Hi, I’m Mo
I’ve recently purchased a 13 acre horse ranch in Arvada, Colorado. I’m in the process of converting the ranch into a co-housing community and modern village called Wild Life Ranch. My dream is to have a space for 30-50 humans to live together in a way that is communal, in touch with nature and allows every one of us to go after living the life they truly want.
The land
Over 13 acres of open space ready for us to design together in a way that makes life fun and enjoyable. 1 large community house with 3 separate living spaces already exists, also 2 large barns are already on the property, ready to be converted for our fun adventures. We also have permits for 3 further houses and plenty of space for mobile homes.
13 acres, 1 large building, 2 barns
Together as individuals
I’m longing to create spaces with and for you that allow us to stay true to your own individuality. I’d like for us to be able to close the door to our private home or space when we need it and come into community and connection when it feels right. I want to encourage you to take up as much space as possible and become as much of yourself as possible so that we can have a stronger community.
Loving and hating each other!
The most important pillar of Wild Life is active conflict resolution for me. All of the intentional communities I’ve lived in have fallen or thrived on whether they were able to make conflict resolution work. My dream is that we make space for regular times to resent each other for having violated our expectations of the world, feel all the feelings underneath and be able to come back to a space of centeredness and connection. So, bring your hate, bring your love and everything in between, it’s all welcome!
So much room for activities!
Community governance and collaboration
I’d like for the community to be organized by sociocratic principles, with explicit and shared shared power structure to make collaborating fun and for everyone to have agency. Sociocracy evolves around 3 core ideas:
Group decisions by consent
Giving consent to proposals means the absence of an objection from every individual of the group. This allows us to make things happen without everyone needing to feel 100% excited about everything. Consent can be revoked at any time, by which point the decision item returns to the agenda for the next group meeting.
Circle structure
To collaborate together we form circles that take on domains and responsibilities. We might form a farming circle, a leadership circle, a maintenance circle, a construction and building circle, a party circle and others that create projects and organize themselves semi-autonomously.
Free elections
People get to join circles through the free elections process and become a part of the circle for a set period of time (e.g. 2 years) before new elections take place or people phase themselves out of certain circles to take a break or join others.
3 Vision Images of Wild Life Ranch
Over the last years as I’ve been dreaming and brainstorming about Wild Life, I wrote down 3 vision images I’d like to share with you to see how they resonate with you:
Every day life
We live in simple tiny houses surrounded by a shared, large community building. We spend most of our time outdoors, have access to delicious and plentiful food from our farms, fruit trees and other naturally growing herbs, seeds and spices. We live among animals that we take care of and honor and also acknowledge that they serve us with their meat, wool, eggs, backs to ride and company.
Connection
We open our doors for visitors to spend time with us and learn how to live in simple, conscious and alive community. Our gatherings are fun, lightweight and impactful to transfer the ancient knowledge about human life that lives in all of our bodies over to everyone who comes, waking up that ancient knowledge inside of them. We laugh together, cry together, process together, get drunk together and live in peace with each other most of the time.
Passion and Purpose
Everyone is going after what they really love, caring for horses, farming the land, working on laptops, caring for animals and babies and humans, yoga, moving their bodies, teaching, swimming, building buildings, cooking, singing, dancing, there is something for everyone and in the end it is a beautiful work of art we have all created together.
Join the adventure
I’m about to move into the main house on the ranch in one week (October 2023) and I’m looking for a core group of 3-5 people that want to join me in becoming the founding team of Wild Life Ranch. If you feel resonance from what I’m writing here, I’d love to hear from you. My dream is to find a diverse group of people, each bringing their craft and passion for how they want to spend their time. Here is a list of passions and people I’m excited about joining and the list is not limited to those people:
- farmers
- bakers/bread makers
- homesteaders
- bodyworkers
- horse ranchers (d’uh!)
- builders (construction)
- chefs
- lawyers
- accountants
- doctors