share my Appalachian permaculture farm

I am hoping to meet people to create a permaculture with.
I don't really care about your age or sex, as long as you really garden and work outdoors primarily. However, I am 65, living on social security. I expect to live into my 90s, like my ancestors, however, and I have found out, age has nothing to do with how well people work. I do my own plumbing, roofing and carpentry, for ex.
I am hoping to meet somebody who just wants to take care of the earth, literally. That is what I do. I am outside working constantly, but it does not seem like working, because I love gardening, wild animals, water, trees. For ex., I just spent a whole day mulching and pruning wild raspberries, and I spent a couple days before that just picking up walnuts. Before that, I spent a whole day just hauling leaf humus to a raised bed.
I was making "hugel" piles like those shown on this website today, before I had a name for them. [I call them corn mounds, because the long roots of corn like them.]
. I would like to meet other gardeners wanting to grow and store food, and share it in a communal kitchen, even if we do have private houses. I grew up working summers on a farm where people shared mealtimes, and it was wonderful, and I really miss that.
Anybody passionate about gardening and permaculture, please contact me. [But not if you are into drugs and drinking!]

Hello Greta,

Welcome to our community! I like your attitude. Good luck with your effort to find like-minded people to work with. Don't you think maybe you should tell us where you live? Are you looking to move to someone else's land, or are you looking for others to move to your land? Inquiring minds want to know...

Thanks. This seems to be a terrific website. I love it -- I can't stop reading. It seems to be people like me here!!!1
Oh, yes, I am sorry I left out the location, but I am unconsciously fearful of people just showing up. It has happened.
I live in the Appalachian Mountains in the corner of Tenn-Ky-Va-NC....at the base of Pine Mountain. Pine Mt. is one of the most biodiverse mountains in North America, but it is remote and not well known -- yet. A new linear state park 120 miles long runs along the top of Pine Mountain, and it is already drawing backpackers.
Yes, I want to share land I already have. It is an entire watershed and it is paid for. I don't want people coming here working themselves to death to try to pay me rent or pay me back for the land, but not just anybody could have a free house here. They would have to have a passion for gardening and permaculture, not be into drugs or alcoholic.
I want people to apply energy to permaculture, not to growing money.
It would help, but not be necesssary, if they shared my interest in theatre, since I plan a little sand-and-stone stage outdoors for private play readings, poetry slams etc. I'm thinking we could make enough cash to pay bills just by offering garden brunch-farm tour and free play readings on weekends. Or, we could run a gardeners hostel or something. I have enough money myself already, from social security.
I am part Cherokee and learning the language, if that interests anybody. Cherokee are gardening fools, like me....you'd love them.

Sounds great. I am not the partner in permaculture for you, but I wish you the best of luck in finding a few. You do appear to be within a reasonable driving distance for me (4 to 5 hours, I would guess, not knowing exactly where is Pine Mt.), so perhaps I will have to come visit some day and see this land of yours.

Peace!

Thanks for your encouragement. Yes, if you coming this way (KY/Va border), look me up on this website and let me know. I have an empty house you could stay in and would cook and provide tours and tips (for avoiding cougars and rattlesnakes and the like!)

Oh wow, you have cougars?! That's awesome : )

Matthew, I could not use this website all week because I kept calling up blank pages. I apologize for not reading answering your post earlier. I could not even browse the website. It some sort of virus or advertising ruse, I think.
But yes, there are cougars in Ky. no, probably due to the elk herd. Elk were restored in, I think, 2001, and the cat population seems to have expoloded, because everybody I know has seen a mouyntain lion or knows somebody who did. I saw two erlier this summer. They ran across the road in front of my truck, and I got a real good look at them.
I personally enjoy wildlife. I heard the coyotes howling the past three nights, in my back yard.
I just put batteries in a wildlife camera. I got the infrared type, which doesn't flash and scare the animal. I hopew to get photos of the cats to prove it to people. They are a great indicator of biodiversity, having apex predators down to mice! Greta

Greta,
If I did not have my own farm to tend, I would love to come and help with yours! I enjoy plays and such and putting on entertainment productions and singing, etc., too. Maybe we can meet someday and share notes, or you could just come here and visit. Permaculture and living in harmony with nature is everything to me. And I want to share it with the world and bestow that enthusiasm on all of them, but alas, some are just not ready for it or it isn't their cup of tea. I particularly love cooking for a crowd and getting all the food from my garden, or from something I've grown, like home raised chickens or goat cheese.

We have cougars and coyotes here too, and the occasional black panther, and I'm south of you, down near the Georgia line in the Southwest corner of NC. A bit challenging to raise dairy goats because a lot of those wild critters think they are a tasty treat. Two guardian dogs help and I have cows now who also protect the few goats I have. They sleep at the barn door at night, although I usually lock my goats up at night anyway. There's a bit of Cherokee in my background too, and yes, I am a gardening fool too, and learned most of it from my wonderful Grandmother who was a medicine woman as well.

Melba

Im a fun loving person looking to be outdoors and work hard for living space

Sorry I have no answered all of you. I am sending private messages to people who are interested.
I was off this site awhile. I had trouble with my browser or something....I would click on some item and a blank page would appear. It seems to be working okay now.
I have been watching tons of YouTube videos about gardening. What interests me most is the forest food farming, Sepp Holzer, wildlife topics, biodyamnic gardening, Fukuoaka and other natural gardening topics.
I have a lot of nuts, fruits, berries growing. I am planting spring vegetables right now, and planting corn and beans shortly. I have yellow pea pods from India coing up on a tipi!
One fun thing I am working on right now is a wild greens garden on top of a small hugelkulture. It has 30 primroses in it right now, so I get all the "speckled dock" I can eat from it this week. It also has tame corn salad greens, Upper Land Cress, and wild bunch onions (red). It has poke that just came up. I can get 23 wild greens around about the yards and woods, including crow's foot and nettles now. I actually need more dandelions, which have competition from biodiversity here.
I put the speckled dock on a clear pile of dirt because it has trouble competing with weeds, yet it is a delight to eat.

I have a few acres in Northern California and practice biodynamics + permaculture. There's a couple structures on site, and constructing a new building. Lotsa renewable energy, and generally close the loop on everything.

Always looking for people to help out in exchange for room + board. Work tasks would range from gardening to light construction.

Greta,

I can't pick up and leave to help you, and I'm not sure if you just want help or are offering to share your land, but I just wanted to say you are an inspiration and I want to be you / WILL be like you when I am also collecting social security, damnit, hell or high water!

I wish I lived nearby so I could learn at your heels. And I remember how lovely that area was when I was a kid. I love appalachia and used to hand copy things from those Foxfire books I got from the library and dreamed of living there. I hope you've found somebody to help you out and I am envious of them.

Have a lovely productive year!

Suki

Suki,
Thanks for your reply. I lost my own thread here! Maybe you could come back to this area some day? What state did you live in?
I read the Foxfire books, and I especially like the book on food. I am vegetarian, however, so I skipped the books on pig butchering etc.
I am nobody to learn from. I experiment constantly, and fail a lot. I keep trying to create permanent, sustainable gardens where people can garden forever, like people do on fertile terraces in foreign countries. Here, farmers used to plow the hillsides with mules. A few years later, they just moved to a new field. They did not do sustainable gardening back in the old days, so I can't copy them. After four years work, composting etc., I have finally got some gardens which are growing big tomatoes and potatoes, squash and huge onions.
The soil looks black and beautiful up here in the mountains, but it is too acidic for a lot of garden vegetables, I found. Now, I plant beans every chance I get, and I added vetch and clovers to the pasture.
It's really fun trying to farm "up in the hollow". I feel like an 1800s pioneer or something.
The only thing I miss up in the hollow (besides people) is a swimming pool, so I am watching YouTube videos about how to build natural pool. Basically you just sink a concrete pit in the ground with ledges all around the top, for planting water plants on it, to keep the water clean and filtered naturally. You can add a solar windmill to the pond too.
I have ponds, and creeks, but not suitable places for swimming. Then my nieces and nephews might want to come see me too.
Greta

I( guess nobody is interested?

Hi, Greta...I think what you are offering is wonderful... in the end, though, I guess???, most folks 'want their own car'...their own piece of land that they own. This discussion has come up fairly often here. There are so many who can't afford land or just don't see how to get 'there' from 'here' and then there are those like you and others (my husband and I included) who have more land than we need and want to share...cautiously. I don't know the answer...just don't feel discouraged...someone will match up for you and you will be so happy to find them:)

thanks Judith,
Yes, I noticed your posts too.
I understand that people want a permanent "home" so that they feel like committing themselves; working hard, etc.
The solution I am working on is to offer people a house site in exchange for being a permanent resident and worker/gardener. I am going to set it up legally so that people feel secure.
However, successful communities insist upon a person coming to visit first, then staying 3 mos., then 6 mos. or a year.
I have an idea which might work for you too, which is to lease people a house or house site in exchange for taking a permanent position on the farm. That way, you are not subdividing the land into lots that people can sell off. That way, you can keep the land in a land trust to protect all residents there from subdivision.
I have found that the problem in any community is finding people who agree upon basic values, basic vision and basic missions. However, lots of people are not clear about what they want, and I encourage people to visualize what they want before contacting anybody like me, or before joining a community.
I came up with positions, like job descriptions, that people could take in exchange for a house.
I may be able to pay one person next year, but I can't pay a whole community.
The good thing is, the land is paid for, and people will be able to work at gardening and survival, without having to go work in town to earn a mortgage payment. I will be able to offer people really good deals when I get it set up legally. Right now, I just keep hoping to meet a co-organizer because I am tired of doing everything alone. I would try bartering and sharing everything with a co-organizer....but those people may be impossible to find, as it is like a legal partnership or marriage.
So, the next best idea is to just hire gardeners or Wwoofers.
Today I went to the farmers' market and talked to friends.
I joined a local group of organic gardeners too, but they are mostly old married people who have their own farms and kids and all. I do meet lots of young gardeners, but I can't take care of them yet. I want a super cook and kitchen ready for them or they will be unhappy, and I want to fix my pond so that they can swim when it gets hot.

Fred Winsol---I would like to contact you regarding----room & board for work----My name is Paul Mungar---I have a 7 yr. old son---I am homesteading and homeschooling---my son and I have almost no family---his mother not around for almost all of 7 yrs---my mother and father long departed---my grandmother too----I am a Detroit survivor---a farm hack---been visited by authors and students from all over the world in two seasons at my latest garden---been featured on the local news more than once---but i am still struggling---just broke off with a partner of 2 yrs. whom was not really there yet---nor headed that way---and instead of helping with homesteading and my awesome son---she tried to side step my son----I have references---and lots of experience and skills---my garden right now is a testament of my dedicated tenure---having mostly denounced money---I have little material---but possess some unique tools----if you ever knew a single mother---imagine being a radical single father with little monetary wealth and no family---and now after workin 2 yrs at this place---I have to go---please look me up on Facebook Paul Mungar and Reclaim Detroit Community---I am an activist ---artist---poet---gardener---carpenter---blah---blah---I am you permies---you are me---my real family---please help me find the right place to be now

Hi Paul,
I sent you a private message. I would like to talk to you.
I am especially interested in meeting people who are child-centered. Maybe a bunch of us could get something started.
The stewards are not forwarding messages to e-mails right now, so I apologize fore the delay in answering. I just now discovered replies to my messages.
Greta

Greta Fields wrote:Hi Paul,
I sent you a private message. I would like to talk to you.
I am especially interested in meeting people who are child-centered. Maybe a bunch of us could get something started.
The stewards are not forwarding messages to e-mails right now, so I apologize fore the delay in answering. I just now discovered replies to my messages.
Greta

Hi, Greta, email notifications are a function that you set up in your profile. There is a box to check if you have not already. Without looking at it I cant remeber for sure but I think it is under 'personal preferences' but if not just check around...it is there somewhere.

Thanks Judith. I just don't want to be rude and ignore people who answer me. It is nice to get e-mail notifications.
Greta

Greta Fields wrote:Thanks Judith. I just don't want to be rude and ignore people who answer me. It is nice to get e-mail notifications.
Greta

while you are logged in click on 'My Profile' at the top of the page. Then click on the plus sign to the left of preferences. Then check the box that says to notify you when there is a new post. Let us know if you have a problem recieving notifications after that.

thanks again, Judith. I don't expect people to wait on me, but I had just gotten used to them forwarding e-mails. Actually it is easier to go to "My Posts" and respond to people there.,
I can't get over how nice the people are on this website, by the way -- just a really great group of people on line.

Greetings. Kudos to you, Greta, for offering a way for people to unite with you in a shared living environment. I'm really interested in doing this. I wonder, like Judith said, what the answer is (to people successfully uniting in community living), and am exited to find it (them).
I find it curious how many people are interested in leaving behind the concept of cash. I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand a few years ago, and loved the character Francisco in his "money speech". I don't believe it is really money that people find vicious and barter that they find virtuous. I theorize that it is really "crazy" that people want to leave behind, and "sanity" that they seek. Money is just an accounting tool for value created, and those who are repelled by that concept may be trying to compensate for something.
I am married and have four young kids, living in Ogden, Utah. I'm ready for community living. I'm a permaculture-noob. I have lots to learn, including how to keep a plant alive. I love this site, as well, and wish everyone here the best in successfully uniting with like-minded individuals.

Hi Greta,
This is very exciting. Recently I have been exploring the idea of possibly pursuing more of a permaculture/rural lifestlyle. I thought it would be a great idea to establish some kind of permaculture based sustainable farm/bed and breakfast or restaurant. My idea was to possibly establish a small sustainable restaurant or where people could come and see where there food is grown and be inspired by it. I am also very interested in the idea of a shared community where people could share resources instead of everyone needing to consume their own possessions. I have no idea of how to acheive this goal but I think it is worth pursuing and could be a great calliing. I have begun pursuing classes in permaculture and just about to complete my PDC with Geoff Lawton.
So if any of this appeals to you let me know,
thanks

Hi, I was in the city over the weekend and did not have a chance to use a computer.
I was really interested to hear these ideas. Nathaniel keeps asking the most important question, I think, which is, what is the answer to living successfully in community? I think the main reason communities succeed is when people share a vision of what they want their community to be like, and articulate this vision and agree to it. I got this idea from a book on intentional communities by Diana Leafe Christian. Prior to reading that book, I was like many people in thinking that a community has to be everything to all people. I no longer think that. I think it is important to find other people who share the same values and can agree upon a mission.
Some people say that money is the root of all evil, and so they do not view money as just a harmless accounting tool. I think, when a culture depends upon money, everything in that culture becomes "commodified" and priced, and compassion is forgotten.
I grew up thinking it is possible to live without money, because I saw my grandfather do that. He was a medical doctor who quit charging patients. He was Cherokee and decided he did not want to assimilate afterall. He simply quit charging people one day. Long story there!
Well, I would like to be in a community that is a lot like a Cherokee community. So I came up with the idea of creating a legal entity which would enable a "counter culture" to operate within a dominant society which has values diametrically opposed to the counter culture. [We still have to pay property taxes.]
Steven, you actually have an idea that will work because I know a community that did what you suggest. It is called the Goat Lady Farm, and it is near Greensboro NC. Originally they survived by selling goat cheese, and they worked very hard raising a huge goat herd. Then they opened a restaurant. Then they began offering "brunch and farm tours", and they did so well that they gave up the goat herd. They only kept a few goats to supply the brunch meals and they quit working so hard.
The tours were just walking tours of their sustainable gardening and farming plan. They did not offer bed and breakfast, however.
Actually, I have a list of 60 ways a farm could raise money to pay necessary costs, but my favorite idea was to have a weekend brunch with free play readings or storytelling, and tours, and a gardening hostel. I am personally not interested in goats and goat cheese, which I think is too much work, but am not opposed to that. I just mention that farm because they do have a restaurant like you suggested
That farm was serving big meals on Sunday, but now I think they just offer the light brunches, and they make more money that way! I had an idea for having bed and breakfast too, but only a couple of V.I.P. cabins, expressly for people who pay money. But I would want to emphasize people working in exchange for staying awhile or coming to hear their play read etc. [I write plays so I included this in my dreams.] I am more interested in working on permaculture, gardening, food forests and wildlife projects than just having a farm though. I don't particularly want to kill myself running a CSA either!
I like the idea of people sharing resources too, for ex., people having one bath house, one laundry house, one big kitchen and dining area, one work truck etc. I think the community that gardens and eats together will stay together!
I think people ought to share land too, and I am prepared to do that, and have been talking to people about getting a lawyer to help me set up a creative form for doing this...maybe a land trust where people "lease" homes in exchange for doing work they are passionate about.

Hi Greta, Nat, Judith, and all,
I am pretty busy moving my homesteading efforts back to the midwest, but would like to stay in communication with you since we seem to be working toward similar goals. It seems to be all about sharing and how to manage that in the midst of a larger society that seems dametricly opposed.
I like Gretas idea of a legally recognised organization dedicated to the idea of allowing people to invest in withdrawing from the money oriented society. Maybe that is oxymoronic, or paradoxical, but I believe that to suceed we will have to embrace the paradox, and use the system against itself. Lets see if we can define the mission statement of our proposed corporation.
Less is more when it comes to definitions, since if there is too much said, nothing is heard.
To provide a place for permaculture to happen.
To do that, hold land without selling it, ever, and to not prevent members from using it for permaculture. In some ways this is a land use issue. Power is often used to prevent people from doing things on the land around them.
What does anyone think?
Steven

Great ideas Greta
pity you are not in the same country as us here otherwise we might be having a more substantial discussion

David

Hi,
David, I guess you must be in America and I am not? [I can't tell if you are being facetious or not.]
I consider this a "substantial" discussion because I thought about ways to not use money for years. It was not glib thought. I racked my brains over the problem.
A counter culture community that does not want to use money within a money system will be a paradox, as Steven notes. Yet, it may be possible to use this system against itself, to alter what is wrong in that system.
I haven't talked to lawyers yet about creating a community, but I have three or four that I am considering talking to. If I can get a legal entity designed by a lawyer, I will share the information with other people about how it will work. So yes, stay in touch here on this web site or send me your e-mail address via private message, and I will share what I find out.
A couple lawyers I most want to talk to are tribal lawyers. Indians don't like the idea of selling land, so I am interested in how they avoid it. You know, an Indian lawyer named Chase Iron Eyes just arranged for Lakota Indians to buy back Pe'sla from ranchers. I thought, how can they do that, without admitting that white land ownership laws have dominion over them now??? Well, one way perhaps is saying, We buy it, but it can never be sold again. ?
I don't know. My idea is to establish a land trust that may become part of Indian lands later, and never be sold again!
Again, Steven, you have pinpointed a paradox: You are saying you want land to be used for permaculture, while admitting that you don't like certain people having power over how you use the land! It IS a paradox. However, the paradox evaporates if you have a community of people who share the value of establishing a permaculture. If you don't want to do permaculture, naturally you will fill like the others are dictating to you, so you will not want to be in that community.
I figured out that you can use people's interests to bond a like-minded community. If a person has a passion to garden, or a passion to grow herbs, than gardening or growing herbs for a community is not going to feel like "work". It will feel like freedom. So I came up with the idea of defining "positions" in a community which people can fill only if they have a passion to do that type of work.
Here's my idea of community, Steven:
A community must figure out how to survive together FINANCIALLY in a money economy while fulfilling a shared desire to create a permaculture to survive WITHOUT MONEY.
HOW"S THAT FOR PARADOX (: )???

Hi, Greta,

I like what you are doing it sounds great.

I am in Virginia and am really intrigued by what you are attempting to create.

Do you know if you create a wetland system feeding into your pond it will make the water very clear and suitable for swimming. Concrete really is not reliable and prone to cracking or not totally sealing. Besides you can seal a pond naturally. I have been studying Sepp Holzer a lot. I am very into building Swales and ponds. I ally like the idea of design a system on contour with all sort of fruits, nuts, edible and anything inbetween. The main idea is to look at the biome your in to see what grows there and simply replace with more useful species. I.E. instead of growing native crab apple, grow the domesticated apple.

Anyways you can read my bio to find out more about me Greta. I well be finishing my internship in Woodstock, Va on a homestead at the end of august and will return to Richmond. From from then on the options are fairly open for me. Let's stay in touch.

Hi Greta, I think you are right, we need to find a way to survive in a money oriented society. We have a big advantage over the native population in this part of North America when they had to deal with a people trying to get them to use money. It is not legal to kill us. They had a bounty on their heads sometimes and the invaders had better weapons. Now, our main disadvantage is that there is no good example of people living and thriving without money. In the early days of european settlement here, examples abounded, which was why they had to be so harsh to get the native people to accept the white mans ways.
To begin with, such an example will have to be funded by people like you who are willing to 'sacrifice' in order to support people having a chance to create a sub society not so money oriented. Quite a sacrifice, isn't it, to share your land, let someone else get some benefit from it. Of course from my way of thinking the land owner gets something too.
I have just bought a little land in the ozarks and would like to share it with people in a fair way. I want to create a company to do the things that you are talking about. I want to make a legal framework that will allow the idea to expand, by letting people buy into it without many restrictions.
What do you want your lawyer crafted company to do? That is the main question. When we are clear on that we can ask a lawyer to craft it. I agree that not selling the land is important. Another important thing is what people can do on the land. And what they cannot do.
Any comments?
Steven

Hi I think what Mark Shepard is doing is a good example. Anybody can come and start a business on Mark's land as long as it doesn't conflict with his ideals for it. Essential his frame work consist of a schedule F farm LLC and and then another LLC or Corporation Schedule C I think dealing with any off farm or consulting or real estate/land development work. He created a LLP at New Forrest Farm in Wisconsin of which his Schedule C Corporation is the General Manager. Any partners, other LLC's for example can come to live there build there own house ect. For example Mark Only deals with Perrenials, Hogs and earthworks/land management I think
There are several other limited partners involved who do other things. Annuals, sheep, chickens, Cattle ect. But it is all done the way the GM wants it done. One the important parts of this system is to understand he is using the capitalist system to change it but for better not worse. He studied people like Donald Trump and he has the same lawyer too. mark understands how the rich did what they did and acquired most of the wealth. Now he is using that same credit and loan game to create ecological paradises.

Another important aspect to reduce taxes and further promote the model is to create a charitable remainder trust. He then either creates an organization for that money to go to which in turn supports his business or he makes an agreement with some organization that they will use the money in a way that supports his business and essentially creates a feedback loop of which he can eliminate many taxes and tee feed his model further promoting it while supporting whatever organization he chooses or creates. So it is essential that we learn how to work around the system to create real change in this world I think. Im not sure that totally withdrawing from the world is going to work. It can't work we have to deal with the system that has been created. If we don't effectively some government will come with arms and rip us from our homes weather we like it or not. There is no place to hide anymore!

I think I just realized something! Before we can become less money oriented we have to create real wealth! I mean most money isn't based on real things. it is totally made up by banks or whatever. So like what Mark Shepard is doing he is essential taking something fake and making it real! Though it may seem money oriented now consider in 100 years that or continent is an abundance of food and medicinal plants where you can walk out the door to find whatever it is you need to eat! By that time we will have built the basis to truly transition out of the system!

Hi Joshua, Steven,
I just got in from working on a house and it is late (10:30 p.m.), but I am real interested in both your replies.
I will answer each of your replies separately below.
Joshua, I will send you a private message with my e-mail in it so you can keep it and contact me when you get done with the internship. I am really glad to meet somebody else interested in water. Water is my favorite thing to work with, and I am a plumber and pond builder (like my father was).
Greta

Steven, Joshua, I will have to finish answering you tomorrow. Back in morning. Greta

Yes Joshua, we have to create real wealth, and we need to accumulate wealth, much like Mollisons idea of the permaculture farm getting better and better as the years go by. We accumulate the resources (gain access to land and water) and make ready the tools of our trade, and use them to create good things, and if we do not sell any of it, if we give it to our family, it does not enter the money system and we take that much power from the money system by not feeding the monster (levi-athon) his levy. This is grass roots change, personal change. It is an act of grace, giving like Gretas grandfather did. It might be hard to start that change, and it may not be as hard as we think. we have barely begun, and it is sure to be a gradual process that will grow if people do well in it. Buying land for permaculture may not be the only good use of money, but in my opinion it is one of the best. Just not spending what you make would work pretty well, since without interference it would have the effect of reducing the money supply, which would lower prices in the classic economic equation. Of course governments tend to try to prevent that effect by printing more money, (inflation) in order to keep prices high. I'm not really sure why they like that, but they seem to.
I have been shopping for a trailer so I can move some of my goats to the new place. I intend to integrate them into a food forest. Have found that with rotational browsing that they can help with pruning. It is amazing how well they can learn to not stand up to eat, and how the whole herd can be taught to not eat (very much) of any type of plant you care to protect. If you can keep them bunched up enough. And have a long pointy stick, a staff. They do have their own agendas, but much of the time they are happy to share ours. They have been with people a long time, and carrying most of their food to large numbers of them has never been possible untill fossil money came along. I mean oil.
Anyone want to help move?
Steven

Steven,
I tried to post a reply earlier, but received a message that this website was being worked on and to try later.
Basically what I said was, I cannot tell you exactly what I intend to ask lawyers to put into a legal description of a community because I have not done enough research myself to know what to ask the lawyers. I know that I want to find a way to put the land in trust, but not through a university (since universities around here have trustees who renege on these agreements_. I have the names of experts in tribal law, and the name of an expert lawyer in environmental matters.
I have a written plan for crating a community that divides the work into four phases, and "research" is phase II. I have a dozen issues I need time to research before I draw up a legal framework for a community. I am still in phase I, which is getting the farm ready for a group to come here. Then I want to invite people here here to work on preliminary and final plans for a community, and finally, execution of those plans.
You are right, it is difficult to share land, but for me, it has become a "practical issue", not a sacrifice. The question is how to share land in a community so that the community succeeds. I decided one way to have a community succeed is to trade houses or living sites for "positions" in a community. I think, if a person can find a position where they can fulfill their passion for living, they will be happy and stay. People will not be happy if they cannot fulfill their life's passion. Then, the positions must be compatible or able to be integrated into one community.
I am basically following advice in Creating a Life Together, by the founder of the IC website. She recommends that each person wanting to be in a community clarify their own vision and find or create a community to fulfill that vision. It took me several years to do my work on this vision. Most people will not be interested in what I want perhaps. I am vegetarian, first off, and child minded. I would like to have a children's permaculture --a farm that is safe and welcoming and exciting to children. I want to have gardening and theatre workshops for kids and adults both. I include storytelling, which I have learned through participation, is one of the great ways to form a community.
It may sound boring, but you have no idea until you participate, how exciting storytelling can be. You will hear your friends and neighbors tell incredible stories that make them entirely lovable and understandable and human to you. I am going to a local storytelling event led by a Cherokee woman tomorrow night, and I can't wait.
One woman told us what it was like to have polio, for ex. (but be healed by Indians too). Then all of us remembered "polio" from the 1950s. . .
You are right, there were bounties on people. Just think of this: You meet me, and I seem totally "normal", yet it was legal for you to murder my father in Kentucky, until the late 20s, because he was Cherokee. That's money. Money makes dealing with people "impersonal" so that a nice white man could kill a nice Cherokee man for $300, and take his land too. You see it happening in S. America right now: People killing Indians to get their oil
Some culture we have.
What can't you do on the land? One thing I could never agree to myself would be marijuana growing. Since I am vegetarian, I would not join or start a community where animals are slaughtered. Those two things are my "non-negotiables" and everybody has some.

Hi Greta,

My name is Lee, I live in NJ and I am new to permies. I would love to come and visit, and help in this amazing endevor of yours. I am 39, very active, hard working and very handy. If you could please get back to me i would love to talk to you and tell you more about myself.

hi, just stumbled into this conversation.. i also live near you geta, hope to visit sometime this winter, when things slow down a bit.. i live in morley tn, work in the clearfork valley, have helped create a community land trust, a living//learning educational place also.. so excited to read this .. my name is carol judy

Greta, I live in the midlands of SC. Your place and ideas sound wonderful. I still work full time so am commited to this area for a few more years.
However, I would like to start visiting some of my fellow permies here in the southeast and maybe beyond. I am happy to pay for a couple of nights room and board - that is about all the time I can spare to be away at the moment. It would also be great to share in some kitchen and garden chores with people who are growing and preparing real food.
I have commitments from Jan - March 2014, but will be looking to do some light travel after that. If you would interested in visit please let me know.
Also, any other south east permies who are interested in this sort of thing please feel to contact me. Might be fun to do a visit and share it here on the forums.