Leaves, Bamboo Teepees, Hippie Acrobatics, YouTube, and Planting Season

by Raven

The last week in March was not a good week for our Facebook statistics. We reposted some good pieces, they just didn’t have that many viewers.

Twin Oaks wanted folks to know about the latest version of “The Leaves”. (And, yes, I meant “edition” rather than “addition”.)

We published the actual edition here.

This post didn’t do very well. It got just one like and only fifty folks saw it.

Southern Exposure wanted you to know that you can use that pesky bamboo to put beans around.

Here’s the whole article.

This didn’t do well at all with no likes and just over thirty views.

East Wind posted this cute bit:

This got a like, a ‘haha’, and only eighty views.

Twin Oaks also wanted folks to know about their new YouTube channel and video.

We also put the video on this blog.

This didn’t do that well either, but it was the best of the bunch with three ‘cares’, two likes, a love, and eighty-five views.

Finally, we reposted another Southern Exposure article, this one about planting.

Again, you can read the full article here.

Unfortunately, although it got two likes, it only got thirty-five views.

Interns, Weeds, Snow, and Alpha Farm Visitors

This was a week on Facebook in late March and the statistics were mixed–some posts had lots of viewers and some posts didn’t.

The Twin Oaks Communities Conference was looking for interns to help with preparations and the running of the various summer gatherings.

This did very well on Facebook, with thirteen likes, a comment, and almost two hundred views.

Southern Exposure posted about weeds and since Acorn hasn’t posted anything on their Instagram page, I reposted it on our Facebook feed.

Here’s the full article (which should interest gardeners, at least).

Unfortunately, this didn’t do very well at all on Facebook. While it got four likes, it only got forty views.

East Wind posted about a snow day, with pictures.

While this got seven likes and a love, less than a hundred people saw it.

Finally, East Wind also posted about some visitors from another commune.

This did really well, with eleven likes, three loves, and almost a hundred and ninety views.

Siberia, Seed Racks, and a Name Question

by Raven

Mid-March was one of our better times on Facebook. Although there were only three new posts, all of them did well.

The first one was about how they stored the nutbutters at East Wind.

This post did very well on Facebook with eleven likes, two loves, a haha, a comment, and over a hundred and thirty views.

Southern Exposure posted about their Seed Racks team, which was a nice way of Acorn giving a little credit to Twin Oaks part in their business.

This also did very well on Facebook, with ten likes, five loves, a comment, a share, and almost a hundred and eighty views.

Finally, since it was a slow week as far as communities posting (I used stuff from two older posts on this blog to fill in the gaps), I thought I would end the week with a Facebook question. If I write it well enough, I sometimes get very good viewership–and it was true in this case. I had just republished an old post about folks choosing names in the communes, and I decided to make it personal.

Well, I did get some responses–nine folks let me know what they thought–some with new names for themselves and some with explanations why they wouldn’t need a new name.

And this post did very, very well. I got the kind of response I was looking for with, in addition to the nine comments, five likes, two loves, and a very satisfying two hundred and thirty views.

Cats, Gardens, Snow, and Gatherings

by Raven

This week in early March was not a great week for Facebook statistics, but I think it had some lovely and important posts.

Not important, but cute, was East Wind’s post about their cat.

I enjoyed it and one person loved and two others liked it, but less than sixty people saw it.

Southern Exposure posted about gardens in March.

(Since that’s a pic, I’m posting the link to the frost dates.)

This got six likes and a comment, but less than eighty views.

As opposed to Acorn’s spring gardening post, Twin Oaks posted about the snowy winter.

This did a little better, with six likes, three loves, and just under ninety views.

And with spring coming, the Twin Oaks folks are preparing for conferences and gatherings. We reposted announcements for both the Queer Gathering and the Women’s Conference.

The Queer Gathering usually posts about their “Awesomeness”.

Surprisingly, to me at least, since events often don’t do very well at all, this post did the best of the week, which wasn’t great. It only got three likes but it did get just over a hundred views.

You can find more info and register for the Queer Gathering here.

Also, the Women’s Gathering posted. Since I couldn’t think of much to compete with “Awesomeness”, posted some of the variant spellings of “women” from the seventies.

Unfortunately, this didn’t do well at all. While it got four loves and a like, it got less than fifty views.

Again, for more info, here’s the site for the Women’s Gathering.

The Women of East Wind

On March 8th, East Wind posted: “Today is International Women’s Day!

“At East Wind, you’ll find our female-bodied members kicking ass every day. Fixing our cars, driving tractors, butchering, doing ranch work, driving forklifts, and working in our business, along with running some of the more domestic tasks of house and home.

“Gender equality, labor equality, and financial equality are three values we hold dear in our community.

“’East Wind empowers me to be able participate in all kinds of labor that I never had a chance to do out in mainstream society. I feel so lucky to live in a place like this.’ -Sigrid, 40 yo, 4 years at East Wind

“‘It is a nice feeling to be defined, not by my gender, but by who I am as a person and what I do.’ -Winter, 42 yo, 15 years at East Wind

“‘Being able to learn from other knowledgeable women is something I value a lot. Realizing I can learn and do anything here, unrestricted by gender roles in a safe and supportive environment is truly empowering.’ -Sage, 26 yo, 3 years at East Wind

“‘Moving to community allowed me to remove so much of the armor I was accustomed to wearing in an individualistic environment.’ -Cody, 46 yo, 7years at East Wind

“’At Eastwind, I’ve learned to milk a cow, care for farm animals, and love myself more—all thanks to the incredible women here! I’m beyond proud to be part of Eastwind and the badass women who keep it going strong.’ -Jett, 26 yo, 11 months at East Wind

“Cheers to all the incredible women who have lived and are living here at East Wind-past, present and future.

#intentionalcommunity#eastwindcommunity#iwd2025#internationalwomensday#girlpower“

Chocolate Cake, Farming Book, Snow, and the Conference

by Raven

March did not begin well on Facebook, but I think that these posts were interesting and encouraging.

East Wind started off reporting on a cake that one of their members made for Valentine’s Day.

This post didn’t do badly at all–it got six likes, five loves, a comment, and a hundred and thirty views.

In an intercommunal cooperative effort, Pam from Twin Oaks wrote a book on “Market Farming” that the folks at Acorn (through their business Southern Exposure) are selling.

Unfortunately, although three people loved it, just over fifty people saw it.

East Wind also posted about the snowfall there.

This did okay, with seven likes, two loves, and a bit over a hundred views.

And the Twin Oaks Communities Conference announced they will be back again this year.

Here’s a link to the announcement.

Unfortunately, although this post got eleven likes (including one from the Conference) it got less than ninety views.

Firewood, Barn Cats, Seed Starting, and “Luxury Gay Space Anarcho-Communism”

by Raven

There were some unusual things posted by the communes late in February that we reposted on Facebook.

I suppose that the Twin Oaks post about firewood wasn’t that unusual.

This did fairly well on Facebook, with five likes and a hundred thirty-six views.

However, East Wind posted about their “barn cats”. I’ll admit I never thought about their relationships with cows, but someone at East Wind did.

This also did pretty well with three likes, two loves, and a hundred thirty-seven views.

Okay, Southern Exposure’s post on seed starting was also far from unusual.

This post got five likes, a love, a comment, and a share, but still got just a bit over ninety views.

However, the post that got the most views this week and was certainly the most unusual repost we’ve had for a while, was from Twin Oaks’ new Bluesky account. I don’t know who came up with this phrase, but it certainly stands out.

And it did get attention: six likes, four loves, one comment, and over two hundred and fifty views.

Homemade Pizza

East Wind writes: “Last night as dinner cooks, we did pizza delivery! We made the pizzas in our community kitchen at RB (Rock Bottom) using a mix of East Wind grown and processed ingredients along with some store bought items. Most pizzas featured EW mozzarella and parmesan from our dairy cows, EW tomato sauce, EW ground beef from our beef cows, EW spinach, leeks and sweet peppers. They were delivered throughout the farm but mostly at a movie viewing in Hammocks shop. Packed perfectly in a handmade and drawn pizza box! Totally fun, totally worth it

#intentionalcommunity#ozarks#homegrown#garden#eastwindcommunity#pizza#movienight#dairyprocessing“

Artists, Pucks, and Community Building Puzzle

by Raven

It was one of those weeks on Facebook where the usual communes didn’t post much, so I filled in with an old Facebook post (on Validation Day for February 14th) and a puzzle that was worth two days of posts (one for the questions and one for the answers).

Ericka from Serenity Solidarity did put out a really lovely post on visiting indigenous artists, actually her second one on the subject (see last week’s Facebook roundup for her other post), and this one came with a lot of pictures.

People obviously like pictures and I was pleased to see that this did very, very well on Facebook, with seven likes, three loves, and three cares, and well over three hundred views.

East Wind wrote about a very sweet use of their Peanut Butter:

This also did well, although nowhere near as well as Ericka’s artists, with two likes, two loves, and a “Wow!”, and a hundred and fifteen views.

Finally, I enjoy putting out puzzles now and then, although they haven’t been doing so well on Facebook lately. I have noticed that more people look at the actual puzzle or the questions then look at the answers–which puzzles me. This time the subject was how to build communities.

This didn’t do too well at all, with just one like and not even sixty views.

Now, if you are interested in taking the quiz yourself, take a moment and look at the steps again and see if you can put them in the correct order.

I’ll give you a bit of space before I put down the solution.

Go ahead. Try it.

And here’s the answers.

As usual, the answers did less well than the questions, with no likes or loves and just over forty views.

Indigenous Artists, PB Day, Pizza Garden, and Mutual Aid

by Raven

We’re into the Facebook posts for February.

Ericka from Serenity Solidarity is traveling and posted this.

This post did okay, with two likes, two loves, a care, and a hundred and eight views.

East Wind Nutbutters was promoting…

This didn’t do that well. While it got three likes and two loves, it only got thirty-nine views.

Most folks like pizza. Southern Exposure suggests that you grow a garden for it.

This didn’t do that well either. (What? People don’t like peanut butter? People don’t like pizza?) It only got two likes and a love and just eighty-five views.

There wasn’t a lot to post this week so I decided to finish by asking a question and hoping to get comments and views.

I didn’t get a lot of comments–just one, plus my response.

However, it got four likes and two loves and over two hundred and fifty views.