Comune Poll!!

Big start-up costs for wind and solar collection devices.

Seen advertisments for small hydropower plants, expensive.

I wonder what it would be like to live without eleectricy? and why one would choose that option? Would the Commune go without propane also?

 

The coomune I satyed at was in the desert..and we employed solar and wind power...
sometimes it was slow...depending on the weather and such....but it worked !

 

"I wonder what it would be like to live without eleectricy? and why one would choose that option? Would the Commune go without propane also?"

People are generally adaptable. If you have it, you use it, if you don't, you find another way. I lived with my grandparents in the boonies growing up and they didn't have indoor plumbing until I was 12. I've lived without electricity and got along just fine really. Man has used fire to cook and warm the hearth for thousands of years before "the grid" and there really was life before the refrigerator. It can be difficult at times, but also very rewarding.
There's also something about a bare flame illuminating a dark room that provides more than light, it also seems to feed the soul. Something that 75 watts in a light socket will never be able to do.
Peace,
River

 

like the previous post i also grew up without a lot of the conveniences of today ...we had no indoor plumbing ,tv,hot water ,electric heat or a fridge .....we got along just fine .....i used to go stay with my grandparents in the neighboring village and there they had no electricity ...the town became a ghost town ...but they got along just fine too ...a good kitchen wood stove is all that was needed for the cooking and the heat ,,mind you that in the summer the kitchen was one hot place to be when they were cooking ........hence the saying IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT,STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN...kerosene lamps took care of all the lighting ,and everybody had a potty under the bed ,lest you had to get dressed and run to the outhouse in the middle of the night ..and outhouses were usually a distance from the house ...for obvious reasons

 

Oneida, scuse spelling is one of the most famous industrial communes, as a matter of fact if you are not a member of a very religious community such as the amish then the ideal of living off the land without high efficiency simply is a none starter, there is no joy in poverty.

To make it on the land with a reasonable standard of living would mean a minimum of 1000 acres, and 1 million cash, these are minimum numbers, assuming someone with a great deal of experiance farming leads.




Allan.

 

a million????? damned it's expensive to farm in california .........if i had a million i could retire on that

 

Yes indeed, you would need way more cash if you had to go out and buy the 1000 acres. Again that is assuming you want to enjoy a reasonable standard of living and put away something for your old age.



The average commercial farmer in the usa makes less than 5% return on invested assets, and these farmers are among the most efficient in the world.



In my opinion, there is no way one could make a decent living off the land on a small holding, unless one lived nearby a big city and created a market for fresh pesticide free produce, some people make a very fine living doing just that on small holdings of less than 50 acres. It takes a very smart operator however, high quality produce plus smart marketing skills,

Allan.

 

i live in a rural area with plenty of farms and know of no farmers around here that farm 1000 acres ..mostly under 300 acres and they get along just fine

 

There were plenty of farmers with the acreage you describe in Illinois where I lived for a while, they ALL struggled to make ends meet and ALL had jobs off the farms to get any type of decent living, Lady I was living with at the time was a hair dresser, she got to get the scoop from her female clients.

Let me make my point clear, if you want to live in poverty then sure you might, I say might be able to make some kind of dirt scratching living, certainly not anything that would provide for retirement when you were old and worn out.

The point is, why would you want this kind of in your face poverty?

Another point, most relationships end because of money problems, and thats just between two people, imagine how much more complicated things get when you have a group with money problems,

Allan.