The Foundation for Intentional Community has been offering virtual tours of communities. Here’s one of Twin Oaks, Acorn, and Cambia.
Twin Oaks
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.
2024 Twin Oaks Fire Video
Twin Oaks documents the fire and how it affected them.
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.
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.
The Twin Oaks Dance Crew
Twin Oaks Community has a Dance Crew and Louisa, Virginia, where it’s located had a talent contest–so naturally they had to participate.
From the Leaves of Twin Oaks
 News of the Oaks by Valerie“If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be In Your Revolution” by MilesSeed Business Trade Show by Erin |
News of the Oaks by ValerieOur big project these days is transforming the space that served as our Hammock Shop for many years into our new Seed Rax Offices. Since the fire last March spelled the end of the Hammocks business, we have put renewed energy into our Seed Rax business, the wholesale arm of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, the heirloom, organic seed business owned by our sister community Acorn. The space is being renovated with new flooring, walls, and spaces for sales and marketing work (see the Seed Business Trade Show article below), seed storage, packing seeds, boxing and shipping and other needs. People are excited to move into the new work-space, which will be more centrally-located in the community.  In other business news, our Tofu business has transitioned out of the worker-owned co-op model that had been adopted during 2024 and once again Twin Oaks is making tofu as a community business. We’re also continuing to develop several new community businesses, including textiles, ceramics, online education and potentially a new video game. One of our talented fiber artists here just premiered their latest work. Ari sewed this art quilt that depicts a view of one of our buildings, complete with small details such as the laundry rack for drying clothes, the solar panels on the roof, and the fig bushes in the yard. They also featured a number of their other works hung up temporarily and we had our own little art opening evening event.  One of our members, Adder, made the choice to donate a kidney to a stranger. A couple of months after the operation, Adder traveled to Washington DC to meet the recipient in person.  A group of Oakers have been meeting for weekly mindfulness practice. Each week there is a meditation session, followed by a reading (from various Buddhist practitioners and authors) and dharma-sharing, where people present can share what they have taken from the sit or from the reading. There was also a meditation class to introduce these practices to members who are new to them. And it is the time of year when we create our twist on Valentine’s Day. We choose to celebrate “Validation Day”, as we believe all people are deserving of extra love, not just those in relationships. We hand-make a card for each member and people can write affirming and caring messages to each person. We hand them out at dinner on Validation Day and complete the day with a dance party that night. We also have the “Creatures Game”, in which members can express various types of interest in each other eg. Ants—I’d like to have a work date with you, Cats—I’d like to cuddle with you, etc. This is an opt-in activity, so allows members the amount of privacy or connection they would like. “If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be In Your Revolution” by Miles  One of my favorite things about Twin Oaks is the free experimentation that is possible in a supportive affirming environment. Before joining this community, I never really considered myself to be a “dancer” at all, because I had always felt too self conscious, uncoordinated and awkward. However, thanks to several of my friends in the Twin Oaks Dance Crew, I was able to overcome some of my own insecurities and self-limiting beliefs about what I was capable of. The Twin Oaks Dance Crew were very kind and patient with me, and even let me pick the song that we would dance to. I picked a song called “Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels” by one of my favorite artists, the Queer Black icon Todrick Hall. Not only was I able to learn this relatively challenging choreography dance (and have a lot of fun doing it), but I was also able to perform the dance on stage with the rest of the crew at our county’s local talent show “Louisa’s Got Talent” (I’m the one in red) https://youtu.be/-8Xm_RvLexg Even though we didn’t win, and even though there definitely were certain moves that I could have performed better on stage, I’m still overall very happy and satisfied with how the performance went. I’m actually still surprised that I was even able to do such a thing at all, and I really feel like this experience has increased my confidence and my willingness to put myself out there in ways that I used to find intimidating. I mentioned that the artist whose song we danced to is considered to be an icon in the queer Black community. This is an important detail to highlight given the political situation in the United States right now, where both queerness and Blackness are so explicitly under attack by a hostile government. Our resistance to fascism will need to take many different forms, a diversity of tactics will always be our strength. One such tactic is to share love and express joy in spite of all the rising hate in this country. So, there is another dimension to my public participation in such a visible event, in a small rural town, as a queer Black person resisting those who would wish that people like me didn’t exist. I see this as a way of maintaining hope and revolutionary optimism that we will never be erased. Of course, there are many other forms of resistance to fascism that are necessary as well, which I am also participating in… However, to paraphrase one of Twin Oaks’ favorite historical anarchists Emma Goldman, who, when rebuked by one of her comrades for her love of dancing (as it was considered unbefitting for someone promoting the anarchist cause at that time period), she responded with: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution!” Seed Business Trade Show by Erin  Zi and Erin strike a pose at the trade show, Zoe at background left I recently attended two trade shows representing Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE), a business owned by our sister community, Acorn. Twin Oaks manages the wholesale side of the operation. Trade shows provide us a space to cultivate partnerships with garden centers, nurseries, and stores potentially interested in carrying SESE seed racks. This communal business requires labor in every aspect, such as gardening, seed processing, packing, shipping, and sales. When I moved here in November, I didn’t picture myself at a trade show booth but I feel drawn to do work that contributes to our community’s needed income and I appreciate the variety of that labor. At present, SESE is our main source of income. Our journey to the first show began with an unexpected challenge. We got in the van excited to go, but found it was stuck where parked in the frisbee field. One of the many great things about communal living is knowing help will arrive. River showed up on a tractor to pull us out, while our neighbor met us with mugs, tea bags, and a kettle of hot water. It was quite a pleasant experience waiting for a vehicle to be freed from the snow. At the trade shows, it was fun to meet existing customers and hear their positive experiences selling and planting SESE seeds. It felt good to connect with new people interested in what makes SESE unique—as a worker’s cooperative partnering with local farmers who steward and save high-quality, open-pollinated, heirloom, organic seeds. Many attendees appreciated the idea of investing in locally grown seeds they and their customers could continue to save. I learned a lot from these conversations and appreciated how in-person interactions fostered authenticity without having to feel overly “salesy.” It was motivating to witness that our passion for gardening and seed saving made a lasting impression. In fact, attendees from previous years fondly remembered us as “the freaky seed people,” known not just for seeds, but also for our dance moves. We hoped for a dance-off with other vendors, but maybe next year! I left feeling empowered to take on new responsibility and was grateful for the opportunity to bond with my co’s. Yet, being away was slightly destabilizing and the experience sparked an unexpected longing to return home, something I hadn’t felt before moving to Twin Oaks. My small living group, Tupelo, isn’t just home to me and seventeen others, ages 3 to 72; it also serves as a key space for the seed racks business (at least until it relocates to the former hammocks shop). I returned feeling happy about the connections we made and was welcomed home by lovely drawings from the five-year-old next door before retreating to my room to recharge. |
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.
Twin Oaks: An Egalitarian Community
This is a good introduction to Twin Oaks, as well as income-sharing communities in general, even if it’s a bit out of date. (Twin Oaks doesn’t make hammocks any more and may not make tofu–a lot of their money these days comes from seeds which they were just starting with in the nine year old video.)
Anonymous Niceties
by Paxus
from Your Passport to Complaining
My memory is not as sharp as it used to be and there are particularly likely casualties for this failing of mine – at the top of the list is my labor sheet. Every member of Twin Oaks has a weekly labor sheet which tells them what they are scheduled for over the week. Many weeks my sheet is crossed off as i am away a lot, but these are invaluable tools for scheduling with other members and keeping track of who is expecting you to do your dish washing shift.
I take these out all the time, i usually return them folded into my back pocket, but with quite some regularity i leave them at the lunch table, or in a phone booth, or beside the 3 x 5 board. And what happens then, about 70% of the time is that someone finds it, recognizes i have lost it (since it has my name at the top) and puts it anonymously in my mailbox. This happens sufficiently regularly, that it is worthy of note – and at the same time, it is just under the level of importance that you might put up a 3 x 5 card that says “Who ever returned my labor sheet to my mailbox anonymously, know that i appreciate you”
When i was living in the Paradox collective in San Francisco i used to do a lot of dishes. People did not seem to like doing dishes, and often folks got bent out of shape with others leaving dishes in the sink for someone else to clean. Cleaning other peoples dishes without complaint may not be the secret password to the Christian heaven, but it might get you into the well resourced portion of the mutual aid after life.
But this post is not about my commendable behavior, rather it is about the network effect of lots of people living together, taking all kinds of bumps and deviations as they come, cleaning up so they are oft invisible to the member who benefits. Or, as with the labor sheet in my mailbox, to dodge the individual celebration and instead invest in the notion that “this is how we take care of each other, i got you this time”.
My first anarchist girlfriend Paula said “It’s not important to get your name in some history book, what’s important is you get the pages written right”
commune life 