Hi Angelita!
We live in an
intentional community in SW New Mexico and enjoyed reading about all of your experience, skills and passion for a land-based lifestyle.
I am going to paste a copy of a recent "invitation" that we've been working on but have not yet posted. Feel
free to contact us for more info if you've not found a place to land yet and might be interested.
Wishing you abundance and joy on your path!
Sunny and Sequoia
A
Gardening and Farming Opportunity at the Southwest Sufi Community
To all young and young at heart able-bodied visionary gardeners and aspiring farmers!!!
We are looking for interested persons with farming /
gardening /
permaculture experience who may consider living at the Southwest Sufi Community (SSC), to take advantage of an opportunity to further develop the
gardening and farming on our land northwest of Silver
City, NM.
About the SSC:
The Southwest Sufi Community is a 501 © (3) nonprofit organization functioning as a rural land-based intentional community. It was founded in the Sufi lineage of Hazrat Inayat Khan and later Western Sufi teachers. Although it has Sufi origins, the SSC practices an all-inclusive spirituality in which all paths are welcome. The life here is relaxed, and we live primarily in a non-hierarchical manner. The community operates as a ‘village’ in which residents have their own homes, with some occupying rooms in the original ranch house. We have a weekly shared meal and community meeting and some common activities but are not communal in lifestyle. We have occasional group work projects but most work is done on an individual basis. We do not ‘regulate’ anyone’s personal culture, diet, or such, rather we only strive to live in a mature and responsible manner.
New residents can live very inexpensively in our available living spaces, with the option to set up a yurt, tiny house, or to build a dwelling of their own on the land if they wish to be permanent. This provides an opportunity for alternative building designs if one desires. The community has grown somewhat in the last few years and we now have 14 full-time residents. Funding from a recent conservation easement agreement has allowed us to make improvements to our roads, irrigation and water supplies and to acquire a
tractor with backhoe. Future building
plans include additional living spaces and a possible new retreat facility.
The community is completely off-grid and
solar powered (individual systems) and
wood heated primarily with propane for heating water as well as with alternative systems that some individuals have built. Although cell phone service is marginal, we have satellite internet service on site. From Silver City the SSC is approx. 18 miles total via dirt/gravel roads which are county-maintained and only briefly problematic after heavy rains or snow. It takes about 45 minutes to drive to town. Four-wheel drive is helpful but not essential. At this distance from town the resulting dark skies are loaded with stars.
About the Land:
The SSC occupies nearly 1500 acres of mesa and canyon land bordering the Gila National Forest, with grassland and oak-juniper-pinyon country above and wetland and riparian woods below. It was formerly a part of the Avery Ranch, which existed up until the 1950’s. The land is bisected by
Bear Creek, a tributary of the Gila river and is one of the few year-round streams in Southern, NM. Most of the land is in a conservation easement under the New Mexico Land Conservancy, which preserves wilderness and wetland habitats in perpetuity.
The growing areas include two fields. The first is the South Field, approx. 1
acre on the south side of Bear Creek, and is the more developed of the two, is currently being gardened, and is fully fenced. The second or North Field is approx. 1.7 acres on the north side of the creek and is in the process of being fenced. These two fields have adjudicated surface water rights dating to 1890. We are currently developing a
solar pumping system to bring water from Bear Creek to the gardens more readily. Water supply to the upper residential areas includes one private and one community well, both of which are solar powered and permitted for agricultural use. A spring provides high quality drinking water to the lower area ranch house, and the overflow is used in the gardens. Elevation at the growing fields is about 5300 ft. Being in a canyon we are sheltered from much of the winds of late winter and spring.
The soil is loam and sandy loam soil and the climate is typical upland southwestern climate with summer monsoon rains, with some fall and winter precipitation, approx. 16-22 inches per year. Frost free is early May through early October. We are in USDA Zone 7a. This land is very amenable for growing vegetables, fruits, grain plots, and herbs. One member has been successful in growing heritage seeds, and two others have been very successful with vegetables. One couple is raising goats and
chickens and providing eggs and goat dairy products to the community. Possibilities include market gardening,
medicinal herbs, fruits,
beekeeping and animal husbandry, along with deeper levels of
permaculture and related practices. We have a Kubota tractor and will be acquiring attachments for working the land. Cottage industries are welcomed and encouraged
If you are interested and feel this community would be one you would like to be a part of, come and visit and stay for a time and see if the SSC is for you.
Contact our Host Coordinator Sequoia Neuman at
faithinaseed@gobrainstorm.net before coming, if you are wishing to visit us, and also for directions.
Check out our website at
https://sites.google.com/site/southwestsuficommunity/
The SSC is also registered with the Fellowship of Intentional Communities, and on
Facebook under ‘SSC Community’.
Google Earth coordinates: 32 degrees, 55’49” N, 108 degrees, 23’ 53” W. (degrees-minutes-seconds)
