We are looking for people who are willing and able to relocate with the idea of developing an extended non-Amish community in close association with the Amish. Our primary search at this time is for a capable couple. We have housing available for an additional couple (November 2009)(now til filled): an apartment,bath,shared kitchen. We can provide housing, light, wood heat, water, food, and access to growing more food, training, and experience in all aspects of homesteading as reflected in this listing—in return for help with the labor of the homestead. Long term or intern.

There are over 1000 openhearted Amish in our area, with farms, a general store, harness shops, bakeries, wood shops, buggy shop, metal shops, and schools. People who are actively making life decisions with peak oil, peak everything, economic depression, climate change, and potential societal collapse in mind have much to offer to these good neighbors, and much to learn from them.

We are about an hour north of Madison, Wisconsin. Our initial location is a “self-sufficient-ish” homestead: a 100-acre farm, some hand tools, horse equipment and buildings, trained Belgian work horses, milk goats, rabbits, chickens, sheep, rabbits, big dogs, gravity-flow water, root cellar, garden, sorghum press, grain and beans, and fruit and nut trees. We are also overcommitted, cash poor, short on experience, and have too few hands for the work and security of the homestead if it had to try to stand alone. We are looking to learn, teach, and share ideas and resources with people who understand that our world is now changing very fast. We hope to form an organized mutual-support community, modeled after our Amish neighbors. We are nonjudgmental, mature, thinking people; we are not flakes, cultists, or con-artists. We are workers, we are not theorists. We do not smoke, drink much, or tolerate drugs. We eat meat, butcher, and hunt. We do not care about race, gender, age, sexual preference, religion preference, or absence of religion, etc. We value people as they demonstrate their personal and collective worth and ethics. We are focused on a solid sustainable homestead and community based on hard work, honesty, stewardship, local food and craft production, and respect between people, creatures, and the planet.

Survival is not enough; we intend to thrive. If you think we may have mutual interests and complementary needs, we would like to talk by email, IM, or telephone, and then plan a meet-up ASAP.