United States
Favourited 42 times
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10/06/2022
We are an intentional community starting up in SW Michigan, 15 min from Lake Michigan and dozens of others as well as Van Buren State Park. Our goal is to become a self-sustainable community with a communal garden, education, music studio, and eventually we would like to host public workshops as well as local and traveling musical guests.
The land has been maintained for over a decade using permaculture techniques, and is filled with food trails that have blackberries, raspberries, elderberries, medicinal and culinary herbs, as well as 200 blueberry bushes.
So far we have one family and one single member living on site, and another single member on the way, and our eventual goal is to build sustainable (preferably earthen) homes on site to house around 10 families/units. The family has one two and a half year old and one baby on the way in June, so children are welcome and encouraged if you don't mind all fitting in the tiny home!
We have omnivores as well as vegans living here so we can accommodate either, and we have egg laying chickens and two ducks as well as a "rabitat" where we raise very happy colony style meat rabbits. We supplement with grass fed local beef and have a milk share with an Amish family for fresh raw cows milk weekly.
Help with Eco Projects
Teaching
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Organic farming, permaculture, herbalism, foraging, animal husbandry, butchering and working with rabbit fur, food preservation- dehydrating, canning, fermentation, bread making, sourdough, voice and piano lessons
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
We are looking for volunteers to help us with starting up our garden (it's our first year,) and we hope to have an organic annual garden out front, a medicinal herb garden, along with starting some food forests on the property. We will also need help from volunteers harvesting blueberries when they are in season!
We have one two year old on site and a baby on the way, so we would love help with teaching/arts & crafts/watching the older child while under supervision from other community members.
We make our own preventative medicines, make skin products and soap, cook from scratch, bake bread, ferment, etc so we would also appreciate any help with that.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Sign language (American): Beginner
French: Beginner
This host offers a language exchange
I took six years of French in high school and college and spent time in France and was almost fluent, but over the last decade I have lost a lot of it! I love learning languages and tried to pick up ASL when having a baby and used it to begin teaching her language. I am interested in learning new languages and teaching what I know!
A tiny home with a lofted bed, picture included in photos section, food provided
The land is 20 acres, and about a third of it is beautiful woods with walking trails. About 15 min away are numerous beaches and parks with hiking trails. We are 10-15 min away from South Haven, a cute beach tourist town in the summer with lots of little shops and beach activities. We are 30 min from Kalamazoo, a larger college city, an hour away from Grand Rapids- a very large city, and about two hours from Chicago. Bangor (where we are located) is an adorable little farm town as well.
We share a car and a truck in the community, if you want to go off site we can give a ride on our off hours.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Any size van or camper, we have 20 acres of space with many campsites
As long as they have no history of aggression and are known to be good with small children, dogs and cats
More than two
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
