Not With a Bang but a Whisper

by Raven

I’m going to let you in on a sad little secret.  The Federation of Egalitarian Communities (FEC) is pretty much functionally gone.  Not that it can’t be revived; but right now there don’t seem to be enough folks that want to do that.  I mentioned this briefly in one of my Friday Facebook summary posts, saying “I was hoping it would resolve itself,” but it doesn’t seem to have happened.

This began with the January, 2024, Assembly, a meeting where usually FEC delegates from member communities meet to work out things related to the FEC.  This meeting seemed more important than most because the FEC was in a bit of legal and financial trouble, mostly because no one had been keeping up with the paperwork.  It didn’t seem that serious, just some things we had to do to get the organization back on track.  I went because I was (and I still am) in a community that does income-sharing and I wanted it to become part of the FEC.

The first hint of real trouble came when I mentioned that in my check-in and someone said, “Let’s first see if there is going to continue to be an FEC.”  I soon found out that some folks at Acorn were upset with the way that they thought Twin Oaks was treating them (the situation is very complicated) and weren’t sure they wanted to be in an organization with them, and at least one of the delegates from East Wind was still upset with the way that they thought that East Wind was treated at the 2018 Assembly. (I alluded to this in my introduction to the Social Technology workshop that preceded the 2019 Assembly. Here’s a couple of former East Wind members discussing that Assembly–that topic starts just after minute 41.)

East Wind Community (their 50th anniversary picture)

To further complicate things, the delegates from East Wind and the delegate from Glomus Commune were actually leaving their communities and it wasn’t clear who, if anyone, was going to replace them.

Tigger, from Twin Oaks, took on the legal and financial difficulties–not as a delegate, which he wasn’t, but as someone prepared to do the paperwork so that the organization could be revived, and, as far as I can tell, he did that.  The problem is that I was on the phone the next bunch of times that an FEC conference call was scheduled and I was the only one there.  

I finally heard from an Acorn delegate that they had not heard from any other delegates from the other communities, especially Twin Oaks and East Wind.  I’m not sure that the East Wind delegates ever got replaced and I know that the person who was the main Twin Oaks delegate has gotten super busy and has very little time for anything except their work.

The Acorn crew (August, 2023)

I went to the Communities Conference and the Convergence of Intentional Communities hoping to find out what was going on, but there was no one to ask.  I suspect that most folks at Acorn and Twin Oaks (especially at Twin Oaks since the fire) are so busy with stuff at their communities that very few people think of the FEC.  And there was no one at the Conference that I saw who was from East Wind–which is very unusual and I saw as a bad sign.

Twin Oaks folks (45th anniversary picture)

Maybe there are things going on behind the scenes, but I suspect not.  I think that very few people in the communes are concerned at all about the FEC and it makes me very sad.

The FEC was a wonderful and vibrant organization for a long time.  (I have documented its history from the 1960s and 1970s all the way to “Tens and Teens”.)  I’m so sorry to watch it fade away.  Hopefully, it will get revived at some point.  At least, I wish.

The First Convergence of Intentional Communities

by Raven

I will have to admit that I did not attend much of the Convergence, other than the opening.  Two reasons:  first, I thought it was a one day, Monday event and had scheduled my departure for Tuesday.  More to what I needed, I realized that it was focused on national and global organizing and especially around ecovillages and larger communities, and right now my focus is on local organizing and, of course, income-sharing communities, especially small new ones.

The opening was impressive.  The three organizers of this event all spoke, one at a time, beginning with Paxus Calta who said that he thought this first meeting would be historic and compared it to the First International, where anarchists debated socialists, and many streams of radical organizing followed.  He said that one of his lovers said that he was egotistical to believe that, but then he heard Daniel Greenberg compare it to the first moonshot.

Paxus

Daniel Greenberg was, as you can imagine from that introduction, very enthusiastic about this Convergence, talking about his work with the Global Ecovillage Network and the Foundation for Intentional Community, and how the next step is to strengthen the networks and build, not just nationally, but internationally.

Daniel

Sky Blue said that they were the skeptic of the group.  They certainly wanted the things that Paxus and Daniel wanted, but they weren’t sure that it was achievable at this event.  They said that they told Paxus and Daniel that but Paxus and Daniel asked them to come and lead anyway, feeling that it would be good to have a skeptic in the group.

Sky

What followed was indeed an intensive two day program. As far as I could see, before I left early Tuesday afternoon, there was a lot of work being done–and flipcharts full of notes everywhere.

One of the many flipcharts

In some ways, I’m sorry that I missed most of the Convergence, but at this point I think my energies are better off going into helping to create communities, and helping to create local and regional community networks.  It’s not that I don’t think that there is a need for national and global networks, it’s just that it’s not where my passion is. So instead, I took care of myself and I also helped out a bunch behind the scenes, especially around the food.  (We had the same overworked cook as we did for the Communities Conference.)

I asked Sky what they thought was accomplished at the Convergence, and this is what they wrote: “I’m happy with how it went. I’m also aware of how much more we could have done if we had funding. But it was wonderful to see people from so many different communities connecting and building relationships. That was enough. And I’m sure this was an important learning experience for people in this movement about this kind of organizing. Beyond that, it’s all about the follow up. We’ll see what happens. Yes, I’m skeptical, because we’ve been here before. But this was a better organized and more ambitious effort, and no matter what, we have to keep trying. Giving up isn’t an option.“

New for 2024

by Raven

The disastrous fire that destroyed the Twin Oaks Conference site resulted in a lot of new structures. Here’s some pictures of both new stuff and what was left of the old. (The place is a camping site and has always been primative.) Pictured is new workshop spaces named Findhorn, Auroville, and The Fest, the new kitchen space at Oz, the new dining area, the dish clean up area showing burn marks and a leftover concrete slab, the rebuilt outhouses, and the lovely new showers–which I think are the nicest of the new structures.

The 2024 Communities Conference

by Raven

This was the first Conference since the fire and the Conference site, like a phoenix, literally rose from the ashes.  It was a baby phoenix, however, not quite fully formed.

The iconic Pavillion was gone and replaced by something that looked like the top of a circus tent.  There were a lot of new structures and I’ll have pictures of a bunch of them in our photo essay on Wednesday.  Most of the trees around the site had black scorch marks and were missing their lower branches but were green way up above.  It was surreal to look around and remember what the place used to look like.

The original Pavilion (on the right) and kitchen (on the left)

The content of the Conference was not all that different, however. The themes for the Conference were: “How can communities network more effectively?” and “How can our communities be more equitable and diverse?” and the workshops reflected that.  As usual, there was a “Meet the Communities” event Saturday morning and it was vibrant and full of communities, new and old.

The new Pavilion, at least for this year

There were workshops on starting new communities, living without fossil fuel, meditation for community building, BIPOC communities, community harm and accountability, dealing with conflict, etc.  I went to a workshop on polyamory and tried to attend three on ‘Authentic Relating’ (a current interest of mine) but only the first one really happened (I ended up as the only one in the other two except for the presenter, which gave me lots of time to talk with him).  On Sunday there were two ‘Open Space’ slots and I got excited when I learned one was going to be a second talk on ‘Social Ecology’ which I was also interested in but couldn’t go to the first one because of schedule conflicts.  I had also thought about skipping the open space time altogether and just going for a swim in the river.  Imagine my surprise when I found out that some organizers decided to combine the Social Ecology time with a walk to the river (to swim, of course) and I got to do both.

The Conference wouldn’t have happened, of course, without a lot of hard work.  First of all, Keenan took charge of a crew that rebuilt or rigged up a whole bunch of structures that made not only the Conference, but the Queer Gathering and the Women’s Gathering, possible.  Hawina took charge of registration and making sure things happened while Paxus managed the Conference itself, assisted by Kelpie.  A star was Holly, the overworked and burnt out cook, who made sure everyone was fed.  I can’t remember everyone involved but I will mention Angie, who provided transportation from Richmond for a whole bunch of folks (including yours truly), and Petra, who was always jumping in to help when things, as often, fell short.

I’m looking forward to going again next year, as I often do, because it’s a great place to meet other community minded folks and network, as well as usually having interesting workshops, but also because I suspect it will look a bit different again next year, as the forest grows back and there will be more new structures (including, I hope, a new wooden pavilion).

Keenan with the huge spool he found and turned into a traveling wheel

Convergence, Collards, Oatmeal, and Kat Kinkade Communes

by Raven

Yep. We’re back and I’m back to reposting old Facebook posts. And since we didn’t publish through August, these are two month old posts.

Starting with a post from the fourth of July for the new Convergence of Intentional Communities.

This post did okay, with three likes and 126 views.

Acorn posted about collecting collard seeds.

This post did about as well, with four likes and 121 views.

East Wind’s main business is selling nut butters, so they are always coming up with ways to use them.

This post just did okay. It got one like and one love (and East Wind Nut Butters, which liked the last two posts, didn’t even respond to this one) and just a hundred views.

Finally, I posted a question on Facebook, because questions get a lot of views and comments and likes, and this post did very, very, very well on all of these. My question:

A lot of the more savvy readers know that by the ‘Kat Kinkade’ communes, I meant Twin Oaks, East Wind, and Acorn, all of which Kat had a hand in forming and all of which have lasted over thirty years, a lot longer than most income-sharing communities. And, yes, I got a lot of comments. Here’s most of them:

Like I said, this post did very, very, very well, with twenty-six likes, thirty-six comments, and an amazing eight hundred and sixty-six views. This is what happens if you ask the right question.

September, 2024

And… We’re back.

If you are reading this on September first, we are probably at the Twin Oaks Communities Conference.  Hopefully, we will soon bring stuff here from the Conference as well as from the brand new Convergence of Intentional Communities that’s happening tomorrow.

Something else that happened in August was that I (Raven) attended a work party at the brand new home of Serenity Solidarity, and we will have photos from the new place as well as another photo essay on the work party.  Plus, I’m hoping to have an interview with Ericka from Serenity Solidarity here soon as well.  And, of course, lots of info from the other communes (Twin Oaks, Acorn, East Wind, Living Energy Farm, and more) as well as the usual think pieces and videos and more photo essays and maybe even another puzzle.  Who knows?

For all of you who read this regularly, thank you for being a faithful reader.  And if you are new to Commune Life (or even relatively new), welcome!  We try to be the best source of information and fun facts and pictures about income sharing communities (ie, communes) as well as communal living and radical sharing.

Onward into September…

August, 2024

by Raven

I operate Commune Life on an unusual schedule.  I post consistently on the blog three times a week and on Facebook everyday for ten months of the year–and I take two different months off.  I take December off to visit friends and family and to celebrate the winter holidays, and I take the month of August off, usually to travel.  This year I’m hoping to go several places in August; first to visit the new home of Serenity Solidarity, and then attend, as usual, the Twin Oaks Communities Conference, which this year will be followed by a new event, the first ever Convergence of Intentional Communities (CIC).  I hope to have reports on all of this when Commune Life returns in the fall.  See you in September, folks.

Fungi, Rebuild, House, Flowers, and Hammocks

by Raven

We did great on Facebook this week. I don’t know if it was because we have pictures again or not, but all the posts got well over a hundred views, two of them got over two hundred views, and one got over six hundred–and it was a post I would have thought would do average or a little below.

I started with a repost from Acorn, a picture of Kyle with a giant “chicken of the woods”.

This did very, very well with twelve likes, four wows, three loves (including one from the Foundation for Intentional Community), a comments, and very nice two hundred and seventy-seven views.

Twin Oaks is seeking help in their ambitious rebuilding plans for their conference site.

This also did very, very well. Although it only got three likes and a love, it got a share, and just about the same number of views as Acorn’s fungi picture.

Anyone want to buy a house near Twin Oaks? Twin Oaks posted this and I thought it might be worth reposting.

I thought it was a sweet little post. I didn’t expect the traffic it got: twelve likes, two loves, two comments, a share, and an astounding six hundred and sixty views!

Of course, we couldn’t keep up with this. Acorn posted this very lovely set of flower pictures from their land. (Note, I will probably republish this soon as a photo essay.)

Now, with all these pretty pictures, I thought this would get a lot of views. It didn’t do badly, but it was the poorest performer of the week, with three likes and three loves, a comment, and a fairly good hundred and eleven views.

Finally, they did have some hammock supplies left after the fire at Twin Oaks, and thus, a hammock sale.

This also did okay, with six likes and a hundred and seventy views. Normally I would think a hundred and seventy views was great but this week we did better than usual, so this was just fair.

The Leaves of Twin Oaks: Summer 2024

News of the Oaks by Valerie
Fire Recovery by Jason
Common Wealth Seed Growers by Zoe
Conference Announcements

News of the Oaks by Valerie

Our biggest news is that after a few years of low population, we are about to hit Pop Cap (our maximum population). If/when that happens, we’ll still be hosting our Visitor Program as per usual, but it may take a little longer for accepted Visitors to return.

Celebrations Our two big events recently were our annual Anniversary, with ex-members returning to help us celebrate Twin Oaks’ 57th year of existence; and also we hosted the wedding of community friends Ken and Irena, with a gathering including “Ken and Irena Jeopardy” and Ken’s brother who is an Episcopal priest officiating. ‍

Sustainability: We’ve been busy with various projects. Our “eco-residence” that has 10 bedrooms, 2 living rooms and 1 bathroom off-grid, got an upgrade of new solar panels. Ex-member Debbie, now living at neighboring community Living Energy Farm helped install them.‍  
We had several members take a literal field trip, to help harvest sweet potato slips at a farm we are connected with a couple of hours away. They were working with our sister community Acorn’s business Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Ujamaa, a BIPOC-led organization that works to bridge the gap between prospective BIPOC seed growers and seed companies.

Summer Activities for Kids and their Kid-like friends: The “Twin Oaks Swim Team” is a group of kids and adults here who are dedicated to swimming in the pond every day! It’s a rotating cast of characters but has included Finley, Jessie, Nick, Indigo and Dave. Go team! Also a number of Twin Oaks kids are attending Shiloh Quaker Summer Camp an hour or two away from us. This year, several adults will also be participating in the camp as staff/support. 

Second Edition: our member Pam Dawling, who has written two definitive books on farming/garden, has been hard at work on the second edition of her first book “Sustainable Market Farming”.

 

Fire Recovery by Jason

This March, a wildfire swept through parts of the community and destroyed our conference site, warehouse, sawmill, machinery, hammocks inventory and many other items vital to the economic self-sufficiency of the community. In the aftermath of the fire, we made the call to shut down the Hammocks business. With margins already thin in order to compete with overseas producers, and the loss of specialized equipment, making significant investments towards rebuilding seemed unlikely. We’ll finish up some hammocks using supplies which were off-site before the shop is converted into space for our Seed Racks business. 
This is a blow to the community in both an economic and emotional sense. While the days of hammocks being our main source of income are long gone, the business sustained the community for many years, providing work and creating a much loved product that made a name for ourselves. While it is hard to say goodbye to this era of Twin Oaks, we are also looking at our community economy going forward. The Process Team kickstarted a “CommEcon” process, in which members submit proposals for new business ideas that the community could use to generate income. We will spend the summer deliberating proposals, and decisions about where to allocate resources will likely happen towards the end of the year. 
Proposals include a pottery business, renewing our hammock-chair production, (but not regular hammocks), sewing textile goods, online teaching, tech support for local businesses, video game creation, building an eco AirBnB, and the expanding of the relationship between Twin Oaks and Common Wealth Seed Growers, a seed company run by one of our members with a focus on plant breeding and resilience in our seed systems. (see other article for more info on Common Wealth Seed Growers)  
While we have not been able to start the cleanup efforts at EC yet due to the need for fire investigations, we have been able to start the cleanup and rebuilding of our conference site. A group of communards from our sister communities in Missouri will come to help, and we are hopeful that this work can progress quickly. We are planning on hosting a full slate of conferences this year, including the Communities Conference, Women’s Gathering, and Queer Gathering. (See links elsewhere in this issue for more info.)

Clean up at conference site.The forest is likewise beginning its process of recovery. The fire was quick burning, passing through areas quickly and consuming leaf litter, but not catching the trees. Many large trees show some charring around their base, but it appears that they will survive. Many of the smaller saplings did not leaf out, leaving an empty and brown understory, which contrasts with the untouched canopy, and the forest floor which is vigorously sprouting new life.‍

Ex-member Alexis-LEF was a firefighter and has been helping us prepare for another disaster. He installed the fire hose hookups near our residences some 30 years ago, which were instrumental in saving Tupelo. Since the fire, he has hosted a tour of our firefighting infrastructure, gotten us more firehose to place around the community, transformed our old tofu wastewater truck into a firetruck, and is advising us on forming our own fire brigade that can respond to fires on the property and direct the local firefighters on how to assist us.

Common Wealth Seed Growers by Zoe

While Edmund is one of the more renowned farmers at Twin Oaks, he rarely works in the main food garden. Rather, he manages several fields off the farm. He is part of Common Wealth Seed Growers, a cooperative project that produces and sells regionally-adapted, open-pollinated seeds. They only sell what grows well on their farms in Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Common Wealth Seed Growers also use an open source seed promise for some of the seed varieties they’ve developed and their derivatives which promise to not restrict others’ use of the seeds they’ve developed or any of their derivatives to help combat corporate monopolization of seed varieties.

Edmund began breeding new produce variations back in 2011. Only three years later, Common Wealth Seed Growers received a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant to identify downy mildew resistant strains in cucumber, melon and winter squash. They also received grants from the Organic Farming Research Foundation in 2018 and 2019 for similar research.  
Edmund manages seed production as an income area for Twin Oaks. He sells seeds produced by Common Wealth Seed Growers, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and other seed companies. Edmund envisions Common Wealth Seed Growers expanding in the future, and employing many more Twin Oaks members. As it is, Edmund does enlist a few Oakers in the process. Seed saving includes planting, nurturing, harvesting, cleaning, packing, and shipping – all of which are labor intensive. Thankfully, many here enjoy such work. Arguably, the most notable of these tasks is harvesting seed from squash and gourds – something that is best done by hand, and is always messy. Common Wealth Seed Growers pays Twin Oaks by the hour as ‘outside work’ for tasks done by members that aren’t directly agricultural such as marketing, website, and inventory management. In addition to providing money, seed production and research, the work provides an abundance of organic food for the community including cucumbers, bell peppers, cantaloupe and winter squash. This has allowed the community to dine on varieties we have never had before, such as the Guatemalan Green Ayote squash that has forest green innards and a sweet flavor. Visit commonwealthseeds.com to view or request their 2024 product catalog by mail and find out more information about their mission. 

Conference Announcements‍

Twin Oaks Queer Gathering Friday August 2 – Sunday August 4
A weekend of queertranstastic fun, learning, workshops, networking, revelry, and more! twinoaksqueergathering.org

Twin Oaks Women’s Gathering Friday August 16 – Sunday August 18
An inclusive gathering of women celebrating ourselves in the woods.
womensgathering.org

Twin Oaks Communities Conference Friday August 30 – Monday September 2 (Labor Day Weekend) communitiesconference.org‍
If you live or want to live according to the values of cooperation and sustainability, this conference is for you. The conference focuses on intentional communities and on the larger cooperative movement.

Message Dog, Today, Combine, Conferences, and Convergence

by Raven

Yet another week on Facebook. Most posts did okay and one did very, very well.

Acorn often posts weird pictures and I try to go with it. Here they’ve posted a dog with a message.

This post just did okay with one like and a bit over a hundred views.

When I was down in Virginia in January, I took a bunch of pictures with the idea of posting them when things got quiet. This is one of my last. It was from one of the many boards Twin Oaks has in their dining hall.

This did pretty well, with seven likes, one love, and a hundred and thirty-three views.

Living Energy Farm put out this bulletin about a harvesting combine that they are developing.

This did phenomenally well with nineteen likes, five loves, one wow, two comments, three shares, and a full three hundred and sixty-six views. (Three shares is a lot of shares–very few of our posts get even one–and I suspect that contributed to the large number of views.)

The fire around Twin Oaks spared the residences but it decimated their industrial area as well as the conference site where Twin Oaks usually holds summer events. And they are still planning to hold them, as they are working on the site as quickly as they can.

The conference site after the fire

This did fairly well on Facebook, with eight likes, three loves, and a hundred and seventy-one views.

In the blurb for that post, I mentioned that there would be a brand new event this year. Here’s a bunch more about it.

This did fairly well also, with six likes, four loves, and a hundred and sixty-two views.