Have you read about dancingrabbit.org? (solar, recycle, costs, properties)

[joe moving]

fascinating really. check out all of the videos.

[ICvegan]

Yes, I've been following them online for 3-4 years now. Really would've liked to visit or intern during a summer, but unfortunately, they do not allow visiting dogs, so that's out for me. But, I regularly go to their website and read for inspiration. I'd love to live that lifestyle someday.

[SCGranny]

That kind of gives me the creeps.

I have some friends recently that are starting a similar commune in TX that have asked me to join them. Eeeeeeeek. Um, No. Let me think a minute - um, NO. I prefer to be autonomous. I prefer to have my independence. I prefer to incorporate my own ideas without asking permission from the clan. I prefer to profit on my own efforts, learn from my own mistakes, and use my own ideas.

I recycle simply because it makes sense. I compost because it increasingly improves my soil over time. I like chickens and turkey and eggs, and want to raise some milk cows for cheese - and I don't want to ask anyone's permission or share that with anyone. I am into wind power because it makes sense for my area. What I develop I will develop on my own - like the little red hen, I will grow the wheat, bake the bread, and eat it all by myself. It is a matter of personal pride and personal reward. I used to live in a rural community that wanted to dictate what people could do with their own property. I moved to a place that has no ordinances simply because I want to have what I want to have, what I have worked for and earned, without asking permission or ceding either my rights or my responsibilities to the whole. Independence can breed either failure and lassitude or creativity and success.

Personally, I think that communes and religious sects and other mini-societies have too much potential for too many differing personalities to have subtle wars and mental manipulations. I have seen communes from the sixties fall apart simply because someone wants to lead, some are followers, some are independent thinkers who don't care if anyone follows their lead - and emotional and sometimes even physical manipulation and force eventally requires that the individual submit to the whole. This to me goes against the nature of man. Sublimating one's knowledge, one's wit, one's experiences and emotions to the group inspires in me a deep revulsion.

I have grown past the point where I require the approval and indulgence of others. I have grown past the point where I want to "help people" - most people, even when they request or demand help, don't want anything but their own needs satisfied, no matter what it costs others. I have grown far past the point where I will willingly accept direction from someone who has far less experience and practical knowledge than myself. I will not fall into the trap of following nor of leadership because I know all too well what the results are - envy, a false sense of superiority or inferiority, a breakdown of communication, and a false sense of peace and security that is totally dependent on others.

Ick. As a living, breathing, and functional human, I believe that we rise and fall on our own merits, not on the merits of a diversified group with one stated purpose and multiple subliminal ones. For those who need that comfort, that ceding of personal responsibility as well as personal success and achievement to the whole, it's fine for them. But I won't drink anyone's koolaid.

[joe moving]

Good point. They are going a long way, but it is did strike me as border line cult like. There is another community in Ithaca NY that seems to be more open but still hard to tell. I think IDEALLY this would happen on adjacent private properties where like minded people came together but could do whatever they wanted to. One of the things, for example, is that they do not allow grid connected solar. Grid tied solar is much more efficient than battery solar to my knowledge.