!! montana community seeking 20 people who are gardeners or want to be gardeners

No pot, drugs or smoking.

In the last month I have visited with a lot of people that want more.  I may be just "projecting" but I think what they want is to be part of what we are doing.  


I visited serveral communities and heard two distinct stories.  And I think all of the people there would love their lives more if they were here.

Group 1:  the founder-ish gardener

Group 2:  the gardeners that joined the community because they are avid gardeners, but don't do any (or very little) gardening


I get the impression that the group 1 people are kinda heartbroken.  Almost all of the gardening they do is a solo effort.  They want to do gardening with others. They want to harvest with others.  They want to preserve the harvest with others.  They want to transform the harvest into meals and eat those meals with others.  But the others are always busy, tired or not in the mood.  The others work and play off site.  And when they are home, they have other things they would like to do.  So the group 1 people do this stuff alone.  The others shop at grocery stores and eat at restaurants.  Shopping at grocery stores and eating at restaurants is fine, but the group 1 folks thought they were gonna live in a community of gardeners.  

Heartbreak.

I get the impression that the group 2 people are kinda heartbroken.  They wanna do that gardening stuff, but they have to earn money to pay rent, pay for the car, pay for insurance, pay for food, phones, restaurants, etc.  After all the work and other stuff, they just don't feel like it.  Plus the group 1 people have sooooo much more experience.  The group 2 people would be embarrassed if the group 1 people found out how little they really know.  They are kinda getting into a weird, dark funk about it all.  They thought that gardening is the core of who they really are, but when it comes right down to it, they are not gardening.  They are finding cheap excuses to not garden.  If they are not a gardener, who are they?  Time for mountains of introspection and meditation.

Heartbreak.


If the Group 1 people came here, I think they would be in love with our community.  Gardening with people.  Harvesting with people.  Preserving the harvest with people.  Eating meals with people.


If the Group 2 people came here, I think they would also be in love with our community.  Their days would be filled with gardening, harvesting, preserving the harvest and eating from the garden.  Months or years of really doing it.  No need for a job, car, rent, restaurants or any of that stuff.  



Group 3:  I met people that were working hard to save up money to buy a homestead, or to buy into community.  It sounds like they have $40k saved up so far.  They have very little experience, but once they have enough saved, they can make the leap and learn as they go.  They would like to have a solid $200k saved up to buy-in and then cover their expenses for a couple of years as they get up to speed and then get some homestead based income models going.

Group 4:  I met people that saved, bought-in, are struggling and about to bail.  It is harder than they thought and they are almost out of coin.


If the Group 3 people came here, I think they would be in love with our community.  They can come now!  They don't have to toil away at some worky-job for several more years.  After six months of doing it, they can choose if they want to buy into an acre here, or continue with how they started.  And they get hands on experience with a group rather than trying to do it on their own.

If the Group 4 people came here, I think they would also be in love with our community.  All that they wanted without the contant expense after expense after expense.  And the food is already here. A lot of the infrastructure already exists.  Far less lonely and it is all easier with a group.  The cost is zero.  The stress of forcing things to work is erased.



Come by for a visit and get the lay of the land by renting a cabin for a bit.  Participate in the bootcamp as much or as little as you like.

https://wheaton-labs.com/cabins/



Come join the bootcamp and dig in.  One week minimum, but stay as long as you like

https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp/




see our ic.org listing https://www.ic.org/directory/wheaton-labs

I like your synopsis, Paul! And I’ve been enjoying learning more about Wheaton Labs.

I’m Cata and our Clear Sky Retreat Center in southeastern British Columbia features conscious community, a 1-acre cold climate food forest, green buildings, and ecological restoration. Our solo meditation cabins are exquisite.

We figure all of this goodness is a natural expression of a healthy spiritual life, dedicated to the welfare of all beings. We call Clear Sky a “living lab” where we experiment with consciousness.

We love our daily community meditation practice.  It gives us the inner resources to help everything else work well / kick a*s in a good way.

Looking forward to meeting you in Sandpoint this afternoon.

Cata
clearskycenter.org

Well, I must say that I fall squarely in group 2 and semi-heartbroken. I do dabble in gardening, but don’t get the time I would like to actually dig deep up to my elbows. At the moment it’s maybe the second joint of my fingers. Sooooo much to learn. I am not in a position to be a boot this year (Life has a way of creating circumstances beyond our control), but have had it in the back of my head since I did the PDJ back in 2021. I finally have a small yard and need to configure for food growth vs decorative landscape. I figure, start small - so I planted raspberries and blackberries two years ago, this year they went gangbusters. Planted an apple tree and a cherry tree before winter came last year, and our apple tree has 5 apples hanging on for dear life. HA! - Getting my fingers dirty (as opposed to my feet wet!), a little at a time. So the heartbreak isn’t complete, but I keep pining. When my daughter graduates high school next summer, I will plan on taking time to come out to try my hand as a boot. :)

It was so nice seeing you yesterday in Sandpoint and meeting other permies.

Cata and Angela, thanks for coming to the sandpoint potluck!  It feels good to see so much interest!

Angela,

I think you have described another group

Group 5:  the empty nester

You have to stick to your current life.  Meet the obligations of your past self.  Go to work, pay the mortgage, take the kids to soccer practice ....     And dabble with a little gardening on a little urban lot with neighbors that are too close, and regulations about everything ...  

And then you have an empty nest.  

The house is way too big, and the gardening options are way too small.  And every day is brutally lonely.  

Heartbreak.


If the Group 5 people came here, I think they would also be in love with our community.  Their days would be filled with gardening, harvesting, preserving the harvest and eating from the garden.  Months or years of really doing it.  Without the size limitations or regulations.  With others that are also grooving on it. A life about building good things rather than a life of mortgages, bills, jobs, and constantly cleaning the dust bunnies from a huge house.

Paul, you are correct! Soon to be empty nester brings its own heartbreak, but opens up the road for so much possibility. I happily move to group 5!

Mony is this world getting harder and harder to earn, while other people getting so much that
she loose there drive to live, no challences anymore.

We need to change that if we want to get better world and more prosperity.

It was nice to see you & all the other Permies who could make it from my area during your potluck visit, Paul. Thanks again to all who made that possible! I am hoping to see about connecting with a few of those who were present, still, as I really want some more like minded community in my life... though I am busy with the frantic fall transitions, as many are I suppose.
Regardless, it helped to remind me of my appreciation for this forum. My life has taken many unexpected turns and pulled me away from much of the things I wanted to be doing (aside from some rather sporadic dabblings crammed into the daily hustle here and there; I liked what you had to say above about meeting the obligations of your past self, as that is about where I am, too), but I am grateful that a tiny bit more space is opening back up in my life as my kids get older, and that this knowledge-sharing community is still here waiting. And the SKIP program even seems like a really great way to lay out and further incentivise those pursuits! I also think I'd really like to find my way to Wheaton Labs at some point. It's felt like a bit of a distant pipe dream for a while now... but not for too long, I guess, in the grand scheme of things. It may still take a year or so and some figuring with logistics, but I think it might be on the near(er) horizon for me.

Thank you for posting,
Ai some how found you for me. i've been traveling outside the states for over a year, and getting the feeling that there's no place like home.. but i ain't got a home to go home to...

digging through your page ticks many boxes for me. i'm keeping this in mind for when i decide to return.

cheers
eddie

I am in camp one but live in Crystal, MN.  I do gardening but I am all alone.

Mark Scofield

Any spots for the bootcamp opening in November?

I just exited my corporate desk/computer job.  Over the last couple years I've been thinking of ways to have a more meaningful impactful life and actively do good for the world and people around me.  

I was drawn to permaculture / gardening videos by people like Jeff Lawton and others randomly online.
I'm reading Gaia's Garden right now.

The permaculture concepts appeal to me because:

1.  Humans were created or evolved to be working with our bodies actively.  It's good for us physically and mentally.  
2.  I need to do something that has meaning and purpose.  I would speculate others do too and maybe they don't know it.  Maybe they just feel like something is "missing".
3.  I'm into eating good food.  The first step to making a good dish is getting good ingredients.  I've only had food fresh from other people's garden a handful of times and it was amazing.
4.  Limit harmful chemicals.  I try to buy as good of food as I can in my city but it's covered in plastic... I wonder where all these microplastics are coming from.
5.  Simplifying and reducing consumption and "things/stuff" frees you mentally and financially.  If you are free from debtors and paying for un-needed "stuff" you are free to do what you want.
6.  I like learning and teaching others.  I don't know that much now as I'm only just beginning but from what I'm seeing there is so much to learn in this culture which is amazing.
7.  Community.  I thought about getting land somewhere but then you're out there somewhere by yourself which sounds lonely to me.  

Anyway, those are my thoughts.  I've been thinking about this stuff for a couple years now and it's been good to see other people here on these forums and some of the podcasts of people that have similar ideas.

Have a good one!!

John Halman wrote:Any spots for the bootcamp opening in November?

New Boots are welcome on Sunday, 2nd November.