[[[[[[[THIS LAND IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT APC WITH REQUESTS FOR INFO.]]]]]]]]]
The Appalacian Catholic Worker has put out a call for someone to rent a beloved but human-starved piece of land in West Virginia. [Edit: please note that this is NOT a Greenhorns offer. The following text is from the APC, whose contact information is towards the bottom of the post.] Read on for more information:
OUR LAND TRUST HAS A 65 ACRE TRACT THAT IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING PEOPLELESSNESS ***** (contrary to urban homelessness, many rural homesteads suffer from peoplelessness, sometimes chronic/cyclical) One of Appalachian Catholic Worker's community projects is being on the board of directors for the "Regional Land Trust of West Virginia." RLTWV lands have been protected since 1969, and are close 'cousins' with "Trust in the Hills" land trust in WV, started by CWers, Chuck Smith and Sandy Adams (dubbed by Dorothy Day herself as the quintessential examples of CW farmers!)
Currently, RLTWV has a 65 acre tract -mostly wooded hillsides - that would be the perfect place to start your own homestead or CW community. Get a free life-time lease for: - About 10 acres of cleared flat bottom for a big garden or pasturing small livestock; - a pond up on the hill - the old hippie house needs lots of TLC and skilled handiwork or just be lived in as a new one is built - wood stove, water well and pump, electric, telephone land line, indoor compost toilet - and the land taxes this year were only $471.00 !!!
The majority of the board wants to let it go (sell it! God forbid!) because, - since this tract was annexed in 2013, we haven't been able to find conscientious care-takers who don't trash the place, or potential lease-holders who can stick around very long. - The board doesn't want to have to afford (and I can't myself) the additional taxes on top of the other lands we are responsible for. - We're an older, or already-swamped, voluntarily-poor board, without the energy or time to clean up the messes or maintain the land.
Mission of RLTWV is ... 1. Providing access to land for the landless; 2. Promoting the ecological use of land for the common good; 3. Protecting land from speculation; 4. Encouraging a new relationship with land that sees it as the common heritage of all people, not as the private property of a few, nor as a commodity to be exchanged; 5. Developing networks of support and fellowship that will strengthen those on trust lands in times of need or ecological threat to the land; 6. Supporting efforts for land reform everywhere.
Looks like a job for SUPER CWs or their counterparts!! Your new address would be: 881 Slab Fork Rd. Spencer, WV 25276 about 10 miles from town (last 2 are gravel), relatively reliable transportation would be needed. There are currently FIVE other CW houses spread out around the state of WV each doing different ministries. You'd have an automatic extended intentional community AND a wonderful, tightly knit, REGION-WIDE network of fellow radically-minded, environmentally friendly folks, catholic, not-so-Catholic, and not-Catholic.