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Let's start with yurts. I've been thinking a lot about yurts lately. As anyone who knows me is aware, I am very interested in alternative building of all sorts, and I have a strong desire to build something of my own sometime soon. In the past two years, I've visited Taos, New Mexico and Plattsburgh, New York to learn about Earthships (http://www.earthship.org/) and Cordwood Masonry (http://www.cordwoodmasonry.com/Cordwoo
Laura and I are starting to look around for places to buy some land to move our crazy dreams from fantasy to reality. Our goal is to build multiple buildings over time. We'd live there when we felt like it, and there would be room for people come and go as they please. We're making another trip to Asheville, NC in a few weeks to look around again. Our timeframe is 2 to 5 years, but as is the case with most dreams, you never know how it will turn out. Still, the process is fun and I've learned a lot about building, so I am sure I will put those skills to use somehow, someday.
October 3 2006, 15:38:05 UTC 5 years ago
October 3 2006, 16:16:42 UTC 5 years ago
Good luck with finding the right land for your dream. :)
October 4 2006, 05:14:49 UTC 5 years ago
Sounds like nifty plans. Part of me has long wanted some sort of intentional community type setup, maybe out in the middle of nowhere. For me, though, I get torn: middle of nowhere is away from the city, and I do like my cities. In the city, on the other hand, gets damned expensive damned fast.
October 4 2006, 16:50:18 UTC 5 years ago
In regards to intentional communities - Laura and I have been talking about various situations for a while now. I think we lean a little more towards co-housing rather than a true intentional community, but one way or another we have a great interest in living near people we choose to be around (and who choose to be around us).
October 5 2006, 14:58:10 UTC 5 years ago
For me, the biggest trouble with living in the middle of nowhere is getting a reasonably stimulating job away from the city. My background's in computer security development and research. I'm not stuck on staying in security or even technology for the rest of my life, but it's hard to conceive of a job in another field that's both intellectually stimulating enough to keep me happy and yet easy enough to enter that I don't have to spend another ten years of my life preparing for a shot at maybe getting to the fun stuff. I could conceivably start doing programming and security over the net from the middle of nowhere, but I'm too damned social to work alone in a cave forever. Hmm, maybe what I need is a yurtful of friendly tech geeks to start an off-the-wall technology consulting business. That would be pretty damned nifty, actually.
On another tangent, what's the difference in your parlance between co-housing and intentional community? I'm not super-familiar with the terms.
October 5 2006, 19:55:17 UTC 5 years ago
To answer your question, my understanding is that co-housing is more informal of an association than an intentional community. It is simply a number of people who choose to live in close proximity (usually personally-owned homes, condos, or apartments in the same neighborhood) and spend time with one another on a very regular basis for whatever purpose they share. Intentional communities usually involve more sharing of finances, property, labor, and other resources. I've seen the terms used interchangeably, but that is the most common distinction I've come across.
October 7 2006, 01:49:26 UTC 5 years ago
Yeah, looking forward to more coming up in posts and convos :-)
October 8 2006, 04:57:43 UTC 5 years ago
Not on topic at all, but...
Here is a link to my post that had the cool video with the percussionists in the apartment. I am sure you would really appreciate it:http://radiantbaby.livejournal.com/3130