Want to be part of an intentional community?
Description
This opportunity is for people aspiring to go back to nature, live communally and *sustainably* in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, and learn about the alpaca fibre business. You do not need to be an experienced farmer. Depending on where you are coming from, there will probably need to be a 14-day covid quarantine period, though.
I would like to find 6 *non-smoking* individuals to be part of this. It is taking a long time to find people who share my goals and outlook and who have good chemistry with me personally. A couple people have tried it out. For one of them, the life here didn’t suit her. For the other, it suited him so well that he bought some land from one of my family members to do his OWN homestead … lol. Fortunately, I have lots of time and lots of patience to do this.
I’m a quiet, middle-aged guy who mostly keeps to himself, but I also love good conversation around the dinner table or the woodstove. I am open to people of any spiritual or political viewpoint but not anyone who is anti-religious or who needs to be only with people who share their worldview (e.g., people who are overly “woke”).
Rather than asking you to work full-time or for a lot of money, I just want 10 hours per week of your help and a $500 monthly contribution to the common living expenses (which covers your shelter, meals, and wifi). At the end of each calendar year, I will give you 10% of the farm profits (which currently come primarily from alpaca fibre products, airbnb, and a small biennial blueberry harvest). By pulling together on the activities listed below, we can increase the farm revenues so that your profit-share at the end of the year is a couple thousand, instead of a couple hundred dollars.
I have a pair of beautiful riverfront hobby farms, each with a large 4-bedroom house. There are 3 acres of wild blueberries, 6 acres of pasture, and about 8 acres of woods that provide more than enough firewood to heat both homes, using only sustainable harvesting. I have a small flock of free-range chickens.
Over the last 6 years, I have been raising alpacas and developing a fibre business around them. I have 6 alpacas at the moment, but I want to build the herd up to about 20 and to grow the diversity of products I derive from the fibre. A small portion of my food comes from the property, and my vision is to increase that slowly and steadily every year.
Some of the new areas of activity that I want to undertake (once the right long-term cohabitants are found) are:
-bee-keeping (which will also help pollinate the blueberry field)
-developing blueberry condiments and other blueberry products
-permaculture and biodynamics
-large vegetable and herb gardens
-farm store for the alpaca products and blueberry products
-fishing the 1500 feet of river
-alternative, renewable energy to reduce our dependence on the grid
-art studio, as there are a lot of tourists here in the summer
-a yoga/meditation retreat / wellness centre (this would be further down the road)
The 6 roles available are:
-fibre artist (to spin, knit, and make other fibre products)
-livestock keeper (to take care of the alpacas and poultry)
-gardener/forager (to garden and harvest the property and the woods)
-handyperson (to keep things fixed and machines running)
-beekeeper/blueberry cultivator (to start/maintain the hives and convert the blueberries to spray-free)
-forester (to harvest firewood, lumber, and craft wood and to keep the woods healthy)
...though there will be some cross-training on all of the core activities.
This situation probably might not suit a couple and definitely not a family, because of the difficulty in finding a financial contribution amount that is fair to all. However, If you have a family, I am amenable to you building a tiny home on the property and then I would forego most of the financial contribution, obviously.
Tell me all about yourself if you decide to message me about this.
community | friendship, networking
2021-06-08