Article about conservative intentional community

The article is in "Backwoods Home" october 2009 and starts on page 29.  By Claire Wolfe.

Near the beginning she says:

Back in the post-60s, my scruffy hippie contemporaries fled the cities to pursue starry-eyed dreams of communes. But not me.  They gathered in bucolic settings and posted names at the gate like "Lothlorian" or "Rainbow Village."  But not me. They set about living off the land, sharing responsibilities, and producing children called Sunshine and Majick and Peace.  But definitely not me.

I was all for the linving-in-the-country part.  But I knew, as sure as the devil made politicians, that every commune would consist of two kinds of people:  those who left the toilets filthy and those who got stuck cleaning them.  Which also equates to those who lazed vs. those who sowed, reaped, and sweated.  Since I had no doubt I'd be in the second category, I steered clear.

The article goes on to talk about recent events leading to a financial pickle and moving to an area where a bunch of like minded folks share some land (and maybe some housing?) 

It then goes on about how they figured out that it was cheaper and easier to share meals.  And tools.  And then there was some conflict - but was resolved.  And .... the article is three pages long and basically they end up with an IC, but approaching it from the opposite direction.  And the author appears to really like it!

A really interesting read!

Hum....

Is it a 'full' IC they ended up with or some kind of mutant (pardon my sci fi is showing)?

~Jami

Well, how would you define "full IC"?  I think that sharing meals daily is a big step for most IC's.

I checked out the website, apparently that article isn't yet available online. I hope it will be. I haven't heard of this magazine before. It looks good enough that I plan on subscribing.

It's an excellent mag.  Be prepared - it has a flavor that some here might find distasteful.  For example, there is usually ten pages or so dedicated to gun stuff.

Awesome.

paul wheaton wrote:
Well, how would you define "full IC"?  I think that sharing meals daily is a big step for most IC's.

Yes, that's how I would define a full IC - formalized sharing of chores/duties.  Just typing it gives me the heebie jeebies.  But to me there are so many ways one could define IC or IN (intentional neighborhood - informal sharing) - picking one's neighbors, thereby stacking the deck in one's favor, promoting and encouraging one's own permaculture lifestyle.

The main problem I have with most of the IC's I've come across is the Eastern religion spirituality component that seems to be woven into their idea of permaculture.

~Jami