SSS news

Yeah, that's partly the reason I'm still on these forums because i realise that some people know what they're talking about and I hopefully have the sense to listen.

I still hope all the decisions will be made by concensus but like you guys said that last word still resides with the land owner...

and zigher I totally understand where you're coming from as well it's not a community if one person is running the show.

and I am having fun. even the drudgery of my current existance, working for the man so as to be able to pay for this land and (eventually full time) lifestyle, seems a little bit less weary. my co-workers realize that i'm smiling and seem happy. I figure it's the fact that the big plan is mostly coming to fruition and is all the more real now that land is involved. still a long way's away but I intend to enjoy every second of it.

Side Note: lawers were supposed to finalize things today and so I should know tomorrow when I can go down and sign that dotted line... I'll keep you all posted.

 

I honor what you're doing, SSS! My vision is similar. I have, therefore we have. This is idealistic and beautiful and I encourage you to hold on to it. There is an important balance to be reached.

If you alone have the say, the sense of ownership, then you alone will be invested and it will be your place, which could mean few others with strong energy come and put it there, for fear of being "evicted" and their investment lost. On the other hand, if you are more open, you will likely have your share of lazy hippies, which is a whole different problem.

A year ago, we manifested 90 acres. The people that did the major part of manifesting hold it as THEIR truth (including me) that it is OUR land, in a very sort of Rainbow, Welcome Home way. We are open and welcoming at the moment. We also have mostly lazy hippies, and VERY LITTLE IS GETTING DONE. I find this a touch frustrating, but we are attempting to deal with it in our consensus council process.

I still very much believe that the benefits outweigh the cost eventually and I will continue to give my all and work towards this change and empower everyone there to FEEL A PERSONAL SENSE OF OWNERSHIP.

I understand and respect why so many, like HHB are over it. I pray for empowered and motivated Family to show up and teach these Drainbows a thing or two! Good luck to you, if you're ever in California come on by!

Love and Light!
Joshua

 

Like attracts like.

So if the drainbows be encouraged they will become more.

Those of the Way of the Truth must find their inner truth and follow it....long has this been called Being True to Self. The Self is capitalized because it is not the ego, the small self. It is the I Am that is in each of us and that we feed when we Be True to Self. Some call it the Higher Self, some call it Spirit , some the God Self....for through it, we are all Connected... by being True, we find Self-empowerment.
And we move beyond the victim roles and become our own creators...In Connection.

We All Become Aware again, that we are more than a tumbleweed; our lives do not happen to us...We look up and with reverend thanks, take on the yoke of empowerment and we join with All in Wholeness, as We Open yet anon my friends from being alone to Being All One.

But the One it starts with and that makes it continue Is the One Being True.

Namaste

 

I think a lot can be said for where people are now..

If they are at their parents’ house lounging around doing nothing eating free food, they will probably be lounging around doing nothing on your property eating free food.

If they say I can’t come out for another month because I have so much work they need to do to pay things off ect… That’s probably a good sign.

Not everyone’s like that but I think a lot of people are creatures of habit and do the same things wherever they are.

It kind of tough because most good energy hard working people already have a life they are growing. But there is tons of lazy energy draining hippies looking for a life.

When you find good people keep them happy they are hard to come by.

That’s cool you got it going on I’m sure you will have a fun adventure. You’ll find good people if you focus on it.

 

Well, spent a few hundred bucks buying hand push mower, scythe (for real tall grass) as well as a hand pump for the well and some piping and etc...

Heard from the lawyer, signing papers tomorrow morning, land transfer taxes and property taxes and all gonna cost more than I thought but i'll still have cash in the bank account and not have to dip into the savings/investments.

If all goes well I'll be there saturday morning or friday night and won't be back home till early July 2. Took June 30th off and then it's Canada day so will have an extra long weekend to get stuff planned out and start a few little projects, get organized.

 

hope all goes well and have a happy canada day ..may drive to PEI on that day

 

this is for zoomie and others who feel the same, ie;

So, are you willing to sign a contract that says if you voluntarily leave, or you violate the rules (whatever they may be) that were in place when you joined, that you will surrender all right to any permanent improvements you have done?

Because that is where the problem comes in. Why should I risk my home, by opening it to strangers on a share basis that I have no choice but to accept whatever it is they want to do (in the case of selling shares), ie, a conventional community, or risk losing it all if you decide you don't wish to be part of it anymore?

People keep talking about sharing and community and co-operativeness... here is a simple fact.

Most communities that start up as co-operatives, fail. There are many reasons they do this, but the main one is that those who start it, change their minds and move on to other things, either leaving those behind to be swamped by what were supposed to be shared bills, or by suing the remaining members for their 'value' of the property.

I wouldn't swear to this, but I think you will find that most people who get involved in this type of idea, or want to, do so, in a large part do to security issues.. not as in guards and protection, but as in they want to get away from the lifestyle of not knowing from one month to the next if they will eat, or have a roof over their head.

Although, I can fully understand the desire to have a co-operative where everyone truly shares with each other in all aspects of it, I don't see the security in it in anyway. Not for anyone.

It is insane to believe that everyone who comes to join, is going to want to remain forever, so what guidelines do you establish for people leaving once they own a portion of the property?

Buy then out? What if the community doesn't have the cash to do so?
Let them sell to someone else? At what value? What criteria do the new purchasers have to meet? How do you stop the property from becoming just another land development that way?

I know I am not quitting on this path... hhb knows he isn't, as do a few other that have been doing this or focusing on it for years. Why should we risk our future on the whim of other people?

You want an example of what I'm talking about, look at the crap over the highway child issue, and that is just a bus, a couple of thousand dollars, and a few people. (side note, that isn't meant to slam HC or blinkin at all)

 

Well the weekend is over and all went well. It rained almost all saturday so didn't get out to the property till around 8pm, set up my trailer and unpacked my gear and that was it.

On Sunday I decided the project of the day would be to build a firepit, so found a suitable spot and started digging, two shovelfulls in hit a bottle, a glass bottle from the 1960's that was broken. started digging slower and found an intact bottle and that was all, so took a while longer to dig it out. found some suitable rocks not too far away, even found one that was split down the middle and so laid it flat sides up. was able to boil some water and heat up some canned stew. I also started cleaning up the small cabin and setting it up to be usable. It looks like it will take a while.

Monday I started to clear a little area of the 3 food tall grass with the sythe and the reel mower afterwards. was a lot of work but I'm getting better at it and felling pretty darn healthy and able after doing as much as i did. found some old rusted out truck parts in the woods so cleaned that up as much as possible and found a couple of beer cans, I guess some kids knew the land wasn't being used so had a little drink or two a while back. I found some flowering raspberries and blueberries on the land as well as some wild strawberries that we delicious, but only ate a handfull. I also ate some other wild foods, not much though. I had some cattail centers wich were very very good(I'm planning on trying the roots soon) and some wild rose petals, I even tried something I saw on a survival show, eating ant eggs. It was interresting, tasteless and deffinately edible, if you need food that bad I'd say deffinately try it. Anyways I also saw lots of frogs, snakes(little non-poisonous garden snakes), eagles, hawks, crows and a many other birds. didn't see any mamals though but did hear a squirrel, saw plenty of deer tracks, saw bear tracks, what looked like racoon or skunk poop... the bear tracks and all the berries around kinda worry me a bit, but not too much.
I also built a little lean to out of salvage off an old torn/fallen down shed out of some of the less decrepid lumber. I built it to keep the rain off my firewood, I cut plenty off of a few downed trees.

Tuesday, I mostly cleaned up the site, started a compost heap with all that long grass, and tried out the hand pump. It worked, the well deffinately needs to be drained and flushed before being used to drink. I'll also need to make a stand/cover for the well opening/pump so that nothing fromthe outside other than the pump pipe can get through. Oh and cooking fully on the fire takes a lot more time and wood than I had thought. I mostly warmed stew/boiled water and that took about an hour. really will have to get a solar oven or a dakota style stove built to drop the amount of wood/cooking time.

I didn't get as much done as I had originally intended, but I tend to set unrealistic expectations on myself, after starting a few of the tasks I realised that I would take a lot longer that i had thought. I also got a call at work today from my realtor that sold me the land. he found the SSS website online and apparently has some stuff we might be able to use. he said he'd drop it off this week. I thought that was really cool and worth mentionning.

anyways I'll have more updates when stuff happens. I hope this gives a little taste of what the starting process can be like to those who have a plan/dream to start something and shows how much work is involved. I hope it also get's a few people to realise that it can be done.
It took almost 4 years from having the idea, commiting to it and then starting to save money, research, find IC.org and hipforums and a bunch of other sites/books, saving enough cash to make a decent offer and finding land that will work (it's not the perfect peice of land but it has potential and should work). After all that I am finally starting to get my hands dirty and this is probably the happiest I've ever been.

 

Sounds like you are off to a great start.

You have any pictures to share?

 

Unfortunately I don't own a camera or a cell phone... It's on my list of things to buy. So when I do get one, pictures will be posted probably on the website and I'll try and post a good one on here.

So I went out againg this weekend, didn't do as much as last time but got some more wood cut and stacked, did a little more cleaning up of the cabin, cleaned up the yardsite a little/cleared a little more of the now 5 foot tall grass(quite a bit of work but I managed to do a lot more than the first time and anticipate being able to do more next weekend) and got an outhouse site selected/partially cleared.
The realtor came by and dropped off a clothes line and a screen-tent(one of the poles busted but should be possible to slap somethings together to make it work.) talked about buying his 416 sq ft home and moving it onto the land. it would be a big step up of the little cabin/shed that's there now. strawberries are in full force, raspberries have bloomed and are starting to produce fruit, blueberries are starting to turn blue... found these other berries, they were ripe and looked delicious, did not know what they were so didn't eat them. will have to do a little research first.

oh and that bottle from last weekend, I asked my uncle who used to collect bottles if it was worth anything and he indicated 10-20$. So another man's trash is another man's treasure. that's the lesson for this week, lol.

 

If you want to get a free camera (almost), look around at the cell phone companies, one of them always has one of their camera phones for pay as you go that is zero purchase price.

Even if you never buy any time for it, the camera will work, and if something happens you can call 911 and they can find you.

 

That's a really good idea i'll look out for one. My parents and a few friends are trying to get me to have a cell so that if something happens... I'm still not sure I want to be bothered by a phone(not sure about how good the service would be either...) on the land but for just taking pictures it would almost be worth it.

 

Just wanted to give a small update as i'm pretty busy these days, land is not really changing much but i'm going to be taking some time off in Aug and getting stuff done.

have a gentleman's agreement to buy a 416 sqft house and move it onto the land for a lot cheaper than the cost of materials, nevermind labor so it was a no brainer for me, just gotta find the green. hoping to have it moved onto the land by october.

saw a dear on the property and had my first blueberries and raspberries from the land last weekend, week before that had a bear visit overnight, didn't see it but saw it's teeth marks on an empty bucket I left outside.

Also the more I tell people about what my intentions are the more they seem wiling to help out now that the land is bought. Not so much willing to join or physically do anything but some offer stuff they no longer need that could be of use and some just offer moral support wich also can mean a lot. anyways that the update, hoping it will start feeling more communal soon...

 

takes time but all is doable.....never dreamed when i started out i'd be this far by now ...keep the faith ..it'll come

 

Speaking of land taxes, you might want to consider looking into Government sales as opposed to the direct realtor route?? Down here in the states, there are usualy a few sales per year in any given county where the Tax assessors office sells off parcels where the owner is delinquent on the taxes for no more than the amount of taxes owed (Thou I'd guess some hold auctions). Some real nice finds, thou things might work differently up there?

**Edit**

Whoops, hadn't noticed the first post was in 07'

Congrats on getting things together! :cheers2:

 

hey, figured I'd post again since it's been a while kinda keeping busy.

kat thanks for the suggestion but Goverment sales up here have too much red tape and I kinda got discouraged just looking into that, same for bank sell offs though I bet if I had waited longer something may just have popped up through the banks... none the less the land is bought and paid for, as you noticed.

people have been taking a more active approach although it's still in the " oh yeah, i want to help, I'll be there..." then they don't show up. same old same old

Been getting quite a bit of salvaging done, getting more of that grass mowed in preparation for the small house I'm buying and putting on the land. My little cousin that came for a visit decided he was in a digging mood so we started work on the eventual pond. cleared part of the area where the pond is going in and dug down a bit (hole had water seeping into it, and had some water then next morning). getting more of the site cleaned up, getting logs cut and stacked, cleaning out the little cabin that you can see in the picture. people may start considering staying in it overnight... still no start on the outhouse or much anything. cutting all that grass with a sythe and then keeping the stuff already cut down with the reel mower is quite a task. preparing meals with only the use of fire is also quite time consuming. getting even more respect for those that have/had to do that everyday. Still planning on building a dakota oven. will make it easier, less costly(wood/time wise) to cook. while digging the pond found a bit of clay so will try using that once I have colleted a little bit more.

that's all I can think of for now. except that that contentment is still (mostly) there. so far all the sacrifice and hard work was worth it. darn that first step.

 

Good deal on the Clay find. What color, Red or Grey? Either will do but the grey stuff generally has a higher refractory temperature, i.e. suitable for setting up forging & foundry equipment. Heck, with enough red clay you can make ceramic goods for barter or sale to support your cause. Might want to wash it

I've found a good deal of red clay here with very little of the grey "fire clay" so far but eventually I'll have enough for the oven('s).

Not sure if you've got access to Sandstone in any great quantity, but if you do theres the option of using it as the bulk of the body for your oven and simply using the clay as a sort of mortar. (Pre-cook the stone in a fire to drive out moisture before building with it)

Another idea you might want to consider is making a Charcoal kiln, basicly cook the wood in a mostly closed vessle, keeping it away from fire so as to just carbonize it. Makes the whole cooking process a bit easier.
Set it up right and you can make your own wood tar as a byproduct which has a number of good uses, alot of the gasses produced while burning wood and making charcoal can also be used as a fuel.

If ya' need more specific how-to's I can make some scans for ya'.

 

hey kat, thanks for the info about the clay. it is grey clay, and we have used it to make ovens and were able (with charcoal not wood) to melt glass, bronze, and so should easily be in the forging temperatures if needed. so far it's just a small little bit of clay in layers and will probably have to be washed.

I've read up on and made charcoal before, and have read up but not tried to make wood tar yet. may be an eventual project, we'll see. If you're serious about making scans I suggest instead of just sending/posting them on here to try wikihow. let everyone know... as to harnessing the gasses I'd rather not try that any time soon, too many other projects on the go. speaking of which, I'm off, gotta go cut some more grass...

last bit of news is that more people getting interrested in coming out and have a bit better idea when the cabin being moved, last two weeks of october.

 

Well, if you've made Charcoal, your'e almost at the tar making stage, theres already wikis on the topic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_tar

And heres a site with additional info on Tar making Caveman style as well as making about anything you might truly need.

http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/directory

Basicly, make your wood heap and cover as usual if taking the primitive approach (One big pile of wood covered in mud or clay & sand and let to slow burn & smoulder) The only difference is the addition of a small chamber beneath the fire pit which is funnle shaped so as to allow the tar to run down into the chamber where it get's collected in a dish.
According to Wagners Chemical technology 1872, this method will give 17.6 parts tar and 23.3 parts charcoal per 100 parts wood used based on using Black Fir (Quantities vary depending on the wood employed)

 

my grandfather was a blacksmith and the village he lived in had no electricity(i now own that property).his access to coal was sporatic at best and money wasn't always available to buy some ........one of the ways he made do was to take dry alders he had cut the year before and put it in a pit he had dug out .once he had a blazing fire gong he would bury the pile with dirt and dig it up a week or so later ...the fire would be suffocated and what was left was a charcoal of sufficient quality to do blacksmithing with.as far as the village went ,the lack of electricity there spelled the doom of it and by the late 50s everybody was moved out.