posted 14 hours ago
The honest version first
This is a long-term project. Not in the way people say "long-term" when they mean next year — in the way that means the first residents may not be living on the land for another seven to ten years. We are telling you this upfront because we would rather have fewer conversations with the right people than many conversations with people who needed something sooner.
The land exists. The intent is real. The timeline is what it is, and we won't dress it up to make it sound more immediately exciting than it is. If that kind of honesty feels refreshing rather than discouraging, you may be the kind of person we're looking for.
What this is
We are two partners — in life and in this — who own a historic estate on several hundred acres in the Arkansas Ozarks. The land has been in family hands for generations. It has existing structures, outbuildings, and significant undeveloped acreage with real potential. It is a working property with a history, and we take both seriously.
What we are building, slowly and deliberately, is an intentional community of 15–20 people who want to live meaningfully on that land — contributing to something that will outlast all of us. This is not a retreat center, a commune in the 1970s sense, or a place to come and be taken care of. It is an invitation to participate in something real.
Who we are
We are unconventional in most of the ways that matter. Between us we carry deep expertise in chronic pain management, medical cannabis consultation, technology, land stewardship, and a fairly serious commitment to understanding things properly before acting on them. We are the kind of people who will spend hours researching a question nobody asked yet, and then come back with a considered answer and three follow-up questions.
We are also both disabled. Chronic illness is part of our daily reality — serious, sometimes limiting, and actively being worked on. We are not defined by it, but we are shaped by it, and it has given us a particular clarity about what matters and what doesn't. It also means this project moves at the pace it moves at. We are not apologizing for that. We are naming it so you understand what you are stepping into.
Our spiritual lives are rich, eclectic, and rooted in traditions that predate most of what most people think of as religion. We engage with that seriously and academically. We do not require it of anyone else. We have no interest in spiritual uniformity — only in people who have done some honest thinking about who they are and why.
We have both lived across the full economic spectrum — from real wealth to genuine hardship and back. Neither left us with illusions about money being the point. We know what scarcity does to people and communities, and we have thought hard about how to build something that doesn't replicate those dynamics. This is a life project, not a wealth project.
We are warm, direct, occasionally blunt, and deeply allergic to performance. We care about intellectual honesty more than social comfort. We will disagree with you if we think you're wrong, and we expect the same in return. We are also genuinely kind people who believe in the value of community, shared meals, and showing up for each other. Those things are not in conflict.
A note on disability and access
Because disability is part of our lives, it is also part of how we think about this community. We are open — genuinely, not performatively — to people who live with physical or other limitations, as long as they are honest about what they can offer and what they cannot. We are not asking anyone to overextend themselves. We are asking everyone to show up at whatever their genuine best capacity is, and only each person can determine what that is.
What we are not interested in is people who use disability — their own or others' — as an explanation for why things can't happen rather than a factor in how they do. We have too much lived experience with that distinction to miss it.
What we are looking for — and what we are not
We want people who understand that participating in a genuine community is not passive. That does not mean grinding yourself down or sacrificing your wellbeing for a cause. It means consistent, honest presence — showing up with your actual self rather than the version you wish you were, and contributing meaningfully over time in whatever form that takes for you.
If the idea of intentional community appeals to you but the reality of sustained effort over a long horizon doesn't — that is a completely valid place to be, and we mean that without judgment. It just means this particular project is probably not the right fit. We would rather say that clearly now than waste each other's time discovering it later.
We are not building an ideological compound. We are not looking for people who agree with us about everything — in fact that would worry us. We are looking for people who can disagree, work through difficulty, and still share a meal at the end of the day. What we do ask is intellectual honesty, a genuine work ethic in whatever form is realistic for each person, and a real commitment to the land and the people on it.
Skills and backgrounds that would be especially useful
Permaculture / land stewardship
Construction / trades
Medical / healthcare
Food growing / preservation
Teaching / mentorship
Technology / systems
Mental health / counseling
Legal / organizational
Arts / creative
Animal husbandry
Water / energy systems
Conflict resolution
A note on technology and resilience
We are thoughtful users of technology, not its opponents. We have invested in infrastructure that allows us to benefit from emerging tools — including AI — on our own terms, without dependency on systems we don't understand or can't control. We believe technological self-sufficiency, including the capacity to function independently when external systems fail or are misused, is a form of community resilience most people haven't seriously considered yet. We have, and it informs how we think about building everything else.
Timeline — realistic, not optimistic
1
Now – Year 2: Finding the right people
No land access yet beyond occasional visits. This phase is entirely relational — identifying people, building trust, having honest conversations about what this will require and whether it fits. No commitments asked or given. The goal is to know who we're building with before we start building.
2
Years 2–5: Planning, frameworks, and skill-building
Governance structures, legal frameworks, and organizational models get worked out — on paper, in conversation, and through the kind of careful disagreement that actually produces durable agreements. Participants build relevant skills. Occasional site visits and light preparatory work on undeveloped areas begin. The people who make it through this phase are the ones who will actually build what comes next.
3
Years 5–7: Transition and early infrastructure
Dependent in part on circumstances outside our control — primarily family health — full-time presence on the land may begin in this window. Early infrastructure development starts in earnest. Energy, water, food systems, and living structures begin taking shape. Realistic about delays. Not deterred by them.
4
Years 7–10: Community takes shape
This is the most honest target window for a functioning residential community on the land. Population grows deliberately. Systems become increasingly self-sustaining. External relationships with regional networks, medical resources, and allied communities are cultivated. The community develops its own character — shaped by the people in it, not imposed from above.
5
Years 10–15: Maturity and resilience
A genuinely functioning intentional community on historic land. Not finished — nothing worth building ever is. But real, resilient, and capable of outlasting the people who built it. This is the goal. Everything before it is the work.
What we're asking right now
Nothing binding. We are at the beginning of a long process, and right now what we are doing is simply finding out who is out there — who is thinking about similar things, who has been frustrated by projects that didn't deliver, and who might be willing to commit to something slower and more honest in exchange for something more real.
If this post landed somewhere genuine for you, reach out. Tell us who you are, what you are looking for, and what you would bring — including what your limitations are, if that's relevant. We are not looking for perfect people. We are looking for honest ones.
We are based in the Arkansas Ozarks and are particularly interested in people in the broader NWA, Ozarks, and eastern Oklahoma region, though we are open to the right people from further away.
