Here's my idea...feedback wanted.

I am not a fan of the commune living concept for a bunch of reasons, most of which have been covered in this thread and many others on HT. As you have seen you will find many opinions on the subject.

Having said that, some thoughts on this area specifically. As Christiaan said, it would be a major uphill battle in this county and likely in most of Western WA. If you are really serious about making a go at this sort of thing you may want to consider a different state with a more commune friendly political and social environment in order to have any semblance of a chance of success. You might still be able to find some hippies in Western WA that would give indication that they would go in with you on this endeavor, but make darn sure they are wealthy hippies and have the ability to financially contribute to the building of the community. Otherwise you may well find that a bunch of people will tell you your idea is good and they want to be a part of it, yet when it comes time to put the money on the table suddenly they are nowhere to be found.

Another idea is to see if you could find a small group of sympathy hippies who are employed in well paying professions at local politically influential large corporations, like, say, Microsoft for example. You may be able to leverage these sympathy hippies to get in with the corporation and secure some funding for a venture like this. Kind of like a social experiment in communal living. It would provide MS with some media exposure, doing good for the community, getting back to the land, going green, and maybe a tax write-off etc. In addition they may be powerful enough to truly influence local governmental agencies. I'm not trying to be a smart alec here, just trying to think outside the box on how something like this could realistically be pulled off in this county/state.

You will find that in the same way that WA state goes as CA goes, Snoco goes as Kingco goes...

Kingco has strict regulations on property in terms what percentage of said property can be used for anything other than its natural state, and I would expect snoco to follow suit in some fashion eventually.

Both kingco and snoco are actively discouraging rural living of any type. They want to drive people back to living in the cities, and getting people out of their cars is a prime goal, all in the name of being green...

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/200...WS01/662218522

Mydnight,

I'm very interested in your idea. I've been reading up on gulching ever since reading Prometheus' post, and my lady and I definitely want to do something like this. I've also noticed you started posting at some of the other forums I too recently joined since making this discovery. I think we might be able to find some like-minded folks there too.

If you haven't seen this site yet Welcome to the Gulch, check it out. It has some good guidance on planning and organizing a sustainable, self-contained community.

I'm sending you a PM with my email so we can discuss more details.

That's neat that they were your neighbors. It's beautiful country up there. We used to go to the Garlic Festival, too and once got a tour of the sanctuary. Too bad they had to rip it down.

It's a nice thought, can't blame you for wanting to do something like that- but in reality, it's difficult to get a group of people together who seem to be on the same page at the same time- either that, or start on your own, and add a family that might work out one at a time-and make sure of the people you're adding, that they are as serious as you are about it, and willing to do what it takes-