Communes?

[TanMan]

I've been planning a nice long traveling session when I take a year off of college next year. I've been researching heavily and I've found that there are a lottt of communes all over the US. These communes have various different prerequisites for entrance.

So my question is, in YOUR experiences, which communes would you suggest? Would you even suggest communes? Should I avoid them like the plague? If not, where is/are your favorite commune/s? What are the prerequisites to stay there? I've read about a couple where you have to commit to working full time as a farmer and you get free housing, I've read that you can stop for free at certain ones if you're just stopping in for a couple weeks. Stuff like that. Just figured it'd be a nice alternative to a squat if I'm planning to stay somewhere a while.

 

[Gudj]

Go with someone who has been there before, and be prepared to work.

 

[TanMan]

Go with someone who has been there before, and be prepared to work.

have you stopped at any?

 

[Gudj]

Well, I guess I should first understand what you are talking about.
I assumed you were talking about land projects/farms/rural hangouts/sanctuaries?

 

[VomitIsJustSkimMilk]

I've heard of some folks Woofing it; doesn't sound like too much fun though.

 

[barefootinbabylon]

helpx.net, wwoof.org, growfood.org (.com?)

I've heard of some folks Woofing it; doesn't sound like too much fun though.

I WWOOFed in hawai'i, and it was fucking AMAZING! Not all 'farms' make you work 8 hours/day or whatever; we worked for 3 hours, and then we were done by 11 a.m... plenty of time for beaacchhh time. It all depends on what you're lookin' for.

Oh! Ic.org is alright, too; but it's not really like, a work-trade website, per se...

 

[TanMan]

helpx.net, wwoof.org, growfood.org (.com?)



I WWOOFed in hawai'i, and it was fucking AMAZING! Not all 'farms' make you work 8 hours/day or whatever; we worked for 3 hours, and then we were done by 11 a.m... plenty of time for beaacchhh time. It all depends on what you're lookin' for.

Oh! Ic.org is alright, too; but it's not really like, a work-trade website, per se...

checking it out right now. seems like a great idea.

 

[Alex the Weaver]

Oh! Ic.org is alright, too;...

I would second http://www.ic.org for a number of reasons.

As far as straight up communes, I lived at the Jesus People's commune in Uptown, Chicago for about two and a half months in '03, until I stopped believing in God. It was a really bad experience for a plurality of reasons, but some people really Love that place. http://www.jpusa.org

Work included washing dishes, cleaning, and I did get to work in their silk screening shop and homeless shelter a bit too. 500 people lived in the commune and sometimes upwars of 17 of us would go protest the war in Iraq and hang out at an Infoshop in Bucktown, Chi.

In '08-'09 I toured three of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities Communes: Twin Oaks and Acorn in Virginia, and East Wind in the Missouri Ozarks. I hated Twin Oaks for the most part, it's a total partymune and I've been mostly sober for my adult life. But the work and food was enjoyable. I worked in their hammock shop, gardened and read a lot. There was some 100 people there and a few were cool.

Acorn is a seed farm near by with about a dozen people. I WWOOFed there for a month and LOVED it! I learned a lot about saving seeds and farming in a warmed climate than I was used to in the midwest. They offered me a three month internship but I split since seed saving was done for the season and I disliked seeing people from Twin Oaks as much as I did there.

East Wind... I was there for about three months. The good parts were really good, and the bad really bad. There were 70 people there and I was really tight with a dozen or so. Two were ex-Earth First!ers and we did forestry. I read a lot and learned to card weave there, which totally changed my life. I split when forestry ended for the season and felt the drunken drama wasn't worth putting up with if all I did was wash dishes for the most part at that point.

 

[Rob Nothing]

some browsing done over ic.org recently. was also looking for communes // places where finances are 100% shared.. most of who had some pretty freaked out, unrealistic ideals/requisites typed into their info and webpages.
Basically found that 'commune' pretty much = religious fanaticism, apparently.

But then there were places like this one lostvalley.org, that struck a major chord with me. Unfortuneately I tried reaching them with no luck, no reply whatsoever, and a few others weren't looking for any more volunteers this time of year.

lost valley is legit, actually established permaculture site, and by the looks of it has seen huge improvement and success. Maybe they will respond to your application still, if not mine (for some reason, maybe I came off as a nutcase).