Dreaming of an intentional community

Here's a random Thursday thought for you: creating a safe, healthy, and self-sustaining community.

This is a thought that my husband and I periodically throw around, but that we never take fully seriously. In fact, what brought it about in my thoughts this morning was reading a friend's Facebook status that mentioned she and her husband had recently spent a lot of time reading up on how to be debt free and homestead. Husband and I haven't taken this too seriously yet, because really, isn't it impossible? Even if we could join up with other like minded people, could this even come to fruition? And if it did, wouldn't something spoil the whole thing for us, like dissension among the "tribe"?

I love to think about the possibility of having a community to help each other and raise children in. Each family would have to be carefully evaluated and selected though, as mean as it sounds, to get the ideal mixture of talents, abilities, and resources to sustain the community. How could one maintain the integrity of the group though, without becoming overbearing or like a cult? These are interesting points to ponder.

Without having researched it, these are the skills I feel would be most important for such a community:

Farming: animals and plants
Engineer: general
Medical: Paramedic, RN, or above; should be knowledgeable regarding homeopathics
Carpentry: construction and finish carpentry; electric and plumbing knowledge also needed
Textiles: creating, sewing (clothing and any needed textile items), knitting, crochetting
Craftspeople: pottery, forging, milling wood, etc.
Preserver: canning, freezing, drying, and storage of food and materials
Therapist: should be able to run all types of therapies and evaluations from working with physically and developmentally disabled children to providing counseling for married couples.
Mechanic: general

On top of that, there are certain personal characteristics that would have to be considered, such as integrity, faith believes, intelligence, and compassion. Other things that would have to be considered would be education (I firmly believe in home style schooing), preserving the arts (both visual, performing, and music), health insurance, and a general monetary income (might I suggest an E-Commerce solution that people could contribute to?).

I'm not speaking of living in a cult, a hippie compound, or an inter-breeding community. I'm simply dreaming of land where the people who live on it help to support and sustain each other, and who could continue living abundently even if shut of from the rest of the world. An intentional community.

Who does this successfully? What else would need to be considered?

Dreaming of the simple life...Am I crazy?

Here are some links I've found but HAVE NOT gone through yet about intentional communities:
http://www.twinoaks.org/
http://earthaven.org/
http://ecovillageithaca.org/evi/ (okay, I live near Ithaca and the place scares me like Sodom and Gomorrah, but I figured I'd include the link here anyway just so I can check it out later)
http://www.thefarm.org/
http://directory.ic.org/