Hey y’all! I’m hoping this type of post will fly in here ❤️. Apologies as it’s rather lengthy. I’m Lara Lea from Alabama, born and raised. Here’s the nutshell version.

I returned to Alabama in 2014 after living 16 years collectively in the mountains of Mexico and Lima, Peru. I carry a deep understanding of the healing that humanity is calling for, and fully committed to becoming the clearest possible vessel through which that healing can take form.

After being thankfully ejected from the bowels of corporate America in October, I returned to my family’s estate with 2 intentions: One was to revive the 12 acres that nature was reclaiming since my father died three years ago to its former farm glory, which I succeeded. I plowed and planted and bushhogged, fattened up the animals… all the things. The second was to mirror the healing that I have worked SO HARD FOR to my mother, who clearly hasn’t evolved since high school, and hopefully heal some generational trauma. In this I have failed. She has called me a witch and a blasphemer, and asked me to leave.

I had asked for the universe for a shove in the direction of my highest and best, and that’s what I got🤣.

In light of this, I would like to get as far as possible from Ala fucking bama. I’m eyeing Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. I come with my dog Tallulah, plenty of skills, and loads of charm and intelligence.

This is my Hail Mary 🙏 let’s see where it lands!

Hi everyone! 🌱

I'm Koda, the founder of Moonrise Meadow Collective, a forming communal homestead on 11 acres in Mid Michigan (Greater Lansing area).

I'm a 31-year-old queer polyamorous woman, a hippie at heart, equal parts silly and serious. I have a degree in Animal Science plus coursework in organic agriculture, ecology, and natural resource management, and a deeply spiritual practice rooted in re-wilding and earth energy.

I co-lead this project with my non-binary partner, and we're looking for 4-6 new members to join us this year. We're also welcoming summer stay helpers who just want to be here for the warmer months (May-September).

In the spirit of radical honesty: we are a diamond in the rough, full of potential**.** The communal house is older and in the process of restoration. The land is beautiful but needs real tending. We are very much in the forming phase, which is exciting but sometimes messy! If you're someone who gets excited by the idea of starting things rather than arriving at finished things, keep reading!

WHO WE ARE

Our collective is women-centered, queer-affirming, and rooted in earth-based spiritually. We want to heal and grow together as a group, consciously aligning with the seasons and cycles of nature.

Our values: mutual aid, radical honesty, shared resources, ecological stewardship, body positivity, nudity positivity, connection to nature, trauma healing as a group, breaking generational cycles, and what we call "cosmic feminism": a belief in feminine leadership, creativity, and sacred power outside of typical gender roles or patriarchal systems.

We are anti-capitalist in values but realistic in practice. We're working toward food, energy, and financial sovereignty but we're not pretending we'll get there overnight. Transitions take time. (We still occasionally order pizza. We're human.)

We're primarily looking for: women and non-binary folks, queer people and strong allies, earth-spirituality-oriented people (pagan, eclectic, open-minded, we are not dogmatic), and anyone genuinely called to a deeply communal life.

THE LAND

11 acres of field, forest, hills, ponds, and marsh in Mid Michigan. We have a trail system we're improving, and a LOT of room to shape this land into something thriving. It's already giving us wild mushrooms, foraging opportunities, and the bones of a beautiful future food forest.

What we're starting work on this year:

• Building new garden beds for a large diverse garden
• Starting our Three Sisters planting (corn, beans, squash, honoring indigenous agricultural wisdom)
• Building a perennial medicinal herb and flower garden
• Designing our food forest and permaculture layout
• Building a compost system
• Fencing portions of the garden from deer (while still giving them access to the forest)
• Forest management: managing invasive species, removing debris, trimming trees, replanting natives
• Building a chicken coop and acquiring chickens
• Managing our local feral cat colony through TNR (trap, neuter, vaccinate, return)

Longer-term Goals: 75%+ food and energy sovereignty, larger-scale regenerative agriculture and permaculture, hosting workshops and retreats, and eventually expanding to 100+ acres in northern Michigan once we've learned to be good stewards of what we have now and have a core group.

THE WORK

The physical work and the healing work are intertwined here. You will get muddy and sweaty, but it genuinely realigns the nervous system and works on our inner growth.

Even if you're just starting out, as long as you have a willingness to learn, we are happy to teach! We believe that there's a niche for everyone's unique skill set, so don't automatically exclude yourself just because you don't see your skills listed here.

Skills that would be especially helpful right now:

• Permaculture design, or organic ag experience
• Gardening, seed saving, food preservation, canning
• Forest management, foraging, plant ID
• Building, carpentry, eco-building (cob, earthbag, wattle, bushcraft)
• Trade skills: plumbing, electrical, welding
• Animal care (farm animals, rescue pets, feral cats)
• Cooking, baking, fermentation, herbalism
• Remote work or independent income (not required but helpful for the collective)

HOUSING

We have multiple housing options:

• Space for your RV, van, trailer, tiny home, or yurt on the property
• Tent space in the warmer months (May-September)
• Semi-private rooms in our communal house (shared between 2-3 people, each with bed and desk, views of the forested yard)

Communal spaces and amenities:

• craft room (we love art and creativity!)
• sacred space room for yoga, meditation, and spiritual practice
• kitchen, living and dining rooms
• laundry facilities
• our library of books (many non-fiction books, and some fiction too)
• multiple outdoor decks, fire pit, and a trampoline (yes, really, but at your own risk lol).
• Also: a meme wall, fridge poetry magnets, and free cuddle time with our cats and dog

WORK / RENT EXCHANGE

25-35 hrs/week: Rent-free

5-20 hrs/week: $200-$600/month

1-5 hrs/week: ~$700/month

This is just a guideline, we will discuss finances together as a group. In the spirit of mutual aid: we share what we have. When everyone contributes, everyone is supported.

NOT THE RIGHT FIT IF:

• You want a polished, finished homestead with no mess or changes
• You prefer solo or private living over genuine communal connection
• You aren't open to doing inner work alongside the physical work
• You hold racist, homophobic, transphobic, or misogynist views. There's no room for that here.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

We have a Reality Check doc, a Shared Code of Ethics, and our Community Goals all available on our Linktree. I really recommend reading the Reality Check especially: it's our attempt at radical honesty about what life here actually looks like, bugs and all.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/moonrisemeadowcollective

Our Interest Form (the best way to connect): https://forms.gle/JHsPUCrsQVh6RG4f9

Happy to answer questions as I'm able to! Honestly I could talk about this stuff endlessly, there is so much more I could say. But I tend to not be online all the time (more of an outdoorsy person lol). I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 🌙

My partner and I have been fighting our way through this capitalist hellscape just trying to stay afloat — literally, since we’re currently transitioning out of liveaboard life. During all of this, I’ve spent a lot of time reading through r/urbancarliving, r/urbancarlivingfemale, r/marriage, and r/intentionalcommunity, and one thing keeps standing out to me: People are lonely. Exhausted. Financially cornered. Families are being forced together out of survival instead of connection, and every time someone talks about starting a community, there’s always a chorus of “broke people shouldn’t start communities.”

My question is: Why The Hell Not!?

Should people do their homework first? Absolutely. Read the fine print. Understand zoning, finances, interpersonal dynamics, legal structures, all of it. But historically, hard times are exactly when people need each other most. Mutual support isn’t a luxury. It’s survival.

I’m a NYC native, and while I’d like to stay relatively close to home, I also want enough distance to build something resilient and less dependent on systems that are becoming increasingly unstable. (While maintaining proximity to NYC job markets and farmers markets.) We’ve found a 30+ acre property under 2 hours from NYC with seller financing under $10k a month.
Our vision is to build an intentional, working community with people who genuinely want to contribute and grow something together over time. The property will be placed in a land trust, with time equity as well as financial ones during assignation of shares. 

-permaculture and bokashi composting
-ranching/farming
-grass-fed and finished cattle
-shared labor and shared responsibility
-collaborative building projects (yurts, tents, tiny homes, skoolies, etc.)

Between us, we have experience with electrical work, desalination systems, and growing food in tiny apartment spaces, which any NYC grower knows is its own kind of survival skill.
We’re not pretending this would be easy. We know community takes work, patience, communication, and structure. We also understand the legal and social realities involved. What we’re looking for are people willing to share the load, bridge knowledge gaps, and genuinely invest themselves in building something sustainable.

The land can eventually be divided among the community, though formal subdivision isn’t currently in place. The intention is shared ownership of both the labor and the financial responsibility. We’re open to discussing both financial equity and work equity, with clear limits and agreements for both.
Most importantly, we want people who actually want to know and care about their neighbors — and who want to build a life where community is more than a buzzword.
If any of this resonates with you, drop a comment and I’ll DM you.

And to the naturally unhappy folks out there: pour yourself a glass of sweet tea and go watch The Boondocks.