Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

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tmac
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Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by tmac »

When I first started visiting this forum almost three years ago, it was mostly for preparedness and self-sufficiency discussions, etc. I realize that the active participants in those types of discussions have turned over several times since then, but thought I would pass along this information for anyone who might be interested.

Last week I was visiting family in Oklahoma and Texas for Thanksgiving. While we were there, we decided the visit the Homestead Heritage Fair in Elm Mott, Texas. I had some awareness of the Homestead Heritage group based on other readings, etc., and things I had heard from others. They have a fairly substantial Christian "intentional community" focusing on genuine self-sufficiency, essential education and fundamental homesteading skills. Based on our visit, I was very impressed with both the people we met and with their operation. They have some true craftsmen & women in their number, and in addition to production, have developed a very effective marketing program for their products, etc. They also have an education program, with regular classes in a number of different self-sufficiency and homesteading skills.

If anyone is interested in that sort of thing, I would highly recommend Homestead Heritage both for a visit, or for the essential education their offer through their classes, etc.

After our visit there, I also have a renewed interest in "intentional communities." Anyone else interested in discussing that subject?

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dennis
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by dennis »

Very interested. Tell me more!

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NoGreaterLove
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by NoGreaterLove »

tmac wrote:When I first started visiting this forum almost three years ago, it was mostly for preparedness and self-sufficiency discussions, etc. I realize that the active participants in those types of discussions have turned over several times since then, but thought I would pass along this information for anyone who might be interested.

Last week I was visiting family in Oklahoma and Texas for Thanksgiving. While we were there, we decided the visit the Homestead Heritage Fair in Elm Mott, Texas. I had some awareness of the Homestead Heritage group based on other readings, etc., and things I had heard from others. They have a fairly substantial Christian "intentional community" focusing on genuine self-sufficiency, essential education and fundamental homesteading skills. Based on our visit, I was very impressed with both the people we met and with their operation. They have some true craftsmen & women in their number, and in addition to production, have developed a very effective marketing program for their products, etc. They also have an education program, with regular classes in a number of different self-sufficiency and homesteading skills.

If anyone is interested in that sort of thing, I would highly recommend Homestead Heritage both for a visit, or for the essential education their offer through their classes, etc.

After our visit there, I also have a renewed interest in "intentional communities." Anyone else interested in discussing that subject?

Being from Oklahoma myself, I would be interested in what ward they are from?

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Jason
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by Jason »

NoGreaterLove wrote:
tmac wrote:When I first started visiting this forum almost three years ago, it was mostly for preparedness and self-sufficiency discussions, etc. I realize that the active participants in those types of discussions have turned over several times since then, but thought I would pass along this information for anyone who might be interested.

Last week I was visiting family in Oklahoma and Texas for Thanksgiving. While we were there, we decided the visit the Homestead Heritage Fair in Elm Mott, Texas. I had some awareness of the Homestead Heritage group based on other readings, etc., and things I had heard from others. They have a fairly substantial Christian "intentional community" focusing on genuine self-sufficiency, essential education and fundamental homesteading skills. Based on our visit, I was very impressed with both the people we met and with their operation. They have some true craftsmen & women in their number, and in addition to production, have developed a very effective marketing program for their products, etc. They also have an education program, with regular classes in a number of different self-sufficiency and homesteading skills.

If anyone is interested in that sort of thing, I would highly recommend Homestead Heritage both for a visit, or for the essential education their offer through their classes, etc.

After our visit there, I also have a renewed interest in "intentional communities." Anyone else interested in discussing that subject?

Being from Oklahoma myself, I would be interested in what ward they are from?
Not LDS....

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tmac
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by tmac »

I have never seen an LDS group be able to do what these people have done. They appear to be doing what we LDS only talk about doing.

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Songbird
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by Songbird »

tmac wrote:I have never seen an LDS group be able to do what these people have done. They appear to be doing what we LDS only talk about doing.
Can you post a website please?

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dennis
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by dennis »

The Amish have taken over the manufacture of the Mormon invention of the Handcart. The handcarts we used in the trecks in Argentina Came from the Amish. When it comes to manufactured products they are hard to beat. Same can be said of their produce. I think non Mormons do more family history. Several native american tribes have impressive organizations

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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by Scarecrow »

Is this the group you're referrign to? http://www.homesteadcraftfair.com/index.html

It looks pretty neat. Wish we had something like that here in the UT.

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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by Rob »

Looks like this is the site: http://www.homesteadheritage.com

I had a buddy go down there last spring for a class on homesteading. He said that, now that he sees what all it entails, it's too late to start from scratch. It's time to find a community that already has something in place. I'm not sure that's entirely true across the board, but I see his point. I believe he found a community in Missouri.

I was really wanting to go to their woodworking school: http://www.homesteadheritage-woodworking.com

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tmac
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by tmac »

Those are a couple of their websites. Here are some others:

http://www.homesteadheritage.com/
http://www.sustainlife.org/
http://www.cfeeschool.com/
http://www.heritageministries.net

I should also mention that they have a phenomenal music program. The afternoon we were there, they put on a little matinee concert, and were going to be doing a bigger one that evening. In the matinee program they had four different choirs sing, in the following age groups, 6-9, 10-14, 15-18, and 19 and up (adults). Their youngest kids could blow away any primary group I’ve ever heard, and each of their other choirs was absolutely amazing, along with full accompaniment, etc. In their adult choir, they had some women with pipes that could compete with some of the best black gospel singers I've ever heard. They do a real interesting mix of music. It was a lot of fun. From what I understand, they also have a full orchestra, etc., too.

And, a website for that:

http://www.heritageministriesmusic.com

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dennis
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Post by dennis »

What makes it successful? What is the basis of the organization?

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tmac
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

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And I should probably also say this -- given all the time-line discussions one sees on this board, I think it's fair to say that it would be easy to think that it's too late in the game to start from scratch, and get something akin to what Homestead Heritage has going from scratch, and have it up and running in time to do the intended good when it will really be needed. They have been working at it for 20 years. But I am absolutely amazed at what they have been able to accomplish in 20 years.

The other interested thing about it is that I started down this path about 10 years ago. Although we have done a lot, compared to what they have done and been able to accomplish by working so closely together, what we have done is a drop in the bucket. The most important point is, there is never a better time to start than today.

Whether a person attempted to start from scratch, or joined another community, though, it would make a lot of sense to study a group that has done it successfully. The reason that many franchise businesses (think Wendy's, Burger King, etc., etc. ) have so much higher success rate than other start up businesses, is because someone has done all the pioneering and gotten all the bugs out of a business structure/model.

I'm sure that the same thing would apply to something like this. From what I've seen (and I've been around quite a bit, and seen a fair number of Amish & Mennonite communities, etc.), Homestead Heritage seems to have a foot in both worlds, and a very successful model.

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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by Jason »

tmac wrote:And I should probably also say this -- given all the time-line discussions one sees on this board, I think it's fair to say that it would be easy to think that it's too late in the game to start from scratch, and get something akin to what Homestead Heritage has going from scratch, and have it up and running in time to do the intended good when it will really be needed. They have been working at it for 20 years. But I am absolutely amazed at what they have been able to accomplish in 20 years.

The other interested thing about it is that I started down this path about 10 years ago. Although we have done a lot, compared to what they have done and been able to accomplish by working so closely together, what we have done is a drop in the bucket. The most important point is, there is never a better time to start than today.

Whether a person attempted to start from scratch, or joined another community, though, it would make a lot of sense to study a group that has done it successfully. The reason that many franchise businesses (think Wendy's, Burger King, etc., etc. ) have so much higher success rate than other start up businesses, is because someone has done all the pioneering and gotten all the bugs out of a business structure/model.

I'm sure that the same thing would apply to something like this. From what I've seen (and I've been around quite a bit, and seen a fair number of Amish & Mennonite communities, etc.), Homestead Heritage seems to have a foot in both worlds, and a very successful model.
How do they achieve unity?

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tmac
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What makes it successful? What is the basis of the organization?
I wish I knew more about the structure -- including the capital structure. I'm sure a person would have to develop a relationship with them to figure all that out, but I know a person with a publication who has developed a relationship with them and figured a lot of that out. It is a religious organization, but obviously there's a lot more to it. One the things that is so interesting about this group is their outreach programs. They are more than willing to help others figure out what they have done. They loaded 150 of their people in buses and drove them 500 miles to help the publication I know (where I first became aware of them) put on a major community heritage food festival. They put on a one-day workshop just for the publication's subscribers the day before). They publisher said that none of it could have happened without their help, and after experiencing their own event (the Thanksgiving Weekend Homestead Heritage Fair), I could definitely see that they know how to put on events. You can go there any time of year (except Sundays and some holidays) and visit their shops and tour their village, etc. And they have very active, hands-on classes through-out the year, but they have two main events each year -- their Thanksgiving Fair, and a Labor Day weekend Sorghum Syrup (Molasses) Festival.

For anyone interested in this stuff, this is a group definitely worth studying and getting to know.

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tmac
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

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How do they achieve unity?
Again, I don't know everything about them, but obviously they have a whole lot more common vision than most LDS. I think they must have a fairly clear social contract. The concept behind an intentional community is that it doesn't just happen by accident. The concept is that it will have a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker, etc., and everything else needed to work together and be self-sufficient and self-sustaining, etc. According to the Wikipedia definition of an intentional community, they take the concept of teamwork a whole lot more seriously. This particular group has Annabaptist (like Amish and Mennonite) elements, but not to the same extremes in some ways. They seem to attempt to take the best from both worlds. But obviously, they are very, very savvy marketers and business people. I don't know everything about their social structure, etc., but they seem to have a very sound business and financial model.

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Jason
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by Jason »

tmac wrote:
How do they achieve unity?
Again, I don't know everything about them, but obviously they have a whole lot more common vision than most LDS. I think they must have a fairly clear social contract. The concept behind an intentional community is that it doesn't just happen by accident. The concept is that it will have a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker, etc., and everything else needed to work together and be self-sufficient and self-sustaining, etc. According to the Wikipedia definition of an intentional community, they take the concept of teamwork a whole lot more seriously. This particular group has Annabaptist (like Amish and Mennonite) elements, but not to the same extremes in some ways. They seem to attempt to take the best from both worlds. But obviously, they are very, very savvy marketers and business people. I don't know everything about their social structure, etc., but they seem to have a very sound business and financial model.
Yes the business aspects make sense.....if they didn't have a very solid financial/business structure....I don't think they would survive very long.

I am very curious about the social contract aspect. Must be some clear reward structure such that they can bypass or survive the occasional personality conflict (hurt feelings, divorce, etc.) that are bound to occur.

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tmac
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Yes, they must have a very clear structure, because, as you say, those sorts of things will inevitably happen. So for a group to hang together for that long, and be successful, obviously they need to be both financially successful, and have a resilient social structure. I have looked into what they've got going enough now to know that they have had defectors (what group like that hasn't?), but they seem to be growing and progressing steadily. Unlike the Amish and Mennonites, who grow almost entirely from within, I am under the impression that this group also grows from in-migration, without even really trying. They just do what they do, reach out to others with education, etc., and people are impressed and want to figure out how to be part of what they are doing. The good thing, from what I see, is that they would be more than willing to help someone else, or another group, figure out how to do the same thing. I'm under the impression that they are pretty open about what they do, and how and why they do it. I did pick up one book about what they believe, as well as a coffee-table type picture book, but they also have an assortment of other literature, as well as some videos on their website(s).

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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by dennis »

tmac, this has certianly been inspiring. In my opinion , this type of sharing, helping, and productive, community is what will get us through difficult times, and eventually prepare us to live in Zion. You inspired me to learn more, so I googled successful co-ops and the the light came on . Millions of people are involved in cooperative ventures across the world. The largest producer and marketer of food and dairy products in the world is a co-op in India. success has not only been emulated in India but serves as a model for rest of the World. Dairy Cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 2.8 million village milk producers with millions of consumers in India and abroad through a cooperative system that includes 13,141 Village Dairy Cooperative Societies (VDCS) at the village level, affiliated to 13 District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Unions These cooperatives collect on an average 7.5 million litres of milk per day from their producer members, more than 70% of whom are small, marginal farmers and landless labourers and include a sizeable population of tribal folk and people belonging to the scheduled castes. It is an institution created by the milk producers themselves to primarily safeguard their interest economically, socially as well as democratically. Business houses create profit in order to distribute it to the shareholders. In the case of GCMMF the surplus is ploughed back to farmers through the District Unions as well as the village societies. This circulation of capital with value addition within the structure not only benefits the final beneficiary – the farmer – but eventually contributes to the development of the village community. This is the most significant contribution the Amul Model cooperatives has made in building the Nation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amul
Cooperatives are based on the cooperative values of "self-help, self-responsibility, democracy and equality, equity and solidarity" and the seven cooperative principles.

Voluntary and Open Membership
Democratic Member Control
Member Economic Participation
Autonomy and Independence
Education, Training and Information
Cooperation among Cooperatives
Concern for Community[13]
In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. Such legal entities have a range of unique social characteristics
Cooperatives may be generally classified as either consumer cooperatives or producer cooperatives.
http://news.yourolivebranch.org/2010/10 ... ee-market/
Fixing The Free Market has more info.

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tmac
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Post by tmac »

What is interesting about all that is that when Utah was settled and in the early days there were many, many such co-ops among the pioneers. ZCMI was one of the biggest and longest lasting. Co-ops were the business and economic backbone of Utah. Over time, though, co-ops and cooperative efforts have gone the way of the world in the LDS Church and among its members. Frankly, it is very disconcerting to me. Unlike other groups that really foster self-sufficiency, I fear that many members of the Church are largely dependent, have relatively little cooperative spirit, and when the time comes will have no choice but to attempt to depend on the Church and/or government. While this is obviously a personal choice, when compared to some other groups, like Homestead Heritage, obviously, we LDS have not been as reticent about fully embracing the world, and just hoping for the best.

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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by BroJones »

Just found this thread - I'm very interested actually in the concept of a "little Zion..."
Especially with gospel and other discussions - inviting and having the Spirit present, singing and gardening together. With children and grand-children close by and finally approaching, "no poor among them" with a reliance on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith (Zion).

It seems so far off, though - how can we pull together? Is there an intentional community among LDS anywhere? perhaps based on family plus close friends, perhaps a co-op model?
Old Nauvoo, or even better, 4 Nephi living?

Silver
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by Silver »

Thanks for bumping this thread, Dr. Jones. It's the first time for me to see it, too. I see that the original poster hasn't been on LDSFF for over a year.

The links provided still worked and the organization mentioned here is having another Homestead Fair over the Thanksgiving Weekend 2017 in Waco, Texas. (Yes, that's where the Branch Davidians were murdered by Janet Reno and Eric Holder.) Not too far from where I live...anybody wanna meet up assuming the end of the world doesn't happen before then?

Dr. Jones, I'm currently reading Richard Bushman's Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. On pages 219-222, Bushman describes the prophet's plans for cities. Joseph want them to stay small and to each become a City of Zion with a public square in the center of town and a temple in the square. Farmers would live in town (because the towns were small enough to get to the farms immediately). Interesting reading.

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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by Rose Garden »

BroJones wrote: May 9th, 2017, 3:30 am Just found this thread - I'm very interested actually in the concept of a "little Zion..."
Especially with gospel and other discussions - inviting and having the Spirit present, singing and gardening together. With children and grand-children close by and finally approaching, "no poor among them" with a reliance on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith (Zion).

It seems so far off, though - how can we pull together? Is there an intentional community among LDS anywhere? perhaps based on family plus close friends, perhaps a co-op model?
Old Nauvoo, or even better, 4 Nephi living?
There have been many little groups who have done something like this. Many are epic failures. Some are successes to some extent.

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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by BTH&T »

Meili wrote: May 9th, 2017, 6:18 pm
BroJones wrote: May 9th, 2017, 3:30 am Just found this thread - I'm very interested actually in the concept of a "little Zion..."
Especially with gospel and other discussions - inviting and having the Spirit present, singing and gardening together. With children and grand-children close by and finally approaching, "no poor among them" with a reliance on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith (Zion).

It seems so far off, though - how can we pull together? Is there an intentional community among LDS anywhere? perhaps based on family plus close friends, perhaps a co-op model?
Old Nauvoo, or even better, 4 Nephi living?
There have been many little groups who have done something like this. Many are epic failures. Some are successes to some extent.
any recent ones to check out?

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BroJones
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by BroJones »

Thanks for the replies.
I think it was Joseph who said that the Saints "yearn for Zion"... How long, O Lord?

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Rose Garden
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Re: Homestead Heritage & Intentional Communities

Post by Rose Garden »

BTH&T wrote: May 9th, 2017, 6:23 pm
Meili wrote: May 9th, 2017, 6:18 pm
BroJones wrote: May 9th, 2017, 3:30 am Just found this thread - I'm very interested actually in the concept of a "little Zion..."
Especially with gospel and other discussions - inviting and having the Spirit present, singing and gardening together. With children and grand-children close by and finally approaching, "no poor among them" with a reliance on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith (Zion).

It seems so far off, though - how can we pull together? Is there an intentional community among LDS anywhere? perhaps based on family plus close friends, perhaps a co-op model?
Old Nauvoo, or even better, 4 Nephi living?
There have been many little groups who have done something like this. Many are epic failures. Some are successes to some extent.
any recent ones to check out?
The only one that I know if that's functioning right now is the group living at "the rock" which is located near Moab. They aren't totally "all things in common" but their situation makes mutual cooperation pretty much necessary. They are a collection of various "Mormon" faiths, some mainstream LDS, some polygamous, some independent. I believe they make their situation work because they aren't strictly all things common, which is where people get tripped up. They have a "charity house" built for those in need of a place to live. All the homes are built directly into a rock that is sticking out of the middle of the desert. I would never live there because it's hot and dry but it's certainly interesting learning about it.

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