Intentional Communities in Indiana (Bloomington: housing, building, farm)

[billman5000]

I'm not calling all IC's "cults". Just watch out for that one.

[apmama]

I've been looking into this myself. I know a lot of other families who talk about being interested but aren't in the right place right now to do it. The intentional community link that was already posted is about all there is to find in indiana. They are mostly just in the idea stages on there and have been for some time. I'm wanting to set up something in a few years time myself.. We are saving money to purchase land now but it will be a few years before that happens. We're hoping to purchase land near Indianapolis since our family is here and it would be awesome to let school children visit for fieldtrips to see organic farming and alternative/green building. There is a community I found called simpler times village. You can find them on the web, but it's not really what I'm looking for or what you described. It's more of a intentional city where everyone operates independantly and tries to attract tourists. Feel free to email me if you want to talk more about your ideas!

[kirkifer]

Hey Billman,

I was not offended, because I think I know what you were getting at.

Apmama

Thanks. The simpler times village appears to be another one of the new urbanization concepts, albeit with a touch of intentionalism. The Village at West Clay is another example and now Fishers has TIF'ed a large section of downtown and apparently are planning on exercising the abusive eminent domain power to build their own revitalized urban concept. It looks like Avon may now be working on their own Fruitopia. How many of these revitalizations are possible before none of them are unique?

Yes, they are neat in their own right, but what I am going after is self-sufficiency. Someone had mentioned the Amish, but I do not plan on driving around in a buggy anytime soon, unless the fuel prices continue to climb. Hmmm, whoever said the buggy whip business was outdated?

The ideal community would allow for appliances such as rain gutters plumbed into a common pond or cisterns for reuse as irrigation, wind or solar power generation that could be properly apportioned based on generation/consumption. Much of my winter heating would be produced by high efficiency fireplaces in the individual home structures that are plumbed into HVAC ducts and so forth. These sorts of things are dependent on architectural guidelines acceptance of such devices.

As far as the intentional community portion, nothing works as a natural antihistamine better than consumption of locally harvested honey. The bees of course could be farmed by the community. There is a lot of concern about the quality of commercially produced foods. Many Naturopathic or Homeopathic Doctors are raising big concerns over links of this to many modern disease epidemics. Enough so that I am concerned and I am pretty easy going... Really, just imagine how many growth hormones we all consume daily, yuck.

I know of a few people who will not consume homogenized/pasteurized milk, opting for buying fresh from the dairy stuff. Some people claim that there is a huge difference in farm fresh eggs as compared to what is available in the store.

Imagine stopping at the community store on your way home from work and buying fresh milk in the old glass bottles and a dozen freshly laid eggs. Mmmm, Mmmm.

[domergurl]

Whenever I go back to my parent's house, I always pick up farm fresh eggs from a local Amish family. They get the eggs in the morning and put them out in their little outbuilding with a collection box and a clipboard to tell them how many eggs you took and how much you paid ... totally honor system! Love it and the eggs are so much better than store bought. I especially love it when I find a farm that has brown eggs. I do the same thing when they put out there fresh produce from their immaculate gardens. Same honor system.

I guess I brought up the Amish because you specifically mentioned dependence on carbon fuel sources ... they sure aren't!!!

[kirkifer]

That is really neat. There are probably some communities that are set up in a similar fashion. At summer harvest time, it seems there are a lot of Indiana folks who lay their vegatables out and go for the honor system. That is a good thing to know that it is something that still happens.

[domergurl]

The Amish view it that you will pay because it's the right thing to do.

[apmama]

We eat almost exclusively organic, which includes milk and eggs. I would love to have chickens as well as a communal cow or two. mmm fresh organic cow's milk I want a cob house a composting toilet and solar power. I want a car that runs on veggie oil and sheep and alpacas for their wool. We already garden and produce most of our vegetables for the year, I make all of our bread and made all of my son's cloth diapers. We're on our way to self sufficiency, but it will be a couple years until we buy land since I'm a pre-med student right now.

As for the amish, I have worked with them a lot assisting at their homebirths and have learned that they sometimes value mondern things over their traditions. For example, I wouldn't assume their milk, eggs, or veggies are chemical and hormone free. I know amish who charge batteries through the electrical line on their property in order to use them to power their homes, and some who have phones in their barns because as long as they're not in their house it's fine.

[domergurl]

It depends on their Bishop. Some are more liberal than others. The Amish community around us cannot have phones on their property ... only communal phone booths. It was a big deal when the local Bishop ok'd voicemail and recumbant bikes ... woo hoo!!! When I was older, I understood why I always had amish babysitters ... TV!!!!!

[kirkifer]

Apamama, I tried to send you a message off list. Did you get it?

[spark240]

Originally Posted by kirkifer

What I am interested in mainly are any communities practicing some amount of self-sufficiency. This obviously would require a group of people with similar ideas, values, goals, etc.

One of my primary motivations is to get away from dependence on fossil fuels. This way, myself and others in the community would be much less subject to the violent swings in the fossil fuel markets that are causing so much strife the world over. If a community farm could be established, then I am okay with that too.

Besides the Amish, what you are talking about is now known as the "ecovillage" movement, which is a subset of the intentional community movement. "Cohousing" is also a subset of the IC movement, which is more socially-oriented than environmental, although some communities might be both.

I see billman5000 has already given the link to the FIC directory in this thread, so I won't repeat that, but you may also be interested in this book:
Amazon.com: Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community: Books: Diana Leafe Christian

The IC, ecovillage and cohousing movements are all growing. Find some places that sound interesting, get in touch, and pay them a visit.