GREENSBURG GREENTOWN Greensburg, KS

Wed, 26 May 2010 04:08:14 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: Like many small towns in the United States, this town had the elements of “everybody knows your name”, everyone waves as they walk, bike or drive by and uniquely, the homes are now being constructed to have front porches rather than fenced in backyards, to help facilitate more community connection.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: The most notable sustainability efforts were the town meetings to re-build green, where EVERYONE was invited - no exceptions - to dream into what could occur, as well as the fact that the entire town is powered by wind turbines and there are more LEED Platinum buildings per capita than any city in the entire country! Read more below...
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: Several families came back right after the tornado and put up mobile homes or simple framed homes to help stabilize the community. When the town decided to rebuild ‘green’, many families chose to build with SIPS (highly insulative), recycled bricks and other green building technologies. There is a map showing which homes have prominent green features.

RESOURCES: This entire town is powered by 10 wind turbines situated just outside of town. In addition, several families have chosen to put solar panels on their roof to heat their hot water and provide extra electricity. The neighbors are also encouraged to “use less”, purchase Energy Star appliances and add insulation in order to allow much less resource use than prior to the tornado.

FOOD: Because the tornado had only occurred 3 years prior to our visit, the soil fertility and any gardening had not really begun yet. However, we learned that there are big plans for adding a CSA and encouraging organic farming in and around this rural town. Being that Greensburg is situated in the Great Plains, completely surrounded by hay, soybean and corn fields, crop diversity and focusing on soil fertility are two major foci for the future of Greensburg.

ECONOMY: The economic model here is not yet sustainable, due to the fact that they are relying heavily on donations, FEMA and other government program support and corporate sponsorships. However, given the extreme situation they went through, the gratitude they feel for the generosity of these programs, individuals and corporations did not go unnoticed. As time passes, new small businesses are sprouting up including a hip new coffee house/cafe started by a young couple who moved back to help revitalize the town. One unique economic model they are using is a “Business Incubator” building that was built early on in the rebuilding process. This is to help encourage new businesses to feel welcome and have a sustainable building in which to operate until they can afford to build a space in town.

CHILDREN: The town is set up fairly traditionally, with single family homes and traditional family values. However, the town aspires to have few fences between yards, thereby allowing children to roam more freely between the homes and interact more with neighboring adults as well.

LINKS:
• www.greensburggreentown.org
• www.planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/greensburg/greensburg-show-info.html
• www.bigwell.org
• www.greensburgks.org

DELAWARE STREET COMMONS Lawrence, KS

Sun, 23 May 2010 15:33:05 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

KARLIN FAMILY FARMS Lawrence, KS

Wed, 19 May 2010 15:30:11 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

RED EARTH FARMS Rutledge, MO

Tue, 18 May 2010 15:29:47 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

DANCING RABBIT ECOVILLAGE Rutledge, MO

Fri, 14 May 2010 15:29:03 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:
Ziggy’s website about his Year of Cob Building: http://small-scale.net/yearofmud

POSSIBILITY ALLIANCE La Plata, MO

Tue, 11 May 2010 17:50:36 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: This Gandhian-based community consists of six adults and three children, as well as two three-time apprentices during the growing season and many more regular volunteers, visitors and potential members. The community practices Quaker-style consensus decision making and mindfulness meditation as well as yoga and other “inner” work. This makes for a very tight-knit community with many radical ideas that are successfully being practiced. They have check-in meetings every morning over breakfast which are a lot of fun and provide intimate connection. There are five main pillars of the community:
• Radical Simplicity
• Service
• Political/Social Activism
• Inner Work
• Gratitude & Celebration
Each of these are carried out in a wide variety of ways as there is not a dogma or “one way”.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: Electricity-free, car-free and mostly petroleum-free (other than a few bike light batteries and the occasional ride from a friend). They generally feel as though most, if not all, “green” technologies are not actually green and when looked closely at are really taking a toll on the earth. For example they shared with us that solar panels are made of silicon that is scraped off the bottom of the ocean and causing damage to the ocean ecosystems. They live right in the middle of Amish country, and have chosen to adopt some similar practices, such as the use of simple technologies and an emphasis on community interdependence, as well as homesteading techniques, including horse-powered farm equipment, honey bees, chickens for eggs, a pond, a barn with hayloft and goats and more. In addition to the ecological sustainability practiced here, they are definitely practicing many economic, spiritual and social sustainability methods as well.  Read more below...
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: The style of community is currently like a housing cooperative, with an intention of creating more of an ecovillage with several dwellings on the property and a large dormatory for visitors. They live in an old Amish farmhouse that had no electrical wiring in it, which was just what they were looking for. They use beeswax candles for light, and they have an outhouse/compost toilet. They use a basement, a cold room and root cellar for keeping things cool. They have a huge wood cookstove/oven that has many purposes including heating the house, and drying things such as herbs and socks, and they also heat up water for washing themselves in a bathtub.

RESOURCES: The first priority for obtaining necessary resources is to find either reused, recycled or refurbished equipment, though at times new items are purchased or donated to make things run smoothly. They have a few neighbors and friends that often donate firewood. They also sustainably harvest some wood from designated sections of their land (80 acres) while some of the land is a protected wildlife reserve. They compost, recycle, repair, reuse, receive, gift, and regift a lot of their resources.

FOOD: They grow about 60% of their own food and are rapidly expanding their food growing to eventually grow as much as 100%. They are also learning about wild edibles, and harvesting some on their land such as nettles, dandelions and more. Also, every day at their check-in meeting they take some time to learn about a new “community member” such as an animal, insect, astrology, bacteria or plant. This way, over time they can become naturalists, and this helps them expand their respect and love for all life. They have chickens for eggs and occasionally meat, goats for milk and cheese, horses for plowing and riding, and a fish pond for fishing. They have also planted hundreds of fruit and nut trees on their land (as well as thousands of other types of trees), and they also have an old orchard on the land. They also raise honey bees for honey and beeswax. They have extensive permaculture zones including an herb spiral near the kitchen, vegetable gardens in the next zone, fruit and nut trees next, etc. etc.

ECONOMY: They function entirely on the gift economy and everyone who lives here is a volunteer. The founders, Ethan Sara and Etta, have lived on less than $3,000/year, and feel that they don’t require money to be happy and get their needs met. The volunteer work comes in many forms - cooking meals, chopping firewood, developing the land, singing for the local choir group, biking around dressed as superheroes and volunteering their help to anyone they see who needs it. They also send people from their community out to different locations both in the local La Plata community and around the world to help causes and situations they have found need their help. They have no expectation for return on this volunteer help, as they have total faith that their needs will be met through the merit built through their volunteerism. This has been a successful experiment for them so far. They do consider their community an experiment and are very open to the possibility it may not work in the long run or be sustainable. But it is this flexibility that has actually made them so successful. They are not judgmental at all to people like us who come to visit and feel like they can’t quite live as simply as them but are open to learning and being inspired. They call their land a “sanctuary” and try to encourage people to come there to fully feel what a truly simple life is like.

CHILDREN: Everything they do is with the mindset that future generations will be able to live on earth and meet their needs. Initially, Etta was the only child on the land and during the day people take turns spending time with her - they call it “Etta Fun”. Now, two additional children have joined the community. They have a very loving and safe environment for children, who are free to initiate projects (and do!) or plug into the work that others are doing, such as chopping veggies, making pasta, etc.

LINKS: No internet website since they have no computers! They prefer to communicate through the postal mail or the phone or best of all in-person visits. Please contact them prior to visiting as far in advance and possible. This is an incredibly active community and therefore require advanced notice.

To contact the Possibility Alliance to learn more about their community and the Superheroes Bike Ride, write or call them at:
Possibility Alliance 28408 Frontier Lane La Plata, MO 63549
Telephone: 660-332-4094
You can do a google search on “Possibility Alliance” and find several articles on them. They are also frequently published in Communities Magazine.

Here’s one we really like:

LINKS:
• http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/10/01/radical-simplicity-living-car-free-petroleum-free-and-electricity-free-at-the-possibility-alliance/

ABDUNDANCE ECOVILLAGE Fairfield, IA

Sat, 8 May 2010 15:27:38 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

AMANA COLONIES Amana, IA

Fri, 7 May 2010 08:51:12 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

DANCING WATERS PERMACULTURE CO-OP Gays Mills, WI

Mon, 3 May 2010 15:26:38 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

BAYVIEW ECOVILLAGE Milwaukee, WI

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 12:21:18 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: I would probably choose the word “family” to describe this community instead of neighbors...they are incredibly close-knit and it shows in the way they treat each other, use compassionate communication, commit to REAL honesty, and care for one another’s needs without much complaining. And another incredibly unique aspect of this community is that there are two parents and a child who live here harmoniously, even though the parents chose not to be in a romantic relationship anymore. This way, the child still gets to live with both parents, and the two adults have had the opportunity to grow past their differences and still live in community...incredible!

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: This community’s Food Not Lawns effort is what stood out the most, and their commitment to living in smaller spaces, sharing all of their yard and garden tools, taking buses and bikes whenever possible, and even walking in several feet of snow in the wintertime to get groceries from the natural food store located up the road, and even to push the strollers with children there for their daycare cottage industry.   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: Two duplexes near downtown Milwaukee WI with a shared driveway might normally be home to four separate families who do their best to figure out which car gets out of the driveway first each morning, but in this case, the duplexes house what felt like one big happy family who share cars, and regardless walk or bike most places anyway. It is often said that “the greenest house is the one you already have”, and in this case, though the houses aren’t made of cob or straw bale, they were already there, and they are now being occupied and loved on by conscious people who throw eco-festivals in the backyard and run an eco-daycare out of the living room. And, because all the living rooms are common space and the living quarters are so much smaller than the typical American.

RESOURCES: This community uses conventional power sources, but they are conscious consumers of electricity and heat, and they do not use air conditioning. In addition, they are figuring out ways to compost as much as possible (even in an urban environment!), using a stacked vermicompost system, and of course they recycle everything and reuse what they can before even putting it in the recycle bin.

FOOD: At the potluck Mandy attended, the food was all vegetarian and even in winter, various members were doing their best to source the food as locally as possible, and certainly natural and organic. Most of the members shop at the natural food store located less than a mile away, and incredibly, on a very small piece of land, there is food growing in every nook and cranny. Uniquely, this community is very active in the Food Not Lawns movement and have broken up their front walkways to create urbanite for landscape edging, and fill the yards with fruit trees, veggies, herbs and perennial flowers.

ECONOMY: As of spring 2010, most community members work outside jobs to pay for community and personal expenses, except for one member who runs an eco-daycare out of the lower level of one duplex. For now, this is for personal income rather than a cottage industry. Of course, food expenses are subsidized by their amazing gardens which will continue to grow and offset grocery bills, and the utilities and housing costs are much less than a typical American given the fact that 10 people share the 4 units. Also, I believe there was significant funds that went into the initial purchase of the two homes.

CHILDREN: One child lived in the community at the time of Within Reach’s filming, yet many children spend time in the community due to the daycare business. Also, a good friend of the community, Myles Saigh, brings his three children by, as do other friends of the community.

LINKS:
• http://directory.ic.org/21614/Bay_View_Ecovillage
• http://bayviewcompass.com/archives/386

WHITE CONCH COMMUNITY Madison and Milwaukee WI Bloomington-Normal IL Sebastopol CA Santa Fe NM Honolulu HI Germany

Mon, 1 Feb 2010 09:58:11 -0600

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

• Website: www.white-conch.org

ARBORETUM COHOUSING Madison, WI

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:02:17 -0600

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: This cohousing community of 70 adults and 12 children live in 29 units on about 1 1/2 acres in the city. They eat together several times a week, and we’ve noticed that most people attend! We have found that communities that eat together at least 4 meals a week tend to be the more intimately bonded communities. This community is very intimately bonded in our perspective. For one, they share common values of social justice, environmental justice, and in general are a community that seeks to personally grow whether it be through the furthering their consensus based governance process, improving their communication through facilitation and better communication practices, and being present with their own processes of reaching within (i.e. spiritual growth). Their community consists of two condominium complexes joined my an underground parking tunnel each with 10-15 individual units joined by hallways, as well as one tri-plex, one “Habitat for Humanity” duplex and four single family homes. The condos are reminiscent of a college dormitory with the look of a modern day indoor hallway style apartment. This brings more intimacy as people are forced to (and get to!) see/speak/interact with each other in the hallways.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: The energy systems and eco-building methods earned this community the highest energy star rating. They have a de-emphasis on driving cars, and have about a hundred bicycles in their huge underground garage/tunnel (more bikes than cars for sure!). They have a shared 4-bin outdoor compost system (and a second set coming soon), vegetable and flower gardening, a rain garden to recover rainwater that naturally goes down the hill, as well as the mere fact that they share a community kitchen, appliances like ovens, refrigerators, tools, laundry machines and guest rooms. They are hoping to get solar panels in the future.

HOME: This is a cohousing community modeled after the Urban Cohousing model. They are located one block away from Lake Wingra (lots of canoes and kayaks at the community in the shared rack out back), one block away from St. Mary’s hospital, one block from the free community zoo, and one block from the nation’s largest urban arboretum (hence the community’s name). They area also within walking distance from downtown Madison (1.5 miles), the University of Wisconsin and Edgewood College.

RESOURCES: The community is taking advantage of the sun for clothes drying, as well as the furnace room in which they hang clothes during the wintertime to dry. As a community, they are very focused on REDUCING their impact on the Earth, which is why most families, couples and singles who live there downsized significantly when they made the transition to cohousing. In addition, they have installed motion detectors on the lights in many common areas, and most residents engage in activities that include walking instead of driving, turning off lights, getting rid of the television (and instead using the HUGE flatscreen located in the common house), and more. In addition, this community has a REUSE system that is more comprehensive than we’ve seen yet. They have allocated a room off of the parking garage to put items that are typically thrown away in case others in the community can find a use. This includes styrofoam, batteries, plastic of all kinds separated, metals of all kinds, and much more. And of course, they RECYCLE too :)

FOOD: They have a lot of healthy food options in the town of Madison within walkable distance, including a food co-op (Regent Market Co-op) a couple blocks away where several residents are members, and/or work a day or two. They currently have a vegetable garden plot out back about 100‘ x 50’ and have plans to triple its size this year. At community meals, they typically start with a vegan gluten-free, dairy-free base, and then have a build-your-own type dish to add in these elements for those that desire these extra items (such as eggs, cheese, meat, bread, etc.). For dessert there will be a gluten/dairy-free options and a regular option.

ECONOMY: Most of the community are professionals of some sort and work outside the community. There are several units in neighboring the main buildings that are affordable housing units as agreed upon with local legislation to encourage new development to be classified as affordable housing. These units were built by habitat for humanity, are subsidized by government grants, and thus allow for people with lower income to be able to afford monthly payments that will allow them to live in this community which would otherwise be unaffordable.

CHILDREN: There are many children living here, ranging from babies to teenagers. There is one room in the common house designated for younger children, in which they are currently constructing a loft and incorporating more mats (versus small toys which tend to get misplaced). The children all seem to be happy with plenty of outdoor play space, many friends to play with right next door, and multiple sets of “parents” to help them and support them. The teenagers also have their own separate space with games and couches.

LINKS: http://www.arboretumcohousing.org

JOYFUL PATH MEDITATION and HEALING CENTER Blue Mounds, WI

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: This small, emerging community of Tibetan Buddhist monastics were living in various apartment spaces in and around Madison WI and California when they decided to band together to open a meditation and healing space - Joyful Path! So, with their roots deeply embedded in a centuries-old religious tradition, they use that common bond to co-create the community agreements, make communal decisions, buy and prepare their food collectively, and run the community business. We had a unique opportunity to watch a Diana Leafe Christian workshop and do some of the “Creating Community” book together and explore new ways to improve communication in regards to community decisions, or those that affect the greater whole, such as how much $ to spend on food, how to divide up the household chores, etc.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: When the building was purchased in 2006 it was completely gutted, so they had the opportunity to make decisions on building products as they went. They used some second-hand items, non-toxic paints and consider their long-term plan to include adding solar panels to power the electricity. During our time at Joyful Path we held several workshops during which we installed two rainwater catchment barrels, a 2-bin compost system, a vermicompost bin and we used the kitchen sink rinse water to help flush the toilet.

Their main sustainability focus is not on ecological sustainability or green building, however, but on social sustainability, that is, creating and maintaining healthy, balanced relationships with one another and all sentient beings (all living beings). They put in great effort toward this through hosting daily morning meditations, weekly meditation classes and workshops to help build a stronger community around and within themselves.   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: We would call this more of a “co-op” style community, as they all live under one roof. The upstairs was renovated into 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, 2 bathrooms, 1 living room and 1 den space. Each monk or nun has his/her own sleeping space, and the women share one bathroom and the men share the other. One kitchen is used as the main one where all of the residents and visitors eat most meals together. The lower level was renovated into a healing center complete with a huge meditation/yoga hall, 2 private healing rooms, 2 commercial bathrooms, a small store and office. While we were there, we turned a portion of the garage into a third healing space with a loft for sleeping so the space can also be used for a personal retreat.

RESOURCES: Joyful Path is certainly conscious of resource consumption and took every effort during renovation to create a well insulated space, including the use of nice-looking fabric window coverings that help during winter months. All light bulbs used are CF and the paints are non-toxic. To clean, they use a wonderful natural cleaning product called Thieves, and for doing the laundry a VERY sustainable product called Soap Nuts!

FOOD: Amazingly, this community lives on just $40/each per month, that’s $200 for the entire household of 5 people! They eat several meals together each week and to read more about how this low-budget food scene works, click here. Because sustainable economics and spirituality is a greater focus than food sustainability, they choose to buy what they can in the way of organic and natural food, buying bulk items such as nuts and grains at the local food co-op - Trillium Natural Foods, where they are members, and growing some herbs on the porch off of one of the bedrooms. In addition, Tibetan Buddhist monastics traditionally accept any food they are offered, so donations of food items is also typical. It is important to note here as well that the $40 does not include snacks, drinks or dining out.

ECONOMY: As a co-op style community, this monastery is not 100% income-sharing, but does share the responsibility of paying for the mortgage on the building, as well as taxes and insurance. Food and cleaning supplies are also purchased collectively. The building was purchased and is still currently owned by just one of the monastics, but it is her desire to transfer the ownership of the building into the hands of the dharma center (White Conch) with whom they are associated.

CHILDREN: Uhhh...monastic community, does that say enough? Children are definitely welcome to attend some of the workshops and receive healing sessions of course!

LINKS:
• www.joyfulpathhealing.org
• www.white-conch.org

BONUS! In April 2010, we wrote the following blog about this community,  so read on for more juicy details about why we enjoyed staying here for so long!

Top 20 reason why Joyful Path is wonderful:

(1) There are three monastics here (and one more who lives off-site) who have devoted their lives to the practice and study of Tibetan Buddhism. They are kind, loving, energetic, thoughtful, knowledgeable, generous, patient and so much more.
(2) They have every book, CD and DVD you can imagine on so many different topics of spirituality, religion and more. Many resources right at your fingertips!
(3) The building was nicely constructed with little nooks and crannies to find a place to read those books, meditate, work on the computer, have a personal retreat, cook healthy meals and more.
(4) The kitchen...ahhh...the kitchen. This is Mandy’s bias of course, but as one who loves to cook, the main kitchen here is very fun to cook in, and opens to the living and dining areas for great conversation flow.
(5) Situated in the town of Blue Mounds WI, Joyful Path is a short walk from a State Park, 2 restaurant/bars, a yoga studio, a Pilates studio, several farms, a 20 minute bike ride from Mt. Horeb, a cute tourist town, and so much more.
(6) As the name indicates, it’s a rather joyful place to be. We produced several episodes of Jugney the Monk, watched movies together, ate meals together, went on walks, co-created sustainability events, attended retreats and other events, had friends over, sat together and had long talks.
(7) The neighbors that we got to know in Blue Mounds, including Rick, Scott, Collette, Karl, Aunt Mary, Lois, Tony, Janet, Pluma, Radonna, Matt and others, are very kind hearted, down to earth folks.
(8) Joyful Path was very open to incorporating sustainability techniques to share more, reduce energy, develop more intimacy in relationships, etc. So we had a rare opportunity to help them. There is now a compost system, worm bin, rain barrels, rudimentary grey water system, structural agreements, new member process, and more! We’ll share photos as they become available.
(9) The cats...Mandy overcame her allergy and Ryan got to live his dream of living with cuddly, cute cats all winter long :)
(10) Meditation space - the dharma hall here is big, hosts many group events, and is a wonderful space to practice each morning at 6am.
(11) Sharing more. This community shares a lot - space, time, resources, food, clothing, yard tools, kitchen gadgets, furniture...everything that a usual household would share. So this sustainability principle is already very strong here!
(1) Eating all meals for $40/month...amazing! The food budget here is kept so low! Read our previous blog to see how.
(2) An introduction to the best green tea Mandy has ever had - Kyoto Cherry Rose Tea from http://www.whitelotusteatime.com
(3) The seasons here are beautiful. Blue Mounds is situated where three weather systems cross, and the result is beautiful. Ryan took many photos of the gorgeous white snow covered landscape.
(4) Deepening in our meditation practice. Joyful Path provided the support and nurturing for deepening in our daily meditation practice, and we also learned new prayers, sadhanas, purification practice and more.
(5) Madison. What a hip city! We enjoyed so many aspects of it, ranging from Willy Street Co-op to the largest producers-only farmers’ market in the country to sitting on the middle of a huge frozen lake to bicycle lanes everywhere!
(6) Other friends of ours are nearby and spent time visiting and enjoying Joyful Path for various events as well, including Jess, Sasha, Thokmay, Carl, Sam, Tolga, Avis, Alfred, Chonyi, Dorje, Choeden, Tashi Powo, Thekchen and Khandro. And some new friends we met THANKS TO Joyful Path including Christine, David, Lhakpa, Garrett, Rinnyi, Max, Diane, .... (I hope we didn’t leave anybody out, but if so we love you too!)
(7) Joyful Path is not only a monastery, meditation and healing center, but is a place dedicated to hosting White Conch’s teacher - Domo Geshe Rinpoche. We are grateful to have experienced the depth and breadth of her teachings both audio, DVD and in person.
(8) Ryan got to attend an “I Take the Vow” ceremony with WindEagle and RainbowHawk while here.
(9) We were given an opportunity to serve others here. Through physical labor, meditation, website work, business management/legal support, cooking, cleaning, etc. we learned the true value of generosity.

Oh, and did we mention there is a REAL monastic community in the United States! They’re young, they’re real buddhist monks and they are white Americans. And, they have a real underground meditation cave

LAKESHORE INTERFAITH COMMUNITY Ganges, MI

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:07:30 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

MANITOU ARBOR ECOVILLAGE Kalamazoo/Nazareth, MI

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:22:48 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

VAIL HOUSE CO-OP Ann Arbor, MI

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:06:46 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

ECOVILLAGE AT ITHACA Ithaca, NY

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:06:19 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: Three cohousing communities (Frog and Song), and Tree (in the forming stages) now exist here on 175 acres in rural area outside city of Ithaca, in upstate New York. There are about 120 people living there, and plans for the third neighborhood allow for an additional 30 or so families. Each cohousing community shares dinnertime meals in their common houses several times a week. There are various work teams to keep things running smoothly. They have consensus style meetings to make decisions. We witnessed one of these meetings and there seemed to be an incredibly tight communication process; though there were heightened energetics and emotions about certain issues during the meeting, there was wonderful facilitation going on which helped the resolution of issues and conflict. They’ve had a lot of training in facilitation, consensus, conflict resolution, and more, and it shows! We also experienced a community party while we were there, and there was an amazing potluck with so much food, incredible music, beautiful and creative decorations and many non-EVI residents that were invited in to share in the space and playfulness of the night.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: This community is a pioneer in cutting edge sustainability systems, and approaches to living. It helps that they are right next to Cornell University, which is on the opposite hill of the gorge that makes up Ithaca (Ithaca is Gorges!). This draw for highly academic and intellectual thinkers has given this community an advantage as there are some powerful brains living there. Some sustainability efforts that we saw there are: solar power, energy efficient buildings, passive solar, eco-built root cellar, composting toilets, gardens, pond, CSA farm, homeschooling, edible landscaping, aesthetic beauty, European village style neighborhood living encouraging intimacy with neighbors, bike-able to town (though it is a huge hill from town to get home, and it makes it hard for some people to want to bike), bus stop right in front of community (bikes can be put on bus) and sustainable land management and restoration projects (prairie, forest, wetlands, farm land). It is becoming a true ecologically sustainable village that still integrates into the larger community around it.

HOME: EVI is categorized as an Ecovillage, created in the unique model of multiple cohousing communities adjacent to each other. The first cohousing community, Frog, is a visual example of cutting edge eco-building for a rural cohousing community from the decade of the 90's (it was completed in 1997). From the wood paneling to the solar panels on the roof, to the recycled newspaper insulation, to centralized "energy centers" for heating, they also integrated the possibilities for future renewable energy sources such as fuel cells. The Second cohousing community, Song, completed in 2004, is a step forward in the cutting edge eco-building techniques of the next decade. It includes solar hot water, solar panels, condensing gas boilers, eco-block foundations, SIP Panels, super insulated roofs, various types of insulated windows, straw bale insulation, rainwater collection, composting toilets, salvaged materials and drain heat recovery. The new cohousing community (Tree) set to be built over the next year or two, plans to be the most ‘eco’ of them all, using the German Passivhaus design (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house) and will incorporate smaller apartments off of the common house so that the common areas are used more often by residents rather than each person having their own full kitchen, etc.

RESOURCES: The community is taking advantage of the sun for solar power and clothes drying. They use recycled building materials when possible, and they grow a lot of their own food - and the % is different for every member. Not all members of the community are members of their CSA for example, and some grow food or herbs right outside their own condo. There is talk of adding a wind turbine for the community buildings to share, and the conversation about sustainable resource use is very much alive right now as they move toward a greater understanding of what it’s going to take to live without oil, gas and coal. Another unique feature is that none of the homes in the first neighborhood (Frog) have ovens - if any residents needs to bake or broil something, they simply walk the beautiful path down to the common house kitchen where there are several ovens for community use!

FOOD: They have a large CSA (community supported agriculture) farm on the property. It is open to the public and many of the community members are involved with growing and eating the food there. They have a lot of healthy food options in the town of Ithaca about 2-4 miles away.

ECONOMY: A lot of the people are affiliated in some way with Cornell University, or the other 2 colleges in the area. Most of the community are professionals of some sort and work outside the community. A few own and operate the CSA on the property.

CHILDREN: There are a lot of children living at the community. A lot of the children living at the community are homeschooled and taught through the Primitive Pursuits program that takes place in the woods and common buildings with a group of EVI and non-EVI kids. Mandy got to participate in and film this collaborative homeschool outdoor education class focused on survival skills. The kids were learning how to use water and rocks to create face paint, and were learning how to start a fire by spinning sticks fast. They then learned how to roast an apple over their fire. The kids are in general very happy it seemed.

LINKS:

• Website: www.ecovillageithaca.org
• Ecovillage at Ithaca, Pioneering a Sustainable Culture, Book by Liz Walker: http://ecovillageithaca.org/evi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74:evibook&catid=34
• Primitive Pursuits School: http://www.primitivepursuits.net
• Bed and Breakfasts at the EcoVillage: Frog’s Way - http://frogsway-bnb.com and   The Wild Goose - http://www.wildgoose-bb.com

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY COHOUSING Charlotte, VT

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:05:51 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

TEN STONES COMMUNITY Charlotte, VT

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:55:41 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

BURLINGTON COHOUSING Burlington, VT

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:55:08 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

COBB HILL Hartland, VT

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 22:45:57 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

AMAZING PLANET! FARM & JUSTIC CENTER Williamsville, VT

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 20:55:51 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

SIRIUS COMMUNITY Shutesbury, MA

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 09:58:47 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

PIONEER VALLEY COHOUSING Amherst, MA

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:55:46 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

720 HOUSE Brooklyn, NY

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:55:00 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

GANAS COMMUNITY Staten Island, NY

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:54:25 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

ECO-GROUP HOME Philadelphia, PA

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:53:35 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

EASTERN VILLAGE COHOUSING Silver Spring, MD

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:52:30 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

MOISHE HOUSE Washington DC

Sun, 9 Aug 2009 09:51:34 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

TAKOMA VILLAGE COHOUSING Washington DC

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 09:48:55 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

SONGAIA Bothell, WA

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:43:17 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

SOUL FOOD BOOKS Redmond, WA

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:44:39 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

CHRYSALIS Arlington, VA

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:42:17 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

ACORN Mineral, VA

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 22:00:06 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: This is a small community of just 10-15 people, but they have a lot of community goin’ on! As an income-sharing group living on about 80 acres, they make all of their decisions using the traditional consensus model at weekly meetings they have in their main building. In addition to cooperatively running a hugely successful heirloom seed business, they also live in co-op houses, prepare and eat two meals each day together, and for the most part, socialize together. Therefore, they have created a rural community that is extremely cohesive. They practice NVC or “compassionate communication” and do not engage in gossip, but instead go directly to the person with whom they are having a disagreement.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: Acorn is rooted in sustainability principles, as they were formed in 1993 during a time when many people were interested in finding ways of not only saving money, but saving the Earth’s resources and begin contributing to a way of life that is regenerative. This was also a time when the waiting list to get into Twin Oaks was huge, and therefore a group formed Acorn to accommodate all of the people who desired to live in community in that area. Acorn’s main efforts toward sustainability are in their heirloom seed business and sustainable farming practices. They are raising and cultivating or selling over 600 varieties of Organic vegetable, herb and flower seeds that are specifically suited for the eastern region of the United States. The company is called “SESE” or Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. In addition to this sustainable business, they are predominately vegan and raise much of what they eat right on the property or purchase it from nearby Twin Oaks. They are becoming economically self-sustaining through their successful businesses (including SESE and an on-site recycled tinnery crafts business).    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: Acorn is characterized as an income-sharing egalitarian community, or simply stated, a commune. The land had an old farmhouse on it, which they have restored using traditional building practices. In addition, the group converted an old barn into a second residence and built a huge common building that houses the central kitchen, offices and more. The residences are all on the front of the property nearest the road, leaving plenty of room for farmland.

RESOURCES: The residents are committed to using local resources whenever available, including wood from their own woods. They are on-grid at this point, and do not yet have plans to install any solar or wind power to supplement or replace it. There is a river that runs near the property, but not through it, so there is no option for hydro-power. They do catch some rainwater, and otherwise use well water to irrigate, drink and bathe with.

FOOD: Much of the vegetables that sustain the residents is grown on the property - as much as 70% at some times of the year. In addition, berries are grown on-site. Other food is delivered in bulk through UNFI, a buying club, or purchased in the nearby town of Charlottesville (weekly trips are made here, as well as to Richmond which is just a bit further). Baked goods, including delicious scones, are a favorite of Acorners, as well as homemade Goddess dressing, and of course, lots of fresh veggies.

ECONOMY: The seed business has steadily grown over the past few years, with 70% growth in 2008! This sustains Acorn economically, and they also don’t have a huge need for as much money as most people need, as they live a very simply life with few materials needs. Because they are income-sharing, each person receives about $100/month in actual cash, and the rest of their earnings are spent collectively on food, property taxes, business overhead, health insurance, infrastructure, utilities and maintaining/gassing up their few shared vehicles.

CHILDREN: There are no children at Acorn at this time (2009). However, it is a VERY child-friendly atmosphere and children have lived there in the past. In fact, the day we visited two children from Twin Oaks came to jump on the trampoline :-)

LINKS:
• Website: http://www.acorncommunity.org
• FIC listing: http://directory.ic.org/1933/Acorn_Community
• FEC listing: http://thefec.org/Acorn
• Heirloom Seed Business: http://www.southernexposure.com

TWIN OAKS Louisa, VA

Sat, 30 May 2009 21:44:38 -0500

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: Can you really know 100 people really well? Some say yes. The number we’ve heard more often than not is 150...that you can truly know up to 150 people. So, Twin Oaks is currently at a population cap/high at 94 adults and about a dozen children. They all seem to really know one another. Of course, there are cliques, smaller neighborhood groups, sub-groups of people with similar interests who seem to create community in their own unique ways. Then, there are the visitor groups who also create community on their own as well. These groups are there for three weeks out of every month, 11 months of the year. The thing that Twin Oaks really excels at is seamlessly integrating guests and visitors right into the daily activities of the commune.

While the community is set up with a hierarchy, with 3 “Planners” who make decisions for the entire group, each member does have a voice and can give their input well in advance for each major or minor decision that ends up on a board in the community center (“ZK”). Most community members seemed to align well with this system, while others are frustrated with the way that it mimics the dominant paradigm (aka “mainstream culture”) and are working to evaluate and determine if a more consensus-based model could work at Twin Oaks. The challenges with change are a) “it’s worked this way for 45 years, why change now?”; and b) is it possible to successully implement consensus decision-making with a group as large as 100 people?

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: When Twin Oaks was founded in the late 60’s, it was modeled after B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two behaviorist community ideas and ideals. It was not focused on sustainability or conservation principles. The group wanted to live differently than a traditional neighborhood which naturally lead to more sustainable practices, such as using fewer cars, keeping them away from the residential areas, walking more, growing their own food, sharing more things (thereby consuming less), etc etc. Now, as time goes on, the group is realizing the importance of incorporating even more sustainability practices and have added solar hot water panels, switched one residence to be completely off-grid, and continue to grow Organic fruits and vegetables, and raise free-range, organic eggs and cows for milk, cheese and meat. This community shares more than any community Within Reach has visited yet! This includes cars, bicycles, child-care, meals, homes, bathrooms, kitchens, yards, gardens, animals, food, work, income, ideas, social time, clothes (called “commie clothes”), tools, books (over 15,000 in their library), managers, storage space, and even the occasional lover (about 25% of the community engages in polyamorist relationships).   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: This community is easily characterized as a commune. They are members of the FEC (Federation of Egalitarian Communities), and are one of only a few income-sharing communities in the Unites States. The actual houses are set up as co-op houses where each person has their own private bedroom, but kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms and the library are shared. If you are married, a couple or a family, each person still has their own bedroom, so many families turn one bedroom into an office or family room. The homes were built with predominately traditional building materials: stick frame, drywall, shingle roof, etc. They are situated in mostly wooded areas set back from the main road, and for the most part, cars do not drive up to the homes. There is also a one-story unit that offers easy access to elderly or disabled members. Lastly, there is one cabin devoted to visitors! We stayed in Kaleah house “Beechside”, one of the homes that has been retrofitted with solar panels.

RESOURCES: The homes are heated with wood cut from the woods on the property....and they have a couple years’ worth since chopping wood is part of the work for labor credits, and thus the work gets done! Electricity is grid-powered, and water is from wells originally on the property. When the land was purchased in the late 60’s there was an old farmhouse and a couple barns on the property. The current residents indicated that because the original founders were not specifically focused on sustainability, and because the house was already on-grid, there was no thought put into creating sustainable power at that time. However, as new people join who are focused on sustainable energy use, they have since retrofitted half of Kalheah with solar panels and it is now off-grid. In addition, they do use solar hot water heaters for some of the buildings.

FOOD: About 70% of the vegetables and fruit consumed by the members is grown on-site. In addition, all cheese and milk comes from their owns cows, as well as beef. They have about 150 chickens for eggs as well. Tofu-making is one of the main cottage industries at Twin Oaks, so of course plenty of tofu and soy products are also consumed by the members. The remainder of the food is brought in through a bulk natural foods supplier (UNFI) or purchased in the nearby town of Charlottesville or Richmond VA. Every day, several loaves of bread is made, and fresh granola for breakfast. Lunch and dinner every day of the week is prepared in the common kitchen for 100 people + guests and visitors. These meals range from veggie burgers and salad to gourmet tofu stir fry with exquisite desserts. Everything is made from scratch and few preservatives or processed food even makes its way onto the commune (except of course from individuals who reported that they often use their monthly stipend for “extras” such as chocolate bars, coffee and more!)

ECONOMY: Twin Oaks is an income-sharing commune. That means that food, healthcare, housing, utilities, fuel, vitamins, books and other general expenses are all taken care of by the communal income. Last year, the budget for the entire commune was less than $1 million, meaning each person lived on less than $10,000/year. While this is considered well below the poverty level, the members of Twin Oaks live a middle-class lifestyle and all of their needs are definitely met. Their income comes from sales from three main business operated on-site: Hammocks, Tofu and Book Indexing. Each member between the ages of 18 and 45 are required to complete 42 labor hours to meet their weekly “quota”. After age 45, one hour is removed from the quota each year so that by the time a member is 75 for example, they are only required to do 12 hours/week. Likewise, children are only asked to complete about 3 labor hours a week, and these are usually used for learning experiences, such as helping restore an original barn (see photo below). Beyond the basic expenses that are covered, each person receives a portion of the surplus income each month. Right now that is $76 per person per month. This $, as well as any funds earned off of the commune, can be used to go on vacations or for extra expenses. We definitely experienced ABUNDANCE in the form of huge meals, over 15,000 books in their library, an extensive movie collection and so much more. Because so much is shared, everyone has access to so many tools, cars, trucks, bicycles and other items that they might not have if living on their own.

CHILDREN: This is one of the most unique aspects of the commune. For the first 12 years through the 70’s, children all lived in a separate building together, managed by a rotating staff of adults. In other words, children did not necessarily live with their birth parents. A building was built especially for the children. Over time, this proved to be unattractive to too many families, and children now live with their birth parents. However, in true community style, the “village raises the children” and non-parents can earn labor credits by taking 2-hour child care shifts. Zadek and Samir, for example, spend the morning with their parents, and are then in the care of various other adults throughout the day while their parents go off to complete their labor quota. We had the unique opportunity to interview Rowan, one of the few teenagers, about his experiences being born and raised on the commune. He expressed his love of having freedom and a unique home-schooled education, but also his frustration at not having things like video games and TV like “other” kids his age. Regardless, all Twin Oaks kids have a unique opportunity to have over 500 acres to roam free with no fear of fast-moving cars, kidnappers, or anyone trying to harm them. They are literally surrounded by 100 adults who are all devoted to their well-being.

LINKS:
• Website: http://www.twinoaks.org
• FIC listing: http://directory.ic.org/1216/Twin_Oaks_Community
• FEC listing: http://thefec.org/TwinOaks
• Hammocks business: http://www.twinoakstore.com
• Twin Oaks Community Tofu business: http://www.twinoakstofu.com
• Book Indexing business: http://www.twinoaks.org/industry/indexing/index.html

WOODFOLK HOUSE Charlottesville ,VA

Wed, 27 May 2009 21:40:54 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

SHANNON FARM Afton, VA

Sat, 23 May 2009 21:35:29 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

TURTLE ISLAND PRESERVE Boone, NC

Sat, 16 May 2009 19:47:07 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

EARTHAVEN ECOVILLAGE Black Mountain, NC

Sun, 10 May 2009 20:20:42 -0500

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: The community consists of about thirty-five adults and about five children. They live in eight different neighborhoods on the 320-acre property, some tucked away in more secluded wooded spots and some right near the entrance to the ecovillage. Due to this community’s remote location (25 miles from Asheville, NC), the community members rely on one another for ride-sharing, trading goods & services (i.e. I raise chicken eggs, you raise kale, let’s swap), and also for some social interaction. However, they also have a lot of privacy and you can go days without seeing many other community members if you so choose.

The glue that seems to hold Earthaven together is a deep desire to steward and protect this unique piece of Earth in a sustainable way. It is not necessarily rooted in a desire to spend loads of time with one another, though that does occur, especially within the individual neighborhoods within the larger ecovillage. To make decisions about how to use the land, whether to approve a new member, and other group decisions, Earthaven currently uses a tranditional consensus process; but they are in discussions about shifting toward using N Street Cohousing’s decision-making process, which can be read about here, to allow decisions to be made more efficiently. Various members are extremely direct in their communication, while others are less interested in facing conflict or disagreements head-on. They have all done the enneagram exercise to help better understand one another, and many have agreements to use “NVC” (non-violent communication) techniques with one another.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: We could probably write an entire book about Earthaven alone in this category. The “quick list” is: community is entirely off-grid, solar panels or hydro-power for every home & building, earth-cell energy research, biodynamic farming practices, organic gardening, voison rotational grazing for animal husbandry, permaculture, natural building including cobb, strawbale, timber frame, adobe bricks, earthship(!), earth rammed walls, yerts and more, recycling, reusing, bicycling, solar-powered golf carts to get around on the property, living roofs, “hobbit” hole style house, rainwater catchment on nearly every metal roof, sawmill to use local sustainably harvested wood from their own land, wildcrafting of herbs for medicinals, alcohol co-op for creating own fuel to run tools, equipment and eventually cars, oh my...the list could go on and on. Let’s go into detail on some of these areas below...   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: This is an aspiring ecovillage, meaning a place that hopes to have all of the main tenants of a sustainable village, while still interacting with the larger community around them. The homes are all eco-friendly in one way or another, with many employing natural building techniques. Leela house (depicted above right) is a great example as it uses locally harvested timber posts and beams, adobe bricks, strawbale, cobb plasters, earth rammed bricks, a metal roof with rainwater catchment, passive solar design (most windows face South), and once complete will have a composting toilet and graywater system for recycling water from sinks. We also toured several “microhuts” (see photo with purple door and solar panel), which are 12‘x12‘x12’ homes made of locally harvested wood products that have all the major amenities of a regular home (other than a bathroom), but in a tiny space! They have a kitchen, bedroom loft, living area, desk for office and plenty of natural light so little heating or cooling is needed. They are south-facing and employ the use of solar panels for electricity. All you really need for one person to live a comfortable life in an ecovillage! Another amazing home we visited was an earthship! This home, constructed largely of recycled tires packed with heavy clay soil, was burmed into the side of the mountain on one side and again, faces South to use sunlight to heat it. Not only were the walls of the house built with tires, but the couple who designed it also use tires as planters all around the home. This is a great way to build sustainable homes where there are not other natural local resources!

Other homes at Earthaven range from a 1,200 square foot single-family home to a large co-op houses with as many as 10 bedrooms. We stayed in the visitor campground for a couple nights, and then moved into a studio apartment with a loft bedroom. All-in-all, this ecovillage is using some of the most progressive natural building techniques we’ve seen on the entire journey thus far.

RESOURCES: Since the community is 100% off-grid, they have to create energy on-site using resources that are in abundance. The community is in the Appalachian Mountains in a temperate rainforest. Therefore, any sunlight they wish to harvest for solar power comes at the cost of taking trees down (the entire property was wooded when they purchased it in 1994). However, all the trees harvested are then used to build homes, community buildings, stores, furniture, or used in wood stoves to heat these structures. Thus, there are now solar panels on nearly every home as this is the main source of electricity. In addition, they have several creeks running through the property and therefore have designed and implemented a hydro-power system to generate electricity for the main community buildings (council hall, wood shop, general store and social gathering place). Some of the residents have put wood stoves in the homes. One neighborhood and many other houses have radiant floor heating warmed by solar hot water heaters. The most unique form of energy is being researched as we visited: Earth Cell technology. They are basically tapping directly into the ground for electromagnetic currents to help light low-wattage safety lights on wooded pathways.

FOOD: There are several small businesses at Earthaven focused solely on growing vegetables, herbs and/or raising animals for meat and eggs. These include Imani Farms, Yellowroot Farms, Gateway Farm and Red Moon Herbs. Each has its own specialty; for example Andy and Julie and Yellowroot are trying out biodynamic principals (no waste) and voison rotational grazing to create a symbiotic relationship between their hens, pigs, veggies, soil and themselves. Corrina and her team at Red Moon Herbs basically “wildcraft” or find wild herbs growing in the woods and fields, and cultivate them. They then create essential oils and dried herbs mainly for teas and medicines. In addition, they have diverted some of the fresh stream water into ponds where several members are raising organic trout!

ECONOMY (SEE LINKS AT BOTTOM): We’ve alluded to this above, but Earthaven’s economy is quite diverse! That is a key concept of growing an ecovillage and they are moving in the right direction. This ecovillage is not income-sharing, but rather each family or group of families earns their income independently either on-site or off. Some families telecommute (yes, there is DSL internet and phone service in most homes!), some drive to the nearby town of Black Mountain (15 miles) or Asheville (25 miles), some travel extensively to earn money selling books and giving speaking tours, while many others work on-site at businesses they have created. The on-site businesses include Yellowroot Farms (fruit, veggies, chicken, eggs, pork), Imani Farms (chicken, pork, beef, eggs), Gateway Farm (sheep’s wool, goat products, and moving toward full scale farm), Red Moon Herbs (medicinal herbs, teas, essential oils), Road Warrior Construction (timber and stick-frame houses using local sustainably harvested wood from the land), a school, Useful Plants Nursery (full-scale edible plants nursery), a small store called the Trading Post, and probably more that we were not introduced to.

CHILDREN: There are a handful of children living at Earthaven right now. They are active participants in the community, ranging from helping out with their parents’ and neighbors businesses as a learning experience to having their own school on-site. The greatest thing we learned about raising kids at an ecovillage is that they are free to roam and explore without the fear of abduction, getting lost, traffic, etc. that one might find in a regular village. There is certainly plenty for them to get into: streams, ponds, trees, dirt, gardens, and more!

LINKS:
• Main Website: http://www.earthaven.org
• FIC directory listing: http://directory.ic.org/1794/Earthaven_Ecovillage
 SUPPORT THESE LOCAL & ONLINE BUSINESSES!
• Diana Leafe Christian, resident, author, speaker: http://www.dianaleafechristian.org
• Yellowroot Farms: http://www.earthaven.org/farms-gardens/Yellow_Root_Farm.php
• Useful Plants Nursery: http://www.usefulplants.org
• Red Moon Herbs: http://redmoonherbs.com & http://www.sewisewomen.com
• Imani Farms: http://www.earthaven.org/farms-gardens/Imani.php
• Gateway Organic Farms: http://www.earthaven.org/farms-gardens/Gateway_farm.php

WESTWOOD COHOUSING Asheville, NC

Wed, 6 May 2009 20:21:33 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: As in other cohousing communities, Westwood is very focused on building strong inter-personal relationships and growing community. They have a gorgeous common house complete with a commercial kitchen, kids’ play area, computer room/office, two guest rooms and a library. This serves as a central gathering area for kids and adults alike, and is nicely located in the middle of the 3-4 acre property. It’s difficult to walk from your home to your car without running into neighbors either here at the common house, or just on the bridge over the ravine that joins the two clusters. Westwood Cohousers are also extremely committed to the consensus process, and uniquely, involve the children as well (see more below)

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

ANANDA AR'PANA Andersonville, TN

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:22:10 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

BEARDSLEY FARM Knoxville, TN

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:22:40 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:

RESOURCES:

FOOD:

ECONOMY:

CHILDREN:

LINKS:

THE FARM Summertown, TN

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:23:13 -0500

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: This community has a long history. From its inception in 1970 until about 1983 over 1,500 people lived here; and the 200 that remain are mostly leftovers from the communes height. They have nearly 40 years of history together so they are extremely tight-knit in that aspect. They are not, however, an extremely intimate community. There are a lot of people and a lot of land. There is more of a typical suburban neighborhood feel to the place as a lot of the dwellings are spaced out with about an acre between each home. There are several shared housing spaces (like co-ops or condos) and there is the “Inn” at the Ecovillage Training Center where there are smaller tighter-knit communities. The community cohesiveness we saw at The Farm existed in these smaller communities, within the larger community.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: The original intent of the farm in the 70’s was to become as self-sufficient as possible, and not rely on corporations or the government for sustenance, with the efforts being to care more for the earth and each other. There was a heavy emphasis on spirituality and service. They grew their own food, had their own babies, built all their own infrastructure using mostly salvaged materials, and for a long time lived in school buses and large tents. Since the early days they have now become a very sophisticated community with large homes, businesses, and well-built and organized infrastructure. There is little to no farming currently going on there anymore but almost every home has a small organic garden. The Ecovillage Training Center is on the cutting edge of training, practicing and applying sustainable living, which is a small pocket of the overall efforts of sustainability at the farm. In general the Farmies’ efforts toward sustainability are applied through their businesses, and their personal lifestyle choices at their own homes.

HOME: All homes on the farm are widely varying in style and materials. Some people live in old school buses, some in huge mansions, and everything in between. It’s totally up to the individual to build what works for them and the community. It seems as though there are literally hundreds of houses on the over 500 acres of property at The Farm.

RESOURCES: Each resident gets their energy and resources in different ways that work for them. Some have solar panels and other forms of alternative energy. There are some unique things in experimentation at the Ecovillage Training Center such as cob building, straw bale, biochar, veggie oil, solar, and more.

FOOD: Most people garden at The Farm, and there is a health food store right on the property. There is a town-Summertown-just a couple miles away for groceries and there is a transition town forming about 10 miles away called Transition Hohenwald. This will likely create more local food choices in the area. There is also talk of bringing farming back to the large idle fields at the farm. There is also a huge Amish community nearby (within 10 miles) which brings in local food options. There may be CSA’s as well but we didn’t find out anything about this.

ECONOMY: The farm started off as an egalitarian income sharing community. This infrastructure went through a major “changeover” as they call it, in the early 80’s when they became a land co-op instead. The majority of the people left the farm and their founder/“Guru” or spiritual leader, Stephen Gaskin stepped down from control of the economics of the farm. To this day he remains, and is an icon, and a spiritual elder for them. The few (200) people that remained got outside jobs or relied on their existing business if they had the foresight to create them before the changeover. Examples of some of the successful businesses started and still existing at the farm: Tofu making, conscious book publishing, a health food store, Village Media (conscious film and more), Hippy Lawyer (focused on social change law), Healing, Ecovillage Training, Midwifery School, Geiger Counter Production (radioactivity sensors), Kids to the Country program (Nature School), Private Education School for Kids, Plenty International (a service oriented non-profit), Swan Conservation Trust (an on site land trust non-profit), Mushrooms, Tempeh, Solar Installation, Yoga Studio, Mail Order Catalog, Leadership School, Peace Activism organization, an onsite radio station, and much more.

CHILDREN: As mentioned above there is a huge emphasis on raising healthy happy children at the farm. There is a private school for kids on site with enough room for kids in the local community to be a part as well. There is an internationally known midwifery program started by Ina May Gaskin who brought midwifery back to America in the 60’s and 70’s after western medicine became the dominant way to have a baby. The Farm is also going through a split of opinion in it’s desires of luring back their children to live at the farm as well as other youth of this generation, or to move towards becoming more of a “hippy” retirement community. This brings up the question of which choice would add to the long term sustainability of The Farm.

LINKS:

Main Website: http://www.thefarmcommunity.com/
Secondary Website: http://www.thefarm.org/
Businesses Listing: http://thefarmcommunity.com/farm%5Fbusinesses/index.asp
Non Profits Listing: http://thefarmcommunity.com/non%5Fprofits/

DUNMIRE HOLLOW - Waynesboro, TN

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:05:58 -0500

Brief write-up about our experience visiting this place and a general description of the community
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: 35 years of existence and efforts in building community through consensus. 7 full time members live here now with several more who are part time. There are stories of intense past conflict and pain, but nothing worse than anyone would experience in any other lifestyle. Those in this community who have “stuck with it” have benefited by seeing their efforts produce much happiness and contentedness. Those who have seen this blossomed fruit would say that they see the community cohesiveness as successful, but always requiring effort. When we arrived they were having the first “spring fling” gathering in 12 years due to a renewal of energy towards building community, after some painful experiences happening 12 years before during a spring fling.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: Being a rural community these people are living in abundant nature and live close to the land due to this. They garden, occasionally bike 4 1/2 miles to the nearby town, stock a fish pond, grow honeybees, have a food co-op (buying food together), use recycled materials as much as possible, and use some off-grid solar and hydro energy systems though not all members do.   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: This is a rural community with each member building their own house. The houses are spaced acres apart with different styles of building, but mainly wood framed houses with various eco-housing elements built into them.

RESOURCES: Water is fairly abundant on site with a spring flowing through the property stocked with trout, and several ponds. There have been efforts made to install a hydro-ram for energy though it is currently broken. There is solar panels being used, though most people including the community house are grid-tied. There is also a bamboo forest that was planted.

FOOD: This community has a food co-op that started 30 years back and has grown to include not only the members of the community but homesteaders in the greater community. The food co-op is basically a bulk food buying club which allows for cheaper organic food for all involved. One of the community members has a huge garden getting about 20% if their personal food from it, and another community member has a large garden as well.

ECONOMY: This is a community of self-reliant individuals. Most all of the community members seek outside income and do not participate in income-sharing. There are few jobs to be found locally so many people seek income from Nashville (2 hours away) or other sources. Having a food-coop within the community helps cut costs, as does a shared laundromat, a community house and barns and tools. There is a wood-shop business partnership between two members on the property.

CHILDREN: All the children that were raised here are now grown up and gone. However, one of the children has since returned and become an adult member of the community. Two of this members siblings are very interested in returning as well, and one sibling already has a child, making the original members grandparents! There is a fond love for this community talked about by the grown children, and they appear to be well adjusted, and successful after a homeschooling education on-site.

LINKS: N/A (but you can look them up on www.ic.org)

MAKE IT RIGHT-NOLA - New Orleans, LA

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:03:17 -0500

Brief write-up about our experience visiting this place and a general description of the community
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: What can we say, Ninth Ward residents in New Orleans have a history of strong community! In fact the south in general has a strong sense of family, community, culture, hospitality, and basically, incredible community cohesiveness. They really look out for each other, by parenting each others kids, brining food to each other, talking in the streets, on each others porches, and have no fences between their yards.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: The sustainability efforts are really taking the strong community cohesiveness of the ninth ward and bringing in eco-consciousness and ACTION, and making this community a new role model for sustainable communities around the world. Each house in the “Make it Right” program, subsidized by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, is a totally custom eco-house. These houses are made on huge stilts to protect from potential future hurricane floods. There is a special eco-sensitive styrofoam material in the walls so the houses will float in case water does come up to level of the house. They are all using passive solar (sun heating through windows and design), active solar (solar panels), rain water catchment systems, built in plants on the walls to provide extra oxygen, greywater systems, potential for composting toilets, and more.   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: The community is being built right on the same foundations that the old destroyed houses of Hurricane Katrina left behind. The neighborhood is maintaining it’s traditional individual housing appearance, but currently there are very few if any fences between the houses which creates a more open community.

RESOURCES: Each house is collecting solar power as well as rain water. The house puts the used water back into the soil through special grey water tanks that release the water onto the edible/herbal landscaping and the garden through a timer.

FOOD: Each house has funds given to it for gardens and edible/herbal landscaping. This is empowering for the low-income people to get more in touch with the source of their food and to eat healthier. It also helps their budget.

ECONOMY: These houses are subsidized through the “Make it Right NOLA” organization founded by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The people are not given these houses but rather the houses are made extremely affordable for these hurricane devastated people who are historically some of the lowest income in the New Orleans area. They must have jobs or outside income to make the payments and the “Make it Right NOLA” works on educating the residents about their eco-houses so they can take care of them on their own for generations to come. As you can imagine this is incredibly empowering for low income people to learn about topics that are saving the world! They say that these houses work so well, that the idea should be implemented all over!

CHILDREN: The children seem to be doing better than ever in this community. We talked to a young man (about 15 years old) who was a juvenile delinquent and in and out of the detention system. Since moving into his new eco-home, he has found inspiration to focus on his amazing talents for art, and mechanical repairs and inventions. Other young kids around the neighborhood displayed an open and inviting spirit and took pride in their “phoenix risen” neighborhood.

LINKS: http://makeitrightnola.org

LIVING PARADIGM ECO-HOMES - Huntsville, TX

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:01:06 -0500

Brief write-up about our experience visiting this place and a general description of the community
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: This project is the brainchild of Dan Phillips, a talented homebuilder. His aim is to create artistic recycled material homes, in low income neighborhoods and provide them at affordable prices. He has also developed a way to train young builders to gain skills by working with him. In addition his project gives free building consulting and recycled materials to people who provide their own land, which then enables people to build their own very affordable reclaimed materials house. Almost all the houses he has had his hands in building and consulting on are within the town of Huntsville, TX about 60 miles north of Houston, TX. The idea is now being spread to Houston, with volunteers taking on building projects.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: These houses are made of all sorts of recycled materials. They range from reclaimed lumber, to recycled cans, thrown out animal bones (from livestock farms), to recycled metal siding. All this on top of the fact that all his houses are intended to have a smaller ecological footprint by being smaller in size and square footage than the average house.

HOME: Dan has a passion for art. His main focus is on the artistic fundamental of pattern. He believes that by taking materials which most builders would shy away from because of impurities, and putting them together in repeated patterns, that the eye of the beholder overlooks the impurities and sees beauty through pattern. His amazing way of putting the materials together in an artistic way, yet incredibly simple way, makes these eco-houses a model that can be replicated easily by anyone with not much effort.

RESOURCES: The houses remain depended upon the government/corporate system of resources (water/gas/energy). Though the installation of any sustainable systems is totally up to the individual purchasers/owners.

FOOD: There is no efforts being focused on food at all. This is a purely homebuilding effort.

ECONOMY: The houses are built for an incredibly low price. This enables Dan, (who is gifted ALL the materials used by other builders throwing it all out) to sell them for incredibly affordable prices. Works of art, with a low eco-footprint, for a affordable price. OR you can build your own house on your own land with free materials for an much lower price!

CHILDREN: There is no relation to this project and children. Kids may be raised in these homes and they may be healthier and happier because their parents are healthier and happier, but we didn’t talk to any. This is purely an assumption based on what we experienced.

LINKS: http://www.livingparadigm.org

HOUSTON COHOUSING - Houston, TX

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:01:42 -0500

Brief write-up about our experience visiting this place and a general description of the community
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: This community is all renters with one household being the landlord. There is a general friendliness among the neighbors and they often engage in potlucks and educational gatherings. There is also a general spirit of common interests with the glue revolving around an interest in living sustainably in community though nothing formal has been arranged yet due to the rental situation being a dampener on the efforts.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: There are reused materials being used in various ways, like old cargo containers for sheds and noise barriers. There are art cars with reused parts glued onto the cars for decoration. There are several people gardening with a huge community garden nearby (not necessarily directly related to this community, but some people are involved with the garden efforts). There are other individual efforts to live sustainably in ways such as diet choices, purchasing power, bicycle riding, sharing, reducing, reusing and recycling.   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: This is a rental situation where approximately 5 houses on the small street are owned by the landlords at the end of the street. Each rental house is a small humble house on a tiny street tucked away in an old industrial area near downtown Houston.

RESOURCES: As far as we could tell the communities resources were still heavily dependent on government/corporate sources (ie water/energy/gas)

FOOD: There was some small scale kitchen gardening going on in the backyard of the landlord. we did not see any others gardening but we could have missed any other efforts. There was an enormous several acre large community farm a few blocks away put spearheaded by a local urban farmer. The community was not directly involved with it, but all were supportive of it and some were hands on involved. People who help with growing the food are able to take the food home to eat. This also provides food for many low income people in the greater neighborhood which is a predominantly low income.

ECONOMY: This is a rental situation where everyone involved brings in their own income. The community is right near downtown Houston so their is a great interest in bicycling, and there is a plethora of opportunities for jobs.

CHILDREN: No children involved as far as we saw.

LINKS:
* Cohousing.org listing
* ic.org listing
* warmshowers.org listing (or couchsurfing)

ECHOWOOD Delhi, TX

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:10:54 -0500

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS:
Echowood is currently made up of six members, from a variety of places in the United States, ranging from a Texas native to a Woodstock alum from West Virginia. Three are the original members from the community’s inception in 2007, and the other three have since joined. This group size works very well for them, as they are working toward creating several cottage industries including soap, incense and a market garden; and thus, they can quickly and easily assign daily tasks simply by hanging out over breakfast and talking about the needs for each day. They easily work through the small hiccups, which have included the goats getting into the garden, and certain personality traits coming out too strongly at times. How do they do this? They are very open and honest with one another about what is going on for them. There is no organized or guided manner in which this is done, but the entire group seems to tolerate and even expect that it will happen at will, and when it needs to. This style of community living requires a lot of patience, and that is a common trait amongst all six people. Mandy experienced this firsthand while tacking up chicken wire in the new greenhouse. The staple gun wasn’t working properly and the task was taking much longer than anticipated. But the other person working on the project just took it in stride, didn’t get upset or throw anything or even bitch and moan. Instead, she simply continued to try to get the job done, no matter what it took. This is a small example of something much larger going on at Echowood, and that is a fine balance of energy between six hard-working farmers.
SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS:
The community grows all of their vegetables using organic practices, and does not treat any of the goats or chickens with hormones or antibiotics. In addition, they are very keen on “reduce, reuse, recycle” principals in much of what they do. There is a lovely greenhouse made of salvaged lumber and chicken wire, fences are all made from felled trees and reused materials, they are planning a papercrete barn for the goats made from recycled tires and paper (and cement, clay and lime), and the soaps and incense that they make and sell are made with all natural organic ingredients (and did we mention that they smell WONDERFUL!). While their personal diets and habits to not necessarily revolve around self-sustainability, they are advocates for environmental conservation, organic farming, and living with a very light carbon footprint. Sharing is an obvious part of community life at Echowood, given they live 30 miles from the nearest town, and that they live together in two homes and a restored 1970’s trailer. This lessens their need for as much “stuff” and gives each person the opportunity to share what they have with other community members.     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 HOME: This community does not call itself an ecovillage or co-op, or anything for that matter. It is more likely to be called a small farm community, with intentions of growing into an egalitarian (income sharing) community to include more people interested in building community on the land and stewarding the farm operations. The 30 acres is home to nine buildings – two houses, a 1970’s restored trailer, a huge salvage yard cover, a workshop, a commercial kitchen, a soon-to-be ceramics studio, a greenhouse, and an office/media/hangout barn. Most of these structures were already on the property when it was purchased by two of the members in 2007. The “Little House” (2 bdrm, kitchen/living, bathroom and loft) was unfinished, however, so the community has taken that on as one of their main projects. One couple lives in the main house, which also hosts the community kitchen. The most interesting building is certainly the office/media lounge, which is where a majority of time is spent when not working on projects. This is where the thinking, dreaming, planning, and chilling out takes place. During our time there, we witnessed the following activities all take place within that one building (which is really just one large room in a barn-like structure): movie night, games night, computer games, checking email, answering business calls, knitting a quilt, eating meals, planning meetings, Jeopardy, loving on the cat and dogs, feeding the dogs, reading books, stretching out, and of course...filming interview for Within Reach Movie!
RESOURCES: At this point, the water, electricity and gas all comes from the city. Therefore, they are extremely conservative with water use (and it’s also Texas where there is little rain to begin with!). There is talk of one day drilling a well and going solar, but that is not the main priority right now. Building materials used are mostly salvages from existing structures on the property or from items dropped by or found outside of the community in the garbage. They joked that people tend to drop their used stuff of to them, and that they therefore have a growing collection of wood scraps, worn out tires, used doors, windows and more. This reused stuff comes in handy when project arise, and it is neatly organized under a beautiful rooftop built of trees and salvage 2x4’s. Most other resources needed to sustain the community and operate their business comes from Costco in Austin or any one of the nearby hardware stores.
FOOD: The food grown at the farm and sold at the farmers’ market is 100% natural. The food eaten by the farmers is mostly purchased at Costco in bulk about once a month during trips to Austin. This is then mixed with veggies grown on-site and eggs raised organically on-site. They cook dinner together every evening, rotating cooks and clean-up. During my stay, we had gourmet Indian food night, as well as a variety of other meals - mostly vegetarian.
ECONOMY: The community attends the Bastrop farmers’ market where they sell their handmade soaps and incense, and organically grown produce. This brings in anywhere from $200 and up per week. There is one member who is a professor and his income provides much of the rest of the financial support for the community.
CHILDREN: For the first five years, the group has decided not to allow children to move into the community. This is due to the newness of everything, and the general inability to predict wether or not there will be enough stability to give a child a healthy place to be.
SPIRITUAL COEXISTENCE: Other than one former Mormon, we did not hear of any group or individual spiritual practice within this community. They acknowledged that there is no desire to have any sort of group practice, so I suppose that means they do coexist beautifully, and possibly have individual practices that are not discussed openly.
WELLNESS: This was the most difficult area to assess here. Two of the newer members have each lost 20 lbs since moving to Echowood because there is so much physical labor, and they are constantly outdoors, walking around the land, and working hard. They use traditional Western doctors when needed, but generally stay healthy just by working their bodies and getting good rest. Three of the members smoke cigarettes, and they do not necessarily eat all organic food. We ate balanced meals and the cooking was excellent! However, there is certainly room for growth in the wellness category, as each individual seemed to have some unhealthy habit preventing them from achieving complete mind-body-spirit wellness.
LINKS:
* Main Website: http://www.echowood.org
* FIC Directory listing: http://www.directory.ic.org/Echowood
* link to video on how to make Tofu:

BIOSQUAT - Austin, TX

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:42:29 -0600

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: This community was a very challenging one for the Within Reach Movie project. We were told about them over and over from California to Texas and told we must see what they are doing. However, it was extremely difficult to find out where they were and impossible to contact them. Apparently they are an anarchist community squatting on land and building eco-structures (some out of recycled bicycle parts) on the outer limits of Austin in a forested area near a suburban neighborhood with a view of downtown Austin through the trees. Ryan tried to visit them one day after spending much effort finding out where they were located thanks to the combined efforts of many people who knew about them in Austin. We happened to be staying with a friend less than a mile away. When Ryan visited, he went on foot, without the video camera as it was obvious that they were interested in being “under the radar” since it was so difficult to find them. He had to cross multiple people’s property to get there as there was no easy entrance to find. There was nobody there, except one man who happened to be a very difficult character to talk to. Ryan worked compassionately with this man who was very visibly a provoking personality with a possible mental illness, to arrange a time to come back and film an interview and tour later that day since the community was apparently open to being filmed. However, the man was very controlling about the way in which we filmed there, and was trying to stir up emotions in Ryan to show him who was in control. Ryan saw no good coming out of the conversation and told the man he was leaving. So the man chased Ryan down the road, yelling in anger at him for “trespassing, and being a “fragile” person for leaving the conversation.

Ryan took every measure in his will power to stay calm and non-violent with the man. After making it a couple blocks away, the man had managed to ride around the block on his bike from another direction and continue to yell, insult, and intimidate Ryan. At one point the man started riding his bike directly at Ryan as if he was going to run him over. Ryan told him over and over to leave him alone, and that he was sorry for trespassing but he was no longer on the property and to please stop interacting.

The man wouldn’t relent and Ryan told him he was going to call the police to get him to stop. When Ryan dialed 911 and was talking to the operator, the man was yelling in Ryan’s face and into the telephone that Ryan had trespassed and was the one at fault. Nevertheless the police took about 15 minutes to come out by which time the man had meandered back to the Biosquat community.

The police officer told Ryan that the community was actually a viable squatting community. He personally had been on the property before in response to a drug overdose and there were no illegal campers as apparently either someone owned the land, or no neighbors had any complaints about the community of people living there, so there was nothing the police could do. He did say that there were dozens of mentally ill people living in the nearby woods adjacent to the property as the Austin Mental Hospital had to let them go years ago due to legislation. He guessed that during the day most of the community members actually had jobs or school they left for and that perhaps this man was one of the mentally ill people who may have made friends with the community.

The police officer did say he was impressed with their eco-structures (see description below) and that since Ryan had told him about the Within Reach Movie project to film sustainable communities, that he thought it would be worth the effort to go back and film them there.
 Due to Ryan’s negative interaction and the difficulties already in trying to arrange a visit with them, we found ourselves not interested in going back for another attempt to film them, not to mention it was starting to rain that day and would just be too difficult to fit another time for them in our schedule. The universe was just pointing us to “let it go”.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: All Ryan knows is what he saw that day. There were many structures (over 5 at least) that were built with earth and recycled materials. They had one structure completely built out of recycled bicycle rims and other bike parts.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME: From the information Ryan got out of the man he interacted with, the community is a group of circus entertainers who spend some of their time bicycling around the world performing. They are allegedly an anarchist community (source: people from the Rhizome Collective in Austin).

RESOURCES: No information about how they obtain resources.

FOOD: No information about how they obtain food.

ECONOMY: No official information about how they obtain finances, but apparently many of them have jobs.

CHILDREN: No information about how they raise children.

LINKS:
* http://people.virginia.edu/~ds8s/ed/urban/eco-village.html
* http://people.virginia.edu/~ds8s/ed/urban/bike-arch.html
* http://people.virginia.edu/~ds8s/ed/home.html

THE RHIZOME COLLECTIVE - Austin, TX

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 16:40:34 -0600

Brief write-up about our experience visiting this place and a general description of the community
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMUNITY COHESIVENESS: This community is not only a tight knit community that has about 20 people living together in a single residence, sharing meals and celebrations and more, but they are a sustainability center, arts center, book publishing center, and more for the larger community of Austin. One of the co-founders Scott ___________, has written a book on the urban sustainability efforts learned there called _____________ . This has given them much notoriety which has as a result brought many people around their community to grow it and strengthen it. However, there is also a struggle with longevity of members who live there, as it is basically a co-op style situation, which is such a tight knit living situation that eventually people want more space and privacy which causes them to leave and seek community elsewhere. This makes the situation attractive to younger folks. It does seem to be a breeding ground for younger folks who will probably continue to seek community living after their time there, but in different styles.

SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: This community is a education center, and breeds leaders in the sustainability movement. They have so many things going on for sustainability is it amazing. For example they have a washer with tiered pond filtering greywater system utilizing old bathtubs.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOME:
RESOURCES:
FOOD:
ECONOMY:
CHILDREN:
LINKS:
LINKS: http://www.rhizomecollective.org