Essene IC beginning in Central Texas

We are acquiring 5 acres in central Texas about an hour west of Austin, in Hill Country near Fredericksburg. Easy access off a main thoroughfare, flat buildable terrain (next to a clear year-round spring fed creek - part of the land is on a 100 year flood zone, if you had interest in building a bahay kubo nipa hut style dwelling?), good amount of trees, decent soil, well water TBD on site, grid electric on site, but alternatives welcomed.

I am reaching out to this group to see if there are any members actively looking for an Essene-oriented community to be a part of. YHWH Judeo-Christian ethics. sElf-sufficient survivalist individuals living in community in a teach-learn environment. Primarily plant-based, however as the Essenes may have done in ancient times, we will supplement with responsible humane animal husbandry (bee, goat, fowl). Learn about the Essene path here:
http://treeoflifecenterus.com/?s=essene

We hope to erect a central community meeting hall sooner than later where if you are a teacher or healer you can use to host classes. For now, TX property taxes, insurance and other bills are still a very real thing and this is not a free hand-out situation. We're open to discussing how to handle the economics and barter aspect of sharing the land in long-term harmony. If you have experience to share, please do. This must be win-win 4 everyone involved. Tiny homes and trailers might find haven. We have talked about opening the space on the highway frontage to organic and health-oriented food trucks. And there could be a very strong opportunity for a supplement-health food oriented roadside stand. (There is a marketplace for it... nearest Natural Grocers is 30 minutes away). This all requires professional business-minded people - not just dreamers. Dreamers are of course welcomed, but be prepared to educate yourself in worldly ways :-)

Please tell me more about your vision, interest, skills, tools and actual feasibility/timeline of joining.
We also run the Essene School group on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/EsseneSchool

Does anyone have experience with successful 'sharecropping' or tenant farmers type scenarios?

Anand Sahaja wrote:Does anyone have experience with successful 'sharecropping' or tenant farmers type scenarios?

Hey neighbor(ish),

Look around on the forum and there have been discussions of such things. Here is one example I quickly found with a tenant farmer situation. I know I have read other posts about it here as well, so keep looking for more.

As you are looking to form a religious oriented community, you may find a fellow Permies member's podcast enlightening. In his episode 7 and in his latest episode he interviews people who have successfully been a part of religious intentional communities. The podcast leans Catholic, but the principles in Judeo-Christian community building are the same. (In fact, one of the communities he discusses started out as Baptist, not even Catholic) Forming community is a delicate thing... and I think having religious values as a base makes it more complicated, so definitely learn from others when you can.

Another thing you may be interested in looking into for inspiration or perhaps to find other like minded people to converse with is Homestead Heritage. They're a Christian intentional community near Waco. I'm not sure how they're operating since Covid, but normally they welcome visitors. It's a bit of a drive, but the trip could be handled in one day if you absolutely could not stay the night.

Best of luck on your endeavors.

Thank you Rebecca. I will follow up with everything you posted. listening to the podcast now. The Modern-Essene movement is not a formal "religious" movement per se, it's more of a dietary and ethical movement, but we can certainly learn from other religious groups. i WILL see if we can reach out to the Waco community!
Thank you again for your noes and links.

Anand Sahaja wrote:Thank you Rebecca. I will follow up with everything you posted. listening to the podcast now. The Modern-Essene movement is not a formal "religious" movement per se, it's more of a dietary and ethical movement, but we can certainly learn from other religious groups. i WILL see if we can reach out to the Waco community!
Thank you again for your noes and links.

Oh! Very good to know about the movement not being particularly religious. Thanks for letting me know :)

Rebecca Blake wrote:

Anand Sahaja wrote:Thank you Rebecca. I will follow up with everything you posted. listening to the podcast now. The Modern-Essene movement is not a formal "religious" movement per se, it's more of a dietary and ethical movement, but we can certainly learn from other religious groups. i WILL see if we can reach out to the Waco community!
Thank you again for your noes and links.

Oh! Very good to know about the movement not being particularly religious. Thanks for letting me know :)

Hi Neighbor,

I'd love to learn what you have done in this area to save me some future headaches!
Can I PM you Rebecca?

Thanks,

S Lee wrote: Hi Neighbor,

I'd love to learn what you have done in this area to save me some future headaches!
Can I PM you Rebecca?

Thanks,

Of course you can PM me!

Hello Anand,

I don't consider myself religious but I do eat vegetarian and aim to live life in an earth-steward way. I am currently building an off-grid tiny house (Houston-ish area) and am scouting for potential homesites. I had always assumed I'd have to get my own piece of unrestricted land and do it on my own, although community is something I'm open to exploring.

How is the internet out there? I'm expecting to gain full-time remote employment very soon, so a good internet connection is a must for me.

I have beginner's experience with chickens, goats, solar power systems, and gardening. Would love to build efficient long-term permaculture systems for a healthy forest to call home.

I estimate I'd be ready to move within the year, however my build project has gone way slower than expected so far, so it could be next year.

Looking forward to hear more and see if we're a good fit.

hi alicia,

apologies for taking so long to respond. exciting news about your tiny house. how is it going?

currently we do not have wired internet. i use a standard 'nomad' setup with a zte phone hotspot and the visible network. and with that i have been able to get my work done and even stream movies for entertainment. i think a more formal internet setup would be even better of course.

we do not have any plans to be overtly "religious," just "higher power" aligned.

please keep in touch!

Hi Anand! Thank you for the reply!

My tiny house progress has slowed down even more...

Tbh, I'm beginning to second-guess my decision about tiny house life altogether, most likely I will not be able to join you all :\

How are things going?

We are developing the plans for the land. got some financing together and will likely start building the main house sooner than later. Working on getting more infrastructure in place. there is a 2nd well on the property we are trying to get going... this coming week will be busy with phone calls and lining up bids for various things... We are also working on getting the orchard started, prepping the growing yard and getting ready to install a greenhouse hopefully by late spring.

P.S.
We have a website up and running...

http://www.seedoftexas.com