Bramble

We are a family-friendly, off-grid collective focused on creativity, self sufficiency, and simpler living. Children are people and people are children; we are all learning and growing in a vibrant, integrated world.

In fall 2023 we acquired and moved onto a piece of land in close proximity to the existing intentional communities in Louisa, Virginia. This land is 43.6 acres of mature hardwoods and has two spring fed creeks surrounded by wetlands.

How do we do things here? As anarchists we value personal autonomy and mutual support. We are scrappy and adaptable, noticing and following vigor instead of staying the course on specific long range plans. We expect to meet each other where we are with vulnerabilities, capacity swings, needs, and feelings. We embrace our neurodivergences and the diversity of our mental health needs.

We share a deep connection to nature and a commitment to live more sustainable lifestyles. Over the last decades the members of our founding group broke out of the cage of normal living by, adapting alternative dwellings, living off-grid, and/or living in intentional communities. Now we are coming together to create a shared homestead that nourishes our minds and bodies.

The majority of our civilization is running on perpetual growth which is choking our planet in countless ways. Our intention is to live a more ecologically responsible lifestyle and to ultimately make more out of less. Our current structures are converted schoolbusses. In our first half year here we have begun milling our own lumber, planting trees and growing vegetables, and building weird outbuildings.

Future structures will be built from local, responsibly harvested, and salvaged materials and we will use alternative building techniques such as timber framing, strawbale construction, and conversion of shipping containers. As we grow and develop we will employ alternative methods of producing food; engaging in forest farming, silvopasture, and permaculture and regenerative agriculture practices. We share a mission to empower others to live simpler lives and build their own homes. As we build structures and develop alternative off-grid and homesteading systems we will lead workshops to provide learning opportunities.

We intend to start a learning center that serves our residents, the local community, and visitors from farther afield. This learning center will be multipurpose. We facilitate self-directed learning in the kids here and in the future hope to start an unschool for kids from our collective, nearby intentional communities, and the wider world. We are artists, musicians, and creators and foster a culture around creative expression. In our future workshop classroom we plan on offering classes for all ages in subjects like homesteading, natural building, arts, crafts, and wellness.

Since people are learning and growing as long as they live, we encourage self-care and engage in mental health support from within our collective as well as from outside sources including professionals. We support our members engaging in activism to make the world a better place. We will keep open minds and adaptable systems so that the community breathes and changes as its residents change and grow. We share an understanding that in the pursuit of increased sustainability and the back-to-the-land dream there are trade offs between money, time, and quality. We will compromise and flex to get where we are going. We are all adventuresome people who like to travel. We welcome friends and visitors coming to stay and are flexible about different lengths of stay.

We moved onto our land September 2023. Our spot is about 45 minutes to Richmond, Charlottesville, and Fredericksburg, and about two hours to DC, the mountains, and the ocean. There are several established small communities in the area, creating an unusual social scene for such a rural area.

Do you want to be a trail blazer with us? We have raw land with very little infrastructure, so if you want to come visit its helpful if you bring your own portable dwelling or camping gear. We have a guesthouse mini-bus for the time being that visitors can use for short stays. We would love to meet people who share our interests as well as people with different and complementary skill sets. If you want to connect, please reach out via the contact form.