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New farm, Anarchist Conference anyone?

Discussion in 'Anarchism and radical activism' started by Danarchy, Jun 16, 2013.

  1. Danarchy

    Danarchy Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Jan 16, 2012
     Canada
    I have been off this site for awhile due to shutting down the previous project I posted about. It was a disappointment :ecouteurs: to say the least but I still feel the idea was sound, a worker farm with the 'means of production' collectively owned by the workers and the products of labour sold at the cost of production. I have now relocated to Nova Scotia and we have started a new farm. At the current time the farm in operated by my family and one other who will probably be moving here in the next couple of months. I have had a dream about having an anarchist space for most of my life, frustrated by many who choose to do little and complain a lot I gave into their nay saying for along time.

    The new farm is around 9 acres of mixed scrub and ash tree, the property lines around here are based on historic fence lines rather than "legal survey" so the total acreage is debatable. Most of the scrub is being cleared away with the majority of the ash, some being 36" around are being left or copiced for firewood. This spring we cleared around an acre for crops, put up a greenhouse and have started planting a food forest with cultivated nuts and berries. For this year we have also planted at a neighbour's property who has allowed us use of 2 acres free of charge provided we improve the land, with continued use of the land being possible.

    I hope to organize an anarchist conference here in the future that I hope to become an annual even but I still have to construct facilities to support a large group (solar shower, pit toilets, camping spaces, etc.) Anyone interested in working on a conference please let me know, I will continue posting regarding the farm project until you all tell me to shut up :D and hopefully get around to working on the organizing/ administrative crap of a conference in the winter. Anyone with a desire to organize/ attend a conference please contact.
     

  2. Rebellious twit

    Rebellious twit Experienced Member Experienced member


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    Jul 21, 2012
     
    This sounds cool making your own collectivist anarchist society, cool project and good luck and keep us updated on future events please :thumbsup:
     
  3. punkmar77

    punkmar77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    Welcome back Dan, have been waiting to hear from you...sounds like this new location is very promising, I would be honored to attend or help organize an event or summit sometime in the next few years, post lots of pics and keep us updated, I always find your posts to be among the best this site has to offer....un abrazo libertario muy fuerte para ti y tu familia.
     
  4. Danarchy

    Danarchy Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Jan 16, 2012
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    The property was crazy cheap, 40k and hadn't been lived in for around 3 years. I am constantly awed by the house. It's way too big for us and a bit of a labyrinth. Now I know some have reservations/ beliefs against "owning" property. I am open to debate it on another thread, we do not feel we "own" the property, we are stewards of a fair allotment of land for one family. Between 8-10 acres is a suitable land size for a sustainable small lot farm with enough of a woodlot to ensure firewood. We chose "ownership" to give us a level of security and the maximum of control over the property. Under our municipal regulations we can pretty much do what we want without permits and they allow us to hold a convention without permits provided we do not charge for the event or advertise it (similar regulations to inviting friends and family gathering). Anyway...

    The house
    [​IMG]
    Even in this picture it is hard to grasp the size of the house. I am trading the truck in front of the house for a Japanese (left hand drive) mini truck (50 mpg diesel) but I paid 2k less for the truck in 2004 than I did the whole property. Wish I knew then, I would have moved to Nova Scotia sooner. The house consists of (from Right to Left) an unfinished workshop space with second floor attic(double door, first door), about 20ft X 40ft, Pantry storage (second door, which is coming out and being walled off), Kitchen (third door, which I had to build, new plumbing, cupboards, counters and appliances) then the original house with 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room and library, finally you can barely see the "in-law" suite addition with separate kitchen, living room and two bedrooms. The house was abandoned for about 3 years, most of the copper plumbing had been removed, no pump, not water heater, furnace worked but someone stole the fuel oil, the foundation is collapsing, 1/2 the sill is rotten, basically it is a lot of work to keep it from falling down in the next 10 years. The basement has a 8ft ceiling under the original house and in-law suite with rock and mortar walls and gravel floor. Again, it is WAY more house than we need but it was bought with the intention of being a community, cultural house.

    Field 1 before
    [​IMG]

    Field 1 after with Greenhouse
    [​IMG]

    Pictures were taken from different directions before is looking SE towards the main road, the barn isn't on our property but I am arranging with the owner to clean it for them (free manure) and use their unloading space for extra parking. The after picture is facing NE, not the best slope for veggies but the greenhouse still gets 8 hours direct sun. There is one area in the field that I haven't been able to cultivate because of a massive rock I haven't been able to move; not by hand, tractor or back hoe so were going to bake it under plastic for a year then plant rhubarb, yum.

    Field 2 before
    [​IMG]

    Field 2 After with raised beds and foot bridge to field 3
    [​IMG]

    There is a shallow brook on the right hand side of the field. We weren't planning on raised bed in this area until we got the end of a tropical storm and the brook burst it's banks. The flooding washed out about 3/4 of the cultivated area with the soil running into a fire pond just beyond the tree line. I'll recover most of the soil when I clean out the pond but I would rather not do that more than once so areas that a facing erosion are being addressed.

    More to come as I get stuff done and time to post.
     
  5. Danarchy

    Danarchy Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Jan 16, 2012
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    I realised that the before and after pictures were taken in different seasons, makes things look a lot nicer comparatively, but unfair. The uncultivated/ woodlot areas are beautiful in the way nature has built them, the areas I have developed are really just tidy and functional for human use. Not to demean my work but recognize the difference in perspective.
     
  6. punkmar77

    punkmar77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    Thanks Dan, you've really been putting in work!
     
  7. DownwithBigbrother666

    DownwithBigbrother666 Active Member Forum Member


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    Jun 12, 2013
     
    Awesome. Good luck.. Hell. I may even might join ya. as soon as i can get out of my own shitty state
     
  8. Kobac

    Kobac Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    Danarchy you have beautiful farm there.Im glad that you are doing well and keep up the good work.Looking forward for new pics.
     
  9. IamMe

    IamMe Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Dec 29, 2012
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    WOW you lucky lucky person i dream of living in a place like this where i can be free. im stuck in a battry caged society cramped, frustrated and trapped.

    have you heared off WWOOFing (world wide opertunity on organic farms) its a voulenterie scheme where people can go work on small farms in retern of food and housing. this is the only way i see a way out of the city at the moment and im gunna do it in september, i cant wait.

    Good Luck i hope you have good crops all year round
     
  10. Danarchy

    Danarchy Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Jan 16, 2012
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    We did host WWOOF'ers at the last farm and had been for about 7 or 8 years. I really enjoyed the program, more as a cultural exchange than 'free labour'. Most of our WWOOF'ers came from Asia to work on conversational English. They were amazing, arriving with VERY limited skills then leaving in 2-3 weeks almost fluent. We would rarely see them in the evening as they were constantly studying. Unfortunately most came from affluent families and knew extremely little about farming or the rural populations in their home countries. Last year we had several German's and I learn a lot about the land protection/ farm programs in Germany. Things I learned from the Germans was that 'ownership' of agricultural land was restricted to actual farmers who held a trades qualifications, farming was considered a high qualification trade and there is a land succession program that links senior farmers with young farmers; the young take care of the seniors as the land/ farm is transitioned to the young who receive ownership when the senior farmer becomes incapacitated or dies. The last program in particular intrigued me when one considers the cost of land in most 'developed' countries.

    Even though we have opted not to join the WWOOF program, I strongly encourage everyone who is interested in travel and willing to trade labour for room and board to explore the WWOOF options in the country the wish to visit. I also caution people to do a bit of research though, two of our workers last year wanted to WWOOF in Brazil and heard of a great place only to find out that they actually had to PAY to stay there and work. Seemed bizarre. Another WWOOF'er left our farm and a couple of days later with a sad tale about a couple of real estate agents that wanted WWOOF'er to landscape and clean up their land for a house flip. The Canadian WWOOF didn't care but registered the complaint on their on line database. I hear the British system is a quite a bit more organized.

    As for being trapped, my partner was a traveller living in a horse drawn cart on park ups but many others lived in converted vans. She built her own Yurt at a place called Kings hill, near Glastonbury made almost exclusively out of crap left behind at the Glastonbury fest (including solar panels and battery packs, some hippies just can't throw out enough) Seems to me it could be a good way to live in Britain. I lived in a cargo van for about 6 years in the 90's working seasonal jobs and spending most of my summers travelling Canada and the US but gas and insurance were a lot cheaper. Not to mention border security being far less intense.

    If you ever get across the pond, your welcome to visit.
     
  11. Danarchy

    Danarchy Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Jan 16, 2012
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    More pictures
    [​IMG]

    Second tier of the hazel grove cleared and graded. Tons of choke cherry were overgrowing the area behind the house. Intermixed with their roots were several 24 -48" boulders weighing 4-500 lbs. We carefully pulled out the cherries, and dug out the roots with a backhoe on the tractor trying not to hit the Ash roots growing 2-4 inches below the cherry roots. Running the tractor in an out of the area with the roots and boulders caused a lot of compaction on our heavy clay soil.

    [​IMG]

    Same space with the addition of 8-10" of topsoil from our humanure composting area. (We removed the 'flush' toilets from the house and installed a temporary bucket compost toilet; temporary until I can get some woodworking done in the winter.) Before adding the topsoil we scraped the compacted are with the teeth on the hoe to give more rooting room. I would guess the ash tree in the background it 150- 200 years old. We'll be hanging a swing bench made from the choke cherries poles from it next year (Again, no time for crafts or woodwork). In the foreground is tier 3 of the hazel grove ready for clean up but I need to bring in boulders to complete the second tier. 22 Hazels fit in this space and I brought 150 or so that I grew from seed last year.

    [​IMG]

    I've been picking away at this boulder wall for a couple of weeks as I excavate rocks from areas I am working on or have time to bring them up from a rock pile one the property. A few of the rock had to dragged and pushed into place as the loader couldn't lift them. It has a 600 lb weight rating, so I would guess a few of the boulders are 8-900 lbs. Once the wall is complete we're planting blackberries to grow down over the rocks and gooseberries. We were thinking hearty kiwi but they grow so fast they need to be pruned three time per year. Don't think I would have time for that.
     
  12. AndrewHaynes

    AndrewHaynes New Member New Member


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    Jan 7, 2014
     
    Yes the building lacks some facilities but still it is a nice place to conduct conference..Have you conducted the conference?
     
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