Cimarron Layne

Well, after driving a couple thousand miles to see the TN property we thought was going to be home for the next decade or two, it turned out not to be what the pictures had indicated.  The amount of excavation work needed to convert forest to ag land would have set us back years, so I cancelled the purchase contract and got my deposit back.

I'm currently visiting my brother at his place in KY and he's keeping me busy with a number of projects he has saved up for me to help him with.  I'm looking for land with some existing infrastructure in TN and KY and have four parcels to look at over the next week or so.  I'll keep you posted.

I have to agree with Make a Mix Cookery.  It has everything I ever needed to make a mix for.
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Mix-Cookery-Make-Mixes/dp/0895860074

Hi, all, Cimarron here.

I'm working with a team of founders to develop a Permaculture community in south-central TN.  A little flatter than east TN and southwest VA where I farmed the last six years.  We are looking for experienced and serious wannbe homesteaders to share the land, labor, and expenses to get it productive in short order.

If this is of interest to any of you, please take a look at my post at: https://permies.com/t/373675/Permaculture-Community-Forming-Acres-South

My contact info is in the ic.org post in my signature below.

I'm a Senior homesteader. Waited until retirement to start my first homestead on 30 acres in SW Virginia. After nearly six years of trying to start a liberty-minded community there and finding a lot of interested people but practically none with the capital, skills, or drive that could advance the development, I became frustrated and sold the farm last summer and spent several months driving from VA to NV looking at existing eco-communities in hopes of finding one that met my criteria. None did. Either they were too socialist, too small, too steep, too dry, not permaculture oriented, had too many restrictions, membership cost more than the value they offered, or had some other negative attribute.

So I went back to the drawing board to design a community that I can love. Libertarian, Voluntaryist, Agoran, Permacultural/Regenerative Ag, in a temperate climate (zone 6-7), and with as few rules and restrictions as possible. A place where members can be free to live as they choose so long as they respect the rights of other members to do the same. No bosses or dictators but each person voluntarily working with other members to develop the community's infrastructure and resources. On any given project, the most skilled person will supervise the team, e.g., if we are building a solar array, an electrician should be in charge, not an herbalist. Likewise, the herbalist might be the best team leader for a hoophouse or food forest project. Community manager and other leaders would be elected periodically from the best qualified members, not necessarily the largest investors.

I currently have a 175-acre property under contract in south-central TN and am looking for prospective members and/or investors. I'm in immediate need of at least one investor (could be more) with $45K available to cover half of the 20% down payment and closing costs. I have the other half plus sufficient funds for initial site work, and I have applied for financing on the 80% balance. Closing is set for end of June.  I'll be moving there 6/8/26 to start prep work on temporary housing, and I have a few prospects who will move later in the summer and fall to help with the initial labor. If any folks on this forum are interested in joining us, please send PM with your email address, your skills, goals and dreams, and I'll send full details.

I'm a type 1, lonely gardener.  I've been reading posts in this forum for years, and I love what you are doing up there at Wheaton Labs.  If you were in TN or some other temperate climate, I'd have been there years ago, but the older I get, the less I like cold weather, so one of the least likely states for me to relocate to is Montana, beautiful though it is.  Sold my farm in southwest VA because it was too hard to maintain it alone, and I'm seeking a community to join in VA, TN, or possibly KY.  That area seems to be the best climate for me.  Not too cold, not too hot; not too dry or too humid; just about right year round.

Like a lot of people on this thread, I waited until retirement to purchase my first homestead property.  After retiring in Reno, NV, in 2016 (at 70), I went back to Maine where I grew up.  It was a great state for a kid who loved being in the woods, hunting, fishing, canoeing, mountain climbing, and lots of other outdoor activities year round.  Guess I thought I could relive my youth.  I bought a cheap, run-down old house about 25 miles from Mt. Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail that winds 2,190 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia, which I had hiked in my younger days.

The plan was to fix and flip the house to generate some more cash to put down on a small farm in that area, but after two years of shoveling snow from October to May and realizing how short the growing season was there, I decided I'd prefer a more temperate climate.  After three trips to southern Appalachia (VA,NC,TN, KY), I found a 30-acre former horse farm that had been fallow for a while that suited my purpose.  It was on the south-facing side of a long ridge, and though a little steeper than I wanted, I thought it would do.  I quickly sold the Maine house to a couple who were going to finish the rehab, and I moved bag and baggage to southwest Virginia.  I was 73 and in great shape physically.

I hadn't considered myself middle-aged until I hit 65, and then only because I figured I probably wouldn't live past 130, so I could admit I was probably past the middle of my life.  I spent the next six months rehabbing the gutted trailer that had been left on the property, fixed the barn roof, and a couple of sheds, built a Justin Rhodes ChickShaw and bought enough electric mesh fencing to protect a couple of paddocks for pastured chickens from whatever predators might be in the area, and set up several raised beds for veggie gardening.  My intention was to form a small eco-community based on Permaculture.  Maybe 5 or 6 families with small homes scattered around the perimeter of the cleared portion of the farm or tucked into the woods around it with shared gardens, barn, greenhouse, and pastures for dairy cows, goats, pigs, and poultry.

I had invited a younger family that I'd met on the Internet to join me, figuring they'd help with the labor as well as putting in a few thousand toward the land purchase, but they turned out to be rather useless and brought with them a lot of drama and Covid-19 which I quickly caught.  That knocked the wind out of me for a few weeks, but I recovered and got back to work.  They never did get to work, so after a year or so, I borrowed enough money to buy them out and sent them packing.

I managed to maintain the farm on my own for about six months, but realized I couldn't develop it the way I wanted without some help, so I started advertising for another family.  The second family was the exact opposite of the first.  They had no money to invest, but they brought a 5th wheel RV to live in, lots of tools and a mini-excavator that proved quite useful, and they didn't need constant supervision or motivation.  If they saw something needed doing, they just pitched in and did it.  A real Godsend.

I was especially grateful for them after I hit 75 and started falling apart.  Over the next couple of years I had shingles, cataracts, kidney stones, a bad infection from a rescue dog's bite, and various injuries from falling off a ladder.  Each time, they drove me to the hospital, picked me up when I was discharged, and took over my chores while I was incapacitated.  I don't know what I would have done if I'd been alone on the farm with all those animals to be fed and cared for.  Though I had a couple of great neighbors, they'd have been hard-pressed to keep up with their own work and mine too.

But the second family never committed to the idea of starting a permaculture eco-community, and I knew they would eventually leave when they found a place of their own, and they were seriously looking for one.  So, in 2025 I put the farm up for sale and started looking for an established community to join or a smaller place that I could maintain alone.  A couple of horsewomen from New Hampshire fell in love with the 8-stall horse barn and the view across the valley and bought it lock-stock-and-barrel, including the tractor and implements, tools, and equipment.  The second family stayed on with them for a while but moved on soon after.

I drove about the country looking at eco-communities and small farms, but didn't find any that met my criteria.  Made it all the way back to Reno, NV, but found the prices out there had tripled since I left in 2016, so there was nothing affordable west of the Rockies, and long-term drought had made it even more difficult to homestead.  I was about to head south to Arizona and New Mexico when the house in Maine came back into my hands.  The buyers had defaulted on their loan and I had to take it back.  I tried hiring a local guy to clean it up and get it ready for resale, but he wasn't doing the job I was paying him for, so I drove 3,220 miles back to Maine and took over the project myself.

The house had been left in a deplorable state.  It took several weeks just to bag up and haul all the trash they'd left behind to the dump.  I spent the winter repairing damaged walls, kicked in doors, broken windows, etc. and put it up for sale again.  Meanwhile I've researched about every intentional community in VA/TN/KY area where I would like to live.  Very few of them are set up for elders who want to age in place.  They are mostly looking for younger people with muscles that haven't atrophied yet who want to work in agriculture and/or build their own homes with help from other members.

I just want a garden to putter in and a woodworking shop where I can make furniture to sell or trade.  I no longer have the energy, agility, balance, or strength to start all over again building a farm from raw land or a community from scratch.  I've found a few places to explore as soon as this house sells, but the dream of working my own garden until I'm 100 is fading fast.  I may end up in a senior independent living facility someplace playing Bingo once a week for entertainment.  I only hope they have a sunny spot for a couple of tall raised beds I can tend.

I found this thread interesting.  Didn't know there were so many options for bread pans.  I've used the same 8x4 steel pans for over 40 years, and they are great for banana bread and other quick breads, but when I started making my own sourdough breads, I wanted a bigger size pan.  So, I got online and found a restaurant supply store that carried 9x5 and sandwich loaf pans 12x5.  These make slices that are perfect for sandwiches and more slices than I can get from my standard pans, so the loaf lasts longer.  But whenever I find over-ripe bananas on sale, I still like my 8x4's for banana bread, date & nut bread, zucchini bread, etc.

Anne, a PMA is a Private Membership Association, also known as a Mutual Benefit Association as used by labor unions for their members.  It's a non-statutory business entity based on a contract among the members to assure privacy in the conduct of their operations.  In a PMA, members can jointly own assets like livestock, gardens, etc. and can sell or trade goods and services amongst themselves without being subject to sales taxes, regulations, or other outside interference.  Makes it possible to sell or exchange raw milk, meat, and such that are often restricted by local, state, or federal governments for sale to the general public.   PMAs are becoming popular with Agorist communities.

Hi, Larry,
Yep, it was beautiful.  On the south side of a ridge that got plenty of sunlight and a great view across the valley, but it was too steep and needed expensive terracing to make it farmable.  The hike up to the barn 2 to 5 times a day kept me in good shape physically but was getting to be a drag.  Too much work to maintain it alone, and couldn't attract skilled people to join me, so I gave up and sold it.  Now I want to find something similar only flatter and closer to a larger town or city where I can market what I grow or an existing community where I can share the land, labor, and expenses.  I've communicated with a few IC's in the Louisa, VA, area in south central VA, so I may be heading that way when I leave Maine (soon I hope).  If you'd like to stay in touch, you can email me at farm@corylayne.com.