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Free Country Living in Manawatu

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22 November 2011 - 8:50am
#1
John R
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Free Country Living in Manawatu

There is no such thing as a free lunch... but this is as close as it gets. We are on 6 acres just outside of Palmerston North and are looking for others to share it with.  There are fruit trees, room for lots of garden, a woodstove, large shed areas, and separate living areas.

We have fresh eggs from our own chickens, the start of a good workshop, trampoline and sandpit for any children, plenty of mature trees (many native), and masses of water storage.

There is a large & active homeschooling community in the Manawatu/Horowhenua, many of whom are unschoolers.

We are committed to transition preparation and are peak oil and climate change aware.

Illegal drugs are verboten and we are not keen on smokers. We are also anti-TV.... so you'll have to leave the big screen behind... but that's as far as the requirements (nuttiness?) go... anything else considered. :-)

.

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22 November 2011 - 9:29am
#2
James Samuel
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Joined: 27 Jun 2008
Heartening

Hi John and Co,

It is heartening to read your offer/invitation and if I was a single guy, I might very well jump at the opportunity to establish a footing on the land. I suspect that we will see more such offers in the coming months and years, and I'd like to acknowledge your gesture of being one of those leading the way.

Blessings,

James

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27 November 2011 - 7:59pm
#3
lomuland
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Sounds great John.I like

Sounds great John.
I like everything you said. We are a young couple wanting to live exactly like that. Well we are currently, except that we are renting, while saving up for land.

So would we need to provide accommodation? Is there space to build an earthship? :)

Cheers
Nathan

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29 November 2011 - 9:32pm
(Reply to #3) #4
John R
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Yes, earthship friendly

Hi Nathan, I haven't been monitoring the site so missed your comment. I have been thinking about life and feeling that no-one, us included, is poor enough to really want to share. Seems so wrong... we are social animals, seperated by our 'wealth'

We have fully furnished space for several families, as well as an interest in a 90 acre woodlot. Funny you should mention earthships because we are very keen to build one on the woodlot and move there. We are specifically looking for like-minded people who might want to share that experience as well.

There is already a large store of tyres up there.... and plans of a sort.... although the next step is a consent... which we sort of want.... although so many people are telling us that we should miss that step. Not sure about that. I like the idea of being an accepted part of a wider community... rather then a problem for the local council... the gypsies living illegally on the edge of town...

You profile lists you as being in Nelson? Are you still there?

Would love to hear more. Feel free to email me at johnr at silver-bullet dot co dot nz if you prefer. :-)

Regards
John

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29 December 2011 - 3:08pm
(Reply to #4) #5
lomuland
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Free Country Living in Manawatu

Hi again John,

Yeah it seems that everything might have to fall apart completely before we start to value each other!

We are living in Fremantle, Australia at the moment to take advantage of the better pay, I'll have to update my profile.

We have been to Taos to do the 1 month internship at Earthship Biotecture and are currently building a 'chookship' at our local community garden.

I agree with you on getting consent from the local council, it'd be great to set a precedent in the area for being able to build earthships! The Earthship people have a booklet for sale with engineering documents and university studies on the safety & quality of buildings made of tyres. It's $45, but could be worth it.

Brian & Karen Gubb have built one in Ngaruawahia - here's their website if you haven't seen it - http://homepages.callplus.net.nz/~b.gubb/index.html

Are you planning to have a kind of commune or small community there? What other plans do you have. I'm very intrigued!

Regards
Nathan

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29 December 2011 - 11:25pm
(Reply to #6) #6
John R
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Voluntary poverty?

Hi Nathan,

I have visited Brian and Karen. Loved their earthship and very jealous of their location :-)

I am a fan of something similar to "The Simple Way" - that we can have a higher quality of life on a fraction of the resources. I actually think that the money and the possessions get in the way.

We are not meant to live alone - we are meant to share... the work, the fun, the plans, the dreams.... but I am slightly repelled by the concept of 'planning' a community. This piece of land is perfect BECAUSE of the community it is adjacent to. 500 metres gets you into the town boundary. 1.5 km gets you to SH1.

But yes, the ideal situation would be almost a type of land sharing arrangement. A company 'owns' the land, to make it easy for others to become equal-partner shareholders, and we have identified 6 or 7 beautiful building spots.

We are looking for people who are excited by the future and are keen to show others that there are better ways to live. It would be a modest existence but the land probably has enough opportunites to economically support a hard-working group of people.

I suspect that a type of voluntary poverty (sounds bad, but I am only talking about a degree of seperation from the current fiat currency - Jane and I have joked for years that we had a 'wealth-destruction' plan...) is almost the best basis for such a group. It throws people together, makes choices exciting, and creates a degree of inter-dependence. Having said that, we are a varied group, and the over-whelming desire is for a "good" life.

Finding others who want to share in such an arrangement may be difficult although I don't really understand why. It seems so attractive to me.

In the meantime I am keen to talk to as many other people out there with whom we intersect on some level, as well as being open to being a resource that others can use.

We have access to land and accomodation and, in an environment where so many are struggling, it seems wrong not to be sharing. This is not just some altruistic desire - others enrich our life. We are surrounded by opportunities and I am keen to share those as well.

Love to hear back from you. What are your medium/long term plans? What type of work are you involved with over there?

Regards
John

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1 January 2012 - 2:20pm
(Reply to #7) #7
lomuland
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Voluntary poverty?

John,

Firstly, Happy New Year and wow that's great you have visited the Gubb's, I still haven't been there yet.

I cannot fault anything you are saying. We ourselves are certainly not interested in money & consider it a chore we have to go through to be able to buy a piece of land. We want to be rich in every sense of the word except the financial one.

Being financially rich in my eyes is to have exploited people.

We just shared new years with a couple who are probably doing as much as anyone in Australia to spread the ideas of a self sustaining & resilient community both by leading by example & teaching. Tim got up & read a poem about their year in which he described himself as an urban peasant. Brilliant!

Anyway to answer your questions, our plans are to live off the land somewhere in NZ, & like you say, set an example for others to follow. To set up permaculture style gardens, grow heirloom plant & tree varieties & save their seed. We'd love to be a wwoof host, having been wwoofers before ourselves. Perhaps run workshops one day. I think I'd like to be part of some community build project, where a bunch of us get together & build people's houses, particularly people who aren't financially well off.
Jess is interested in Herbs, Cooking & Dancing as well as Gardening, she has some ideas along those lines she wants to follow.

With a combination of an Earthship and well set-up permaculture gardens i'm convinced that there will be very little labour & I'll be free to explore further ideas and share what I know. Guys like Masanobu Fukuoka and Sepp Holzer have led me to believe this is possible despite all the naysayers!

For a job I have been labouring for Ecojobs & DEC (DOC equiv.) planting trees & pulling weeds.

When are you looking to have people come on board?
When you talk about buying shares in a company that owns the property, does that mean they could be sold on if things didn't work out. I'm certainly not interested in capital gain or anything like that, and am interested in living in one spot for the rest of my life, but am wondering in case circumstances change & to answer the questions I'm sure to get about such a property.
Are you near Marton or which is the closest town, so I can learn about the area.

Cheers
Nathan

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9 January 2012 - 11:57am
(Reply to #10) #8
John R
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Accessible & Real

!SNAP! on everything you've said Nathan. The land is just out of Hunterville and we would welcome people at anytime. Sharing is simple, share-holding has a slightly higher bar. We are working on a share-holders agreement at the moment... so anyone on board soon will get to influence that document.

I grew up in a house where we grew all of our vegetables, grew & killed our own meat, made our own butter & cheese, etc - essentially the hippie myth/dream... except that the 'hippies' in this case were my two hard-working parents. Life without money was hard and I am under no illusions. OTOH I am prepared to be surprised by permaculture.

We propogate our own trees, mostly natives and timber trees at the moment... but my plan is to move into heritage fruit trees... I am also keen to plant wild ginseng under the pines we have... and I am keen on wwoofers and interns... and a million (well, at least a thousand) other plans...

There are a few indicative photos here http://rangitikei.org.nz/ but it is hard to get a handle on the place without visiting.

We looked at (among other places) Taumaranui, Coromandel, Nelson... and we are currently staying with friends at The Farm and there is a lot that is lovely about the far north... and it would be so easy to move in here... but I cannot wait to get back to Hunterville. It is lovely. It is peaceful. It is accessible. It is real.

So pleased to make contact with people who echo so clearly what we think. Hopefully, whatever you do, we'll stay in contact. :-)

Regards
John

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23 December 2011 - 9:07pm
#9
GOLDEN
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Joined: 23 Dec 2011
How fabulous! You have

How fabulous! You have inspired me to finally join this forum. I'm looking for somewhere closer to Wellington (family....*sigh*) but this may change in the near future so will keep you in mind.

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29 December 2011 - 11:34pm
(Reply to #5) #10
John R
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Joining in

Hi Golden,

We are all looking for something else... closer to family, more exotic, cheaper, with a river, close to a town, not so close to a town, by the beach, in the mountains, with fewer rules, with more structure, less developed, or where the hard work is already done,...

Not meaning to be critical - I understand totally. Do your family share your vision? What are you looking for? This is not meant to be persuasive. I am really interested in what other people are doing and what they are looking for.

The greatest thing (to me) about things like the Transition movement is the opportunity to connect with others in mutually re-enforcing ways.

Hope to hear from you again soon.

Regards
John

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1 January 2012 - 4:53am
#11
Diane Emerson
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Joined: 30 Dec 2008
Voluntary Poverty, voluntary homelessness

Dear John: Your offer sounds idyllic to me. I have been discovering the joy of few possessions for several years now - including the freedom and joy of being homeless by choice. I have a small fixed income, and with the money I save by being homeless, I can help others who are homeless not by choice. For the past 5 years I have traveled and volunteered. I have driven and bicycled through the area around Palmerston North and Feilding. When I decide to settle down again, and join in a community, the kind of place you are describing would be perfect for me. I expect a dog would be OK? One of the joys of staying in one place I am looking forward to is being able to live with a dog.

I will be back in New Zealand later in 2012, God willing, and may come and visit you.
Diane Emerson
www.diane-emerson.blogspot.com

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9 January 2012 - 12:16pm
(Reply to #9) #12
John R
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Looking forward to meeting you

We are also keen to get a dog... but lifestyle up till now has made it kind of difficult.

Keep in touch Diane, it will be great to meet you.

Regards
John

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6 January 2012 - 11:29pm
#13
adamshand
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Joined: 22 Dec 2011
Would love to come and visit

Hi John,

I'm just back home from a couple of years traveling, including some permaculture study and work. I'm very interested in finding some place to build a base from and a community of like minded people.

Thank you so much for your generous offer, I'm in the process of sorting out transportation, but I would love to come and visit you sometime.

I hope to talk to you soon!
Adam.

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9 January 2012 - 12:15pm
(Reply to #11) #14
John R
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Come on over

Hi Adam, we are out and about a fair bit over the next month but anytime after the 7th of Feb would be good. If you want to catch up earlier let me know and we'll see what we can work out :-)

In the meantime, how about dropping us an email telling us a little bit about yourself and what you're up to at the moment. Always great to meet people on the journey.

Regards
John

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28 July 2012 - 3:49pm
#15
Coolrio
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Joined: 23 Nov 2011
Eco sustainable living

Greetings John:

Me and my partner reside in Hawkes Bay at the moment. We are looking towards moving off grid and creating a sustainable lifestyle living off the land. We are looking at building an earthship to live in, growing veggies and fruits, raising poultry and a few animals for meat. Also interested in creating our own power via solar and hydro as well as looking into biogas for cooking. Personally love the landshare idea as it allows families to share this beautiful paradise we live in. Would be awesome to hear from you as to what ideas you have towards landshare.

Warm regards and have an outstanding day,

Riaz

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