hippie stories

[malzeta]

hi im and independent student filmmaker... and my latest story im working on is "colorblind" a story abotu hippies...and tryin to dispell the slanderous stereotypes of hippie adn them being "lazy,dirty,worthless,etc." so if any of you could write your opinions on what its really like to be hippie it would be really helpful..because i would like to know from real hippies what its like not wannabe-druggies who claim to be hippies..so please give me any info on what itsa like ot be a hippie..and information on life in a hippie commune..thanks!

[CowboyHippy]

my hippie commune is a 1200 sq foot ranch in the country with a wife, 2 kids and a blue eyed dog.

not to dispel any stereotypes you might have

[malzeta]

wat do u do in a hippie commune? like wat is a normla day like for u?

[LIBRA]

My hippy commune is a 2 acre plot in the country, one dog, 5 kittens and 1 kid, which we just call home.

We usually wake up, eat, go to work/ school, come home work around the house, garden. Eat dinner, play, read books, take baths, go to bed. Sometimes I drink a beer or glass of wine. Sum anything up for ya ;)

[Hippie Staff]

Libra - you have 2 acres!

me <~~~ jealous !!

[Hippie Staff]

Malzeta,

Here:

http://www.happyhippie.com/hippie-history.html

Good luck w/ your film.

[Unkle_John]

Not trying to out do Libra.... but where we want to put the Red Hill commune, our dome, solar & wind generators, and what ever i can think of on the family land... over 150 acres. We plan on having a veggie garden that I hope velds enough for profit to pay property taxes (plus Paisley Days stuff). I just jotted all of this down, but i have a master plan written up that's too long & boring to post.

[Hippie Staff]

Wow Unkle - now that's some breathing room. Nice!

[Unkle_John]

Plus.. the closest neighbor (not including family) is 10-15 miles down the road. It's a great place to disappear from the world.

[LIBRA]

That sounds so sweet John!!!! I really like the no nieghbors, where I live I have two with in 10 miles and they are NOSY NOSY. Im alot younger then they are so I think they worry but honestly I have parents and I am a grown woman. So BUTT out :)

I think I could turn my 2 acres into alot, im hoping to have some chickens in the spring, and next year my garden will be much larger and I am hoping to can, freeze alot more of it. Its really time consuming, esp with a full time job, 5 yr old and all the other crap. I need a handy man ;) Im also gonna try my hand at edible flowers, theres a store here that will sell them for me, I think that will be cool!!

[CowboyHippy]

you're my kind of fella john

we have already gotten the info kit from timberline geodesics, and I am taking the community college wind class next spring and the solar class in the fall, since I'm an electrician i can doo it all myself (as well as having made friends for plaster plumbing and everything ele) i mean plaster too, walls last on average 60 years longer than drywall and have a longer fire rating.

our master plan includes owning 10+acres, farming 6 acres, small here, seeing how most farms round us are 1200 ish.

all my figuring puts me at needing just over 2 acres of corn a year to heat the place. Ive researched air drying times and crop rotation so however it falls we'll have 3 acres of corn planted, and 3 acres of garden (not likely sweet corn, cross polination makes for some crunchy sweet corn.) what we don't heat with will feed the chickes, which will in turn feed us.

solar aint the greatest for electricity in michigan so the wind generator will be the big thing. right now i am in the city(3/4 mile from the stoplight) and we have a well and septic-it's a small town.
I figure if it all falls like i want we'll have well and septic at our new place, generate our own power, and grow our own heat. My long term goal is retirement early with no bills cept for taxes. if i go to retirement age i still have 32 years. I was thinking 25 more

hopefully the economy makes a turn and it'll be a sellers market before too long, my guesses are that it wont happen for at least 2 years, thats wabout when we purchase the land. 10 acres around here goes for 30-50k depending on what it's got.

probable best to start another topic for this but what else do you have in mind for your house, I have been doing a bit of looking into gray water systems so we can reuse before we send it out of the house. A lot of the info i find is coming from manufactures of the systems so i consider it a bit biased. hopefully the college will have a class soon (my wind and solar classes get paid for through my work, it's a benefit to them)

enough for now, gotta eat

MRE

[Unkle_John]

CH, That is EXACTLY what I'm talking about!

The dome we plan on looking into is: www.domesintl.com
We want it to look like a UFO landed out in the shrubs.

[CowboyHippy]

thats one I havent seen before

we sent for info packets from timberline, monolothic dome institute and i cant remember the name but they youse pre-cast foam and concrete panels. our main choice for timberline was their popularity of sorts.

yours however would make an awesome garage workshop or cabin up north
do you have any info on pricing, i don't want to send them my info.

[Unkle_John]

My wife and I used to live 5 miles south of Monolithic Domes.

We went to an open house and while I was amazed at the structures, the owner was a real jerk and questioned why we wanted to live off the grid. He then looked at us and said "I doubt you could afford more than a 900sqf dome".

If I ever have one of those built, I'm not going through them. They really don'[t like building domes, they want to charge you on how to do it and the equipment to make your own, then haul it back to where you live. Jerks.

Wanna see something neat though? This is a monolithic dome too, but I think it's a flea market now.

http://www.starshippegasus.com/

[unclejoe]

precast foam and concrete sound like American Ingenuity Domes in Florida http://www.aidomes.com/

[CowboyHippy]

that was it

i liked it she didnt.

can't build a dream home if she's gonna be scared of it

[Hippie Staff]

Need to find a picture for you all..

It's a picture of dome foam homes, way ahead of their time - built on a beach in Florida's 10,000 Islands ..at least 30 year ago? Trying to find information.


Anyway..they have been abandoned, as hurricanes damaged them. I don't recall what happened to the owners, or why they were not rebuilt. However, they are still standing - and it's a surreal picture as there are thousands of seashells embedded straight into the foam walls from the hurricane force winds. Very alien looking..and cool.

Promise I will find the picture..just have to search.

[Hippie Staff]

Found them !!

http://www.happyhippie.com/images/dome-home-shells.jpg

http://www.happyhippie.com/images/dome-shells2.jpg

[Unkle_John]

Far Out!!!

[NCW_Woodnymph]

The domes are awsome they remind me of the cob homes I've seen. My husband and I are hoping to build one when we get our land. They've made a big come back in the northwest. www.cobcottage.com

[Kookie_Baron]

Libra, I have a great section on edible flowers in some of my cooking text books I will send you. The best part is, you dont really have to buy any. They are great fresh and a lot grow really easily in most climates. My email is kookiebaron@gmail.com, if you wanna send me a msg I will email you those textbook sections.

[LIBRA]

I actually want to sell edible flowers, theres a market in town that would let me consign them. BUT I would love to have any info you have, so I will email you :) Thanks!!!!!!!