A note on our vision is that it was written before we found and settled down at Mansdala.
A place to live where we can have a beautiful and fulfilling life in the countryside, without the isolation and vulnerability that often come with it. A place where children always have many playmates, where adults who don’t have offspring of their own can still interact with children, and where the sick and elderly can live rich social lives at home. A place where we can hear birdsong and frogsong, where we can walk in nature and feel at peace. A place where we can eat fresh healthy food that we grow, but still take vacation and do other things with our lives. A place where music flourishes because people have the time and mental space to sit down with one another and improvise.
We will create a vibrant Cohousing* neighborhood of mixed families, with 20-35 adults and however many children are attached to them, where each family has their own fully functioning independent home and also access to shared spaces and resources. Residents will have their own private economies and income streams -- the community will not provide significant jobs for residents. The only shared economies will be those surrounding the explicitly defined community projects, or projects agreed to between individual residents (i.e., two families decide to purchase a car together).
Homes may be freestanding houses, rowhouses, or apartments. With any of these options residents can have a private garden (or larger private farm). People may own or rent but all will have equal voting rights in community projects.
All will pay a monthly or yearly fee to cover maintenance costs of shared spaces and projects. Shared spaces can include: a common house with a common kitchen and dining room where residents may partake in optional dinners each week; one or more guest rooms; a children's play room; a teen hang-out room; a communal workshop; a laundry; a hobby/craft room; etc. Residents will plan together to decide what shared spaces to create, and will then manage these spaces through optional monthly meetings. One shared project will be agriculture: see below.
There will be flow and exchange between the cohousing community and the surrounding inhabitants and society. Non-residents will be welcome to participate in our agricultural projects, for example by participating in garden workdays and taking home a share of vegetables. Non-residents will also be welcome at events organized within the cohousing community, for example harvest festivals, lactofermentation parties, acorn preparation workshops...
We will grow an abundance of food, for ourselves and to share if we have a surplus. We will use methods in alignment with Restoration Agriculture**, and a focus on agroforestry -- methods that sequester carbon, build up soil organic matter, create habitat for biodiversity, restore groundwater aquifers, etc. In practice this may look like: alleycropping of nut and fruit trees, low-till annual gardens, forest gardens, perennial vegetable gardens, pollinator gardens... lots of different gardens! Not everybody will physically work on the agricultural projects, but everyone will support the shared projects one way or another.
Compost processing
Humanure processing
Energy infrastructure: solar panels, electric car charger, central wood heating
1-2 ha fruits, vegetables, potatoes
Greenhouse
4-5 ha nut orchards
Woodland to supply firewood, timber
Small tractor capable of handling compost, humanure, snow, and forestry products
Keyline design of the whole property, including swales, ponds, paths and roads. Consider permaculture principles
Implement tree windbreak design
If there is naturbetesmark, appropriate management to preserve nature value
Common support animals: chickens and/or pigs for compost and reclaiming land; geese for orchard grazing; sheep for naturbetesmark
Optional: grain fields, animals for meat
Storing and processing facilities: root cellar, grovkök, grain bin
Keyline water design. Try to regenerate groundwater, not overexploit
Organic fruit and vegetable land will be as follows: Keyline rows of trees with nitrogen fixers in the row; wide rows between trees on strong rootstock; low-till vegetable growing between rows of trees
Nut orchards undergrazed as appropriate by geese, horses. Incorporate nitrogen-fixing shrubs between nut trees.
Woodland management: consider coppice management or continuous cover forestry as appropriate
When grazing larger areas: consider holistic grazing
Private gardens and farms: should follow rules of organic agriculture; should not overexploit water; should not threaten other gardens or infrastructure by erosion
Allow /support mutually beneficial Regenerative Agriculture practices by third parties on common land
We will build up the physical and logistical infrastructure of our community to support the health of our own residents as well as society at large. We have this goal while keeping in mind that everyone has a unique definition of what "health and well-being" means to them. What this could look like in practice: building with low-embodied energy, low-toxin materials; growing food without the use of harmful pesticides; organizing children's play groups; planning movie nights and open mic nights... the options are endless! We aim to support all kinds of health: physical, mental, spiritual, etc.
If you are interested to learn more, please contact: info@mansdala.se
*There is a lot of great literature out there about Cohousing: what it is, how it works, what the benefits are. Below is a selection of resources you can peruse to learn more, but you can also just search "Cohousing" on google or youtube.
https://cohousing.ca/about-cohousing/what-is-cohousing/
https://www.adlibris.com/se/bok/creating-cohousing-9780865716728
https://www.adlibris.com/se/bok/creating-a-life-together-9780865714717
**https://www.adlibris.com/se/bok/restoration-agriculture-9781601730350