Welcome to the
INTENTIONAL
COMMUNITY
Page
Here's a photo of a sculpture outside the earth lodge at High Flowing,
a community in Floyd, where I recently lived. It was created
by a sculptor friend of ours, David Hubbard, who lives in the
Washington, D.C. area. This is our extended hand to welcome you to our
community. We are a community dedicated to the expression of art, music,
poetry, dance, the study of the
Dreamspell calendar, Native American
traditions, sacred ceremonies, and giving voice to the joys of our
hearts. Our community is still rather small in number and we are
currently active in seeking new members who are attuned to our visions
and goals. We adhere to the principles of permaculture and ecovillage
development of the land.
We are situated on mostly forested land in the Blue Ridge
mountains of southwest Virginia. We are within an hour's drive of
Roanoke, Blacksburg, and Radford, all having universities and a much
larger population than our rural Floyd county. Our county has only one
traffic light and yet boasts a large number of intentional communities.
Some of them are Abundant Dawn, Heart of Gold,
High Flowing, Kyn Hearth, Left Bank, Light Morning (ALM), Riverflow,
Tekiah, Travianna, Turtle Rock, Woodsong, and Zephyr,... Floyd
County is a growing center of alternative living.
Part of what draws us all here is the clean air and pure water. The
county has no water flowing into it, only out; it is the headwaters.
There are a number of streams, springs, and ponds on the property.
Native blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, and winterberries are
in abundance. We have an organic garden with an abundance of fresh
foods growing. A small pond is home to various fish and doubles as
our swimming pool. The stream is a nice stopover for local wildlife.
Deer, turkeys, grouse, whipoorwills, bobcats, bears, and turtles are
among our native population.
HIGH FLOWING
This is the inside of one of the buses that I lived in on community
land. All together there are 5 buses in various stages of being lived
in or used for storage at a local community. 3 of them have woodstoves
and can be used in the winter months. The one pictured here is one I
lived in for a year. It's a 1948 International and
is featured in a book called "Rolling Homes". It has 3 removable
skylights, many windows and beautiful woodwork throughout. The other
living spaces include an art/music studio built around an old schoolbus
painted turquoise with a loft bedroom, a refurbished cabin near the 2
acre pond, and 4 trailers set up with wrap-around porches. There is
also a 50 foot diameter underground earth lodge I helped to build a
few years back. It is based on the Mandan Indian
design used before the turn of the last century in the central plains.
This space is used primarily for ceremony and special events. There is
another underground structure that is the sweat lodge. This is smaller
and is also used for ceremonial purposes.
Our present plans include the purchase of nearly 700 acres of beautiful land
in the heart of Floyd County. There are currently 16 adults and 6 children
looking to soon live in community. We're talking about ecologically developed
living dwellings on designated south facing hillsides. We hope to
start the construction of our communal "water center". This will be a
building that will house a kitchen, laundry area, composting toilets,
hot tub, waterbasins, and showers. This will enable us to build our
living spaces free of the necessity and expense of water and sewage
hookup. We also intend to keep the personal dwellings "off the grid",
that is, free of electric company hook-up. A small solar powered setup
could suffice in providing all the power that is needed. Other
alternatives include the possibility of wind and/or water generation of
power. We are currently studying these other power generating sources and
hope to implement them sometime in our future.
If you'd like to visit our community, you can contact us via email, or
telephone us at: 540-929-4106, or mail to:
Floyd County Intentional Community, 8920 Sugar Run Rd., Copper
Hill, VA 24079
Please let us know if you intend to come only for a day visit or if you
will need overnight accomodations. Longer stays can be arranged. Our
policy at the community is to ask that you help us in ongoing projects
if you plan an extended visit. Also, a small donation is appreciated to
help cover the cost of meals. We look forward to meeting new potential
members who feel drawn to our growing "family".
Here's the
official Federation
of Intentional Communities website.
Want to know more about Floyd County? There's a website called
Floyd County In View with lots
of current info and links to many of Floyd's wonders and charms. Come take a
virtual visit to the beautiful scenery of the Blue Ridge mountains.
email: jaybones@usit.net
Want to know more about Floyd County? There's a website called
Floyd County In View with lots
of current info and links to many of Floyd's wonders and charms. Come take a
virtual visit to the beautiful scenery of the Blue Ridge mountains.