I'm throwing this out there as a brainstorm, but I've been looking at some acreage online and thinking of how difficult it would be for me to transition over to doomstead life while I'm still gainfully employed in the tech sector and thinking, gee, it would be a lot easier if I teamed up with another doomer or two or three and just kind of let them have part of the property in exchange for them living there and getting things started. It's not necessarily a formal ecovillage per se, but it is a partnership. Someone tear this idea down for me.

Do you plan to own the property in common, or do you intend to break it up into individual parcels?

Before you share land with anyone, I recommend you read "Creating a Life Together" by Diana Leafe Christian, if you haven't already.

I think buying or managing land with other people is a great idea, but fraught with peril!

I don't know. It depends on how big it is. If it's small enough it would have to be an earthship duplex, so to speak. I'd like to explore this idea but I don't know how I would go about screening people. I will give that book a read.

I'm constraining my doomstead search to the northeast because that's where most of my family is and that's where I feel I belong.

It's just, I'm looking at these raw lots online and thinking, damn, I'm going to buy one of these things and wind up never being able to get out there often enough to do what needs to be done there. It will sit there out of sight, out of mind, as a paper asset. When TSHTF and I "escape from suburbia" I'll pull up to the place with a popup trailer and there will be nothing edible there but pine needle tea. If that's the way it goes I should just face down the horde where I am.

Mos, did you minor in Psychology in college when you got your IT degree? I would imagine personality conflicts could escalate into all-out war unless the best real estate lawyer your money can buy sets out solutions for every contingency that we hear about in neighbor-against-neighbor feuds.

Can you say HATFIELD AND MCCOY???

Maybe this will give you some ideas with your research into this issue. I'd love to hear what you discover that might actually make this type of property co-ownership feasible and workable:

http://www.positive-way.com/jointproperty.htm

The biggie would be not having a mortgage and since it would eventually go off-grid, few if any utility bills. That makes it a hell of a lot easier.

It would be essential that each party entered into the arrangement with equal financial input rather than you pay the land, they work for equity, etc. Even then, down the road, folks' situations change and you still might find yourself with strangers as land partners/neighbors when some or all of your partners decide or are forced to sell and/or move away. Wouldn't matter if they are relatives or not. I agree with Shanny that it's best to own your own parcel, at the minimum.

Here's my situation:
-Can't run out and buy my own farm right now, long story about falling trees and crooked insurance company.
-My world view has me preparing for a serious crash within the next couple of years. No time to waste.
-My host has an 80 acre farm, no time to do a thing with it, and a similar world view.
-Neither of us can do much alone
-Together, there is little we can't do.

This place has a house which my host graciously shares with me, a couple of GIANT barns, some other buildings, 25+ acres of field in alfalfa/clover hay, 55 acres of woods full of sugar maples, ash, oak, elm, birch. A pond, a couple of streams. All sorts of local wildlife, deer, turkey the size of the deer, some coyotes, rabbits, and a plethora of wild birds.

Our nearest neighbor can just be seen if you stand in the right place and the trees are dormant. They keep chickens and scottish highland cows. The next nearest is an amish family, more kids than I can count. The next nearest is a half mile away. The neighborhood is full of homes with hens and horses, cows and sheep, goats and rabbits. Summer brings vast fields of corn all around. I think most people around here heat with wood. A fellow up the road has PV panels and windmills in the yard. Some folks I've made aquaintance with are off grid and if they were on this forum would be labeled Doomers for sure.

This 80 acre plot was cut out of a 120 acre parcel. The other 40 acres, adjoining this farm is for sale. Lots of open space in alfalfa/clover hay, a couple of barns, most of the space is fenced for the horses that were there until a month ago. Across the street is the Yoder family and all their kids. From the top of the hill, you can see just about the entire Mohawk valley.

want me to get the asking price?

That sounds about as good as it gets in real life!

Sounds like The Yoders down the road from us kp! Very prolific!
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I'll just throw this out for what it's worth mos, I've been reading you worried about not making a move for a while, and I'm gonna say either your head or your gut ain't ready yet. If you aren't on board with both feet, no plan is gonna work - by yourself or with a whole crew, it won't matter.

I don't know, maybe it's because your plan doesn't seem to have much room for good outcomes or even just OK outcomes:
Plan for the worst, but don't forget to plan for the best too.

For me at least, living out one's days in Doomsville, locked 'n loaded and Hot for Zombies doesn't sound like a kick in the pants lifestyle - nor inviting from the outside either, if you know what I mean.

But that's just my take and 2cc's (cyber-centsTM) worth of advice, don't use it all at one place.

Locked 'n loaded and Hot for Zombies!

I've been on this damn machine too long, g'night!

I know of a couple places, but this one has running water and electricity.
My host is also a doomer and a member of PO.com, in the closet for now.

If you had a bunch of doomers all in the same neighborhood, all with common goals, all with similar needs, I'd think cooperation would be enhanced. You need a truck, I have 2, bring it back full of gas. In the meantime, let me borrow your oilseed press.

At the end of the day, we both head to the shack on the hill for a slash of honeydew mountain vine water.

Back when I lived in town, there were 50 homes on the street along with 50 lawn mowers, 50 washing machines, 49 dryers (I used the sun), 50 weed wackers, 50+ cars, 50 big cook pots, 50 bathtubs, 50 sewer conections, 50 water bills, 50 porch lights, 50 skil saws, 50 hammers, 50 vacuum cleaners, 50 computers, 50 widgets.
They say city living is more efficient.
The right band of neighbors working together is most efficient.

Today my workday included:
mixed up some potting soil
repot chard and some flowers into larger pots in the greenhouse
check the greenhouse roof for damage I missed after my repairs yesterday from the storm that just about ripped the roof off
call a guy about some horse manure
built a wire cage for the trailer to haul more shite
call a lady about some glass-I have an ad on craigslist, gathering all sorts of glass for the GH
sent a note to a potential intern
went up the street to gather a truck and trailer load of horse hockey
drove home, took the other truck to pick up the glass
stopped to talk to a lady about using her tractor to till the field, partly plowed by Yoder until his plow broke
got back, unloaded the poo, extended the compost windrow by 15 '
gathered some eggs
gave the hens a pep talk
did the dishes
took the empty trash cans back
making supper right now

You're right. I'm not into it--right now at least. I've read stories of people quitting high paying jobs to do the green acres thing and I just can't bring myself to do that. Not in this economy. Not with a daughter to take care of, health insurance, etc... I'm trying to reap the best of both worlds without making any sort of sacrifices and it's impossible. Basically I wish I could live in the suburbs, but where the suburbs were like the Tardis and had 10+ acres of space inside them. It's impossible.

It is the leap of faith that makes the adventure exciting. Besides, what good is a high paying job if you are still beholding to the man. A caged bird can sing, especially in a well gilded cage, but the bird will not understand what he is singing about. I flew the coop because my bird was a canary and it was coughing up blood

Playing Mr Greenjeans has some hard work here and there, and the money is certainly nothing to sing about. See past the money. Sometimes in my day, as I develop a semblance of a routine, I take a few moments to look at the sky-it's a fine hue of blue. I smell the flowers every chance I get. I find it a hard thing to do wrong. Think the manure smells bad? Hows the smell from the tailpipe of the car in front of you every morning and evening? My last job I always carried a pocketfull of rolaids. I don't get heartburn at all anymore. My bloodpressure is so low I should be unconscious.

Right on! I sat in cubical farms for many years, and never got anywhere near the adrenaline rush I've had over and over since founding EcoReality with four others.

You're quite the poet, kpeavey! This is great advice, but you forgot to note that the caged bird is generally unaware he is caged! Or, he looks around at the gilded cage, and says to himself, "What a fine and lovely cage," without even realizing the finer and lovelier things that lay beyond those bars.

Or better yet, come to view the money as one of the bars in the cage. I've lived on under $14,000 income a year for a decade, although I transitioned by spending down some savings. It took quite a while to not want the newest computer or digital camera.

A big part of it for me was escaping to a country that better reflected my personal values. I'm not getting any younger, and living without health insurance was okay while I was healthy. I'm catching a lot of flack for expressing this view on another topic, but it sure is a relief to not have to worry about big medical bills while purposely living simply.

Another lovely sentiment, worth repeating: "I find it a hard thing to do wrong."

I've never been overly religious, but when I put a couple hundred trees in the ground, when I milk the goat, when I collect eggs, and best of all, when I do these things with the complete and loving agreement and co-operation of many like-minded people about me, I understand the meaning of righteous, as in "morally right, virtuous." That's a feeling I never got from working in a cube farm!

So yea, do your homework, get involved with some land and some other people in the way that feels best, but don't wait for some "event" before you do the real work of making it work. You have a lot to learn, and being in crisis doesn't make that learning easier.