So my wife an I have been discussing how to put our beliefs in to action for a while. We've decided the best we can do is give people a place to live. We own 40 acres of fertile land in the Appalachian mountains which can easily support more then just the two of us. We're extending an invitation to our comrades here who need or want a place to live. Right now we have one cabin on the property but if some one with the know how joins there is plenty of space to build more. There is also huge amounts of space to pitch tents long term.
Obviously we wouldn't be charging rent but would expect people to contribute as much as their able either monetarily or in labor to keep the place running. We wouldn't be providing anything other then a place to live, however we have a large garden, a green house, fruit trees, a bee hive, and chickens and ducks for eggs all of witch we would be happy to share. And the more hands working it the more there would be for everyone. We both have disabilities so we're very sympathetic to those who can't contribute as much, all we ask is an honest effort.
I'd like to hear the communities thoughts on this and will answer any questions.
This is really cool, but do you have experience sharing land with someone? Are you used to managing and interacting with groups of people? What will you do if one of the people on your land hurts themselves and says you're responsible, or starts making meth or something? Maybe think about starting small with just one or two folks at first - folks you know and trust.
Also, as much as I love my chapos, trying to connect with people over a board like this is dangerous. It would be way, way better if you could do this kind of thing with people in your own community that you've met and interacted with. If anybody from this board reaches out to you treat them with suspicion because who knows who they are and what they want.
All good points, we are planing to start small see how it goes before we open it to more people. As for suspicion I have plenty of that so every one would have to be vetted. We have offered it to friends and have one that lives with us several months out of the year. Most of the rest of our friends are good people but don't really understand the philosophy behind what we're doing, also they all have kids and don't want to move.
It's awesome you're doing this. I'd advise you to reach out to the Acorn Community to get tips on how to run a successful collective agrarian community and issues to avoid.
Have you thought about some sort of collective production your commune might do to support itself financially? If that's something you all would like to do, you can find info on forming a cooperative at Democracy at Work's website
Thanks for the info, I'll definitely look into those two sites.
Edit: That acorn community is awesome, very similar to what we want to do.
We're working on exactly how, but I do have the skill set that would allow me to do quite a bit of verification on my own.
My wife will be taking the bar in Feb so she'll be totally qualified to handle all the legal shit, and she's already done a fair amount of work looking into it. And don't worry she's not an evil lawyer, she got into law to be a public defender and help the local community on a pro bono basis.
Could someone hypothetically build a 20x12 lofted tiny house with a septic tank on your property? Could they build a small pen for a couple pigs and a chicken coop?
Yes to the building. The chicken coop would be unnecessary as I'm already working on building a rather large one. However we do have a problem with raising animals for meat so no to the pigs unless they were pets. There are however plenty of deer and turkey to hunt.
Okay cool! The pigs would be just to have a couple big goofy animal friends to love on, lol. Are you in the northern or southern states? Asking because of winter, lol.
Central, but it does get well below freezing. Most of the past two weeks have been in the low 20s.
We own 3,152 acres of land in Langley, Virginia which can easily support more then just the two of us.
I would hope I've earned enough cred on this site that no one honestly thinks this is an op but there is of course no way to prove that.
Yeah like I said no way to prove I'm legit, if some one can think of something other than offering a blood sacrifice to Marx let me know.
generally speaking the only way to know for sure someone isnt fbi is if you find them at work, or at school, or in a club, and they happen to also share left wing views, and you become friends with them over a year or so. it cant be a place that is for leftists.
One year is typically a pretty good benchmark, but secrets can be kept for years, even sometimes from people who believe an agent is their life partner.
One thing that's probably a good rule is to check how much they've invested in it. If someone puts a substantial amount of time and effort into a project (or a collateral "loyalty fund" in the case of a direct action), they are probably honest about what they say they are. There's only so much that one small individual (or couple) could be bribed, and if that's less than the use value that could be gained, the judgment should be pretty clear.
It's unlikely that intelligence agencies would put lots of resources into building anticapitalist projects that they wouldn't exercise clear control over. Because of course, if things get out of hand, they've just directly worked against themselves, and can't pull the plug. On a related note, anyone who stresses the need for "central command" is probably a fed.
sure, but those instances, the police went to explicitly leftist events and found people to date
You caught me, this is really an evil CIA plan to help people in need escape the horrors of capitalism.
Best of luck comrades. I've always wanted to live a self-sustained life or in a commie intentional community - perhaps one day years from now I'll be able to visit your thriving commune
If you’re still interested in doing this by the springtime, I would follow up with you. In any case, I’d recommend you do some more deep research on the subject, consider how you might want to go about organizing such a system, make sure you guys really feel comfortable with such a commitment.
We've been kicking this idea around for a few years, decided to pull the trigger now because it seems like the need has never been greater. More research is always good but at this point we're fairly committed.
In that case, I’ll do some research. Maybe I can make myself useful for your project in a few months. In any case, I hope only the best with your endeavor, I think it’s incredible that you and your wife are willing to go for it, very admirable!
I was planning on going to appalachia soon, need a place to work on my college
Our goal is more to help people have a place to live where they can escape some of the hellish parts of capitalism.
Edit: if we end up with people looking to do community out reach that's great but we're deep in Trump county so it would be an up hill battle.
Edit 2: realized I don't actually know what you mean by community outreach. we would like to be able to do a farm share type program so if that's what you mean then yes that's totally part of goal.
I'd be interested... I've always wanted to do something like this and I currently have no major prospects other than moving in with my parents or getting a bs office job i hate again....
Assuming this os legit its the exact sort of thing I would like to do at some point in my life as well.
