IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME HERE…

We’re glad you made it!  This is a blog devoted to income-sharing communities, also known as communes.  It is a huge repository of information about communal living, income-sharing, and even sharing in general. It is not focused on other kinds of communities, although we do have some information about communities in general, as well as what you need to know about starting a community or joining a community.  For more information about other kinds of intentional communities or community living in general, you should check out the Foundation for Intentional Community.

For those truly interested in the idea of income-sharing and income-sharing communities, this site is a treasure trove.  We have over a thousand posts here on various aspects of communal living, including lots of reports about various aspects of life in the communes, as well as thoughts and essays about sharing income as well as life.  And pictures!  There are lots of pictures here.

For those who think that this is some idea that will never work and all the communes vanished with the sixties, you can read about Twin Oaks which has been up and running for fifty-seven years now, and East Wind which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year. (2024)  Our goal here isn’t to convince you to join or start an income-sharing community (although that would be great).  Our goal is to let you know that income-sharing is not only possible, but it really isn’t that difficult.

If you are new here, we have a welcome page with more information about  what’s on this blog and how to use this site.

Capitalism, Planting, New Members, Sandals, and Coming Together

by Raven

This is from our Facebook feed the week after the Twin Oaks fire. Some of these posts were originally scheduled for the previous week but delayed to fit in all the posts about the fire and one of these is from Twin Oaks talking about the aftermath of the fire.

This first post is a link to what I think is a very interesting analysis of how communities deal with the realities of capitalism, an essay by Sky Blue which I knew we had to repost here as soon as I saw it. It was already posted on the Federation of Egalitarian Communities Facebook page, which is where I got Sky’s quote about the effect of their life at Twin Oaks and with the FEC.

Here’s a link to the original article.

Unfortunately, it didn’t do that well on our Facebook feed, with six likes, one share, and only eighty-four views.

Acorn Community and their business, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, are all about the seeds–and the planting of them.

Here’s a link to the Southern Exposure website.

This post did okay with seven likes, a share, and a hundred and twenty-four views.

One of the posts that got bumped was from Twin Oaks talking about getting new members. I assume that as they are rebuilding from the fire, they will still be looking for new members.

This did pretty well, with six likes, one love, one care, and a hundred and sixty views.

Although the main business at East Wind is nut butters, they also make sandals, using the same rope that Twin Oaks used for their hammocks (now only a memory in the wake of the fire).

Here’s the website for Utopian Rope Sandals.

Maybe people didn’t know that East Wind made sandals. This post did very well, with seven likes, a love, a share, and just over two hundred views.

Finally, a post fire post from Twin Oaks about support, care, and gratitude in the wake of this disaster.

This post did very, very well (best of the week) with six likes, six cares, one love, and two hundred and eighteen views.

The Different Kinds of Community

Many people are confused when they first learn about intentional communities, about things like the difference between cohousing and communes, or what an ecovillage is. Sky Blue, former Twin Oaks member and former director of the Foundation for Intentional Community, explains some of the different types of community living in this five and a half minute video.

Individual Freedom in the Communes

by Raven

In my last post I wrote a little about individualism and how it’s rampant in American culture.  It’s a hard habit to break out of–but I suspect that many people fear the opposite happens in communal living, that all individual freedom will be gone.

I have sometimes thought about community as existing in the “dynamic tension” between the individual and the group.  And by “dynamic tension” I mean an ever changing midpoint or community point.  Too far in the direction of the individual and you are back to individualism and the community falls apart.  Too far in the direction of the group and you’re talking about a cult and group think, and believe it or not, the communes are very, very far from this.

In her book,Is It Utopia Yet?, Kat Kinkade wrote this about ideological and lifestyle diversity at Twin Oaks: “All it really expects is conformity to decent behavioral standards. We don’t (officially) demand ideological adherence to much of anything, not even the Community’s basic principles…”  She talks about the New Age tendencies at Twin Oaks: “…we eat a lot of beans, rice, and tofu… We subscribe to ten or fifteen radical leftist magazines.  We wear used clothing made of natural fibers,  and we don’t throw it out when it becomes stained… We have built geodesic domes, enjoy a rustic cabin and a tipi, and one of these days will probably get around to making a yurt… We go in for underwater births, mud pits, nude swimming, sweat huts, and pagan rituals.  We think seriously about animal rights.  Some people won’t even kill flies.”  But then she adds: “More than half of us do several of the following: eat meat, drink coffee, read Newsweek, go to regular AMA physicians, wear clean neat clothing, ignore the tipi, take rituals with a grain of salt, and kill flies with a clear conscience.”  

Having spent time around Twin Oaks, I know that there are pagans and Christians and Jewish folk and atheists and agnostics and probably a lot of other ways of believing; that there are lots of queer folk, and a lot of gender fluid folks and several trans folks and many poly people, but there are also quite a few monogamous, heterosexual, cis-gendered folk there too; and while I’m pretty sure that there aren’t a lot of right-wingers at Twin Oaks, the political spectrum runs from vaguely conservative/libertarian, through classic liberals and pretty progressive, to rather radical.  It’s the old adage of having sixty folks and probably seventy-five opinions.

And it may be even more diverse at anarchist leaning Acorn and individualist/libertarian leaning East Wind.  If you’ve spent any time at the communes, you will soon realize that they are far from a conforming group-think cult.  In fact, I would say that there is probably a lot more individual freedom in the communes than in American society at large.  Many, many communards delight in being weird in many different ways–but there is probably more acceptance of “normal” behavior in the communes than there is of weird individuality outside of them.

It’s interesting but I think that places devoted to communal living probably have more real individual freedom of expression than in “individualistic” mainstream America.  (And then there’s the economic freedom of not having to worry about a job and where your food and next paycheck will come from.  But that’s for another post.)

Returning to Help, Curt Illustrated, East Wind’s 50th, and Beehive Art

by Raven

This post will overlap a couple of weeks of Facebook posts. The first of the weeks had only three posts suitable for reposting here. I often repost as many as five of the seven weekly Facebook posts since two are either posted here first (our Monday think pieces that are reposted to FB on Tuesday) or posted similtaneously (our Wednesday videos or photoessays). I also don’t repost stuff from Facebook that are actually reposts from earlier blog post here, or that gotten the original content from whoever posted it originally deleted or blocked for some reason.

The week of Facebook I was going to repost here had one of each exception, so I would have had only three posts–however, the following week was the week of the Twin Oaks fire when I dumped all the usual Facebook content and replaced it with a bunch of TO posts about the fire, and then reprinted them here that Friday. However, there was one post that week that happened before the fire, ironically from Twin Oaks, and I am reposting that here with the three posts from the previous week.

The first post was another Twin Oaks post (TO is a prolific poster) about a kid that grew up there, left, and now lives nearby and comes by sometimes just to help out.

This did extremely well on Facebook, with nine likes, five loves, one comment, one share, and two hundred and twenty-five views.

Curt was an older man who lived at Acorn and died suddenly of a heart attack a few years ago. He was a musician and an artist and left a lot of art behind. I don’t know who did this picture that Acorn posted.

This got two likes, two cares, one love, and a hundred and twenty-four views.

I think that turning fifty is pretty good for any community. Twin Oaks hit fifty a few years back. Now it’s East Wind’s turn.

This was an event post from East Wind, and event posts on Facebook generally don’t do well. This was no exception. It did get three loves (including one from East Wind Nut Butters!), two likes, and a care, but it only got seventy-one views.

Finally, Twin Oaks posted about an art event there that featured the Beehive Collective, an artist group from Maine known for their posters. The blurb here is a direct quote from the original Twin Oaks post (which I usually say, but somehow forgot this time).

The link is in a picture so you can’t click on it. Here’s a real link to the Beehive Collective. And here’s the pictures TO posted.

This did pretty well. It got six likes and a hundred and eighty-one views.

Renewable Electricity Workshop, Part 2

Alexis from Living Energy Farm talks more about how electricity works in off-grid situations, including his community. A continuation from Part 1 last week.

The Irony of the Kibbutzim

by Raven

In the world wide communal movement, the kibbutzim (plural of kibbutz) hold a special place–they were among the first income-sharing communal experiments of the twentieth century.  The first kibbutz to be founded was Kibbutz Degania Alef, established in 1910.  It started with twelve folks and by 1947 had almost 400 members.  There are currently around 270 kibbutzim in Israel.  In spite of the fact that they have become less communal and socialist and more ‘privatized’ over the decades  (Degania Alef was privatized in 2007), they have been an inspiration to income-sharing communities around the world.  And there has been an urban kibbutzim movement where they have been renewing the ideals of sharing that characterized the original kibbutzim.

The founders of Kibbutz Degania Alef

The kibbutz movement started with strong socialist roots–sharing what they had with each other.  Unfortunately, it also started with strong Zionist roots.  This combination is at the heart of what I am calling ‘The Irony of the Kibbutzim’.  There’s a really good and informative NPR article that goes to the core of this dilemma.  The goal of the Zionist movement was to establish a homeland for Jewish people in the area of Palestine.  The problem is that there were already Palestinian people living there.  For many activists in the Western Hemisphere, this is very reminiscent of the way Europeans came in and basically stole land from the tribes that were living here.  This is also the root of the current war in the Middle East.  I am currently involved with many pro-Palestinian activists–including many anti-Zionist Jews.

The NPR article highlights the role of the kibbutzim in the establishment of Israel:  “Before the formation of the state of Israel, the kibbutz played an important role in the Zionist mission of state-building. In the 1930s and 1940s, as it became clear that the creation of a Jewish state was likely, some kibbutzim were placed strategically near regions like Gaza in order to help stake the future claim.”  Even so, “Politics in kibbutzim are associated with the left-wing and peace solutions.”  Yet because of their location, “Some of the worst violence from… [the] Hamas attacks in Israel took place in small Israeli communities near Gaza called kibbutzim.”  The end of this article again points out one of the ironies while talking about folks Hamas kidnapped. “One of the missing residents was Vivian Silver, 74, a woman who had spent her retirement pursuing peace in the region, her son Yonatan Zeigen told NPR.   ‘She would drive sick Palestinians from Gaza to Israeli hospitals.’”

Israeli soldiers inspect the engine from a paraglider that Palestinian militants used a few days earlier in an attack on the Kfar Aza kibbutz near the border with Gaza, on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023.  (Amir Levy/Getty Images)

There is no question that the Hamas attack was horrible and brutal, but there is also no question that it has been dwarfed by the incredible inhumane brutality of the Israeli response.  There is also a context in which the Hamas attack occurred.  I have been hearing about the horrible ways that the Israelis have been treating the Palestinians for years, basically keeping them prisoners in their own homeland.  Some of the stories I’ve heard have been from Jewish folks that I know who have visited Israel and Palestine and have been horrified by what they saw–walled in run down areas kept separate from the rest of Israel and constantly patrolled by soldiers who limited the movement of Palestinians.  Further, I’m sure that one of the things behind the timing of the Hamas attack was that the right-wing is currently in charge in Israel and has been encouraging even more settlement in Gaza, squeezing what little land that Palestinians have even more.  South Africa, the land where the term apartheid comes from, has accused Israel of perpetuating apartheid in Palestine.  Currently, it looks like Israel is engaging in what appears to be a genocidal campaign.

The irony of the kibbutzim is that a movement founded on radical sharing helped support a nation devoted to taking land.  While many in the movement wanted to share more with the Palestinian people, the movement as a whole has been implicated in diminishing what little they have.

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Radishes, a Doorstop, a Cat, and Glass Jars

by Raven

We’re running over a month behind on reprinting our Facebook posts at this point, but we may catch up a little once we get past the week of the Twin Oaks fire that we dropped our schedule for.

Our statistics were pretty good, although the post that did the best on Facebook was a reposting of an old blog post.

We started with radishes at Acorn.

This did pretty well on FB, with six Likes, two Loves, and a hundred and eleven views.

Twin Oaks posted a pic of their cute little doorstop.

This also did pretty well, although it only got two Likes and a Care, it got a hundred and thirty views.

Then Acorn posted this cute photo:

This did okay as well, with two Likes, two Loves, a Haha, and a hundred and eighteen views.

Finally, East Wind Nutbutters wrote this about their glass jars:

You can read the whole article here.

We had a couple of interesting comments on it.

This post did very, very well, with twelve likes, three loves, and two hundred and thirty-one views.

But even this was left in the dust by an old Commune Life Blog post on Kat Kinkade that I reposted when I ran out of other stuff to post and it got twenty-four Likes, five Loves, five comments, one share, and full three hundred and eighty-four views.

Renewable Electricity Workshop, Part One

Alexis from Living Energy Farm wants you to know how electricity works, particularly in the context of off grid and community living.

Devastating Fire at Twin Oaks

from The Leaves of Twin Oaks #132
March 2024‍
Fire at Twin Oaks by Anna
On Wednesday afternoon March 20th 2024, tragedy struck Twin Oaks when a nearby wild fire spread to our property, completely destroying our warehouse complex, our sawmill and our conference site. Over 200 acres burned through the night, forcing the entire community to evacuate. Luckily, no people, pets or residences were damaged. While we do have a disaster fund, the damage we’re facing is devastatingly huge. The structures destroyed include our large warehouse complex, our sawmill, 4 vehicles, our kilns, a hoop-house, a functioning outdoor kitchen and pavilion at the conference site, countless storage structures including 3 barns and 2 trailers, and many other small structures. We are estimating a loss of more than a million dollars. This loss also means the end of our 57-year old hammocks business, which was Twin Oaks’ beating heart for many decades since its foundation in 1967. Other Twin Oaks businesses experienced losses as well, but will most likely recover.‍
Our  industrial center, Emerald City, is on fire

We have yet to understand the full scope of this tremendous loss, and are grieving the parts of our community that have been destroyed. If you would like to donate to us to support the community financially, we would greatly appreciate it. Donations will go towards infrastructure repairs and other expenses addressing the financial loss of the hammocks business.

You can donate directly to the community’s bank account by clicking the following link:

tinyurl.com/twinoaksfire
‍
Personal Account by Jane
This is a personal account of one member’s experience of the fire on March 20th. This is based on my recollection of events, as well as voice memos I took during this time. So it is possible I am missing details or misremembering events.
March 20th started like most Wednesday’s for me–waking up early to drive to Charlottesville. I work at the Cville Ballet, and I spend most Wednesdays managing the costume inventory for the upcoming student showcase. When I left, I was looking forward to my RET meeting (Racial Equity Team) to debrief some events in the previous few days. (Spoiler alert, we didn’t end up having that meeting.)‍ 
As I got off the highway and drove down Shannon Hill Road around 3:45, I started to see smoke in the distance. Instantly my mind jumped to the previous brush fire that happened back in September.

Vehicles and buildings destroyed

As I got closer, I realized it was coming from West Old Mountain Road. Out of curiosity, I turned left instead of continuing to Yanceyville Road. As I drove, I remember vividly when I saw the fire, blazing orange just past the driveway at EC. I screamed, hitting the brakes. It was a low burning fire, but suddenly a gust of wind came and blew the flames up towards the leaves in the trees. Once that happened, I drove away, and parked at the frisbee field to recollect myself. I can see in my call history I called 911 at 3:58, and according to other Oakers, EC was on fire by 4:18.‍

It was definitely weird to pull up to the courtyard and see the swarms of people with go bags and pet carriers. I take class at CBA, so all I had was my leotard, tights, and dance shoes. Thankfully I had my laptop and wallet, but my mind flashed to the precious items in my room like my medication, gifts from my deceased grandmother, and my passport. Would I be allowed to go up and get them?

Destroyed wood-working machine with ruined workshop / warehouse in background

There was lots of milling around, and at some point we were moved across the road. At this point I had gone to move a car, and when I came back, my bag was missing. In the end it was my Twin Oaks family that moved it, but the stress of the day overcame me and I started crying on the hammock’s loading dock. All I had was my phone and the clothes on my back! Thankfully I found Scott, my partner, and Anna and Michael, my two dear friends, and they helped calmed me down. Once we got to the other side of the road, my missing bag was found.‍It was hard to pass the time. At one point my partner and I went for a walk down by the river, and when we came back, everyone was gone! It was the first time I felt hopeful, that maybe things were turning around. When we got back to the courtyard though, I had a mission. The threat of evacuation still loomed, and I needed my medication. Other Oakers had been stopped from going up the hill, but I was determined. Kathryn was taking roll of everyone, so I informed her that Scott, Khaleesi (Scott’s dog), and I would be going to Kaweah for my meds. Thankfully, we made it without incident, and good timing- when we returned to the courtyard, the police were instructing us to evacuate.

I knew I wanted to be with people I was closest to, but what about Khaleesi? Where would we bring the dog? In a moment of panic I said “I’m not evacuating! I don’t care!” Adder and Hawina, two members with more sense than me at that moment, told me I would evacuate with everyone because not doing so would be risking my life. I’m glad they were there to talk some sense into me. We debated over the various locations, and when I heard Kathryn shout “two more spots at acorn!” I said “me and Scott and Khaleesi!” We all climbed into a van with a motley crew of Oakers: McCune, Eve, Steve, Shal, Valerie, Scott, me, and Khaleesi the dog and Mitzi the cat. Valerie, Scott, and I sat on the floor of the trunk, and tried to keep ourselves occupied with jokes.‍Once we got to Acorn, I got us a room in Heartwood. There were multiple other dogs and cats in the steel building, and I knew Khaleesi would not be able to relax. I had a good chat with Ira and Scott-Acorn, who were just as incredulous as I was that the whole thing was happening. Taiga, Anande, Telos, and others from Acorn helped us get set up in a room and showed us where food could be found, which I really appreciated. I didn’t realize until we got to Acorn around 8:30 that I hadn’t had lunch or dinner that day.

I fell asleep pretty quick, and when we woke up, discovered that the evacuation order had been lifted around midnight and everyone else went home. At first I was excited, thinking the drama was finally over, until I checked my phone and saw the three different emails saying the same thing: “EC is gone”. I couldn’t really process what that meant, until I saw it for myself later that day. What do you mean, it’s gone? How is that possible?‍

Ropemaking Twister ruined

Once we got home, I was in a bit of a daze. I was supposed to be doing rax desk (customer service for SESE wholesale) but with the internet destroyed, it was impossible. Thankfully, I was able to use a hotspot and email customers with outstanding wooden rack orders, and explain that they wouldn’t be getting racks anytime soon. It wasn’t until later that day that I realized our digital archive machine was hosted at EC. I frantically texted Adder, the IT manager, to see if anything had been saved- he responded no, I’m so sorry, but the database is gone. It was gut wrenching to me- the thing I was most proud of in archives, gone in an instant. Thankfully, all the scans and physical papers were backed up and safe, but the servers and software to read those papers and my cataloging system is gone.

I’ve been mostly trying to get back into my normal routines. I brought my goddaughter and main primary kid, Xena, to the library two days after the fire. It was a great way to escape from the stress for a few hours, and pretend things were the same. And I’ve been doing my k shifts, managing archives, and shipping orders, just like I did before the fire. But then it’ll pop back into my head, or I’ll smell smoke from a toaster, and the memories come flooding back. I moved to Twin Oaks 9 months ago, and I wonder now- when I reflect back, will I even remember what life was like before the fire? Or will it be a hazy memory, life before the end of so much we took for granted here? Only time will tell. ‍

Communities Conference, Acorn Cats, Cooking Dinner, The Queer Gathering, and a Question

by Raven

I postponed this update last week for a recap on the Twin Oaks fire, so now we are well over a month behind on what was posted on Facebook.

And things can change significantly in a month. The first post was about the Twin Oaks Communities Conference, what I think of as one of the most important community networking events that happens all year. Of course, when this was posted, no one had any idea that the Conference site would soon be destroyed. Hopefully the Conference is still happening, but we will see. Here’s what we posted:

Usually, I’m bummed when a post gets less than a hundred views, but Facebook has been awful when we post events so this time I was pleased that this post almost got a hundred views. It also got eight likes.

At Acorn, it was a post about a couple of cats, one of which is named Fight Club.

Well, I was wrong that Fight Club was named when cats weren’t allowed in Acorn and a reader wrote to correct me:

This got seven likes, four loves, and a ha ha, not to mention an impressive 226 views. I guess that’s the benefit of showing cute cat pictures.

Twin Oaks has a large dining hall, a busy kitchen, and usually serves dinner on time. Here a picture from the process one day.

This got three likes, two loves, two wows, and a care, as well as over a hundred and sixty views.

The Twin Oaks Conference site also hosts the Queer Gathering (and the Women’s Gathering). The same week that the Communities Conference announced registration, so did the Queer Gathering. They might even be more affected by the fire because the Queer Gathering is held several weeks before the Communities Conference.

Maybe because of the way I worded the Facebook intro, FB didn’t recognize it as an event. Or maybe some other reason, but this post did the best we’ve done for an event, with well over a hundred views, as well as five likes and two loves.

Of course, as I’ve said many times, if you really want high viewer numbers, post a provocative question on Facebook from time to time. This time it was about families, and children, and communities.

Of course, there were a bunch of comments–but not that many (six) considering. Here’s what folks thought.

But, in spite of the small number of comments, and only seven likes and a love, we certainly got views. Over four hundred of them. I guess maybe people are more interested in the question than the answers.