Plant the Village
  • The Essay
  • The On-Ramp
The Onramp
The Onramp
Foundational Skills
Phase 1: Foundation
  • Food
  • Water
  • Energy
  • Waste
  • Construction
Phase 2: Intermediate
  • Food
  • Water
  • Energy
  • Construction
Phase 3: Advanced
  • Food
  • Water
  • Energy
  • Construction
  • Governance
Community
Formation track
  • Finding your people
  • Building trust
  • Alignment conversations
  • The forming group
  • Governance models
  • Health and care
Soft skills
Interpersonal tools
  • Nonviolent communication
  • Consensus facilitation
  • Conflict resolution
  • Meeting management
  • Emotional intelligence
Cottage economy
Phase 1: Individual income
  • Validating what you make
  • Pricing for sustainability
  • Legal basics
  • Sales channels
  • Reinvesting in your craft
Phase 2: Group income
  • Collective production
  • Cooperative structures
  • Shared brand
  • CSA and subscriptions
Phase 3: Community identity
  • Signature product or craft
  • Community brand
  • Apprenticeship as product
  • Specialize vs. diversify
  • Reinvestment at community scale
Health
Phase 1: Household preparedness
  • First aid and CPR
  • Home herb garden
  • Nutrition and food as medicine
  • Mental health first aid
  • Home pharmacy
  • Knowing when to refer out
Phase 2: Deeper preparation
  • Wilderness medicine
  • Expanded herbalism
  • Preventive health systems
  • Health record-keeping
Resources
  • Books
  • Videos
  • Workshops
  • Communities to visit
The Onramp›Community

Community formation

Every technical skill in this curriculum can be learned alone. This one can't. There are no phases here, just a rough sequence: find people worth building with, build trust before you build anything else, have the hard conversations early, then give the group structure that can survive its first real disagreement.

Finding your people

The first move is the hardest, and it isn't joining anything. It's saying out loud what you've been thinking about. Not …

Building trust

Trust gets built through shared experience or it doesn't get built at all. The fastest path is to start small and real: …

Alignment conversations

Before anyone looks at land or money, you need explicit conversations about values, economics, governance, labor, childr…

The forming group

Five to ten families is the right size for a founding core: enough hands to share the labor and the financial load, few …

Governance models & legal structures

Three legal structures cover most intentional communities: community land trusts, housing cooperatives, and LLCs. Three …

Health and care in the community

Here's the uncomfortable truth behind the entire health track: no amount of study substitutes for a licensed practitione…