Hi Folks,

I'm feeling a bit sad and lonely today. We've been casually working at finding people to come and live with us in rural Alberta for a few years with no striking successes.

Any other super natural, crunchy, AP/C/tribal type mamma's and pappas who want to live on the prairies of Canada?

We are moving to our new homestead this spring and I'm starting to feel lonely already. Ask me for details if you are interestsed, or post your own intentional community dreams here!

we're looking too...but we need to stay in the south to keep my ds near his dad...right now we live only 5 minutes apart and pretty much always have since our divorce.

but i am definitely in your shoes right now. i wish you luck too. it's tough and takes a long time to find a good match for IC!!!

:hippy:joy

Where in the south are you?

I would like to hear about this concept... What is IC? I have recently been thinking "I need more cruchy people!" lol I just realized that that is what I am, and I don't know many people who are this way. So info would be great!

One of the best starting resources to learn about IC - Intentional Communities is to visit http://www.ic.org, I think it is, lemme check, yep! There is lots to learn, and thats a great place to start! Glad to hear we aren't the only ones looking :).

Where in the south are you?

extreme NW corner of arkansas...near fayetteville.

:hippy: joy

Interesting... man if I told anyone I was looking at this stuff they would freak.

Canada sounds cold, but I love the idea. I find myself feeling very out of place where I live - 10 miles outside DC and would love to live near/with more like minded people.

Canada is a bit cold ;), but we have lots of sunshine here, and the snow is melting! A link that might be of interest to those viewing this thread is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cc_ic/, a group that I moderate for those who are interested in forming/joining Continuum Concept inspired communities. It's a bit slow right now, because we haven't hit critical mass of members, and as we know...kids, they take time!

jennifer ~ can you tell me more? what do you have so far on the land ~ any buildings, etc.? just curious... but we are listing our house FS this spring :happy:

A BIT cold? I've been to Edmonton and Slave Lake in October and April and it was freezing!!! I can't imagine it in the dead of winter.

Now, start talking rural BC and I would be interested :happy:

:wah: :wah: :wah: :wah: :wah: No fair! POUT! WHINE!!!!!!

My one great dream in life is communal living. It's just not fair! I married the wrong man. :mad: I HATE the stupid &^$#^*$% military! Seriously, I'm not joking. This is such a freakin' sore spot for me. Hmph!

ETA ~ Canada would be waaaay too cold for me, but a nice warm community somewhere..... ahhhhh...... :cloud9:

Hey Nic, why don't you guys move to NY?? ;)

I am finding more and more like minded people in our area. Plus Ithaca is just an hour away, which is a crunchy (although expensive) mecca.

In fact, just last month we were walking down the road, picking up litter, when this guy with long hair runs out of his house to introduce himself to us. His family had moved into their house a few months ago. He invited us in and I was thrilled to meet his wife who breastfeeds, slings and cloth diapers their little girl. They're so much like us and only live a mile down the road!

It is so great to have people like us to socailize with. It makes a big difference in my attitude.

Anyone else want to come and live in the beautiful hills of the Finger Lakes region of NY?? :D

Hey Nic, why don't you guys move to NY?? ;)

I am finding more and more like minded people in our area. Plus Ithaca is just an hour away, which is a crunchy (although expensive) mecca.

In fact, just last month we were walking down the road, picking up litter, when this guy with long hair runs out of his house to introduce himself to us. His family had moved into their house a few months ago. He invited us in and I was thrilled to meet his wife who breastfeeds, slings and cloth diapers their little girl. They're so much like us and only live a mile down the road!

It is so great to have people like us to socailize with. It makes a big difference in my attitude.

Anyone else want to come and live in the beautiful hills of the Finger Lakes region of NY?? :D

No way I am moving back up to the cold after living in Florida for so long! I do wish I had met you when we lived in Vermont. :)

LOL, this is always the big kicker for us, everyone wants to live in BC or in the south where it's warm :). If going below freezing is an issue for you, ya definitely don't want to live with us :). It is much milder in this region than where I grew up, southern Manitoba - it was routinely -40C for a few weeks and +40C for a few weeks every year. It was seriously the Canadian desert, sand storms etc. around Edmonton is much much milder, it rarely goes down to -40C below, and rarely to +40C above, it does hit -30C for a couple of weeks here and there, and peaks at around +30C in the summer time. BUT we have tonnes of sunshine and clear blue skies!! Which is why I could never ever live in BC, or the coast :(...too much rain, too cloudy. BC is beautiful with lots of interesting vegetation due to the milder weather but I always cry when I come home, I'm so happy, I'm a prairie girl, what can I say :). (Though technically this part of Alberta is mixed boreal forest leaning heavily towards conifers, everyone calls it prairies anyways since a lot of trees have been cleared and pasturing takes place all over the place). Before people came, this would have all been trees, so it's not REALLY prairies.

As far as what is out there right now....just a hay field and a bunch of trees!

Here is a picture from last year, early in the growing season. There is a very lovely gently rolling field, around 20 acres in size, and a whopping 60 acres of dense bush...mostly small decidous trees due to the caterpillar invasion of around 10 years ago, but there are some swamp spruce in a small section of low-lying land. There are a few hawks that come to visit, moles in the hay field, saskatoon bushes along the edge of the field/tree boundary, stinging nettles and wild raspberries galore in the low-lying regions. We find moose beds too :).

This spring we are going up in a holiday trailer to throw our house together out of straw, mud, local trees, salvaged windows etc. Go natural building! :happy:

Thanks for reading folks!

That is a beautiful picture, but are you saying it's only 30 degrees in the summertime? It NEVER gets warm??? ;pop:

Meeshi ~ I think my dh is from fairly close to where you are (not totally sure). His family is in PA, about 1.5 miles from NY border. He went to school in Panama, NY. It's very beautiful there! :)

:wah: :wah: :wah: :wah: :wah: No fair! POUT! WHINE!!!!!!

My one great dream in life is communal living. It's just not fair! I married the wrong man. :mad: I HATE the stupid &^$#^*$% military! Seriously, I'm not joking. This is such a freakin' sore spot for me. Hmph!

ETA ~ Canada would be waaaay too cold for me, but a nice warm community somewhere..... ahhhhh...... :cloud9:

No freakin' doubt!!! I married a cop, and there is no way he's going to get into communal living :rolleyes: I guess I should just be thankfull he's willing (and likes) homesteading, lol!

Oh Jo, you are KILLING me, LOL. It does sometimes get to be 35 - 38C here, but man on man, anything over 30C and I'm running for the house ;). And that's in August or something, when it is super duper hothothot!

Oh Jo, you are KILLING me, LOL. It does sometimes get to be 35 - 38C here, but man on man, anything over 30C and I'm running for the house ;). And that's in August or something, when it is super duper hothothot!

BAWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Hey, I'm in the US - I think in Farenhiet (I know that is spelled wrong)!!! I'm sitting here thinking - " WTH? How can their poor children be happy when it's ALWAYS freezing? Then I'm looking at the picture thinking "That sure is green for such a frigid place???"

Oh, LOL LOL, 30C is 86F my DH says, I am Farenheit impaired - 30C is -22F. ROTFL. Ah, this has been a fun thread to be sure. No, we do have a growing season here ;).

Oh, LOL LOL, 30C is 86F my DH says, I am Farenheit impaired - 30C is -22F. ROTFL. Ah, this has been a fun thread to be sure. No, we do have a growing season here ;).

Hmm . . . and the pic sure did look nice . . . I will have to broach this with dh!

~~Susannah

wow! gorgeous prairie ~ i think my dh might go for it, IF you were like up north from us Canada...lol - his granparetns are in North Bay, ONT & he is always saying " let's move to canada!!"

now meeshi, NY *might* be doable! lol ;)

I know you've heard it before, but too bad you aren't talking about BC.
The foothills of Alberta really are quite nice country, but I'm sorry to say, I'm a BC girl, through and through. I can handle the rain and cloud, because we're surrounded by huge beautiful mountains. I couldn't live far from the ocean.

Thanks for the link!

I know you've heard it before, but too bad you aren't talking about BC.
The foothills of Alberta really are quite nice country, but I'm sorry to say, I'm a BC girl, through and through. I can handle the rain and cloud, because we're surrounded by huge beautiful mountains. I couldn't live far from the ocean.
Where in BC are you? I'm a BC girl too. I'll never leave! I'm just north of Kamloops. It's not rainy and cloudy here. In the interior, we get alot of sun, and the Kamloops area is considered to be a desert.

Where in BC are you? I'm a BC girl too. I'll never leave! I'm just north of Kamloops. It's not rainy and cloudy here. In the interior, we get alot of sun, and the Kamloops area is considered to be a desert.

I was right! I saw on the name thread that you use to work for Mountain High. I've been there :) I figured you were north of Kamloops.

Allison - not a canadian, but a wanna be. My best friend is canadian, so we go often!

Lower mainland. Kamloops is a bit dusty for me. ;) Friends of mine used to run a cell-phone shop out there, and some other friends live just outside of the Reserve. We've been talking about moving somewhere near Nelson, in a few years when the kids are a bit bigger. We want them to have a good chance to get close to our families while they are growing.

Nice to find some more Canadians hanging around here. :)

Sabina

My dh sort of has this little problem of a job in Langley BC. ;) But it looks gorgeous. Both of us someday would love to live far, far away from the cities.

We've been talking about moving somewhere near Nelson, in a few years when the kids are a bit bigger. We want them to have a good chance to get close to our families while they are growing.



Bernice/b'sknees just bought a house outside Nelson. They are actually moving to Queen Charlotte for a couple years, then Nelson. I can't wait to visit :monkeydan

oooh, that sounds wonderful. We have to stay within an hour of dh's job. He works for NASA (actually one of the contractors). He LOVES his job so no chance of moving. My hubby and I were brought up very mainstream and its been difficult at times for him to give up supposed luxuries to live a simplified/natural/crunchy lifestyle. We are both slowly getting better. I'd prefer to make the plunge but he's not and since I love him ;) ......

I'd love to live in an intentional community but people around here are so into the "disposible" culture its scary.

Have you seen this site about an ecovillage in Wales?
http://www.brithdirmawr.com/

Its sounds wonderful!!!!

Anyway, goodluck and keep us updated. I really envy those of you that are able to turn this dream into a reality. We are about to purchase 2 acres with a manufactured home because I couldn't talk my dh into roughing it on a larger piece of property. <sigh>

Bernice/b'sknees just bought a house outside Nelson. They are actually moving to Queen Charlotte for a couple years, then Nelson. I can't wait to visit :monkeydan
Gorgeous. I used to know a woman that had moved here from the Queen Charlottes. Her pictures and her stories made it sound so lovely.

Oh, that's going to be so hard for you to have her living so far away. At least you'll get some wonderful vacations, though. :)

Whoops forums aren't updating me by email like they ought to be!

Yep, BC BC, I've heard it before, seems like everyone wants to live in BC, except for us ;). We're just bred and born prairie stock I suppose!

Hello!

I just wanted to add to the positive posts about BC.
I was born and raised and still live in North Vancouver, BC
It's so beautiful here, lots of green wilderness. The summers are comparable to southern California----in fact lately we've been having their warm beautiful weather. Spring has definetely arrived here, flowers and cherry blossoms everywhere.
I also love Nelson and the Christina Lake area.
OH---and if I had my way I'd live on the Sunshine Coast. It's very hippie-ish there--especially Roberts Creek. Love it.
:happy:

Oh, that's going to be so hard for you to have her living so far away. At least you'll get some wonderful vacations, though. :)

Yes, I am sad about it, but at least it is only for 3 years, at the most. RCMP won't let them stay any longer than that.

B tells me I'll visit once, realize how long a trip it is, and never come back LOL You have to take a ferry overnight???

I was born and raised and still live in North Vancouver, BC


I love Van! So, can you tell me good places to "go out"? Bernice and I are planning on meeting for a mama's weekend sometime soon but we don't know a good place to go dancing.

DH and I are looking into communal type living... but in Washington. LOL Another person who doesn't want to freeze!

We don't want anything huge, just a small, like-minded community.

Yes, I am sad about it, but at least it is only for 3 years, at the most. RCMP won't let them stay any longer than that.

B tells me I'll visit once, realize how long a trip it is, and never come back LOL You have to take a ferry overnight???
Yeah, it's a long way. Who knows, maybe you'll take the trip out there and decide you love it and want to stay, lol!

~sigh~ Any IC's in the silicone valley? :rolleyes:
Maybe someday, after DH retires (aka ages and ages from now), I will get to live out this dream. Until then I wait and day dream about how wonderful it would be.

My dh would never go for this, but I sure would be happy! I'm totally isolated (as far as others who think like me) here in Wyoming.

Michelle