Looking for information about Alaskan communes and alternative lifestylers
J.Douglas
(contacts, websites and the like) for Alaskan co-operative groups, communes
and alternative lifestylers.
I am planning a trip to Alaska and would really like to meet people who have
made
co-operative/environmental/hippy-retreat/just plain different lifestyles
work for themselves, especially within a group structure.
Anyone who wants to get in contact please email me.
Thanks, look forward to hearing from you.
Jamie
mccamon
Or ask Jan .....LOL
J.Douglas <j.do...@4mymail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3c9e6...@news1.vip.uk.com...
J.Douglas
Jamie
"mccamon" <deniseandda...@acsalaska.net> wrote in message
news:u9t7scs...@corp.supernews.com...
EbenezerScrooge
people when you send mail to a general
united states post office...in this case
it sounds to me like he is saying
write to him(mcmacom)
most likely it would be
david macamon
general delivery
homer, alaska
but no zip code, but that is ok as
there is only one homer, alaska
anyway, that's my take on it...
former alaskan
"J.Douglas" <j.do...@4mymail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3c9ea...@news1.vip.uk.com...
Gerald Newton
conventional life most Americans live. I am reluctant to call them communes
and they do not like being called such. I am acquainted with one near Big
Delta across the Delta River called Whitestone Farms. They are a corporate
community, not a commune. There are about 180 members and each belong to a
nonprofit corporation dedicated to the education of their youth. The
corporation owns everything and there is no private ownership. The
individuals work for the corporation and all moneys go to the corporation.
They draw supplies from the corporate supply. They are Christians and do
not allow any liquor stores or other non invited businesses to invade their
community. It is my understanding that this group takes in desperate unwed
mothers and others and shelter and comfort them. This community is very
educated and originally came from Vermont.
There are two other groups similar to this. One is between Delta Junction
and Tok on the Alaska highway and the other is near Haines.
Ryan Hannan
>There are three religious communities that are very different from the
>conventional life most Americans live. I am reluctant to call them communes
>and they do not like being called such. I am acquainted with one near Big
>Delta across the Delta River called Whitestone Farms. They are a corporate
>community, not a commune. There are about 180 members and each belong to a
>nonprofit corporation dedicated to the education of their youth. The
>corporation owns everything and there is no private ownership. The
>individuals work for the corporation and all moneys go to the corporation.
>They draw supplies from the corporate supply. They are Christians and do
>not allow any liquor stores or other non invited businesses to invade their
>community. It is my understanding that this group takes in desperate unwed
>mothers and others and shelter and comfort them. This community is very
>educated and originally came from Vermont.
>There are two other groups similar to this. One is between Delta Junction
>and Tok on the Alaska highway and the other is near Haines.
SAPA Christian Center is also pretty similar. They're near Copper
Center (more specifically, Mile 13 Edgerton Hwy).
Ryan
--
Ryan Hannan
www.pelennor.net/~reh/
A Ingram
reputed to be a haven for "hippies" and the artsy/alternative crowd. Correct
me if I'm wrong.
On my first trip to Homer, the first person I saw was this beautiful woman
with long, long hair and a long green velvet dress, walking down the street.
I remember thinking, "let's see now, how can I make a living here?" I am a
musician and teacher and I went so far as to visit the local music store and
met a wonderful older lady who was the local music teacher. Jan, do you know
if she is still there? I love Homer. Maybe one of these days.
Jan Flora
In article <SWxn8.4252$Eb5.4...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
Jan Flora
music. And she helps organize the community Handel's Messiah sing every
Christmas.
Jan
In article <zzBn8.5111$se.5...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>, "A
mccamon
family ) Here in Soldotna we joke about homer being a commune for the
hippies.
A Ingram <alastai...@att.net> wrote in message
news:zzBn8.5111$se.5...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
bookburn
information,
> (contacts, websites and the like) for Alaskan co-operative
groups, communes
> and alternative lifestylers.
>
> I am planning a trip to Alaska and would really like to meet
people who have
> made
> co-operative/environmental/hippy-retreat/just plain different
lifestyles
> work for themselves, especially within a group structure.
Difficulty is that the "different" groups don't advertise open
communication so much, for probably understandable reasons.
There is a community of Russians near Homer who are seriously
different in that they are descendents of those who emigrated to
the US around the end of the 19th C., evidently part of the
exodus of those opposed to industrialization for religious
reasons, although I can be corrected about this. There is a
community of Mormon who are doing high-tech farming in the
Matsusitna Valley, although I can be corredted about this, too.
And there are Norweigen fishermen in villages around Southeast
Alaska, like St. Petersburg, where they still speak the old
language.
Co-operative groups exist in Anchorage as in any city where
immigrants are numerous. I think there is a newspaper section at
www.adn.com that advertises social groups and events, etc.,
including those featuring different lifestyles.
Native groups in villages, etc., have clans similar to Scottish
people, except that they have evolved over a longer time. They
speak of cultural values that are customary and traditional and a
subsistence lifestyle, instead of some arbitrary New Age or
post-modern ideology, but the commune/community concept is
organic and supported by racial and linguistic characteristics;
enforced, too, by Alaska's remoteness and isolation.
There are a number of non-Native small communities in rural
Alaska that seem to have evolved a different group identity, such
as religious fundamentalism, pot-growing independents, defensive
out-of-work fishermen, etc., and you might not want that lot.
bookburn
> Jamie
>
>
A Ingram
"Jan Flora" <snow...@xyz.net> wrote in message
news:snowshoe-250...@205-pm6.hom.alaska.net...
Ryan Hannan
>Is she single? ;-)
Hey now, aren't you married? Tsck, tsck, tsck...
Jan Flora
or the beautiful young woman in the green dress?
Mary may be a widow. I would have to ask around. The Eppersons homesteaded
here in the '40's. The area around their homestead is named after them. She's
a local icon.
If you want to move up here, you should sent your resume' to the Kenai Peninsula
Borough School District. But I'll warn you right now that funding for education
is about to take a big hit, and music classes are one of the first
programs to go
out of the window, in times of tight money. A few folks around here make some
money playing music. Most have day jobs, too. (My luthier plays music at night.
I think he also works as a cabinetmaker.)
We've got an awesome local band, called "Too Fat To Fly." It's a bunch of aging
(they're all my age -- mid 40's+) guys who were rockers in their younger
days. Let's see, there's a newspaper reporter, a radio newsman, the luthier,
several carpenters, a retired jazz musician (due to health), etc. in the band.
They rock! They're the first band hired for any big shindig in the area : )
If you're willing to do whatever it takes to live here, you might be able
to make it.
I see lots of folks try, and lots of them fail. You have to be versatile
and willing to
do whatever it takes to pay the rent, while you chase your dream.
Jan
In article <G7Un8.6571$se.6...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>, "A
Jan Flora
<book...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> "J.Douglas" <j.do...@4mymail.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:3c9e6...@news1.vip.uk.com...
> > A big hello to everyone from Scotland. I am looking for
> information,
> > (contacts, websites and the like) for Alaskan co-operative
> groups, communes
> > and alternative lifestylers.
[...]
> There is a community of Russians near Homer who are seriously
> different in that they are descendents of those who emigrated to
> the US around the end of the 19th C., evidently part of the
> exodus of those opposed to industrialization for religious
> reasons, although I can be corrected about this.
[...]
> bookburn
>
>
> > Jamie
There are actually four Old Believer (Russian) communities around
Homer, as well as some in the Mat-Su and Delta areas. Our villages around
Homer are: Nikolaevsk, Razdolna, Vosnesenka and Kachemak Selo. Dolena
is a ghost village that was recently sold to a private party. (Dolena
is Russian for "a place far away." That's why they abandoned it -- it was
too hard to get to in the winter -- it's *way* up the Fox River Flats.)
Their families fled Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) so
they wouldn't be murdered. They went to China, South America & Australia.
A bunch immigrated to Oregon in the last 30 (?) years or so. We've had them
here in the Homer area since the early 1970's. They practice a rural, agrarian
lifestyle that is home and church centered. Most elders don't speak English.
Language retention among the children is 100%. Most of the men are commercial
fishermen, although some are carpenters. A dozen kids in a family is not
uncommon.
Kids are blessings from God. Birth control is a sin. (I have a girlfriend
in the village
who is 37 y/o and has a dozen kids. She's got 5 grandkids as of this
writing.) It's
not uncommon to find extended families living in a home -- grandma, grandpa,
cousins, whoever needs a home is welcome.
Old Believers dress in a traditional manner. All females wear skirts, even
in the
most ungodly weather, and even when milking cows and working in their large
subsistance gardens. They sew all of the clothing for the family. Married women
wear scarves -- they aren't allowed to cut their hair, or let anyone
outside of their
immediate family see their hair. The men wear Chairman Mao style shirts, with
flowers embroidered on the collars and plackets. The flowers are prayers,
like Tibetan
prayer wheels. (They are hand-embroidered. You should see the beautiful handwork
involved!)
TV's and computers are verboten in O.B. homes, although some progressive folks
have them. Voz is a progressive village, where the women are going to
college; the
kids are finishing high school and going on to college and the girls don't
have to
marry when they're 14. Arranged marriages have also been done away with.
A lot of people in Homer can't stand the Old Believers. I love them.
They're interesting;
they're great neighbors; and they're keeping the yuppies from invading my
neighborhood.
When we sell them a beef (to eat) they say prayers before it gets shot;
they say prayers
as they stick it to bleed it, and they say prayers when they're done.
Their God is watching,
when they kill an animal to feed their family. I like that. They treat our
animals with
respect.
Old Believers seperated from the Russian Orthodox Church 400 years ago,
due to some
silly clerical errors in handwritten bibles that came back from
Constantinople. They
are "unpriested," so they elect a village priest to lead church services.
There are no pews or chairs in the churches, as you should only stand or
kneel in the
presence of God. Church lasts 4 hours, except on Easter and other High
Holy Days,
when it lasts much longer. They put the onion domes or the cross with the
"broken
bones of Jesus" slanted lower cross on their church roofs. Their churches
are gorgeous,
even in the poorest of villages. Polished hardwood floors and awesome
icons; fresh
flowers; and clean, clean, clean. That's an O.B. trait -- everything is
always clean.
Homes, people, churches, cars. Livestock is beautifully tended. Gardens
are perfect.
Homes are always immaculate, even though 16 people may live there.
They have strict dietary laws. No pork; no shellfish; no animal that isn't
cloven-hooved.
(Sound familiar?) They fast all the time. Right now is Lent, so they are
on a meat fast
for 40 days. They use the Julian calender, so their Easter is 2 weeks
later than mine.
(I'm Roman Catholic.) They have oil fasts, dairy fasts, and meat fasts all
throughout
the year. They have more saints than I can shake a stick at.
The only way to join an Old Believer village is to marry into it. I only
know of one
non-Russian man who has done that, but several Russian women have married
non-Russians without being shunned by their families.
IMO, the Old Believers are *very* cool, but my grandpa was Mennonite, so I'm
biased.
Jan
Sam Douglas
Stirling, Scotland for 4 yrs),
anyway, I thought it was gonna be a huge culture shock - but not quite so
much as I would have though, perhaps years of "Friends" episodes have taken
their toll and we're finally all Americanized and therefore don't notice the
difference, but the only real difference I have noticed so far is:
a) There's three feet of snow outside my door
b) The kids are a hell of a lot better behaved - i.e. they don't run about
in rangers and celtic tops throwing stones at passers by from the age of 6
c) There's STILL three feet of snow outside my door!
It is a beautiful place... I have photos at my website
www.webwizardalaska.com if you're interested.
Nice to hear from another of the "black Douglas's" :)
Sam.
Sam Douglas Sam Scott Douglas www.WebWizardAlaska.com
"J.Douglas" <j.do...@4mymail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3c9e6...@news1.vip.uk.com...
J.Douglas
black as a rotten potatoe.
Is it really as bad regards men to women ratio as everyone says.
Looking forward to the holiday, but don't want to get my ass kicked by a
jealous lumberjack.
news:ua1ueen...@corp.supernews.com...
Sam Douglas
then again if you believe what u read in the papers and see on the TV you'd
think people from Northern Ireland were all terrorists and everyone in
Scotland was called "wee Tam" and eats haggis and plays bagpipes (when its
really deep fried marsbars and irn bru :p).
So no, I've not seen that there's such a big disparity in the numbers of the
sexes, although I live in downtown Anchorage - so maybe elsewhere in Alaska
its a lot more noticeable, I'm not sure.
It is pretty much like any other American City I've visited just a lot
smaller, a lot colder a lot prettier and a lot friendlier... not a bad
combination when you think about it.
Oh, when you come over, bring yourself some Tea Bags and Cadbury's chocolate
cos the stuff over here is awful!.
Sam.
Sam Douglas Sam Scott Douglas www.WebWizardAlaska.com
"J.Douglas" <j.do...@4mymail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3ca10...@news2.vip.uk.com...
Jan Flora
<Samscot...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I cant say I've noticed it to be as pronounced as I was led to believe, but
> then again if you believe what u read in the papers and see on the TV you'd
> think people from Northern Ireland were all terrorists and everyone in
> Scotland was called "wee Tam" and eats haggis and plays bagpipes (when its
> really deep fried marsbars and irn bru :p).
>
> So no, I've not seen that there's such a big disparity in the numbers of the
> sexes, although I live in downtown Anchorage - so maybe elsewhere in Alaska
> its a lot more noticeable, I'm not sure.
> It is pretty much like any other American City I've visited just a lot
> smaller, a lot colder a lot prettier and a lot friendlier... not a bad
> combination when you think about it.
>
> Oh, when you come over, bring yourself some Tea Bags and Cadbury's chocolate
> cos the stuff over here is awful!.
>
> Sam.
[huge snip]
Hey Now! You can buy Cadbury's in Anchorage. You just have to know where
to shop.
You can also buy good tea, but the stuff in the bags is all crap over
here. You have
to buy loose tea and brew it properly, in a pot.
Jan
Jan Flora
<Samscot...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I have just moved here a month ago from Belfast, N. Ireland (also lived in
> Stirling, Scotland for 4 yrs),
> anyway, I thought it was gonna be a huge culture shock - but not quite so
> much as I would have though, perhaps years of "Friends" episodes have taken
> their toll and we're finally all Americanized and therefore don't notice the
> difference, but the only real difference I have noticed so far is:
>
> a) There's three feet of snow outside my door
> b) The kids are a hell of a lot better behaved - i.e. they don't run about
> in rangers and celtic tops throwing stones at passers by from the age of 6
> c) There's STILL three feet of snow outside my door!
>
> It is a beautiful place... I have photos at my website
> www.webwizardalaska.com if you're interested.
>
> Nice to hear from another of the "black Douglas's" :)
>
> Sam.
Welcome to Alaska, Sam!
What is "Friends"? A TV sitcom?
I guess those would be my little cousins throwing rocks. From what I gather,
the folks back home are Republicans. (Not the American kind -- the Irish kind.)
The last time my grandmother went home to visit, her hotel in Belfast had just
been bombed. Her parents were from County Tyrone.
The snow and long winters in Alaska just make you appreciate our glorious
summers that much more.
Jan
Jan Flora
the term all my life and still don't know what it means.
To J. Douglas, there are plenty of women in Alaska, but we're all
pretty weird. But so are the men.
Tourist women are a wonderful resource -- you'll have a fine
holiday.
Jan
In article <3ca10...@news2.vip.uk.com>, "J.Douglas"
RGB
> Will you two please tell me what a black Irishman is? I've heard
> the term all my life and still don't know what it means.
If I remember correctly, black Irish are the descendants of sailers from
the Spanish Armada who swam ashore after their ships sank. The
combination usually is black hair and blue eyes.
Sam Douglas
swam ashore!??!?
its more than likely a myth, the only such tale i have studied before was
the fact that the red headed people of ireland and scotland were decended
from the vikings who basically raped and pillaged along the irish and
scottish coast for many years and intermingled with the local population...
Sam.
ps try http://www.faqs.org/faqs/cultures/irish-faq/part08/section-10.html
or http://www.darkfiber.com/blackirish/ for one aspect of the term, but from
my own experience its a different usage of the term. Bear in mind that most
things written about most things irish are written by americans for
americans - which is why you get all this leprechaun crap and the like....
Sam Douglas Sam Scott Douglas www.WebWizardAlaska.com
"RGB" <bis...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:a7rind$m71$1...@nntp9.atl.mindspring.net...
bookburn
heard
> the term all my life and still don't know what it means.
I asked about "black" Irish and Scottish at alt.soc.scottish,
wondering if the Spanish who washed ashore during the 16th C.
Armada had taken root. Someone said, "No, we thought they were
monkeys and ate them." Little different sense of humor over
there. bookburn
Kevin Stall
What summers? I must admit, now that I'm getting ready to come home it's
not the winters I'm dreading it's the lousy summers. Did you know that in
the summers it can actually get above 75 outside of Alaska? After spending
the last 9 months baking in the sun the thought of 2 weeks of summer just
does something to me.
RGB
"Sam Douglas" <Samscot...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ua2rt1q...@corp.supernews.com...
> i do hope you were joking, unless half a million spanish sailors somehow
> swam ashore!??!?
Why would it take half a million? A few dozen sailers, making it to shore
in the 16th century would definitely have a lot of descendants by now.
Sam Douglas
travellers who have always had dark hair....
how many time have you actually been to Ireland to test this theory?
Strange how people become convinced of something just cos somebody in high
school told them it once...
Sam
"RGB" <bis...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:a7sio8$heb$1...@slb2.atl.mindspring.net...
Dennis P. Harris
<bis...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> If I remember correctly, black Irish are the descendants of sailers from
> the Spanish Armada who swam ashore after their ships sank. The
> combination usually is black hair and blue eyes.
>
The Celts of northern Spain (Galicians) and inland Brittany and
Wales (Bretons and Welsh) mostly have dark hair. Red hair came
to Scotland, Ireland, and coastal Brittany from Viking invaders.
One of the Viking strongholds, the Shetland Islands, has a
population where red hair is the norm. I once saw the Shetland
Fiddle Orchestra perform in Edinburgh, about 25 players --- and
they *all* had red hair!
J.Douglas
phrase Black Irish. I know some people refer to the Irish as the Blacks of
Europe, cause of the poverty and music. But on the whole it's not something
you really hear.
Sam was refering to my surname Douglas which is Scottish and the Douglas'
who were quite famous as raiders, they used to raid down into england
stealing cattle and killing. Kind of like the Mongol Horde of Scotland. THey
were known as The Black Douglas' , especially the guy who started it all of
really, a Luietenant and friend of Robert The Bruce's. The first James
Douglas, the original 'Black Douglas'. Vicious bastard but loyal to Bruce
and to Scotland.
There are pages and pages of James Douglas' in the phone book now for any
given area. On the other side I am Irish MacDonnell, more warrior types,
Clan crest is a crow upon a mound of bodies that has now been tastefully
downplayed to an earthen mound.
So I'm kind of thick with that old black celtic blood. But then anyone from
an Irish or Scots background is as we are all descended from vicious buggers
who spent all their time fighting.
James
"Jan Flora" <snow...@xyz.net> wrote in message
news:snowshoe-260...@246-pm4.hom.alaska.net...
Tim Smith
NO_SPAM_T...@gci.net (Dennis P. Harris)
wrote:
Well that certainly clears that up. Thanks PLONK.
If 25 players in a fiddle orchestra have red hair
then what other conclusion could anyone jump to.
The Vikings must have done it. Last time I saw
Clem Tillion he had red hair too. I guess he must
have some viking in his family tree as well.
Ya sure can learn a lot just readin ole PLONK's
postings on ACA.
Tim Smith
Floyd Davidson
>
>Ya sure can learn a lot just readin ole PLONK's
>postings on ACA.
>
>Tim Smith
The problem Tim, is that from reading your posts we can't
learn a damned thing.
--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://www.ptialaska.net/~floyd>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) fl...@barrow.com
Kevin Stall
Readers: I am growing tired of persons who pretend to have read the
following essay then attack me with name-calling and threats for getting The
TRUE Explanation of their "Black Irish" WRONG.
the latest two attacks have asserted that (1) the original Irish were Black
Africans, based on the descriptions of the Firbolg as black and a single
reference in an 18th-century english text; and (2) that "the Danes were the
heavy armed, chainmailed clad 'black' invaders [of Ireland in the 9th
century]. [thus] the black Irish are persons that can count in their
heritage, Danish ancestry."
(note that neither theory accounts for the term's exclusive usage in the USA
in the past century, with no source whatsoever found in Eire itself.)
At no time in the essay do i claim to know the origin of the term "Black
Irish".
this essay is about what the "Black Irish" are -NOT-, ie, the Black Irish
are NOT of spanish descent from Armada survivors, and the reasons why the
Black Irish are not of spanish descent from Armada survivors.
However, given recent readings and investigations, i will now hazard a
theory on the origin of the term "Black Irish":
that its origin lies in borrowing the color of the reason for the flood of
Irish immigrants into the USA in the 19th-century - flight from the Black
Blight - the Potato Famine of Black '47, a memory seared into the
consciousness of the expatriate Irish who survived in America.
"Jan Flora" <snow...@xyz.net> wrote in message
news:snowshoe-260...@246-pm4.hom.alaska.net...
Jan Flora
<nftesay...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Mar 2002 12:19:57 -0900,
> NO_SPAM_T...@gci.net (Dennis P. Harris)
> wrote:
>
> >On Tue, 26 Mar 2002 23:40:39 -0500 in alt.culture.alaska, "RGB"
> ><bis...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >
[...]
> Well that certainly clears that up. Thanks PLONK.
> If 25 players in a fiddle orchestra have red hair
> then what other conclusion could anyone jump to.
> The Vikings must have done it. Last time I saw
> Clem Tillion he had red hair too. I guess he must
> have some viking in his family tree as well.
>
> Ya sure can learn a lot just readin ole PLONK's
> postings on ACA.
>
> Tim Smith
Clem still has hair, but it isn't red anymore.
I don't know if he's got Vikings in his family tree, but he
sure is a character!
Jan
RGB
I did some heavy genealogy a few years ago and found quite a bit of family
history. My genes are Dutch, Irish, English, Welsh, French with a strong
dash of Native American. It's odd to see how the genes sorted out in the
family. I'm dark haired (or I was) with dark eyes and high cheekbones.
My older son is the same with an exotic slant to his eyes. He often gets
asked if he's Native American or Asian. He just smiles and says, 'Who
knows what gets grafted on the family tree.
My younger son looks very much like his brother, except he is fair skinned
with a red tint to his light brown hair and he has hazel eyes.
And one of my brothers is a very fair haired blue eyed blond. Very Dutch
looking.
Sue
"J.Douglas" <j.do...@4mymail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3ca23...@news2.vip.uk.com...
Dennis P. Harris
"J.Douglas" <j.do...@4mymail.co.uk> wrote:
> So I'm kind of thick with that old black celtic blood. But then anyone from
> an Irish or Scots background is as we are all descended from vicious buggers
> who spent all their time fighting.
>
or to quote my favorite poet, "Such a parcel of rogues in a
nation!".
RGB
"Dennis P. Harris" <NO_SPAM_T...@gci.net> wrote in message
news:b445aucvbgt2ugg4q...@4ax.com...
And if you take a parcel of these folks, dump them in the Appalachian
Mountains
where the only entertainment is feuding..... Well you can see why the War
of Northern Aggression lasted so long.
Sue, whose ancestors fought on both sides
Charles Eggen
>> Oh, when you come over, bring yourself some Tea Bags and Cadbury's chocolate
>> cos the stuff over here is awful!.
>>
>> Sam.
>
Although I have not been able to shop there recently, Kobuk Coffee and
Tea (5th & E) use to be the best place in Anchorge to buy tea. As for
Cadbury chocolate - you should be able to find it in a variety of
places, but if not get back to me and I can steer you to an on-line
source.
Charles