Any families looking to start a homestead with other families?

[FreeRangeChicks]

DH and I have been talking about homesteading for a while now.  We want to start a small group- maybe 3 or 4 families that want to work together to live off the grid.  We are experienced gardeners and can grow pretty much anything.  We live in the northeast...but are willing to move anywhere to start a 'simple life'. 

[JamieCatheryn]

There are several communities up and running of course, like The Farm and Dancing Rabbit. It would be quite an undertaking to make communal living work smoothly for long, another possibility you can look into is going in together on a plot of land and splitting it up, being neighbors who own adjoining land working in community. Check on whether the places you consider starting up require building permits and other various laws and regulations.

[Sparkle*Mama]

Have you checked out Intentional Communities?  They are all over the place.  They are all different.  http://www.ic.org/

You can find all sorts of lifestyles so really read and find what you are looking for.  There are aspects to IC that intrigue me, but not sure we could do it.  But thought I would pass it on.... 

[sapientia]

I'm beginning to consider it-I grew up farming and loved it. I'm starting to look into the Farm (TN) or something similar.

[DTmama1]

I am hoping to start one in the next few years, either in Chicago or Seattle, so more urban homesteading.  Right now just doing my research and networking and will start more after we decide for sure where to settle down next year.

[Chicky2]

Wanting someone like that to move in next to us (only 3 acres, though, which one could do alot with, though)...

[Moon Shadow]

Where are you planning on doing this?  I've been wishing for a forming group.  I agree, you can start up at Dancing Rabbit, and they have the people there to help guide and lead the group into a long time endeavor.

[50bells]

We are interested in making a little "village" with 4 or 5 families.  We'd like to jointly buy land (or ideally an old farmstead!) so that we could get more/better than any of us could afford on our own, and have enough that each family can have their own space, home, and privacy as they want.  We'd like to have a community space and share meals on some basis and share resources where it's workable (1 or 2 lawnmowers/rototillers/tractors, etc, rather than everyone having to have their own, maybe shared laundry facilities? etc).  We'd LOVE to do a communal farm, and maybe have a Market Garden.  Would love to be part of raising animals--sheep (I knit and do other fiber crafts, so would love to have sheep to do the whole thing with--sheep to shawl!) chickens, maybe a cow and horses, but not be totally responsible for them by ourselves.

I long for community and closeness, and want to find people to really connect with, closely, and comfortably and deeply.  I want to work side by side with my friends, creating together and enjoying the fruits of our labors.  I want to explore and expand a natural life, connected to the land, and unencumbered by a lot of the static of the "typical American" life.

I would love to just talk with people on here about this whole idea.  Are people already doing this?  What are the ups and downs of it?  How do we get it started? Maybe just talking about it will help inspire me and my family to take the steps to begin that part of our journey!

[MamaLeslie]

I am all over this idea. But I am in Canada, have no resources, have debt, am a single mother, and have no idea how to even begin finding my way to something like this.

I hope you all find a way to create the community you dream of. It's a hard thing to execute and keep functional, and requires everyone to be 100% on board, but also almost 100% flexible.

I hope to read posts from you all about how you have found a way, and are making it work.

Good luck!

[mntnmom]

I love the idea of a *loose* community. I miss having the support of family/friends, and would love my kids to have more exposure to elderly friends, single moms etc. in a "village" context. We're probably going to move to Maine.
But we are still a few years away from anything like that, as we have prior commitments .

[JamieCatheryn]

I'd be very interested in a thing like that, where each member family maintained a lot of autonomy, their own land, their own pursuits, but shared tools, shared work sometimes, shared some meals and celebrations, and you got to sort of pick your closest neighbors. In theory you can just do most of that by getting to know your neighbors where ever you are but it rarely seems to work that way. I think a great way to get the land for a thing like that would be a farm auction, you know how they auction off farm lots of 30 to 200 acres sometimes. We'll be moving to some piece of land and building in 2.5 to 3.5 years ourselves, looks like we'll aim for Northwestern Virginia, the climate is perfect for me there.

[kchorne914]

JamieCatheryn,

Please keep me posted on your plans.  We are very interested in a similar endeavor, as are friends, but we've had difficulty establishing a location because of people's various commitments.  We're in VA and would like to stay here!

Best wishes!

[Eresh]

We're also in VA ... DC area... And will be here for several years but we have several friends living out beyond Harrisonburg and hope to wind up out there some day.

[sahmof2girls]

mamaleslie have you looked into coadobe???  I did when I was a single mama, and it seems pretty great.

OP I think its a wonderful idea as long as you don't have a romantasized idea about it, ya know...  Hope you find some like minded families!!

[seawitch]

We're going to be moving soon, don't know where yet, but it would be great if we could buy a property near others of like mind. We have some challenges in that my husband is disabled and, shall we say, GRUMPY. He is home all the time but does not help with anything in or out of the house. I would love to have other hands to share work with. It probably would work best if we all had our own very defined living spaces (i.e. separate houses even if on the same property).

I don't want to go into an existing community though. The husband isn't flexible enough for that, and honestly I'm not much of a joiner either.

[branditopolis]

Originally Posted by MamaLeslie 

I am all over this idea. But I am in Canada, have no resources, have debt, am a single mother, and have no idea how to even begin finding my way to something like this.

I hope you all find a way to create the community you dream of. It's a hard thing to execute and keep functional, and requires everyone to be 100% on board, but also almost 100% flexible.

I hope to read posts from you all about how you have found a way, and are making it work.

Good luck!

[MamaLeslie]

I haven't; I don't think I've ever heard of them, in fact...

Off to google ;o) Thanks!

Originally Posted by sahmof2girls 

mamaleslie have you looked into coadobe???  I did when I was a single mama, and it seems pretty great.

OP I think its a wonderful idea as long as you don't have a romantasized idea about it, ya know...  Hope you find some like minded families!!

[seawitch]

Coabode is awesome and I'm behind it all the way.

FWIW for all those who say "I'm a single mother with no means" etc. - I am perfectly confident that there's someone out there if you look hard enough. I want to homestead with a single mother in the future if that's possible. I know when I was by myself and looking into home sharing etc. that's what I wanted to do - team up with another mom with kiddos in my situation and live a homesteading dream. I mean it's not that I specifically want to get a single mother and no one else, but I think that would be ideal - it's hard enough for women to exist and raise their kids and it's easier to do when there's more hands around.

One of the things I will be looking at when purchasing a home in the near future is exactly that - should anything happen to DH, I would totally want some extra pairs of hands around, so I will want to have some sort of, I dunno, in-law aparment or something like that in the house, if we can swing it. I know that there ARE some ladies out there who would love nothing more than to live that sort of lifestyle with their kids as well and would like to live rent-free in exchange for working cooperatively on a homestead. It's just a matter of finding the right people that you mesh with. It's a bit creepy to live with strangers, I guess, but I guess if you find someone you can trust it can be a very useful arrangement for everyone involved.

[MamaLeslie]

Coabode doesn't seem to have many members in Canada- I couldn't find anyone in any of my area searches; I searched near Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria and Halifax with large distance ranges... Ah well, I will have to keep trying different avenues. Kijiji and Craigslist seem pretty futile, but you never know!

[branditopolis]

I joined coadobe but i didn't really see anyone i thought would be a good fit.  maybe in time...