Most people who come to veganism, and most people who come to sobriety, arrive at the same discovery sooner or later: knowing what you want to live by is one thing, and living it every day is another. Commitments are easier to keep when the people around you are keeping them too.

That’s the idea behind one of the possibilities I’ve been holding for the Living Springs Log House — a vegan sober living home. A place for vegans who want more structure and support in their lives, whether that means staying free of alcohol and drugs, staying steady in their vegan eating, or both.

Two Kinds of Discipline, One Kind of Home

Sober living homes already exist all over the country. They’re alcohol- and drug-free houses where people in recovery live together with structure, house rules, and the support of others walking the same road. Farm-based recovery homes exist too, where residents care for gardens and animals as part of their healing.

What we haven’t found is a home that brings recovery together with veganism. For a vegan in recovery, an ordinary sober house can mean living around food and conversation that cut against their deepest values. And for a vegan who keeps slipping in their eating — at family dinners, on the road, under stress — there’s rarely a place to simply live inside the commitment for a while, among people who share it.

A vegan sober living home would hold both. Every meal on the property plant-based. Every room alcohol- and drug-free. House agreements everyone signs, regular house meetings, shared chores, and shared meals cooked together.

Why This Land Fits

The Living Springs Log House sits on 14.75 acres outside Huntsville, Arkansas, about 25 minutes from town. That distance is part of the gift. There’s no bar on the corner.

The days here have a natural rhythm. There are established gardens to tend, from the upper gardens to the vegetable garden. There’s a cave spring that has fed two cisterns that have kept us in water for years — except when someone left a hose running, or when technical difficulties came up. There’s a metal building with room for shared work, and a walk-out basement suite with its own separate entrance, which could give a house manager or a resident a measure of privacy.

What Daily Life Might Look Like

A morning walk to the spring. Work in the gardens. Cooking a shared plant-based meal. A house meeting in the evening. Residents would keep attending outside recovery meetings and working with their own counselors and support — the home wouldn’t replace treatment, but it could be a steady place to live while healing.

In time, if a farm animal sanctuary takes root here, caring for animals could become part of the rhythm too.

Something New

This isn’t built yet. It’s an idea looking for the right people — someone with experience running a recovery residence, or vegans who have walked the recovery road themselves and want to make a home for others. Whoever builds it would need to work within Arkansas’s rules for recovery housing and with recovery professionals.

But the land is ready for it. A place to live is already here. The gardens are already here. The spring is already here.

A Few Insights

• Farm-based sober living homes exist, vegan sober social spaces exist, and research on plant-based eating in recovery has begun — but we didn’t find anyone combining vegan living and sober living in one home.
• Discipline is easier when it’s shared. The same structure that helps someone stay sober can help someone stay vegan.
• Peaceful land, gardens, and daily chores are features recovery programs around the country already rely on — and they’re already part of life here.

How We Wrote This Together

This article was written collaboratively by Patricia, a resident of the Living Springs Log House, and Claude.ai, an AI assistant made by Anthropic. Patricia brought the vision of a vegan sober living home — a hybrid for vegans who need more discipline in their eating or with substance use. Claude researched whether anything like it already exists and helped shape the article. The illustration was created with AI.

To see more of the land, the spring and the gardens, visit www.livingspringsloghouse.com