Are you satisfied with society and current culture? No? Maybe you occasionally think about moving to some idyllic spot to start life over free from turmoil. Well, stop wishing and take action. Utah has that place, more specifically a commune called Riverbed Ranch is that place. Pack your things.
New York City resident (NYC) meets Amish Mormon (AM).*
NYC: Where did you say you were going?
AM: Utah, a bit southwest of Salt Lake City.
NYC: Why? Why are you leaving your quaint community in the lush, fertile Great Valley for a semiarid wasteland? I thought you people lived an ideal life in harmony and abundance, what with the community barn-raising, common values, and freedom from cell phone calls and tractors. Thought you were happy in that Norman Rockwell-like life behind plow horses and in little black buggies.
AM: Life is changing for us. Some of us have even been featured on television, and tourists have invaded obtrusively. I’m taking my family farther away from encroaching local culture. Going to help start a commune in Utah, going to the OCR co-op in Riverbed Ranch in Juab County, plan to live off-grid there like here, just to maintain a life of Self-Reliance based on faith and family and away from the deafening sounds of I-81 and burgeoning Lancaster.
NYC: Hmmnnn. I just read about that. It’s a commune established by Philip Gleason, 74. Everyone is supposed to be self-reliant, Emerson-style. But how will the commune avoid the pitfalls that destroyed Brooke Farm or Janesville or Heaven’s Gate. From what I remember Brooke Farm failed as people relied on the few to do the work for the many. Some just didn’t do their share of the work. Others, doing more than their share, became disgruntled. And don’t you have a pretty secure commune in good old PA? A commune of shared values and work?
AM: We do and we don’t. We’re losing more of our young to modern society.
NYC: But what will the effect be on your youth in a commune not held together by the bonds of a common faith? Heck!—Excuse my foul NY language—the new residents of Riverbed Ranch, though currently mostly Mormon, have secular motives. What drives then together is a negative motivation: The desire to ‘get away’ from the 'craziness' of the modern world and the current political climate under the Biden administration.” At least that’s what I understand from an article in the Daily Mail. **
Plus, it’s estimated that each family will need to invest $35,000 for a buy-in and spend a couple hundred thousand to build a home there. The commune will have its own government, as the report reads, “OCR residents vote and assume roles on its own Board of Directors, and have a court-like system to solve arguments through the Committee of Disputes.” What could go wrong, right? Get the key word there? It’s disputes. In other words, people take the foibles of humanity with them wherever they go. That’s what has happened to every Utopia ever established, even the Franciscans, a group that has fractured into orders and suborders because of disputes about what St, Francis had in mind when he founded his first commune in the 13th century. “Even before the death of Francis in 1226, conflicts developed within the order.” *** What makes you think that Riverbed Ranch will not succumb to a similar fate? Besides, most of the commune’s residents are Mormons, a sect whose faith differs from yours. I see conflict in your future.
AM: But modern society is becoming far too intrusive. The government keeps imposing more regulations on our farms.
NYC: I think you ought to read the Benefits, Features, Costs, Obligations and Bylaws of Riverbed Ranch before you load up the buggy to head west. If you can find a computer in your local library, go to OCR's website. Look at my laptop. See if you still want to move there after reading about this utopia. Here it is: ****
A share in the Utah OSR Land Cooperative gives you these benefits:
A cooperative’s equivalent of a title to 2 acres at the Riverbed Ranch modern homesteading community
Two acre-feet of water rights (that’s 651,702 gallons a year)
One vote for electing members of the co-op board of directors.
Opportunity to participate in group purchases of products and services needed to build your homestead
Opportunity to sell your products and services through the co-op, and
The opportunity to spearhead the creation of sub-cooperatives to provide jobs and goods and services to the co-op and/or outside customers.
Features
The Utah OSR Land Co-op’s Riverbed Ranch homesteading community will feature:
An RV and camping park. This way, shareholders who choose to do so can live in the RV park while building out their homestead
A greenbelt area running up the middle of the community, including a hiking trail, honeybee-friendly trees and bushes, a road, and future plans of a creek
High-speed fiber optic Internet provided by Elon Musk’s Starlink system.
Co-op store for importing and exporting goods
A future BMX bicycle course for kids to enjoy
Additional Community Features
Similar to an industrial park, the Utah OSR Land Co-operative has set aside 45 acres for the following privately owned and operated services:
Academy of Self-Reliance higher-learning campus
OSR K-12 campus
Assisted Living / Retirement Home
Whole Health / Life Coach clinic
Child Rescue Home
Young Mothers Home
Equine / Canine Therapy Barn
Ropes course
Obligations
Each shareholder agrees to build the following:
A passive solar home, of at least 600 square feet, that requires little or no energy to heat or cool. But, we recommend at least 800 square feet of living space.
Barn for animals and/or storage (no minimum size)
Greenhouse, minimum of 600 square feet, 1,200 recommended.
Garden/orchard
6” well with 2-horse power pump with 400′ of lift.
Approved sanitation system (ie. septic).
Each prospective shareholder is asked to submit a one-page “Transition Plan” with timelines and budgets for funding the above build-out before the shareholder agreement is approved.
The Utah OSR Land Cooperative is an agricultural co-op organized under Title 3 of the Utah Code. That means that your 2 acre slice of heaven has to be agriculturally productive every year. There are two ways to accomplish that:
Owner/operator makes the land productive, or
You own, but someone else operates.
You don’t have to live on your land, it just needs to be agriculturally productive.
Costs
Initial – A share in the Utah OSR Land Co-operative costs $35,000, more if you want a lot larger than 2.0 to 2.4 acres.
Anticipated – The costs vary widely depending on how large of a home, barn/shop, and greenhouse you plan on building. The COVID insanity has driven the cost of building materials up significantly. Since none of our shareholders have completely finished building their homes, we don’t have hard figures yet on estimated costs for various sized homes. Our best guestimate for the bare minimum amount of money you need to finish out your farmstead (small house, small barn/shop, small greenhouse, and a well) is $235,000.
A safe figure for planning your home is $120 to $150 per square foot for material and labor. Currently, the wells are costing around $30,000, which included the pressure tank and spigot setups.
For those with limited resources, if you can do your current job online, and have at least $100,000 in available funds, you could put in a well, water tank, solar, septic and a greenhouse. Then you could live utility-free in an RV inside the greenhouse during the Winter, and work your online job to earn the rest of the funds to build out your home.
NYC: Still want to go?
* Disclaimer: Whereas it is possible there is an Amish Mormon out there somewhere, his or her existence is less than probable, maybe something on the order of an anarchist parliamentarian.
**WILL POTTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 02:00 EDT, 16 June 2024 | UPDATED: 04:53 EDT, 16 June 2024. Americans sick of the 'cultural revolution' under Joe Biden are setting up incredible off-grid city in the DESERT hundreds of miles away from civilization with their own government and courts... and offer chilling prediction for the future of the country
***Britannica online.
**** Link in Potter’s article
New York City resident (NYC) meets Amish Mormon (AM).*
NYC: Where did you say you were going?
AM: Utah, a bit southwest of Salt Lake City.
NYC: Why? Why are you leaving your quaint community in the lush, fertile Great Valley for a semiarid wasteland? I thought you people lived an ideal life in harmony and abundance, what with the community barn-raising, common values, and freedom from cell phone calls and tractors. Thought you were happy in that Norman Rockwell-like life behind plow horses and in little black buggies.
AM: Life is changing for us. Some of us have even been featured on television, and tourists have invaded obtrusively. I’m taking my family farther away from encroaching local culture. Going to help start a commune in Utah, going to the OCR co-op in Riverbed Ranch in Juab County, plan to live off-grid there like here, just to maintain a life of Self-Reliance based on faith and family and away from the deafening sounds of I-81 and burgeoning Lancaster.
NYC: Hmmnnn. I just read about that. It’s a commune established by Philip Gleason, 74. Everyone is supposed to be self-reliant, Emerson-style. But how will the commune avoid the pitfalls that destroyed Brooke Farm or Janesville or Heaven’s Gate. From what I remember Brooke Farm failed as people relied on the few to do the work for the many. Some just didn’t do their share of the work. Others, doing more than their share, became disgruntled. And don’t you have a pretty secure commune in good old PA? A commune of shared values and work?
AM: We do and we don’t. We’re losing more of our young to modern society.
NYC: But what will the effect be on your youth in a commune not held together by the bonds of a common faith? Heck!—Excuse my foul NY language—the new residents of Riverbed Ranch, though currently mostly Mormon, have secular motives. What drives then together is a negative motivation: The desire to ‘get away’ from the 'craziness' of the modern world and the current political climate under the Biden administration.” At least that’s what I understand from an article in the Daily Mail. **
Plus, it’s estimated that each family will need to invest $35,000 for a buy-in and spend a couple hundred thousand to build a home there. The commune will have its own government, as the report reads, “OCR residents vote and assume roles on its own Board of Directors, and have a court-like system to solve arguments through the Committee of Disputes.” What could go wrong, right? Get the key word there? It’s disputes. In other words, people take the foibles of humanity with them wherever they go. That’s what has happened to every Utopia ever established, even the Franciscans, a group that has fractured into orders and suborders because of disputes about what St, Francis had in mind when he founded his first commune in the 13th century. “Even before the death of Francis in 1226, conflicts developed within the order.” *** What makes you think that Riverbed Ranch will not succumb to a similar fate? Besides, most of the commune’s residents are Mormons, a sect whose faith differs from yours. I see conflict in your future.
AM: But modern society is becoming far too intrusive. The government keeps imposing more regulations on our farms.
NYC: I think you ought to read the Benefits, Features, Costs, Obligations and Bylaws of Riverbed Ranch before you load up the buggy to head west. If you can find a computer in your local library, go to OCR's website. Look at my laptop. See if you still want to move there after reading about this utopia. Here it is: ****
A share in the Utah OSR Land Cooperative gives you these benefits:
A cooperative’s equivalent of a title to 2 acres at the Riverbed Ranch modern homesteading community
Two acre-feet of water rights (that’s 651,702 gallons a year)
One vote for electing members of the co-op board of directors.
Opportunity to participate in group purchases of products and services needed to build your homestead
Opportunity to sell your products and services through the co-op, and
The opportunity to spearhead the creation of sub-cooperatives to provide jobs and goods and services to the co-op and/or outside customers.
Features
The Utah OSR Land Co-op’s Riverbed Ranch homesteading community will feature:
An RV and camping park. This way, shareholders who choose to do so can live in the RV park while building out their homestead
A greenbelt area running up the middle of the community, including a hiking trail, honeybee-friendly trees and bushes, a road, and future plans of a creek
High-speed fiber optic Internet provided by Elon Musk’s Starlink system.
Co-op store for importing and exporting goods
A future BMX bicycle course for kids to enjoy
Additional Community Features
Similar to an industrial park, the Utah OSR Land Co-operative has set aside 45 acres for the following privately owned and operated services:
Academy of Self-Reliance higher-learning campus
OSR K-12 campus
Assisted Living / Retirement Home
Whole Health / Life Coach clinic
Child Rescue Home
Young Mothers Home
Equine / Canine Therapy Barn
Ropes course
Obligations
Each shareholder agrees to build the following:
A passive solar home, of at least 600 square feet, that requires little or no energy to heat or cool. But, we recommend at least 800 square feet of living space.
Barn for animals and/or storage (no minimum size)
Greenhouse, minimum of 600 square feet, 1,200 recommended.
Garden/orchard
6” well with 2-horse power pump with 400′ of lift.
Approved sanitation system (ie. septic).
Each prospective shareholder is asked to submit a one-page “Transition Plan” with timelines and budgets for funding the above build-out before the shareholder agreement is approved.
The Utah OSR Land Cooperative is an agricultural co-op organized under Title 3 of the Utah Code. That means that your 2 acre slice of heaven has to be agriculturally productive every year. There are two ways to accomplish that:
Owner/operator makes the land productive, or
You own, but someone else operates.
You don’t have to live on your land, it just needs to be agriculturally productive.
Costs
Initial – A share in the Utah OSR Land Co-operative costs $35,000, more if you want a lot larger than 2.0 to 2.4 acres.
Anticipated – The costs vary widely depending on how large of a home, barn/shop, and greenhouse you plan on building. The COVID insanity has driven the cost of building materials up significantly. Since none of our shareholders have completely finished building their homes, we don’t have hard figures yet on estimated costs for various sized homes. Our best guestimate for the bare minimum amount of money you need to finish out your farmstead (small house, small barn/shop, small greenhouse, and a well) is $235,000.
A safe figure for planning your home is $120 to $150 per square foot for material and labor. Currently, the wells are costing around $30,000, which included the pressure tank and spigot setups.
For those with limited resources, if you can do your current job online, and have at least $100,000 in available funds, you could put in a well, water tank, solar, septic and a greenhouse. Then you could live utility-free in an RV inside the greenhouse during the Winter, and work your online job to earn the rest of the funds to build out your home.
NYC: Still want to go?
* Disclaimer: Whereas it is possible there is an Amish Mormon out there somewhere, his or her existence is less than probable, maybe something on the order of an anarchist parliamentarian.
**WILL POTTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 02:00 EDT, 16 June 2024 | UPDATED: 04:53 EDT, 16 June 2024. Americans sick of the 'cultural revolution' under Joe Biden are setting up incredible off-grid city in the DESERT hundreds of miles away from civilization with their own government and courts... and offer chilling prediction for the future of the country
***Britannica online.
**** Link in Potter’s article
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