I want our project to be successful, and that means taking a hard look at what can go wrong. In another discussion, I’ll want to talk about how to ensure that the failure state is a soft landing.

For this discussion, I’d like to try a little structure. List the reason why you think a community could fail. Then, give your best guess assessment on the likelihood of the risk on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being unlikely , 10 being most likely. Feel free to disagree with each other on the scale. I might put Godzilla at 1, and Punkin-Chinkin-Gone-Wrong at 7. You might put Covid-Rabies at 7 and Devastating-Yo-Mama-Jokes at 10.

Actually, make it 11. This scale goes to 11. 1 - 11.

OK. Some reasons for failure I can think of. Some of these overlap and are redundant. Feel free to contribute your own and evaluate each others. I’ll compile them and make some notes.

Reasons why it failed:

1. Poor relationships with the local Town government
2. Not enough income to sustain.
3. Unable to attract new members when vacancies open.
4. Unbalanced, age groups, putting too much of a burden on a younger generation.
5. Poor management, poor, entrenched management.
6. Unhealthy overfamiliar relationships.
7. Financial resentment.
8. Covering up something horrible.
9. Rush job. Poor design that drains resources.
10. Not enough kittens.
11. Not screening new members.
12. Not enough decision making put in writing.
13. Not sharing power, not delegating, not following up.
14. One person doing “everything”
15. That guy. You know the one.
16. No follow through on dealing with members who aren’t doing their part.
17. Underestimating cost or time spent.
18. Geographic isolation
19. Legal constraints
20. Infighting
21. Jealousy
22. Monocrop or single business failure.
23. Overemphasis on purity instead of pragmatism.
24. Social Isolation, becoming too weird for outsiders to grok.
25. Evolving into just another subdivision.
26. Diverging expectations.
27. Lack of specialists in member skillsets. Einsteins
28. Not enough generalists in the member skillsets. Ben Franklins.
29. “Lazyness” (overwhelmed)
30. “Karen.”
31. Charismatic Monorail Salesman.
32. Never tried, failed before it began.

Second part.

How would you prevent or mitigate these?

I’ve created a new subreddit for the project. Post here if you want invites to it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IntentionalCoFarmMass/s/bhapi66sw2

I lived at Arcosanti, an intentional community in northern Arizona. I currently live at Sage Garden Ecovillas, a micro community in middle Arizona. Both places, I rent for a very affordable cost and I put in a lot of sweat equity in both. I do not feel as though I am owed anything in terms of ownership...I like the low rent.

How many are worried about joining a community and putting in time and effort without a contact? Do you think if you made the leap of faith to start this way that the owner will be fair to you?

Must it be your land too? This complicates an organization when there are too many leaders?

FYI it took 4 years at SGE to "nest" in my apartment. And I debated internally about why I cared so much as to get angry at some decisions that were made.

TL;DR: My hope is to find a group that's willing to sign me onto a little chunk of their land (30-60 minutes or so from a mid-size town) in return for money/knowledge/help/comedy/etc.

I'm turning 50, early retired a couple of years ago from being a mechanical/electrical/computer engineer. I'm in good health physically and mentally. (I have my issues, but they're minor. I tend to just keep them to myself.) I communicate well, and have spent a lot of time learning how to reach consensus rather than create conflict. No kids, no wife, no ex-wives, no pets. No plans or desire for kids or romance, but I do want pets, heh.

Sold my house and I am living in a van now with solar, Starlink, composting toilet, etc. Been traveling around trying to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and realized I wanted to settle down on a little land that was "mine", but not alone if I can avoid it. (IE. not Ted Kaczynski or prepper style.) I'm a US citizen, in the USA right now, but I'm not opposed to leaving.

I have decent monetary resources, (Under $100k) enough for a large solar setup, a woodshop, and a tiny house completely off-grid. (Which I feel confident I could easily build with my own labor and knowledge.) But that doesn't feel like it's enough money to buy 1 acre someplace within 30-60 minutes or so of a mid-sized town and build it out as well.

Income? I'm working on a novel that people seem to love, I could do remote technical work, and I'm sure I could make things to sell. I figure even if I build my own place I have ten years before I need to make any supplemental income.

I like woodworking, metal casting, 3D printing, carving, gardening, cooking, raising rabbits, and ethical/sustainable fishing & hunting. Would love to mill my own lumber and sell crafted goods.

I'm an omnivore, but I prefer my food to have a small impact if I can manage it. (IE. meat rabbits are WAY better than cows.) I would love to totally live off-grid when it comes to food but I think that is both difficult and not necessary.

I'm secular/atheist. I like some teachings of Buddhism. I don't have a problem with anyone Else's religion, until it tells me how to live my life.

My political views? Well, I think it's "The rich vs. everyone else" rather than "Left vs. Right". I like equity in my systems, political and economic.

Thanks.

​

My wife and I are interested in starting an IC on a small farm in Massachusetts.

The vision is for a small cluster of houses and several small on site businesses that intermesh well with agritourism and farming.

We think there should be a total of 5 households . Not everyone needs or should be a farmer. We can handle the agriculture, and you find or create a place in the community.

Maybe you build a tavern, or blacksmith shop, or build guest cottages for BnB, or microbrew, or a CNC factory, or solarfarm.

This village will be multigenerational, so we want young and old. Move here, start your family, watch your kids and my grandkids pet baby goats together. Grow old here.

The cohousing model will be Radish/Danish. The village will legally recognized by the government as a farm with a farm worker camp, or possibly an Hoa.

The various business entities will be recognized as appropriate incorporations.

We’re set on Massachusetts. Its a safe blue state with climate change resilience, lots of nearby economic opportunity and great schools. If you’re a MAGA you will not be welcome.

Time estimate is 3 years. Possibly a lot less If we find a great property and work out caretaker planning.

​

Let us know if you’re interested.

​

​

We started the day with a visit to Lost Valley Educational Center (http://lostvalley.org/) in Dexter Oregon which is a permaculture school combined with an intentional community. We saw their class spaces, cabins, and communal kitchen and activity spaces. I had to bow out of the tour early, so I missed their larger outdoor spaces and a chance to meet more of the residents. I expect to be filled in by the others in followup discussions.

After this we made the long drive to Chico, skipping a planned stop along the way. This allowed me to get on a bus to Sacramento to continue the bus repair debacle, while everyone else continued the tour. They spent the night at Valley Oaks Village (http://www.chicocohousing.org/), then visited for a full day, then spent another night. I am eager to hear about this part of the trip. As usual, tales of the bus rescue will be in their own post later.

In my absence, the tour group visited Ananda Village (http://www.anandavillage.org/) in Nevada City California and Southside Park Cohousing (https://www.facebook.com/SouthsideParkCohousing) in Sacramento California. I caught back up with them after a long drive during a visit to Muir Commons (http://www.muircommons.org/) in Davis California. Muir Commons stands out for being part of a much larger development project which included apartments, homes, a school, greenways, etc. The city and developers said “we want something physically and conceptually in between the apartments and the single family homes”, and someone said “cohousing”, so it happened. I didn’t get much time to speak to them, arriving late and being tired, but they were nice folks with a nice common space that we narrowly missed community brunch at the next morning.

Having reunited the bus and the tour group, we spent the night in the bus. The final days of the tour will be in my next post, then the longer followup writings will begin.

Hi everyone, thanks for reading my vent. I live in a squat with four other people. We live somewhat communally in the sense that we share bills, organize things together etc. We've been there for over two years now so we're pretty established. However, over the last couple months all of my housemates have been dealing with mental illness. I understand that is hard for them and they are less able to contribute to the collective. However, there's still things that just need to be done like managing our communal finances, upkeep on the house (it was empty for 40 years before we started living there) and organizing house meetings. I have been doing all of this basically on my own for months now, on top of contributing the most money because I'm the only one with a stable income.

For the most part I dont mind, because I genuinely enjoy fixing up the house and stuff but it would be nice to have some help and some company while doing it.

The thing that really bothers me is that my housemates are always coming to me when things need fixing. And when there's any type of problem that they don't immediately know the solution it's my responsibility to figure shit out. They say all this stuff is my responsibility because I have the most privilege. And like sure, I have the privilege of a stable income, but I am by no means rich. And sure I am not struggling with my mental health right now, but they will not be there for me in the future.

I want this situation to be better. Mostly, I want to do more stuff together. It's more fun. I would also like my housemates to think more for themselves. Please tell me if you have suggestions for steps towards this. Thanks!

Hi all. I recently started looking into intentional communities, and I'm trying to get a better understanding of what people do daily at theirs, as well as how others decided it was a good fit for them. Thanks!

Hey everyone. I am not a full member, just in the process of joining myself. I'm posting this to hopefully connect to likeminded people who may be interested, as I know they're looking for people rn and I'd like to see it do well.

I've met up with the founder, Peter, a few times. He's seems like a nice chill guy, left-leaning and values nature/the environment, which is reflected in the community's focus. Peter and the rest of the founding members are burning man attendees and I guess would best be described as 'successful hippies', from what it seems to me. Most of them live elsewhere and it's only one or two people on or near the land right now.

We are a cooperative land stewardship group that is dedicated to preserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the land while creating a vibrant and inclusive community where we can grow, learn, live, play, and thrive together. As land stewards, we are responsible for the care and management of the land, including preserving natural resources, promoting sustainable practices, and protecting the environment. Our goal is to break down class barriers, support one another, and have a positive impact on our communities.

They have 200 acres with a river and trees. There are plans for a food forest, natural buildings, camping spots, etc. The community structure is centered around "Sociocracy", which is based around breaking into task focused groups with a consensus democracy rather than majority voting.

We use the governance model of sociocracy to make decisions as a group, which emphasizes collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement. In sociocracy, decision-making is decentralized and power is distributed among various circles within the organization. Each circle is responsible for a specific area of the organization's work and has the authority to make decisions within its scope of responsibility. Circles also have the ability to delegate decision-making to sub-circles or individuals as needed. Decisions in a sociocracy are made using a consent-based process, in which decisions are made only if there are no reasoned and articulate objections from members. This helps to ensure that all members are heard and that decisions reflect the will of the group as a whole.

Sociocracy is a theory of governance that seeks to create psychologically safe environments and productive organizations. It draws on the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in discussion and decision-making by people who have a shared goal or work process.

The cost for full membership (where you can vote on community topics) is flexible, around $200 a month. You can be a partial/interested member for free. There's a breakdown of membership and sociocracy and how it works on their website, this is just my cliff notes.

http://www.collectivespacesproject.com/

https://www.ic.org/directory/collective-spaces-project/

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read this, feel free to reach out to me or better yet Peter on the website!

I am very new to my research on intentional communities but am looking at a place for my brother, 30. He suffers from mental illness (bipolar) and is not able to live with my parents any more as he is unmedicated. He doesn’t really have his own source of income, that is why he is drawn to an intentional community or co-op style of living. He can work however but doesn’t have a degree or many skills, and is ok with income sharing. He is not particularly religious, and would prefer something more rural vs urban and is very antigovernment and vegan. We live in Southern California but at this point in time we don’t care where he moves as long as he finds a place that he can become a part of a community. Any suggestions or recommendations of where to start our search for him?

Are you disillusioned with conventional ways of living? Do you spend a lot of time thinking about your community? Talk with your friends on camera with free food and drinks of your choice!

BACKGROUND

Artist and organizer Emma Bergman is working on a documentary film project about the process of imagining alternative life structures. They are looking for groups of people who have considered (or even vaguely discussed) communal life-building to participate in a filmed conversation. What are we running away from and toward when thinking about non-traditional life paths? What shared values would unite your intentional community? Is “the commune” a political project or a personal one? 

THE ASK

We’re looking for groups of 5-10 people (households, friend groups, polycules, art collectives, tenant unions, etc.) who have talked about building some kind of communal life together. Participating groups don’t need to have done any research or have a plan in the works. You just have to have considered alternative life structures and be willing to go deeper into imagining those structures for a few hours. Think of “communal living” and “alternative structures” in the broadest possible terms– any major departure from the traditional nuclear family. There could be differing ideas within the group (that’s encouraged!) or you could just be dreaming at this point.

DETAILS

We’re asking for a 3-hour time commitment to access depth of conversation. The session will be self-guided using prompt conversation cards provided by the artist. Depending on where your group takes the prompts, it could feel like a casual dinner party or a heated debate. With your consent, the session will be filmed for the documentary. You can be credited by name or choose to remain anonymous.

To participate or for more information, please email emmasbergman95@gmail.com

We started the morning with breakfast and a longer tour at Trillium Hollow Cohousing Community (https://trilliumhollow.weebly.com/). I had to sit out most of the tour for work reasons, but everyone else got to see some of the individual units and meet more of the residents.

Next up we took a detour off our planned route to look at the Laurelwood Academy property in Gaston Oregon. This was one of my dream properties in my search to purchase somewhere to build a community three years ago. The buyers then got it for a steal, and don’t appear to have done much of anything with it. I met one of the previous residents and current neighbors and intend to follow up with him and try to track down the buyers to see if they would be interested in selling it.

We proceeded to Labishire Homestead Commons (http://labishire.weebly.com/) in Salem Oregon. Our host there runs a self sufficient homestead frequently populated with wwoofers and other travelers, with an eye toward finding more permanent residents to build a persistent community. We got to see his many garden and animal efforts, and shared a meal. We cooked mostly groceries we brought, and he contributed pasta and sauce and vegetables, fresh and canned from his gardens. He invited us to spend the night, so we did.

The next morning we made our way to CoHo Ecovillage (http://www.cohoecovillage.org/) in Corvallis Oregon for a very quick tour. Unfortunately due to work and school commitments only one of us got to take it, so I hope to learn more from them later.

Our next stop was at Alpha Farm Cooperative (https://www.ic.org/directory/alpha-farm/) in Deadwood Oregon. Their community of currently 10 people grows in the summer and shrinks in the winter as the farm needs dictate. We had a tour of their various private and common buildings and most of their food production spaces. The most surprising aspect here is that the property is owned by the corporation of which the longest term residents are members, controlled by them after the passing of the community’s founder. They vote in new members based on participation and contribution to the community, without a financial buy-in component, which stands out as relatively unique among non-secretive communities. Another interesting feature was their community business which is as a USPS rural route contractor; about half the residents are approved as drivers and take turns to deliver mail across the local towns each day. We got to meet about half of their current residents and had a long conversation with a few. We also saw some samples of their 50 years of recorded-on-paper meeting minutes, providing insight into the history of the community.

We ended up at a hotel in Eugene Oregon for the night, with a stop nearby planned for the morning.

every one of us to rise above complacency and apathy, to stand together as a unified force for good

Day Ten was a rest day. Flying to Portland put us two days ahead of schedule. Efforts to reschedule and confirm with the last dozen stops on the trip are underway, but this was too short notice to meet anyone on Sunday. We drove east from Portland toward Carson, where our next scheduled stop would be.

We stopped at Multnomah Falls (https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/crgnsa/recarea/?recid=30026) for a short steep hike. The view of the falls from the bottom is awe inspiring, the hike is tough but worth it, and the view from the top is even more exciting. Overall a fun quick stop in nature, with fewer people surrounding us the higher we got.

Our relaxing stop for the day and night was at Carson Hot Springs Resort (https://www.carsonresort.com/resort) where we spent a lot of time in the mineral hot pool and relaxing around the fire. There was also a bit of scouting for an adventure tomorrow, more to come on that that.

First thing in the morning we set out to explore a local natural hot spring. An hour of rocky scrambling later we were relaxing in a ~95F pool alongside some raging river rapids. More posts about that will come later, to update various online sources of info that are 3-15 years out of date.

After checking out of the hotel we had lunch nearby then made our way to the Flying Bobcat Honey Ranch (https://www.bee-folk.org/path-to-membership/index.php) for a tour and discussion about their goals. Currently it’s a small community with a few folks staying short term, but they have long term plans to grow and convert to cooperative ownership. They have many small agricultural spaces, from fruits to herbs to vegetables, growing in various styles including hügelkultur mounds, using grey water, etc. Their community operates a meadery as their business (https://www.melchemy.wine/) and we had a small tasting.

Unfortunately our planned stop in Portland proper was canceled due to the scheduling changes, so we headed for Beaverton next where we met some folks at Trillium Hollow Cohousing Community (https://trilliumhollow.weebly.com/) for a short tour and conversation about the history of their community. They built this cohousing community with a single condominium building of dozens of units 27 years ago, using the original and architecturally unique house on the property as their common house. They gave us a guest room in their common house and a kitchen to cook ourselves dinner, and we plan to have a longer tour and meet more of their residents in the morning.

I've been to more privately owned community land then land that is community owned. These privately owned lands are places community is coming to & from, being apart of the traveling community this feels very normal to me & while we're on these lands we're living intentionally & respecting the owners/lands wishes/values. Some of these lands that are privately owned are even consensus based & structured Egalitarian & intentional. The land I currently am on is my friend's house were we're staying & converting our bus into a home, nearly every week there is a new traveler here stopping by for a while, I feel like this is community.

I know this is not the end all & be all. how many times have privately owned lands been taken away from the vision of community is ridiculous. My partner was just a big part of creating a land trust that has one lot of land into it now & is definitely the dream.

But what are these places? What would you call them? Traveling way stations? Hubs? A guys land? I'm confused

We woke up at Water Birch Co-Op (https://www.ic.org/directory/marion-street/) and had breakfast, a tour, and some conversation about their history. Their home has a single owner, with plans to reorganize with co-ownership once all the legal entities are in place. We got to see what could be multiple discrete units with kitchens in the house, and some construction in progress.

In the middle of the day we visited Meow Wolf Denver, Convergence Station (https://meowwolf.com/visit/denver), which is a huge interactive art installation project.

Later we visited Nyland Cohousing (https://www.nylandcohousing.org/) who kindly rescheduled their community potluck dinner to coincide with our visit. We got to walk around and see their houses, garden spaces, communal areas, and their common house. Dinner with over a dozen residents involved a lot of great conversation about them and about us and intentional communities in general.

We spent the night at a hotel between Nyland and our next stop.

Our planned stop in Fort Collins CO ended up not working out, so we pivoted to visiting Polestar Village (https://www.polestarvillage.com/). Their community was displaced from Hawaii by lava damage to their common house and gardens there a few years ago. They have purchased land and prepared a design for a cohousing community, with more than a few of their prior residents and newcomers already on board. I look forward to seeing what they accomplish in the coming years.

After that we visited Nyland again for a longer conversation with a few residents. We got more insight into the long term communication and decision making processes there, and some community approaches to conflict and concern resolution.

Through both of these days, we discovered the bus would be out of commission indefinitely thanks to UPS losing a relatively unique replacement part. To keep the trip alive, we decided to adjust our travel plans. We’re skipping a few scheduled stops in Montana and Washington in order to cut down on long drives with no stops. As I write this, we have just flown from Denver to Portland and checked into a hotel east of the city. We will pick the trip itinerary back up in Carson Washington on Sunday or Monday, with a dozen stops still ahead of us before we reach San Francisco in about a week.

Hi All!

We are kicking off the start of Northeast Corridor Cohousing and are currently looking for Visionary Founding Members as well as hoping to get everyone that is interested on a mailing list. Please check out our website that goes into detail about our shared values, the anticipated process, estimated timeline, and our project goals.

Our Vision: To develop a cohousing community located on the northeast corridor between NYC and Philadelphia, within a 20 minute trip from a train station.

https://necorridorcohousing.org/

In community, the people at NE Corridor Cohousing :)

Today we drove into Denver and dropped the bus off at a mechanic who specializes in this rare make, with parts en route. We switched to a rental car again for the day.

Our first stop was at Highline Crossing Cohousing Community (http://www.highlinecrossing.org/). They are a townhome HOA with shared pedestrian ways, gardens, outdoor social spaces, and a common house with kitchen and dining and recreational amenities. We had dinner with a handful of their residents and met a couple more, with conversation about their history and organization. My favorite part of their property is the direct connection to a 70 mile long canal trail for biking and walking.

Our second stop was at Water Birch Co-Op (https://www.ic.org/directory/marion-street/). We met a few residents then got settled in to spend the night. Our further interactions with them will come in the morning, with breakfast, a tour of the house, and a conversation with more of the residents.

Tomorrow we see Meow Wolf and one intentional community, and hopefully get the bus back!

Ongoing bus saga will, once again, be covered in another post or series. I’m combining two posts to catch up and because I am lacking insight into a couple of stops and legs of the trip.

The trip participants traveling by car spent the night outside Chicago then started Day Five with coffee and a tour at Jesus People Chicago (https://jesuspeoplechicago.org/) which is a nonprofit that houses the homeless and runs a coffee shop in addition to their many other projects. I hope to get more info about this visit from the trip participants later.

They proceeded to a second stop at Arizmendi Ecovillage (http://arizmendiecovillage.com) where they had a tour, conversation, and spent the night. Again, I hope to learn more later from the folks who were there.

On Day Six we reunited in St Louis, returning the rental car and all traveling by bus again. After breakfast we shared a trip to City Museum (https://citymuseum.org/), one of my bucket list stops on this trip. This place combines some actual museum exhibits (plants, animals, history, etc) with the most impressive collection of climbable and otherwise physically interactive exhibits I have ever seen in one place. A dozen different different 5% slices of the building would fit right in at Burning Man. At least a thousand feet of slides and a mile of crawl/climb/shimmy tunnels of stone and steel and wood with a dozen different styles. More branches and choices and chances to get lost than any maze I’ve explored, let alone so densely packed in 3D. Oh, and no maps (until you find the one at the top of the space). I strongly recommend a visit for anyone with children, and any adventurous adults as well.

I am writing this as we drive west from St Louis from the afternoon into the evening of Day Six. I failed to find a community to host us for a visit between here and Denver, so we have most of a day of driving and sight seeing and sleep ahead of us before our whirlwind tour of central Colorado communities starts tomorrow afternoon.

I recognize that regenerative land stewardship is often a component of community visions and practice, but I'm wondering who here has experience or keen interest in projects centering this work as primary focus and even potentially an economic basis for sustainable coexistence? I've seen a few models like https://www.ecosystemrestorationcommunities.org that are gaining traction. Seems promising, but with some unique challenges as well - often resulting in more temporary or semi-nomadic formats. Wonder what others have to say - and if anyone wants to pursue something like this in southern Cascadia (US) Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion soon let's discuss!

I’ve been getting tired of living alone (high costs, loneliness…), but whenever I think about coliving, I remember the nightmare situations I experienced in my early 20s and I feel discouraged. I’ve been researching some alternatives and I came across this new concept called conscious coliving, where besides coliving, you have this strong emphasis on growth as an individual and as a community (you and the people you live with).

This has caught my attention since as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been getting more interested in mindfulness and inner growth. I’ve been doing a lot of research and found this website: consciouscoliving.org
It seems like it has a lot of cool material on the subject, Has anyone heard of this concept before? And if yes, could you share your thoughts/experiences on how ‘Conscious Coliving’ has been present for you? It gives me hope but I am somewhat skeptical. Much appreciated.

Today the trip participants and bus parted ways for at least two days. The bus is still running fine, but needs repair on a wheel hub and I’ll have them address a few less critical concerns at the same time. Further details of the comedy of errors surrounding that situation will come in longer posts outside this series once that situation is resolved.

We rented a car near Pittsburgh PA and drove to our next stop, Maker House (https://www.mkr.house/). This single house was built specifically to accommodate maker endeavors and a small coliving community. On our tour we saw their common spaces including a large office, living and dining area, gym and rec rooms, and a large garage workshop housing what would be an impressive small makerspace in its own right. Their community moved a couple of times before this house was built, and they focus on long term residence with space for hosting occasional events and pursuing frequent maker projects. Unique among our stops so far, they accept new residents based on unanimous consent of the current residents.

I stayed in Pittsburgh to oversee further efforts on the bus, while the other folks took the rental car ahead to Chicago. They are a few hours behind schedule and will have to skip one of the planned stops there, but I anticipate reports of success otherwise from them tomorrow. If the bus repairs go quickly I hope to catch up with them at planned stops in St Louis or Kansas City on Wednesday. Otherwise I’ll be driving a long straight leg to Colorado to meet them between Thursday and Saturday.

Hello, all! Winter has been long, dark, and cold. The ground is still frozen but there is a change in the air, and the light grows longer day by day.

The chickens are laying more eggs than I can manage! The Kingdom Bike Shop down the road is planning to re-open their cafe in April and they will be taking all the eggs that the Single Ladies (as I call the flock) can produce, but meanwhile they are already laying at least a dozen every day! Many days are still very cold, so the eggs freeze and crack before I can collect them. Eliza and Pippa, the sweet pups, enjoy searching out hidden nests and stealing the eggs, and though I know I will eventually regret letting them learn to hunt eggs, right now I am glad they are taking in the abundance. I have been selling and also giving away dozens of eggs.

Lillibet and Stella, the mama sheep that I bought last spring, are both now at the butcher. They were reverently and humanely slaughtered the other day, Lilli because she was getting quite old and not thriving, and Stella because her constant escapist behaviors would be learned by the youngsters. This leaves us with Lillibet's ram, Little Guy, and Stella's twin ewes, Skadi and Sigrid, all born here on the homestead last season. I'm hoping the girls are already pregnant, but if they are not yet it surely won't be long.

Stella and Lillibet are providing me, neighbors, and the food shelf with plenty of mutton for stews and shepherds pie. I have their pelts and have dried them in preparation for professional curing. I hope to be able to gift a sheepskin to each of my grown kiddos for their first babies. No, no one is expecting yet, but both kids are in stable, loving relationships and it won't be too long (I hope!)

So I have just about survived my first full winter here in the land. My wood stove has been well up to the task of keeping us warm. The winter storms brought several very old wild apple trees down which will make for perfect wood for next year. There are still a couple more winter storms to come, I expect. March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

I cherish time by myself and need a lot of it. That said, I am very much hoping that this was my only winter out here completely alone. It is a lot to manage by myself, for one, and just as important is that I would love to be able to share the experience of living on this land with other folks who might fall in love with it as I have.

As the light changes and the snow begins to melt, I see buds swelling on the trees. I look forward to the perennials coming back, from bee balm to the asparagus that were planted last year, and I fervently hope that most of the fruit trees I planted in the food forest orchard survived the winter.

The ducks did not. They never liked the shelter that I built for them and one day I came home from work to find them all....gone. It was surely the coyotes that I hear some nights, I found feathers and some blood on the snow in the cedar woods just beyond the duck pond. I feel guilt for not having been able to better protect them, and I really loved their presence and will be getting more for the upcoming season.

I'd like to invite your questions and your visits, let me know what you would like to discuss and when/if you are ready to come and see the lay of the land.

-Heather

This morning the flat tire was defeated. After a very slow drive through Valley Forge for the second of three times, the helpful folks at Norristown Tire Center made short work of the problem, mounting the spare tire on the rim quickly. The other trip participants stayed at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills (http://www.camphillkimberton.org/) for breakfast and further conversation with our host there. I picked them up on my way past and we proceeded further west. Our first stop of the day canceled due to a COVID outbreak in their community, fortunately giving us enough time to resolve the tire problem without falling behind schedule.

We moved on toward Hundredfold Farm Cohousing Community (http://www.hundredfoldfarm.org/) for our second stop of the day. Unfortunately, along the way, disaster struck again. One of the wheel hubs failed, flattening the bearings and winding up red hot before I could pull over to diagnose it. Another casualty of the missed maintenance cycle due to the house fire eating all the time I had planned to spend on trip prep in the last two weeks. I sent the other participants ahead in a cab while I started working the problem. They made it there about an hour late and spent the evening on tour and conversation and a meal.

I called a mobile mechanic to come while I hitchhiked to the nearest open hardware store to buy some chain and other hardware. The mechanic opened up the hub, extracted the now-flat bearings, and unmounted the wheel. When I got back in a cab we coordinated to jack the hub up so I could chain it up in a driveable position. Then I got underway to Hundredfold Farm. I met half the community there, had a bit of dinner, shared a recap of my adventure and heard about what they had been doing with the tour group. Then we parted ways, accidentally leaving them more bread from other communities than we intended, and taking more snacks from them for the road.

I called a few truck stops with 24 hour service along the way to Pittsburgh and one said they could help us. 90 minutes later we made it there, just to find out they wouldn’t do any of the work we needed. As I write this, we are going to sleep in the bus. We are two hours behind schedule now, since we were supposed to sleep in Pittsburgh tonight. Again “fortunately”, my friend who was going to host us had to cancel for family reasons. Tomorrow morning, very early, I’ll start the remaining two hours of drive to Pittsburgh, then search for a mechanic that can do at least some of the needed work. I may stay with the bus while the others take a cab to our Pittsburg community stop, or I may go with them. The mechanic will have about 4 hours until our scheduled departure, or longer if we use one of the alternate plans we’ve been brainstorming. More on that tomorrow. Good night.

This morning we woke up in the guest rooms at Ganas (http://www.ganas.org/). Two of us participated in their most-mornings planning meeting while the other two had coffee, did laundry, got some work done, etc. The meeting involved a lot of status updates from various members and groups, and some discussions toward decision making. We departed around 10AM and crossed out of New York for the last time on this trip.

Our first stop today was at Bryn Gweled Homesteads (http://www.bryngweled.org/), a community of dozens of homes on separate parcels, with the land owned by the community and leased to residents who own the houses. We saw their community center and walked around seeing many of their houses, in a variety of architectural styles. Some of the houses have small amounts of livestock and some other aspects of living in connection to nature, which is a common theme across the community that is embodied differently by each of the residents. We talked a lot about their history and governance model and trials in dealing with the local government.

Our second stop was at Altair EcoVillage (http://www.altairecovillage.org/) which hasn't been built yet. We met the founders, saw their model of the community, and walked around on their land for a tour in our imaginations. "Over here imagine there's a two story townhouse" etc. They are building a 55+ community with a focus on sustainable living in modern construction housing. We talked mostly about their planning process, buying and re-zoning the land, etc.

Our third and final stop of the day was at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills (http://www.camphillkimberton.org/), a huge community that is part of the larger Camphill Village meta community. They have many communally owned buildings with many elder and mentally challenged residents, couples that manage the households, and younger "co-worker" residents who assist with all aspects of the community. They operate a small dairy farm and have a variety of workshops including a bakery, weavery, pottery, fiber arts, and others. We split up to each have dinner with a different household, which seemed to produce a bunch of different experiences that we'll be sharing with each other in the coming day(s). My group asked me a lot of questions about myself and my trip, and I learned about their history as a househole and with the larger community.

Unfortunately on arrival at our final stop one of the bus tires was punctured. Due to the location and timing we are currently semi-stranded and waiting for either roadside assistance to become available in the morning or for me to hazard a 15 mile drive with a flat tire (fortunately on a dually axle) to a shop also in the morning. I have a spare tire but not a spare wheel (which the bus has 3 different types of anyway), which will hopefully increase our odds of getting help. We're about to go to sleep in the bus, and that decision will come in the morning after breakfast with one of the residents here who was shepherding our visit. Wish us luck!

PS: "Fortunately", our first planned stop tomorrow canceled due to a COVID outbreak in their house, so we have some wiggle room on timing that will hopefully accommodate one or more tire repair efforts in the morning.

Thanks to the recent house fire at Estate of Mind, I couldn’t spend the week before the trip on preparations as I had originally planned. Due mostly to that, Thursday night and Friday morning were a hectic rush of just the most high priority steps before we could hit the road. The bus seats got vacuumed and bleach wiped instead of gone over with the upholstery cleaner. We brought coolers instead of a chest freezer. I had to fuel up at a local station rather than on the road, spending an extra $30. I didn’t get to make a briefing for the trip participants describing what to expect or who we were meeting at each stop. I also failed to coordinate with the first few people joining the trip, to confirm who was arriving when, so it was a mild surprise that two folks arrived on Thursday night (as they had said they would, days and weeks earlier).

Despite all of that, we still departed just one hour behind schedule, an hour of delay I had already baked into the plan. With two great copilots the drive from Estate of Mind in Whitinsville MA to the Fellowship Community in Chestnut Ridge NY went pretty smoothly and relatively quickly. The bus is most efficient around 50-60MPH but we mostly kept up with traffic doing 70-75 for this leg of the trip in order to catch up on lost time.

We were greeted by a few members of the Fellowship Community and had a short tour before sitting down for lunch. They told us a bit about their community and its history. I won’t know which parts are most unique until the end of the tour, but what stood out to me was their focus on intergenerational living, employing younger members of the community to provide necessary services to everyone and the older members in need of care, and a refreshingly forthright attitude and acknowledgement of death. The lunch was great, the same being served to dozens of other residents and their families and other visitors in their dining hall. The dining hall, along with many other core amenities, are located in a central building which also houses their most mobility-impaired members. Other members live in houses and lodges spread across part of their 80 acres. In addition to the living facilities and amenities, they also have separate communal studios for pottery, weaving, baking, etc. The folks in the bakery sent us away with a heavy bag of fresh baked breads, savory and sweet. We haven’t dug into them yet, but look forward to doing so tomorrow. Our tour ended with a drive around the farm occupying the rest of their acreage, with cows and sheep and a small dairy operation.

Our second stop was planned at the Lakeland Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Wayne NJ which is a church with residents and an artist-in-residence program. Unfortunately there as a miscommunication regarding our arrival time and the person that was to meet us, so we did not manage to catch them in person. We saw the facility and walked around outside, including their cozy outdoor spaces and an impressive walled sunken garden area that I suspect will be beautiful in the spring.

Missing out on the second stop allowed us to take a stop for groceries and other supplies. We picked up some food for the next few days and I got a chest freezer to put in the bus. With us driving multiple legs every day it should be able to keep cold through the stops and obviate our need to buy ice for coolers. I also got some tape to reattach a few fiberglass panels that detached from the bus when we encountered too steep of a grade on a driveway earlier in the day.

Our final stop of the day was at Ganas in Staten Island NY. They welcomed us to their regular communal dinner which was an amazing spread with a dozen options including a salad bar, chicken, pasta, vegetables, bread, etc. We chatted over dinner then segued into their regularly scheduled visitor night. We spent about an hour on Q&A in both directions. Their community owns 8 houses mostly adjacent to each other, with private space in most of them and some common amenities spread out, and has a 44 year history of developing their various intentional community experiments. I hope to find time to write more about all that we’ve learned, a bit later in the trip. As I write this, I am in one of the two guest rooms we’ll be sharing tonight. I have just showered, two of our trip participants have started doing their laundry, and the fourth is off watching TV with a regularly scheduled social group here. I’ve been sleeping early recently, so I’ll probably nod off soon (it’s only 9PM) and get relatively early to get started on final planning and communication for tomorrow’s stops as well as earlier steps of planning for some of the final stops on the trip about two weeks from now that I didn’t get to in advance.

Overall I’d say the first day of the trip was pretty awesome. Fellowship Community and Ganas have set an exceptionally high bar for interactivity and hospitality and put our trip off to a great start. I am looking forward to what we discover next.