Unexpected Aspects of Permacultural Communal Living

Unexpected Aspects of Permacultural Communal Living

A List of Pros

By 2023 apprentice

Community living has been a positive experience for me so far. I have felt its benefits in my opportunities for quiet time away, knowing daily tasks can still be completed while individuals have time for rest. I have felt its benefits during our largest social nights, when incredible food, conversation, games, music, and travellers can all be found under the same roof. During times in between, I am discovering new benefits all the time; some are to be expected when living around others, and others come out of the blue! Let's look.

My fellow apprentices getting ready to learn about plastering!

To be clear, life as an apprentice at Rancho Mastatal is my first experience in community living beyond living in a private home within a neighborhood, or in an apartment with a few others. The former has not felt like existence as a true community to me - I led a private life among others who did the same. We interacted in a friendly manner, but beyond my childhood friendships I rarely felt a deep involvement in my neighbors' lives. The latter was more communal: shared facilities, responsibilities of cleaning and organization, and public space meant a deeper level of involvement in my roommates' lives. Being introduced to a preexisting community as a new contributing member was a shock, but thus far has been a positive one.

The Hankey House, where the apprentices live, viewed from the Goat Barn

One of the first aspects of community living that I had to adapt to was a new standard of privacy: The seven of us share a toilet and two showers. The Hankey House houses five apprentices with hardly a single solid wall in the building, and most public spaces in the Ranch are wide open to the jungle air and to passing observers. In fact, our group's level of privacy is apparently less than that of previous apprentice groups: a massive cluster of bamboo and surrounding vegetation between our two livings spaces was felled at the end of 2022, providing a very clear line of sight between the main area of the Hankey House and the porch of the Goat Barn. My partner and I occupy the Barn while the five others each have space in the Hankey -- if any of the seven of us spend time in our respective "living rooms," we are clearly visible to each other. In addition, some unfortunate hedge maintanance next to the Barn has left the bathroom and showers almost entirely visible from our porch (it seemed best not to show this in photographic form...) -- thus, we find opportunities to respect each others' privacy frequently!

Viewed from the top floor of the Hankey, the Goat Barn (left) and showers and bathroom (right). Also note the bright green bush in the bottom-center, which is what remains of the felled bamboo cluster from last year!

It would be easy to critique this living situation - its drawbacks can be detrimental if the users of the facilities are made uncomfortable. However, we are here for the year! We are seven new people in a permacultural education facility that hosts dozens at a time. We have been welcomed with open arms by the team here, fed and housed and accomodated for: how could we complain in a space of such blessings? We avert our gaze from showering neighbors, and chuckle together later. Changing clothes on your porch is a risk, but one with no lasting consequences. If a mutually friendly space can be created, the lack of immediate privacy can be much more of a goof than a discomfort.

The inside of the Hankey House! There are five bedrooms total, and you can *kind of* see two from here. A very beautiful communal space, built with as many aspects of permaculture as possible in mind!

Another aspect of a permacultural lifestyle which I hadn't a clear idea of was the allottment of our daily tasks; of course, coming in we all knew that there would be a plethora of work to go around for those living on a Ranch. I suppose what I didn't have a clear idea of was how organized it would be, and so apparently evenly distributed. The apprentices are allotted "Community Contribution skills," or CC skills, and are designed to switch every six weeks. We focus on these every morning, aiming to have finished our daily tasks by 7:15, granting us a little spare time before our first work party of the day. With this system seven individual tasks, each with its own dynamic system and set of moving parts, are completed every day in a short amount of time -- if one person or a duo were made to do all of these, it would take all morning or longer! The efficiency of this system speaks a lot to the amount of time the Ranch has had to design and refine it. A constant process of design, analysis, and redesign is integral to the permacultural approach to life! Just by the nature of the design and implementation process, it wouldn't be a shock to see this system change within the course of this year, even with the time it has had beforehand to establish itself.

The methane bio-digester, where manure is converted to rich compost and cooking gas

A pathway surrounded by greens used in our salads every day!

To be true we have only been here a short amount of time -- much more time than we have yet spent still awaits us. It is an exciting prospect. Many people will come and go, and here we will be! Helping each other out when we can, switching chores, trading shifts in the kitchen. A grand year is made up of many aspects, mundane and beautiful. Things expected and shocking are sure to come. It is most of what I (we!) can do to approach it with grace, and let come what may. The same can be said for all folk; you don't have to be living on a Ranch to let the principles of a collaborative community enrich you. Enjoy yourself! Help your neighbor plant, or rake, or daydream! Community binds us, and the pieces of it which you don't expect may very well become the most dear to you.

Beautiful space in between facilities used by the community every day. The building pictured is the Food Smithy, where harvested goods go for processing and loads of fermentation occurs. Behind me is a permaculture-design herb and veggie garden.