Earth Abides is located in a remote area in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in Central Sierra Miwuk lands.
We are a rural, intentional community and since 2019 Earth Abides is under the auspices of Canticle Farm, an Oakland, California-based nonprofit. Canticle Farm is an urban farm and educational center, an intentional community, and an experiment in faith-based activism, nonviolence, and restorative justice. Earth Abides was originally founded in 1976 in the lineage of the Catholic Worker movement, by people seeking to create a Catholic Worker Farm – one of the pillars of Peter Maurin’s three step program of social reconstruction (round table discussions, houses of hospitality, and farm communes or agronomic universities). You can learn more about our history on our website.
Surrounded by vast areas of wildlands, we have frequent encounters with a rich diversity of non-human kin, ranging from the smallest of organisms to large ones such as bear and cougar. We are currently building the foundation of our relationship to this place by learning how to harmonize ourselves with the ones who have already been living here in the form of human, plant, animal and elemental beings. Life here can be rugged at times. Examples include rural roads, social isolation, water and/or power limitations, being snowed in, chopping wood for wood stove heating, and living with fire hazard. Except for satellite internet and a landline, we are off-grid. Currently there are three people living full time on the land, with plenty of visitors and beautiful extended community members coming often.
Our main initiatives at this time are:
– Cleaning up waste left by previous occupants
– Wildfire fuels reduction
– Food, water, shelter and medicine sovereignty
– Building relationship with and creating land access for the Sierra Miwuk on their ancestral lands with the intention of honoring and being led by their ancestral wisdom.
– Educational offerings: Permaculture, nonviolence, restorative justice, and much more..
We are living the ‘Great Turning’ while experiencing the simultaneous ‘Great Unraveling’ and charting our service path and role in the planetary shift from an industrial-growth society to a life-sustaining society.
Our membership is relational and thus earned in the dynamic long-term process of building intimacy and trust through serving in good works together on the land.
In other words, membership is not purchased but rather created from mutual discovery of how one’s gifts fit into the relations on the land and in the community.
Our invitation at this time is to come serve with us in our daily and seasonal efforts of tending and restoration of the land. In this way we hope to build quality long-term relationships with those who are a good fit for the land and our community vision here.
Please email us at ea*************@***il.com to explore visiting/volunteer opportunities.
A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.
Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.
Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.
The more longer-term, committed members carry the most weight of responsibility and decision-making.
Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.
Labor: Encouraged or suggested
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
Financially we operate on a gift economy model. Insofar as labor is concerned, we are an off-grid community working towards self-sufficiency. As such we expect people to ‘step up’ and lend a helping hand to any one or more tasks that are always in the queue.
Common House, Garden(s), Library, Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Swimming pond or pool, Outdoor Kitchen, Large Scale Kitchen, Tractor & Farm Equipment, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Internet
Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.
Shared living spaces with private bedrooms/bathrooms and communal
kitchens, dining, and social areas.
Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.
Geographically close groups of independently-owned homes whose residents actively cultivate community relationships and shared values.
Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace
A residential project: people live here as their primary home.
An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).
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We’re introducing new Plus features — including community reviews, Profile Match, and unlimited Needs & Offers posts — while keeping most of FIC free for everyone. Membership costs less than two coffees a month.
