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I can see that. Just a few people and you get to keep your independence but you share some things. I don't want to give up my own kitchen for a group kitchen. I'd share a garden though as long as I could still have a tiny space for my own flowers. I'd like a potluck dinner once or twice a week. Fix each other's cars. Always have a friend to talk to. I'm starting to picture a square building with a courtyard in the middle and the doors all open into the courtyard. Maybe rectangular--then you could fit a few more "apartments" in. Everyone would have their own door, no long institutional corridors. That's as far as I got.
Do you think people would like to have potlucks? There's no reason to wait to find out. Print some flyers inviting people to come and to bring a dish. See how many come. Have it in your back yard or a park. Maybe there'll be a hundred people; maybe there'll be no one. Maybe it will be good fellowship; maybe some city thugs will show up. But you'll never know if you don't try. Talking about it here won't make it happen.
Do you think people would like to have potlucks? There's no reason to wait to find out. Print some flyers inviting people to come and to bring a dish. See how many come. Have it in your back yard or a park. Maybe there'll be a hundred people; maybe there'll be no one. Maybe it will be good fellowship; maybe some city thugs will show up. But you'll never know if you don't try. Talking about it here won't make it happen.
Most retired folks have a modest income. You wouldn't have to completely "live off the land". Sure, grow veggies and fruit. Do some canning. Have chickens. We do all that now, but we also go to the grocery store and have TV and Internet. I wouldn't want to give that up. Just have a community where you work a garden together, look out for each other. Those with certain talents....mechanics, gardeners, cooks etc., barter their services. Make music and art! Dance, love, live.....we're not dead yet!
I just got off binging on Alaska reality shows wherein deranged folks choose to live a hand to mouth mean existence near or above the Arctic Circle. Nothing really noble about it. There a gum infection could be fatal. We have arctic steppes in the US but we don't live in them.
I am not seeing how old folks in their declining years would or could work dawn to dusk at physically demanding tasks and not be extremely uncomfortable or walking wounded every day of the year.
Live off the land? Lets hear some stories of whose doing it right now.
I just got off binging on Alaska reality shows wherein deranged folks choose to live a hand to mouth mean existence near or above the Arctic Circle. Nothing really noble about it. There a gum infection could be fatal. We have arctic steppes in the US but we don't live in them.
I am not seeing how old folks in their declining years would or could work dawn to dusk at physically demanding tasks and not be extremely uncomfortable or walking wounded every day of the year.
Live off the land? Lets hear some stories of whose doing it right now.
That's my point. I wouldn't want to "live off the land". You can raise chickens and grow veggies and still go to Costco and the Dr or Dentist. More like a small group of folks helping each other out a bit, rather than living alone or in a Retirement Home. My husband and I are retired. We still work in the yard and take care of our property. It would be a lot harder if I was alone, tho.
That's my point. I wouldn't want to "live off the land". You can raise chickens and grow veggies and still go to Costco and the Dr or Dentist. More like a small group of folks helping each other out a bit, rather than living alone or in a Retirement Home. My husband and I are retired. We still work in the yard and take care of our property. It would be a lot harder if I was alone, tho.
That's it. Your garden would supplement what you'd get at the grocery store and even a small garden produces more than most people can eat. How about those few tomato plants that overwhelm you with so many tomatoes that you've giving them away to the neighbors. Zucchini---it's become a joke. Strawberries--they grow in sand and you do nothing but pick them. It wouldn't have to be a huge garden.
If you had a small group of people you could afford to not feel up to watering the garden that day and someone else would do it. Pick up things for each other at the store. But you'd have to keep it to just a few people or I think things would get out of control and cliques would form. If one person was sick or had surgery, the others would pitch in and take food to them or get their prescriptions filled. Sort of like having a bunch of friends all living closeby. BUT with shared land for a garden and for sitting out.
Chickens for eggs is good. Someone to fix your computer. You could sew their curtains. People would be active and productive and helpful. BUT---you'd need the caretaker person because everyone will grow old and some can keep going til they drop but others will stop participating. Gets complicated but I think it could work.
Do you think people would like to have potlucks? There's no reason to wait to find out. Print some flyers inviting people to come and to bring a dish. See how many come. Have it in your back yard or a park. Maybe there'll be a hundred people; maybe there'll be no one. Maybe it will be good fellowship; maybe some city thugs will show up. But you'll never know if you don't try. Talking about it here won't make it happen.
Sounds like a plan to me. If the big point of communal living is the fellowship, why not take the easier route and organize a group event (like a potlucl) for a community that already exists.
if the idea is to have someone in your group to work on your car or computer for free, wouldn't it be easier to organize a swap with the neighbors you already have? Or with people youknow through the senior center or church or a club? You could offer to cook a meal or mow the lawn or prune trees in exchange for someone to fix your computer. If you want a communal garden, your community may already have one or you can organize one. (But be aware that gardening can be really hard work, especially if youre gardening to get food to feed several people, and communal gardening can go sour when arguments flare or the garden is ruined by nature, animals or even just neighborhood kids.)
If you want to get a taste of communal living, try starting a communal shopping group. If it goes smoothly, great! if not, then you have an idea of some of the challenges communal living will give you. I had a group like this once that lasted about 6 months. i took some of the people in my tai chi class to Costco, and we split bulk purchases. Worked out well at first but over time it fell apart. People disagreed over what to buy in bulk and how to handle it when some of the produce was inferior. At first we had a routine but soon people wanted to change things and then we disagreed about how long to stay in the store and about where to park and about what day we should go. after awhile the money we saved doing this didn't seem worth the bother. Glad we did it, and I got closer to a few friends by doing it, but at the ame time I'm not doing something like that again.
It would be a challenge. But...the idea has merit.
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40 acres and a mule
