From 2006 through 2015 the Full Circle Farms intentional community where I live was pretty quiet. With three households living on the 100 acres, we saw each other pretty regularly, but not necessarily daily. As more women have decided to buy, build and live here, we have more neighbors and a lot more fun.
I say intentional community because that was the original idea and continues to be our intention. But we have not gone the route of so much community that we have weekly meetings or a communal kitchen. Each household owns 5-10 acres and may do their own gardening. We share tools and tractor and help each other with tasks that are too big for one person. We care for each others pets when someone is out of town and call when we go shopping to see if there is an urgent need from another.
Over the past 18 months we have grown to 7 households and added one house plus many animals and taken on the pasturing of a flock of sheep belonging to a neighbor down the road. Activity and noise have increased. Pigs and chickens add to the general clamor and gratefully receive many leftover foods. Rabbits nibble the grass from their “tractor”. Bees have swarmed several times from their hives eliciting a general text call for help.
The sheep numbers have swelled with the birth of about 30 new lambs in May. They travel behind movable fences to graze all the pasture land we see from our windows. Sometimes, they escape the fence and may turn up by the steps to my porch with Zoe, the donkey and protector of the sheep, braying gleefully to me as I open the front door. Fortunately, the grass is greener usually keeps them close by so finding them is seldom a chore. The herd instinct and maternal/lamb attachment make it easy to direct them back into a secure area with the sound of feed in a bucket for incentive.
We join in various permutations for informal meals with our various food preferences finding acceptance by all. We share garden largess and communal blueberry bushes. We look out for the entire pack of dogs as they do their doggy things, bringing home bits of deer carcass or long dead squirrels. Currently, all 5 dogs get along and 7 cats stay close to their respective homes.
What makes this fun is that we use our varied personalities to advantage, as we provide tangible and indirect service to each other. We all get along without much drama. My daughter and her wife have the only children living here. Some work in outside occupations, some work here at home and several of us, are retired. Living as I do in the center of the property, I can monitor the comings and goings of most of the neighbors, as well as the dog that escapes over the fence for a trip to the pond. We challenge each other to get up early and run or to go to the gym. We remind each other to follow through on plans voiced. And they respect my daily nap-time. Having a variety of ages and abilities living in such close proximity makes the idea of aging in place possible.
I know we have something very special here and I think we all appreciate the love and respect we share for each other. While the world worries us with it’s various horrors, we strive to preserve something worthwhile for those within our reach.
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