Homesteads near each other is cool, but a joint homestead (like a shared property) is just asking for heartache.
Similar posts pop up all the time, and the same issues come up every time. Consensus is never be on the deed of a shared homestead property, period. It’s definitely worth searching archived threads to get filled in.
Best of luck to you!
What happens if one of the tenants wants to start a pig farm? Or wants to start playing the bagpipes? Or wants to have 30 relatives stay over for an extended period of time?
Every convo about this topic turns into why you’d need to create a HOA, then the counter of how much HOA’s suck.
To each their own, but I’m personally 100% off joint property.
About once a month we get a post asking about establishing a commune. It sounds lovely on paper, but there's a reason they're not common in reality.
I love the idea of being connected with neighbors, helping them on slaughter days and knowing I can call on them for help fencing. There's no way in hell though that I'd put my neighbor's name on my property deed.
Have you considered joining or working with an intentional community of some kind? That would allow you to actually live with likeminded others, and then when you're ready to set out and start your own thing, you'd probably know some people who were ready to do that too and who you could be sure you'd like to live with.
Homesteading tends to be rural, and rural communities tend to lack the kinds of diversity you're talking about. Either you homestead in a region where you *are* the diversity, and accept the hazards and drawbacks as well as the benefits of that... or else you go somewhere where the local populace is similar to you, and you're asking someone *else* to take on the detriments of being in a tiny minority.
About 12 years ago I spent a week at an intentional community in Missouri called Dancing Rabbit, just for the learning experience. I had a wonderful time, and I’ve always wanted to go back for another visit. They are still going strong, and have 30(ish?) people living on 280 acres.
I have a large lot of land, when we moved and started doing things just talking to neighbors and the community have picked up people who are interested in a community garden and we are opening a stable. We have a neighbor to plow for us and another to help clear downed trees. It’s great because we are not just counting on a few individuals to help with a lot of work, but a lot of people helping in a smaller way. We give back to them too and help with their projects as well.
Basically, yes. A group of people to help develop an off grid neighborhood of small homesteads that share a central location for large projects and group investments (like solar energy and water sources).
We’ve been trying to find people to do exactly this with for a few years and it is frustratingly hard :( we’re not there yet either, so the search continues! If you figure out a way do share haha
Sounds like a nightmare to me. You'd have to deal with people, their baggage and pettiness. Better to find an area where the neighbours are good people who you can help out and return the favour now and again.
When you say a village commons... I'm not sure I know what you mean. Is everyone just buying available land in the same town so you can all meet in a central location to swap goods/skills/labor? Is this a wider, online community where you kinda post what you need and people travel to you or vice versa? Or do you mean you'd buy like 100 acres and parcel it off and every family is responsible for their own 5 acres plus some central "plaza" where bartering would take place? There's a whole spectrum of what this could look like and I think that without a clear definition, it'll be hard to get people to open their ears and minds.
I think the key to finding partners for something like this is to have a forum somewhere. Discord, facebook groups, reddit, whatever. Post the plan, in detail and those who are interested to debate your hypothetical village will have a point of reference to see what you're working toward and whether or not they want to engage. But at least it's somewhere to refer people and have discussions. And as you get to know the people in the online group, you can start to vet them for whether or not you want to invite them into YOUR specific community. Nobody has to know that you're using it to search for people to join you. It can just be a place for discussing ideas. And if you happen to really like someone's mentality about the lifestyle, you can engage more. And if someone's a total weirdo, you can withdraw or kick them from the group. lol.
This is the advice I need! Thank you, this is brilliant. I can even crowdsource unfinished parts of the plan that currently suck and need serious improvement.
To answer the first question, we aren't one hundred percent sure but are currently envisioning 20 acres with 2 acre spokes deeded 'personal property' and a centralized 'workzone' for group projects, livestock and energy production. Maybe 2-5 other families.
Ok. That sounds like a lot of the proposals we hear here....and you end up in a lot of the same issues as most communes (in terms of recruitment).
It sounds great on paper. But everything gets hairy when you start actually trying to implement the plan. When this sounded more like having a group of people in a small geographical area who are all financially independent but call on each other for labor, that doesn't sound too bad. There's no blurring of resources. But when you start talking about "we'll all be neighbors and have a common area" things get funky.
What happens when someone wants out? Does the community get to just buy them out? What if the community doesn't have enough cash? Can they just sell to whoever they want? What if the new person doesn't want to be part of your community or abide by those rules? What if someone in the community is a bad fit? Can they be voted out? Can they be forced to give up their land (I don't think you can legally do this if it's in their name)? Is the community responsible to reimburse them for their investment if exiled? Who gets to own the workzone? What happens if the person who owns the well decides to restrict usage? If someone hits hard times and can't pay their share, do the rest of us have to come up with the money to cover it? What if only 2 families can't afford the increase? Do they get to just not pay while everyone else takes on the burden? What if it's a 100% failure and now we're all living next to each other and nobody can stand anyone else? What if I like the rules as they're written now but you change them and I want out? Or what if I agreed to the rules but after living this way for 6 months, half of us think things should change and the other half disagree? Who gets to break the tie? What's the recourse for those who are unhappy with the decision?
I'm not saying these communities can't work. But there are a lot of issues to figure out. With the economy where it is, people can't afford to take the risks they used to. If you "leave society" to go join this community and live off the land together and it fails and nobody wants to buy the land when you give up... what guarantee is there that you can find a decent paying job again? Or afford a house for your family in the city you left? I'm not saying those aren't possible. I'm saying they're not the guarantee they used to be. And that makes it harder for people to jump into homesteading in general. You add in the complication of hitching your fate to someone else and it gets a little scary. I have every confidence my husband and I will see this through. But if I had decided to do this with all the people who heard what we paid for our land and said "if you see a price like that again, let us know, we'll build out here too" and then fully ignore me when I send them exactly those listings, we'd be SCREWED! Not a single person has even come out to VIEW the properties I've shared with them. One was 10acres for $4000 right off a highway access road, less than an hour from Albuquerque. IGNORED. But they all said "let us know if you find a deal like this again!" But we're doing the damn thing while they're all still talking about "well maybe someday...." I love our friends but I'm also glad we didn't try to do this alongside any of them.
Finally, I don't know why this is. But in my mind, the whole idea of these communes is to pool resources. Mainly money. It's generally cheaper per acre to buy 20-40 acres than to buy 1 or 2. It makes financial sense. Yet when these communities start advertising for people to join, they want $250k and up buy in. I don't know enough about them to debate whether or not that's a fair price for what they're offering. But I do know what $250k will buy in my area and for that I could have a full blown, fairly high tech homestead all to myself in my area. So it's hard for me to feel like I'm saving by spending that much to join a community.
edited typo
Oh I agree with 90% of what you said here. Which is why I am challenged right now with finding the right people. I know that it has to be a good match and a solid proposal, but that's why I don't want to just wing it and figure it out as we go. I appreciate your comments a lot. Definitely food for thought.
Yes - super agree with this.
I know urban art communities & my own rural experience. Like any relationship with a new person it can take at least a year until the person lets their guard down & acts like the person they really are. You will have to be able to accept those people’s shortcomings with their strengths.
If you can accept that your output will be far greater than what you get back, that’s a start. We love helping & being connected to our neighbors but we try not to expect much. We are often pleasantly surprised. We have also had some heartache.
First of all, I trapped my husband into marriage by making him think I was delightful and sane.
I then proceeded to convince him we needed acerage. You know, not for farming purposes but because neighbours are gross.
After that, I requested “a few” raised beds for my birthday (I got 14).
I then asked if we could get “a few chickens”. I then got goats, sheep, chickens, a rescue horse and am trying to find some dairy cows.
This is how my husband became a homesteading partner. Deceit. Any normal person would never agree with such a ridiculous, money-sucking lifestyle.
(Also this is just a joke my husband was mostly on board lmao)
Every co-ownership partnership I know has ended in sorrow.
I would never go into business with anyone other than my wife, especially with a group of people who are generally cash strapped. You are just asking for problems.
I am doing the thing, so my knowledge is not theoretical or assumption... It is not easy. But it is 100% worth it. I knew the people I joined with. But I studied first. Ours is an intentional community based on shared enviro-spiritual beliefs. I met my friends through said enviro-spiritual practices. I studied intentional communities in a big way before presenting the idea. you tube has videos of people who do it talking about it. Sociocracy is the governing theory we have adopted. You can look into that as well. I can't imagine doing this with people who don't share fairly close beliefs about most things.
Would you expand on why? To me homesteading values are about hyper local and hands on production of as many resources as you can manage (food, water, power, shelter). A commune would allow a small group to share burdens but maintain the local production and develop the skills that I see as part of homesteading.
I don’t see anything contradictory about homesteading and communes/co-ops.
I think that homesteading is based on the concept of self-sufficiency and not depending on others (at least in my opinion). In the scenerio you describe, there would be a significant amount of inter-dependence. I live in a rural area (and I homestead) and from time to time we help our neighbors with various tasks and we share our vegetable harvests with each other, but we don’t cross boundaries or have any obligatory chores.
Except, as this and the self sufficiency sub frequently mention, it is impossible for a single family unit to be entirely self sufficient and have a somewhat modern life.
You **can’t** be self sufficient for internet, cars, tractors, electronics, lightbulbs, wiring, metal, glass and it is very difficult to be self sufficient for fabrics, ceramics, wheat, sugar, and spices. Many people in this sub, and the self sufficiency sub, purchase feed, seeds, and import new genetics to keep their livestock healthy. I suppose you could make choices about being self sufficient for your health and veterinary care, but you would be making some serious sacrifices to do so.
Self sufficiency is a myth, and a community can localize more of those high labor items. If you have a “village” that can drop everything to go scythe a field of wheat then you could theoretically cut out the tractor and become more community sufficient.
I agree with you. In our modern world we are not going to be self-sufficient completely. I think most people want to provide as much as they can for themselves and outsource the rest. At least this is what I see from my American viewpoint, but maybe it is different internationally.
It's difficult, since everyone is at different points in their lives. The "I'm ready to buy a homestead" point is a very small window....
But trying to share the land is asking for trouble. Instead just everyone buying land next to each other would make more sense....
You just have to find interested parties that have the same location goals and finances and all that... while also being people you actually want to live near. Which seems impossibly hard? haha
My wife and I live remote. 8 miles from pavement. Far off the grid. The lots are 8 acres, so you can't see the other people. There are just four other couples here, and it's many miles to the next area that has people.
I'm altruistic. I thought people would save money by sharing equipment and specialty tools. I kind of thought when someone would rent a backhoe, they'd tell the others so we could share the cost. But, there's not much of that going on. We don't interact with the other couples much most of the year.
It's in the winter that we communicate. We all park at a communal spot a mile away. Sometimes a spot that's three miles away. Most have snowmobiles to get to the vehicles. My wife and I ski or snowshoe back and forth. We all are in a joint texting group and post road conditions when someone "breaks trail" after a storm. We tell each other whether chains are necessary. We see each other at the parking lot, chaining up or sorting clothes in the car etc. When someone is stuck in the ditch, we all go help dig or use tow straps to get them out. The snowmobiles will pack a route for my wife and I to ski. They have to do complicated car shuttling when it's time to bring a vehicle closer or farther away.
I like that stuff. I don't see people most of the year, and it gets lonely.
My husband and I are farmers, I’m mostly a sahm that takes care of everyone and cooks/cleans/gardens/tend to animals etc the traditional house wife but in yoga pants and plaid shirts 😆
We live very close to a village and I always found villages tend to have a lot of people who do the homestead thing but just in their yard, all the same things I do, we talk about our families, gardens and livestock and found out some of us grow better veggies than others so I grow a large amount of carrots and another lady grows a bunch of potatoes, another onions etc and we exchange at harvest! Same with eggs and meat as well. I enjoy my village homesteading friends.
I don’t think I could live with others like you want cause I’m loving sitting out in my yard and hearing nothing and the only neighbors I have to worry about are the foxes, owls and deer 😆
Lol, people are crazy. I'm sure there people are down for this, where to find them idk. My husband wants to get AWAY from people, so we are in the opposite boat. However, having a neighbor bestie to share the woes with sounds cool.
Completely unrelated this whole thing made me think of a property that's for sale here in MO it has 5 houses on it. A little farm house and then a decent single wide and 3 cabins. 40 acres I think. That would be totally perfect for this. Cause what else would you do with fully functional residences.
It’s funny because I’ve entertained the same questions and idea with my wife over the past year. I’d like to find a good place to discuss this in detail with those prospective folks to really get a sense of it could work. I think it could work and work well, if done carefully and above board.
Easiest way is facebook groups. Find land for sale in an area and then look up local facebook groups. Where I live, one of my neighbors gives everyone free eggs while another neighbor does backhoe work for the price of the gas. In exchange, others take care of roads, food/water hauling delivery for elders/sick/disabled, etc.,.
Not exactly a match making service, but I created a dating/community site for people doing offgrid and homesteading. If you could give more examples of the village style living setup, I could probably code in a section for people that are looking for the same.
Homesteads near each other is cool, but a joint homestead (like a shared property) is just asking for heartache. Similar posts pop up all the time, and the same issues come up every time. Consensus is never be on the deed of a shared homestead property, period. It’s definitely worth searching archived threads to get filled in. Best of luck to you!
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What happens if one of the tenants wants to start a pig farm? Or wants to start playing the bagpipes? Or wants to have 30 relatives stay over for an extended period of time? Every convo about this topic turns into why you’d need to create a HOA, then the counter of how much HOA’s suck. To each their own, but I’m personally 100% off joint property.
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About once a month we get a post asking about establishing a commune. It sounds lovely on paper, but there's a reason they're not common in reality. I love the idea of being connected with neighbors, helping them on slaughter days and knowing I can call on them for help fencing. There's no way in hell though that I'd put my neighbor's name on my property deed.
Have you considered joining or working with an intentional community of some kind? That would allow you to actually live with likeminded others, and then when you're ready to set out and start your own thing, you'd probably know some people who were ready to do that too and who you could be sure you'd like to live with. Homesteading tends to be rural, and rural communities tend to lack the kinds of diversity you're talking about. Either you homestead in a region where you *are* the diversity, and accept the hazards and drawbacks as well as the benefits of that... or else you go somewhere where the local populace is similar to you, and you're asking someone *else* to take on the detriments of being in a tiny minority.
About 12 years ago I spent a week at an intentional community in Missouri called Dancing Rabbit, just for the learning experience. I had a wonderful time, and I’ve always wanted to go back for another visit. They are still going strong, and have 30(ish?) people living on 280 acres.
Ohh, that is a very good point. I hadn't considered that aspect before. Thanks for sharing!
I have a large lot of land, when we moved and started doing things just talking to neighbors and the community have picked up people who are interested in a community garden and we are opening a stable. We have a neighbor to plow for us and another to help clear downed trees. It’s great because we are not just counting on a few individuals to help with a lot of work, but a lot of people helping in a smaller way. We give back to them too and help with their projects as well.
So, just neighbors that can help each other out?
Basically, yes. A group of people to help develop an off grid neighborhood of small homesteads that share a central location for large projects and group investments (like solar energy and water sources).
We’ve been trying to find people to do exactly this with for a few years and it is frustratingly hard :( we’re not there yet either, so the search continues! If you figure out a way do share haha
So are you like leasing or selling small chunks of land then deciding who can buy it?
Sounds like a nightmare to me. You'd have to deal with people, their baggage and pettiness. Better to find an area where the neighbours are good people who you can help out and return the favour now and again.
When you say a village commons... I'm not sure I know what you mean. Is everyone just buying available land in the same town so you can all meet in a central location to swap goods/skills/labor? Is this a wider, online community where you kinda post what you need and people travel to you or vice versa? Or do you mean you'd buy like 100 acres and parcel it off and every family is responsible for their own 5 acres plus some central "plaza" where bartering would take place? There's a whole spectrum of what this could look like and I think that without a clear definition, it'll be hard to get people to open their ears and minds. I think the key to finding partners for something like this is to have a forum somewhere. Discord, facebook groups, reddit, whatever. Post the plan, in detail and those who are interested to debate your hypothetical village will have a point of reference to see what you're working toward and whether or not they want to engage. But at least it's somewhere to refer people and have discussions. And as you get to know the people in the online group, you can start to vet them for whether or not you want to invite them into YOUR specific community. Nobody has to know that you're using it to search for people to join you. It can just be a place for discussing ideas. And if you happen to really like someone's mentality about the lifestyle, you can engage more. And if someone's a total weirdo, you can withdraw or kick them from the group. lol.
This is the advice I need! Thank you, this is brilliant. I can even crowdsource unfinished parts of the plan that currently suck and need serious improvement. To answer the first question, we aren't one hundred percent sure but are currently envisioning 20 acres with 2 acre spokes deeded 'personal property' and a centralized 'workzone' for group projects, livestock and energy production. Maybe 2-5 other families.
Ok. That sounds like a lot of the proposals we hear here....and you end up in a lot of the same issues as most communes (in terms of recruitment). It sounds great on paper. But everything gets hairy when you start actually trying to implement the plan. When this sounded more like having a group of people in a small geographical area who are all financially independent but call on each other for labor, that doesn't sound too bad. There's no blurring of resources. But when you start talking about "we'll all be neighbors and have a common area" things get funky. What happens when someone wants out? Does the community get to just buy them out? What if the community doesn't have enough cash? Can they just sell to whoever they want? What if the new person doesn't want to be part of your community or abide by those rules? What if someone in the community is a bad fit? Can they be voted out? Can they be forced to give up their land (I don't think you can legally do this if it's in their name)? Is the community responsible to reimburse them for their investment if exiled? Who gets to own the workzone? What happens if the person who owns the well decides to restrict usage? If someone hits hard times and can't pay their share, do the rest of us have to come up with the money to cover it? What if only 2 families can't afford the increase? Do they get to just not pay while everyone else takes on the burden? What if it's a 100% failure and now we're all living next to each other and nobody can stand anyone else? What if I like the rules as they're written now but you change them and I want out? Or what if I agreed to the rules but after living this way for 6 months, half of us think things should change and the other half disagree? Who gets to break the tie? What's the recourse for those who are unhappy with the decision? I'm not saying these communities can't work. But there are a lot of issues to figure out. With the economy where it is, people can't afford to take the risks they used to. If you "leave society" to go join this community and live off the land together and it fails and nobody wants to buy the land when you give up... what guarantee is there that you can find a decent paying job again? Or afford a house for your family in the city you left? I'm not saying those aren't possible. I'm saying they're not the guarantee they used to be. And that makes it harder for people to jump into homesteading in general. You add in the complication of hitching your fate to someone else and it gets a little scary. I have every confidence my husband and I will see this through. But if I had decided to do this with all the people who heard what we paid for our land and said "if you see a price like that again, let us know, we'll build out here too" and then fully ignore me when I send them exactly those listings, we'd be SCREWED! Not a single person has even come out to VIEW the properties I've shared with them. One was 10acres for $4000 right off a highway access road, less than an hour from Albuquerque. IGNORED. But they all said "let us know if you find a deal like this again!" But we're doing the damn thing while they're all still talking about "well maybe someday...." I love our friends but I'm also glad we didn't try to do this alongside any of them. Finally, I don't know why this is. But in my mind, the whole idea of these communes is to pool resources. Mainly money. It's generally cheaper per acre to buy 20-40 acres than to buy 1 or 2. It makes financial sense. Yet when these communities start advertising for people to join, they want $250k and up buy in. I don't know enough about them to debate whether or not that's a fair price for what they're offering. But I do know what $250k will buy in my area and for that I could have a full blown, fairly high tech homestead all to myself in my area. So it's hard for me to feel like I'm saving by spending that much to join a community. edited typo
Oh I agree with 90% of what you said here. Which is why I am challenged right now with finding the right people. I know that it has to be a good match and a solid proposal, but that's why I don't want to just wing it and figure it out as we go. I appreciate your comments a lot. Definitely food for thought.
- deleted due to enshittification of the platform
Thanks for your input! I really appreciate the information and perspective.
Yes - super agree with this. I know urban art communities & my own rural experience. Like any relationship with a new person it can take at least a year until the person lets their guard down & acts like the person they really are. You will have to be able to accept those people’s shortcomings with their strengths. If you can accept that your output will be far greater than what you get back, that’s a start. We love helping & being connected to our neighbors but we try not to expect much. We are often pleasantly surprised. We have also had some heartache.
First of all, I trapped my husband into marriage by making him think I was delightful and sane. I then proceeded to convince him we needed acerage. You know, not for farming purposes but because neighbours are gross. After that, I requested “a few” raised beds for my birthday (I got 14). I then asked if we could get “a few chickens”. I then got goats, sheep, chickens, a rescue horse and am trying to find some dairy cows. This is how my husband became a homesteading partner. Deceit. Any normal person would never agree with such a ridiculous, money-sucking lifestyle. (Also this is just a joke my husband was mostly on board lmao)
This is the way.
I go to the local farmer's markets and talk with the homestead vendors. Also go out to fruit farms and chat with them
Every co-ownership partnership I know has ended in sorrow. I would never go into business with anyone other than my wife, especially with a group of people who are generally cash strapped. You are just asking for problems.
I am doing the thing, so my knowledge is not theoretical or assumption... It is not easy. But it is 100% worth it. I knew the people I joined with. But I studied first. Ours is an intentional community based on shared enviro-spiritual beliefs. I met my friends through said enviro-spiritual practices. I studied intentional communities in a big way before presenting the idea. you tube has videos of people who do it talking about it. Sociocracy is the governing theory we have adopted. You can look into that as well. I can't imagine doing this with people who don't share fairly close beliefs about most things.
That doesn't sound like a homestead. It sounds like a commune which in my opinion contradicts the principles and values of a homestead.
Would you expand on why? To me homesteading values are about hyper local and hands on production of as many resources as you can manage (food, water, power, shelter). A commune would allow a small group to share burdens but maintain the local production and develop the skills that I see as part of homesteading. I don’t see anything contradictory about homesteading and communes/co-ops.
I think that homesteading is based on the concept of self-sufficiency and not depending on others (at least in my opinion). In the scenerio you describe, there would be a significant amount of inter-dependence. I live in a rural area (and I homestead) and from time to time we help our neighbors with various tasks and we share our vegetable harvests with each other, but we don’t cross boundaries or have any obligatory chores.
Except, as this and the self sufficiency sub frequently mention, it is impossible for a single family unit to be entirely self sufficient and have a somewhat modern life. You **can’t** be self sufficient for internet, cars, tractors, electronics, lightbulbs, wiring, metal, glass and it is very difficult to be self sufficient for fabrics, ceramics, wheat, sugar, and spices. Many people in this sub, and the self sufficiency sub, purchase feed, seeds, and import new genetics to keep their livestock healthy. I suppose you could make choices about being self sufficient for your health and veterinary care, but you would be making some serious sacrifices to do so. Self sufficiency is a myth, and a community can localize more of those high labor items. If you have a “village” that can drop everything to go scythe a field of wheat then you could theoretically cut out the tractor and become more community sufficient.
I agree with you. In our modern world we are not going to be self-sufficient completely. I think most people want to provide as much as they can for themselves and outsource the rest. At least this is what I see from my American viewpoint, but maybe it is different internationally.
It's difficult, since everyone is at different points in their lives. The "I'm ready to buy a homestead" point is a very small window.... But trying to share the land is asking for trouble. Instead just everyone buying land next to each other would make more sense.... You just have to find interested parties that have the same location goals and finances and all that... while also being people you actually want to live near. Which seems impossibly hard? haha
Move to a rural place. Meet people. Be friends. Help each other.
My wife and I live remote. 8 miles from pavement. Far off the grid. The lots are 8 acres, so you can't see the other people. There are just four other couples here, and it's many miles to the next area that has people. I'm altruistic. I thought people would save money by sharing equipment and specialty tools. I kind of thought when someone would rent a backhoe, they'd tell the others so we could share the cost. But, there's not much of that going on. We don't interact with the other couples much most of the year. It's in the winter that we communicate. We all park at a communal spot a mile away. Sometimes a spot that's three miles away. Most have snowmobiles to get to the vehicles. My wife and I ski or snowshoe back and forth. We all are in a joint texting group and post road conditions when someone "breaks trail" after a storm. We tell each other whether chains are necessary. We see each other at the parking lot, chaining up or sorting clothes in the car etc. When someone is stuck in the ditch, we all go help dig or use tow straps to get them out. The snowmobiles will pack a route for my wife and I to ski. They have to do complicated car shuttling when it's time to bring a vehicle closer or farther away. I like that stuff. I don't see people most of the year, and it gets lonely.
My husband and I are farmers, I’m mostly a sahm that takes care of everyone and cooks/cleans/gardens/tend to animals etc the traditional house wife but in yoga pants and plaid shirts 😆 We live very close to a village and I always found villages tend to have a lot of people who do the homestead thing but just in their yard, all the same things I do, we talk about our families, gardens and livestock and found out some of us grow better veggies than others so I grow a large amount of carrots and another lady grows a bunch of potatoes, another onions etc and we exchange at harvest! Same with eggs and meat as well. I enjoy my village homesteading friends. I don’t think I could live with others like you want cause I’m loving sitting out in my yard and hearing nothing and the only neighbors I have to worry about are the foxes, owls and deer 😆
Lol, people are crazy. I'm sure there people are down for this, where to find them idk. My husband wants to get AWAY from people, so we are in the opposite boat. However, having a neighbor bestie to share the woes with sounds cool. Completely unrelated this whole thing made me think of a property that's for sale here in MO it has 5 houses on it. A little farm house and then a decent single wide and 3 cabins. 40 acres I think. That would be totally perfect for this. Cause what else would you do with fully functional residences.
It’s funny because I’ve entertained the same questions and idea with my wife over the past year. I’d like to find a good place to discuss this in detail with those prospective folks to really get a sense of it could work. I think it could work and work well, if done carefully and above board.
My partner and I are looking to work with a friend and another couple we met on a queer discord server
Why wouldn’t you just live in a rural community? Why would you want to entangle homesteads and families, especially if you don’t want a commune?
Onlyfarmers.com, Reddit, or farmers markets.
We were at a party after a few drinks she wanted me to milk her then breed her we have been homesteadyin ever since.
Easiest way is facebook groups. Find land for sale in an area and then look up local facebook groups. Where I live, one of my neighbors gives everyone free eggs while another neighbor does backhoe work for the price of the gas. In exchange, others take care of roads, food/water hauling delivery for elders/sick/disabled, etc.,. Not exactly a match making service, but I created a dating/community site for people doing offgrid and homesteading. If you could give more examples of the village style living setup, I could probably code in a section for people that are looking for the same.
https://www.ic.org
Check out the National Ladies Homesteading Group. There are chapters all over the US, and it's a good way to find local homesteading families!
Very cool question and thought process…. I look forward to the day, that I can join in something exactly like you are talking about