This is from our Facebook feed the week after the Twin Oaks fire. Some of these posts were originally scheduled for the previous week but delayed to fit in all the posts about the fire and one of these is from Twin Oaks talking about the aftermath of the fire.
This first post is a link to what I think is a very interesting analysis of how communities deal with the realities of capitalism, an essay by Sky Blue which I knew we had to repost here as soon as I saw it. It was already posted on the Federation of Egalitarian Communities Facebook page, which is where I got Sky’s quote about the effect of their life at Twin Oaks and with the FEC.
This post did okay with seven likes, a share, and a hundred and twenty-four views.
One of the posts that got bumped was from Twin Oaks talking about getting new members. I assume that as they are rebuilding from the fire, they will still be looking for new members.
This did pretty well, with six likes, one love, one care, and a hundred and sixty views.
Although the main business at East Wind is nut butters, they also make sandals, using the same rope that Twin Oaks used for their hammocks (now only a memory in the wake of the fire).
In my last post I wrote a little about individualism and how it’s rampant in American culture. It’s a hard habit to break out of–but I suspect that many people fear the opposite happens in communal living, that all individual freedom will be gone.
I have sometimes thought about community as existing in the “dynamic tension” between the individual and the group. And by “dynamic tension” I mean an ever changing midpoint or community point. Too far in the direction of the individual and you are back to individualism and the community falls apart. Too far in the direction of the group and you’re talking about a cult and group think, and believe it or not, the communes are very, very far from this.
In her book,Is It Utopia Yet?, Kat Kinkade wrote this about ideological and lifestyle diversity at Twin Oaks: “All it really expects is conformity to decent behavioral standards. We don’t (officially) demand ideological adherence to much of anything, not even the Community’s basic principles…” She talks about the New Age tendencies at Twin Oaks: “…we eat a lot of beans, rice, and tofu… We subscribe to ten or fifteen radical leftist magazines. We wear used clothing made of natural fibers, and we don’t throw it out when it becomes stained… We have built geodesic domes, enjoy a rustic cabin and a tipi, and one of these days will probably get around to making a yurt… We go in for underwater births, mud pits, nude swimming, sweat huts, and pagan rituals. We think seriously about animal rights. Some people won’t even kill flies.” But then she adds: “More than half of us do several of the following: eat meat, drink coffee, read Newsweek, go to regular AMA physicians, wear clean neat clothing, ignore the tipi, take rituals with a grain of salt, and kill flies with a clear conscience.”
Having spent time around Twin Oaks, I know that there are pagans and Christians and Jewish folk and atheists and agnostics and probably a lot of other ways of believing; that there are lots of queer folk, and a lot of gender fluid folks and several trans folks and many poly people, but there are also quite a few monogamous, heterosexual, cis-gendered folk there too; and while I’m pretty sure that there aren’t a lot of right-wingers at Twin Oaks, the political spectrum runs from vaguely conservative/libertarian, through classic liberals and pretty progressive, to rather radical. It’s the old adage of having sixty folks and probably seventy-five opinions.
And it may be even more diverse at anarchist leaning Acorn and individualist/libertarian leaning East Wind. If you’ve spent any time at the communes, you will soon realize that they are far from a conforming group-think cult. In fact, I would say that there is probably a lot more individual freedom in the communes than in American society at large. Many, many communards delight in being weird in many different ways–but there is probably more acceptance of “normal” behavior in the communes than there is of weird individuality outside of them.
It’s interesting but I think that places devoted to communal living probably have more real individual freedom of expression than in “individualistic” mainstream America. (And then there’s the economic freedom of not having to worry about a job and where your food and next paycheck will come from. But that’s for another post.)
In the world wide communal movement, the kibbutzim (plural of kibbutz) hold a special place–they were among the first income-sharing communal experiments of the twentieth century. The first kibbutz to be founded was Kibbutz Degania Alef, established in 1910. It started with twelve folks and by 1947 had almost 400 members. There are currently around 270 kibbutzim in Israel. In spite of the fact that they have become less communal and socialist and more ‘privatized’ over the decades (Degania Alef was privatized in 2007), they have been an inspiration to income-sharing communities around the world. And there has been an urban kibbutzim movement where they have been renewing the ideals of sharing that characterized the original kibbutzim.
The founders of Kibbutz Degania Alef
The kibbutz movement started with strong socialist roots–sharing what they had with each other. Unfortunately, it also started with strong Zionist roots. This combination is at the heart of what I am calling ‘The Irony of the Kibbutzim’. There’s a really good and informative NPR article that goes to the core of this dilemma. The goal of the Zionist movement was to establish a homeland for Jewish people in the area of Palestine. The problem is that there were already Palestinian people living there. For many activists in the Western Hemisphere, this is very reminiscent of the way Europeans came in and basically stole land from the tribes that were living here. This is also the root of the current war in the Middle East. I am currently involved with many pro-Palestinian activists–including many anti-Zionist Jews.
The NPR article highlights the role of the kibbutzim in the establishment of Israel: “Before the formation of the state of Israel, the kibbutz played an important role in the Zionist mission of state-building. In the 1930s and 1940s, as it became clear that the creation of a Jewish state was likely, some kibbutzim were placed strategically near regions like Gaza in order to help stake the future claim.” Even so, “Politics in kibbutzim are associated with the left-wing and peace solutions.” Yet because of their location, “Some of the worst violence from… [the] Hamas attacks in Israel took place in small Israeli communities near Gaza called kibbutzim.” The end of this article again points out one of the ironies while talking about folks Hamas kidnapped. “One of the missing residents was Vivian Silver, 74, a woman who had spent her retirement pursuing peace in the region, her son Yonatan Zeigen told NPR. ‘She would drive sick Palestinians from Gaza to Israeli hospitals.’”
Israeli soldiers inspect the engine from a paraglider that Palestinian militants used a few days earlier in an attack on the Kfar Aza kibbutz near the border with Gaza, on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
There is no question that the Hamas attack was horrible and brutal, but there is also no question that it has been dwarfed by the incredible inhumane brutality of the Israeli response. There is also a context in which the Hamas attack occurred. I have been hearing about the horrible ways that the Israelis have been treating the Palestinians for years, basically keeping them prisoners in their own homeland. Some of the stories I’ve heard have been from Jewish folks that I know who have visited Israel and Palestine and have been horrified by what they saw–walled in run down areas kept separate from the rest of Israel and constantly patrolled by soldiers who limited the movement of Palestinians. Further, I’m sure that one of the things behind the timing of the Hamas attack was that the right-wing is currently in charge in Israel and has been encouraging even more settlement in Gaza, squeezing what little land that Palestinians have even more. South Africa, the land where the term apartheid comes from, has accused Israel of perpetuating apartheid in Palestine. Currently, it looks like Israel is engaging in what appears to be a genocidal campaign.
The irony of the kibbutzim is that a movement founded on radical sharing helped support a nation devoted to taking land. While many in the movement wanted to share more with the Palestinian people, the movement as a whole has been implicated in diminishing what little they have.
This is a blog devoted to income-sharing communities, and by extension, to income-sharing and to sharing in general, and to community living, which always, by its very nature, involves at least some degree of sharing.
I have been reading a lot about individualism lately, which runs very strong in American culture. Each of us should be able to make it on our own. Developmentally this is important, because I believe that independence is a critical stage as we move from dependence to interdependence, but truthfully, no one makes it on their own. Interdependence is a key feature of community living, since each of us has our own strengths and weak points and these differ from person to person. One of the big advantages of community living is that in a community, each of us get to operate from the positions of our strengths, knowing that other people can support us where we are not strong, just as we support others where they have difficulties. Together, we are much, much stronger than any of us is individually.
Is this sharing? I strongly believe it is. We get to share our strengths and we also get to share in other folks strengths, making it a lot less necessary for us to try to do everything. Because we really can’t do everything.
What else can we share and do we share in community and elsewhere? There are lots of possibilities, beginning with resource sharing of all kinds. I’ve already written here about networks of “libraries” and mutual aid and gift economies.
My point is that we don’t have to share everything and we certainly don’t need to start out by sharing everything. Even Twin Oaks, which seems based on radical sharing, has ways to opt in and out of sharing, public and private options. And some of us have been discussing (a discussion I’ve had with several folks over the years) the idea of doing income-sharing between houses, perhaps set distances apart. Although my biggest dream is to live with lots of people, you don’t actually have to live communally to share income.
Which is my point. While I’m all for income-sharing and radical sharing, we can create a society that’s based on sharing, bit by bit. Each little bit of sharing moves us stronger in the direction of a more sharing centered society. And, as I think I’ve said here, as much as I’m into income-sharing communities, I don’t think they work for everyone. What I want to see is a variety of alternatives, a whole bunch of ways of sharing and working together, and I think that the only way to create that is by sharing, bit by bit.
As usual, we are running about a month behind our Facebook postings. Nothing in the week we’re posting did super great on Facebook but nothing did really terrible either. Only one of these posts failed to get the hundred viewers I think of as a minimum okay, but that only missed it by five.
Serenity Solidarity built a box as a replica of the box that Henry Brown used to escape from being a slave. A VIrginia library decided to display it.
This did fairly well on Facebook, with six likes, three loves (one of which was from Serenity Solidarity), and a hundred and twelve views.
Ira Wallace is one of the founders of Acorn and an amazing person who gets things done–in the world of communities, in the world of gardening, in the world of seeds, and in the world of local (Southeast US) agriculture. She’s gotten lots of awards. Here’s yet another.
Ira is truly beloved of a lot of people and we usually get a large amount of views, so a hundred and seven, which I usually see as okay, was pretty disappointing. She did get six loves and two likes–and the larger amount of loves was not surprising to me.
The seed business is booming in Louisa County. Not only Acorn’s Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, but Commonwealth Seeds, which was started by someone affiliated with Twin Oaks.
This did pretty well on Facebook. While a hundred and seventeen isn’t that high as far as our stats go, this post did the best of this batch. It also got three likes and two loves.
Finally, East Brook Farm was advertising fresh greens–in a February post.
Unfortunately, this one did the least well of these, with only ninety-five views and five likes.
January – February 2024 Newsletter DC Microgrids Continue to Spread in the Caribbean John and Debbie just returned home from three weeks in Puerto Rico. The trip was a whirlwind of installations, events, checkins with previous installations, and continuing to deepen our relationship with people and movements on the island. We started our visit staying at Otra Cosa, a queer-friendly farm and homestead in San Salvador, home to Tara Rodriguez Besosa and Millo Huertas, two friends and organizers. Otra Cosa is off the grid and transitioning to a DC system. Tara is the cofounder of food sovereignty non-profit El Departamento de la Comida (the food department, or El Depa), which has its headquarters right down the hill from Otra Cosa, and has been our biggest organizational supporter on the island. We installed DC equipment at El Depa a year ago, but the battery system was being underused, as the building was wired for AC florescent lighting. We could have switched out the fixtures, but the existing wiring in the walls was deemed to be unsafe for use with low voltage DC. (12VDC can build up more heat in the connections than high voltage AC, therefore weak connections can be hazardous. Badly made electrical connections, like wires twisted together with no wire nut, are disturbingly common in PR.) Depa wanted to be able to run their lights off of their battery, so the first project of the trip consisted of building a parallel 12VDC lighting system in their Agroteca (agricultural resource center) and community kitchen. El Depa organized the DC solar training at LEF last summer, and offered the training free of charge to participants, but required that trainees volunteer for 30 hours on an installation project. Most of our trainees did their hours during this trip.
Nathania, who attended our training in the summer of 2023, wires the new lights at El Depa.
It was great fun for us to reconnect with the folks we hosted at LEF last summer, and work on projects together. Nathania, Marielisa, Tara, Ricardo and Millo all helped with the Depa lighting system. At our next installation at Huerto Feliz, Anacaona lent her construction skills (building a roof for the water pump), Avia took the lead with glueing PVC, and Erid, the Huerto Feliz garden manager, organized volunteers and did organizational support.
A water pump for Huerto Feliz, with Anacaona’s roof.
Huerto Feliz is a community garden managed by Urbe Apie, a nonprofit that occupies and revitalizes abandoned spaces in downtown Caguas for housing, food production, and community enrichment. The water system we built uses rainwater collected from surrounding buildings, and will be essential for watering the garden and providing services for the community during an emergency. We also installed a direct drive fridge, and a lighting/charging system for the plaza next to the garden. As an occupied space, Huerto Feliz does not have access to grid power or city water in any reliable fashion.
Erid, Sunflower, John and Debbie celebrate a job well done at Huerto Feliz.
Our work helped create a welcoming and comfortable space for people in the community to be able to enjoy the garden, charge their phones, get water, and store food. Extra thanks to Sunflower, a Twin Oaks member who traveled with us and was a huge help with the installation. In addition to the new installations at El Depa and Huerto Feliz, we were able to check in with a few of the installations from last year. We made some upgrades to the system at Miguel and Dinorah’s, the elder coconut farmers in Arroyo. We added a vacuum breaker to improve the performance of their pump, and added a bathroom light to their 12V battery system. We visited Finca la Lluvia, a farm in Maricao that is home to writer and activist Aurora Levins Morales. We installed a direct drive fridge last year, and this year we added a 100AH battery kit to the system, to power a CPAP machine. One of the goals of the trip was to set up an equipment distribution site so our trainees on the island could continue to do installations after we left. We bought a storage container, and parked it at the farm of Ricardo Martinez, who owns and operates a solar company, Energiza PR. Going forward, Ricardo will be distributing and installing for Living Energy Lights, along with Millo Huertas, Eva Campbell and our other trainees.
John, Sunflower, Debbie, Ricardo, and Ricardo’s wife Karla at LEL’s storage container in Caguas.
Our next visit to Puerto Rico is tentatively scheduled for this November, when we’ll do our third annual DC solar training/immersion. This year, instead of hosting the training at LEF, the training will be held at El Departamento de la Comida. The goal is to make the training more accessible for Puerto Ricans who are not able to take two weeks off from work to be able to attend a program in the US. Now that Depa has a very developed DC Microgrid, we believe that the “immersion” part of training (allowing participants to spend time surrounded by and using the DC equipment) can be done as effectively in PR as in Virginia. It’s exciting progress. The recognition of the effectiveness of direct drive is growing in Puerto Rico. For individual users, it’s simply a cheaper, more durable form of solar. If we can get the use of direct drive to grow to a larger scale, then there would be no need for coal, natural gas, nuclear, or industrial “renewable” energy systems to support grid power.
Simple Harvester Prototype 3 of the Simple Harvester is complete. We put prototype 2 in the field last year and achieved “proof of concept.” That said, prototype 3 is a huge improvement. It is a combine harvester that can harvest many different kinds of grain. It has one belt and eight turning shafts. It could probably be mass produced for around $1,000 USD. It’s very simple to operate and maintain. There is a dire need for the Simple Harvester all over the world. And our machine works. It’s not just a theory or an idea. Small farmers in the U.S. can use old harvesters. But that’s not a solution for small farmers in Latin America, Africa, or Asia. BCS is an Italian company that makes two wheeled tractor tractors that are used by many small farmers. Their harvesting setup is $32,000 retail in the U.S. The Chinese make small combines, but they are complex and expensive. They are around $10,000 USD by the time you deal with import fees and what not. We have a contract with the University of Missouri and the Soybean Innovation Lab to help small shops start producing Simple Harvesters in Africa. We are moving forward with that. We have no interest in squeezing money out of African farmers. But if someone in the U.S. or Europe is going to make Simple Harvesters, or mass producers are going to make them, we want a share of the proceeds so we can fund the expansion of the conservationist design we have developed at LEF. Right now that means struggling with a pile of petty legalisms surrounding the patent. Wish us luck.
Simple Harvester, Prototype 3. With only one belt, it is by far the simplest combine harvester ever built as far as we know.
Simple Washer David has been hard at work for a few months designing and building a control system for our Simple Washer. And now it’s working! We have used a cement mixer for years to wash clothes. It is not a lot of fun to use and not popular. The Simple Washer uses a rotating drum (like a cement mixer), but has a circuit that controls rotation. It drains through an Archimedes Screw. The Simple Washer is DC, direct drive powered. It does have a small rechargeable battery to run the electronic timing circuit. It’s not fully automated. You have to add the water from a hose. But beyond that, it runs through its wash cycle, and then drains. Then you can refill and run it again, and then it’s done. It’s a very simple, elegant machine. It needs a bit of tweaking, but we have started using it to wash clothes, and it is certainly an improvement over the cement mixer. While there are many washing machines in the world, the DC models made in China are not very durable (as far as we know). The AC models are not easily converted, and many of those are not durable or repairable. The Simple Washer so far is a homestead model, something you would use outdoors probably. But it’s great to be making progress. We have an excellent crew at LEF these days. We are pleased David has made this work!
David designed and built a control circuit, and has made the new Simple Washer work. It’s an improvement for us! It runs off the solar panels right behind it (which also power an ISEC cooker).
Biogas We do most of our cooking at LEF with Insulated Solar Electric Cookers (ISECs). While simple solar thermal cookers (like Sun Ovens) seem like a good idea, they are very limited. The ISECs work great, and biogas is an excellent compliment to ISECs. We cook breakfast every morning with biogas. Two years ago we put a large, 2000 gallon digester into operation. We couldn’t keep it warm enough, so we added more solar thermal panels. Then last winter (over a year ago) rats got into the straw and messed up some pipes. We put the digester back on its feet. Then last summer we overheated it. We put in a thermal sink and got it going again. Then this winter we realized we had a leak in our solar heating system. We used stainless heat exchange coils inside the digester. It is an acidic environment in there. Copper coils would not hold up. One of the compression fittings we used on the stainless failed. So we tunneled under the straw and put in expensive “swagelok” fittings, and restarted yet again. With each one of these restarts, the archae culture in the tank dies back. At best it takes weeks to get it back to a healthy state. Cooking year round in a temperate climate with 100% renewable energy is challenging. Rocket stoves are efficient, but annoying to start. And they smoke and leave soot all over everything. Before ISECS, we did maybe 5% of our cooking solar on a year-round basis. Now its over 70% with the ISECs. We are hoping that we can cover the other 30% with biogas and not use rocket stoves any more. But temperate climate biogas is no small project. In the future, industrial output is going to decline. That is as inevitable as gravity. Based on our lessons at LEF, if you don’t want to cook over a smoky fire, future generations are going to have to manage cooking fuel on a community scale. Even at LEF, after years of trying to find a not-smoky way to cook, we are still working on it. The digester is — hopefully — in a state where we can manage it, keep it warm enough but not too warm, year round. But we do not as yet have a year-round feed supply for it. That is going to involve taking leaves, straw, or whatever we can get our hands on, and pre-digesting it in compost piles to a half digested state, and then feeding it into the digester. It’s coming along, but cooking with clean, renewable energy has proven challenging.
Farming We are preparing for farming season this year. We got a large pile of leaves from a local landscaper over the winter, so we will be doing some sheet mulch gardening. We will be growing a familiar variety of seed and food crops. Otto is managing the kitchen gardens. (He also takes care of Seymour, the biogas digester.) So far this year the late winter/ spring weather has been closer to “normal,” a word which has largely lost its meaning in the age of climate change. We will see how the spring progresses. The kids have been getting a bit more involved in farm, shop, and kitchen work, though as with all kids they like their electronic (solar powered) gizmos. We do a shop class with the kids once a week. They have been reviving a woodgas system for use on a small tractor. Our hope is to be able to start a tractor on biogas, and then run it on woodgas. We may start trying to integrate that into our farming this season as time allows. Currently, we are fully energy independent apart from a modest amount of fossil fuel (about 30 gallons) that we use for a season of farming. We are hoping that in the next couple of years we can be done using fossil fuel for the tractors as well as firewood for cooking. We remain amused the extent to which others seem to see our life as some kind of deprivation, or something they could never do, or something they do not know how to start doing. We have a good life, and we feel like our model is a huge improvement over spending huge amounts of money bulldozing forests to build industrial solar fields. 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. To make tax deductible donations, do not go to the Virginia Organizing website, go here instead: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1388125 Make sure to designate your donation for Living Energy Institute.
Articles and videos about LEF:
Low-Tech Magazine (based in France) did an lengthy, well-researched article, largely about LEF, entitled Direct Solar Power: Off-Grid Without Batteries. It’s at https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/08/direct-solar-power-off-grid-without-batteries/ That article talks a lot about optimal utilization, translate “community is the magic bullet that makes renewable energy work.”
Matt Dhillon at Cville Weekly did one of the best brief summaries of LEF we have ever seen. The article is entitled Power Shift, Award-winning Living Energy Farm Makes Living Off-grid Sustainable. It is at https://www.c-ville.com/power-shift
We continue to post new videos on Youtube. The latest is Solar Power Systems That Last Forever, focused on our solar powered kitchen. See https://youtu.be/6XiHClx8d2Q
How to Never Pay an Electric Bill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Wk7inoIxI&t=201s This video is a walk-through of our energy systems at Living Energy Farm. It is a concise summary of how these systems work, and why they are not in common use already.
Solar Installations In The Navajo (Dine’) And Hopi Reservations, March 2020 http://livingenergyfarm.org/solar-installations-2020/ This is a photo essay about our project to bring durable solar energy systems to the Dine’ and Hopi Reservations, where thousands of people live without grid power involuntarily.
International Permaculture has done 2 articles on LEF. One is in issue #93, Autumn 2017, and the second is in issue #94, Winter 2017. See https://www.permaculture.co.uk/
Several of the posts I’m posting this week did very well on Facebook–and covered some unique subjects.
From East Wind, comes a post about a ‘breakfast taco’–and the ‘greenwashing’ of ‘farm to table’ and how East Winders are “living outside of the capitalist system”.
This post did okay on Facebook. It only got two likes but it got a bit over a hundred views.
At Twin Oaks, it was about keeping their cars clean. I snapped this photo when I visited there briefly in January. I thought it was interesting but I didn’t know the context.
The comments I got (which I show below in Facebook’s messed up order–read the middle, then the top) reveal what was behind this card.
This post did very, very well, especially considering that it was just one picture. It got nine likes, eight loves, three comments (the ones above), a share, and a whopping three hundred and forty-three views.
The folks at Serenity Solidarity seem to always be doing some pretty important and impressive (to me at least) stuff. Unfortunately, it doesn’t translate into a lot of views.
It didn’t do terribly, with three likes and three loves (and one of the loves was actually from Serenity Solidarity) but only ninety-three views. Still, this is some good work and I wish more people saw it.
Finally, East Wind turns fifty this year! They want to have a big bash, but…
Fortunately, this did very, very well, with eight likes, two cares, and a love, and a good two hundred and eighty-six views. I hope this translates into some cash for them.
This is only the beginning. Expect more about East Wind’s fiftieth as it gets closer.
Serenity Solidarity wrote: “We went out for a week to support the incredible activists who have been dedicated to stopping the Mountain Valley Pipeline for 9 years. “
News of the Oaks by Valerie Movement Support by Ollie Coldvember by JaneState of the Commune by Valerie
News of the Oaks by Valerie
We’re continuing to have a rise in membership. With around 75 members there’s a lot going on. Celebrations● New member Ollie has been hosting “Gay Bar” parties, giving us all a chance to dance and show off our fabulous outfits ● We celebrated Steve’s 80th birthday—he is a huge Grateful Dead fan and we had our in-house Grateful Dead cover band play for the evening, and looked at photos of Steve’s long life ● We do not celebrate Thanksgiving here; instead we observe the National Day of Mourning with an afternoon of videos by and about Indigenous people, with discussion. We held our Gratitude Feast later in November and hosted many friends and ex-members for the dinner, which included the ever-popular “Ping-Pong Table of Desserts.”
Gratitude feast dessert table
Raen makes pesto
Day of Mourning poster
● We had our yearly “Art Walk”, in which members display various art they have been creating, and we have a walking tour through the community to admire peoples’ creations. Farm Life New member Raen has been making good use of our greens by making pestos using our home-grown basil, spinach, cress and tat soi (an Asian green similar to bok choy), and we have been enjoying this nutritious and delicious treat ● We’ve also had 2 new baby calves born, adding to the herd we keep for dairy/meat purposes.
Movement We have been offering a multitude of movement classes lately. We’re currently having regular Capoeira, Aikido, and Yoga, as well as a Ballet class for some of the kids here ● And in a different type of movement, we recently instituted a Racial Justice Orientation session as part of our Visitor Program, as a way of moving ourselves along the path of becoming an anti-racist community.
One display for Art Walk 2023
Movement Support: Political Activism by Ollie
New member Ollie has become manager of Movement Support which is one of the more unusual areas through which Twin Oakers can get labor credits. While most labor areas are for activities that benefit the community directly (garden, the Seed Racks business, etc.) Movement Support is designed to give labor credits and money to members who do work outside the community to support causes we believe in. Historically this has included many things ranging from protests and direct action to collecting acorns for the Virginia Department of Forestry Nursery to support future tree planting and much more. Recently, after a period with no manager of the area and not much being done, new member Ollie has become manager and several people have started doing more activities being funded by Movement Support.
Food Not Bombs in Louisa
Locally, several Twin Oakers and folks from other communities in Louisa county have started a Louisa chapter of Food Not Bombs. This national organization is an all-volunteer movement that recovers food that would otherwise be discarded, and shares free vegan and vegetarian meals with the hungry in over 1,000 cities in 65 countries in protest to war, poverty, and destruction of the environment, and we have, for about two months, been distributing food for free in downtown Louisa every Sunday from 1-2pm. When Ollie mentioned this to long-term member Steve he mentioned that Oakers used to bring food to the Richmond Food not Bombs for several years decades ago.
A little further afield, in the past several months, Movement Support has provided labor credits and travel costs for Twin Oakers to travel to Washington, DC to attend protests in support of a cease-fire in Gaza. Just last week we filled up our 15 person van with Oakers attending the January 13th protest. Further afield still, Oakers traveled recently to be part of the movement against the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia. Ollie is very excited to be the new manager of this cool area and is really looking forward to helping Oakers out of our little bubble to engage with the world beyond the farm in meaningful ways and to keep fighting oppression everywhere. We’re always looking for new ways for Oakers to participate in movements off the farm, so if you’re organizing in the area and need some friendly communards to help, feel free to contact us!
Coldvember by Jane
A few months ago, I was reminiscing on my travels abroad, and remembered one particularly adventurous morning, when I jumped into Galway Bay in Ireland. Dubbed “Coldvember” by the university students there, masses of them jump into the churning ocean waters. I joined in one day, and seeing the pictures made me want to recapture some of that joy and bravery. I put up a note up saying I would be jumping into the pond every morning in November, save Sundays. Most people thought I was crazy, but sure enough, 3 other brave souls joined me that chilly first morning! Overtime, our numbers grew, and on November 8th we had a whopping 9 people in the pond that day. We have shrunk a bit since then, to a core group of 4 or 5. The shock of entering the water is instant–some of us like to work our way in slowly, but I find the only way I’m getting in is by sprinting in screaming. I’ve been told we are audible from the courtyard, with one co thinking a chicken slaughter was underway! On the first few days we ran in and out, but recently we’ve stayed in as long as 6 minutes. After about 4 minutes I find my body starts to feel warm, and by the time I exit I’m actually quite comfortable. Getting dressed again is probably the hardest part- the teeth chattering and shaking hands makes it difficult to dry off quickly.
Author, Jane, on left, and other brave swimmers
So, what’s the purpose of this craziness? Cold plunges have been shown to improve heart rate and circulation, as well as provide some benefit for mental health. It also helps your body acclimate to the cold—I have found I can now walk around easily with a thin winter coat and gloves, whereas I used to struggle to keep myself warm with tons of layers. Other co’s have noted feeling more awake afterwards, and needing less coffee or other substances throughout the day. As of writing this, we have three more plunges left. Part of me will miss it- the camaraderie of the group, the feeling of accomplishment every morning, and the clarity of mind that comes with it. Some of us are thinking of continuing the challenge and have dubbed it “Coldcember”. It’s turned into something of a Twin Oaks trend, with co’s who would never dare of jumping in following our progress. Regardless of whether we continue this challenge into December or not, it will certainly be remembered! There are definitely some people who would not benefit from cold plunges- the very young or very old, and folks with heart conditions. Check with your doctor and do research before trying it out!
State of the Commune by Valerie
Twin Oaks is always a reflection of the mainstream to some extent. What is happening “out there” also happens here. Right now, in the world and in this country, many long-term entities that are somewhat cooperation-based are struggling (eg. US postal service, western democracy) and we are no different. Polarization is more of a cultural force than it has been, creating greater divisiveness and demonization / othering in this country, the wider world, and also at Twin Oaks. Mainstream culture itself is undergoing many changes. We are definitely experiencing the effects of those cultural impacts. We’ve had a number of challenges in the community in the last several years, and we are continuing to feel the effects. When the covid pandemic hit, by coincidence we were at low-ish population, and we in ways became like a “medieval plague village” and had no visitors and limited contact with the outside world for some months. We are still recovering from that low population. Somewhat connected to that, as well as the above-mentioned cultural change reasons, our decison-making and organizational / administrative structures are not as robust as they have been (fewer experienced members to join administrative teams, our collective town trips happening less frequently, etc.) Each of our main community businesses are having their own particular challenges and that is affecting our financial situation. Our infrastructure is aging and we have found mold in many of our buildings. There is some tension around how we are moving forward dealing with that mold, partly related to difficulties in our various income areas and community businesses. The dynamic between newer, younger members and longer-term, older members has always existed to some extent, but related to the afore-mentioned greater polarization overall, this has become more pronounced here in the last couple of years. A number of other long-term, established communities are reporting similar challenges and changes, and unfortunately, some of them have ceased to function as they have been, and these beacons and models of alternative culture have been lost. The good news is we have a great group of current new members—there are a quite a few of them and they are bringing good energy and ideas to the community, so that is a strong support for us. We also have the steadiness and experience of our committed, long-term members. Our population is slowly rising again. Also, one potential advantage of this time of less solid structure is that we would like to change some aspects of our culture to become more anti-racist and inclusive. That is easier to do when there is already some “give”, rather than an iron-clad adherence to “how it’s always been”. Our focus during this era of our history is to find ways to maintain and strengthen the parts of Twin Oaks that make us a unique alternative cultural reality, while making changes and responding to cultural changes, current challenges and the needs/wants of current members. ¡La lucha continua!
Finishing off the first weeks of January on Facebook.
The Serenity Solidarity folks advertised this event and said they would be there.
It sounds like a worthy cause but it didn’t do well on Facebook. It got two likes but only sixty-six views.
Meanwhile, Acorn was celebrating an impending birth.
With all those pictures and a baby coming, too, this post did well enough on Facebook. Honestly, I would have expected it to do better, but five likes, two loves, and a hundred and forty-four views is not bad.
Finally, although Twin Oaks celebrates the American Thanksgiving as a Day of Mourning, they also do celebrate a day for gratitude and the harvest.
With just one picture of a table full of sweets, this actually did better than Acorn’s baby shower, with sixteen likes and loves and a hundred and fifty-three views.
Gratitude feast dessert table
Raen makes pesto
Day of Mourning poster
One display for Art Walk 2023
Food Not Bombs in Louisa
Author, Jane, on left, and other brave swimmers
commune life 