My idea of an ecovillage/intentional community in Northwest Arkansas.
Who am I?
Early fifties male with a wife and 2 kids.
I have a decent job and want to start out as a weekend
project and go from there, but others would be more than welcome to start out full time.
Why?
Many reasons.
A place to experiment with alternative eco conscious building, living, food growing, cooking, etc.
Enjoy nature and the simple things in life. This doesn't mean going without TV, radio, internet, etc.
De-stress and simplify.
Sit around a campfire at night.
Play a board game.
Go swimming, kayaking, hiking.
Start out minimally and add slowly. The goal is to not have to work dawn to dark.
Pool resources as going at this alone would be very expensive and time consuming.
Costs?
The goal would be to get enough people to keep the buy in low. Maybe $5000 per share that would leave some extra money for building the
pond.
If people want to join after the land purchase they can still buy a share or a they can lease a small plot of land and additional land if needed.
All share holders may also have to pay small monthly dues to cover insurance, taxes, road maintenance, etc.
There would also be no land speculation which means this is not a way to make money buying and selling shares. You would buy in
and then maybe there would be an agreed upon inflation rate such as a few percent a year. Goal is to keep costs low so living is affordable
for all. This is not a front for a land development. It's a way of life.
Example.
Dancing Rabbit Land Trust -
https://www.dancingrabbit.org/about-dancing-rabbit-ecovillage/our-land/dancing-rabbit-land-trust/
How to operate financially?
Host workshops
Sell food and crafts
Rent tiny house parking spots
Dues
Airbnb
Where?
Northwest Arkansas.
Plenty of rain.
Mostly mild winters.
Lots of sunshine.
Affordable land.
Close to jobs, entertainment, farmer's markets, lakes, streams, and hiking.
Optimally this community would be no further than 1.5 hours from the Bentonville/Rogers Arkansas area.
Example.
A preferable area would be an area between these Arkansas towns south and east of Bentonville/Rogers:
Mountainburg, St. Paul, Kingston, Ponca, Alpena, Oak Grove. Maybe also up into Missouri around Table Rock Lake.
A plus would be land next to the National Forest, a creek, or lake and have plenty of buildable and tillable areas as Arkansas can be hilly.
How?
Get a group of people to buy shares and purchase the land under a land trust who would then become members of a
board of directors to manage finances and manage the land based off all member input. No one leader and no one religion.
Build natural small houses and raise food using vertical, hydroponic, aquaponic
gardening, greenhouses, etc.
Raise
chickens, fish, etc.
Plant a food forest.
Income sharing with community businesses.
Use renewable
energy.
Composting toilets.
Waste reduction.
Example of recirculating
shower. Goal is to reduce wastewater.
Who?
People excited about off grid living and ways to reduce.
Motivated people who want to live inexpensively and have access to clean water and nutritious food in a chemical free environment.
Non smokers and light drinkers. No drugs.
People who want to start living in a community on a weekend basis as like me you may have a job you do not want to leave at the moment.
People ready to build a home and live in the community full time.
People experienced in setting up a land trust and creating a community.
Family friendly.
Nonviolent.
Pets?
All domesticated animals will not be allowed to run free as the
native critters have enough predators.
Weapons?
The goal is to have a safe family friendly environment so how to do handle guns, etc.
Just allow hunting rifles, bow and arrows, knives?
Allow hunting only and no target practice?
Don't allow guns and hunting?
Bow hunting only?
I don't own a gun but would like to do some archery. I'm not a hunter.
Design?
Build a 1-2+ acre pond and use for drinking water (treated/filtered), swimming, fish farming, irrigation.
Build natural small houses (
wood, stone,
cob, strawbale) around the lake.
Example communities?
These are communities I have visited.
East Wind -
https://www.eastwindblog.co/
Community wide business that provides food, clothing, housing, medical, and a small stipend.
Dancing Rabbit -
https://www.dancingrabbit.org/
Natural buildings, alternative energy, food production, ponds, etc.
Arcosanti -
https://www.arcosanti.org/
Community business.
Interesting architecture.
Example houses?
This is an interesting house design that I would like to do in cob covered strawbale.
Cool cob houses.
https://www.californiacob.com/
Self-Sustainable Ecocapsule
Of course I could go into way more detail.
A key thought of mine is it's much easier to reduce needs than to build more infrastructure, etc.
For example, living minimally can reduce the need for
solar panels, water heating, refrigeration, etc.
You could eat a
raw food diet a few days a week and then when the sun is shining cook with a
solar oven which eliminates the need for cooking fuel and possibly refrigeration.
Anyone have similar interests?
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