www.kopalicommunities.com

Im doing an eco village type volunteer thing for 10 weeks in India and the 5 weeks backpacking. I am going to need to take a sleeping bag. Also, i am travelling alone and am wondering how you secure backpacks when on sleeper trains, say if i go to the loo or something. I thought maybe 50/60 ltr, what do you think?

Thanks all.

Ecovillage life with Kingshill in Somerset www.livinginthefuture.org

Of around 50 homes. Completely off-grid, no new fangled solar panels. Just houses with basic wood fire/stove, water heated the same way. A communal wheat field and vegetable garden, a couple of cows and chickens. Everyone would do their bit, gardening, foraging for wood etc. If everything was provided for you so you never had to go to work?

Would you want to live there?
Lily, why do you assume I’m middle class?

Here’s a summary of some of the amazing things I saw when I visited Crystal Waters (sorry about the dodgy camera work folks). This community consists of 85 households, around 200 residents and is widely considered one of the most successful Australian Intentional Communities. It is located North of Brisbane and holds ties in trade and spirit to it’s nearest town of Maleny. Crystal Waters boasts it’s own bakery, Permaculture veggie patch, swimming dams, bamboo and wood plantations, general store, fire brigade, cemetery, communal dvd collection, cinema, venues for courses and health retreats, market day and pub night. Many residents here are strongly connected to world beyond community as they utilise the internet to run various small businesses selling a plethora of ethical products. The Eco-village is focused on outreach and education so it’s quite easy to explore Wwoofing, staying in luxury or budget accommodation or by taking a guided tour. The eco-friendly houses here are a sight to behold and vary from the most simple ‘circle-on-a-page’ design to elaborate masterpieces of green architecture. I noticed that in some Intentional Communities there was a strong expectation to participate in community but the large population base here means the energetic residents can become highly involved and others feel free to step back. There are some communal commitments such as the annual levy for weed control on communal land which can be paid by weeding! Bi-laws prohibit the use …

Peak Moment 38: Tour an urban ecovillage on less than two acres only five minutes by bicycle from the center of Eugene, Oregon. Builder Robert Bolman uses natural materials like sensitively-harvested wood, earth and straw in the several beautiful, well-insulated, non-toxic structures surrounding the central shared gardens.

As the world wakes up to the affects of climate change, more and more Russians are ditching city life for some fresh country air. They are taking the usual ‘dacha’ living one step further by living off the land all year round.

Eco-Village Tour with Albert Bates The Farm www.thefarm.org is a spiritual intentional community in Summertown, Tennessee, based on principles of nonviolence and respect for the Earth. The Farm was founded in 1971 by Stephen Gaskin and 320 San Francisco hippies. Earth Day with Albert Bates The focus of this eco tour video-pod is on the Ecovillage Training Center, a learning center for sustainability founded by Albert Bates. The Ecovillage Training Center is a living workshop environment where you can learn organic food production, natural building, permaculture and how to create and live in harmony within the means of nature. This video pod is an educated walkthrough intended to create a window into some of these eco methodologies and green technologies as well as thoughts and ideas by Albert regarding the creation of an ecovillage and the need to scale down our wants and needs. Albert Bates: www.thefarm.org Director of the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology since 1984 and the Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm in Tennessee since 1994, where he has taught sustainable design, natural building, permaculture and restoration ecology to students from more than 50 nations.

I mean how do they operate?