Permaculture paradise in the redwood forest has opening for maintenance person (s)

Intentional community of ~8 individuals in the Santa Cruz mountains of California seeks to add a member or two who is specifically gifted or eager and self motivated to learn how to “fix and maintain electrical, plumbing, trucks, tractors, chain saws, water pumps, general kitchen appliances”

About us: we live in a mature food forest within the redwoods (avocados, figs, citrus, mulberries, raspberries, apricots, hardy kiwi etc) with a (rustic) community kitchen, high tunnel, annual garden space, wood shop, welding space, tractor, lumber mill, every tool imaginable… we run on solar and recently updated our battery system to allow for greater use of power.

We do not sell our foodstuffs (except for some occasional things like mulberries and nursery trees) but strive to can and ferment the abundance. Our main source of income is rent from non-community members living in several cabins on the land.

If you have the skill, you would be welcome to build your own small cabin to live in. Otherwise, sleeping in a tent is available for the time being. If you don’t have the skill to build your own cabin but you are fulfilling a more mechanically inclined role here, we would certainly work to build you a small cabin.

We generally request 25 hours of “work” a week to live here. That grants you access to bulk food items in the kitchen (eggs, beans, rice, coffee, flour etc) and whatever is available to eat from the food forest and annual garden (currently LOTS of mulberries, raspberries and some citrus and greens… tomatoes and Cukes on the way). Frequently someone cooks lunch and dinner and food is shared. You are also welcome to purchase personal items and label them to store in the kitchen. We do all eat meat… sometimes we find a fresh roadkill deer or shoot one. We also buy some beef from the store.

The climate here is pretty sweet, generally between 65 and 75 in the summer, though climate change has us experiencing some heat waves of 80+ degree weather. We do have a fish pond in the community kitchen full of cool water that is pleasant to dunk in!

We accept WWOOF and work away volunteers, so there are frequently new, shorter term people around… though sometimes those people turn into long term members if the fit is right!

If you think you sound like a good fit and we could mutually benefit each other, please reach out to Maggie at 315-854-2605. Text first please.

I have years of mechanical experience. I am also Experienced in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing.Ive been seeking to escape the rat race of society. Working 60+ hours a week leaves you tired an no real sense of accomplishment. I’ve always been more comfortable in nature. I’d love to be a part of something that at the end of the day I know who and what I’ve contributed to. I’m originally planning, soon, to head to the woods and live away from the world. But, I would love to join a community. If there’s space and a need for my skills and work please contact me.

Mike

Work Trade exchanges on the workers part in general go double what they would be paid *cash* for because when you receive compensation for skills, labor, and services rendered the trade has little value compared to *cash* because it has no freedom, the worker can't buy anything with it so it doesn't have the same value.

I lived in a isolated community in the mountains where work trading is common. To deal with disputes that naturally rise it has been recognized that the worker does deserve a higher rate because the value is so narrow in scope, you can't spend it or make choices with it but the work of a tractor mechanic for example is super valuable and saves a bundle for the receiver is services.

A mechanic generally gets paid any where from $25-$100 per hour, generally around $40.

25 hours weekly would cost you $1000.00 for you to hire a mechanic, at the humane rate that should be applied to trades the value you would be receiving is more like $2000.00 a week to have a mechanic providing thT much work for you.

Similarly with plumbers and electricians.

I'm curious how much you rent your cabins for.

At 25 hours a week it's pretty consuming and actually a lot to ask the worker to then go get a paying job off site to support themselves where they would be receive a higher salary.

Work traders lose freedom, it's not the best arrangement unless it's for like five hours a week because it's basically feudalism, and the worker does not have the freedom and liberty that *cash* provides them. They can't save up and move out, they provide tons of help but if they want to move on they have no funds to do it because they were receiving no pay. It's servitude, similar to slavery, not to compare it to American slavery of African people, but more like old school slavery in that spaces don't have the benefit of accumulating wealth for independence or to pass on to the children as do say land lords etc.


A mechanic could provide those services to Santa Cruz and live in their own cabin as a free human making choices of what you buy, aka it would allow them liberty as a human in today's society, where as work trade for the worker is taking a step back in social evolution several years. It sounds like the business you run is totally dependent on this worker you seek for maintaining cabins, water, electricity and anything mechanical while the owners are making a profit of the land, the work, and the worker.

So I'm wondering if in exchange for such a valuable commodity such as mechanic, electrician, plumber, carpenter if you would drop the number of hours required enormously, or also pay $25/hour for the services while providing one of your commodity rentals, or a percentage of your profits for integral services rendered?

Mike Gary wrote:I have years of mechanical experience. I am also Experienced in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing.Ive been seeking to escape the rat race of society. Working 60+ hours a week leaves you tired an no real sense of accomplishment. I’ve always been more comfortable in nature. I’d love to be a part of something that at the end of the day I know who and what I’ve contributed to. I’m originally planning, soon, to head to the woods and live away from the world. But, I would love to join a community. If there’s space and a need for my skills and work please contact me.

Mike

Sounds more like an air BNB retreat than a community. They have an income they live off from workers so it's more like a business that relies on volunteers who are provided tent space, sort of like owning a tool and putting the tool in a Costco canopy that came with the to. Itt doesn't appear like they have an operative farm that produces enough sustenance to feed a community, but has the types of fruit trees and vines that can be left to grow and don't require pruning etc., I could be wrong but I don't recall reading about a farm or real community. Sounds like you would be the lower strata of any conceptual community in that they profit off the land and you, but you are a worker, like an auxillary to the conceptual community of 8.

I could be wrong, but just trying to add helpful perspective.