Still Carryin' On

I'm looking to join, form or already affiliated with an Intentional Community?

Forming, looking for people

How did you find A Place for Gathering?

Right under "Resources" in ic.org

About Me:

1st generation "back-to-the-land", married 36 years now, moved to Idaho in 1974 in our early 20s. Mostly involved in farming since. Now "empty nesters", as our 3 adult children are following different paths. I think there are some young folk out there who want this way of life, though. It's hard now for young people, unless with others, to start in farming and a self-reliant rural life. Maybe we can be of service? We have 183 acres, 70 in tillage. Have been basically setting this place up as a village, more or less from an instinctive urge.

Hobbies:

Draft horses and their uses and restoring old iron, esp. horse equipm't., steam and early power tools. I want to learn about and erect old water-pumping windmills. And build a springhouse to refrigerate milk and butter using pond outflow water. Also building (I started with adobe in NM---re-intrigued by cob, also timber-framing).
The biggest thing though is the spiritual journey, and making my life COUNT...that is, doing the work of Spirit both on the physical and the emotional levels.

What kind of Skill and Support can you offer a community?

I can build a house or barn out of natural, available materials, I can handle a team of horses doing most tasks, I can restore old tools, restore soil fertility and make a crop of hay or grain, run a sawmill, cook a meal or bake bread on a wood cook stove, and sometimes make my wife laugh. I have a ranch paid for, lots of firewood, pure clean water in a beautiful glaciated river valley with not too many neighbors. I usually remember what is important and I know how to listen and how to forgive. I can repair a tractor, or lecture on history. Can't sing or dance, let alone play an instrument, but appreciate it all deeply.
I have patience, faith, and joy but am greedy for more.

What States are you interested in for Community?

Here in Northern Idaho.

My Visions or Views for Intentional Communities are:

I think we are heading for a train wreck as the American Empire exhausts itself...the long joyride at the expense of the Earth and her poorer people, is coming to an end. We need thousands of centers where people can learn how to get by well, which means also HELPING others, and not just stocking up on beans and bullets. I think that together we have far more of both power and economy than we do as isolated family units. High-technology "civilization" cannot be sustained much longer. We will live much simpler, and probably poorer in terms of accumulated junk, in the future.
We may also find that we are poorer in terms of life's necessities. We must learn to doctor & heal ourselves, grow our own food, provide our own shelter and clothing, with what is free & at hand. All THAT will take some getting used to.
We want to become one of those centers of learning the old, "primitive" ways that are more in tune with "economics as if people mattered", or as if The Planet mattered.
It will be work...but work needn't be a drag if we work together, and for meeting each other's needs, instead of just paying bills with Monopoly money. So---"Intentional Community".
There needs to be safe places where people can express their highest feelings, dreams and fantasies...there needs to be Lifeboats to offer refuge to people of good heart and vision who would survive the collapse of the Ship of Fools...therefore, the communities need to be in line with what is do-able forever within the environment without doing damage. Old ways, old and timeless wisdom must guide the people.
This is about empowering that wisdom which lives dormant in each one of us. It is available...."rarer than radium, more common than air, and nearer than your heartbeat".
We want to live in a community of friends, who care about each other and work together when needed...but also have the freedom to start their own individual enterprises, or work outside the community.
Could be like living in a village with private homes but everything else is accessible to all, freedom to move on & live on the land in COMMON.