a huge lesson, and we loved a lot of it, but we didn’t have time to get further in, and at that “dabbler” level, it was cost prohibitive to keep them.
So, for now, it’s chickens and gardening, and that’s enough to keep you on your toes. For example, we have a Cornish Cross that has been due for the butcher block for weeks now, but we just haven’t had time. Paying work comes first.
Personally, I’ve dreamed of a large plot of land that is subdivided and 99-year leased out to like minded people interested in farming/homesteading. A central building with a certified working kitchen for group jam/butchering/fermenting get togethers and optional dinners. It could also be used for public classes and tours to bring revenue back for land improvements.
Perhaps a large plot of the central land could be actively maintained and managed as wild space for hunting/hiking and further privacy for the outlying home plots.
To us, it would be extremely important that each person would have their own space and autonomy. We had a great rental situation in NJ, where our across-the-hall neighbors became great friends, and we had frequent BBQs with the whole house. We even tried a communal garden, but that was a bit of a flop! It was amazing overall — absolutely loved having that close friendship, where you could pop over for a beer or a last minute dinner…they would cat sit for us and vice versa. Parties were amazing bc we could just open up both apartment doors, etc.
In short, I love the idea of a community and crave what we had in NJ, but to actually FORM that intentionally would take a lot of work/luck, IMO. And when those people you find inevitably move on, if you don’t have rules/a modicum of control, how do you ensure you keep that vibe going?
Curious to see what you guys come up with!!
Erin for the reasons you bring up regarding the difficulties of formation and maintenance, I am inclined to join an existing community. The challenge for me is deciding how much autonomy I am willing to give up in exchange for community. This is a delicate balance to reach and maintain, and everyone has their own definition of what that should look like. I think if I go to Twin Oaks for the Communities Conference I can ask around and see what’s out there.
Folks, your little valley is so beautiful, it brings tears to my eyes. You are so very lucky! I lived in an Ozark commune when I was a child, and still long to live that way again some day. I’ve also lived in housing co-ops during college. This, and experience with volunteer organizations has given me an interest in leading an IC.
If you’re going to invite people to share your private land, you should preserve as much of your lovely farmstead as you can. Folks can park or build their homes in a village area set aside for that purpose. Devote enough room to a single large garden for everyone interested to use.
An IC needs group projects which people volunteer into. There’s nothing wrong with asking for labor in return for work experience and literally free rent. The mortgage and property tax has to be paid somehow. Folks who feel that’s like being “put to work with no pay” just don’t see the big picture. Someone who wants to be left alone on his own plot of land should find his own land to buy or rent.
I see some folks object to the idea of being “forced” to share meals. I assume you’d still “force” your children to attend private family meals though? Because it’s important to a family’s cohesion? Well, in an IC, everyone is part of an extended family. You come into this thing knowing that you and your kids lives are going to overlap with some other’s. It’s the fellowship and shared responsibility that make you do good by each other instead of compete.
One of our culture’s problems is all the people who don’t participate in making decisions, and the selfish choices of a minority who consolidate their influence and power. Being “required” to share decisions, meals and maintenance is actually EMPOWERING. It prevents falling out of touch, and losing your voice. It moderates the ambitions of those who tend to lead too much.
IC isn’t for independent loners. This reluctance to “sacrifice your privacy” and autonomy is like suffering from shyness. It’s holding you back. It will be a good experience to grow out of it. You’ll learn even better ways to work things out than before. You can try it for a while and move on whenever you wish.
BTW, in reality, most IC just ask you to establish a contribution to uphold. There’s a chore chart somewhere. I would indeed be wary of an IC that wasn’t quite flexible. However, if your schedule and skills don’t fit an opening, you may need to find another IC.
Robin,
Thank you for commenting and sharing your experience and input on intentional communities. I think you are right in many ways and certainly right from your own perspective. However, I hope you can still see that different people desire different arrangements, levels of commitment, social interaction, rules, etc… We are all individuals. Even if 90% of the people in the world have more cohesion, and experience self growth and communal growth if they were “required” to share regular meals together there would still be a significant amount of people who, for whatever reason, actually grow more, and are happier in a less structured environment that valued Liberty and Autonomy as much as Community. To say or imply that these people can’t live in an Intentional Community because “it’s not for them” is to imply that there can only be one kind of IC. There are, as you know, many different kinds with various levels of rules and expectations.
I may “want” to have dinner with my community on a regular basis, and indeed something should be scheduled and encouraged. But not “required”. Your analogy about children being required to have family dinner makes sense on the surface, but beneath that it becomes apparent that you view other members of the community as “children”. If your spouse didn’t want to have dinner at the table is that grounds for divorce? If your uncle, sister or cousin who lived in the same town didn’t want to would you disown them? Requiring someone to give up personal choice and hand over liberty for group cohesion isn’t socially liberal or tolerant. It is fascist. You might say they have a choice not to join the community, and that is true. But you can’t accurately say that there is no community for them at all, as in “IC isn’t for independent loners”. Besides that, to call anyone and everyone who values Liberty a “loner” is an ignorant stereotype. They might want to eat together with other members of their community EVERY night – they just don’t want to be “required” to.
I’m all for sharing meals. I’m all for consensus building. I would probably be a very active and friendly member of most intentional communities, and I would appreciate the opportunity to learn from others and build my social skills while contributing to the process of steering our collective future. But I wouldn’t join in the first place if I felt they didn’t offer adequate autonomy. That means not every community is for me, but that’s ok.
This is the best example of doublespeak I’ve read since reading Nineteen Eighty-Four:
Being “required” to share decisions, meals and maintenance is actually EMPOWERING.
If I want to stay at home and watch NASCAR while eating Twinkies instead of voting I am being lazy and don’t deserve to have my voice heard – or possibly just jaded and apathetic after repeated disappointments and disillusionment with government. But that is still more empowering than being required to vote against your will at risk of losing citizenship.
I do apologize if this sounds hostile. I don’t mean it to be. Liberty is very important to me. I feel like we can value community and Liberty at the same time. Maybe I’m just fooling myself, but I want to give humanity the benefit of the doubt on this one.
That is not to say I don’t think your points make a lot of sense. I agree that regular shared meals would probably be healthy for most communities and community members. I agree that most intentional communities probably aren’t for everyone. I agree that we should be involved in the public, collective affairs of our community, town, county, state, country and world. But all of it should be voluntary because without free choice on the most basic of rights (that is, to participate or not) then everything else is just a sham.
OK I’ll stop now. Sorry, this is a bit of a thing for me.
Enjoyed every posting. Challenging ideas and sharing hard-won experience is, in itself, a wonderful exercise in community-communal living. Bravo to each author and to offering up this format! I’m a young adult of the 60′s and 70′s, have lived in a highly restrictive IC for several years, maintain a very large respect for independent privacy, and have professional construction, agricultural (both hunter/gatherer) skills, and am ending my years as a health care provider and healer. I look forward to watching your progress and the evolution of community as you decide it must be. Perhaps, a visit could be arranged? Have you looked at the Hx of Jubilee in Georgia? A faith-based IC, but one with enormous attachements to the surrounding communities. Again, well thought out to all. gus
Before jumping off into he deep end, try living in a condominium complex for a while. I have lived in a 52 unit complex spread out over several acres. It is democracy in a nutshell. Most people don’t get involved and we are lucky if enough show up for the annual meeting although it does work better than Washington because there are no monied influences controlling things, but the politics can get just as nasty. A lot of people who move in don’t realize that they are giving up some of the “rights or freedoms” they thought they might of have in a subdivision, although some neighborhood groups can get pretty nasty when it comes to lawn care etc. A group of “like minded” people might be different, but a lot of us have the “my home is my castle” attitude which may or may not be conducive to what is being suggested by some. Many of us yearn for a Mayberry type of lifestyle and community but not commune.
Everett, my most humble apology. In suggesting a “visit”, I left out the word I truly enjoy living by, “barter”. I would not think to show up w/o aging travel-van plus tool trailer in tow. A bit of fine cabinetry, general carpentry, or a simple health screen and family-medical history compilation in exchange for conversation and homegrown meal? Or, perhaps a few sessions of Healing Touch therapy…and I just put up a season’s worth of very good hot, sweet, and dilled veggies to share at table. Isn’t it amazing what skills accumulate in 60+years of curiousity and following one’s dreams. I look forward to hearing about your’s unfold. gus
Everett: I do respect your point of view and think I get where you are coming from. There are certainly all kinds of ICs. It seems you stand balanced between your fascination and your apprehension for them.
I encourage you to contact several nearby ICs and make plans for short stayovers. This will help you decide if you want to be a joiner or a founder, and provide invaluable insight into the lifestyle.
Thank you Robin. I will spend some time at a few and educate myself more on the topic, while also attending the Twin Oaks Communities Conference later this month. I should have a little bit of a clearer idea after all of that, especially if I can work out a multi-month stay somewhere.
Gus, where are you at these days? We’re in Floyd, Virginia. But if we end up putting this place on the market we’ll have to back off any any plans on having folks stay here. I guess we’re still very much in the deciding part of our next journey. I’ll keep you posted but at the moment am really leaning toward finding the right established community for us Vs. founding our own.
Thank you everyone for a great discussion!
Everett
I live in Amish country in central Pennsylvania and have often admired the community they have while most have their own properties. Obviously they are under a religious covenant and can thus be “removed” from the community for misbehavior but what they have is still enviable to me. I live in a HOA and it is terrible in many ways. There is no sense of community amongst most of my neighbors; instead there is a lot of hostility.
I like the idea of shared labor on community projects and on an individual level. Helping when you see a neighbor needs it. That also requires a level of openness and willingness to pitch in when it isn’t always convenient. I see no reason not to turn community projects into a party though.
My ideal community would be one where everyone espoused attachment parenting principles to child rearing and one based on mutual respect for individuals. It would not be vegetarian and it would be drug free. I like the idea of the 99 year property lease that would allow people autonomy to grow /do what they wanted. Also I love the idea of a shared. Community building where weekly dinners could be held. I love thinking about this!
Presently in East-Central MN, ‘retirement’ went out the window with the “great recession” though I have yet to see anything remotely like pubic awareness, economic policy changes, or political change (great) come out of it. A different discussion blog altogether.
I’m a nurse and continuing student of Healing Touch therapies. We volunteer our 40+ years residential and commercial construction/remodeling experience and equipment out to local projects…just to keep the rust off the tools and our brain cells. Interestingly, this weekend found two of the kids on a project in West Virginia, with another working trip to N.C. planned in late fall, along w/a swing thru Arkansas and New Mexico. I spend quiet moments reading everything related to tiny/sustainable living and renewable energy ideas old and new.
Enjoyed the postings. Seems there are many folks with many ideas about community living. The project in our area, near the Snake River, held forth for several years, then building regs and changing personal demographics eroded the core group and the IC returned to the forest and trails. Looking forward to hearing about where your next steps take you and your respondents. gus
I grew up on a large conventional farm in a relatively closeknit (a.k.a. nosey) rural American community with extended family not far away (particularly grandparents and great grandparents who all farmed nearby.)
I definitely have homesteading/pioneer tendencies and was interested in intentional communities when I was younger; and even looked into a few in the urban/suburban areas around the Washington, DC metro area where I settled for just over a decade.
We’ve recently purchased a large remote timber property on the Oregon Coast as our investment in a future homestead. Because of the economic opportunities (or lack there of) in that area and the remoteness of the property which limits the use largely to some timber production (not a short-season crop by any stretch of the imagination), it really needs to be considered as a homestead escape and investment in lifestyle, not economic opportunity (original homesteaders were definitely interested in economic progression and not lifestyle – so my own homesteading tendencies have more to do with the more recent ‘back to the land’ movement, though very open to conventional production practices.)
I’ve learned ALOT about myself in the past 15 years and I would never consider an intentional community at this point. I definitely value the art of neighboring and the need to cultivate neighborly relationships with the very diverse skills and perspectives/goals that neighbors may have; many of which won’t be interested in the lifestyle tradeoffs and decisions I might make, but at the same time have skills, tools, and needs that could be bartered and shared.
We haven’t yet made the full move to this new property as we have a couple of financial goals we need to achieve first (recognizing all of the challenges you have noted before.) In the meantime, we have a bartered ‘caretaker’ arrangement on the property. A couple stay in a micro-cabin on the property, maintaining a garden to feed themselves, taking care of the small poultry flock that I invested in (mostly so that when I am able to spend time there I have eggs to eat, but also to facilitate the standard of living of the caretakers), maintain and improve the orchard, maintain and improve the limited infrastructure on the place which includes road maintenance, the greenhouse, a gravity powered water system, etc. The couple would like to have their own property, but aren’t in a financial situation to do that. We also discuss and decide on a specific set of projects that they work on as time permits, without overburdening the barter relationship. It is working incredibly well. I hope they stay even after we eventually move their full time! There is plenty of room and it is WONDERFUL to have an extra set of hands for the larger projects and divide the project/chore list to ease the load.
I prefer to be in a position to set my personal boundaries and frame the relationship and property. I want them to be happy and for the property and their lives there to fulfill their own visions and needs, but ultimately it is my place. Have you considered offering a part of your property as a ‘rental homestead’? (Stumbling Homestead http://stumblinghomestead.com/blog/ rents their homestead . . .); a family interested in trying homesteading could come out and experience the lifestyle as renters? Or looking for barter homesteaders? Where together you decide what they could specialize in that could compensate you for the opportunity? I found such a diverse set of people interested in these types of opportunities and you would have the power to end the relationship if it didn’t work out. Either case though, you might need to make the investment in offering some type of living infrastructure . . . a microhouse, cabin, etc. (Or specify upfront that building such a structure would be a first step – or find an old trailer and park it in a remote corner and say ‘fixing it up’ is part of the bargain.) While I don’t have significant experience yet, what I’ve found is that there are alternative ways to ‘hire’ help or acquire help without paying salary/wage. One would try to find individuals or families that may not have land, but have a shared passion for outcomes that could free up your time to focus on maximizing your income for your financial goals as well as contributing to your lifestyle objectives. And in the end, you maintain the flexibility and freedom to shape your property, privacy, and relationships; in a collaborative manner – and it might take a couple of tries to find the right fit; but at least you have the right to keep trying. Once you commit to an intentional community, you might find quite a bit of compromising and questioning at what point to quit compromising and move on (or you could just settle right in and never have a second thought.)
Oregon Homesteader: I am so glad you joined the comments! We have very similar ideas, and I have actually been considering the OR coast as a potential site. I saw so many clear-cut timber areas there while exploring with Google Earth, and I thought it might be possible to buy one of these cheaply, and save myself the trouble of clearing the land myself. The fact that OR allows such timber harvesting also suggests that land usage laws might not be too restrictive.
My master plan would be to build a little self-sustaining village retreat for my retirement, and possibly survival in economic collapse. I would assemble a group, to form a generally autonomous IC, which pays their lease to me in labor by constructing the architecture and agriculture. This would be an ideal low-risk “practice run” for folks like Everett to see what works for them.
The IC could stay on as permanent caretakers, else I would rent it out as an artist’s retreat, family resort, summer camp or historic reconstruction to keep cash flow to pay the bills, and keep interesting people around. My observation is that these facilities all have the same basic components: cabins, kitchen and activity areas, that would simplify re-purposing.
I don’t represent any group of people at the moment, and certainly don’t have the money to get the ball rolling yet, but I want my idea to start floating around out there. My primary desire is to create jobs and homes for people and nurture a creative, non-mainstream culture.
Back to you, though. Based on your firsthand knowledge of OR, what possibilities still exist? I didn’t find many settlements that looked like they were based on timber clearings, and noone seemed to be building ponds in the mountains, like they do everywhere in Arkansas. I found lots of other points of interest like public beaches and dinosaur gardens. Coastal towns seemed to be building typical concentrated suburban neighborhoods. It all gave me the impression that local laws favored tax paying ticky-tacky and repelled free-spirited homesteaders.
Robin,
The part of the southern coast where I bought is particularly rugged. I bought a place that is very steep (all south facing, which is fantastic) and timbered with very limited open, natural meadow (south facing oak savanna.) [It is so steep that the previous owner had to get heavy equipment to terrace the middle of the meadow for the greenhouse, and carve out a couple of additional narrow terraces for the vegetable garden.) There are A LOT of diverse folks that have settled in the nearby coastal towns and the foothills. These include descendants of the old ranching families, but also surfers, homeschooling homesteaders, recluse/hermits, those still in logging and fishing industries (though logging industry has collapsed as largely public land that is no longer logged), retirees searching for more moderate climates, etc.
The mountains are so steep and rugged in places, that productive agricultural land is more limited to river bottoms and valleys which lead some distance inland, away from the ocean effect; and a few swaths along the coast itself. That is where one sees the blueberries, commercial cranberries, and into CA, the home of the US easter lily industry.
The logging typically happens on the slopes (and soil) where timber really is the best use of the land (with some grazing.) Also, right along the coast, trees grow really fast, so that clearcut land is probably owned by a logging company that will immediately replant and harvest again within 20 years. That is a phenomenal reproduction rate considering the east side of the mountains takes 30+ years for marketable regrowth.
Instead of specifically looking for clear-cut, maybe look at old ranches that have been split up into more manageable units. I’m assuming you are watching landandfarm.com to see what types of units are offered and at what prices.
My one strong reaction to your idea would be to really consider incentives and investment to make sure you attract the type of people you want and get the outputs that you hope for. Without long term rights, people will be unlikely to invest labor (and especially money) beyond their near-term interest. So they will have particular passions (gardening, composting, etc.) that they will freely want to explore for themselves, given space, BUT they will be less likely to invest money or extra effort on infrastructure that will ultimately belong to you and where their medium-term rights are uncertain. In my case, I had a micro-cabin to offer for lodging, but when we discussed adding a second ‘caretaker’, it was very clear that everyone had an interest in supplying the labor and effort, but ultimately the materials would be paid for and furnished by me because it would be my infrastructure which I could repurpose or allocate as I wished in the future. [we openly discussed the need for guest quarters and thought a secondary caretaker with a 1 year agreement could result in a small cabin that in a year could be vacant for guest needs – both mine and the primary caretakers’.) This might not be as much of an issue with cob building (if basic materials are available on the property), but everything takes supplies and some cash.
Don’t know if this makes sense, but there are definite pros and cons to each model.
Oregon Homesteader: Thanks for the insight, and yes you make good sense. People needn’t worry that I’ll be using their labor, then chasing them off. I’d be preparing the land to share over the long term, as a patron, and building the creature comforts of a permanent settlement. I’d work shoulder to shoulder.
I’d also welcome those who are just testing options during a transitional period of their lives. That’s probably the majority of folks who have lived in IC or co-ops. This is a chance to dip their toes into alternative living without the risk of blowing their nest egg.
Finding my tribe, so to speak, will probably be the trickiest part. As privileged landowner, it may be best for me to take as passive a role in that as possible, leaving it up to my guest community. Maybe I’ll be lucky and adopt an experienced IC which lost it’s lease elsewhere. Potential pillars to live by are harmony, sustainability, and liberty.
I may never get to realize this dream, but I want to share the ideas with folks who could. I like your idea of finding an old ranch. It might also be fruitful to look for distressed properties like a bankrupt resort, dude ranch or summer camp. Something that can accommodate a population and be easily re-purposed.
[...] thought about turning this property into a community but for various reasons have decided that is not the best approach for us. Instead, we have decided [...]
Everett, your feelings about wanting both autonomy and community match mine. There is a way to create an IC that allows both. Possibly subdividing the land, designating common areas such as the garden and perhaps a kitchen/communal structure?
My husband and I are already planning to create a sustainable homestead with some friends, and are interested in speaking with you about the possibilities presented by your land. Please write me back at your convenience. Thanks.
Hello Tess,
I have emailed you. Please let me know if you did not get the email. Subdividing the land and designating some common areas sounds like a great way to get things started. We are open to exploring all possibilities right now.
Regards,
Everett
Last weekend’s multi-generational supper provided some lively discussions about IC and cooperative land uses. Participant’s ages ranged from 14 to 62 ,w/very different viewpoints on self-governed lifestyles, property ownership and vestiture, and not surprisingly, short and long term commitments to location with and without monetary gain from and property investment value shifts. Interestingly the upshot is a now ongoing discussion on the construction of a commons area with 4-6 tiny homes located on 24 acres in Wisc with a theme of universal access. Completely unexpected turn of events. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and conversational exchanges. gg
Sounds to me, Everett, that what you want isn’t really IC, but investors to help you keep a private lifestyle on land you’ll no doubt still consider “yours”. Typical conservative American robber baronry, IMO. Your penchant for treating ‘liberty’ as a proper noun, but not ‘community’ (through capitalization) speaks volumes. Good luck with that.
John,
There is some truth to your statement, though the negative, judgmental way in which you chose to word it speaks volumes about why I don’t want to live in Community with a capital C.
RE: “Good luck with that”. Actually, it has turned out quite well since this post. So thanks.