For various reasons, this article did not get published on the blog describing the property I refer to below. You can learn all about the property here: http://www.livingspringsloghouse.wordpress.com

The days of living separately are becoming something that an increasing number of people realize is not realistic or healthy. Although rugged individualism has seemed to be a positive trait, interdependence where people have a balance of having their own land that they have control over, yet still being able to live close to others with similar values and goals, is increasingly something that people are doing. Homesteading cooperatively with others of like mind has many advantages.

Because of this property’s layout and the already existing buildings, there is a great potential for a small cooperative to exist.

Co-Housing is one of the best models for people who want to use a tried and tested model of community living where people have the best of both worlds–their privacy and well as cooperation. You can learn more about co-housing here.

The reason why this property is ideal is for the following reasons:

The main house can serve as a common house since it is so large and has a spacious kitchen and dining room. The upstairs with the two very large bedrooms each with two walk in closets and a full bathroom could serve a couple with children. The downstairs bedrooms could serve as the guest rooms when people have guests.

The apartment below is spacious enough for a family.

The 40 x 60 foot insulated barn with it’s high ceiling could be made into apartments of various sizes and include a common room. During cold weather, this is so ideal for everything can happen inside. Two large bathroom with multi-showers and stalls could be built since there is running water and a septic tank already hooked up, as well as a spring feeding the water system. This would make the living areas very reasonable, so that a large number of people could live here easily including work exchange folks.

With a large number of people intensively working the land, people could have their own plots but could help each other with labor trading and sharing the cost and up keep of expensive machinery such as a bull dozer and back hoe. Agreements about how to utilize these things will be need to be made very clear, but such cooperation has happened in other situations and is doable. There can be land that everyone uses in order to raise animals as well.

There are at least two other building sites on the property if people want to build separate housing. One is very secluded, near a spring, and another is in a more open space.

A simpler arrangement is for a family to move onto the land. Clear agreements still need to be made with families,, of course. But because there is a large barn, two different places where there are RV hook ups, two building sites plus all the agricultural land, parents and their children could easily live here with room for the grandchildren to make their way in the world. A Mennonite family might find this ideal, since many of them traditionally do farm with the parents and children.