Awesome-sauce! We obviously accept donations from any- and everyone, but if you contribute at least $25, I’ll give you a free copy of my next book when it comes out (probably not for another year considering I haven’t started writing it yet): This Isn’t Fine: The Cultural Shift We Need to Save Humanity from the Dumper Fire We Started. Or, I can send you an advance copy of my first book, which I’m about to release: Authentic AF: Say What You Mean, Do What You Want, and Be Whoever the F*ck You Are. For those who contribute $250 to the cause, we’ll give you 50 nights of free camping on the land once we get the campground going.

Click here to be taken to the donation page.

That’s pretty much it, but I’m sure you have a lot of questions. So here goes:

I mean, please see the stunning photos on the homepage for some ideas. But our requirements are that it has access to groundwater, water rights hopefully (I’m still researching this piece, and they vary state-by-state), a year-round running creek or river, mountain views, and that’s about it. It will be in a place that is not expected to experience (as much) extreme heat or drought from climate change. And, of course, there will be some arable land as well.

It’s possible it ends up being completely self-sustainable for everyone, but we can’t guarantee that (it potentially takes a lot more acres to do). It may be heavily forested or may be pastureland or both—we just won’t know until we can get the funding to move forward. No matter what, it will be largely self-sustaining, but we’ll probably need to work with other people in the area (for instance, a wheat farmer to get flour or someone raising their own cattle to buy some beef).

Lol. No. Climate change is affecting the entire planet. Montana and Idaho are warming just like everywhere else. The glaciers are melting, and wildfires are increasing. According to the internet, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is basically your only safe bet 80 years from now.

But this is more about finding a place that’s beautiful, being a part of the community to work together to find solutions, and living a simpler life—with views of some of the prettiest mountains in America. And at altitude far from the coasts with a water supply, it’s the best we got.

Well, we want enough land for people to spread out. We’re not building a subdivision here. We’d like to keep about 50 acres for a sort of main property that will have septic, hopefully a campground to help fund ongoing operations, some small-scale farming, and other stuff like that. We’d like to keep 150-ish acres wild, because nature and wildlife and all that good stuff, and then there will be another 300 acres for the people.

For now, we’re capping investors at 300 people. But I guess if there is a shitload of interest, we could make this a bigger thing. If we raise $25,000,000—let’s buy this instead.

I don’t know. I guess we can see how much we have and see what’s available and go from there. We can look at raising additional funding from within the group, or try to raise money elsewhere. But I think this idea really only works at scale. If it doesn’t work out, everyone will get their money back minus any credit card processing fees (usually a little over 3%)

As soon as possible, I hope! Our goal is to have it sorted by summer 2023.

Some–but not really. And honestly, $1 million still might not be enough. While the average cost of an acre of land in the US is $3,380, cropland averages $4,420, and once you add in mountains and water sources, most places are north of $10,000 an acre. That being said, I’ve seen a few places in my search that I think could really work.

On top of your contributions, my husband and I will be putting our life savings toward this ($75,000+), plus whatever kind of leverage we can get with that (as I mentioned, mortgages for unimproved land are quite limited). If we happen to find some land for cheaper, anything above the purchase price of the property will be invested into improving it with things like solar and septic and leveling building sites. Those things are gonna cost a couple hundred grand on their own. Also, we’ll be responsible for paying property taxes on this beast year after year…so there’s that.

If you really believe in the cause and want to contribute a little extra to the fund…awesome! The more we can raise, the better the land will be.

There will be solar power at least on the main area of the property, and it’s possible that other areas could be solar-friendly as well. Depending on the water we get, we can leverage small-scale hydro–we just won’t know until we get there. It’s also very possible there may be normal power to the property…you know, because society hasn’t collapsed yet.

Like I said, we’re not building a city. There may be a septic system installed at the main building site, but I’d prefer to rely on composting toilets–you know, because they make compost. For running water, we’ll have cisterns and well water systems. It all depends on the land at the end of the day.

A guaranteed acre and access to whatever water and power and nature we have on the land. That is it. There won’t be a little square with your name on it, but there will be at least an acre of land for everyone. We’re hoping it will be closer to 2 acres per person at the end of the day.

One acre covers about 75% of an American football field. The average plot of land for a new house in the US is about a quarter of an acre.

Awesome! The fewer people sharing the land and resources, the better. And a nice homesteader plot for a small family should be a minimum of 4 acres anyway. I’d prefer if more people invested in a few acres and the community stayed smaller, but I’m trying to make this dream as accessible as possible.

Or if you’d like to join Hudson and me in becoming a primary owner and having more agency (and land) in this process, send me a message.

Welp, in 10 years those kids may be adults, so we have to keep it at one acre per person right now. If everyone suddenly had 4 people on their acre, there would be 1,200 people! And this is a resources game at the end of the day.

No. As I said, this “acre” is a concept as part of the bigger piece of land. We’re not doing surveys and parceling out spots. The land we buy will have enough acreage so that there is an acre or more per person. How much of that is buildable, arable, whatever, remains to be seen. But there will be room for everyone. You can’t buy one acre and build a wall around it and share it with your friends. It’s about pooling our funds to buy an incredible piece of land with sustainable, sharable resources that none of us could afford otherwise.

As there can’t be a deed, I have been looking into easements in gross, which grant an individual specified access to a piece of private property. I may have a contract drawn up that spells out those access rights for each investor, but it’s possible this is cost prohibitive, as lawyers cost a lot of money, and multiplying whatever that number is by 300 people is probably too much. The cost of writing up the easement alone could be well over $5,000.

This is just a bridge we’ll have to cross when we come to it. We can’t write up an easement without owning the property in the first place. But with or without a deed or easement, you will have a guaranteed spot when the time comes. You’re just gonna have to trust me.

Because we are doing this for altruistic purposes in the first place. We could buy a few acres with water and mountain views just for us right now. But I had an idea that this could be something bigger, and I believe we can make this happen. We’re putting a lot more than $3,000 on the line.

In the meantime, I’m spending my time researching groundwater reserves and conservation grants, learning skills like sewing and solar electrical engineering (one of those is more complex than the other), and digging into the ethos and logistics of permaculture—both from a sustainable agriculture and human culture standpoint.

This isn’t just about buying some land. I’ve felt a growing disconnection with the world that I want to rediscover—or rather, fully discover for the first time. And I want to encourage and inspire others to do the same. Not to mention, I’m writing a fucking book about it.

Oh, well, from a more practical perspective, you should trust me because I am an incredibly driven and organized human being. I’m the most project-oriented person I’ve ever met, and I’m self-taught at everything I’ve ever done. I have a solid understanding of business and finance (I worked in finance for four years), I’ve run a successful business (which was largely responsible for the nest egg we do have), and I’m already spending hours a day researching everything we need to know to get this done and do it right. When I do something, I go all in. I have a spreadsheet for everything, and I’ll leave no stone unturned as we move forward. I was born a planner—as much as I wish I were a free spirit—it’s in my bones.

Excellent question. I think the earliest will probably be 5–10 years. Once we purchase the land, we’ll start spending summers out there building things and drilling wells and planting things and doing whatever landowners do. You’re welcome to come out in the summers and help us build for sure! Once it’s ready (whenever that is) we’ll let everybody know!
Of course, if shit gets real sooner than that, we’ll all be heading out there, ready or not.

I sure hope a lot of wonderful, like-minded people who care about the planet and love nature and realize we’ve lost touch with who we really are as humans. I hope it’s people who are starting to see the overworked lives we’re leading in a late-stage capitalist society obsessed with consumption and putting the accumulation of wealth above all else are making us miserable—and they’re destroying our only home while they’re at it.

Do you like your neighbors now? Do you even know your neighbors now? There are a lot of unknowns in an idea this big and risky, and this is one of them. If some shitty people end up joining this cause, we’re gonna have to deal with that when it comes to light. We are reserving the right to buy anyone out at any time. For now, I’m going to continue believing that the people who would invest their hard-earned money in this are people who share the same values that we do. (Flat earthers, QAnon believers, and dark triad personality types need not apply.)

I don’t fucking know. What I do know is that this world is insanely complex, climate change is destroying ecosystems much faster and more severely than we realize, and there is a very real chance we run out of fossil fuels to power our insane society before we innovate enough to replace them. And regardless of how much we innovate, our ecosystem is finite—unless we discover an asteroid filled with the rare metals we use to make cars and batteries and phones, that shit is gonna run out at some point.

And even if everything doesn’t collapse, there is a much more plausible future in this generation where we still have hospitals and grocery stores and Instagram, but food and fresh water and gasoline become a lot more scarce (and expensive). In this very real scenario, it would help to be a part of a community working together.

No matter what happens, I think we all need to focus more on finding ways to live more in harmony with our planet and each other instead of destroying them both to generate value for shareholders. This is about finding a way to exist that allows humanity to continue existing. And the way we’ve been living as a society for the last 100 years most certainly isn’t that.

Either way, I think $3,380 is a pretty reasonably priced insurance policy just in case it all goes to shit.

Well then, you still have an acre (with access to over a hundred acres of wild land) in one of the most beautiful places in the world! We’re hoping to set up a campground in the next 10 years regardless of what happens, and we hope to see you out there!

We’re going to create a buyout plan for years 5–30 with a limited number of cashouts available per year. These will be available on a first-come-first-served basis. If you miss this year’s allotment, you’ll have to wait for next year. But you have to commit to the first five years. I’ll write up something a little more official for this.

It’s important to note here that we have to make an assumption that not everyone will want to cash out. We don’t have a million dollars—obviously—and as a teacher and a freelance writer, we’re not likely to anytime soon. But we do understand that some people are gonna need this money back, whether to buy their own land or for whatever else, and we’re creating a path to do that.
I think ideally we can start with 300 investors, maybe about a third will bow out over time, and we’ll end up with lots of extra space!

If you’d like to look at this as a 5- or 8- or 10-year, 2% loan to us, with no plans of ever moving to the property, that’s cool too. Just let us know from the get-go and we’ll sign you up for a repayment date.

All that being said, this is an investment, and investments carry risk.