Cody Smith

I am wondering if there is anyone out there living in an intentional community or off grid and what they do about health care.  I recently reviewed a few health plans and some would be free for me under the ACA (USA) but they sucked.  I didn't qualify for Medicaid although I probably will next year.  
I take prescription medicine for depression/anxiety and bipolar mood swings.  As of right now, this is not negotiable.  I have tried going off and it did not go well.  Maybe one day I will try again.  But how do we cover things that herbs cannot cover?  If you fall off a roof, get in a bad car accident, get maimed by a bull or dog, etc.  Cancer, diabetes, COPD.  Surely there are conditions and situations where home medicine and herbal remedies do not suffice and doctors and hospitals must come into play.  What are people out there doing for health care/health insurance?  

We discussed this at the ic I lived at shortly.  There was talk of a group plan that would be paid for with funds from the farmers market.  Idk how this stuff works, but I suppose if it helped, the owner of the ic could register as a business and for the sake of paperwork, purchase a group plan for the residents (employees).  Again, not sure how employer covered insurance works.  

You need a potentiator.  If he drinks grapefruit juice when taking them, it will increase the effects of them.  In my experience, an antihistamine works this way too.

Google opiate potentiators

I take Zoloft which helps with my social anxiety.  I know it's not an herb but my brain requires medicine.  Some of us are chemically different and not all anxiety or depression is derived from our subconscious.  Sometimes it's just too much or too little of a certain chemical.  Low serotonin can cause anxiety or social anxiety, for example, along with other things.  

I know of two herbs that help with social inhibition: kratom and kava.  Kratom is similar to an opiate.  In lower doses, it acts as a stimulant and will make you more talkative and social.  It can lead to physical dependence, though, if done long enough.  It isn't an opiate but it acts on the opiate receptors (I think).  It can also be mentally addictive because it feels good, like an opiate.  It comes in powder and can be capsulized.
Kava is similar to alcohol, minus the inebriation.  You make a tea out of it.  It comes in powder or capsules but most capsules are bunk.  It can cause nausea and it tastes horrible, leaving a numb feeling in your mouth.  Both are legal, though kratom is being banned in certain states and areas now.

The farmer and the maintenance man are really important.  Someone needs to know how to fix things when they're broken.  Someone also needs to know how to build things that need to be built.  

I think once food and infrastructure are well established and maintained and a community has been set up, health care professionals are important too.  I don't know the limits of ic health care- how much can a doctor or a nurse do at home?

A doctor or a nurse or even a veterinarian would help keep peole healthy, but in the long term, people will need health care that a doctor can't provide at home.  People will need medicines that herbs can't replace.  What happens when someone needs emergency surgery after an accident?  Someone breaks their leg and needs to have it adjusted.  Can a doctor do that at home?  Antibiotics and painkillers can be necessary at times.  A health insurance provider would be necessary in the long term, and this would mean spending a lot of money for people to be insured.  So someone that makes money for the community would be equally important.

In reality, every position can be argued to be equally important in the mosaic that is community.

I would go by family.  One day they'll be really old and quality time will be hard to come by.  They might need someone close by down the road and that could mean you moving closer to them in the future.  I'm choosing my farm location based on my family's location.  

I think all rules can be seen as 'obey or else'.  We have written rules and unwritten rules.  Nature has rules even.  Even if there are no written rules, there are the still the rules of human nature- self defense, fight or flight.  For example, if you try to take from me what is mine or hurt me, I will either fight back or run away, assuming I am a sane, physically capable person.  
I agree with the idea of rules, so I agree with the idea of obey or else.  I am inclined to argue that community cannot exist without rules.  Human nature is a broad term.  Different humans have different nature's and some are not good for communities- thieves, robbers, vandals.  Lazy people.  Rules help deal with these people, whether written or unwritten.  

You can spend a lot of money on a purebred registered LGD pup or working dog from proven lineage, or you can go for a young shelter dog.  We had one, a pit Shepherd mix.  He was a good guard dog, really friendly but watchful and he could run cattle back to the pen on pure instinct.  We never trained him, he was a younger shelter dog.  He attacked other dogs that came on the property but was good with humans and the cows.  All I'm saying is that the ideals of permaculture and conservation align more with teaching a shelter dog to work rather than spend a bunch of money on a purebred.  Our dog learned by watcning us chase the cattle in.  I think pits are a good choice if you get them young.  

I guess I'm going with rabbits because we can't have hens and my neighbors have reported us before, they don't like us.  Also have been reading a book on starting a mini farm and intensive gardening, which needs a lot of fertilizer, and rabbit manure is supposed to be the best

My plan is to get a buck and doe (found a breeder who is selling pedigrees for 75 each and it seems like my only option) and raise them on pellets at first.  I don't want to risk losing them but once they have a litter I'll start the weaners off without pellets and see how they do.  Maybe I'll raise half on pellets and half without and post the comparing results.  
Anyway I have to pay a 200 dollar nonrefundable let deposit to have them, plus about 150 for the actual rabbits, and another 150 for the cages and supplies

Wheres all the hippie girls at?  I have alternative visions for my near future and need an open-minded girl whos down with living in an intentional community/ecovillage.  Right now I rent and have a very small yard where I garden but no homestead as of yet.  One will be in the works soon though, somewhere in SW FL.  Looking for a partner in starting and running a self sufficient, permaculture, freegan, low impact based homestead.  I have big visions that include agrotourism and renting out spots to hippies and travelers on my land.  I was in an ic for a short.time and have a lot of ideas from my time there.  Currently in Fort Lauderdale FL.

I wish we were the same age you look cool asf and your place looks great looks like a lot of fun