Northeastern Arizona off grid life and looking for good souls to join us.

We are in Northeastern Arizona, 36 acres off-grid with a community well and we are looking for a few good friends to join us in our adventure. We just got started and have many plans, if you're interested let's start a conversation and go from there.

Hey Gene, curious to know more. What is your intention or collective values in your community? Super glad you have made this happen!

Hey Jay thanks for your interest and your question. We have sat around and asked the same question, and we came to the conclusion that we did not want political, racial, religious or sexual influences in our community. By that we mean that we don't want any extremes here. We hope to attract like minded individuals who want to first,  live in peace, relaxation, live healthy and to feel totally safe, and want to share in the building of the community with others while being self sufficient. I guess we should emphasize the pursuit of happiness and self sufficiency. We like arts and that is something that we would like to incorporate into the community. Obviously, in the pursuit of happiness and self sufficiency there's the cultivation of the land and the animals which is the largest aspect of the plan. It would be a dream to be able to build a long term community that is self building, self sufficient and functional for everyone. But, we are aware that everything is easier said than done, so we will see...

Howdy Gene, I was wondering if there might be other parcels of land next to yours that are for sale ? I always thought it would be nice to have permie neighbors but have always wanted my own place too. What is your place like? Any trees, seasonal water flow, weather, etc. Any pictures of the area?

"What is your place like? Any trees, seasonal water flow, weather, etc. Any pictures of the area?"

We have 36 acres and the only trees around here are pinion, junipers and cedars, the weather is northeastern Arizona weather, it rains little here and humidity is very low. It is sunny for most of the year, we get water from a community well.

Thanks for your interest!

Sounds like you're in the area north of St Johns, south of Witch Wells off of 191. Medium elevation averaging 5800' or so depending where you are. We have 36 acres in Sierra Mountain Ranch that is at 6300' and heavily wooded with old growth Pinion and Juniper. The community well is on our section that will provide a solid backup to our well being drilled this summer. Joe

Miles Flansburg wrote:Howdy Gene, I was wondering if there might be other parcels of land next to yours that are for sale ? I always thought it would be nice to have permie neighbors but have always wanted my own place too. What is your place like? Any trees, seasonal water flow, weather, etc. Any pictures of the area?

Oh, if I find any land deals I will let you know, there are always land deals around here. Thanks!

Joe Danielek wrote:Sounds like you're in the area north of St Johns, south of Witch Wells off of 191. Medium elevation averaging 5800' or so depending where you are. We have 36 acres in Sierra Mountain Ranch that is at 6300' and heavily wooded with old growth Pinion and Juniper. The community well is on our section that will provide a solid backup to our well being drilled this summer. Joe

Yeah! Good description! Thanks! I almost bought land there but decided on Red Sky Ranch...

I thought about buying in the area but I'm concerned about the amount of fracking in the county.  Has anyone else looked into this?

Hello I live in Northwest arizona.Was wondering if you know of any permaculture workshops events in your area?

To be honest with you I think this is the first time I have ever heard about that (fracking) around here. Not that is not happening, only, that I never heard anyone mentioning it until now, but I am interested. Wow, there's a lot of fracking,  1,314 wells!! And 27 in Apache County.

Ben Skiba wrote:Hello I live in Northwest arizona.Was wondering if you know of any permaculture workshops events in your area?

Unfortunately, I have not heard anything about permaculture around here. 😕

Helium Extraction in Arizona

This page gives an overview of helium fracking in Arizona. It is a controversial issue with folks on the Coconino Aquifer.

Would love a chance at this.
Are you still looking for like-minded individuals?

Hey Gene. I just moved to Mesa, AZ, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC (near Asheville). I've lived off grid, for the past ten years, in a couple different communities, and was involved in starting and maintaining 2 additional homesteads, practicing permaculture, building food forests, building community. During the past decade or so, I  had my own little edible food forest landscape business, for about 4 years, consulting, designing, installing and maintaining living systems. I've trained with some of the best regenerative ag, silvapasture folks in the area, and of course have some experience with natural building and a variety of other skills people inevitably pick up when homesteading. I also have formal autocad design training as well. In another life, I spent 8 years in the US Army, in the medical field, graduating from medic to cytotech during that time. The microscopy I learned during this time continues to be a game changer, when it comes to understanding soil biology. You can't live in the Blue Ridge mountains and not become a mycophile. There aren't too many mushrooms in the desert though. Nevertheless, I'm always open to mushroom production.

I'm recently married, to a dual Canadian/US citizen, who is currently in the process of selling her house and relocating with me to AZ, with her two children, who are ostensibly both all growed up. Anyhow, we haven't decided how we're going to approach it, but homesteading is at the top of our list. And, I'm interested in networking with others in the area, to explore possibilities.

As a side note, I've practical experience as well with both consensus and consent based governance models. Whatever the common values and goals of a community, it is essential to establish a sound decision making strategy that empowers everyone and fosters equanimity, mutuality and respect. I'm a big fan of consent based governance models, like those taught by Circle Forward https://circleforward.us/. Full disclosure, I dated the owner, so I'm a little biased. Tracy's built upon sociocracy, but changed it from a predominantly heirarchical model to a decentralized, self-organizing systems approach. It's brilliant and it works, when everyone has the skills.

Thanks for reaching out and doing what you're doing. I look forward to hearing from you.

Jeff