I, too, have used lemmings as a term to describe users here and I think it’s cute and endearing. We can decide as a group once we’re all at this guys property lmao

If you do a permaculture Arrangements you can really diversify while you wait for the trees to grow up, although by then they might be more valuable alive than dead especially if you pick the species to benefit the whole permaculture system

Annually or sometime a couple times a year, rake the pine straw, have it bailed, then sell it to folks doing landscaping or have someone pay you for the right to do that.

In Georgia, roughly 100 acres of pine trees sell for around $1.5mil to $2mil when they are ready for harvest which is 15 to 20 years.

If I knew how I’d already have a cult of my own. I hear being charismatic is a prerequisite

Marketing.

But first you need the idea. I’d say leftwing based religious science compatible apocalyptics is an untapped market. So basically make a bunker commune for societal collapse based on climate change and say all the current right wing politicians are demons accelerating it to bring upon hell on earth, and that oil is the devil’s blood.

Just off the top of my head that’s an idea.

Attract people with the true promise of very cheap, simple, communal living, free from the pressures of capitalist society, a shared belief system, and/or a common ideology.

Offer free workshops on useful skills like food storage and survival techniques, meditation, prayer, self-sufficiency, trauma counseling and drug and alcohol rehabilitation

Restrict calories by setting meal times and durations.

Make sure there is enough work so that everyone is busy all the time

Restrict movement by having mandatory meetings, meditation sessions, or chores at particular times throughout the day so nobody has time to go to town.

Erode individual identity with common dress, common food, common hairstyles etc.

Identify and keep track of individual weaknesses (Trauma, parental issues, weight insecurity, financial insecurity, fear of failure, fear of abandonment mental illness), key motivations (Financial stability, seeking to be apart from society, seeking happiness), basic desires (financial security, relationship security, being part of a community, sex)

Make extensive use of seed phrases and formal speech rules so that people censor their own speech. EG Each must greet the other with 'Good day, good evening, good morning, etc. As innocuous as this sounds, it forces interactions to begin on a predictable footing, and guides conversation along predictable lines. Said often enough, the formal ‘Good morning’ excludes the possibility that anything bad has happened, is happening, or might happen. People cannot speak to children and vice versa without a parent present (very handy if you take in runaways that have no parents), unmarried men and women may not be alone together except when courting, new members must have a guide/buddy/chaperone/mentor/elder present with them at all times for the duration of their probation.

Maintain division by requiring individuals to report non-conformity by others, make non-reporting of non-conformity a punishable act, and make non-conformity a poorly defined and easily applied term, so that everyone is guilty, and you as the leader get to pick and choose who is punished.

Punishments are gentle tightening of above restrictions - more work, less food, less interpersonal contact, less free time, more proselytizing etc.

Reward extravagantly those who recruit others, using free time, more food, more freedom, sex with other members as a reward.

Reward extravagantly revenue-generating activities, manufacturing, labor, producing food, donating money or assets, or illicit income such as burglary and shoplifting .

Enjoy your cult.