east wind community, the ozarks

wild.

two miles down a winding dirt road, in the middle of rambling rural southern missouri, is the east wind community. made up of 65-80 people (i can't get a straight answer about the population size), east wind is egalitarian & income-sharing.
they grow a variety of vegetables, fruits, beans, and nuts.
they make sandals, hammocks and nut butters.
most members have been friendly, some have been naked.

the communal kitchen is enormous and usually bustling. there is a 'commie clothes' room, a big walk-in refrigerator full of produce, a small internet room (where i am writing this), an impressively well-stocked library, a jacuzzi, a sweat lodge, a game room.
the toilets are outhouses without running water, so you breathe through your mouth and you do your business and pour sawdust on top of it. it isn't difficult to get used to, i assure you.

courtney and i woke up between six & six-thirty and practiced yoga in the fitness room alongside an as yet anonymous gray-haired fellow.
it is so cold in the morning here and you can hear the cows and roosters from our tent.
we were given the grand garden tour by richard, a very sweet and soft-spoken man with plenty to tell us about soil conditions, harvesting, weeding, etc.

we spent four & a half hours yanking stubborn weeds from the ground.
sweat, heat, sunburn.
weed, water, lunch, siesta, weed, water, weed.

we are expected to do approximately five hours of work a day, or 35 hours a week, but it's possible to distribute the hours however you'd like - seven hours one day, three the next.
labor isn't dictated, it is self-assigned, and you turn in your hours chart at the end of every week.

i don't think i can accurately describe this place in full vivid detail. it is unlike anything i have ever seen and every moment is rather strange and exciting.