So I have seen this topic bounced all over the place, but I want to talk to actual people, groups or families that are fed up with the way of life they are in. Sure if you move somewhere else there will be many of the same challenges you are experiencing today ( jobs, work, bills, mortgages, taxes ) but by choosing to move somewhere and work with other like minded people, those challenges should eventually become easier to deal with or maybe actually cease to exist.
I am not talking about living out in the boonies using birch bark for toilet paper. I am talking about commutable distance to a city and other towns for work, supplies, medical care etc. Accessible schools, churches, emergency FD, community center.
How about creating a community of Art, Music, Crafts to market, Holistic and Naturopathic lifestyles. How about taking your children down to the river and cooling off at one of the local swimming holes. I want to be part of a community that shares the work and the rewards from Gardens, Flocks and Herds, that are ours for the using and sharing. Hunting Fishing and Wild Harvest are great, but they have limited ability to sustain long term life if you are only hunter gatherers.
For those who are concerned about be able to defend themselves and repel armed mobs, military attack or other scenarios of that nature, the location I have in mind is fairly defensible because of the surrounding geography, it can be made very difficult for vehicle access with minimal effort. I personally don't believe that this will be our big concern for the future but I am more than willing to be ready for it if it happens.
So I have probably said enough here to get creative juices flowing, think about it, think about committing to that type of future. Lets talk, make a plan and start something new and different from individual prepping.
Things I say are my opinion, which is like belly buttons everybody has one.
Anything I say is not meant to anger or offend just to encourage discussion between adults.
this portion of conversation no longer available ... by my self redaction ... Albertaborn
Things I say are my opinion, which is like belly buttons everybody has one.
Anything I say is not meant to anger or offend just to encourage discussion between adults.
I am always open to talk about that type of community.
Most times it just ends up as talk but who knows maybe one of these times it actually works out and a group of like minded people will get together and by supporting one another put together the "sanctuary" type community that i so often dream about.
Keep me in the loop.
Noli Illigitimi Carborundum
(Don’t let the bastards wear you down)
This is the kind of thing my lady and I are looking to be a part of. People interested in building a sustainable community without the need for ego's where everyone works together as one.
this portion of conversation no longer available ... by my self redaction ... Albertaborn
Things I say are my opinion, which is like belly buttons everybody has one.
Anything I say is not meant to anger or offend just to encourage discussion between adults.
Removed by user
this portion of conversation no longer available ... by my self redaction ... Albertaborn
Things I say are my opinion, which is like belly buttons everybody has one.
Anything I say is not meant to anger or offend just to encourage discussion between adults.
Bring up the money and it will kill the idea. Most want to use their labor as payment. But we all know that you need money to buy supplies and land.
This is something I have noticed, many people seem to think that they can come pick some weeds and chop some wood and land , food and housing just happen magically ... Abracadabra (poof) "oh look a fully stocked home in the woods"
There will be people out there who will realize that they will have to actually work to help acquire land.
I have found what I feel is a prime location, I have bought some land in the area and started working on trying to create a sustainable community.
One of the biggest mindsets that I seem to be finding is that of the person who thinks they are going to arm themselves to the teeth, lock themselves in an underground bunker with 10 years of food and expect to survive, sanely by themselves or in a small family group. This type of mindset has been proven false in general, in many other countries, with their ethnic , religious and tribal wars.
If a mob of angry or hungry people want to dig them out, if they are even remotely organized and determined they will dig that prepper out, almost every time.
Man has banded together since the dawn of time, for survival, the lone wolves have eventually all died off many with nobody to even throw dirt on them. I will never argue this point with them because you won't be able to alter that mind set.
So I plan to expend my energy finding the people who want to build something that is truly a functioning sustainable community. People who realize that they already pay everyday, but want to change that, to where the have a chance of cutting that back and by working together gain more as an end result. If perhaps disaster strikes that band of people will have people to lean on and know there are others to help share, feed and protect them. So if they are afraid to talk about the money side of things they will most likely be in the same boat next year and the year after that and so on and so on.
Things I say are my opinion, which is like belly buttons everybody has one.
Anything I say is not meant to anger or offend just to encourage discussion between adults.
For many the fantasy is as good as doing. For instance I would sell an acre to the right buyer for 10K and a tiny home built for about 15K. But yet there is a comfort level being where you are that makes even a 25K investment too expensive even if it means their loan would be less than what they pay in rent. But hey it's not my decision to make.
One avenue you could look at albertaborn is have your land and do a timeshare for that plot of land (the land only). There are legal documents drawn up already and you could get as many buyers as you see fit. Then each buyer could build their own building on it or pool for a communal building. Just a thought that may not have occurred to most.
Besides the obvious concepts of sharing foods by the sharing of work is the sharing of equipment for doing many of the aspects of this type community.
Sharing the use of things like rototillers, tractors, trucks, etc mean you don't have to buy nearly as much stuff to do this as individuals.
Buying a community bus to go to town on the weekends to allow people to shop who may be part of the stay at homes, would be a good concept, just share the insurance and gas costs.
Buying power of bulk or group as compared to individual or single service items.
Reefer truck type refrigeration units, for larger storage of meats, and or vegetables, sharing electrical costs to to run them, shared costs for generator back up.
Sharing the additional development of a very purpose built evac / bug out location that will be able to support all the community members and provide a safe secure environment
Creation of one system of siren and loudspeaker so that everyone in the community will be made aware of disaster at the same time, this will also include a high and low tech transmission receiving and capable of rebroadcasting this kind of system is pretty pricey or one person.
One large Faraday cage will serve a group at a much more cost efficient manner
These are just some points, there are many more, if you really do have to survive a disaster or rebuild and repopulate the country, the more people you have working together the better your overall chances.
Things I say are my opinion, which is like belly buttons everybody has one.
Anything I say is not meant to anger or offend just to encourage discussion between adults.
Nope no more
Things I say are my opinion, which is like belly buttons everybody has one.
Anything I say is not meant to anger or offend just to encourage discussion between adults.
Albertaborn, this is a great idea but harder to do than imagine. I would be interested, but have significant doubts. It usually does come down to money/employment, time, control, accessibility, etc...
1.) If anyone invests money, they want something tangible to show for it. Abstract investments are difficult. You need a timeshare or strata corporation to deal with this. Otherwise I'm just handing you money and hoping its not wasted. I've been on my strata council for my townhome complex for 5 years. I imagine the issues faced would be very similar for a survival community. Stuff comes up like prioritization of budget expenses. You want a new bus for the community, I think we need a new secure storage room. We can't afford both, how do we handle that? Votes? How are the votes allocated? By share of ownership? There will always be someone unhappy with the results. In a strata of ~160 units we consistently have 10% complaining about petty neighborhood issues, 10% not paying there dues and probably 80% not pulling their own weight! (like not picking up after their animals, not watering their own lawn, littering around their unit, etc)
2.) Where is it? A significant majority of BC's entire population is in the lower mainland. If you live west of chilliwack you will have basically one route to get to north central BC (maybe two if you include taking 1-2 bridges to north van and taking 99 north and going around). What are the chances that people could make it to the chosen location when needed? If they live there what are the chances of gaining employment for all of the above listed trades/careers that affords a similar quality of life we have now in the lowermainland?
I'd say to justify the money invested it needs to serve a greater purpose than just survival. For example what if it was also a vacation spot? A family cabin? With shared facilities for fun vacation-y stuff too that people investing would want to come up and invest in. Rifle range? Archery? Hiking? Horse back riding? Swimming? ATVs? Mountain Biking? Hot tub? Some private space too?
Now people view it as an investment in their family not just an abstract investment for emergency use. If you convince people to take on a loan/mortgage for $25k the average person will need to spread that out over at least 5 years (considering they might already have mortgage/rent, car and other family obligations). They want to feel like they are getting benefit from that loan during every year they are paying for it - a few family vacations might do that.
Everyone I know who has a timeshare vacation property uses it less than they would like. That's just a fact of life and busyness. That's how these timeshare companies make money! They can over sell and under book. If I were going to getting into something like this, I'd want to think I have a good chance of visiting say monthly. If the distance/route doesn't allow for that I will be reluctant.
As I said, I'm very interested, but find these things usually dissolve for lack of "real" organization (ie: timeshare/strata) and/or the geographical distance from employment/schools (not everyone can afford to be isolated). I'm interested in your thoughts... and I'm glad you've taken your first steps! That's awesome and worthy of congratulations in itself!
@ Elrond
First what I am talking about is a Sustainable Community not a Survival Community ... where everyone tries to run to when fear arises, I am talking about a a community where people actually live and create a community, if they want it to be their summer cabin / Vacation spot or their actual family home then thats their decision, but I would prefer that, we build a community of people that actually live there. The place I have selected as a base is Central BC, it is an unincorporated town, that has a good basic infrastructure, with out being complicated. It is a commutable distance from a small city and just about exactly the same distance away from a descent size town/city both of which have employment opportunities, with all the basic needs you could want. I would prefer if people bought their own lot in town to build on or bought their own home and lived there,( no ownership issues that way) then the group could invest in group lands for common shared lands or projects, but not for me to decide by myself. You ask how anything gets decided ... By vote ... every "contributing" individual gets one vote ... no one has veto power ... and investments have to be kept the same per individual for group stuff ... If each member puts in the same then all is equal.
You sound more angry about where you live then happy, ( Which I understand because my current home is in a cookie cutter neighborhood ) unlike condo's which most people move into because they want someone else to be responsible for picking up the poop, mowing the grass, shoveling the snow. I want each person/ family to end up with their own stuff out of this, their own title ( with Caveats to protect the group ). if 10 people buy land then it shall have 10 names on the title, or subdivision would be done and then each member would have title exclusive to that portion, but ownership is not final till it is all paid for, that way non payment is easily dealt with because of Caveats. So if 10 people buy 20 acres, you get 2 acres, if you buy a 100 acres you get 20.
I still would prefer if individuals /families would have a lot for their home and then common garden/ farming / herd spaces are allotted and the results are split equally, but that is not up to me to decide by myself.
I definitely don't want anyone to hand me their money, I know that doesn't work in North American culture, when I talk about pooling resources to buy properties, I know this will involve legal paper works, accountants and lawyers. That is just the way things must be, because trust has run out of our society.
I personally am investing in the area and this town will become my home, it is my hope to get like minded people to come live there and make this community grow. If you want me to send you more detailed stuff I have an older census and some info about Hixon and area info in a word doc I can share. I have nothing to gain or hide in regards to this other than the hopes of a few good neighbors with similar goals in mind.
You asked this, ... Rifle range? Archery? Hiking? Horse back riding? Swimming? ATVs? Mountain Biking? Hot tub? Some private space too?
I personally am working on a shooting range on my acreage. As for the rest of the stuff there is a river in town, with a few nice swimming holes, there are all sorts of trails near by, for snowmobiles, ATV's, I have waved at people from my land as they rode by on horses, an adjacent property keeps horses. The area has all kinds of bush trails and roads that were opened up for logging access,so lots of crown land access, the Fraser River is about 5 km as the crow flies, there are lakes and parks that are not all surrounded by private cabins so you can't get anywhere near the shore without having some moron try to tell you they own the lake shore which they don't. Not sure but I think you might want to keep the Hot tub to yourself I know I prefer my own to sharing one.
The list of skills was just that a list ... to make people think about what skills they have, what skills they may know someone has ... I have a friend who is a professional circus clown ... he is also a DDS. .... So he could make you scream or laugh, but I know he prefers to make people laugh.
Things I say are my opinion, which is like belly buttons everybody has one.
Anything I say is not meant to anger or offend just to encourage discussion between adults.
To avoid any potential confusion, Vanderhoof has claim on being the geographical center of the province. There's a small stone monument marking the precise geographical center as you approach the township coming from Prince George, so Hixon would more aptly be central BC. I'm another three hours drive northwest of Hixon, and north of Vanderhoof as well. Don't mean to sound like I'm nit-picking but it can be confusing at times when people mention south, north, central, north-central, etc.
I haven't really spent any time in Hixon but it is a nice area. Close enough to Prince George for shopping as necessary, and the roads are well maintained during winter.
One thing I would throw out for consideration is to watch the mining and forestry related communities. When the mine shut down in Granisle, most of the population moved out and the properties sold dirt cheap. Granisle now thrives as a retirement community after people started buying up houses at next-to-nothing prices.
I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like his passengers.