California is on fire. Is my dream going up in flames?

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Hello, this is Angela with Parkros Permaculture. I am bringing you along with me on a journey where I explore whether or not I could purchase a little bit of property in Mendescino, California, and um turn it into a retreat space for permaculture people, artists, and writers and join uh with the community that is down there in the good work that they're doing um for artists, creative people, uh folks who are interested in experiments in sustainable living. Please go back and watch the previous vlogs on this journey to give you some context as to what the heck I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I don't know yet how things are going to pan out. I sort of had an inspiration.

[00:00:42]Um, and I I thought I'm going to see if there's anything here. I have this this spark, this idea that has been kindled in my brain and I want to do the leg work and figure out if there's anything that I can actually pursue in real life or you know if this is just a a fantasy that will just end there. It will stay a daydream. I'm somebody who has had a very long history of uh being passionate about sustainable and intentional community. I have wanted to live in a commune for forever. Right? Commune has a really negative connotation because I think communes are often perceived as having a spiritual basis and often having you know a charismatic leader and becoming a high control group etc. That's that's not my um the way I understand a commune. I want communal living where we have resources in common. We live together connected in community. Um, so I I know that the term intentional community is is more socially acceptable and it covers this whole range of eco villages and co-housing and tiny experiments in just a few people living together. You can do intentional community in one house, right? I have friends in the Portland metro area who have done intentional community where it's just a number of adults, four, five, six adults who live in one house and share the gardens and share um the kind of domestic chores and the child care, right? That is intentional community. It also could be something um like Columbia Eco Village here in Portland that is essentially set up as a condominium association. people buy in and they have a property where they share the gardens and there is a a communal commercial kitchen and there's a community house that's like a guest cottage where you could have friends and family come stay but then your individual dwelling is quite small with a small kitchen and the idea is that your personal space is not that big you're spending the bulk of the time in the community and also there are experiments that are in rental intentional communities I like to point to Kaash Eco Village here in Portland where There is an owner who owns the property and makes all of the decisions.

[00:02:45]So, it's intentional community, but it's not really a a group, a society run on a consensus. The owner makes the decisions and people can rent and therefore you get a kind of different population that's living there. People may rent for the long term. They are people who maybe couldn't afford to purchase a property or a unit in a property and another intentional community. They tend to be very expensive, right? Like co-housing tends to be very expensive. And so in a rental dynamic, you get different folks and a different vibe, but that's still people choosing to live together and share the grounds and be intentional in the ways that they care for the property and then have relationships with other people who live there. That fascinates me. I have always wanted to live that way. I hate living in a a single I hate the way we do American society where so much of it is carved up into like we got to be the king of our castle and we got to have toxic individualism. this promotion of self-sufficiency. As a permaculture person, I reject the entire premise of self-sufficiency and I want to embrace interdependence. We are connected to the land and we are connected to each other. And yet we see time and time again that experiments in intentional community tend to really struggle in the US. And I'm fascinated with that whole process. Why do people yearn to live in communes, to live in eco villages, to live in communities that have consensus governance, etc., etc. And then why why do those often fall apart? Why are they inaccessible to most Americans? And who are the kinds of people that seek out that way of living and who yearns for that way of living but never bothers to seek it out or feels that it's totally unattainable for them, right? It feels like a utopian fantasy. And yeah, th this is this is a topic I could wax about endlessly because I'm so fascinated with intentional communities from the Hutterites in the United States, which are um in the US and Canada. They are the only long-term successful entirely communal society that we have. And I find them um a a model to to look at with a number of critiques because they are a religious community with strict gender roles and people give up certain elements of individualism that we consider really important in the rest of American society. And yet the hutterites are thriving, right? And then you have hippies like the Albian Nation communes down in Menescino. So many of them were formed around queer women looking for a sustainable connection and community.

[00:05:14]people wanting to value children as equal members of the community. And so you see these like really radical experiments that are a rejection of the patriarchy and the childism that was so rampant in the late 1960s and 1970s. I mean childism is still rampant in the US and so so is the patriarchy but um trying to live in a way that respects all of the members and their uniqueness and authenticity and then also to care for the planet. As a permaculture person, so much of my my interest is really in what I think most people would call eco villages having that earthare, people care and fair share, designing society. I think that when you look at an eco village model, um it can be expanded for much larger communities and perhaps American society as a whole in a way that cares for the planet, regenerates the planet, but also gives us a really good quality of life. Americans do not have a very good quality of life. So this property that I'm looking at, sorry to just keep yapping about this guys. I could talk about it forever. So looking at this property in rural Menesino County, the idea would be to partner with other folks because I think when we are talking about bridging the gap, we're talking about baby steps. We're talking in permaculture about slow small solutions. Um we can do intentional community in ways that are not residential. We can have retreat spaces.

[00:06:30]we can have kind of temporary um attempts to to dip our toe in the water and to try things out. And for me, that's the appeal of this. I have wanted to form an intentional comm community, an eco village community in Portland, Oregon for as long as we've been here, 20 plus years, and it's never been financially attainable. I've done tons of leg work on what it would take in terms of permits and zoning and construction costs and property costs, talking with contractors, interviewing people who run and have developed other intentional communities in Oregon, extensive conversations with folks, and it's just never been something that um has been financially viable for me. And so I'm thinking I need to scale back quite a bit. And what if I what if I try something out that's a little smaller? I have no interest in leaving Portland, Oregon. So, it's not like I'm moving to Menescino. This property is not one that could have people living on it full-time. It's got two little cabins on it, and it would be about partnering with other people, other um artists, uh colonies, nonprofits, and residents in the area.

[00:07:45]So, go back and watch the earlier parts if you if you want to see what the process has been like so far. Having an initial spark, an initial dream from a visit down there and then being like, "Okay, let's look at properties and let's um then pull all of the inspection reports on those properties and then let's be horrified at how extensive the necessary repairs are going to be."

[00:08:08]Okay. Well, um we're just having a list.

[00:08:10]I said in my last video, I have like a red flag and a green flag list and I'm just keeping a tally. I'm just doing factf finding right now. So, I've looked at all of the permitting. I've looked at the repairs that are needed on the property. I've looked at why the property has sat on the market so long.

[00:08:26]I um pulled information about the well and whether it might run dry in the summer. And good news is although it has run dry once when there was a drought, there's now a water tank on the property and it has not run dry since then. So it has a good flow report on it. Okay. Um those are all those are all things that I can deal with so far. So I'm going to keep moving forward. Well, my next steps were to look at insurance and talk to mortgage brokers. So that let me let me tell you how that's going. Uh okay. I was already seeing a number of red flags with the property was was I feel overpriced for the area initially, right? The seller was really ambitious and no hate to them. I understand that.

[00:09:09]I don't know the circumstances of why they're listing this property. That's not my business, but it did seem really ambitious for the area. And then I think as more inspections have been done and the repairs are more um extensive than they maybe initially thought, they brought the price down quite a bit.

[00:09:24]still way way not affordable for me at this point in time. So, I would need them to come down substantially before I could justify purchase of the property.

[00:09:33]And obviously, I'm not in a position to just purchase it outright in cash. I would have to get a mortgage. To get a mortgage, you have to get insurance.

[00:09:39]What's been happening in California for the last several years?

[00:09:44]Yeah, there's been pretty extensive fires every year. There's no such thing as wildfire season on the West Coast anymore. It's literally year round. So, I thought I need to check and see if this property is even insurable before I move forward. And because if I can't get insurance, I can't get a mortgage. I need a mortgage, right? So, stepping backward, right? I want the property to get the property. I need a mortgage to get a mortgage. I need insurance. Is the property insurable? That's where I'm at right now. So, I did a ton of digging.

[00:10:14]And first of all, I am so sorry to everybody in California. I had no idea.

[00:10:18]had no idea how bad the insurance situation like State Farm and All State and the big insurers, they basically have like dipped on fire insurance. So many properties are uninsurable that they have formed the California Fair plan which is a state insurance pool and it is only fire wildfire insurance, right? So you still need a regular homeowners policy for everything else like a tree falling on your house or you know um an electrical fire or anything you typically need homeowners insurance for. The California Fair Plant, as I understand it, is just for wildfire damage, including smoke damage, and that's it. And there are still some insurers that will private insurers that will write policies for fire insurance for homeowners in California. It just really depends on where you are and what the risks are. But large sections of California have basically become uninsurable. I was shocked to read that one in five Californians no longer have fire insurance on their property because they cannot afford it because their previous policy was cancelled and they cannot afford the California Fair plan or nobody will insure them under a private plan at all.

[00:11:23]So people who have lived in California for decades have deep roots in the community are having to make it the having to make the decision um do we leave our beloved community and our homes and go somewhere to another state perhaps where we can get insurance or do we just risk it? Do we just risk a wildfire taking everything that we have and being uninsured? And so to see that one in five Californians are in a position where they can't get insurance, it how do we not all know how dire this is? I posted in a um like an alumni real estate group that I'm in asking people if they had a similar experience and I got messages from friends who were like, "Oh, um I'm in Colorado and because of our wildfires, I can't get my property insured anymore either." But there is no state plan like California has. There are people that I know here in Oregon who've had their fire insurance canled on their cabins up on Mount Hood because we've had wildfires here because there is no such thing as wildfire season on the West Coast. Hey, climate change.

[00:12:25]Hey, overdevelopment. Hey, longtime fire suppression that has made the wildfire risk far worse. And also people building out into areas that are wildfir, right?

[00:12:37]Like areas that maybe shouldn't have residences on them at all. And maybe we should be focused on controlled burning and management of the land the way that indigenous people have done since time in memorial instead of the like white people thinking about the logging industry way of managing the land which is just like suppress suppress suppress right I know that there is good science and there are good people doing controlled burns and thinking more responsibly about management but for decades and decades we didn't have that and that has contributed to the problem that we're in now. It's also very dry.

[00:13:07]It's very hot. The fire season is longer. Lightning strikes are worse because we are having longer seasons where there's lightning strikes, but like the rain comes back later and things are hotter and drier and the tinder is just it's everywhere, right?

[00:13:22]Everything is fuel for the fire. Okay.

[00:13:24]Sorry to go on that tangent. Um I don't know why this is not a greater conversation around the country because it's going to spread beyond California.

[00:13:31]It already is in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, etc. Um, I understand we're all fighting fascism right now and maybe, you know, we got a lot of we got to deal with in our own states. So, we might not have heard about how bad things are for Californians.

[00:14:01]So, I did a little digging. I talked to a couple different insurance brokers about what this property um could get in terms of fire insurance and it's not it's not a good scene. It's not a good scene at all. Okay, get ready to be shocked unless you're in California and then you probably already know what's up. So, I got quotes and again this is just an estimate cuz the property would have to be inspected and we'd have to know more information. But the initial estimates are coming back anywhere between $9,000 a year just for a wildfire policy all the way up to $22,000 a year. I've been told from multiple insurance brokers that no private insurance will insure that property and is only going to be insurable under the California Fair plan. And already I was told the condition of the roofs is probably going to preclude me being able to get a policy at all. the roofs will have to be replaced in order for uh there to be an insurance policy underwritten for that property. Well, if the seller is not willing to put new roofs on, how do I get a mortgage if I don't have insurance? I can't put new roofs on until I own the property.

[00:15:10]Right? So, now we're in a catch 22. Um, yeah. So, if you want to know how the quotes can vary so widely from 9 to 22,000, here's what I know. Again, this is just I'm not an insurance broker.

[00:15:19]This is just my conversation with three different insurance brokers in California.

[00:15:25]So, I want to purchase this property in the name of my LLC. It is a business investment. This is not like my vacation home. This is a business investment. So, I want the property titled in my LLC's name. According to the folks I spoke with, that means that the property would immediately almost double in terms of the insurance requirements. that under the California Fair plan, business properties are twice as expensive to ensure. There's also the issue that there are two homes, two cabins on the property. They're not really homes, right? Two cabins. And they both qualify though as habitable structures because both of them have a full kitchen. So, they would both need their own policy.

[00:16:05]So, both structures would need new roofs to qualify. You know, they'll have the little drone come over. I would love to put metal roofs on the structures.

[00:16:12]That's That's a safer bet in a high firerprone area. Couldn't do that till I own the property. Right. Okay. Roofs number one issue. Two two cabins on the property. Both currently considered habitable structures. I will get into that more in just a moment how I could potentially change that. So, two policies and that doubles the cost.

[00:16:33]Number three is I want it to be in the name of my LLC. I want the the property titled in the name of my LLC. That doubles the cost. So, when you're looking at that range of 9 to 22,000, that's contingent on what kind of roof I would get and whether or not it would be 9,000 more as like personal if I owned it as a a getaway cabin and my own personal property if my business owned it all the way up to 22,000. Not great.

[00:16:57]Not great. Part of the reason that um they told me it's so expensive is because it's in rural California.

[00:17:04]Menescino County is not actually as high of a fire risk as you would think. I looked at all of the the maps, but the insurance is quite expensive because it is in an area with no water manes and no fire hydrants.

[00:17:18]So, if you look at downtown Mendescino or you look at any other area that's on city water and there are fire hydrants, the cost of the insurance gets cut almost in half. Now, I inquired because I know this property, right? I spent a week staying at a property a three-minute walk away. I walked around this property on a daily basis. I know that there is a giant water tank directly across the street from the driveway to this property for the Albian Fire Department. So, they can't do fire hydrants because it's a rural area and everybody's on wells, but there is essentially a functional fire hydrant directly across the street. And the insurance broker said, "Nope, that's not going to work because it's not an inground on a main. The tank doesn't count." Yep. The fire department's water supply is situated closer to your property than anybody else's. It's ideal in terms of if you do have a fire, like you've got you've got the water, right?

[00:18:13]The fire department is coming first directly to your house to hook up to that tank. Doesn't matter under the underwriters policy. They don't care if it's not connected to the water man.

[00:18:23]They don't care.

[00:18:25]I don't know how I could overcome that.

[00:18:27]$22,000 a year. That's that's right.

[00:18:31]Like my husband and I were saying, if we just wanted this as a vacation property, we could go rent a nice house in Mendescino for the entire summer for that cost and like eat out every night, right? Just on fire insurance blows my mind. I don't know how any Californians are able to run a business. Is everybody just going uninsured?

[00:18:51]To me, this says um this is a significant portion of the reason why this this person has not been able to sell their property thus far, I think, because nobody can get fire insurance and most people cannot buy that property without getting a mortgage, right? So, we already know from the last video it needs septic tank repair. We already know that it needs probably new roofs to qualify for fire insurance. Okay? So, if you need a mortgage, those are both barriers. Those are both on the red flag list, right? green flag list is that um could I magically afford fire insurance?

[00:19:25]The big water tank for the fire department is directly across the street. It is a lower fire risk area, although there are extensive redwoods on the property.

[00:19:34]That then brings up the other issue of if I want to do permaculture, we'll get back to the two the two structures. I'm not forgetting that. Don't don't worry.

[00:19:41]if I wanted to do real permaculture and real like redwood restoration on this property because it is a third growth forest, right? The the old growth was cut down in the 1850s. Menescino is essentially a lumber a lumber town, right? A lumber village. It's like a village and then they replanted and then um that was all logged as well. So what you have remaining is third growth and lumber companies replant way too thick. Old growth redwoods are about nine redwood trees per acre. And when you have them too close together, they can't reach their optimal size, you end up with too much underbrush. If you're looking and you also end up depriving those those understory tree species, shrub species from being able to establish. So if you're looking at good forest management because your goal as a permaculture person is to create that zone four and five those wild spaces that respect nature because you're looking at a depleted landscape that has been subject to you know two centuries worth of abuse basically from humans. Then there is an element of management that comes into play. That is part of the permaculture ethic of how we're helping not just be sustainable. We're not just trying to reduce harm. trying to regenerate landscapes and we're trying to to um make recompense, right, for what our ancestors have done. And for me, if I purchase that property, I would want to thin the redwoods to the required nine per acre. And that would mean having to pay to have the property logged. And I know that's going to piss off some environmentalists, but um that's that's good wildland management. And it's also respecting the ecosystem and and trying to be a positive force in restoring the ecosystem. So for the wooded areas of the property, I'd have to hire somebody to come in and log. You can't sell redwoods off your property, tree species off your property without a permit. But in Menescino County, you can log without a permit as long as you use the wood on site. I'm doing all kinds of research, like I said. So, so that comes into play as well.

[00:21:57]Okay, so getting back to the two habitable structures on the property.

[00:22:01]There's a water tower and then there's a funky cool cabin built in the early 1970s I'm just like absolutely spin with. So, the water tower all over Mendescino County there are water towers and tons of them have been converted into cool funky artist spaces and in downtown and also out in the county, right? Cool artist spaces, ADUs, little funky cabins. And this property, I think that the water tower was converted into a a rental cabin in the 1990s. I found the old website from previous owners where it's clearly like Geio City's kind of website, what we would have made in college in the 1990s and they advertise it as a rental. And so we we know that it's been rented in the past. The county told me it had been licensed as a rental in the past. So there is a bedroom on the first floor and a bathroom and a full kitchen. And then there's also a loft bedroom on the third floor. I I don't think it qualifies as a true bedroom because there's no door that can be closed, but there is a bed up in a loft. So, there's two beds. Full kitchen makes it a habitable property. And so, that makes it a different insurance policy. If it were to not have a full kitchen, it might be a different situation. So, if I took out the stove and I put in a hot plate, would it then qualify as like a shed or an out building, something where people could legally spend the night, but not a full kitchen? So, not a separate cabin.

[00:23:28]That's something I have to explore.

[00:23:29]That's what I'm going to be exploring next. But it would have to be removed prior to getting an insurance policy and prior to purchasing. You see how complicated this is becoming now. It almost feels my family members are like, "Why are you doing this, Mom? It's time to drop it, right? It's time to drop it." Nope. I'm going to do more facting.

[00:23:44]Yeah, I have great credit. I will qualify for a mortgage on the property.

[00:23:48]The issue is the property itself. Now, I got told, "Don't talk to the mortgage people about the status of the septic system because technically it's not failed. It's just sluggish in the winter and the tank needs to be moved." I was like, "Well, okay. So, I'm not going to mention that. I'm just going to talk about the insurance. If it's California Fair Plan and they're telling me that that the roof has to be replaced on both structures before it's insurable, how do I get a mortgage?" And they're like, "There's workarounds. There's things we can do." And the realtor's like, "This is not a deal breakaker. We we could figure it out if you really want the property.

[00:24:21]Again, I'm just seeing that like$9 to $22,000 a year, y'all. That's I don't even know how I would begin to afford that, right? The question is then, could I bring up enough income to the site where like maybe I wouldn't make any income, but the space would still serve my ethics and my needs and help the like serve the purpose for which I want to utilize it. But then I just like basically would not make money off of it if I had to pay that much for fire insurance. And there's no way I think I could justify let's say by some miracle, right? Like I I got some sugar mama or um you know like I I was able to fund raise to purchase the property in cash, which is not that's not something I'm thinking of. Even if I could purchase it in cash and therefore I wouldn't be required to have a fire policy, it does not make good business sense. It does not feel responsible to not have any fire insurance. Okay, so where do things stand right now? Well, you know, at the end of the last video, I was like, I'm feeling a little bit down. I'm not going to give up yet, but I'm going to keep looking. I feel more discouraged than I did in the last video. If you were watching from video one till now, you're probably seeing this progression of like, uh, looks less and less appealing.

[00:25:24]There's more and more obstacles. What are you doing? I think that there's a couple of things that I I want to continue to do before giving up. I want to go down and actually see the property. That's on my list of things to do. I will take you with me. I will record all of that. And I I just want to get eyes on the property, feet on the ground.

[00:25:43]and be under the redwoods and walk through the structures, be like, I'm doing all of this work and looking at all of these hurdles and barriers. Is it worth it to continue to pursue solutions and ways to overcome those barriers? Or if I get on the property and I'm like, "Wow, I had created I'd fabricated something in my head that doesn't match reality and um this is now a no, right?

[00:26:04]I need I need to be there in order to determine whether or not I'm operating in kind of fantasy fiction land." I think that that will be a harsh dose of reality when I get down there. Not that all of the factf finding hasn't already been a harsh dose of reality, but yeah.

[00:26:19]So, we're going to make a trip down there hopefully in the next couple of weeks. And I don't imagine someone's going to snatch up that property between now and then. It's been on the market for almost a year. And I if if somebody does put an offer in and it's accepted before I can get down to California, then it wasn't meant to be. It wasn't meant to be for me and I will be at peace with that. But I also think I can't walk away from this project without first seeing it. And that brings me to the next the next thing that I'm going to do between now and going down there. I have a phone call scheduled with the owner of Salmon Creek Farm, which is the property that we stayed at, 3-minute walk away, to talk with him about what it was like for him to make the decision to purchase a derelict commune in the middle of the redwoods when he's from at the time LA and now San Francisco. What was that like for him? And does he have any insight or advice after being in the county for 15 years and having transformed this derelict commune into a wonderful thriving community for artists?

[00:27:19]Yeah, I I need to have that conversation I think before I am able to give this up completely. That conversation and then the trip down to view the property. So that's sort of where we stand right now.

[00:27:31]Looks looks a little bit bleak, but you know what? Again, none of this is wasted effort. If at the end of this I'm like, I can't I I can't make this work. I'm crunching the numbers eight different ways and this makes no sense. This is way too much of a financial risk or my pennies could be better spent somewhere else or I'm going to bankrupt my business or like this just feels like a fool's errand. I won't go through with it and I'm at peace with that. But all of this factf finding and learning has been beneficial. I said in my last video, I learned how septic systems work in this video, right? researching for this video, I've learned so much about the insurance market and I've learned about the real significant wildfire risks to homeowners on the West Coast and how that is going to be an everexpanding problem. Like I am gaining so much knowledge and I'm learning about things that I would never have bothered investigating. This is kind of like an unschooling thing, right? In unschooling, we say that learning is most meaningful and you retain it best when it is contextualized in your real life. Unschooling is not just for children. It's for people your whole life through. I will never forget the information that I'm learning on this journey because I'm so passionate about this project and I'm so in love with the county and in my head I'm I'm crushing on the property but I haven't seen it yet. Um well I mean I've seen the outside, right? But it's all surrounded by redwood so I haven't gotten on the property. As we walked by when we were visiting all I can see is the trees, right? Yeah. So no wasted effort. All of this will be information that I can utilize, understanding that I can utilize and will shape the decisions that I make going forward. I am not going to give up being interested in intentional community in communal living in eco villages or even short-term experiments on connecting with other people. Those baby steps toward designing a more resilient society where we have earthare, people care and fair share. I'm not going to give up on that.

[00:29:20]That's, you know, three decades in the making. three decades of passion that is not going to fizzle out. And so all of this will contribute toward that. And I really appreciate y'all coming along with me on this journey. I don't know, at the time I'm filming all of this, right? I'm not going to publish it for a month or two. I don't know whether anybody will watch these videos. And I don't know what'll happen at the end.

[00:29:39]I'm sure if I purchase the property and I start renovations on it, then yeah, everybody will watch these videos. But if it fizzles out, I don't know if people will be interested in this process. But dang, it's interesting for me. I find it meaningful and important for me. And for those of you who are watching, thank you. Thanks for coming along. I appreciate your insight. If you have opinions or thoughts you want to leave in the comment section, please, please leave those because at the time you're watching this, I don't know where I'll be on the journey, but I always value your perspective. Also, please don't forget to click subscribe. At the time I'm filming this, I'm getting really close to 500,000 subscribers. I think I'm in like 465 or something. I would love to get to 500,000 before the end of the year, before before summer.

[00:30:19]That would be amazing. So, uh, before before wildfire season. Oh, wait.

[00:30:22]Wildfire season is all year long.

[00:30:24]Anyway, okay. Um, I am going to go schedule that phone call with Fritz and then we'll see what happens next. Thank you for being here with me on this.

[00:30:33]Thanks for letting me, you know, just explore and be a person who is wandering and doesn't necessarily know where the journey is going to end and doesn't know how things are going to pan out. Life is really messy. Unexpected things happen.

[00:30:46]The future is unwritten. And I'm I'm trying to be okay with that and I'm trying to enjoy the ways that that can be beneficial.