Living in a small commune of micro-homes/tent city type getup

So! Hey guys! This is my first post. I'm 14 (15 in nov) and I've always been interested in communal lving / intention communities / tent citys.

Do you get these? Small communitea, made up of a micro-homes/ tent houses? I don't know how to describe it properly but I think you get my drift. One that relies on a resource based economy (bartering, being off the grid, self sufficient by working as a communitea to grow food, tailor, make crafts)

are these real? If not would it be hard to create one(small comunitie of not many, say up to 20-50 people.

Thanks guys, sorry if you don't understand aha

also, I'm sure a select few of you will just think I'm an average 14 year old going through a phase, I can assure you I am not aha. I'm a hippie to the bone!

 

PppBumppp

 

you can do anything you want, but still you should wait until you are atleast 16 man. it's generally accepted in intentional communities that i have visited that you really don't have a good viewpoint on life until you are atleast 16. and in society, it's 18. not to sound harsh, but it's the truth. as lame as it may sound, age has a pretty big impact on your views on life.

but you'd need to consider how a tent city type commune would be self sufficient, and if there are other people that are interested in the same thing that you are. and also why you would want to life a lifestyle like that. for what purpose, and to what end.

 

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yh man thanks, and i was thinking of waiting until i was ATLEAST 16 if i was going to join one (obviously if i started one id probs be 19-early 20's when i have the money) i hate it when you get all those teens who just speek utter bull. they get into a row with there parents and then go on saying how they dont need them and they could easily make it on there own. Ha!

but back on topic, i think the idea of just not having to worry about loans, mortgages, high bills (If any!) and just being free, y'know?

and to be self sufficient: it probably would be tottally self sufficient for a few years, but if we grew crops, harvest vegetable oil from (you guessed it! our vegetables!) and use that as much as we can, if we had people who could tailor, fish, carpoentry, any crafts.

obviously we would need some help from stuff from the outside world, but meh

 

Eighteen or nineteen.

At least.

And you can't walk away from loans, bills, mortgages, or anything else.... How will you buy this property? How will you eat while you spend the years that it will take to get this property producing ANYTHING? If you eat fish...... you'll die of malnutrition. There's a bit more to eating than fish and dandilions. Not to mention that you'll.... yeah, you guessed it, run out of fish. Or deer. Or any other game meat you might come upon.

Crops are hard and slow to grow, and you likely won't even get the energy you put into them out of them, especially at first. and one freeze, out of place rain, lack of rain, or anything else, could destroy thousands of collective hours work, and leave you with NOTHING on your plate. And preserving them is hard, and can bring in rodents or other pests or parasites or sickness.

Yeah..... done with your 14 year old phase yet? Cause I didn't even scratch the surface, I can keep going if you want.

 

that's a good place to start.

well chances are that you will have many years to think about these questions. and those are the things that are going to be really important in a community -- but truth is, it's hard.

it's likely that you will learn alot over the next few years and there is a possibility that some of your viewpoints will change. but if you still feel that way after you have been out in the world on your own for a while then i think it is definitely something you should persue.

--

and to those of you that think that 14 is too young to be thinking about these things then maybe you should consider someone who is 14 and was born in a communal lifestyle. what would you say to them? is that really much different than someone who is 14 and interested in communal living?

 

I don't think it's too young.

I think OP is escapist and unrealistic.

I mean, I KNOW this, they already said they just want to walk away from their problems...... Sorry buddy, debt collector's going to follow you, they're going to want their money for the land (or evict you, and/or charge you with tresspass) and a host of other things.

There are communes, and it's generally not going to be as free and easy as OP wants, and if they have any brains at all (I have never lived on a commune, I can't say what they WILL do, only what they will do if they have any brains) they won't TOUCH some escapist 14 year old, they'll say come back in 4 years. Maybe even a 16 year old can make that choice.... but if a 14 or 16 year old runs away to your commune and you harbor some kid who may or may not have left home without permission, may or may not be running from other legal problems or something, may or may not get sick and die on your food, or shanked in a game of cards, of tetanus off your rusty nail and livestock feces, etc..... The amount of legal jeopardy that an established commune would be in to take OP WITHOUT parents full consent, etc, would be bloody ridiculous.

If your parents are right there trying to shove you off onto a farm, that changes things, but if you misrepresent yourself or your situation with your parents to people, you will still be endangering those people, ignorance is not an excuse, yada yada yada....

So no, 14's not too young. But it's much too young to be talking about escaping bills and "the man" (at an age where that's mostly your dad) by running away to a hooverville.

 

^wasn't just referring to you but anyone else who might read this. i agree that it would be a legal hassle but i think it's beautiful that someone who is 14 is thinking about such things. i did say that i think he should wait until he has spent a little time in the world first.

 

Yeah im not thinking of running off to live in a commune NOW, hewre 16 is a legal leaving home age but as i did say i would probably wait until i was ATLEAST 18 or so before going off. and i dont mean to escape everything, no bills, no worrys. It just the idea of not owing the banks 50 odd grand and still be paying it off when im into my 40's and not having to worry if my low-pay job will cover food costs this week, or if i will be able to keep the heating gowing until i get my next paycheck

i know that there will still be costs, but they will be greatlly redused. money would go towards luxurys and such, not using 3/4 your paycheck to pay for gas, mortage repayments, electricity.

i dont know if im getting my point across at all aha, but if not then just ask and ill try an right it a bit more detailed

 

Well that's better than how you originally made it sound.

But I don't think you're being realistic.

Not only will you not have a paycheck, but you will NEED money, for the months on end that you can't sustain yourself foodwise, for.... heating (unless you want to clearcut and ruin your land) for the cost of the land, for gas and a vehicle and vehicle maintainence if you want to take crops to a farmers market, or have any sort of ability to use tractors in your farming, or anything else.... Materials that you can't find on-site for building (that is, most materials) tools, etc.

Yeah, you can make some of these things, but then you have to spend just as much, because you have to buy the raw materials and then put a lot of time in, and that takes gas to go buy materials anyway.

Kicking off a commune is going to be a lot harder than having a ho-hum job and doing your thing on the side. It's going to require you to work like 4 ho-hum jobs, and have a bunch of other people willing to do the same, for YEARS to get everything running.... and then, you still really need some outside funds.

 

He'll get done with his 14 year old phase about the same time that you're done with your 20 year old phase.

To CrazedTao- educate yourself now. Read book-Foxfire books are great. Read stuff on the internet. Go camping. Learn stuff.

 

20, 39, 14, it all brings difference pieces to the puzzle.

once you start discrediting people because they are too young / old then you start losing truth.

no offense roor, but from what i have seen from alot of your posts jou seem a little overpessimistic.

 

hmm... I grow my own food. it takes two weeks of planting and then 1 hr per day to water and weed. two weeks at harvest. that isn't hard work -especially if you enjoy gardening.

yes, you can walk away from debt and the bill collectors will never find you if you are clever. if you do not have a money requirement to live, the address on your id isn't your address, and you never give out your real address, you will never hear from a bill collector (no phone to hear them on too).

In fact, you could build great credit while working a ho-hum job, and then use all that nice credit to buy your infrastructure. Then walk away from the debt and the ho-hum job.

-but the real problem is "where" and your skill set.

the only way I know of, please let me know if anyone another way to free up a piece of land, to get a "where", is to create a non-profit which the IRS and your state recognises. Pay off a piece of land (at least five acres). Donate it to the non-profit. Be a care taker of the property while non-relative friends run the board of the non-profit.

If you have the correct infrastructure (plan to setup your infrastructure so any repairs can be done from materials on the land), once the initial "hump" of expense for the land and infrastructure is finished, you are then free. No land taxes, no mortgage, no money requirement.

But be real sure you want to go down this road. You really need to know how the money and legal systems work in addition to knowing how to grow things, what to grow, how to save seed, how to dry things for the winter, how to build with just the materials on the land, what a rocket mass heater is, what the equation for heat loss/gain is, how to determine the best angle of solar incidence is for your latitude, how to make your shelter mouse proof, how much space you need to store your food from one harvest through the winter and to the next harvest....

...so there is a great deal you'll need to learn... ...and yes, it is worth it compared to a ho-hum job

 

Try getting a group of friends together and stake out a campground and live. That will give a feel of what its going to be like starting a commune without a major cash flow.

Go for your dreams man. Dont let anyone talk you out of them.

Some people squat in abandoned houses and fix them up or rent a house with a bunch of people to make the rent and utilities cheaper.

The possibilities are endless for people living and working together instead of taking the socially acceptable route our govt has engineered for us.

 

I was just being a jerk

But I hope I didn't bring up anything he haden't thought of, gotta take into account the most cynical points of view, or you'll jut be in for a lot of nasty suprises. (sort of like me)

 

I feel you. im 16 and want to do the same thing.

 

I like your point of view Roo..always an eye opener

 

In case someone else hasn't already, I would suggest also: ic.org and wait a while...:-D