Forming: in northern NM -or- Colorado: Homestead Cooperative. Seeking interested families

FRIENDS-

ANYone interested in being part of the discussion, possibly joining us in the formation of a HOMESTEAD COOPERATIVE living in northern NM or CO.

PLANS are to be ready to move in summer 2018
STRUCTURE to be designed much like co-housing. Each family will own their own parcel and build on it their own home. will be lots of community property

on COMMUNITY PROPERTY:  extensive food permaculature gardens, livestock and play land!
for sharing in the work, fun and reaping.
aiming for as much sustainable energy and lifestyle as possible. including passive solar, solar power and likely rain catchment/grey water useage...

AT THE MOMENT: we are two families. one, a single man and the other a single woman with twin toddlers. we are very interested in having other families with children to play/work together.

                       we are currently looking at properties in the range of 12-50 acres. anticipating each family lot to be bet 2-5 acres.

SEEKING : families who want to share communal space joyfully, and want to own their own parcel and build their own place.
we might be open to mobile home living in the beginning and soon we will have small outbuildings for the temporary live-work trade persons.

ARE YOU INTERESTED at all? if so, right now there is no formal application process as we have not written our formal description and invitation. Rather, at this stage, we are inviting anyone whose interest is piqued - to write and email and have a little dialogue and see if it grows from there.

once we do have the land and a clearer description of the structure of this co-housing , we will post again too.

HOPE to hear from you!
happy days - -

Hello


We are actually in the process of doing the exact same thing in the same area plus NV, accept on a much larger scale and sooner time frame. We are looking at 4-5 families and 80-150 acres. I would love to chat to see if our group could mesh and maybe coexist.

hey thanks for the note, explanation and asking to chat

i'd love to

can we find a way to move over to texting to schedule an actual phone time?

would that be ok?

blessings,
keren

Hi,
I am in the same boat and moving relatively quickly as well. I always favor collaboration. Is there a good way to chat via phone/email?

I am a father of a wonderful 7yr old. It's just us two, has been so since she was a month old. We moved from Albuquerque to the South Valley, to find a more rural setting, 3 yrs ago. I already trade maintenance work and operating the water system on a 17 acre campus, for room and board, and work as a multi trade handyman and gardener on the side for cash, but we dont have the option to raise livestock and that is something I want to do . I have few financial assets, but lots of skill and know how. We are looking for community, self sustainabity, and permanence. If you think we may fit in, I would love to chat.

Hi !  Another colorado family with much to contribute looking for community and sustainable living practices to put into ACTION. Hardworking couple with twin girls
I'll check back but please contact me with further information on this project!
kristavogt@hotmail.com

Early 40's married couple..ex military and I am a retired nurse..no children but excellent survival and homemaking skills..please respond if interested

I'm interested in this! I've been looking for like minded people to share a life with and to learn and grow positively. I have lots of skills, organic gardening, horticultural, construction, etc. Email me to chat more: jennysue101@hotmail.com  I have a 10 year old girl and a pet. the area of Northern NM and Southern CO really interest me. thanks, Jennifer

Hey my name is Jonathan I live in Nederland, CO currently. I am married with one son and an old mutt named Odin. I have been watching this post develop over the past year and am really interested in touching base with you and learning more about current development, needs, hopes desires. etc... I am a carpenter and have loads of tools and a 16ft scamper camper RV. I have lived in the mountains of Colorado pretty much my whole life and have years of valuable experience dealing with the weather and climate in general. I have also been gardening (or attempting to) at elevation 8528ft for the last four year and have gained some valuable experience and methods for crop production in high altitude, low moisture climates. I am very interested in this if you would e-mail me JonathanBaumhover@gmail.com i would love to swap phone #'s and possibly chat. Hope all is well, thanks.

I am interested in this project. Have a variety of skills (including organic gardening) and love low on the foodchain. Please contact me at Beautifulquitters.org so we can talk more ;=)....joanne

Hello My name is Charles,

I Would Also Like To Join & Help Create A Sustainable Community In Colorado. I Can Assist In The Following Ways:
Capital Fundraising, Site Planning & Structure Design, Utility Distribution. Sanitary Waste Management & Water Recollection, Storm Water Irrigation System Design.
Regenerative Agricultural Designer: Permaculture & Native Planting Systems.
Landscape & Hardscape Design: Transportation, Logistics & Renewable Energy Design. Walkways, Roadways, Food Forests, Community Gardens.

I Also Have A Degree In Culinary Arts & Love To Teach.

Please Reach Me At Goodrecycling@gmail.com

Thank You For All That You Do.

I looked up communities forming in New Mexico and your information came up.  I am a self-employed massage therapist who has a desire to live simply, cooperatively with others.
Had my own "retreat-like" farm for 26 years which I sold 2 years ago.  I would bring skills of organic gardening (had a fertile, healthy garden in 4 seasons in North Carolina), and general
handy-ness.  Did quite a bit of the work in renovating the 100 year old farm house I lived in. Have other skills that would add to community life.  I am interested in what you are doing and wondering if you have found land.  And how
would I converse with someone via phone?  Thank you!

My name is Kerrie. I have 7 children. 23 to 8 yrs of age. I see all the benefit others have to offer except for what would benefit children. I have that covered. From teaching basic skills & basic education. I will state I am also a Christian woman & share my faith & truth well. I do not force any believe on anyone. But with that said I do bible studies along with arts & crafts. My oldest son is a marine & has been married for over 3 yrs. My oldest daughter graduated high school a yr early got married gave me a grandson & started nursing n college. The middle boy just graduated this yr. He is 17 and may or may not go with me. He is a 2 yr practiced survivalist. I tend a garden & chickens. Would love to learn live stock. I am more then interested in a community setting. I would start one myself however I have been blessed with a humbled life & parents that drank all our assets away & I have been raising children since I was a child & couldn't catch a big enough break to b blessed with such land. With that I would have to relocate & its hard to find this kinda thing Anyone is open to email me on this topic kerriepearce36@gmail.com

I and the rest of us need a follow up to this post. All respondents need to know now how to proceed so please, the original writer needs to come back and connect to us so we know what to do at this point. Any others who contributed here can also talk about how to contact them as well in case the original writer does not come back. Also my email was written wrong in my other post. It is actually Morebeautifulquitters@gmail.com. I want to be part of an intentional community in northern New Mexico or southeastern/southern Colorado. Much to offer.

it is unattractive to be told "have to" here

there are reasons for lacks of updates...including issues not working with the site itself.

i will update and respond according to 1. how the site is working or not   2. my interest in a post  3. my own ability to reply/update.



for everyone - i will soon be updating the original post with how our plans are going. they are still going...

basics are the same tho - we are 2 families, and of the full lot, land will be sold in parcels to others who build their own dwelling. more soon in  a full post update.

thanks to all

@Agristin,

Is this "situation" still attractive to you after Kay's response?

@Jim Dee....

A successful intentional community is built on trust and mutual respect and a clear and FAIR business plan. And now there are two major competing business plans for such projects and one is built on Community Land Trust and basic sharing, and the other one is built on the standard real estate model of buying your own plot and building your own dwelling but after that,  the person doing the selling usually has more to gain than the buyers for obvious reasons. So this feels to me like the same old isolating, private-property-and damn- anyone-else-model.

Everyone needs to be very aware of all these issues and more. The IC's which succeed are VERY rare. And anyone who looks at the successful ones closely can see that there is a TON of intelligence and HARD WORK going into these projects every single hour and day.

So I think I'll pass on this one. Besides the summer is a third over already.

But I am still interested in pooling resources with a few people and starting something completely equitable with some new friends in Colorado or northern NM, please feel free to respond to Morebeautifulquitters@gmail.com and tell me your hopes and dreams. I NEED THIS!!

@Agristin Mills,

Yes, I hear ya. So many of these pop up and it seems that most of them are not realized.
Most of the time a thread is posted to never hear from the OP again...dreams dissipated I suppose.


I think the hardest part is finding like minded people that one would want to be with half of the day, or at least be able to bear them for any extended period of time.
Narrow mindedness and extremists seem to populate the IC dreamer movement, imo.

The land issue is an interesting complexity to me.
You mentioned the two "models", where is one shared among all, and the other is the real estate model.

In the latter, are you insinuating that this one doesn't work because the buyer of the lot doesn't actually own the land, i.e. their own tax lot such as Paul's?
OR they do own their own land outright, and it's a large piece of land divided, but ultimately the buyer can do what they want, which may not match the goals of the original intent of the

I wonder about this, because in these years reading through these IC ideas, I have always thought the better way, perhaps, was to find a large parcel of land that consisted of many tax lots, and then sell those off, all the while keeping a community together or having like minded people around, such as the idea of another person a couple years ago in CO.

This discussion went on in Paul's program, and basically the same issues were brought up, as far as I can remember.

I'm not sure, but this seems that it might work better than a "land share", because it seems to me it would be really hard to get people thinking the same in order to have a good land share, if you get my thoughts here.

@Jim:

You might have already learned much more about the second model than have I.

So I really can't comment much. All I know is that when one person holds the cards for selling people plots of land (with no alternative to buying-in such as renting or caretaking only) I feel the contradiction already.

The privacy factor would be a detriment to the need for sharing. And what happens when community projects are met with apathy because, well, if people have all they need on their "private plot", why bother with the larger community at all?

At Dancing Rabbit in Missouri there is a more sophisticated mix of models, including prolonged work-exchange sessions where people pay nothing but get to live and work there. Also some people rent a room in their rooming house because they can't afford to build a private house. Others build houses and there is a tremendous variety in types of homes and the expenses involved.

But ALL must contribute to the community's well being involving dozens of kinds of projects. If they don't do that, they can't be a member at all. They also contribute financially.

Personally I recommend this kind of model. The emphasis is on the ability to join up regardless of personal income and that is a huge plus if you ask me. Once the person is there the rest can shake out and does or the person disappears.

I believe Dancing Rabbit operates on the Community Land Trust model (the first basic model I mentioned) If a person gets a plot and invests in a house they can sell but only if the buyer succeeds in perpetuating the work and concept of the IC itself. But the original land
was purchased outright by a few IC professionals a couple of decades ago and has gradually expanded. That is because the community itself can grow and prosper from all the work members contribute collectively. It is a good place with a solid theoretical foundation and lots of learning going on all the time. And a rare success. Nonetheless they are always in need of new members.

A MAJOR concern these days is total personal expenses. I am sorry to have to say this but similar to the phenomenon of RV parks, campgrounds and the housing shortage, prices have increased in these places to be almost equivalent to average apartment rentals.

The same thing is happening in co-housing projects and other IC projects so if you don't have portable work with a substantial income you will be priced out of the IC movement entirely...and that is with FEW exceptions. The smaller Social security pensions rarely are sufficient.

At The Farm in Tennessee, some long time respected senior members were allowed to build little cabins on community (not privately owned) land, only to find out the larger community planned and succeeded behind their backs...to take back those houses without buying them! The excuse was they were needed for the Farm's now famous home-birthing work. So much for the battle between the generations and why cooperative living can maybe mitigate that!!! So you always must research carefully before plunging in.

Gone are the days when people could buy a small farm or plot of land and invite any and all to join up and watch the results. Mostly they are long gone and forgotten for good reasons.

But people still have a right to dream, and so I suggest reading up the publications of the Federation for International Community and find out why the various models work better or less well...before deciding how to proceed.

These days everything is getting harder, at least all virtuous activity, and the idea of sharing to build more meaningful lives is at the FOUNDATION of all of it. It's worth the effort to get it right.

I'd love to find a community that wouldn't mind my varied stock. I've worked alone for some time and am slowly learning how to to do different things with my Finnsheep's and other sheep's fleeces. I have breeder Buff ducks and geese, Breeder Pilgrim geese and a a small group of Cayuga ducks. 6 Great Pyrs and crosses with Anatolian. After lamb sales I'll still have 40+ ewes,lambs, wethers and rams. I like to garden and have a decent amount of garden seeds as well as perennial plants. Not a lot of baggage, other than a box of useful books. Also one small Angus heifer that is learning how to watch over weaned lambs. Mira's almost a year old, but won't be ever close to full size, she had a really tough life before me and it took a while to get her going back towards health. I don't have any milk goats right now, but did milk for years before falling in love with my Finns.