Huntsville, Arkansas: 14.75 acres, a hybrid cypress log house, a cave spring, a metal building, and established gardens

I have written about this land as a homestead, as a multigenerational home, as a place for recovery, as a sanctuary. The more I write, the more I see that these aren’t six different places. They’re one place, and the people who would love it most might be the ones who want several of those things at once.

This article is my dream for them: vegans who want to live with other vegans, small groups who’d rather share land than rent apartments apart, and people who long for a farm animal sanctuary but know that animals cost money. Here’s what’s already here, and what I imagine could grow from it.

What is already here

The Living Springs Log House is a hybrid cypress log house on 14.75 acres in the Ozarks outside Huntsville, Arkansas, about an hour from Fayetteville. A cave spring comes out of the hillside behind the house. For nine years it has fed two cisterns, and those cisterns have always had water, except when a hose was left running or a part at the spring failed. I know because I’ve spent nine years walking up to it and watching it run.

There’s a metal building with its own septic, with room to become many things: guest rooms, a gathering hall, and storage for a sanctuary’s feed and supplies. There are established organic gardens. The house has a walk-out lower-level suite with kitchenette hookups and its own entrance. The property overlooks a privately owned lake that neighbors have historically been allowed to use for non-motorized recreation. That access is not deeded to the property and is not guaranteed to continue, but the view is lovely either way.

And there are the places you only find by walking: the path behind the house that feels like forest, the cool ground around the cave spring, the land that was cleared years ago and has grown up over the past nine years, and the edges where the land drops toward the water.

Vegan co-living: what it is, and why I picture it here

Vegan co-living is a simple idea. A group of people share a home and a way of living. The kitchen is plant-based, so nobody argues over the refrigerator. The garden feeds the table. The animals on the land are neighbors, not products.

It’s a real and growing movement. Coliving.com now lists homes specifically for vegans, and some wellness co-living spaces are built around plant-based shared kitchens and composting. Directories like CommunityFinders list vegan intentional communities. Savi Coliving in Valencia runs a plant-based kitchen for digital nomads; Sadhana Forest in India built a whole vegan reforestation community; and in Massachusetts, a group called Valley Veg has a cohousing committee working to buy property together. Online, small groups post every month looking for others to share rural land and start this kind of home.

Many of those groups have the people, the values, and the plan, but not the land. That’s why my heart goes out to them when I look at this place.

I can picture a group of four to eight people living here. The log house, the lower-level suite, and the metal building would each give people their own space while they share the land. Costs could be shared. Work could be shared too, by those who want to. And the spring would mean that the most basic need of any community, water, isn’t a monthly bill or a worry.

I’ve put together a handbook on how a vegan co-living home here could run day to day: the Vegan Co-Living Handbook.

The sanctuary: something between micro and big

Farm animal sanctuaries come in two sizes. There’s the microsanctuary: a person and a handful of rescued hens or a couple of goats in a backyard. And there’s the large sanctuary: hundreds of animals, a paid staff, a visitor center, a fundraising office.

What I dream of here is in between. I’ve been calling it a homestead sanctuary: a few people living on the land, a modest number of rescued farm animals living alongside them, and the sanctuary as one part of a home rather than the whole of it. Residents could help with the animals if they want to, but nobody would have to. Some might be paid staff, if the land brings in enough. Nobody would be trapped into a job by living here.

The metal building could support all of this. It could hold the sanctuary’s feed and supplies, and much of it could become overnight guest rooms for visiting volunteers, retreat guests, and travelers who want to wake up near a sanctuary. The animals themselves would be happiest in a barn of their own, out where the land could be made into pasture again, ideally near the pond site. They would have to cross the driveway to reach the metal building, and most animals don’t like being closed in a metal building with a concrete floor. Where the barn finally goes would be up to the new owners. Some bigger sanctuaries already pair guest stays with animals: Farm Sanctuary in New York has rented guest cabins for years, and Catskill Animal Sanctuary runs a guesthouse and cooking classes. People love to sleep near the animals they came to see.

How a sanctuary here could pay its way

Here’s the thing about sanctuaries: the animals cost money and don’t make any. The sanctuaries that last have found ways for the things around the animals to bring in income. Here are some ideas I’ve had for this land.

Tours and education. Guided visits, school groups, open days, an annual gathering. The land and the spring would make a visit special.

Overnight guest rooms in the metal building. If part of the metal building were finished as guest rooms, volunteers could stay on a work-trade basis, and other guests could pay.

A small campground. Private campgrounds have become popular. Companies like Under Canvas, AutoCamp, and Getaway build whole businesses on canvas tents and small cabins on beautiful land, and Hipcamp lets a landowner list a few campsites. This land has the quiet, the water, and the views for it. A few tent platforms or small cabins near the spring or along the forest path could be lovely.

Gatherings in the metal building. Weddings, workshops, sanctuary fundraisers, harvest dinners. I can picture a plant-based wedding on Saturday and a sanctuary volunteer day on Sunday in the same space.

Retreats and forest walks. The path behind the house and the cool ground around the cave spring could become a quiet retreat space with very little work. Half-day retreats, weekend gatherings, and slow walks in the forest could draw people from Fayetteville, Bentonville, and beyond.

The garden. With a good gardener in the mix, the organic gardens could feed the residents and the guests, and a small farm stand could share the extra. For a vegan community, the garden isn’t a side project. It’s the kitchen.

Sponsorships and memberships. Sponsor-an-animal programs, memberships, and small monthly donations are how many sanctuaries keep the feed bill paid.

Spring water. People sometimes ask whether the spring water could be sold. Possibly, but not casually. Selling spring water to the public is regulated in Arkansas by the Department of Health and federally as a food product, and it requires approval, regular testing, and licensing. Using the spring for the people, the animals, the gardens, and the guests is simple. Selling it would be a big project for someone who wants to take it on with the right advice.

Nonprofit, business, or both

People ask whether a farm animal sanctuary can be a business. It can. Most sanctuaries are nonprofits because donations and grants are easier to raise that way. But guest rooms, a campground, gatherings, retreats, and produce could be run as a regular business or a social enterprise, with the sanctuary inside it or as a separate nonprofit the business supports. An attorney and an accountant would need to help set it up. The point is that a sanctuary doesn’t have to struggle if the land around it is working too.

A head start

A group starting from bare land would need to find water, build a house, build an outbuilding, start gardens, and wait years for the trees to grow in. Here, much of that has already happened. The water has run for nine years. The house is here. The big building is here. The gardens are growing. There’s land that could become pasture again, with room for a barn, ideally near the pond site.

What’s left is the fun part: deciding which rooms become guest rooms, where the tent platforms and the barn go, which corner of the land the first goats get, and who’s cooking on Sunday.

A few insights

• The animals are the heart of it; the rest helps pay for their care. A sanctuary that plans how it will cover its costs has a much better chance of still being open in ten years.
• Co-living and sanctuary are the same idea at two sizes. Both are about a group of beings sharing land, water, and shelter without anyone being used up.
• Water makes it all possible. Animals, guests, gardens, and retreats all depend on water, and this spring has kept the cisterns supplied for nine years.
• Nobody has to arrive with the whole dream finished. A place like this could start as a home and grow into a sanctuary, or start as a sanctuary and grow into a community.

If this speaks to you

I’d love to hear from you. A text is the best way to reach me: Patricia Mikkelson, (479) 313-0414. The house is also listed on Zillow if you’d like the details.

See more of the spring, the gardens, the metal building, and the land at livingspringsloghouse.com

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A note on how this was written. This article was written together by Patricia, a friend of Barbara’s and a resident of the Living Springs Log House, and Claude.ai, the AI assistant made by Anthropic. Patricia brought the vision (guest rooms in the metal building, a campground, gatherings, a retreat by the spring, a sanctuary that can pay its own way) and nine years of watching the cave spring run. Claude organized it, added what is known about vegan co-living projects and private campgrounds elsewhere, and pointed out the parts, like selling spring water, that are possible but not simple. The examples of other communities and businesses named here come from published sources and should be checked directly before relying on them.

Written with the help of Claude.ai, an AI assistant made by Anthropic.