Looking for Nova Scotians.

Dan-

You should be a writer...just brilliant...everything about the intentional community, homesteader, off-grid, whacked out people, expectations, meeting new crazies, difficulty of existence
I don't know exactly what genre you should write in but I can easily see a book or two from you.

I've tried to help my friend sandra at her 84 acre Virginia farm start an intentional community...for years...we actually had it going fairly well for about a year...dozen people there...old school buses, RVs, tents, tobacco drying sheds, sharecropper's shack, huge but unfinished cabin...had nutcases, alcoholics, druggies, abusers, mentally ill, do nothings, wiccans...you name it...many people lied about who they REALLY were, what they were really like...one guy was priceless...a befuddled Indiana Jones who wanted to prospect for gold ...had dredges, bought worthless land on eBay on the Cali-Mexi border...couldn't do East Coast USA so followed hippie chicks and Rainbow people and went west...following communities on the left coast, jobs at fracking sites in North Dakota...just quirky but lovable

Everybody slowly drifted away...big city lights...not enough Playstation or wi-fi or porno or horror flicks or too hot, too cold, too much work, no Starbucks

Man it is hard and you verbalize it better than I ever could

and yes, the system is crashing NOW...tired of warning people as I have been too early...several years too early...but it IS happening now

and when it does, thatz when they will come out of the woodwork, all suddenly ON BOARD and WANTING to be at your Bug Out Location...Safe Zone...all the above lunatics
where are the good people now?? Too busy surviving in place I guess...dealing with their schizophrenic son/daughter/mother/spouse...baggage and drama...everywhere

good luck...I'm in a small town in Virginia about 50 minutes to my friends farm and THAT is my Plan B

Would love to read an update from your efforts...or a YouTube...hopefully you didn't mistakenly invite a wiccan high priestess to your property and she turned you into a beanstalk on your Nova Scotia land....

I worry that 10 km from the sea/ocean/water...may not be enough...or the climate debate is all wrong and we are headed into a Little Ice Age as some renegade anti-government scientists say
instead of Global Warming which some say is just an Elitist plan to TAX us for BREATHING...you don't even know what to believe anymore

but YOU have a great handle on describing the world...and I love your mentors...James Howard Kunstler, Greer, Orlov...just the very people I read daily

we dont have long now...lots is happening and the SHTF ... we wont make it past this year now without massive change, dislocation...look at California...the drought now has finally woken up lots of people to the point housing values have just begun to PLUMMET...soon no electricity...no jobs...MILLIONS of Climate Refugees...No water soon in the whole Southwest USA

It HAS begun and you had your finger on the pulse

Please write more!!

mike

Thanks for posting Mike, although I think your comments were intended for Ross Raven and his attempts to start a intentional community.

Thanks Kyle and Anne!

I love the Annapolis Royal market too - we looked in that neck of the woods for the first year and tried to get a place up by Keji, but it didn't work out. We just spent the past month in Cape Breton, mostly in the Baddeck area and have fallen in love with it. The countryside is stunning and we've met so many lovely people! There's lots going on there too, but differently somehow, to the vibe on the lower mainland. It's farther north than I'd hoped to be, but that may turn out to be a good thing down the road, who knows? And I can always find me some microclimates!

I just gave a cursory glance on Viewpoint to the area you mentioned, Anne, and didn't see anything like what I'm after in my price range. So often you've got to be there on the ground to find those gems. If you still have any of the extras you mentioned once I've got my place, I'd sure be interested, especially in the black locust. Maybe I'll drop you a line in the meantime...

Mike you should be careful who you deride on public forums. You have no business making such judgemental comments on addictions, mental health or peoples spiritual practices. Keep your prejudices to yourself!

A non-delusional Wiccan priestess

Hi Folks!

I've been enjoying the thread here and seeing what others are up to and where, so I thought I'd chime in.

I'm in Bayswater, way out on the tip of the Aspotogan Peninsula....that piece of land that sits between St. Margaret's Bay and Mahone Bay. I've been here almost 3 years with my partner who has had the property for over 20 years.

My veggie garden is going into it's third season, but I only really turned my mind to permaculture last year. I took a 3-month apprenticeship in sacred plant medicine last summer and then ran around when I got home tincturing everything I could find.

I'm hoping to create lots of edible and medicinal permaculture plantings, with a bit of food forest here and there. Our 20 acres is over half boggy softwood forest so I'm looking into what I can grow there, and also how I might mimic the succession process to create some additional soil depth closer to the house. If anyone out there has been working with boggy woods I'd love to hear what you've been doing.

I've had my nose in the fabulous book "Farming the Woods" by Mudge & Gabriel for a month now and the possibilities are very exciting.

I'm hoping we'll get to hear back again from those in the thread who hadn't found their "place" yet.
Are you here yet? Where did you land?

Glad to know there are so many of us around!

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Bumping this post back,

Just putting a call out for areas/properties for sale in NS.
Me and my partner do a wildfood/herbal csa and have been living in a community on the south shore for a year and a bit but are now looking to get out own place. We both have connections with the valley/north mountain and are looking in that area. Trying to find a place and finally start getting set up. Just shooting a wild shot to see if anyone has any leads, ideally in a less than 50,000 price range or rent to own sorta way. Water is the most important part, stream, pond, lake or something. ?

The original post is pretty old, but I figured I would say hi, being in Nova Scotia too. I live in Cape Breton, near the Bras D'Or Lakes. looking forward to catching up on posts in this forum, as it seems there is a lot of great information out there.

This is a very old thread, but just wanted to give it a prod.  Im in NS and would love to interact with others currently living here and doing permaculture/closed loop approach to farming.  Thanks!

Hi Lizz and Cher Bear. Thanks for reigniting this thread!
What part of NS are you in, Lizz?

I just got back to the St Margaret's Bay area after a year and a half of looking after my mum in Calgary during Covid, and a year of traveling before that.

I'd love to know what everyone else following this thread is up to. Whether farms were found, etc.

I'm slowly reclaiming the hay field that is my former garden.... at least the soil is still awesome! My baby black walnut trees are still going and I'm hoping to plant a lot more trees and shrubs and forest medicinals in the coming years.

Since the earlier posts, there's now a pretty good (if small) Farmer's market in Hubbards, Chester and I think in Upper Tantallon as well.

Hope everyone has weathered the past year+ well.

Hi,

I just bought land in Hatchet Lake (currently trees) and I want to make a permie paradise. Do you know if any permaculture designers near halifax? Thanks!

Hi Megan,
Congrats on your purchase! I used to live nearby in Brookside.

You can check out Jen Stotland at Halifax Earth.
http://halifaxearth.ca/contact/

She's the only one I know of, but I'm sure there are others in the area.
Have fun!

hey there!

i am in framboise cb , homesteading..

right off the bat i can offer up a seed source - awesome family 100% their own - great seeds! chris is awesome and they seem well connected..

https://yonderhillfarm.ca/

this area is littered with long-abandoned old farms/homesteads... it's a shame really...

i live on a till plain - everything i grow is in raised beds, pots and greenhouses - i am fortunate to have a source for free horse manure for which i trade striped bass and trout ;-)

cheers!

Hi James!
Thanks so much for the seed link, they look great! I'm especially looking to try growing melons next year and I was looking for something that might already be adapted to our season. Thanks for posting!

Hello people of Nova Scotia. I just aqueired 60 acres on Cape Breton Island near St. Peters. I would love to start a permaculture institute or something similar. If anyone has a PDC but you don't have land maybe we could make a deal. Or an interest in using some land for permaculture maybe if you live in the city and you don't have land of your own. I would like to see improvements to the property in exchange for use. Improvements like swales fruit trees fences ponds clearing trees and tree thinning. So for example if you build some stone fence for your garden plots and the fence is worth $1000 I would lease you an acre for say 10 years. The land is treed with mostly younger trees. Some clearing can be done but mostly thinning and planting in the space between trees. I think I will have higher property tax if I clear the land and change the use to pure agriculture. I think silvopasture would be a good use in the long run. Let me know if anyone interested.

Hi All,

Kyle and Bill, my partner and I just moved to Bear River to build a silvopastural forest farm. We have a background in natural building and ecological systems design. Would love to connect if you're still in the area! Who else is down here in Western Nova Scotia?

https://oxherder.ca
Cheers!
Dominic

Oxherder Design-Build

James, I just ordered a bunch of their seeds - so excited!!

Hello everyone!

I am also from NS! I grew up in Halifax and have been living in the Valley for the past 3 or so years.

I hope more people will post here! I wanted to add that I also love Yonderhill Farm seeds! As well as "Seed and Scarecrow", "Whole Green Heart", and "Annapolis Seeds"!

I don't think it's currently running (because of covid if I remember) but there was a group of people teaching a PDC in North Mountain- called "North Mountain Permaculutre". Also, for other herby people, there is a festival every August in Greenman Botanicals Farm called "Medicine of the People". It's not permaculture focused, but many permaculture practitioners/lovers attend.

Hmm, what else.. I forget where it's located, but there's a farm in NS called "Mother Oak Permaculture", as well.