Wise Acres Cooperative Association

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 1990

What we do

Wise Acres is a cohousing community of nine member households. We are comprised of teachers, programmers, artists, farmers, cooks, entrepreneurs, and craftspeople. We are children, adults, elders, and pets.
Each member household owns title to a 1/3-acre lot, as well as an equal share in the 13-acre forested greenbelt, large and abundant organic garden, orchard, hot tub, sauna, community house, etc.
We also have several rental options – a yurt, 2 1-bedroom attached apartments, 1 2-bedroom detached ADU, the more options currently under development. Please contact us to see what might be available currently.
The group shares dinners twice each week, regular meetings, and spontaneous trips to local mountains, movies, beaches, etc. There are no required political or spiritual affiliations. We are individuals and families inspired by the riches gained by committing ourselves to actively participate in community.

Our Mission

Wise Acres is a cohousing community of nine member households. We are comprised of teachers, programmers, artists, farmers, cooks, entrepreneurs, and craftspeople.

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Cohousing

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1990
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 1990
  • Started living together
  • 19 Total members
  • Not open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
49

How to join

It is on our website

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Wise-Acres gathers for community dinner every Monday and Wednesday at 6:00. Please call or email ahead to arrange a visit, at least one day in advance.

Primary decision-making authority

  • All Community Members Together

The whole membership decides collectively.

Decision-making process

  • Modified Consensus

Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Conflict resolution approach

Wise Acres has a decision model that strives for consensus, and has an alternative fallback process.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Regular fees: $60
Labor: Yes
We have community dinners twice per week (Monday and Wednesday evenings). Attendance is not mandatory (occasionally folks will miss dinner for other meetings or events, kid sports schedules, plans, etc….), but it works best when their is an intention to preserve this time for connection, sharing, celebration while maintaining balance with other committments. Each household cooks for the group (of about 30ish people) approximately once per month. We have a large organic garden, and from approx March-October each household commits to at least 2.5 hours of gardening per week. Each household also commits to a one community chore (annual sign-up) ranging from hot tub cleaning, garden coordinating, treasurer, common house cleaner, lawn mower, trail and blackberry clearer, etc… These jobs on average take approx 4-5 hours per month. (some are more seasonal than others: eg. Lawn mowing is approx 10 hrs/mth summer, zero in winter…). Members are expected to attend our monthly business meeting (2nd Wednesday of month, 6:30-8:30 pm), and our monthly community support meeting (4th Wednesday of the month, 7:00-8:30 pm).
Wise Acres collects quarterly membership dues.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Greenhouse(s), Hot tub or hot springs, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Waterfront access

Frequency of communal meals

  • 2-5 times per week

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure
  • Substance use occurs primarily at celebrations or ceremonies
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Buddhist
  • Jewish
  • Unitarian Universalist

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Cohousing

    Private homes with shared common facilities, designed for neighborly
    interaction while maintaining independence.

Self-produced energy

  • Up to 33%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • 33 - 66%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Greenhouse / aquaponics
  • Land area size
    17.5 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Washington, United States

Wise Acres Cooperative Association

Needs and Offers

Offer
  • Communities with Openings
7 months ago

Worktrade Opportunities on Big Island Hawaii

We are continuing our work-trade program at Bridge Hawaii for the right people on this beautiful 86-acre land located along the Hāmākua Coast. Ideally, we want to host those individuals who can help with the garden and who can support with build projects for up to a 3 month stay. This work-trade would include lodging, food staples, community kitchen, running hot water showers, off-grid electricity, and laundry. There is access to high speed wi-fi. We often have a car that can be reserved. We also have full bar signal strength with Verizon cellphone service. We have about 2 acres of permaculture garden that needs to be cared for including; weeding, planting, picking up mulch, some tree trimming, ect. We are currently in a building stage on the land. We have a few current grant projects we are working on and some build projects that are underway. We are an intentional community with about 8 permanent residents. There are rescue dairy cows, mini cows, mini donkeys, horses, a donkey, cats, dogs, and active bee hives. We are a drug and alcohol “free” space. A glass of wine or beer with dinner is fine, but absolutely no day drinking or parties. We have a meditation temple and many waterfall pools that are wonderful for swimming. Close to some of the nicest beaches on island. We have snorkeling gear and a kayak. Since this is an animal sanctuary, we limit the consumption of meat on the land. Fish, eggs, honey, and dairy are fine. Let me know if you’re interested by sending an email or text for our application. Maomi (801) 623-0738 ma***@*****************ii.com
Need
  • Communities with Openings
3 years ago

Twin Oaks, an established, income-sharing, village-scale community is seeking new members

Twin Oaks is looking for new members! Founded in 1967, Twin Oaks is an egalitarian, income-sharing community made currently 70 adults and 15 kids, living on 500 forested acres in central Virginia. Twin Oaks has strong social justice values including feminism, racial justice, and queer culture. We host a Queer Gathering and Women’s Gathering each summer, and we have a number of working groups around racial justice issues in general and in an intentional community context. Please visit our website twinoaks.org for more information and directions on how to apply for a Visitor Period. A Visitor Period is the first step towards becoming a member. We can offer: your choice of full-time work in our income-sharing community businesses (heirloom seeds, hammocks, and others) and/or domestic work areas from organic gardening to milking cows and cheese-making to office work to technical jobs and more! an individual room in shared housing; each member has their own personal bedroom and shares a kitchen, living room and bathroom with others in their house. Each residence has its own culture and range of ages. all meals are provided in our communal dining hall and/or in smaller kitchens for individual eating. We generally accommodate all special diets. (gluten-free, vegan, no garlic, etc.) income-sharing includes health-care and monthly stipend for extra We are looking for: people with various life skills and/or a willingness to learn people who share our values of social justice, sustainability and living closely with a diversity of people people with a generally responsible and pro-active approach to community living experience or interest in non-hierarchical, shared decision-making BIPOC, women and non-binary people especially encouraged The first step towards becoming a member is to participate in one of
Offer
  • Forming Communities
1 month ago

Join us in Our Adventure of Co-Creating a Life of Peace, Love, and Abundance Together!

LOOKING FOR OUR NEW FAMILY OF CO CREATORS TO JOIN OUR ADVENTURE! Message us to schedule a visit! More about us and our vision below! Read on and we look forward to hearing from you soon if you feel in alignment with our vision! A forming and co-created spiritually-oriented intentional community and homestead nestled in the beautiful woods of Northern Michigan. We are focused on self-awareness, free and open spiritual/consciousness development, sustainable living, self sufficiency, growing organic food, building small energy efficient homes/dwellings, peace, and freedom in all things. We are looking to build a community of like minded souls that share in our vision of creating a harmonious and sustainable way of life that is close to nature and focused on living from the heart/soul. Seeking kind, compassionate, caring, and emotionally mature souls who are good at non violent communication, resolving conflict peacefully, and working together. The community property is well on its way to sustainability already with a fruit orchard with over 18 apple trees and a variety of plum and pear trees. The property also has 2 very large organic gardens covering around 3 acres in total combined size filled with organic healthy vegetables for community self sufficiency, farm market selling, and food preserving (canning). We have plans to build a couple energy efficient green houses in the near future! We are also getting 30-40 chickens for egg production within the next month. Also considering a couple cows or goats for milk. We currently have 3 houses on the homestead property that are available to new community members for rent or work trade or a combination of both! The main community house has potentially 6 bedrooms available as well. We have plans to build multiple small/tiny homes and cabins in the beautiful woods here for members that are energy efficient and off grid with renewable clean energy/electricity and rainwater harvesting. We are working on a community in

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A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

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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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