Kin's Domain Village Rodnoe & Slavnoye

Recently in Russia there has been an increase in the number of people who prefer life in nature to the hustle and bustle of the city, and have moved to Eco-villages…and are creating 'Kin's domains'. They have given up the use of fertilizers, heavy agricultural machines, and grow all their food themselves.

Eco-village Rodnoe has approximately 100 plots of land, each of which measures no less than one hectare. Families organize their plots in their own way, and say that their domain has the personality of its owner.

Who are they? People who leave their successful and relatively quiet life in modern cities and go to rural areas to set up a hectare of land - their Kin's domain? What drives them? Are they happy about the change? How do they deal with the land and growing plants? How does one build an adobe house?

Winter comes to Kin's domains village 'Rodnoe'. The land is covered with snow. It's time for renewal and contemplation of what has been created during the summer time. How do the villagers survive the winter? What do they actually do in winter? How to create a true Space of Love and to live in harmony with Nature, animals and all other of God's creations?

The story about the Russian Kin's domains ecovillages continues! More than 150 families have found their home on the beautyful fields of the Kin's domain ecovillage Slavnoye. Each of them has their own story, their own path, but all of them have the same goal – develop their plot to create a Kin’s domain.



The books in English: Ringing Cedars

Mick Dodge: Surviving In The Forest

Talk about living off the grid. About 25 years ago, Mick Dodge shed his shoes, grew his beard, and left modern civilization (and a family) to live alone in the Pacific Northwest’s Hoh rain forest. But he’s not a total isolationist; he’s dialed into a community of mountain dwellers and agreed (although it took convincing) to be the subject of National Geographic Channel’s series 'The Legend of Mick Dodge'.

Article: Mick Dodge
More Videos: Mick Dodge

Intentional Communities In France

Ecolonie (Vosges)


Through the starting points and vision of ECOlonie, we wish to express our view that life is a continuous, unifying experience. Founded in 1989, ECOlonie houses a vibrant, ecological association still very much in development.

Ecology (the thesis of ecological thinking and acting) at ECOlonie goes beyond healthy and organic gardening and building. Ecology is a philosophy that includes all aspects of life - both physical and spiritual. 'Eco' is derived from the Greek word oikos , meaning to feel at home. To feel at home somewhere simply means 'to feel at ease, to be able to be yourself'.

At ECOlonie, creativity and spirituality inspire the development of this vision to include environmental sustainability and the daily experience of nature. Each individual can define their own spirituality, as we focus on being undogmatic, down to earth and practical.

Website: Ecolonie




Lothlorien (Haute Marne)

Lothlorien is the name of the Golden Wood in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”. It literally means “Flower of the Golden Wood”, a place where rest, peace and harmony prevail and where travellers can seek good advice and find strength.

Centre Lothlorien is a small community and course centre. The basis is living and working in harmony with nature, respect for everything that lives, giving an active contribution to create a human togetherness. It is an international, ecological and spiritual centre that offers a helping hand to every seeking person, everyone who is on the path of life. The centre presents courses, activities and a resting place where you can find your unique Self in order to go on with your life.

Website: Lothlorien



Carapa (Cévennes)

Website: Carapa 



Some other communities:

Green Community (Languedoc Rousillon)
Douceur et Harmonie (Serralongue, Catalonia)
Eco Chateau  (Saint-Privat, Corrèze)
L'Ecovillage du Périgord (Sarlande, Dordogne)
Oasis de Lentiourel (Saint-Affrique, Aveyron)
Taizé (Burgundy)
Goshen (Burgundy)
Peace Factory (Montolieu, Languedoc Rousillon)

Valhalla Movement

Valhalla is a movement hell-bent on making sustainable communal living mainstream. Together we will create the beautiful world our hearts tell us is possible. Superhuman goals can be accomplished when individuals with a common goal come together. Together, we are stronger than the sum of our parts.

We strongly believe many of the world’s ills can be solved through sustainable communal living. Thus we are building a network of 100% off-the-grid communities, the first of which in Montreal, Canada. We are documenting the entire process to teach others how to do the same AND to show the world that sustainable communities are:
- Awesome: This is not only great for the planet, but also a fantastically fun and free way to live.
- Feasible: You can do this too, and we’ll show you exactly how to do it.
- Necessary: Even if this wasn’t fun or easy, this is what we need to do right now.

We are the solution, not the protest.
Unlike other ‘hippie communities’, we are not shutting ourselves off from the world. We are doing everything possible to make this lifestyle universally appealing. We will be as loud as possible so that we’re either loved or hated, but never unheard of.

Website: Valhalla Movement

Tales From The Green Valley (BBC Full Series)

Tales from the Green Valley is a historical documentary TV series in 12 parts, first shown on BBC Two in autumn 2005 and it follows historians and archaeologists as they recreate farm life from the age of the Stuarts. They wear the clothes, eat the food and use the tools, skills and technology of the 1620s. The series recreates everyday life on a small farm in Wales in the 1620s, using authentic replica equipment and clothing, original recipes and reconstructed building techniques. Much use is made of period sources such as agricultural writers Gervase Markham and Thomas Tusser. The series features historians Stuart Peachey and Ruth Goodman, and archaeologists Alex Langlands, Peter Ginn and Chloe Spencer. IMDb Rating: 8,8.

Episode 1

September: Ploughing with oxen, baking in a hearth.



Episode 2

October: Gathering pears, thatching the cowshed roof with a bracken undercoat and a wheat thatch, period clothes and boots, driving pigs to forage.



Episode 3

November: Slaughtering and butchering a pig, building a daub and wattle wall, harvesting meddlars, salting a table, combing thatch and pegging it down, making hog's liver pudding.



Episode 4

December: Building a hovel (a woodshed), period clothing, peas, preparing for Christmas.



Episode 5

January: Preparing period medicines, wood gathering, and hedge laying.



Episode 6

February: A heavy fall of snow, rebuilding a lavatory, checking the sheep in preparation for lambing, musical instruments, preparing a meal of fish and bagged puddings for lent.



Episode 7

March: Preparing the garden for sowing, wheat threshing, brewing March beer, pig yokes, fun and games, egg and pear pie with stewed salt cod.



Episode 8

April: Spring cleaning, rebuilding a dry stone wall, a new baby calf.



Episode 9

May: Preparing a new field for spring sowing, making charcoal, and butter.



Episode 10

June: Washing and shearing sheep, cheese making, and mid-summer revels.



Episode 11

July: New harvest from the garden (beans and gooseberries), making hay, clothes washing.



Episode 12

August: Fattening geese, goose pie and carrot puree, wheat and straw harvest, reed lights.

Edwardian Farm (BBC Full Series)

Edwardian Farm is an historical documentary TV series in twelve parts, first shown on BBC Two from November 2010 to January 2011. It depicts a group of historians trying to run a farm like it was done during the Edwardian era (1900-1914). The farming team was historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn. IMDb Rating: 8,9.

Episode 1

The trio establish their domicile, scrubbing flagstone floor and cleaning out a clogged chimney. They put up hay, hire a stonemason to make a trough, learn to thatch, make rag rugs, begin keeping chickens and sheep. Ruth cooks a sheep's head stew.

Episode 2

Alex and Peter milk goats and train the plowhorses. They begin a market garden of strawberries. Ruth pickles apples, salts a ham, and smokes bacon. Alex and Peter press apples to cider (skrumpy), freighting first the apples, then the barrel on the river. They visit a cooper and make lime putty. They read government agricultural leaflets, collect eggs, make chicken stew, and celebrate Halloween Edwardian style.

Episode 3

Ruth prepares for the arrival of the farm's pigs and works on the privie, while Alex and Peter compare ploughing with horses to ploughing with the world's oldest working tractor. Peter begins a trout hatchery. In order to repair the hedgerows, Alex takes a trip to a water-powered blacksmithery for a billhook. Ruth makes sloe gin for Christmas and entertains with a grammophone.

Episode 4

As winter sets in, the three farm dwellers must look further afield to earn a crust. Peter and Alex fish for crabs while Ruth hires herself out for domestic work. Ruth rides a bicycle and tries period cleaning techniques, including early vacuums. They separate growing calves from their mothers. Alex finds out how leather is made. They celebrate Christmas modesty, as poor farmers might have, and listen to a Methodist Christmas message.

Episode 5

The continuing winter forces Alex and Peter down a tin mine, while Ruth makes lace. The tin mine is the King Edward Mine, Camborne, Cornwall, and the lace-making is at Honiton.

Episode 6

Six months into their year, Ruth, Alex and Peter explore the daily lives of the Edwardian Farmers. This episode has a slightly different format to the rest of the series; instead of covering a whole month's changes, it is subtitled A Day in the Life and uses a framing device of Ruth writing a letter describing the more mundane aspects of daily life on the farm.

Episode 7

Spring arrives with the lambs and the potato crop planted with manure. Daffodils are harvested and sent by train across the country.

Episode 8

April arrives and time is divided between the land and the sea.

Episode 9

Summer brings the tourists, so the farm provides strawberries and clotted cream.

Episode 10

June arrives so the sheep go up onto the moors of Dartmoor with Alex and Peter guiding, leaving Ruth to run the farm, mixing and spraying "Bordeaux" on the potato crop. Alex and Peter try their hands at sheep-shearing and dry-stone walling, and observe sheep-dogs at work. Ruth makes her own cheese and visits an early wool mill. Finally, they have an Edwardian picnic with a vintage auto and then go rambling and letterboxing on the moor.

Episode 11

July brings the harvest, cherries and potatoes. Ruth goes salmon fishing on the River Tamar with a seine net. Peter and Alex pick cherries from tall ladders and Ruth prepares cherry preserves. They try out Edwardian potato digging devices and employ child labor. The annual day holiday at Lynmouth is a welcome distraction.

Episode 12

August brings to an end the year on the farm, weather dictates the harvest and the seaside brings much needed fertilizer.

Victorian Farm (BBC Full Series)

Victorian Farm is a historical documentary TV series in six parts, first shown on BBC Two in January 2009, it recreates everyday life on a small farm in Shropshire in the mid-19th century, using authentic replica equipment and clothing, original recipes and reconstructed building techniques. IMDb Rating: 7,7.

Episode 1

The would-be farmers move into a disused cottage. This requires much renovation: replacing the coal-burning range, cleaning the chimney and refuelling from a narrowboat on a nearby canal; cleaning the bedroom by removing dead birds, disinfecting against bedbugs with turpentine and salt, restoring the lime plaster and redecorating.

In accordance with custom, they assist in the threshing of the previous year's crop of wheat, using a steam-powered thresher. A field is ploughed, harrowed and sown with the next year's crop using horse-drawn implements of the era. Apples are picked, milled and pressed to make cider while other fruits and berries are preserved as a spicy chutney. A flock of Shropshire ewes is acquired and the first meal is cooked and eaten - a leg of boiled mutton.

Episode 2

As winter draws on, animal fodder and shelter is provided. Mangelwurzels are stored in a clamp and then chipped with period machinery to feed the cows. A pigsty is built upon a foundation of bottles to provide insulation and three young Tamworth pigs and a pregnant Gloucestershire Old Spot sow are housed there upon completion.[17] A ram is added to the sheep flock and marked with raddle to ensure that he impregnates all the ewes so that they will lamb in the spring. A shire horse, named Clumper, is also added to the livestock and training in his use as a draught animal is performed.

Domestically, the weekly laundry is done in a Victorian style. Stain removal is first performed, for example, using milk to remove an ink stain. Then the clothes are hand-paddled, mangled and ironed over a period of several days. Christmas is celebrated with a church service; the Victorian novelty of a Christmas tree; a plum pudding and a roast turkey; and presents are exchanged such as some hand-made braces.

Episode 3

New Year arrives and the farm needs emergency repairs. So the team go back to DIY basics, with the help of the woodsman, the blacksmith and the basket maker. Ruth has a go at some traditional potions and remedies. When the wheat crop comes under attack, it is time for some pest control, Victorian style, as Alex and Peter join a pheasant hunt. Alex goes out catching rabbits with a team of Victorian poachers. And with spring around the corner, the first baby animals are ready to be born.

Episode 4

It is spring and there are lambs and pigs to be delivered - which means Alex and Peter need to master animal midwifery. A prized ewe is in danger and a lame horse may jeopardise vital work on the farm. The team witness the birth of many chicks and ducklings, along with 8 (originally 9) piglets from the pig Princess.

The team turns to Victorian science in a bid to save their struggling crops. If they succeed, they will have something to celebrate at the May Day fair. If they fail, all their hard work will have been in vain. It is make or break time on the Victorian Farm.

Episode 5

In this episode, the team embarks on a trip by steam train, Ruth begins a tough task in the dairy, Alex tries his hand at beekeeping, the sheep get sheared using the latest time-saving technology, and the lengthening summer days allow Alex and Peter to try out the new Victorian sport of cricket. It is also time for the hay harvest, weather permitting.

Ruth makes cheddar cheese in the dairy with her daughter, Eve Goodman, with milk from the cow Forget Me Not, using the rennet from a neighbour's male calf. The sheep shearing is a life saver because it turns out that the sheep have severe fly strike. It is Alex's birthday and Ruth makes him a cake and a picnic, while Peter buys him a book of apiary. The boys make a predator-proof cover for the landlord's raspberry patch.

Episode 6

It is the end of their year on the farm. They sell off the pigs and sheep they successfully bred and raised. Ruth learns straw plaiting and makes a hat and cooks a Victorian style curry. Everything is now focused on the wheat harvest. Peter and Alex get the dray and a reaping and binding machine repaired and brew beer for the harvest. The harvest is completed just before the rain comes with Ruth harvesting the last corn. Once the wheat is dried and stored they ring the church bells, enjoy a harvest festival and reflect upon their time on the farm. They hand over the key to their landlord and depart the farm.

YouTube Link:
Victorian Farm Christmas - Episode 1
Victorian Farm Christmas - Episode 2
Victorian Farm Christmas - Episode 3

Intentional Communities In Spain

8th Life (Canary Islands)

We believe that stopping the destruction, working to build soil, restore ecosystems, heal our addictions, change organizational structures of the global economy & learn to live in community starting locally ... are the most important & urgent jobs to do now.

Website: 8th Life

Matavenero (Castile & Leon)

Website: Matavenero 



Sunseed (Andalusia)

Welcome to the Sunseed Desert Project, a hands-on practical centre for low-impact living and environmental education in Andalucía. At this lively international community, staff and volunteers work and learn together to develop, demonstrate, research and communicate alternative ways of having less impact and a smaller environmental footprint. Situated in a Los Molinos del Río Aguas, in a beautiful valley in southern Spain, Sunseed is off-grid and committed to low impact living and environmental stewardship.

Website: Sunseed

Valle De Sensaciones (Andalusia)

The project 'Valle de Sensaciones' is creating a space rich in nature, whose design, installations and sustainable infrastructure are allowing people to experiment with a wide variety of projects that revive the senses, including the conscience, and help to recreate a profound contact with the spirit of nature, the basis of our life. A space where various creators find fertile soil for the development of new initiatives between Art, Ecology and Technology. Another objective is to transmit the whole range of knowledge and inspiration out of the creation of this project. Beside the thematic areas of permaculture, green building, ecotecnology, and many other, we like to mediate a different attitude towards the need of changing our lifes, where each iniciative is enriched by creativity, art, music, spirituality, sensuality and by the spirit of comunal living.

Website: Valle de Sensaciones 

Ecoaldea de Lakabe (Navarre)



Other Ecovillages & Communities in Spain:
(Click for link to website)

Escanda (Asturias)
Falcon Blanco (Ibiza)
KanAwen (Catalonia)
Los Portales (Andalusia)
Flores de Vida (Catalonia)
Matricultura (Canary Islands)
Taller Karuna (Castile & Leon)

Iberian Ecovillage Network

Intentional Communities In Portugal

Awakened Life Project

A short introduction to a sustainable community in central Portugal that is pushing the boundaries of collective human potential. The Awakened Life Project is a non-profit association situated in a beautiful and wild ecological reserve in the mountains of Central Portugal. Part retreat centre and 21st century spiritual ashram, part permaculture farm, part integral evolutionary education hub, the Awakened Life Project is a multi-dimensional evolving organism and movement of (r)evolutionaries that is being co-created by a growing network of people throughout Portugal.

Website: Awakened Life Project



Tamera

Tamera in Southern Portugal is an international training and experimental site for the development of peace research villages and healing biotopes worldwide. Under the motto "Think Locally, Act Globally," approximately 200 people live, work and study in Tamera. Tamera’s aim is to develop an example of a model for a nonviolent co-existence of people and between people and nature. The main tasks of Tamera are: the education of young people within the "Monte Cerro" peace study, the building of a village model called "Solar Village" which produces its own food and solar energy, and global networking under the name of GRACE.

Website: Tamera



Osho Garden

Osho Garden is a communal project to create a living space where ecological gardening and meditation go hand in hand. We are registered as an Osho Information Center. The project started in 2010 and presently our accommodation is limited to a maximum of about ten people. We welcome visitors who want to participate and enjoy community life, spend time in nature and join the meditations, workshops, meetings, gardening and health food preparation.

Website: Osho Garden

Terramada

Isn’t Terramada like ”home”? A place where we can belong instantly and leave knowing we are a part of it even when apart. One Global Family. We share a wonderful gift in being Terramadians, in a community that is created by our principles of love, harmony, truth and freedom. By the labour each one of us who have tilled the soil, made the website, baked or organised or participated in an event or workshop has given.

Terramada needs your help to evolve into an ethical village and community, Where more people can visit and be inspired by our lived philosophy: Living as one, loving as one, in harmony with the Nature and each other. Creating a new world based on the heighest visions of ourselves by developing the power of our spirit.

Website: Terramada

Sustainable Living Projects, Courses and Events: Eco Living Portugal

Agafia's Taiga Life

In 1936, a family of Russian Old Believers journeyed deep into Siberia’s vast taiga to escape persecution and protect their way of life. The Lykovs eventually settled in the Sayan Mountains.

Two children were born during the isolation. They ended up in a dwelling in the taiga, in the Abakan river basin (Khakassia), 250 kilometres from any settlement.

In 1978 their location was discovered by a helicopter pilot, who was flying a geological group into the region. The geologists got in contact with the family, but the Lykovs decided not to leave the place. Karp’s wife Akulina died of hunger in 1961. Three of his children died in 1981. Karp died in 1988. He is survived by his daughter Agafia Lykova who continues to live in isolation in her Abakan fastness. Today, she is the last surviving Lykov, remaining steadfast in her seclusion. VICE crew travels to Agafia to learn about her taiga lifestyle and the encroaching influence of the outside world.

Off The Grid In Lasqueti

Imagine an island so secluded there's no electricity, there are no paved roads and in many cases, no plumbing. That island - called Lasqueti - is home to 400 people and less than an hour away from Vancouver (B.C. - Canada). Come see what it's like to live off the grid.

Humanure Toilet

The fourth is an amazing piece of art. With some really smart engineering.

It seems that the secret to having no odor is to have a large pit and to vent the pit. It also helps to separate the pee. In all four, folks were encouraged to pee outside - way from the outhouses.

Sawdust is used in case there is any smell. A properly built outhouse can be better for the environment than a septic tank or a sewage treatment plant. I like these three designs much better than any of the humanure systems or composting toilets.

The Loveable Loo is demonstrated by loveable Lulu, who shows us the compost toilet and the garden that it can produce.



Build one yourself: Humanure Toilet

Manual: Instructions

Cob House Building

Margaret Krome-Lukens shows us the cob home being built by interns at North Carolina's Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute. Since her new home is less than 150 square feet, she talks about the joy of giving up stuff to move in.

Cob House Building in Northern Spain.

What if I told you that you could build your very own beautiful home with the resources right beneath your feet, on a budget of a few thousand dollars, and never have to live with a mortgage?

Use the earth that God has given us to build our homes.

John Howe: Solar Inventions

John Howe, a retired mechanical engineer, created several amazing solar inventions that all work beautifully.

See a solar powered tractor, a real solution for agriculture of the future. "Suburbia is going to have to re-localize into community centers and grow their own food and a vehicle like this would be ideal because it could easily do the gardening for 20 households in a suburban setting." he says. See the solar chain saw, the solar powered golf cart -- and his sporty solar car! This is the kind of creative and forward thinking person you want in your neighborhood. His advice: "Buy a solar panel and play with it. They're amazing: turn them on and they work. They work forever."

Simple Solar Homesteading

How to have a home with no house payments and no monthly utility bills! This is an introduction to simple solar homesteading that provides information on how to find cheap land, build an inexpensive home, and use solar power to eliminate monthly utility bills. What would you do if you had no house payment and no monthly utility bills ? Well watch the video and I will show you how it is done easily and with very little money.

Watch a video how to built a 14x14 solar cabin for under $2000.

Atamai Village

The Atamai permaculture community was set up on the principle that it takes a village to live sustainably - it is too difficult to do it on your own. Members of this community have come together to deal with the impacts of climate change, energy shortages and the social and economic challenges that are likely to follow these changes. "You don't want to wait until the signs are so obvious because then it is too late."

Website: Atamai Village (New Zealand)

Eco Homes: Small Holdings In Wales

The Tir y Gafel ecovillage aspires to be a replicable model for low-impact development in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Nine families lived there at the time of this filming. They are self sustainable: living off the grid, producing food, having built low impact houses using alternative energy sources.

They are taking advantage of legislation in Wales which allows low impact sustainable communities to go build eco-small holdings on open countryside. Under the TAN 6 Policy Guidance (Welsh Assembly Government), there is now a planning framework which accommodates low-impact development. Think of it as getting a little help and encouragement from the government to live off the land. And bring the land BACK!

Using permaculture techniques, they are making marginally productive land into maximally food producing land. They are aiming for a 40% increase in productivity. They have plenty of volunteers who simply want to learn the techniques to be able to live this way. Says one resident: "I don't think governments are going to provide the solution to the challenges. I don't think our economic system or our corporate structures are going to provide the solutions we need. I think solutions are going to come from people."

Website: Lammas

Crystal Waters Ecovillage

An introduction to Crystal Waters covering permaculture design, innovative housing design, intentional community living and land restoration. Crystal Waters is situated in rural south east Queensland Australia. Filmed in 2001-2002.

Website: Crystal Waters

Young Greeks Create Rural Community

On the slopes of Mount Telaithrion on the island of Evia, a group of young Greeks have left the busy city and created a self-reliant rural community. Their goal is to eat only the organic produce they grow themselves, to free themselves from the national electricity grid, and to exchange what they grow or make instead of using money. The project, whose ultimate goal is to create a school for sustainable living, was the idea of four Athenians who met online back in 2008 and bonded over their dissatisfaction with the daily grind of city life.

Daniel Suelo: The American Who Quit Money

Daniel Suelo lives in caves in the canyonlands of Utah. He survives by harvesting wild foods and eating roadkill. He has no job, no bank account and does not accept government welfare. In fact, Suelo has no money at all. Suelo may have shunned all the trappings of modern American life, but he is not an isolationist. Since abandoning money in 2000, the former cook from Moab, Utah has remained an active member of his community and avid blogger.

Mark Sundeen, author of The Man Who Quit Money, admits many people would regard Suelo's alternative lifestyle as bizarre. But the 2008 financial crash has led many to question the value of money. He explains some of the lessons found in Suelo's philosophy.

Moneyless In Moab

Interweaving philosophical conversations with suelo in his cave and treehouse with colorful footage of his daily activities in town and in nature, Moneyless In Moab offers an intimate look at a person who embodies a radical alternative to our excessively consumeristic american way of life. The film opens our eyes to the fact that it is indeed possible to live happily without money, and to do so with joy, grace, and dignity, even in a world gone mad with attachment.