A view of the sunset in the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland from an organic vegetable farm in the valley: Glynn Wilson

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson –

CATOCTIN MOUNTAINS, Md. – There has to be a better way.

A better way to live. To eat. To communicate. To govern. To lead. To love.

As many of you already know, from picking up on my hints, I am in search of these things for myself and my friends, fans and followers.

We are searching for the right property in the mountains in Maryland to start and build such a place. I will hesitate to call it a utopia, a magical kingdom or even a hippie commune.

We don’t have to build this from scratch with new knowledge. The knowledge is out there. Others have been practicing various forms of this for decades in the United States, centuries in older cultures. Even native Americans had some better ideas about some things. Too bad we had to come along and nearly destroy them all.

As just a couple of examples of this, I recently ran across a story about a man named Joe Hollis in North Carolina. Unfortunately, he died before I could get around to interviewing him. But he was discovered by Dr. Azra Bertrand, who was able to interview him at the age of 80 before he died.

You can see that interview here.

Mountain Gardens is a botanical garden of useful plants featuring the largest collection of native Appalachian and Chinese medicinal herbs in the Eastern U.S., according to the website, all organically grown and ornamentally displayed at the foot of the Black Mountains in Western North Carolina.

Bertrand calls his program Biomancy. He explains that in a Vimeo video here.

Perhaps my ideas are not as ambitious, primitive or spiritual, although chances are it could move more in that direction as we go along.

My idea is fairly simple. I came to these mountains to escape the worst effects of climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transportation, something I’ve been writing about since 1989.

As I’ve previously explained, the further north you go and the further up into the mountains, the cooler it gets in the summer months. If you are traveling around exploring this world in an RV of some sort, this is critical.

You can find ways to survive the cold with heating systems. You can also cool your environment in the summer, but it takes more energy if you live in a hot place.

So if we can find and fund the purchase of some land here, first we build a cabin or a yert to live in. This should be designed in an eco-friendly manner and use as little energy as possible. Hopefully this can be done off the grid with solar and wind power, geothermal, and of course some form of fireplace or wood burning stove for heat in winter.

The more people who get involved, the more structures we may have to build. One of the ideas for the place is to create a retreat for writers, artists and musicians, but at first an annual retreat could be accomplished glamping style with tents.

We plant a starter organic vegetable garden to begin growing much of our own food. I have some experience with this, but will be learning more.

In the summer of 2020, on the run from Covid, I landed in Western North Carolina and made a deal with a cousin to plant an organic vegetable garden in exchange for a place to camp until we found out what was going to happen with the pandemic.

An all organic, heirloom seed garden in Western North Carolina: Glynn Wilson

A beautiful, tasty Cherokee purple tomato: Glynn Wilson

One day’s harvest, a basket of vegetables: Glynn Wilson

There will be a need for a rain-catch water collection system, for example. We built one of those in North Carolina.

To fund such a life, there are some natural ways that come to mind for generating revenue to pay for it all. My first idea was to start a firewood business to serve some national parks in the area that have no firewood program for campers.

We could also grow hops for brewpubs, and even make our own beer, whiskey and vodka for the commercial market as well as for our own consumption.

We could grow cannabis for the legal market and personal medicinal use.

Heck, we could do like other hippie communes in the past and make tie-dyed T-shirts to sell and promote this farm, once we come up with a name for it, and create and sell art as well.

If you have a skill, an idea or some capital to invest, get in touch and let’s start a conversation about it.

Are you unhappy with your life as it is? Are you looking for something different? A better way?

Maybe together we can create some form of cooperative living environment to meet our physical and spiritual needs in a more fulfilling way.

It’s worth a try anyway. Clearly this world we live in now is not working. We are pummeling toward one disaster after another.

Storms Are Coming to Washington: Head for the Hills

There has to be a better way.

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