Having my roots and extended family in Georgia, I am interested in finding a group of like-minded families/couples in the north Georgia mountains. Who has recommendations of such a community? Where do I find-out about such a group or community?
Note to the mods: I notice that poster “Crapper” not only posts antiscience comments that deny global heating, but now also posts messages about “embracing hatred” and racial warfare. Time to ban this troll before he chases members away?
I came across a project here outside Portland Oregon that might interest some. It’s called Frog Pond Commons.
https://www.frogpondcommons.com/
Hi dadzcatz,
Glad to hear that you like what we are trying to do at the Ecovillage. Honestly, I’ve been working in this space for many years, and I’ve never come across a project quite like this (ie it ticks my boxes as well). It is a huge honour to be working on the project on the front lines, and we hope it will be well received by the marketplace. It feels like this is the right time and place for the concept (zeitgeist is right) so we are all very optimistic about the response.
In terms of your comment about encouraging the creation of community, you are correct that it takes more than the physical environment but that is all we can start with now. Once people start inhabiting the place, there will be a lot of work in building the social fabric and governance of the new community, but there are many models to learn from and I’m sure that we’ll manage. As we are in a small town / ag region, one of the challenges is attracting working households (vs retirees) to provide the authentic diversity required for a vibrant place that includes children. For retirees who don’t need to work, the sell is very easy. For those who need to find paying employment, it is a more difficult puzzle to solve. In the end, we are trying to create as many employment and new business opportunities associated with elements of the Ecovillage that we can to allow the most people to work locally. And we also acknowledge that in future the household economy (ie doing more for ourselves and reducing outgoings) is part of the resilience strategy that doesn’t involve being close to external paid employment. This is a point that David Holmgren makes in many of his talks and books.
To address your question about “strata” - this is the term used for a lot or property that sits on a “parent” lot that is owned in common with others. In the North American context, it would be similar to a condominium ownership structure. In our case, there will be public streets that surround each cluster (owned and maintained by the local government), but each cluster will be a “parent” lot owned in common by those who purchase strata lots within it. This will also include the large communal gardens in the centre that all residents have access to, which will feature a small community building for meetings, workshops and occasional communal meals, a fire pit, a playground, large landscaped swales, a covered orchard and individual space for each lot for vegetable gardens. This last category allows each resident to use part of the common space as their own for this purpose, but importantly they can get access to water from the three 100ML dams. In Western Australia there are laws about collecting water communally and then using it on private lots (health risk I guess) so this is a work-around for that problem.
We are just about to launch a new website to support the lot sales process, and I will post a note once that goes live. It will include additional updated drawings and information about the project for those interested.
At first glance, they look very appealing. I'd be interested in becoming part of one. It'd be nice to go to the local beach and not have to clean up dog poop, used baby diapers, broken glass, plastic pieces, paper waste, bottles, cans, and other detritus left by less enlightened members of our society. It'd be nice not to have noise pollution from neighbors with dogs they allow to bark for hours on end at all hours of the day and night. It'd be nice not to have light pollution from neighbors leaving on multiple high wattage outdoor lighting all night long (even though our crime rate is very low and our neighborhood is particularly safe, guarded as it is by all the barking dogs). It'd be nice to share extra produce with neighbors and not have them refuse it because they don't know what those weird vegetables are and they much prefer their frozen pizza (that leaves evidence of its consumption in the many cardboard boxes in their cardboard recycling). It'd be nice to live in a neighborhood where outdoor burning is not allowed and where neighbors especially have the common sense not to burn plastics and then, compound the problem by having their kids roast marshmallows around the fire (so not only are their lungs polluted but also their "food"). And my favorite, it'd be nice not to have neighbors going round and round in their backyard pulling their kids on a sled with a snowmobile (meanwhile contaminating the clean fresh winter air with the smell of exhaust smoke, contaminating the silence of a snow covered landscape with the raucous sound of a minimally muffled internal combustion engine, and contaminating their poor kids' lungs and circulatory systems with all manner of hydrocarbon waste products while wondering why these same kids have behavioral issues and don't do well academically). NB - despite the above, I still like our neighborhood and the people in it, with a few exceptions.
But then I think a little more and consider a collapse scenario and we're living in a resilient community. Our little resilient community is doing surprisingly well, considering the adverse circumstances. Members of the much larger nearby non-resilient communities take notice. They see the "resiliency inequality". And they wonder why they don't have what the resilients have. Envy begins to poison their minds. To add fuel to the fire, the government party in power needs scapegoats to help explain its way out of the cluster**** it helped create. They begin accusing the resilient community of "hoarding". That certainly can be the only explanation as to why this minority is thriving and the majority is not. So the party looses the dogs of conflict and demands distribution of the abundance of the resilients to the non-resilients. They may even give carte blanche to the majority non-resilients to take from the minority resilients, by force if necessary, with a thank you of course to the generous party in power that allows this to happen. So the resilients become the kulaks, the non-resilients become the peasants, and the party in power becomes the Soviet Communist Party. As history tells us, this didn't end well for the kulaks.
So alas, we will refrain from joining such a community and instead, stay low key and under the radar while maintaining fellowship with a network of nearby friends and acquaintances in the community to share knowledge, skills, tools, food, etc. as needed. It just seems to me I have more options open with this path and while that may be an illusion, I still feel a little safer this way. I don't know for an absolute fact whether the Jews who hid their identity (if possible) and remained sprinkled throughout the German communities did better than those concentrated and readily identified in the ghettos but my intuition tells me this is the best path for me, my family, and friends. YMMV .
Note to the mods: I notice that poster “Crapper” not only posts antiscience comments that deny global heating, but now also posts messages about “embracing hatred” and racial warfare. Time to ban this troll before he chases members away?
Gasp. Anti-science, denying global heating. And he's a racist? And hate speech too? All Blue Church boxes checked, indicating: "your speech must be suppressed"!
I find that the current Overton Window for "science" is pretty narrow these days, and it is often politically or commercially motivated. So I tend to err on the side of forgiveness for this particular sin. And of course "racism" and "hate speech" charges are so stereotypically over used I just ignore them at this point.
My problem with Crapper is - he appears to be a narcissist. He comes here just to devalue people for his own amusement. He's pretty clever though; during his assaults, he says just enough things that align with some people here and that gets him those critical up-votes. This way he can both assault other members, and get up-votes at the same time. Those up-votes are his drug and reward. To him, they say: "you approve of me assaulting people! I'm gonna keep doing it!"
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662
It makes me wonder: are up-votes really a good idea? I mean, I like them too...but...without them, people like Crapper would probably not engage. No reward = no reason to come.
Just a thought.
I have to agree with Fairtexer about crapper (speech should not be suppressed). I triggered the crap man when I texted out negative things about “over fed Americans” etc and I think that he picked up on that. Also, we do not learn by agreeing and resonating with each other. Resonance is not communication. All communication by its very nature requires new, discordant information to be accepted and internalized. In this same context I note that all really good new inventions violate government regulations, sometimes basic law and norms of human customs. A good analogy is to consider where our food comes from, and don’t forget mushrooms…
I would counter your motion to ban the “American Fascist” because he’s showing you a piece of reality that is uncomfortable for you. YOU must learn to hear him. I humbly recommend you read up on Aikido, in particular you may find 'The Way of Aikido- Life Lessons from An American Sensei" by George Leonard profitable. Likewise, Chris Hedges wrote the book entitled “American Fascists: The Christian Right and The War on America” in 2006. My! how time flies.
“Everybody know the dice are loaded…”
I asked a ham friend of mine about off grid comms, and what his recommendation was for providing service in the event we lost our friendly phone service. He recommended the following product:
https://gotennamesh.com/products/mesh?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInejggo6S5QIVlh6tBh0oDg0tEAAYASAAEgKbdvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
From the wiki:
goTenna (goTenna Inc.) is a Brooklyn, New York-based startup that designs and develops technologies for off-grid and decentralized communications. goTenna devices pair with smartphones and, through intelligent mobile ad hoc networking protocols, enable users to send texts and share locations on a peer-to-peer basis, foregoing the need for centralized communications infrastructure of any kind.
It’s basically a radio that pairs with your phone using bluetooth (horribly insecure, but that’s a story for another day) and each radio operates as a node in a store-and-forward mesh network. You forward other people’s text messages too.
No voice, no images. Messages within your group are encrypted. “Shout” messages (sent to every gotenna within range) are in the clear.
It seems like quite the product. I don’t know if you can disable the “participate in the rest of the mesh” feature and go “truly offline”, but in all other respects, it would seem to be a pretty good backup communication system for a relatively close proximity intentional community.
Point-to-point range is supposedly 4 miles. 2 watt radio. Battery life: 24 hours.
I also note the “fear stage” energy which frankly just bores me. Of course, I’m sure that comment will just stoke the “pip’s just delusional” response. But for the record, you may well be right Crapper, but it doesn’t change my feelings on the matter…
I find that the current Overton Window for “science” is pretty narrow these days, and it is often politically or commercially motivated.Climate science is politically motivated, eh? Where have I heard that before ... oh, that's right, in the right wing denial blogosphere. So pull the other leg. Over 120,000+ (and counting) peer reviewed published science papers from around the globe on global heating are not motivated by politics, and cannot be. Getting scientists to toe a political line would be like herding cats. However, those claiming that these papers are politically driven are themselves always motivated by politics.
I have to agree with Fairtexer about crapper (speech should not be suppressed).Well, a lot of outlets on the internet disagree with you. Climate denial has been banned on Reddit, the BBC, and several other venues. The deniers have been given an audience and a hearing for two decades now, but they still cannot come up with science to refute what we know, and still regurgitate all the myths about anthropogenic global heating. There comes a time when you lose patience with people shouting "Fire!" in a packed cinema. And when the person in question also starts promoting racial hatred, surely you draw the line?
I don’t want to hijack this thread, so I am a bit leery about posting this. But I think it is important to note that the climate models are set for a major change. The tl;dr is that models to-date only include total solar irradiance as input from outside the earth. Now models can include the host of other ways that the solar system interacts with earth - solar particles, magnetism, cosmic rays, etc. When seen from this perspective, we are probably looking at a cooler future. Here is the 9 minute introductory video. In the hour-long video, there are more direct references to the 600+ studies that point in this direction and interviews with some of the scientists that take this view.
And just for the record, I don’t think this is an excuse to over-tax the resources we have on Earth. I just keep trying to find the “truth” because I have a homestead too and deciding whether to work toward a cold or heat based future factors into my planning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tul07hx8V8w
But I think it is important to note that the climate models are set for a major change....we are probably looking at a cooler future.Oh pah-LEEEEZE! You have linked a video by Tony Heller of "SuspiciousObservers" channel, a birther and well known fringe denial character. Heller is a slimy lawyer and a longtime conspiracy theorist who used to go by the alias Steve Goddard, and who fronts for fossil fuel industries, claiming that NASA has manipulated the historic temperature record to make it appear that the planet is warming. You cannot be dumb enough to believe this crap!
There comes a time when you lose patience with people shouting “Fire!” in a packed cinema. And when the person in question also starts promoting racial hatred, surely you draw the line? You cannot be dumb enough to believe this crap!I wouldn't get too upset about this Gerry. If I've learned nothing in my life, I've learned this: that the universe always works towards BALANCE. Things will cyclically go to one extreme (global cooling) and then to the opposite (global warming) but on the way from one to the other, they go through the balance point, again and again. It's the Yin and the Yang of all things. If you have light, you need dark. If you have matter, you need anti-matter. If you have political liberals, you need political conservatives. If you have science, you need anti-science. One balances the other. Cyclical change is the hallmark of existence and life. Things staying perfectly the same is the equivalent of death. A certain level of contention and adversity strengthens and stimulates growth. Too little, not good. Too much, not good. Attempted suppression of free speech will almost inevitably bring about the opposite effect. Try to suppress it and it seems to flourish even more. Historically, I always thought that it was fascinating that wherever Christianity was persecuted the most was where it seemed to thrive the most. I'm reminded of Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall". https://poets.org/poem/mending-wall Fear not. The truth will eventually out. All things will assume their rightful place, eventually. We each have our role to play.
GerrySM
Now I’m beginning to think you’re a troll. I mean, you get offended at literally everything. And off you go on another rant.
Duh, “science” has been hijacked by companies. Drug companies, oil companies, food products companies, pesticide companies. You pour a lot of money into something, and “science” will dutifully bless it. That’s how it seems to me. My comment was intended to be more general than just referring to your climate playpen.
So given that “science” has been a bit of a whore these past few decades, uttering the formerly-magical phrase “science” impresses me less than it used to. Kinda like the words “racist!!” or “hate speech!!” Which I also notice you like to claim.
So Gerry, I have to ask you something. Why did you come here to the site? It sure seems like you’re on a mission of some sort.
Oh pah-LEEEEZE! You have linked a video by Tony Heller of “SuspiciousObservers” channel,The guy in the video goes by "Ben Davidson" so I guess he has a third alias. As well as surgery, since he looks different that the guy I found on youtube that claimed to be Tony Heller. Regarding getting ideas about climate models from a "slimy lawyer" (Ben Davidson does claim to have an earned Juris Doctorate), I consider that to be akin to getting Economic Information from a (non-slimy) biologist whose name is well known here. Law training is similar to scientific training in that you have to parse out facts to build a case. (Obviously you are building on a legal framework instead of a scientific framework though.) Thank you for attacking my intellect rather that the idea that particles from the sun may affect our weather, because I actually do not want to turn the tide on this thread into a climate debate. So to get back on topic, I'll add that I'm reading a book about Western vs Eastern cultures and one of the points they make is that especially in America we have this individualistic culture as opposed to the collectivie culture of the East. Someone who taught college level classes in Indonesia gave the example that going with a friend to an appointment was a "legal" excuse from school because in that culture no one would make a friend go alone. So I think part of the work in building a resilient community is understanding the individualistic cultural heritage many westerners have and being intentional about facing it.
I’m not quite sure how Robert Frost plays in. Please be a little more specific.
That said… “something there is” is inversion, is it not, and signifies importance of the preferred word.
What, to your mind is the “something” of which Frost speaks?
Things will cyclically go to one extreme (global cooling) and then to the opposite (global warming) but on the way from one to the other...This has nothing to do with the climate emergency humanity faces. Unless, like most paid deniers, it's your way of saying we should ignore the heating?
I mean, you get offended at literally everything.Nope, just things like science denial, racism and hate speech. The big issues. If these don't upset you, perhaps you need to re-examine your intellectual position?
The guy in the video goes by “Ben Davidson” so I guess he has a third alias.Yep, that's the guy. Slimy denier https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Suspicious0bservers
particles from the sun may affect our weatherHo hum, more nonsense.
Climate myths: It's all down to cosmic rays
When you put a pot on the stove, the most immediate effect is a rise in temperature… but before long the effect is phase change. The temperature stays fairly constant; but the water goes from liquid to gas.
When you have a complicated system like an eco-environment, the number of possible phase changes is huge. Reduce the number of trees, and you lose rainfall. Reduce the number of insects, and you have a rise in the number of perfect-flowered plants, and a crash in plants that need insect pollination.
So you’re thinking “is it global warming or cooling”, and you should instead be thinking, “are we at a stable point, or an unstable point?” If you are at an unstable point, then your climate may swing. If that’s so, you may be able to judge how it IS swinging, but you may not be able to judge how it is going to swing.
So your preparations should already be in place for the weather and eco-environment that already was; and as you see changes, you should prepare for the future in case the changes got more extreme.
And then don’t forget such things as locust swarms. Preparation there might be learning how to gather and preserve and eat them… if they are eating your crops.