[Hi. I've never been on this forum. Have you ever been up near Bellingham, WA? I THINK people in Whatcom County would be more your style. They are mostly nice, friendly, and talk to you. I would love be to see more off-grid communities here, because my son converted a mini bus to live in, and is interested in a shared community. I read about one from 2018.
quote=Melissa Bee]I'm in north Seattle, currently buying in Kitsap County. The sellers have accepted my offer, but there's an easement through the property that has to be formally removed from county records, and the sale is contingent upon them getting it done. The wheels of bureaucracy turn with excruciating slowness, but, fingers crossed, I should be able to take possession before the end of January. The property is exactly what I wanted, and is worth the wait.
In some ways, I'm amazed that there isn't more of a permaculture community here in Western Washington. I've met so many people over the 26 years I've lived here who have known what permaculture is, and expressed interest in it. And yhey don't seem to come together like they do in other places.
Then again, there is the infamous "Seattle Freeze," which extends far beyond Seattle (I first encountered it after moving from San Francisco to Bellingham). People here may be surface-level nice, but they're not genuinely friendly or sociable, and they tend not to be joiners. Getting a group together for anything is bafflingly difficult; people express interest, then simply don't show up, and it takes dogged persistence to get a small core group established.
Go to the Midwest, or much of the South, and people are really friendly--it's kind of a shock when I leave the Nortwest and other humans in the places I visit actually want to have conversations with me! I have to remind myself that they are exhibiting normal and appropriate social behavior, and that I come from a deeply weird and stand-offish place.
As an introvert, I'm generally okay with it, but it does get frustrating at times when I recognize that having a thriving, active, close-knit community of fellow enthusiasts would make things so much better for everybody involved--and there simply isn't one.
