Yeah, any kind of tele-commute work would do. One would definately want to set it up so that anybody who arrived who already had such a job could do it. Though hey, you could set up a business of that sort, calling centers. Except that such jobs sure do suck. Hehe! We could all be 'phone sex workers. I am incompetant for that, though. I am totally unsexy. And I was once briefly employed as a telephone psychic, and I was really spectacularly bad at it.

Alas, Tay, I dunno that you can make money training therapy horses special. Most of 'em around here are just school-horses, steady and gentle but not especially different from any other good steady horse. But heck, if you've got a big peice of land and a nice barn and are just a little sociable, horses (often quite good ones) will be offered you for a pittance, or nothing. Somebody tried to give me four Arabians a couple of years ago, all of them ridable, gentle, and under the age of eight. Like a hundred thousand dollars worth of horses, on the grounds that the owner has cancer and can't care for them or ride any more, and I happen to live on a big peice (which, alas, I rent, or I'd be making our commune right now) and struck her as somebody who'd be nice to those horses and not sell them. Though maybe this is just me, and the fact that I work for a vet. Want a dog? Cat? How about a parrot? People keep trying to give me parrots, parrots I couldn't buy for less than two grand.

Certainly, while we're dreamin', a retreat-center ought to have a riding stable with gentle horses. It'd be an attraction to visitors. And hey, I wanna breed mules. Gaited mules out of Tennesse Walker and Paso Fino mares, there's no better ride.

Yes.  I want a parrot.  O.O

As far as therapy horses go, I'd buy super low and sell for a small profit.  See, the trouble with most therapy horses is that they are quite old to reach that level of steady.  Training that steadiness into them for a purpose is possible, I've done it, but generally the therapy groups end up with old horses that have to be retired shortly after their arrival, due to price constraints and so on.  Plus, people who want their young children to ride would be willing to pay for this type of horse, as well.

Heck, I'd be willing to train instructors, too.  *shrug*  As for mules, why not? 

Heck, why not breed various specialty animals?  They can sell good, some of them.

I telework now.  I can sell my house and move right in.  I have two friendly dogs if that's ok   I'm soooo ready for a change of career.  I've conquered programming and Unix system administration.  I'd <3 to raise alpacas.

There is a resort near my house called Rainbow Mountain, http://www.rainbowmountain.com/  I've only been there once on TG/CG weekend.  No one lives there but its a model for a GLBT resort.  The Poconos in Pennsylvania is a good place for a resort because people from NY & Philly like to go there to get away.  The thing about this place is that there isn't much to do there.  Most of the to do things are attractions in the area. Also, the place doesn't start hopping until 11:00 PM.

I also recall a scout camp for sale in the area.  But that was a few years ago.

Yeah, 'specialty' animals do seem to work out okay for some people. Gaited mules are really expensive, more so than gaited horses, and gaited horses are really expensive. The alpaca freaks seem to be doing okay with them, there are several mini-ranches for that around here and they stay in the black, though it seems to me that the whole spinning and weaving and knitting trend has ended. Or at least, I don't see stores that stock nothing but materials and equipment for that around any more. I knew some folks who made a bundle when they got out of the sheep business, because they'd bred a large flock of natural redhead sheep on a whim (at the time, nobody raising sheep for wool wanted black or red sheep, 'cause big markets want white, dyable wool, so the red sheep they founded their redhead flock on were cheap) and then found that there were all these hobbiests and craftspeople willing to pay through the nose for red wool that was grown red.

I think the way to make a retreat/resort/dude farm work is to have all the 'attractions' on-site. Good kitchen, riding stable, swimming pool, fishin' hole, dances and movies etc, but have the whole place out where land is cheap and taxes on it low, out in the middle of nowhere, and expect most visitors to have longer stays and travel to get there. But maybe I just wanna be out in the middle of nowhere.

Really, the trouble with this idea is the same as any commune-scheme. Trans people aren't any less annoying than other people*. I'm sure we could find a sizable group who'd be keen, and together be wealthy enough to start the place, but every one of those people would have to overcome the obstacle of, well, having to live together as a community and trusting one another not to screw it up. What do you do when one member can't get along with another? When one falls in love and wants to go live in LA with a hot entertainment lawyer? If they've all put in a substantial sum of money and effort into the place and want to leave it, they need to get something back, but it's not like they've bought a house they can just sell. So people hesitate. And the bigger the group, the scarier such prospects seem.

*Actually, maybe transpeople are more annoying. Or maybe it's just support groups that are annoying. Sometimes I'd like to make a mockumentary about transgender support groups. It'd have Passing Elitist Girl in it, telling other transwomen they're not feminine enough and passing it off as constructive criticism. And the women who sit around talking about other people's inappropriate hormone doses and how they're pharmacuitically made to be over-sensitive. And the misogynist transman where you wonder why the hell he's there since most of the members are women and he's got nothing good to say about women at all. And the androgyne who's always lecturing others about how hideously they're limiting themselves by identifying within the binary, screaming at the transsexuals who say androgynes and genderqueers aren't really trans at all and make the community look like freaks...

I had something funny to say but it might piss of genderqueers,    so I'll just say that mockumentary sounds good. 

Oh, do tell. In a PM, perhaps.

Probably it'd upset too many forum-members, but it'd be fun to start a new thread about said imaginary mockumentary. We could sit around stereotyping other transpeople to invent its array of irritating characters, and make up dialogue of the horrible comic ways they interact with one another.

Quote from: Doc on August 14, 2007, 06:12:07 PM
Really, the trouble with this idea is the same as any commune-scheme. Trans people aren't any less annoying than other people*. I'm sure we could find a sizable group who'd be keen, and together be wealthy enough to start the place, but every one of those people would have to overcome the obstacle of, well, having to live together as a community and trusting one another not to screw it up. What do you do when one member can't get along with another? When one falls in love and wants to go live in LA with a hot entertainment lawyer? If they've all put in a substantial sum of money and effort into the place and want to leave it, they need to get something back, but it's not like they've bought a house they can just sell. So people hesitate. And the bigger the group, the scarier such prospects seem.

   What if people could leave on the condition that they find someone else who wants in to cover their investment?  I guess if you're a good salesperson then on your way out, you may even make a profit.  Hideous thought, isn't it?

Form a corporation and sell shares in it. Then if someone wants out, they have to sell their share.

Dennis

I guess it'd pretty much have to be a corporation, for a dozen or some people to all own equal shares in a ranch/resort/retreat-center/whatever you wanna call it.

Trouble with that is, it covers the departing original investor's interest, but it doesn't cover the interests of the remaining ones. In that aspect it's maybe less like a company and more like. Eh, the way I used to rent this house with five bedrooms, or seven if you counted rooms you had to walk through to get to one or two rooms beyond. Sharing a house is probably harder than sharing a compound of cabins with one main house, but anyway. The original renters agreed to find replacements for themselves when they chose to leave. Those four people all loved each other and wanted to live together. We all bought groceries as a group and cooked for each other and it was super-cheap and worked out great, barring a few issues like, 'Dammit, I am tired of hearing that phrase you keep repeating, Doc,' and 'Look, all of us want you to move your teevee out of the living room and into your private room, 'cause the babble-box is dominating our conversation,' and 'Hey, do your share of the dishes instead of relying on other people to get sick of the mess sooner than you do,' and 'Okay, look, do you have to be naked all the time?' and 'Let's get a cat.' Not big problems. But over the two years or so I lived there, over sixteen different people lived in that house and it went from a house that was inhabited by university students and would-be students who were working to save up for that kinda thing to a house inhabited by speed-freaks. This is 'cause people who were leaving had no strong interest in finding a really good replacement for themselves, and those remaining could not stop leavers from going on the grounds that the new potential roomie they offered wasn't good enough, nor did they want to see their share of the rent go up, as it might do dramatically when people left as couples.

I'm sure with a major investment like a commune, this turn-over would happen over ten or fifteen years rather than one or two, but still, scary. Since eventually I ended up being the only person in that house whose name was on the lease, I should have said, "Okay, this is the house /I/ rent, you all just sublet from me, and /I/ get to choose the roommates, and right now I am choosing to kick out /you/ and /you/, and by proxy all your drug-fiend friends," or something of that ilk. As it was, I just left. With a shared ownership and a several thousand dollars invested rather than a shared rental, kicking them out or just leaving 'cause I didn't want to deal with it wouldn't be possible, though. Dunno, Dennis, you're the lawyer. Could it be set up in such a way that the investors are somehow protected from having to live with a new buyer that they don't want to live with?

Depends on jurisdiction, but you could make share transfer only possibly on the approval of a majority vote of the remainder of shareholders. It would decrease the value of the shares, but if it's not an investment, who cares. And it doesn't make the original investor any more protected than the others. Everyone buys a share, and everyone is an equal shareholder with the same rights and responsibilities.

The problem is the one that exists with any kind of communal ownership. Disagreements. The only way around it is to have one person own the lot, set the rules, and everyone else has to follow them. Benevolent dictatorship. Otherwise, you have to have a damn good dispute resolution mechanism in place.

Condominium structure is similar, and disagreements are frequent and difficult to get around when you're all equal.

Dennis

I don't like the idea of a TG colony.  When I was little, I wished that I could be the only one left in the world so that I could live and dress as I wanted.  As I've grown and lived, I've seen the immense folly in that concept... not just being alone, but living solely with like minded people.

I want to live in the midst of culture. I like the diversity, strangeness, and newness.  I hope I never tire of being surprised by someone else.

There are many negatives in this world.  We just need to get out the vice grips and duct tape.  You can fix anything with vice grips and duct tape ya know?  Oh... and some sugar and spice.

Cindi

Quote from: Cindi Jones on August 16, 2007, 02:23:44 AM
I don't like the idea of a TG colony.  When I was little, I wished that I could be the only one left in the world so that I could live and dress as I wanted.  As I've grown and lived, I've seen the immense folly in that concept... not just being alone, but living solely with like minded people.

I want to live in the midst of culture. I like the diversity, strangeness, and newness.  I hope I never tire of being surprised by someone else.

There are many negatives in this world.  We just need to get out the vice grips and duct tape.  You can fix anything with vice grips and duct tape ya know?  Oh... and some sugar and spice.

Cindi

Hi Cindi,

   In TG world, straights are welcome.  The idea is to establish a mixed environment, but with TG considerations & influence built into the culture.  I know many of us have SO's and children, plus parents, cousins, and friends.
   

Rebis,

I do understand.  But you know, I think that society has come a long way in the past twenty years.  Transsexualism is almost mainstream stuff.

Just look at the primary candidates for the president... we've got a woman, a Mormon, and a black.  Now who would have considered that just 10 years ago? 

I think that the society we want it just a couple generations away ... if we can just keep from blowing ourselves out of existence.... we can do it.

Cindi

We need it NOW & HERE not in the future!!!

It's a matter of a decision from people that have the power (and money)

For example MONACO, it was a decision of a very rich Greek man,

Aristotelis Onasis got that decision and established a country for tax reasons.

Quote from: Rebis on August 14, 2007, 02:09:20 PM
    Another activity for colony support could be tech work.  Put a few satellite dishes up and design websites or take database keeping jobs and stuff like that.

Hey Rebis,  that was actually tried recently.  It was called Heaven's Gate.

Nudist and clothing optional resorts generally do not host people that want to be nude 24/7/365.  The visitors return after a while and lead a "normal" life (whatever that is).   (Don't ask me how I know about them  >)

As fun as this fantasy sounds, I would rather opt for total acceptance in the real world.  I do realize that may never happen, though.

Kristi

Quote from: Ashley Michelle on August 18, 2007, 04:52:35 PM

Quote from: evelynaGR on August 18, 2007, 03:51:03 PM
We need it NOW & HERE not in the future!!!

It's a matter of a decision from people that have the power (and money)

For example MONACO, it was a decision of a very rich Greek man,

Aristotelis Onasis got that decision and established a country for tax reasons.

oooh, can i be a princess of transland?  or maybe a plenipotentiary?  may i have a regency? 

sorry dear im already the FIRST LADY!!! :-)

I think that it is far more important for each of us to make our own world an live it accordingly.  From our example others would learn and better understand us which would go a longer way in tearing down barriers, and further reducing the discrimination, recrimination, and the fears that folks hold against us.

Steph

Take it easy, girls.  In Transland, all ladies will be princesses and have pedestals.  All men will be princes and have motorcycles, or whatever it is men like.  A princess on each arm?

what do we do Rebis?

Left alone again. 

I don't know.  I'm buffaloed (stumped).