Have you ever considered being a part of a self sufficient community? Do you and your family want to get out of the city and back to nature? We are considering starting a self sufficient community the Ozarks. We are looking for couples who are like minded and serious, race creed sexual dispostion not important. What is important is the want and need to work with the land. This is not a Y2K community. If you have any interest please send email to pasq77@hotmail.com slackers need not apply.

-- Tony Pasqualini (pasq77@hotmail.com), October 12, 1999

Answers

Okay, you have piqued my interest!! Is it couples only? Could you please e-mail me with more info? jerreleene@hotmail.com

-- sissyQ (jerreleene@hotmail.com), October 26, 1999.

My family and I live on the Arkansas side of the ozarks on 40 acres. We are considerning starting a self sustaining "eco-village" both singles, couples and families would be welcome. A large example of what we would try to emulate can be found at http://www.eastwind.org/. Currently we have 6 goats. One house and 2 out buildings, the property has an organic garden 3 springs and of the 40 acres only 5 are cleared so it is surrounded by woods. I currently work tuesday thru friday in Tulsa Ok. If you have any other questions please feel free to email us. I really can't say how we would go about setting all this up we are just in the starting out stages now.

Thanks

-- Tony Pasqualini (pasq77@hotmail.com), October 26, 1999.

I hope you keep this thread open rather than resorting to private e-mail messages because it is a really interesting one. I have land in Virginia and would like to have some compatible co-owners myself. I am in a high-development area and could sell my land for big bucks to a subdivision but want to preserve it as much as possible as I can in its present state.

I did visit a large number of "intentional communities" in several states and, in fact, went to TMEN's Eco-Village for some of their seminars etc. (well, I went to work for TMEN and got fired as did many others, and stuck around for some of the wonderful workshops they had on cordwood building and gardening etc.) At one time I lived in a commune. I am too creative and independent a person to be happy in a commune and you might be, too, so a good thing to consider would be subdividing your land and selling parcels to like-minded people so you would have enough money to do what you want to do on the part you retain. this possibility is rife with danger, I can tell you from personal experience and observation. TMEN had a really great article on a lady who bought land, subdivided it, sold part, and used the money to build an adobe home, so some people have done what you are thinking about doing and made a success of it! And some communes and communites are very successful.

Anyway, please keep this thread open or open another as you progress toward articulating and then carrying out actions on your vision!

-- Elizabeth Petofi (tengri@cstone.net), March 30, 2000.

I've known quite a few people over the years who have set up communal living situations. All but two of them have ended up with a lot of hard feelings due to conflicts when someone wants to or needs to move on. Make SURE you have worked out how this will be accomplished before you get multiple owners on a piece of land. There are several ways to do this; all have advantages and disadvantages.

If anyone has any insight on this, I'm sure there is a lot of interest here. Some friends and I are considering a communal retirement home, to be called "Purple Haze Retirement Center". It's in the "wouldn't it be cool" stage right now, and we haven't done any real planning at this poing. (We all have a few years yet before retirement)

joj

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), March 30, 2000.

Wow! I'm very interested! My family has been homesteading for many, many years and we have lots of experience (no newcomers here-we know the work involved). We have been trying to sell out and move to the Ozarks for a couple of years now. So far we've had no takers for our homestead. Nobody wants a wood cook stove, wood heat, no central a/c, no dishwasher, large garden, etc., etc. It all equals too much work and not enough modern conveniences. Please list more information about your idea. It would be great to live among like-minded people who support what you do instead of people who think you're weird and are always discouraging you. I don't know if we will ever get a taker for this place but I would like to dream. Your idea is what dreams are made of. Please keep this thread open and keep posting your plans as you come up with them. Thanks.

-- Yesteryear Cottage (oberg@watervalley.net), March 30, 2000.

I wanted to add some more to all this, we still want to set up a eco-community. We are trying to do it slowly making contacts and visiting some existing groups. I appreciatte all the comments and and suggestions. We will try and keep everything up to date as we find out more.

thanks.......

-- Tony (pasq77@hotmail.com), April 04, 2000.

Sounds like this could be an interesting thread. We know a couple groups of people doing this kind of thing, everything from doing it for 20+ years to thinking hard about it, and a couple of other situations in between.

"jumpoffjoe", where are you located?

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), April 04, 2000.

This could be an interesting thread.

You might also look at co-housing as an added feature. This might increase the number of folks interested in you project. One thought is including some financially-established folks where their input is compensated by care and assistance. I believe the Danish are big on co-housing (or another Scandanavian (sp?) country). I know Whole_Earth did some articles on it in the past couple of years.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), April 04, 2000.

Jim, I'm located in the Jumpoff Joe Creek valley, in Southwest Oregon.

How about you?

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), April 04, 2000.

Sounds interesting. We plan on moving back that way eventually. E- mail me with you ideas or updates, if you would.

-- Soni Pitts (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 02, 2000.

Getting up in years, now. The purple haze was brought up again at the party last night. We need to consider any ideas on how to structure such a thing..Anyone have any more thoughts?

-- joj (jump@off.c), January 01, 2002.