To just say let's go - fuck it !

[stillvicarinatutu]

My fantasy - and I can't actually see why we couldn't do this .....

Group of us me be somewhere remote . Farm our own veg , keep hens and cows - eat our own eggs and milk , live a good life without killing anything, build yurts , teach our kids the really important things in life - nature , kindness, spelling and basic maths and science , share with our friends and neighbours and embrace our kids with differences as well as our nt kids - basically start a bloody hippy commune where we do t have to worry about our kids being bullied or our gas bills .

Anyone with me ? I'd go tomorrow. Had enough of politics and idiots . I just want to live a good life , love my animals , nurture my friends and cook and share.
Fancy the highlands of Scotland or somewhere equally off grid . We could club together. Fuck off . Forget liz fucking truss and that whole shit show and just live . Love our dogs and our cats and our cows and our hens , look after each other , raise kids as a village , live a bloody amazing life.

Sign up . I'd seriously do this if we had enough interest, people , and yurts !

If you’re not familiar with the terms some key words to Google on my view would be permaculture, regenerative agriculture, solarpunk

We've moved to rural france last year to grow fruit and veg. We are quite sufficient but honestly, it is very very hard to grow enough by yourself to feed yourself. And I've been growing veg for decades, was paid to do so for 8 years. It is basically a full time job and when the gluts happen there isn't enough hours in the day to process it all for future eating, and I've had to give away veg to over 10 different people here, in my first season of growing. And I'm not even talking about courgettes.

I do follow many homesteaders in the USA and so many of them are or have been seriously ill even though they grow organically, farm and slaughter their own meat, keep and eat their own chickens and eggs, milk their own cows etc.

I've also moved in those circles where people have an aim to live off grid in communes. Unfortunately what many people actually mean, is to have other people there to do the work whilst they swan about waxing lyrical about lentils. Ever tried growing a lentil? Or a chick pea? If you had you'd be shocked how much actual effort goes into growing them. How they can be sold at the prices they are sold at, is because they are grown by people who are paid an absolute pittance for the work they have done. And yet they are touted as the solution to starvation. They actually just shift the problem elsewhere. And in a commune the same applies, you will just end up with an unholy shit show as the women will do the backbone of the work whilst the men are in the barn making mead.

I know this isn’t the point, but I can’t get past I discourage my kids from uni and further education so they can continue our family traditions and continue our blood in the village

We moved from a UK city to a rural/coastal part of Ireland a few years ago and bought a large modern new build with a few acres and have a 30ft Polytunnel and keep a few chickens too. We don’t have a cockerel because I don’t want to be left with cockerel chicks and when a hen dies, we don’t eat her. I couldn’t eat any of my lovely hens but I do buy meat from the local butchers.

We love it here. We have made lots of friends locally and our DC. went to the local primary/secondary school so it wasn’t that much different to living in the U.K., but without the stupidity of Brexit, obviously.

DD visited somewhere like this in West Cornwall. I've always dreamed of living communally, but with my own space. There are some religious communities that live like this in the UK. Is the Findhorn Foundation still going? Not that they are necessarily religious.

I'm into archaeology and my own dream is to go somewhere hot and volunteer on a dig. I contacted the Egypt Exploration Society and said I'd just need a safe place to stay and I'd come over, but they said they don't take volunteers!

@stillvicarinatutu Have a look at Findhorn.org. Sorry I can't work out how to link.

Having visited a couple of intentional communities, I wish you good luck. I've not seen one that is genuinely self-sustaining. They all rely on attracting cash from outside the community (offering retreats, wellness services, and other similar fluffy activities). They all have a over-abundance of holistic therapists to form the committees to write the rules, and a shortage of plumbers/electricians to do the work that keeps the lights on and the toilets unblocked.

keep hens and cows - eat our own eggs and milk , live a good life without killing anything
This is the pipedream of the vegetarian good lifer. But to get milk requires calves/kids, and what do you do with the males? Neat moral fudge to consider eating eggs to not be killing anything, if you're doing the run free and wild approach to keeping chickens. I have no qualms about eggs or dairy, but I'm a realist and meat and fish can be sustainable protein sources for this type of community if you're not squeamish. And the squeamish won't make a community like this work.

Land prices make doing this in the UK expensive. But there are parts of central/western Europe where large estates can still bought cheaply. But the cheaper the land, the more work it will require to start generating a living from it.

Why keep cows if vegan? Unless you want leather or milk? Can be cute pets but you need land and people produce children. And bullying would still happen.

I’ll come but can we go somewhere warm??

I live in a village in Herefordshire. The big stately home up the road was turned into a commune in the 70s. They were all going to live together, farm the land and be peaceful and happy. It fell apart fairly quickly and the residents all live in separate apartments now in an entirely 'middle class people in a stately home apartment' way. Even amongst people who seem to have the same mindset there will be people who work harder/ are lazier than others. PP saying 'Sgn me up for the gardening'. The arguments the people above had about gardening were legendary. Some will want to rewild, some will want a level of tidiness, some will want gardens that resemble conventional gardens, some will feel flowers are essential, others will feel that vegetablesare the only thing allowed. All those people will expect an equal say. You will never have attended so many community meetings in your life as you will if you live in a commune . Cheeky fuckers get everywhere. Goats etc have to be fed and cleaned out. Fantastic on a lovely summers day. Not fantastic when it's cold and wet and the person whose turn it is has decided that they are going to sit in their yurt and contemplate their navel. Martyrs get everywhere as well. They wear very thin after a while too.

I'm up for it but have a few reservations. Money. How much will this cost to set up and how do we make money afterwards for Tesco deliveries? We could do weekend workshops and Airbnb, maybe a forest school but both need money to set up. And can I have a log cabin rather than a yurt?

I'm starting to get Animal Farm vibes...

Some neighbours of ours did this. Moved to a big farmstead to become self-sufficient and at first invited us all to visit,. Not heard from them for a while. I hope they are thriving. But they might be struggling.

I'm sorry your son was bullied OP. I had all sorts of fantasies when my son was bullied. some along your lines but most not as nice as yours.

This sort of thing? diggersanddreamers.org.uk/about/

This is the one I was looking for lammas.org.uk/en/welcome-to-lammas/

I would but I'm worried about my feet getting cold.

I would give it a go

I live in a small village in the west of Scotland, the nearest town is 10 miles away, the nearest Tesco is an hour drive away which includes a ferry crossing - we can only dream of a Tesco delivery!

I think it would quickly be a combo of Lord of the Flies and Green Man in the rain. There's a reason the whole of human history has been an attempt to escape nature.

Hey OP what's your life like now?

Sadly I think you're probably right

Great post. This sounds absolutely fascinating and I’d read a whole book on this ultimately unsuccessful experiment. What was the house?

@McLarenette I posted this above (and it doesn’t refer to this commune specifically) but Google / watch (4OD) ‘Eden: Paradise Lost’.

I’d really loathe it!

But happy if others find happiness with it

You’ve got to shut off all the gloom through SM and media though surely. I reckon if people did that more would find it happier even in their own home.