ALL PERSONAL PICTURES AND TEXT ARE COPYRIGHTED BY DON AND SARA SCHULTZ. (ACQUIRED GRAPHICS CREDITED)

It is not that it hasn't been tried before. As early as the late 1700's the Shaking Quakers established over 500 communes in the New York area. In 1804 Johann Ripp started the Harmony Society in Pennsylvania which lasted over 100 years and was one of the longest running examples of communal living in the USA. Other examples are the Oneida Community started in 1848 in New York, best know for the production of fine silverware and the Amana Colonies that dissolved in 1932, famous to this day for their home appliances. Chocolate giant Milton Hershey created the "ideal" community Park Village for his employees, that boasted “no provision for a police department, nor for a jail. Here there will be no unhappiness, then why would there be any crime".



The 60's and 70's with their flower children and hippies brought a huge number of communes particularly to the West coast. Woodstock was actually held on the grounds of a commune that had its beginnings as a collective hog farm in Tujunga, CA. Probably the longest running commune of the 60's is Twin Oaks in Louisa, Virginia. Founded in 1967 as a community dedicated to nonviolence, egalitarianism and sustainability, this 400 acre farm between Richmond and Charlottesville is still going strong with over a 100 adult members. Twin Oaks relies on organic farming, solar energy and cottage industries such as hammock making, soy foods and book indexing to sustain the commune.



The newest example of communal living is Celebration, Fl, the brainchild of the Disney Corporation located in northwest Osceola County. Celebration is a broad mix of residential offerings including condominiums and town homes, as well as terrace, bungalow, garden, cottage, village, manor and estate homes. Built in four phases, Celebration has over 1400 homes, 17,000 condominiums and was designed by world renowned architects. Recently in the news, Celebration pop. 10,000 experienced its first homicide in its 14 year existence.



A commune is defined by Wikipedia as an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, work, and income. Most communes have consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living as core principles. Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times recently wrote that, contrary to popular misconceptions, "most communes of the '90s are not free-love refuges for flower children, but well-ordered, financially solvent cooperatives where pragmatics, not psychedelics, rule the day." Today most people in communes are seeking to create a new type of community where the housing is more affordable, residents share common interests and values and most importantly, they want to return to a better way of life. There is no better way to describe where we are now living, Jojoba Hills SKP Resort in tiny Aguanga, CA.



Located about 17 miles east of Temecula on Highway 79 which was once part of the 2,800 mile Butterfield Stagecoach Route between St. Louis and San Francisco. Jojoba Hills is named after the low bushes that grow throughout the area and were prized by the O'odgam native peoples of the Sonoran Desert who used the oil from the seeds as an antioxidant to treat burns. The resort is 2,100 feet above sea level, just far enough inland to avoid the wet, the dreary marine layers of the Pacific just 30 miles to the West and just low enough in the San Bernardino Mountains to avoid the snow and freezing winters of the high desert. The domes of the Mt Palomar Observatory http://palomarmountainwebcam.com/ high atop Mt. Wilson can be seen from the resort and are a testament to the air quality. The resort is within easy driving distance of San Diego, the Mexican border, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Palm Springs, Anza-Borrego Wildlife Area and all that Los Angeles has to offer.



Probably the most impressive aspect of Jojoba Hills Resort is how it was built. In 1989 a group of local Escapee RV club regional chapters banded together to purchase what was at that time a 183 acre parcel of land known locally as the Lazy K Ranch. These "founders", as they are affectionately known in the resort, pooled their money and over 293,000 work hours to carve out this beautiful resort. After five years of work, over a million cubic yards of rock, sand and crushed granite blasted out of the ground were moved, two miles of storm sewers were constructed to control erosion and over five miles of roads were built. Three wells were sunk and over thirty five miles of utility lines were installed. Two hundred and eighty three sites were constructed on the terraced hillsides, each with a concrete patio and a wooden storage shed. All sites were equipped with fifty amp electrical service, water, sewer connection, telephone, cable TV and an irrigation system to park installed landscaping.



A "burn barrel" meeting was held each morning during the five years of construction where work assignments were given to all members and "cookies and coffee" were distributed to work crews everyday, two traditions that continue even to this day by the present members of the park. One group of ladies in the park became know as the "Rockettes" and constructed hundreds of feet of rock lined drainage canals by hand. Heavy earth moving equipment was manned by these early Jojobians and what they accomplished in those five years is nothing short of a miracle.



The main complex consists of a huge club house known as Friendship Hall, capable of accommodating over 300 people with a fully furnished commercial sized kitchen, a sewing room and crafts room. The complex also has a mail room, a card playing room, a huge library and reading room furnished with thousands of books, DVDs, audio books and CDs, two saunas, a fully equipped fitness room, a billiards room with three full sized tables, a huge outdoor covered picnic patio with tables and grills, a heated near Olympic sized pool and two huge Jacuzzis capable of holding 20 people each. And that is just the clubhouse complex.



The resort also boasts six ponds which attract wildlife and help with water retention, a man made waterfall known as "Viagra Falls", tennis and pickle ball courts, a bocce ball court, shuffle board and horse shoe courts, an air rifle range, miniature golf, and a Cyber Center for computer activities. For dog lovers, Jojoba Hills Resort has an enclosed dog park. At Jojoba Hills there is a full woodworking shop and metal shop where you can service your vehicles or have a broken metal piece welded. The park has four laundries with washers, dryers and fenced clothes lines for the "desert fresh air feel" to your finished wash. Clean, modern restrooms and showers are at each laundry. For nature lovers there are walking trails throughout the park, streams between the ponds, picnic areas under the shade of pepper trees with hammocks, and "listening point" benches with grand vista views of the surrounding mountains. Finally, Jojoba Hills is home to one of the finest cactus gardens in the area.



For security, the entire resort is surrounded by a fence with a coded gate at the entrance. Near the entrance is the building that served as the main building on the former Lazy K ranch, known by Jobobians as the "Ranch House". It now serves as the main office of the resort, with a full kitchen, lounge area with fireplace and veranda overlooking the valley below. The ranch house is used for private parties for residents of the resort and for meetings.



Across from the ranch house is a huge, fenced parking area used by residents to store their travel rigs for short trips free, (a $1200 a year value in Southern California) and finally a "boon docking area" with a dump station where Escapees from across the nation can stay for a small fee.



Sara and I, along with our dog Charlie, have been at Jojoba Hills for seven months after spending almost six years on the road. During our travels we visited all the states of the Union except Hawaii, all the provinces of Canada including the island of New Newfoundland, Alaska, and several visits into Mexico including down the Baja Peninsula. Never did we stay in one place for much longer than a month. So, to stay in one place for this long is truly a change.



You become a member of the Jojoba Hills which is a 55 plus resort by first becoming an Escapee or SKP member. This membership costs $60 a year and offers you reduced fees at SKP affiliated parks across the nation. After a tour of Jojoba Hills you can put yourself on a waiting list to become a member with a $2,000 deposit. The resort administration will call you when a site becomes available. The wait can be anywhere between a year and half to nine months depending on demand.



Upon accepting a membership, a final payment of approximately $28,000 is required. Each new member is assigned the last available site, but through a complicated "wishlist" system most new members move a few times before settling on the lot of their choice. There are no poor lots in all of Jojoba Hills.



The membership gives you a "lifetime" lease on a lot and full use of all of the facilities. Maintenances fees are about $230 a month plus electrical for about $300 total per month. What a deal for a "Piece of Paradise" in Southern California!!! Most residents use propane which is sold in the park for cost. Members live in an RV and most have large 5 th wheels or motor homes.



When a residents decides to give up their membership in the Resort, they get back their initial investments plus any assessments made during their stay. The vacant site then becomes available to the next person on the waiting list.



Probably the most important aspect of considering a life at Jojoba Hills Resort is to understand what it means to be a true "Jojobian". The sign above the entrance says it all:



BUILT AND MAINTAINED BY VOLUNTEERS



The resort's success is based on the willingness of each member to bring their individual and unique talents to the cooperative effort of making the park run successfully.

Some Jojoba Hills residents are retired firemen and policemen who work as emergency EMT's in the park. There are retired secretaries and business executives who serve on the Board of Directors. Former home builders and construction workers help build and maintain the buildings. Mail carriers work in the mail room. Retired engineers and lawyers help design new projects and volunteer to address legal issues for the resort. There are former chefs and food service workers who help prepare and serve meals in the clubhouse. Former landscape professionals attend to the park's numerous gardens and plantings. Telephone installers and computer engineers maintain the park's communication system. Plumbers and city workers fix the leaks and repair the irrigation systems. Nurses and medical professionals watch for the health needs of the members and provide exercise classes for all. There are retired librarians, educators and pool installers who use their special skills for the park. The list goes on and on and that is what becoming a Jojobian really means. Sharing and caring for the common good of all by volunteering individual skills as well as learning new ones.



For Sara it means helping in the library, working in the mail room, serving meals in the clubhouse, helping with the decorating of the hall for dances and parties. It means helping out where ever she can. For Don, it means working in the lunchroom, serving on the tool shed committee which lends tools to members, being the photographer for major resort events, helping with the sound system during meetings and events in the hall, acting as arborist for the resort and teaching pruning classes for members. It means helping out where ever he can.



And what do we get for all this volunteering besides enjoying all the amenities of Jojoba Hills? Well, there is the Photobugs Club, the Jojoba Hills Players, the water aerobics classes, the Creative Writing Club, the Book Club, the Bird Watchers, and countless other groups and activities.



What does it mean to become a Jojobian?



It means enjoying some of the best weather in the continental United States with blue skies, sunshine, no humidity and no bugs.



It means being 30 minutes from the ocean and 30 minutes to cross country skiing on the same afternoon.



It means breath taking mountain vistas and sunrises and sunset that light up the sky with vivid reds, yellow and oranges.



It means walking through your community and having everyone wave and wish you a good day.



It means randomly dialing any phone number in the park and knowing that if the residents are home they are only too willing to come over and help.



It means belonging to a group of people that know how to love life and truly care about those who live around them.



And as in that classic definition of a commune, it means sharing common interests and values and returning to a better way of life.

We have become Jojobians. We have found a new home and we love it.