Beautiful rural homestead with room for rent, 3 miles north of Carson, WA in the Columbia River Gorge, Skamania county. Our land borders Panther Creek, a stone’s throw from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Less than an hour from Portland, 10 minutes from Stevenson, 30m from White Salmon, and 35 from Hood River.

The house is 2800 square feet, 4 bedroom, 2 bath, with laundry and some storage space available. The bedroom available is a 280 square foot space on the first floor. This cozy, woodsy cabin room with hardwood floors, exposed beam ceiling, and two closets is one of the brightest and most spacious in the house. The room is furnished with a queen bed, and two small shelving units. All of the adjacent commons areas are furnished, including an available, fully functioning kitchen.

The land is 3.1 acres of field and forest, chickens, bees, and gardens. There is a wood/metal shop, ceramics space, barn, composting toilet, and meadery (honeywine production facility) on the land, with opportunities to participate in the use of them all. We compost food scraps, conserve energy, and recycle as much as we can and expect renters to do the same. The creek is accessible for dips and we have a couple of short forest walking trails. Locally there are many trails, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, lava beds, caves, and cultural activities to be found in the surrounding national forest and throughout the Gorge.

When you arrive, you will be one of four people and one cat living in the house as part of a small intentional community. We share some aspects of life—a weekly meal or two, house meetings once a week, chores and commons maintenance, limited gatherings and celebrations. We also have our own lives which are diverse and requiring of some sanctuary and personal space. We all enjoy our private time and spaces, but equally value good communication and respectful interaction. Our kitchen, dining room, living room, bathrooms, laundry room, shop space, gardens and barn are shared by all. There is a wood stove in the house which will require participation in hauling firewood and managing. There is also electric heat, but we attempt to use it sparingly.

We run a non-profit which focuses on sense-of-place awareness and collaborative learning in a community context. This project will occasionally bring folks to the property for mentoring, workshops, meetings, and other activities that may require use of the common areas. Your interest, input, and involvement with this project is welcome but not required.

We consider our land and community a safe space, and welcome people of any gender identity, sexual orientation, color, religion, class, or origin. To get a sense of our community’s principles, see this document:
https://www.bee-folk.org/path-to-membership/ethics.php

THE OFFER ——————————————————————————————————–

This room is available on a temporary (but potentially revolving) basis as we keep an open call for 3 new permanent members of our community (permanent member info here: https://www.bee-folk.org/path-to-membership/ ). If you wind up being a good fit and loving life out here, this could very well be you! But in the meantime we are offering a 3 month lease which transitions into month-to-month until circumstances change. Rent is $600 per month, utilities included. First and last month required on signing lease, no security deposit. Rent also includes a 3 hour per week work-trade on homestead projects (which is essentially doing projects that benefit everyone, yourself included). Please be aware this work-trade is part of the lease agreement and is critical to our sustainability as a community. We have a system in place to track them for everyone. If you are unsure if you can spare 3 hours a week to dedicate to life on a homestead, this may not be the right situation for you.

Lease Dates: July 1st -to- October 1st 2024. Possible month-to-month extension thereafter.

We are looking for a single individual (no couples please) who is also interested in part-time work at our meadery located on the land here. This would include mostly, but is not limited to, tabling/tasting work at farmers markets and events between March and November, and berry picking between May and October. We can discuss details in the interview, but for a snapshot of the offer, 3 full days work per month would cover the cost of your room. We encourage everyone to submit a resume along with a short message explaining your situation and why you might like to come live with us for a while. Please indicate that you are applying for the short-term stay. When we close the first round of applicants, we will reply to everyone and set up interviews. The first round will be a phone or video call. Thanks for reading, and we hope to meet you soon!

Please email to let us know why you would be a good fit and to ask any questions. Thanks!