rideside.net

The idea has been crystallizing in my head for some time now.

We should all move to Northern Vermont, shouldn’t we?

Some of us will want to just go ahead and buy ourselves houses in one or another of the cute villages and towns that they have up there, but there may be others of us who want to be out in the countryside.

Here’s my idea:

Eight to twelve youngish knowledge-economy urbanites (say up to four couples/families and up to four single folks) all pool our resources to buy a 200-acre farm. We divide up the property into several good-sized private homestead lots (say, fifteen to twenty acres each), keeping the remainder of the land as common property. We overcrowd ourselves temporarily into the large dilapidated farmhouse, as each person/couple/family goes about building a house on his/her/their lot. When all is said and done, each homestead is independent and privately owned by its inhabitants, with enough land attached for a garden or small farm and enough woods to provide all your firewood needs in perpetuity. The original farmhouse remains on the common land, to be used for weekly social dinners, guest housing for out-of-towners, parties, etc. If you ever decide to move away, you're free to sell your house and land (to a stranger, I mean), while still maintaining your share in the common property for vacations. Or when you sell your house you can give your share in the common property back to the remaining members, thereby giving up all responsibility for its upkeep.


Some things that I’m NOT proposing:

Not a commune. We would only be living together at first; as soon as possible everyone is off on their own lot, living in their own house which belongs to them. Communes don’t work easily for the long term, because people unfortunately have a hard time consistently acting for the common good.

Not an Amish-style rejection of the modern world. I strongly support the use of technology when it makes life better. The internet, insulin, chainsaws, compact fluorescent bulbs—sure, why not? I favor self-sufficiency and minimal environmental impact, but not primitivism.

Nobody would be a full-time farmer. Farming is (for now and at this moment in history) one of the hardest ways to make a living. If we can get the necessaries of life more easily by working as teachers or surveyors’ assistants or web designers one or two towns away, or by running freelance editorial operations out of our homes, or having a summer art camp, or whatever, I say go for it. I want to grow my own tomatoes, and maybe have a source of fresh eggs, and at least have the capacity to produce as much home-grown food as possible. We can expect food prices to continue to rise significantly in coming years, what with increasing populations and the development of the developing world and global climate changes. At some point in the future, farming may become much more attractive.

NOT a community of survivalist crackpot bunker-crouchers. Civilization may be on the verge of falling apart, or it may not. In any case, I don’t advocate stockpiling AK-47s in anticipation of the coming anarchy. I think that, in the event of the collapse of the American Empire, rural communities will probably continue to maintain law and order perfectly well, as they’ve always done.

NOT an each-man-or-woman-for-himself-or-herself suburban subdivision, like a little piece of Acton transplanted into the boondocks. I envision a community where people can have their own houses on their own land, but where many activities involve voluntary cooperation. You help raise the frame of my house, I’ll help raise the frame of yours. You tend my chickens while I’m on vacation, I’ll walk your goat while you’re visiting Mom in the nursing home. One or two people are motivated to make maple syrup? The community as a whole votes to give them permission to tap the trees on the common land, in exchange for a share of the finished product.

Why Northeastern Vermont?

It’s beautiful and relatively unspoiled.

It has some of the cheapest farmland in New England; you can get more land for less money in Northern Maine, but you can’t do better anywhere within four hours of Boston.

Not only is Northeastern Vermont relatively close to Boston, it’s also close to Montreal.

There are several college towns in the area, to provide possible employment for some of us and cultural enrichment for all.

It’s far enough north that its climate in the coming century will be more or less like the climate you grew up with. The new climate in the place you grew up with will more closely resemble the climate of Hell.

Vermont has been periodically settled by back-to-the-landers for the last forty years. Any community we settle in will have at least a few people who understand and are sympathetic to what we’re trying to do. (I.e., not everyone will view us with hostility as invaders out to destroy their way of life.)

I understand that it's a tough sell. I haven't even managed to convince the missus yet. But I'm working on her.