Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You will be making a big mistake in assuming that Boulder for the beauty, is the best place for a commune. It is not. The land is expensive, not very fertile and lacks sufficient water to raise crops and animals. Water is everything here and you would have to have sufficient irrigation water rights to maintain an agricultural farm except dry land farming.
You mentioned that you are from Buffalo. I grew up in Cheektowaga--I have been in Colorado for 30 years. Land in Western New York is inexpensive and very fertile with sufficient moisture. That area, in your own backyard is ideal.
Oh, you would say the people of Boulder care about the environment. Maybe some but not all. But most importantly people of Boulder do not work the land, do not know how to develop a subsistent, economical lifestyle. Their lives are anything but simple; their goals and rewards are the perceptions of themselves that they want others to admire. Many of Boulder talk the talk, but they will never walk the walk in hoeing a field. You need to settle in an area where the indigenous people know farming and animal husbandry. You need to learn from these people how to live a simple economical life.
You need to learn to work 7 days a week, morning to night, raising your crops and taking care of your animals. You need to learn that the only weeds you will deal with are the ones in your vegetable plots. You need to know that a massage is something that you do to an animals flank when he his injured. You need to know that wellness is achieved in these hardworking rural areas by a quilting bee, a sewing circle, or a church picnic; not by expensive over hyped foods and seminars. You must learn that wellness comes from helping those in dire need, and also having your own critical needs, that only your neighbors can satisfy. In this way you achieve wellness and you allow your neighbors to receive wellness by helping you. This is the simple communal life of a real community.
Yes, there are many rural fertile areas that are looking for people. These are the areas that you should seek. But you must realize these areas suffer from population loss because the work in hard; the entertainment is simple and the rewards are not what many aggressive, attention-seeking, educated people in society want.
Maybe you will be one of the few, that can endure these rural travails. And if you are on of those few, you can learn to live a simple life, close to nature, and be one of those few, who can
Livecontent
Ha! I think I'll stick to my 9-5. Now I see how Californians achieve this. Shop at Trader Joes and let them do the hard work. Is that right?
... Most of the communal members found out that the living arrangement never turned out to be so "egalitarian" as they thought it would be, and discord usually broke the communes up. Only a handful of the dozens if not hundreds of communes in this region survived longer than a year or two. Most of the members went back to "mainstream" living, and I doubt if too many of them looked back on their communal life with a great deal of nostalgia.
...at the courthouse, or strutting around a corporate boardroom in a power suit, or writing pithy posts on city-data. You just can't ever be sure . . .
Ha! Truth is stranger that fiction. Not to pick on poor Boulder, but I've noticed this thread at the top of the stack here for about the last week or so. Boulder? Commune? I'm gonna have to dig back through here and see what is said about the area called Ward. I wonder how it's doin'. When I was about 3 years old and just a bit too young for current events, there was this little event happening about 3 to 5 miles from us as we lived just down the block from Chatsworth Park. Anybody?
So what that article said to me is that they lived about 15 to a tent, the men poked all the smot and the women did all the cooking, dishes, and child rearing! How peaceful! For somebody.
To the OP; wow! You've got an incredible profile! Fear and loathing, huh? Add: one of my favorites.
Where were you 20 years ago? Oh, just born! Anyway. Lucky boyfriend. Your ideals are enticing, but as with all goals, you gotta start somewhere. If you can get into massage therapy, that's an awesome career I would think. I go about once every 6 to 8 weeks if I can afford it. My wife and I do it for health reasons and it's just awesome. We go to this young gal, she's maybe 21. She seems to have that "free spirit" life like you talk about. She was from San Diego and she lives in Pueblo! Can you believe that? We don't even have a Trader Joes.
I used to know a Lakota Native American Medicine Man and went to a sweat and followed a spiritual path that he showed me. It is awesome stuff. I can't say don't do this and don't do that because I did this and I did that! But I do spiritual stuff now and I haven't drank alcohol or been high on anything stronger than coffee for a long time! Oh, quit tobacco recently and that was a piece of cake. Explain that. Add: the sober part is my deal, not anyone elses. I have a broken off button and too much of a good thing is bad, right? I've almost killed myself many times, by accident if not by some other means. When you're in a blackout and keep on rolling, you just don't know what you do. It finally became scary for me. Problem for me with other mind-altering drugs? They lead me back to booze.
Sorry about the rant.
Sorry to keep editing, but I just got one more thought. We have this guy who works for us on an as needed basis and I've known him for over 3 years now. He is the coolest dude you could know. Total gentleman, hard worker (heck, he installs epoxy floors and he's excellent at a job I hate!), women would say he's really good-looking, he's got charm and charisma and stuff, he never seems to get into trouble. He's a good represent of the company and he always seems content whether he's working for us in or out of the country, or whether he's with his family and people. Heck, when he's with us, he's with his people too. What is he? I hear that he's a Gypsy. I know nothing of that, except negative connotations that I've read from Steven King books and from people in the Iowa area. So far he's been straight up with us where everyone else pretty much hasn't been. This guy lives the nomadic kind of life now that I think about it. I wonder more about this culture.
PSSS: What makes our message therapist so awesome is that, dispite her young age, she is very well versed on all aspects of the business. She is a great business person and sales person. She seems very healthy and happy to me, so she's gotta be doing something right. She uses kinesiology and seems to know very well the workings of the human skeletal system, muscular system, nervous system, etc. She's licensed and educated in this field. She uses that aroma therapy and those oils and hot rocks! She is strong and can really work say, my neck or back or whatever is the source of my pain and encourages and shows me how to do the exercise and stretches to prevent the injury from reoccuring or whatever she does. She seems to enjoy what she does. I give referrals and get free time, because it ain't exactly cheap. If it was, I'd go more often probably.
Last edited by McGowdog; 07-25-2008 at 04:12 PM..
Reason: add
McGowdog, you see like an amazing, upbeat, optimistic person with so many stories. I want to sit around and hear them all! Congratulations on being clean and sober it's a very hard thing to do. Hopefully this is a non-judgement zone but if not, so be it, it's reality - I had a MUCH bigger (and more expensive) problem than pot and I have been clean of it for almost year now and I have never felt better. I picked up pot again after not using for three years after I quit using coke. Cigarettes, I am almost done with. I smoke maybe three a day (at most) now. I was at two packs a day when I was using. But you surely have given me a lot of hope saying that it wasn't too hard to quit. I greatly admire your honesty and carefree attitude. Thank you for keeping the post so interesting. I'm taking all you said into consideration. When I get out there and get my license in MT, I'll get ahold of you! I'm a miracle worker too, and it will be free in trade for good stories! Thanks again for all the encouragement.
Livecontent - Cheektovegas, eh? Thank you so much for the reply! It really made my day! If I thought I would never have children, I would be back in Buffalo (well, Amherst) in a heartbeat. However, I plan on having many children and as great as my childhood was there, I just could never raise my children in Buffalo. The only thing keeping me from the snow and friendly people there, is my future! Your words are very inspiring, thanks for all the suggestions!
Jersey - I'll be sure to let you know when I get there! Thanks for the interest and for making me feel not-so-crazy, haha!!
As always, everyone: thank you sooo much for all your input, you all have helped me sort out my life a lot more. Who knew what the internet could do? Haha. Thanks everyone.
McGowdog, you see like an amazing, upbeat, optimistic person with so many stories.
Well thanks!
Oh gawd! Am I getting like my dad? If anything I've said has helped or inspired you, you're welcome.
The quitting smoking or in my case even worse, chewing Cope! wasn't THAT easy. It's just that my willingness met opportunity of the moment, I bought some hard candy to get me through the urges, and it was tough only mentally. Every 20 minutes for about 3 weeks it seems, I'd get the urge and just say, "Awe, I can't do that no more." With a $20.00 to $25.00/ week habit, that's enough to help pay for the petro I use just getting to work.
Now the other, I wish the organics would just be legalized and we'd maybe take care of the problems arising from that and see if the alcohol problems don't subside a bit. I would never partake again personally because of the spiritual thing. We all know the best high is an inside journey and it's so easy that it's hard to do. It's good you steered away from the hard stuff because that will take you down so fast because it "feels good." These little synapses in our brain remember that and don't care about our motives and our intentions. There's even worse stuff than that out there and I've got a couple of extended family members who-one may make it and the other is looking a prison for life. And personally, I don't care who knows I'm alergic to booze, as long as I never forget. If I stop talking about it, you'll know what's up. Most don't care. But enough do.
This is something I have been looking to do with my boyfriend and our friends for a LONG time. We are looking for a group of about 15-20 young adults (ages 18+) working together to live freely and happily in beautiful Boulder, Colorado! Ideally, we would like people around our age (your children and pets are MORE than welcome) working and living together as a family, having fun, enjoying the beauty of our earth and without having to give into the high-rising prices of living in society. Preferably, we would like to use little to no electricity and grow about 25%-50% of our own food.
As of yet, we have not worked out any annual/monthly fees but depending on the amount of people interested in helping us build this family, it may not be too much at all (this means the cost to live AT our commune would be probably under $100/month per person at the very most). Money is what should matter the LEAST here; we want this place to be as stress free as possible. There is no lease or contract involved with this.
Here is a little bit about my boyfriend and I. I am Maggie, he is Jerry. We are both twenty years old and very fun. I am looking to eventually get my license for Massage Therapy/Mental Wellness and he is just about to graduate College majoring in Videography/Editing/Camerawork. We laugh a lot, love the outdoors, adore animals, we smell alright, we work hard, we make everyone laugh, we love everyone, and everyone loves us. We drink on occasion, we smoke cigarettes, and we are extremely 420 friendly (being high is fine just do it with respect for others. We don't want ANYONE to be uncomfortable or feel pressured). Mainly we are looking for an easy-going, fun, LOVING, free, respectful, happy, "all the money goes into the pot" lifestyle. The less we have to work, the more we can really live, right? Right!
We already have a few people from around the country messaging us begging to leave some room for them - is anyone else interested? We are looking to start really trying to look for land, purchase land, and move out there next Spring (around April 2009) at the latest. We have a trip to Amsterdam that starts November 7th of this year and we aren't sure how long we are staying. Until then, we are saying April 2009! If all that are interested can't afford to make the trip or pay initial fees by April then everyone bring your tents, blankets, friends, clothes, and snacks and we will see you in the mountains!!
"You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one.
I hope some day you’ll join us,
And the world will live as one"
Hi, this is Jason from Orlando,FL. I just recently read your post about starting a commune in Boulder, Colorado. I currently a student at UCF and I am majoring in Anthropology. Lately, I have been reading about communities and this is something that has been intriguing to me. I have about a year left of school, and then I am off into the great big world. I was wondering about all the information I would need to embark on this commune idealistic way of living. I am 21 years old, I hate Orlano ( I am ready to get out), and I have a puppy.
It's a fascinating proposition no doubt. I have a lot of acreage in northern Wisconsin if you're interested...! Though not nearly as pretty....or interesting, etc.....
Obviously you are smart enough to know that it has both negatives and positives. That you recognize the negatives as real and attempt to keep moving forward speaks well of you, in my opinion.
As a person in my twenties on my way to Colorado just next week, I can see the attraction and draw of what you are trying to attempt. On it's surface it sounds idyllic. However, for myself, I love my modern society and am happily addicted to technology and cool cars and pre-made food. I can, and have, lived without a 55" inch LCD television, but I don't really want to!
That is just me of course.
I do wish you the best of luck in your endeavor though, I don't think it will be easy but it does sound like it could be immensely rewarding. Please let me know if you go through with it and if it does succeed, I'd love to visit. Just don't attack my SUV with compost...!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thank you so much for the reply! It really made my day! If I thought I would never have children, I would be back in Buffalo (well, Amherst) in a heartbeat. However, I plan on having many children and as great as my childhood was there, I just could never raise my children in Buffalo. The only thing keeping me from the snow and friendly people there, is my future! Your words are very inspiring, thanks for all the suggestions!
wasn't THAT easy. It's just that my willingness met opportunity of the moment, I bought some hard candy to get me through the urges, and it was tough only mentally. Every 20 minutes for about 3 weeks it seems, I'd get the urge and just say, "Awe, I can't do that no more." With a $20.00 to $25.00/ week habit, that's enough to help pay for the petro I use just getting to work.
Florida
