We’re back, with lots more stuff. We’ll have more pictures from Living Energy Farm’s solar build at Serenity Solidarity, and, hopefully, pictures and reports from the Northeast Eco-Communities Convergence and the Twin Oaks Communities Conference, plus reposts from Twin Oaks, East Wind, Alpha Farm, Acorn, Serenity Solidarity, Living Energy Farm, and other communities, and more posts filled with ideas about community living, community building, income sharing, and ways to extend sharing. Come join us as we fall into Fall.
It’s August and as usual I’m taking the month off to travel. Commune Life will be back in September with pictures and reports (hopefully) from the Northeast Eco-Communities Convergence and the Twin Oaks Communities Conference and more pictures from the LEF workshop at Serenity Solidarity, plus, of course, more posts from various communities and more writings about sharing and community. Have a good month and enjoy the summer.
In mid July, folks from Living Energy Farm came to Serenity Solidarity to install solar equipment there and teach folks about alternative energy and green building. Here are some pictures from the workshop: the flyer, Debbie teaching, the white board from the Green Building session, two pictures of the group working on the ceiling, a solar fridge, a box full of Nickel/Iron batteries, Debbie (from LEF) and Ericka (from Serenity Solidarity) in front of the battery box, and John (formerly of LEF and now at Bay Branch, a new Louisa community) in front of the solar panels. There will be more photos from the workshop in the future.
Teaching About Direct Drive at Wa Samaki Ecosystems in Trinidad LEF has assembled a crew of people who can teach and install DC microgrids, some of whom live at LEF, and some who do not. Tim and John are part of that crew, though neither are current residents at LEF. They recently spent two weeks teaching and installing conservationist solar systems in beautiful Freeport, Trinidad at Wa Samaki Ecosystems, where the only thing better than Chef Maleah’s delicious, local food was learning and working together with a core group of dedicated folks: Celine, Danielle, Erle, Rodjé, and Suze. While the start of the rainy season let Tim and John enjoy impressive downpours and endless lush vegetation—many houseplants familiar to us grow wild there—the dry season brings great challenges managing water, which is vitally important for fighting wildfires, irrigation, and supporting the farm’s aquaculture business (Wa Samaki means “from the fish” in Swahili, owing to the founder’s Kenyan heritage). Erle, the founder, is now joined by four generations of family living there, and Wa Samaki feels like a second home for a tight-knit network of permaculture practitioners who teach workshops on that land, throughout the Caribbean, and beyond. Our connection to Wa Samaki and the organization of the trip grew from a seed planted all the way back in 2021, when Onyx and Alexis met Rodjé Malcolm while working in Jamaica. Rodjé’s group OneRegeneration ( http://www.oneregeneration.life ) coordinated the work at Wa Samaki with Debbie so that the installation could be a “teach the teacher” event, and the result could serve as a permanent demonstration and educational site in the heart of the Caribbean permaculture movement.
The two weeks proceeded with an ambitious schedule largely unhindered by weather, import customs, and national holidays. After a good amount of theory and perhaps more math than some would prefer, installation began of the direct-drive submersible pump—and the jetty to hold it in the pond. The pump, connected directly to 1000 watts of photovoltaic panels, exceeded expectations! It worked even while conditions were completely overcast with drizzle, and in merely cloudy weather, it was able to fill five 500-gallon tanks completely by 10 am.
Rodje, Erle, John, Suze, Tim, Danielle, Celine, and Johnny all attended the training at Wa Samaki.
The crew continued on to wire the Forever Home, an in-progress earthen structure that bears the fingerprints of many aspiring natural builders, and where many more will come to learn the craft. The home is now served by three small battery kits: a 100 amp-hour set for charging computers and phones, running fans, and powering a wireless internet connection; and two 12 amp-hour sets for lighting. The spark of inspiration about what durable, conservationist, affordable solar systems can do is spreading. Rodjé already has projects planned in Jamaica and Colombia, and neighbors Johnny and Rory have ideas about how DC systems, direct or with small batteries, could meet their needs. Wa Samaki itself, with its diverse economy, still has many opportunities for future energy projects. Erle began preparations for a second solar pump before Tim and John had even left. We’re excited for more work in Trinidad, and grateful that Tim and John received such a warm welcome in a delightfully multicultural place where regardless of your looks, “no one would think you’re not a Trini until you open your mouth.” Related to this work in Trinidad, this link is about constructing homes in the Caribbean with ‘clay, grass, plastic and glass,’ instead of ecologically expensive concrete. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250103-clay-grass-plastic-and-glass-the-materials-making-caribbean-houses-more-climate-resilient
Suze, Ceilne and Danielle plan the direct drive water pumping system.
Tim and Ceilne install PV on the Forever Home for refrigeration, lighting and charging devices.
Erle, Celine and John with the successful DC pumping system that filled five 500 gallon tanks by 10 AM on a cloudy day.
Easy Reaper Manufacturing in Zambia The simplified combine harvester we developed at LEF, named the Easy Reaper, is now being produced in Zambia! They are making one there, supported by a private donation obtained by Kerry Clark at the University of Missouri. Kerry and several of her most respected agricultural equipment builders (all from very small companies scattered across Sub-Saharan Africa) are in Zambia right now working on the project. The plan is to take the Easy Reaper to an international agricultural exposition in Malawi in August. Kerry is putting plans, trainings, and some materials (such as the sickle bar cutters, which are hard to get in Africa) in place so more Easy Reapers can be manufactured in the months to come. This is all very exciting for us. We have put a LOT of work into this machine. The thought that it will be produced in numerous small fabrication shops, and used by many farmers in several countries in Africa feels like a success for us. We have included a few photos from Zambia. At LEF, our Easy Reaper was put to the test in a bigger way this year. We harvested some wheat at LEF and several acres of wheat at a nearby farm. We were confronted by a few mechanical annoyances, but for the most part, we drove the machine up and down the field harvesting wheat. We made some improvements from last year. A better sickle drive proved a big help. The grain cleaning aspect of the machine needs some improvement, as does the operating speed. It’s pretty clear for us what changes would help with those issues. For now, we are working on the next iteration, the Grain Goblin, which is considerably simpler (even) than the Easy Reaper. We will keep you posted as these projects develop.
Easy Reaper assembly in Zambia. Building the frame. (We weren’t given the names of any of these folks, but golly we wish we had a crew like that!)
Installing the thresher drum.
Draper triangle and augers at the front of the Easy Reaper.
Easy Reaper, almost complete, in Zambia.
Direct Drive in Cuba, Malawi, and…? We have learned some hard lessons about renewable energy. The big one is that you can’t put renewable energy on the same table competing with fossil energy. The high impact of fossil fuel, coupled with the nearly universal assumption that respectable people should have powerful on-demand energy sources, leads to a marginalization of renewable systems (or deceptive solutions about industrial “renewable” energy). That is why we have been pursuing projects with select organizations in the U.S. and abroad. People have to value what we offer for ideological reasons, or because they do not have abundant fossil energy or grid power. To that end, we have been planning a trip to Sub-Saharan Africa where, at least in rural areas, grid power is often absent. We have a few friends and organizational connections in Ghana. Recently, we made a great connection with a permaculture center in Malawi. Seehttps://permacultureinstitutemw.com/ On another front, through an old friend, we were recently put in touch with some folks at the Cuban Embassy in Washington D.C. Like Puerto Rico, Cuba has a lot of power lines strung through mountainous areas where they are easily damaged by storms. Cuba has a much lower per-capita income than Puerto Rico. Almost all islands rely on imported fuel oil (diesel) to run generators, which is expensive. Cuba is now investing in solar energy, but they are building large solar fields. That does little to improve the overall vulnerability of their grid. Our discussions with Cuban representatives are just beginning, but indications are positive.
Easy Reaper Demonstration Day Working with The Common Grain Alliance and the Virginia Association of Biological Farmers, we conducted a field day to show off the Easy Reaper and talk about durable, affordable renewable energy systems. It was a warm day, and a well-attended event. Unfortunately, the day was planned months in advance and the timing was such that we were not able to run the Easy Reaper through the field as we hoped, though we were able to do so a week later. It was a good day, with a sizable crowd of folks interested in our technologies.
The Farm Our farm is doing well. We had a wet, very cold spring. That set back the watermelons (a major concern for the younger set). The wildlife is a constant source of… something. The squirrels are eating our nuts, in spite of our efforts to stop them. The deer are numerous and eating our berries, though respecting the fence lines around the seed crops so far. We had a large black bear walk by right in front of the house, without a care in the world. Probably checking to see how the pears are doing. (They ate a bunch of them last year.) The mid summer lull will give way to harvest soon. We have the best crew we have ever had at LEF.
The Reach of Living Energy Farm We are a small group of volunteers (and farmers and parents). We feel like we are having a greater impact than many organizations with budgets ten or a hundred times our size. While it’s inspiring that some people like our Direct Drive DC Microgrid (D3M) for ideological reasons, we would very much like to see a demonstration set up in a place where people really need it. D3M makes grid power obsolete in tropical regions, and possibly far beyond. To achieve that dream, we need demonstration sites in places where people do not have grid power. It is clear that we cannot support multiple (more) projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. We are pleased to be making progress with both D3M and simplified harvesting technologies. We will be making choices based on the resources we have at our disposal. Please support us if you can.
Living Energy Farm is a project to build a demonstration farm, community, and education center in Louisa County that uses no fossil fuels. For more information see our website http://www.livingenergyfarm.org, or contact us at livingenergyfarm@gmail.com or Living Energy Farm, 1022 Bibb Store Rd, Louisa VA, 23093. Donations to the Living Energy Farm Institute are tax deductible. Click here to make a tax deductible donation.Make sure to designate your donation for Living Energy Institute.
Articles, Videos, and Podcasts about LEF are here.
Here’s some posts from the end of June on Facebook.
To begin with, Serenity Solidarity plans to go solar with a lot of help from LEF.
This is an important event and I’ll be going–but it didn’t do so well on Facebook. It got two “Loves” (one of which was from Serenity Solidarity) and just over seventy views.
And, yes, it’s summer and that means that the Communities Conference (which is always at the end of the summer) is coming.
This, unfortunately, did even less well, with no likes or loves and just forty-two views.
On the other hand, with June finishing up, I wanted to highlight some of the queer communal things, and thought I would include one of the longest and most famous of the queer communities that I know of.
For some reason, the original article doesn’t seem to be available at the moment, but this link should take you to a site where most of it seems to be at the bottom of the page.
This post did pretty well, with four loves (including one from East Wind Nut Butters), seven likes, three comments, and over a hundred and fifty views.
And, the Queer Gathering, also decided for a late June post, to put up a picture that reminded them of the colors on the trans pride flag.
The one comment we got was from someone who seemed confused by this. Maybe it would have helped to post an image of the actual trans flag for contrast. So here it is:
This also, unfortunately, didn’t do so well, with three likes, one comment, and only seventy-six views.
Finally, East Wind posted about some new roofing.
On the other hand, this post did really well on FB, with thirteen likes and a nice two hundred and forty views.
This spring I was in a book group where we were talking about the Gandhian version of social change. This particular session was on his Constructive Program which is the part of his thinking that I was most excited about and we talked about what we could or should be doing now in this country.
One person in the group wanted to see the government give everyone a basic income. Good anarchist that I am, I said I was skeptical of government programs. I, of course, suggested income sharing communities. The woman who suggested the basic income idea had an interesting response to that.
She basically asked what would happen if there were two income sharing communities, where everyone was equal within each of the communities, but one community was a lot wealthier than the other. How should we deal with inequalities between communities? What if one community was located in a more resource rich area than the other? What if one of the communities was mostly white and the other was majority BIPOC? What if one was filled with well-to-do folks and the other was mostly working class?
This is where I think that mutual aid is really important–particularly between communities. I think that, just as the point of egalitarian communes is to reduce inequality within a community, mutual aid can be used to level the economics between communities.
I have said that I see communities as laboratories for social change. I don’t think that it’s really social change if we create a lovely little commune that only benefits whoever lives there. So while I think that building income sharing communities is a great start (unsurprisingly, since that is the point of this blog), I don’t think that it’s enough. Sharing between communities is just as important, as is finding ways of sharing with those not in communities.
Now, there has been some of this happening. The networking of communities is important, from things like the Louisa County cluster to the (hopefully) revitalized Federation of Egalitarian Communities. But this is only the beginning. As we build the communities, one by one, we also have to build the networks and try to figure out ways to include more people in what we do. We need to think about marginalized folks and their needs and how the communes can help them. We need to think about everyone and their needs. The communes can make a difference if they reach out. I think that the communities movement needs to be working on “forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old,” as the IWW put it.
And so I’m convinced that the communes need to practice mutual aid to extend the work of income sharing.
Is there a secret to communal living? There’s probably several, but here’s what I think is an important one.
Lower expectations.
I heard one of the Core Group members at Ganas Community once say that it was almost predictable. One person would come to the community and within a day declare that this is what they had been always looking for and they hoped they would stay there forever. Another person would come and say, “It’s okay. I’ll probably stay here a few months.”
Two years later, the person who declared they had found their true home was long gone, having lasted less than a month–probably leaving soon after they found out that things there were actually less than perfect. The person who thought they might stay there a couple of months, was still there a couple of years later, just plugging along.
If you’re looking for the perfect community that will meet all of your needs, I strongly doubt that you will find it. If you’re looking for a place where you can get along with most of the folks and with which you have some commonalities–much easier to find.
Your community probably won’t look like this.
Related to this in my mind is the problem of community as family. A lot of experienced communards don’t want to go there–although there are definitely some that do see it that way. One reason some communards don’t like that notion is because they’ve come from difficult and dysfunctional families and the idea of “community as family” doesn’t appeal to them. But another big reason is that they have too many bad experiences with people who come looking for family–and many of these folks didn’t grow up with siblings so they have an idealized view of family.
I have written that some of the most successful communards have had siblings. If they’re looking for family (and I will admit that I am) they have a much more realistic idea of what that entails. Those of us that have grown up with sibs can tell you that you won’t always get along, that it will be difficult at times, and that sharing isn’t always easy.
And very few families look like this. Thank goodness.
Sharing isn’t always easy and neither are most of the other aspects of community living. If you approach life in community with lower expectations, you are more likely to get some of those expectations at least partially met. Lower expectations. That’s one of the secrets to communal living.
The best part about organizing a well established and somewhat high profile event is you get to work with some great people. Community maven and Where’s Waldo look-a-like Raines Cohen has been on the organizing teams for this years Communities Conference and Convergence. Raines is a cohousing open inter-regional networker and aging in community author. Raines social media chronicles his travels regularly asking the reader where he is?
Raines is familair with a very high number of airport loungesTexas never looked so appealing
I also follow Raines on social media as he follows me. And when i put up a recent Reddit message about the Communities Conference being in the last five days of workshop presenter submission, Raines pointed out that they are not really presenters.
Raines is right, we are not giving lectures, for that loses the wisdom that is in the room. We are looking for people who can draw the collective intelligence and convene an interactive adventure which looks like a workshop.
If that is you and you can make it to the Communties Conference (Aug 29 thru Sept 1) and your topic has to do directly with intentional communities.
Then you have just 5 more days to get your workshop description in. Relevant links:
commune life 