The FEC, Cornhole, Carrots, and a Catalog

by Raven

It’s another weeks worth of last month’s Facebook posts.

I’ll start off with an unhappy one. The FEC (Federation of Egalitarian Communities) is in trouble. Not the member communities, the organization itself. There are a couple of communities disatisfied with it for one reason or another, and there aren’t that many communities left in it. I haven’t been posting about this, hoping that it would resolve itself, but then someone at East Wind did, and I reposted it on our Facebook feed, with commentary.

This post got two ‘Wow’s, three comments, and a share, as well as a hundred and thirty-seven views.

The comments (and one was from me, responding):

Communards don’t just work all the time. They often like to play and a game that’s popular in the communes is called corn hole. It involves tossing a bag filled with corn through a hole in a board. The boards are often quite decorated.

This didn’t do as well. It got five likes and only ninety-five views. I guess there aren’t a lot of corn hole fans outside of the communities.

They grow a lot of food at Living Energy Farm, including carrots.

This got six likes, two loves, and a hundred and seven views.

Finally, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange’s 2024 Catalog is out. Acorn wanted folks to know.

This didn’t do that well, either. While it got three likes and three loves, it got a disappointing eighty-five views. Not an exciting week on our Facebook feed.

A reflection on the evolution of Twin Oaks

By Keenan (from Your Passport to Complaining)

Dining: 

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Llano is crowded, noisy, and filthy and should be condemned.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) ZK sets new standard in luxuriousness and cleanliness at Twin Oaks.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) ZK is crowded, noisy, and filthy and should be condemned. Dining should happen in Llano, but only if it has a less offensive name.

Visitor program:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Visitors housed in SLG’s.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Visitors housed in Aurora.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Visitors housed in SLG’s and Ta Chenerates housed in Aurora.

Degania:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Degania is built for childrens’ program.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Degania abandoned.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Degania used for childrens’ program and then Degania abandoned again.

Technology:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) No video allowed anywhere.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) No video allowed in bedrooms.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) No video allowed in public spaces.

Allowance:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Allowance is .75 cents a month
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Allowance is $35.00 a month
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Allowance is $115.00 a month

Behavior issues:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Behaviorism will deal with any problematic behaviors among members.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Behaviorism doesn’t work. Problematic behavior is dealt with through policy: feedbacks, support groups, process team, mediation, mental health team, and membership team.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) nothing works to change problematic behavior—reject all visitors who exhibit any potentially problematic behavior.

A/C:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Air conditioning kills the planet.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Air conditioning protects equipment, but is not for people.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Air conditioning kills mold and saves lives.

What is offensive: 

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Makeup and shaving are offensive.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Having babies is offensive.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Wrong pronouns are offensive.

Buildings:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Naming buildings after past communal efforts is uplifting and inspirational.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) No new buildings to name.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Naming buildings after past communities with problematic values is offensive.

Children:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) No children until the community is ready.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) The community raises children. Biological parents discouraged from caring for children. Censor children’s books to remove all mention of “mother” or “father.”
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Pregnancy approval process to ensure that parents really want to be parents. Parents raise children.

Labor:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Variable labor system (members work too much).
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Quota is set at 49 (members work too much).
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Quota is set at 42 (members work too much).

Taking a break:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Don’t leave the farm during a hammocks push.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) P.A.L. policy
• Twin Oaks 3.0) P.A.L., Suspended membership, Emotional LOA, Sabbatical, and Associate Membership.

Building design:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Members reject mainstream building practices, like proper foundations. All building labor comes from Twin Oaks members
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Members accept mainstream building practices and most building labor comes from Twin Oaks members.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Building labor is hired.

Income:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Hammocks is main income source. Concerns about Pier 1 as main account eventually prove accurate.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Tofu is main income source. Concerns about cost of upgrading tofu eventually prove accurate.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Seed Racks is main income source. Concerns…?

Decision-making:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Members involved in all decisions of the community.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Decision-making happens at the managerial level after much community process.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Members are sometimes, but not always, informed of decisions.

Ex-members:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Ex-members are treated like traitors to the values of Twin Oaks.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Ex-members are treated like old friends and welcome to come to parties.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Ex-members buy adjoining property.

Cleanliness:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Cleaning is a bourgeois middle-class affectation that focuses on appearance over substance.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Cleaning with chemicals is bad for the planet.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Mold kills! Scrub everything! Use bleach!

Trees:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) There are no trees near newly built buildings.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Plant trees to provide coolness and shade buildings.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Fight mold! Cut trees near buildings down! 

You are a long term member after…:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) 2 years
• Twin Oaks 2.0) 5 years
• Twin Oaks 3.0) 10 years

Longest term member at Twin Oaks:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) McCune
• Twin Oaks 2.0) McCune
• Twin Oaks 3.0) McCune

Communal networking:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) Twin Oaks is isolated and focused on survival.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Twin Oaks helps build a national communal movement (Communities magazine, builds FEC, Leaves of Twin Oaks, welcomes national media).
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Twin Oaks helps develop a local network of communities in Louisa County.

Leaving Twin Oaks:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) You get nothing if you leave Twin Oaks.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) You get $50 and a hammock.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) You get nothing if you leave Twin Oaks.

Death:

• Twin Oaks BETA version) No need for a cemetery.
• Twin Oaks 2.0) Cemetery in the woods on a hill.
• Twin Oaks 3.0) Can’t keep track of buried bodies.

This is mainly satire, please don’t message the blamer…also…make your own additions to the evolution of Twin Oaks.

Watermelon Pleading, Historic Box, and Gardening Blog

by Raven

I’m still trying to catch up with our Facebook posts and I’m finally on this month’s posts, but because we restarted on a Friday, I’m splitting the weeks and doing three of the posts this week and three next week. Then I will return to a weekly (often five day) schedule.

I’ll start with East Wind Community trying to lure former member Otto back.

I often talk about a hundred views as my minimum okay post. This almost made it. It got one like and ninety-four views.

Louisa County, Virginia, is the home for many of the communes. Their Historic Society recently put on an exhibition about a person born in the county who found an unusual way to escape from slavery–and Serenity Solidarity Community contributed the main exhibit.

An intense and amazing story. I only wish it did better. It did do better than the previous post, but not by much. It only got ninety-seven views, although it did get three likes and one care.

Finally, Pam at Twin Oaks is a recognized gardening expert. She has a blog.

I hope no one tried to tap on what was only a picture of the link to Pam’s blog. Here is the real link to the blog.

This one did a tiny bit better than the other two. It had been hanging around in the nineties but must have recently got a few more views so it just got over a hundred. It also got four likes and a love.

Work Party, Tech Problems, and Lots of Dogs

by Raven

I’m still covering the Facebook posts from before we went on a break, and while the last week started off very well, in the end it went to the dogs. Quite literally.

We started with an example of the lovely outreach they do at Serenity Solidarity.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the blog post yet, but this post did well, with nine likes and over a hundred and eighty views.

Meanwhile, there were problems with both the East Wind website and the FEC website.

Here is the actual link to the East Wind website. The FEC website is back as well (although rather recently), however it remains very out of date.

People must have been concerned, however, because this post got seven likes and a care, as well as more than two hundred and sixty views.

It also got three comments–including one from me explaining what I knew.

Unfortunately, most folks at the communes are rather busy and don’t have a lot of time to work on things like websites.

As I started looking for some final posts to finish off the week, I noticed three of them had something in common. Dogs. In fact, two of them focused on dogs resting. The last one had some very busy dogs.

At LEF, there was a dog resting by the tomatoes–in fact on a couple of the tomatoes.

The “cute animal photo” did well enough, getting four likes and four loves, and a hundred and forty two views.

At Acorn, there were two dogs, lying together, apparently after making a movie.

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

So, of course, I had to see this dog-centric Acorn film.

Of course, this is a still from the video. The whole movie can be viewed here.

It got a like, a love, and a care, and a hundred and twenty-eight views. Not bad, but not a smashing success either.

Speakers, Pollenation, Cooperation, a Shower, and a Party

by Raven

A mixed bag of communal offerings. All sorts of things and one didn’t do very well, two did okay, one did very well, and one did extremely well–and, coincidentally, that was in the order we published them. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from looking at our Facebook stats it’s that events don’t do well and pictures do very well.

The event was the Communities Conference and the post was announcing the keynote speakers.

You can read the whole thing, including what they plan to talk about and bios for both of them. Unfortunately, not a lot of folks looked at this although it got five likes and a love.

What does pollenation have to do with communal living? None of us live in a vacuum. The very air we breathe is brought to us by plants and even urban communes (sigh, which I wish there was still some of) need flowers and fruits and vegetables.

Here’s how you can read the guide.

This post did okay, with just over a hundred views and six likes and loves.

I’m really impressed with Glomus Commune’s consistent support of Iridescent Earth, a self-described “Queer, Black & Latinx led farm group from the Bronx”.

Those images are just stills. I’ll encourage you to watch the actual video with lively music and all.

This also did just okay, with a couple less views than that the last post–but it did get eight likes and loves.

East Wind crafts some lovely stuff for their community. Here’s an example.

The image was well appreciated with thirteen likes and loves and a wow–and over two hundred views.

Finally, Twin Oaks posted this about a party they had to celebrate the chamomile harvest.

Like I said, people seem to really like pictures on Facebook. I thought this was a nice post but nothing spectacular, but it got spectacular results. Maybe it was because of the person who shared it (that’s what the one and the curved arrow mean) but twenty-eight likes and loves and over five hundred views. Wow.

Rabbits, Radical Transformations, Seed Sharing, Tools, and Art

by Raven

There’s a little bit of everything in this week’s posts from our Facebook page.

East Wind’s most recent post was about rabbits.

This is a still from a Facebook video of rabbits being rabbits that East Wind posted.

I’ll admit that it’s cute and it got three loves and two likes, so I was more than a little surprised that it didn’t do well on our Facebook feed. Maybe there aren’t that many bunny lovers out there.

Then, I had to repost this when I saw it.

To my surprise and delight, it did very, very well. Maybe some folks do have their priorities straight. (Of course it probably helped that it got a couple of ‘shares’. That’s what the two next to the arrow means.)

SESE continues to be a boon for many of the Louisa communities. Twin Oaks posted this update.

That’s a picture of three links in the center. Here are the actual links to the New York Times article, the New Yorker article, and the Central Virginian article.

This post also did very, very well with thirteen likes and loves and over two hundred views.

The farmers at East Brook Community Farm (Glomus Commune’s main business) take their work–and their tools–seriously.

This didn’t do as well. I usually use a hundred views as my marker for whether something did okay or not and this came pretty close. I’ve noticed that even after a couple of weeks, the views can still creep up very slowly, so I suspect that this will make it very slightly above a hundred eventually.

Finally, Acorn, having already posted about their musical band, posted about a painting they did together.

This did okay, with seven likes and loves and a decent amount of views.

Raising Geese at East Brook

East Brook Community Farm (Glomus Commune’s business) is partnering with the Iridescent Earth Collective to help their mutual aid farm grow food and raise geese. Check out this Instagram video.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Crd8OE1MUIE/

Change Seeds, Communal History, Heart Circle, Transplanter, and Commune Band

by Raven

Lots of interesting stuff on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, but we got some poor viewing numbers.

An article that I thought was really interesting and did really poorly on our Facebook feed was from Cville, the local paper in Charlottesville.

The actual article can be found here.

Unfortunately, there were no likes on Facebook and hardly any looks.

Another local article was from the Louisa County Historical Society.

This did a little better and got a couple of likes, but still did pretty poorly.

The Magnolia Collective is small, but committed to each other.

This did even better, with a like and a love, but I consider anything with under a hundred views to have done poorly.

East Brook Community Farm wanted to show off a new piece of equipment.

This post did pretty well (best of the week) with three likes and a decent number of views.

Finally, Acorn put a simple Instagram post up with a black and white drawing and a notice that this was “megafauna_the_super_cool_band”. Curious, I went to their Instagram site and immediately realized that I knew these folks. They were all either members or associated with various Louisa County communes.

While it didn’t do as good as the Glomus post above, it got a like and a love and a decent amount of views.

Louisa communities review

I found this on the web–it’s a bit out of date (Mimosa is now the Moonseed Collective, for example) and it was taken as the pandemic was starting. Now, as the pandemic seems to be receding, I know that at least Twin Oaks and Acorn are looking for folks. Still, it’s always good to have an outsiders perspective on the communes. – Raven

Pruning, Celebrating, Installing, Delivering, and Supporting

by Raven

Yet another week from our Facebook page.

At East Wind, Richard, their garden manager was up a tree.

This was well liked and a lot of folks saw it.

I posted about Magnolia Collective’s tree celebration a couple of weeks ago, but that from a post by Living Energy Farm. Here’s their post about the celebration.

Six folks liked it or loved it, but it didn’t reach that many folks.

Living Energy Farm did a bunch of solar installations while they were in Puerto Rico.

This was also well liked and it did pretty well.

Twin Oaks posted about pizza.

Twin Oaks posts almost always do well on Commune Life and this was no exception.

I haven’t always been copying the comments, but a couple of these were notable–one remark and my response.

Communities like Twin Oaks survive because of their diversity. If you want an all vegan community, you have to create it that way. (Interestingly, Acorn started as a vegan community but didn’t stay that way for long.)

Finally, an introduction to Serenity Solidarity. I’ve posted things from them before but I thought this was a really good statement of what they are about and their need for support, and they are definitely a community I want to support.

I was very glad that this post did well.