Intentional Community Day 2

I'm writing from a truck stop in El Paso, but I shall be reporting on the events of yesterday.  We are going to try for membership at this intentional community.  I made some awesome friends there who I want to have as a part of my life.

They're picky about who they let in, but I will begin going through the membership ritual in April.  I first have to live in the community for a few months for them to make sure I'm not any trouble.  Then they can vote, and it must be a 2/3rd vote to get me and my mom in.

We haven't started anything yet because we still have to be in New Orleans in March to fly to Puerto Rico.  After that we'll be heading back to New Mexico, and should be here by April.  So...we'll see how it goes!  This might change from an RVing blog to a living in a commune blog.  @-@  Exciting?

Just now I got a call from Shirley (my new bff even if she doesn't know it yet) and she's getting thing in the works to smooth over my integration into the colony.  This is so nice I'm almost brought to tears.  They really want me!!

All of the homes I'm sharing with you through the pictures are either vacant, or the owner gave me permission.  Isn't this place cool?!

One woman named Fran gave me the grand tour of her EPIC set-up.  She was super-nice, and I hope I can get to know her better once I'm in (if I get in).  She is like the uber-version of what I picture myself becoming.  She uses the sunshine to filter her water, lives on solar, raises veggies with her own compost, and has some amazing projects and out buildings.  She showed me so much I hope I can convey it all in this post.

Here's the outside of her main house.

The inside is kind of like a really heavily padded yurt.

Look at her car!  I don't even...!

She has lots of little RV trailers here and there.  The pink boots are for a celebration at the 'Pink Store' in Mexico

She has a bus converted to an RV in her backyard.  I blocked out Shirley because I'm not sure if she was okay with me sharing her picture.

Look at this steering wheel!

It has a stove!

So kewl!

Here's Fran's outdoor bathtub!  The barrel will heat the water with the sun in the summer and in the winter she can light a fire under it.

What the heck is this?!  She had it in her back yard too.

Inside is a giant pit!!  I thought it might be a root cellar, but it's actually a place to go during the hot summers so she can live without AC.

She has quick hoops with chicken wire to grow stuff without the rabbits feasting.

She also grows stuff in trows recovered from abandoned pasture in the desert.  The bottoms are all rotted out, so they drain for her.

 I was amazed and grateful she was okay with pictures.  She's a really cool lady!  Not everyone lives like this, but some of the long term residents have amazing set-ups.  They embody what you'd expect from a colony like this.

That doesn't mean everyone is living that way.  There are mobile homes and modular homes with all the modern conveniences also.  We would live in our RV with an electrical connection.  We might buy a home for sale here, but might not.  We really like our RV.

It was exciting, incredible, rejuvenating, and hope inspiring.  It gave me a destination for my chaotic life.  I will be away for a while, but I know I'll be back.

Palomas Mexico

We're on the Mexican border right now so we dipped south to Palomas Mexico.  This was a much more pleasant side of Mexico than Algodones and San Jose where we've been before.

Palomas is on the border of the sleepy tiny New Mexican town of Columbus.  Not many people cross here, which means it's easy in and easy out.  You have a free parking lot to park to walk in.  There was no line mid-day when we headed back, and apparently there rarely is.

 In Algodones the street were congested with vendors, beggars, and wandering peddlers.  In Palomas you can walk around without being bothered too much.  It looked like a really nice place--a place I might be happy to live in.

We browsed the 'Pink Store' which is huge and gave us free Margaritas just for stopping in.  Then we went to a little cafe for lunch and had some mariachis come in to sing La Cucaracha.  @-@ 

After that we checked out a furniture store with lots of great deals.  The prices were in pesos which you can estimate by moving over a decimal point.  100 pesos = $1.  Not really, but close enough.  Lunch was 290 pesos but only cost us $20 American.  They take US money no problem, like many border towns.

I want to thank Shirley from the intentional community for being such a doll and taking us around.  ;o;  It would have been a wasted trip without her.

Day 1 At the Intentional Community

We're at an intentional community somewhere in New Mexico.  You're going to hate me, but I'm not going to tell you the name of the place or the location.  I haven't met my main contact yet, and I don't want to expose things about them until I get permission.  It's possible this may not happen...so, sorry.

They have an RV space with electric and water.  We're camping here while checking the place out.  Here's the bathroom assigned to the RV spot. 

Now, what I would really like to do is take pictures of all the amazing houses here.  Houses made out of bottles, mud, 'papercrete', a house that looks like a medieval castle, a pyramid, a house with a rocket in the yard, and this is just what I can see from the RV windows because I was asked not to wander around by myself.  As I sit here I hear chickens crowing, and one of the women to welcome me said she has ducks.  ;o;  I feel like I'm home!

Communities like these get lots of prospective members visiting.  I understand that there's not many people around to hold our hands and so forth.  I'm very lucky that a woman I emailed with was kind enough to show me her house and tell me more about things.  She has a 'normal' house, a modular home that she bought from the next town over. 

Behind her house is a half built foundation and an RV sewer, electric, and water.  This plot is available for a new member, and I thought MINE!!  The people who were building on it passed away.  (But we think we found something even better right across from her.)

So, in this community you go through a vetting process and if you're accepted you pay around $2,000 for a plot of land and put a dwelling on it.  My  mom and I started talking about building a house on the land we would get if we're accepted into the community.  I always knew we'd need something, because we need a place to take showers and do laundry.  My thoughts were a shed with a shower and laundry room in it.  We passed a place selling portable buildings in Deming.  These sheds were huge, and in our budget.  Now we started thinking about converting a shed into a tiny house.  Something 16'x32' would give us our own bedrooms, kitchen, living area and bath.  But now we're talking $$$.

The original plan was just to use our RV as our house since, you know, I still owe $65k on it. However we met someone who owns a really nice house in the community and wants to sell it.  It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, RV hookups in back, a screened garden, a greenhouse, two sheds, and fruit trees.  I'm in love, and the price is right.   My mom really wants it too.

I've gone over my reasons for wanting to settle in a commune/intentional community in another post.  This house would give us everything I want, already built for us.  It's just perfect!

We've decided to take a gamble and put a $500 deposit on it to buy the house if we're accepted into the community.  We might lose our money, however, if we do get accepted here and don't get the house we'll feel bad. 

So far I've made a good friend and hopefully future neighbor.  She said to the man selling the house that we were solid and she was going to vote for us to be accepted.  Another woman on the board told us we had her vote too.  This woman owns a theater in the small town attached to the community.  We talked about me getting involved with the theater.  I'd like to write and act in plays there.  @-@  I love to act!

I'm not doing anything just yet.  I still want to get to know people and see how this place works.  It seems pretty autonomous, with lots of volunteer and community activities.  I think I could be happy here.  At the very least I could get back to raising my own crops and chickens.  (Rabbits are out because wild rabbits are spreading some disease.)

We've only been here a few hours and right now I'm in my RV hoping for another escort to come and take some time with me.  This is a really cool place.  Maybe it can be home?


 

Indian Bread Rocks, Bowie Arizona

 

We left Catalina State Park yesterday morning and headed east to a place halfway to Deming New Mexico, which is our intermediate travel goal.  This is Indian Bread Rocks, a recreational area on BLM land care of http://freecampsites.net.

As we were driving here there were electronic bulliten boards over the highway that warned of severe weather through Monday.  That doesn't mean snow down here, but severe winds and rain.  It hadn't started yet as we were driving.

We made it 100 miles to the spot.  Passed a Border Patrol sentry at the dirt road leading in, and drove miles down dirt roads that I worried would soon become impassable.  We didn't have much choice at this point.  The storm was rolling in.  Severe winds are not what I want to be driving the RV in.  It would have been no picnic for my mom in the follow car behind me either.

We finally get to the GPS coordinates and it's a small parking lot next to a dirt pull out.  @_@  what the heck?  I thought this was a big BLM area where you could camp multiple RVs!  And in fairness, it might be, because I didn't go further down the road. I pulled into a little grassy patch and tried to make us as level as I could.  (We're not level at all.)

All night long the rain and wind pelted us.  The RV was freezing inside.  My mom is on blood thinners due to a rare form of lupus.  She gets cold much faster than me.  Add to that, it was our 'fast' day.  We weren't eating.  She insisted I turn on the RV heater.  I'm scared to waste propane when we might get stranded here, but I cranked it for a little while.  She was turning blue.  ;o;

The next morning we saw the road was still intact and the sun had peeked out.  I went out to take some pictures for the blog.  That's when I saw two other campers had joined us!  Apparently this is the right spot, or my being here made it the right spot.  Who knows.  (Sometimes I think I blaze a trail and others follow, but that's probably egotism.)

We're here until at least Monday, because I'm not driving in this weather.  It may end up longer depending on how bad these roads get or if there's a flash flood.  Wish me luck!

Catalina State Park, Tucson

We're in the 'Poor People's Section' of the Catalina State Park campground in Tucson.  They tried to sell us a $30 spot with hook-ups.  PAH!  What am I?  The Queen of England?!  They were happy to put us in the 'overflow' $15/night dirt section.  :)  A dump station, water spigot, shower, and trash dumpster is all we need.

I was actually hoping I'd get half off with my mom's Access Pass.  This park doesn't take it, but they didn't charge me for the car, so it's all good.

Weird European camper here.  It had healthy blond giants in it.

This is a beautiful well run park.  It's packed to the gills right now because it's concert season here.  We got a space just in time.

Today is our 'feast' day for our Feast or Famine diet.  I cooked chana dal (Indian lentil dish) and Chicken Tikki Masala on some drumsticks.  I'm also indulging in sweets.  ;o;  I luv this diet. 

Some of the other benefits to the diet are that our tanks are lasting longer and my freezer is still packed with food from our last shopping trip.  We aren't actually eating any more than usual--so it's great!

Alright--time to take our showers.  After this we have two more stops before getting to the Intentional Community I want to check out.