I am not the only one living in this particular part of the forest. Actually, my now closest neighbours (only a 5 min drive away), are the reason why I’m here. I was reading Andrea Hejlskovs blog and started writing her emails, then visited them – and they introduced me to Bondsäter, told me it was available, offered their help with settling. Their son has become my sons best friend. I am thankfull to them for making my move so smooth and secure.

And they introduced me to the other forest people…. I haven’t met all of them yet, but here’s a link to the one’s that keep blogs about their forest life:

Andrea Hejlskov at Lensäter: http://andthepioneerlife.wordpress.com/
Debby Lyons at Jonsarna: http://www.jonsarna.blogspot.se/

And then there’s Mik, who is planning on building a new house in the spring, since the one he built this summer unfortunately burnt down to the ground. He is not online about this project right now, but I think he will be eventually, since the ground he’s building on is actually meant to be some kind of a collective project….

As I said, there’s more people and I haven’t met everyone living here yet. But the ones I have met have this one thing in common, this one thing we all agree about:

Living out here is tough.
We need each other.

On a daily basis that means we sometimes eat together and we swop whatever we have-and-need. On a more serious basis, it means we know that whenever one of us needs help, there are people around who instantly drops everything and hurries to help you. 

Writing this I’m in Sunne, a nearby city, and I don’t know whether I will make it up the last hairpin-bend-hill to my house, now there’s suddenly all this snow, and I’m not yet used to driving in it. So my neighbours suggested this solution: When I go back, I let them now in advance, then they will drive their car (which is very well equipped for this climate) in front om mine, ready to drag us uphill if necessary. It will probably, hopefully not be necessary. But it’s very, very reassuring to have them there.

I like this connection, this actual necessity behind our interaction. I feel lucky for getting to know these people. But I have realized (due to questions from friends and family) that this kind of community seems very different from the outside than from where we are. So here’s the disclaimer that’s proven to be necessary:

There is no kind of ideological or religious bond between us. It’s not a sect. We don’t live together – actually all of us live in driving distance from each other.

So: We live in seperate houses, we have very different reasons for living in the woods, very different projects, very different plans for the future.

With that said, we still have this very important thing in common: We are living in the woods, we need each other. And I feel lucky.