Help wanted, space available in East Tennessee

My husband and I are considering a move to the area and will be down (from Maine) for a visit the first two weeks of August. If you and your wife are up for a visit we would love to connect. my email is larissa@larissadavis.com

Hello David,
I really resonate with you post on so many levels! I am in the process of planning my move to Eastern TN. this summer/fall.  You approach is clear, reasonable, direct and mater of fact, all of which I appreciate and practice myself. Your photo of your land is beautiful and the community sounds like it is really getting on it's way! I am heading out you way next week. I would LOVE to come visit you, the community and the land. It would be myself, my 15 yo and my friend. All of us are touring the area in search of just this type of community. We are nature loving, good hearted, hard working types with midwest values looking to start living the dream we have longed for. I really hope we can connect soon. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Here is my email as I see we both prefer that form of communication;
woodlandfox@protonmail.com

Kind regards,

Michele

Hi Michele,

I emailed you a couple of weeks ago, but haven't gotten a response. Maybe it went into spam?

-David

Hello:

Currently my husband and I live on two acres in Alabama near the Appalachians. I come from a family of generational small farmers.  I have been looking to join a group of responsible, ethical, considerate, conscientious, hard working and honest as much as one can be in a dishonest world.  We both worked in technical field but I had to retire after a prolong respiratory infection that I contacted in the early eighties.  I'm an oil and acrylic painter and graphene artist, writer, and sewist. I don't have to have a machine.  I can make a full garment by hand. We've been gardening for twenty years a variety of plants and trees fruits and vegetables.  I try to create green spaces for the animals.  We need them. They don't need us accept in terms of respect for the land so they can feed and live alongside us.  We don't have excessive habits.  We don't have dependent children. Well his are grown and I never did.  We have one dog named whiskey and she's fixed.  She was an abandoned puppy we took in.  We are clean and neat. We like music of all genres. My cup of coffee is the classical by Claude Debussey Claire de lune first thing in the morning.  We read a lot for pleasure but these days to learn ways to live off grid.  To be independent of the government tit.  We're in our sixties.  He's Haitian I'm African born in America.  I love to cook and bake also and of late I'm learning to can and pickle.  My mother and father were both cooks. We're good people and kind. No religious fanatism but I believe in the one true God and follow the ten commandments.  We can operate manual and automatic vehicles. But neither of us know how to drive a tractor or run farming equipment.  We both have some restoration and carpentry experience.  Our house is nearly 150 years old and required a lot of work. We both love to learn new things. We're not immune to sharing the work load.  We want to move onto a property with like minded people unafraid of the challenges facing us all but willing to solve problems as they arise.  Not run from them or hide behind delusion.  I've been looking since the early nineties. I might bring my 84 year old mother.  She's not an old fart. She's an avid gardener and completely independent.  We all practice fasting and eat only for energy. So we really aren't hobbling around.   We can swap emails and even do a conference call.  Hope to hear from you soon

Hi, I'm not sure if your message was for me or for the TN homestead, but you sound like great folks to live with and learn from. I don't eat meat and don't like dogs; no smoking or vaping; but it would be interesting to compare notes with you on skype or zoom!
Cheers,
-- Lynne

I was replying to David of TN Homesteading about his search for several families that might be interested in homesteading on his property and working together to share or Co- work.  I don't do zoom. But I will use signal.  Have you also looked into homesteading there? Are you on signal or telegram?  They both have video conferencing.  

Hi there, yes I found the email but a week too late to meet up on my last trip. I will respond in full within an
email.

Thanks,
Michele

David Michael wrote:Hi all, I'm new to this forum and not the most frequent user of any kind of forum. After reading through some of the posts here, I'm wishing I would have come across this years ago. My wife and I have been homesteading on our own for years now. We wanted to work with others to ease the burdens and reduce the risks of working alone, but we never met anyone who would or could move to the country like we did, aside from being people we felt would be good neighbors. Progress has been hard, but we've built some infrastructure and gathered some resources on our land in Cocke County, TN. We have nearly 100 acres of rolling hills, mostly wooded, many beautiful homesites, 3 septic systems, 2 wells, springs and a pond. We are open to a variety of purchase / rent / lease / barter options. All we ask is that you have good values, ethics and morals. We hope to someday have a tight knit group of 6 or 7 families working together to provide for all our needs in a sustainable way. We have also developed ways to earn outside income if that is necessary for you. We do not have the means or the intention to pay any wages.

Some of the key issues I've seen discussed here are code restrictions, legal and binding agreements, and organic or sustainable living. This county has no codes or zoning. This State requires licensed installers of mobile homes. The county, state and federal EPA requires septic permits. I'm pretty sure there are no other restrictions. We insist on properly executed and legally binding agreements whatever they may be. We are adamant about healthy land and food for ourselves, but if you want to eat chemically enhanced tomatoes, we won't stop you.

We do have at least four like-minded neighbors with about 200 acres among them and significant resources of their own. We are not as 'close' as I would like to be, i.e. truly working together toward a common goal, but perhaps in the future...

hi there! if you are still looking for good help, please reach out. i'm up north but looking to move wherever for a good off grid fit/vibe.

This community you are slowly and deliberately developing sounds so good for folks.

I am in east tennessee and send good blessings your way.

Am also bumping the thread to bring this vision to new eyes and hearts.

Hi David! This is exactly what I and my wife have been seeking. We are homesteader types, and value our freedoms as you do. We are actively seeking property in east TN. I do everything trade related, and am an amateur permaculturist. I have a handyman business and other farm related enterprises here in crazy land Vermont. My wife quit her corporate job and trains wild horses, the American mustangs. We need good people, kind people, like minded free spirited and responsible people in this country and hope to find a community of folk like that. We’re planning some sort of scouting visit this fall. I’m busy wrapping up a lot of excavating work on our current property to get ready to sell. Please email me at nathanmacalpinevt@gmail.com

Hope to hear from you!!!

Dear David,
I just hope that you are still looking for people to join in. I found out about homesteading about 4 years ago, and it has never left my mind since.

I grew up in Siberia, where developing plots of land often were the only way to survive when I was growing up back in 90-ies and when our society collapsed.

We lived through 10 years of literal no-law-or-order and no-means-to-live period and that implanted in me  deep understanding that if you don't start helping yourself - no one will. Plus I acquired some good valuable skills - from community cooking for large numbers of people to processing birds, fish, and small animals, to knitting wool clothes to order to canning to bread making to sewing and alteration to "never give up" attitude.

We live in MD, my husband is a truck driver and want to stay such (he can work in any part of the country) and we are fairly established - I have a good job (something like a project manager with the State), insurance, friends, 2 kids... and yet I'm looking to give it all up to give our kids a chance to live in a normal situation around normal people, know where and how food come from, learn better things than strange things schools are forced to teach... AND peruse my dream.

Right now we're getting resources to build my backyard garden for the next season - pallets, would chips, food scraps for compost. But my strongest passion is raising animals and farm birds - which is not allowed where you live unless you have acreage (and cost of acreage in Maryland fits a millioneer).

I wish we could just go and buy the land in another state and homestead, but know the reality: my husband,
though very supportive, wouldn't be able to be of much help as he needs to keep his job to pay debts we have since the time he had cancer.

Actually, he can make mead (honeywine), quite tasty, and distill (which doesn't need his 100% being present).

However,  it will leave me with 2 small kids (4 and 6) to do the entire homestead by myself which is somewhat hard.

Therefore I am looking for a situation when there is a group of people come together as community to build something and join in, as long as this community is like-minded, working hard, and not embracing all the... substance that is hitting the fan now.

It's just the beginning of my search, and hopes to find something are high. Well, if they would be in vain, I'm putting together a plan to find a bunch of people - a lot are looking for something here - and see if we can form a group to pitch in and make out dreams the reality.

I would greatly appreciate your reply.
We are reachable at ele.quillen@gmail.com

Sincerely,
Eleonora

Eleonora Quillen wrote:Dear David,
I just hope that you are still looking for people to join in. I found out about homesteading about 4 years ago, and it has never left my mind since.

I grew up in Siberia, where developing plots of land often were the only way to survive when I was growing up back in 90-ies and when our society collapsed.

We lived through 10 years of literal no-law-or-order and no-means-to-live period and that implanted in me  deep understanding that if you don't start helping yourself - no one will. Plus I acquired some good valuable skills - from community cooking for large numbers of people to processing birds, fish, and small animals, to knitting wool clothes to order to canning to bread making to sewing and alteration to "never give up" attitude.

We live in MD, my husband is a truck driver and want to stay such (he can work in any part of the country) and we are fairly established - I have a good job (something like a project manager with the State), insurance, friends, 2 kids... and yet I'm looking to give it all up to give our kids a chance to live in a normal situation around normal people, know where and how food come from, learn better things than strange things schools are forced to teach... AND peruse my dream.

Right now we're getting resources to build my backyard garden for the next season - pallets, would chips, food scraps for compost. But my strongest passion is raising animals and farm birds - which is not allowed where you live unless you have acreage (and cost of acreage in Maryland fits a millioneer).

I wish we could just go and buy the land in another state and homestead, but know the reality: my husband,
though very supportive, wouldn't be able to be of much help as he needs to keep his job to pay debts we have since the time he had cancer.

Actually, he can make mead (honeywine), quite tasty, and distill (which doesn't need his 100% being present).

However,  it will leave me with 2 small kids (4 and 6) to do the entire homestead by myself which is somewhat hard.

Therefore I am looking for a situation when there is a group of people come together as community to build something and join in, as long as this community is like-minded, working hard, and not embracing all the... substance that is hitting the fan now.

It's just the beginning of my search, and hopes to find something are high. Well, if they would be in vain, I'm putting together a plan to find a bunch of people - a lot are looking for something here - and see if we can form a group to pitch in and make out dreams the reality.

I would greatly appreciate your reply.
We are reachable at ele.quillen@gmail.com

Sincerely,
Eleonora

Hi! God bless you Eleonora. I am touched by you and your husbands devotion to your kids and their future. I hope you find a path forward. David did send me his phone number and i have yet to call him. Keep up hope!

Nathan MacAilpin wrote:

Hi! God bless you Eleonora. I am touched by you and your husbands devotion to your kids and their future. I hope you find a path forward. David did send me his phone number and i have yet to call him. Keep up hope!

Thank you, Nathan!
When you call him, would you please ask him to have a look at my post? May be something good will happen?

Hi my name is Gina,
    I would love to speak with you more and ask some questions. Please email me at prettypawsreginar12@gmail.com

I'm not on permies regularly, but I pop in and camp out for a while now and then,  and then it drops off my radar for a bit again!  So, just seeing this now.  

How are things going with this project and contacting folks?   I'm exploring options for possibly "retiring" out of MA and moving somewhere a bit warmer and more affordable.   I'd have a modest cash amt. to invest in a property and small cabin/ tiny home type situation, and then I've got experience and skills with farming, gardening, dog training,  raising animals in general, etc.   At 51 I'd be able to offer experience, and possibly product contributions, more than physical labor, although I'm definitely still able and independent!   Looking at my "end game" plan,  where and how I want to spend,  curious in exploring any and all options.  

I am very interested in talking with you. Me & my friend are currently living this way but unfortunately the landowner passed away & didn't have anything in the will to protect us staying here so we need to find a new location & like minded people. We both have rvs & she has a tiny home as well. Both of us would be very interested in your project/vision. We have many skills that would be helpful.I look forward to hearing from you. My email is
scain4491@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Samantha

Samantha Cain wrote:I am very interested in talking with you. Me & my friend are currently living this way but unfortunately the landowner passed away & didn't have anything in the will to protect us staying here so we need to find a new location & like minded people. We both have rvs & she has a tiny home as well. Both of us would be very interested in your project/vision. We have many skills that would be helpful.I look forward to hearing from you. My email is
scain4491@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Samantha

Hi Samantha,

I sent you an email a couple of days ago.  No rush on answering, just wanted to let you know here in case it went into your spam or something.

Hi David,

My fiance and I are hoping to find some land in East TN to setup a permaculture homestead. The idea of having a community of like minded people sounds lovely. We would be interested in purchasing 10-20 acres. If you're still looking for people, we'd love to come by for a visit.

Hello David. I've been looking for what your talking about for months now. This country is headed in the wrong direction and I'm looking for exactly what your offering. We have to do this life style to survive what is coming. Unless the Lord takes us home first. I would like to talk more. My email is dougfausset@gmail.com. Thank you.

Hi im elijah west in 27 and very interested in being apart of your hometead community. Im going to pm you some info about myself

Hi David my name is Dianna, my husband and our 13 yr old daughter just recently bought and RV. We are very interested in going off the grid with like minded individuals and help one another. We currently live in Okeechobee Florida. I myself have been interested in this life style for nearly 15 years. My husband works 7 days a week running a Detail Center and full service car wash. I my self home school and take care of whatever else needs to be done around the home. Both my husband and I have both have owned and operated Landscaping businesses with island design and tree ret. My husband has also ran mechanical centers. We are hard working and ready to help where needed. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely Dianna and Richard
772-209-0605- Richard
jensenamber15@yahoo.com

Hi there David!

My name is Jay.
Is this thread still relevant/active?

I'm very interested and would love to hear more!
I have some skills in growing, building, and fixing things!

Cheers!

Howdy, not sure if you are still looking for someone, but my boyfriend and I are considering options of either starting our own community/homestead from scratch or joining an already existing one. We'd prefer to buy if possible. If you are still interested my email is gyro7391217@gmail.com, I'd love to hear about you and tell you about myself too!

Hi David my husband and I tried to call you yesterday. We left you a message on your voice mail.
If you could call us back our number is 771-209-0605

Hello David Michael,
What a "coincidence" that I saw your post today. I have been looking for a bit of land up and down the east Tennessee foothills for space, peace, nature, gardening, chickens.... while working with like-minded people to thrive together would be such a gift. I am in the process of selling our Blount County home. I would love to meet you and neighbors and see the land. If you still have some land available and we all feel a connection, well, we could see where it goes.  If no more land, then maybe there's some adjacent for sale.  It would be so refreshing to have neighbors like you. Please let me know if I can visit. bbloobrice@gmail.com
Best of life,
Bella & Dick

Just wanted to  let everyone know that we're still here and yes, we are still looking.

We have a couple who are moving into the mobile home at the end of next month while they build their place; the building for the sawmill is going up; roads and garden beds are being built, etc.

So if I don't respond right away, it's probably because I haven't been near the computer yet.

Hi David, I hope this find you well. I would love for you to shoot me an email so we can talk a bit more in depth but I believe you have an amazing mindset, and canvas to explore. I am looking for a situation like what you are providing and searching for in community. I look forward to hearing from you and discussing ideas and exploring potential. dacotte777@hotmail.com

Hi David,
I see your original post is from a year ago but I was curious how things are going with your community building? Hopefully by now you've attracted some kindred folks with skills to share and are well on your way to creating the sustainable wilderness oasis you envisioned!
I am currently looking for a community such as you describe. I am a 40 year old female, mother of a 9 year old boy who is homeschooled, and I own a 25 ft trailer which we live in full time. For the past year we have been on land in rural southwest Idaho, on a friend's homestead. But I'd really love to be where there are multiple families working to build together (more hands, skills, more resources = more possibilities, lighter work load!) and I am looking to move a bit more south due to the harsh Idaho winters. My son and I have experience working/living rurally, land development projects, gardening and caretaking animals. I have studied extensively and been self-employed in the field of holistic medicine for several years and bring that knowledge as a benefit to share with community. I deeply share your values of living in co-creation with nature and in service of life. I values personal health sovereignty and interdependence and building self-sufficiency. But finding the right community all starts with relationship. So if you are still looking for folks to join you on your land, I would like to chat and explore further. You can reach out to me at yoursovereignbody@proton.me

Warmly,
Anna

Hi David,

I'm quite interested in talking about your place and hopefully visiting this summer. I sent a purple mooseage.

Happy days!

Kirby

I'm very interested as we seem to be like-minded.  You can private chat me anytime and do you have any updates?  Thanks! Lilia

From my experience and studies it seems like this sort of arrangement, given competition for our energy/time from the mainstream economy, does not cohere without either a guru and associated hierarchy and shared dogmatic beliefs, and/or some deep economic (meaning sharing our gifts/talents/goods/services primarily with our community members, not about money) interdependence/responsibilities towards other community members. The only way I would be part of a community is if strong agreements were made about creating inter-dependence, otherwise the mainstream wins. If the mainstream collapsed these agreements would not be necessary, inter-dependence would naturally evolve, but what evolves now for liberal communities is almost completely independent homesteads (well, they're all dependent on the mainstream economy instead of each other), or else for conservative communities the guru and hierarchy.

Would you be interested in coming up with agreements to create inter-dependence? I have some in mind based on what works in natural (non-human) systems, but also what Elinor Ostrom found works in human groups. I can share them with you and anyone else who is interested, and I am open to modifying them. They're designed to avoid the problem of not enough coherence and other problems that happen when groups like this one try to form. clejan.iuval at gmail

Hi Iuval,

I would definitely be interested in any advice you have to offer. We are (I think) largely in the category of "sharing our gifts/talents/goods/services primarily with our community members, not about money". Some people are more willing to let go of what I call "score-keeping" than others. I have always tried to promote the concept of karma in this regard though very informally. We are all still dependent upon the mainstream economy because we have yet to become self-sustaining, but that is our (common) goal. Perhaps this is a bit of the "shared dogmatic beliefs" you referred to? I don't think anyone here is particularly dogmatic, but we do have pretty clear shared goals that tend to help bind us together.

One thing we definitely want to avoid is any kind of Guru or rigid hierarchy. I have been developing the legal framework for an intentional community that we all agree on. It incorporates the community and creates rules for decision making at the local level that do not conflict with, and are enforceable at higher government levels. In most cases decision making requires consensus minus one. A few cases only require a 2/3's majority. I am confident that we are implementing a system Dr. Ostrom would recognize and applaud.

David Michael wrote:Hi Iuval,

I would definitely be interested in any advice you have to offer. We are (I think) largely in the category of "sharing our gifts/talents/goods/services primarily with our community members, not about money". Some people are more willing to let go of what I call "score-keeping" than others. I have always tried to promote the concept of karma in this regard though very informally. We are all still dependent upon the mainstream economy because we have yet to become self-sustaining, but that is our (common) goal. Perhaps this is a bit of the "shared dogmatic beliefs" you referred to? I don't think anyone here is particularly dogmatic, but we do have pretty clear shared goals that tend to help bind us together.

Yeah, if everyone shares these beliefs it should help bind you together. Though people might mean different things by "self-sustaining". Some people mean food, some people mean solar panels, some people mean no need to interact with global economy anymore. These can come up later to bite you if you don't get clarity up front.

David Michael wrote:One thing we definitely want to avoid is any kind of Guru or rigid hierarchy. I have been developing the legal framework for an intentional community that we all agree on. It incorporates the community and creates rules for decision making at the local level that do not conflict with, and are enforceable at higher government levels. In most cases decision making requires consensus minus one. A few cases only require a 2/3's majority. I am confident that we are implementing a system Dr. Ostrom would recognize and applaud.

Ostrom helps you avoid the tragedy of the commons. What it doesn't help you do is establish the right scale for family (vs community), or achieve enough coherence between families. Some communes try to do family (share domestic space and a certain level of intimacy) on a scale beyond a few adults (the scale of community) and it usually doesn't work out for long. Others (sometimes ones that have tried the communal model and found it lacking on the community scale) have separate families without enough "glue" (from shared beliefs, activities and economic exchange) and then they feel like they are missing something deep that was lost when we stopped being tribal.

So agreements may need to go further than governance, but the kind of deep agreements that would lead to coherence in the face of the global economy might make liberal-mined people feel too constrained, too responsible to others.

Dear David,

It was more than interesting reading your entire thread on Permies. I really admired your work, the wording in your posts and your persistence over this long period of time. It looks like you have now a good size community together and am curious if you are still looking for additional members or are open for a visit to learn from your experience.

In the last plus ten years, I did Perma-Culture classes and many homesteading experiments on our 6 acre irrigated property in Arizona. Raised picks and ducks, build a chicken plugger for quick processing, run a 150 square feet Aquaponic System year-round in an insulated green house for 8 years.

Since March I am in the process of moving to Tennessee, including my long held dream to create community. Meeting a fellow co-creator here we worked hard for close to 3 month, found 25 interested people joining our Telegram group and moved 10 of them into a preliminary founders group.

Two weeks ago I ended my engagement realizing some concerning differences in our vision and values and also our lack of Structure and sufficient process. I received consulting from Chloe Buzetto who spoke at the last Exit and Build conference in Texas and received more information from Diane Leaf Christian as well, besides reading her amazing book about Creating a Life together.  

My friend Ann and myself are working on better presentation of our project, a new vetting procedure and our member agreements as proposals to be discussed. This means starting from scratch but we also like to to learn about existing communities and might join one if it feels right on both sides.

Time is of the essence right now and with all the troubles on the horizon the question arises how much time is left to do it right. I am really looking forward to your feedback and hopefully we can meet. Your writing was very clear, heartfelt and straight, I liked that.

Wishing all the Best for now
Manfred Steibli
fredmans@proton,me

Hi David,

My partner and I currently live in Vermont where winters are long and taxes are high. We have just put the property on the market with the hopes of selling and moving south. We do have 3 dwellings on 18 acres, so the thought of forming some kind of community here has crossed our minds, but living in VT long-term doesn't feel sustainable for many reasons.

We are looking to head south to a red state with longer growing season and lower property taxes and would love to be near good people who want to help each other out. Purchasing 20 acres or so and building a home (if indeed building is even an option these days - perhaps erecting a yurt would be more realistic!) close to folks who want to pitch in to help each other, without being in a heavily restricted intentional community that is full of meetings and rife would be ideal for us. Originally from the UK, the idea of a village comes to mind. Clif lived in an intentional community before and the structure became overbearing.

We homestead in a harsh climate on 18 acres - we are used to rolling hills and country life! Clif is a naturopathic doctor and, before that, a biodynamic farmer. We keep bees, gardens, chickens, ducks, 2 dogs, and 2 horses. I'm a former software project manager, turned web designer/brand consultant but now want to give up the screen and focus attention on land, medicinal herbs, and more natural life. I'm also loosely qualified as a nutritional & massage therapist, and am about to take a foundational class in BioGeometry. I grew up on a pig & PYO farm in England - farming and gardening is in my blood. I'm happiest when my hands are in the dirt or the fur of an animal.

I'm a 51 yo female. Clif a 60 yo male. We're both fit and strong, practical, caring, kind, honest, and with good humor.

We were looking at the Abingdon, VA area so your spot is not a far cry for us. Would love to communicate about possibilities with you if there are any, when you have time. Even if not on your land, perhaps close-by.

My email is louinvermont@icloud.com.

Cheers!

Hi David, Im currently looking to purchase land in eastern TN with the same values and intent you’re describing. Maybe we can work together on your land or can buy get something nearby you. shoot me an email atexchew@gmail.com

-Austin

Hi everyone. The community in which you speak of sounds amazing. I'm a like minded person stuck in a society that is unwanted or unneeded by me. I have a strong background in construction,  some gardening experience,  and am.one hell of a story teller 😃.  I'm looking to escape from this so called modern life, go back to when it was simpler. Loving your neighbor,  helping your neighbor just because. I'd love to become a member of your small community. I do hope to hear back.

Hello, like minded person here and wondering if you are still searching??  Thank you!  :)