A question for an organic woman

I am not quite ready to pull this off, but thought I would post it, and just see what feed back I got.

My husband of 18 years and I have a small organic farm where we raise fruits, berries, vegetabales and eggs. I also have an art/jewelry/photography business, and we are in the final stages of completing a pottery studio on the farm for me. We both have day jobs, mine are part time and a lot more flexible than his, but since our son will be leaving for college in a couple of years, we have thought about building a guest cottage and offerring very nice and comfortable room and board in exchange for help on the farm. We hope to quit our regular jobs one of these days and be able to spend our time focusing on this, but for now this seemed like a good idea. We kind of invision a future farm dedicated to sustainable agriculture, environmental activisim, alternative living and art. Big list I know, and maybe just a dream, but a direction we would like to set. We just dont know if we can pull it off without help, especially since our day jobs, especially his, helps finance the whole deal.

The work wouldnt be too overwhelming. There would be daily chores and the occasional large project. We are laid back peaceful hippies, not slave drivers, so dont worry about that. It might be good for a student or an artist. I personally would prefer a woman, especially a sister hippy type of girl(if shes cute, extremely liberal, artistic, a nudist, and bisexual even better lol) I know I may have just lost half of you with that, but its who I am, and probably a very good description of me personally. Thats not a requirement, just a nice day dream. A single mom might be a potential as well, all depends on the person and situation.

Anyway, thought this might be a place to float some ideas out there and just see if it tweaked anyone's interest, and see if anyone offered any feedback.

PEACE!

 

Sounds like a great idea, i could stop by this summer and help you out for a while if you dont find anyone.

 

Thanks sweetie for the offer. I actually have an over abundance of teengage guys around. My son and his friends are all around your age. You would probably have a hoot with that motley crew hipsters......dang that sounded old as hell to say lol

 

hehe i understand, hope you find someone

 

your ideas sound like you know what you want. thats very good! i share alot of what you are looking for we have a 2 acher piece of land and 7 more that is our next door neighbor we do a large (basketball court) sized garden, and in the summer its a lot of work, we have to extra money to pay for help and i work about 30 hours to my husbacns 60 hours. we are looking to be more Green and more environmentaly aware, also looking for about the same trates in a girl as you are for a companion ( or more). i wish you great luck!!

 

Thanks for the kind words and support. We officially started this project together about 10 years ago, hubby has spent his lifetime planning and dreaming it. I knew when we met 18 years ago that this was his passion, I guess I didnt realize how quickly it would become my own. I was kind of a city/suburbs girl, eventhough from a very small, rural and liberal city, but I cant imagine not having my gardens and chickens aka my bitches. I dont know if I will ever find what we are looking for, or get to where we want to be, but I think the journey and quest is half the fun, and mostly the point.

Back on my original post......
One thing I may not have made clear is that we dont eat tofu and live in mudhuts, hats off to those of you that do. We have a hot tub and a pool and our farm provides us a nice bounty of food. I am an earthy woman, but the kind that braids her hemp while watching "An Inconvienint Truth" in 7.1 surround sound.

 

yeah thats not really communal living but more caretaker/farm help


......try the classifieds or caretaker gazette or even adult friend finder

 

Thanks for the feedback, eventhough I cant read if the sentiment was there...............

But define a commune for me? Define communal living? I have visited a few, and researched many. There's traveling communes, apartment and house communes, and every conceivable variety one could imagine. Is the only way of living communally is through some stereotypical hippie wanna be utopian camp. I kinda wish there was such a thing I'd be there in an instant, even the best and most sucssful ones havent achieved that. Most people join communes to escape conformity, but in the end its the ulitmate conformity in certain ways. Maybe my open thoughts and day dreams of how I want to share my own idealistic communal consciousness with other human beings has led this thread in a direction I did not intend. Perhaps my open sexual nature is misleading towards what I really intended.

Is opening one's home and land for nourishment, conscious raising, and expressive experimentation and sharing that vision directly with kindred souls not, at least conceptually, a form of communal living? How many people make up a commune? How communal do you have to be to be a community? The types of people we care to share this experience with is not the type you would pick up through a swingers personal site, and not just someone you would hire with an add from a local newspaper. If there ever was a final product to this thought (actually hope there isnt) it would be a shared vision and reality. What each person contributes, does that have to be the same, do the rewards and benefits have to be totally equal?

Artists, poets, goddesses of nature, fellow travelers, lost souls and kindred spirits must be coaxed forth from the cosmic stream of consciousness that flows through this world. There's few true ones, but I have a lifetime to wait and to search.

 

Yeah your first post let everyone see your intentions.....saying all those wonderful things now for your defense.... seams flat ...sorry

that line says it all...........farm help

so by your own words you would be dictating what is to be worked on and how much work will be done....sounds like an employer to me....your entire first post had employer written all over it ....

yes this is a forum for communal living ...but i do not think the forums creators were thinking about college students living in dorms or oil rig workers or maids living with there employers or in a guest house on the property...or families for that matter.....all of them live communal, that is for sure....

these forums relate to communes, and yes communes as in a group of people coming together to equaly share resources and labor.... its what most people talk about on here ...but we do get a few looking for workers to live on there property and maybe sleep with them ....that is nothing new....they some how think this is communal living...

lets face it your not looking for "people" to come join you to form a commune or community...you are looking for a specific type of person ... a bi single female...hmmm

stop trying to sugar coat it ....you want cheap farm help first and a bed mate as a bonus.....

 

I know someone in the Chattanoga area who has most of what you're looking for. Actually, it's my ex-wife, and still friend. She's an experienced and accomplished multi-media artist. And an experienced and dedicated organic gardener. She's also about 15 years older that you, I doubt a nudist, and not bi-sexual. But if you're looking for someone who would make a good contribution to the farm and artistic activities, and is in your area, let me know. BTW: I have no idea if she'd be interested.

I'd also like to invite you to stop into the Gardening Forum and tell us about your farm. I'm also a small organic farmer who years ago made the transition from part time to full time.

Peace,
poor_old_dad

 

Poor old dad: Thanks for the feedback and I have to say your threads in the gardening forum are awesome. I have been reading them for quite some time. Are you on homestead.org as well? I think I have seen you there too. As I stated in the opening thread, I dont know if we are quite ready to pull this off. We are going to be empty nesters all to soon, and thought that might be a good time to kick things off in a different direction. I was mainly just throwing some ideas out there, and see if others had tried this, found this interesting, whatever. Thanks for the feed back though and I am open to a lot of different things, so I wouldnt mind chatting about it whatsoever.

Purple-moss: Lighten up dude! The fact you will take the time to attack my thoughts point by point is really sad. I am sorry my thread has offended you in some way. As far as my intentions go, hell I dont even know what they are, so just because I ramble some open thoughts out there, dont presume you know me or my underlying intentions. If the moderator doesnt like my thread or want it here, let them delete it, move it or whatever. I dont really care! I was just thinking out loud, so chill out man!

I am openly bi-sexual, have been for 15+ years. I have several current girlfriends that share my bed on a regular basis. So a bed mate is not my only motivation, I can have that about anytime I want. You partly make me regret sharing that fact and thought out loud, but then again it was just a daydream and open thinking and your opinions dont really matter at all to me. I am here for fun, for day dreaming, for boredom's sake, and for free expression, not for a debate on your opinions of me and my thoughts. I dont take any of my own thoughts or writings that seriously, so why should you? I hope you are having a great weekend and that all your own dreams come true. If all you want to do is to continue to bash my thoughts and dreams for your own personal pleasure, change your name to buzzkiller and seek professional help.

PEACE

 

heya jeep

Blessings and encouragement

my own attempt has but 1 living full time on way too much land and too much to do for 1 ....and yet I call and see myself doing community
Communal has become, by some, limited and narrow parameters which is why I Never talk comunal but community - which has no such self righteous narrow strictures - no matter what any may say community is about living together or opening to it with more than 1 involved (there are others involved in the hollow - I'm just the only full time one living on the land).


Some would have communal being shared everything with all living together - the closer the more correct to the image they have imprinted within their definition of it......so community says it better and intentional suggests that you tend to choose to be together with the others you find yourselves sharing space with.....something most but tumbleweed into.

To thine own Self be true sister and go for it - brings a lot of growth to All.


Yah.....
Namaste

 

Thanks Oldwolf for the POSITIVE thoughts!!!

When we first started this journey we had the thought that we could do everything completely on our own. The first 6 years are a total blurr of projects, sweat, toil and lost nights of sleep. We. like most Americans, are caught up in the 40 hour grind, but we always thought we could balance that out. It occurred to us, that the priciple reason behind doing this was to enjoy a simpler, peaceful, more laid back existence. Farming does not lend itself to instant results, and I guess we thought if we would get everything built up, and then be able to lay back and enjoy the fruits of our labors. What we ultimately realized though was that we were stressing so much about getting things done, we were missing out on enjoying the thing we sought to create in the first place. Creature comforts and rest and relaxation were really foreign concepts to us for almost 10 years. The foucs was on the goal and making sacrifices to achive that very narrow goal.

After lots of soul searching, and discussion we decided to put things on a slower more evolving pace, instead of a frantic pace towards a singular vision. Some major planned projects got put on a slow track and we purchased the most energy efficient hot tub we could find, and created a family fun room with a nice stereo and TV. Considering we hadnt bought a new TV or stereo, or anything other really impractical thing, since the late 80's to purchase that in late 2006 it kinda felt like a sell out.

However, its a gorgeous sunday morning. We slept in late, had a cup of coffee in the hot tub, answered some emails, made some posts on some bullentin boards. collected some fresh eggs from the flock, scrambled them up with some biscuits and gravy, and I am sitting here with a smile on my face, despite some annoyances this morning. We still plan on aerating, and overseeding the area we cleared last fall today, do some work on the new chicken house we are building, and tote some cross ties to our raised bed garden area to build the next phase of beds with, but its so much easier when we are smiling, not exhausted and stressed.

I guess that leads into my next thought, and the question we have been struggling with all these years. What next? Where do we take this thing? Some recent changes have been to work with some different youth groups. Several families are helping with some of the ongoing projects, in exchange they go home with some fresh eggs, and will get a nice variety of organic vegetables in the next coming months. I am truly amazed at the number of people that have never expericed the joy of watching a seed become a plant and finally food on their table. Something so natural, seems so mysterious to them. I dont know where all this will go, but being able to share that experience with others, and to continue to explore a community type approach has been very rewarding so far, and a direction this thread was really created to discuss.

 

As the Sage of the Finger Lakes (Oldwolf) says:
Namaste
Thank you for the kind words....
And yes that's me on homestead.org too..... lthough I haven't been there in a while... might head that way today... HMmmm ...

BTW & totally off subject, Hey, Wolf, it sure was crushing to hear about Rapscallion & I'm still wanting to come see those lakes & there's a new cat on here - goes by "oldmeller" from New Hampshire, his only post so far is in " past expiriences with communes"; http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3268319#post3268319

Later .......

Peace,
poor_old_dad

 

wouldn't it be easier if you just expanded the numbers by asking your lovers to join the commune??

 

Please don't regret it. You give me hope that the type of women that I dream of actually exist. I like all of what you've mentioned, not just the sexual/liberal stuff, but the environmental activism and organic farming plans are wonderful. I'm working hard to be in the same situation as you and your husband. Good lucK! I hope that you will find someone!