Nutshells and Niblets Community bulletin #36

Nutshells and Niblets (The highjacked, completely biased, news and whimsy from Yarrow Ecovillage)

Testing.... Testing.... We want you to read all about us! Do I have your attention?  We are going to try something new with this newsletter.  This is a Newsletter system that promises to make my life easier- and reading about the village more fun.  Let me know what you think! Okay... Ready... Set... GO! (first things first!)  A BIG Welcome to Camille and Alex with their three children Gabe, Chloe, and Claire  and a BIG Welcome to Kirsten and Rob with their two children Mimi and Orwin.  You'll get to know these fine families as they blog about their experiences at the village.  We are very lucky to have them in our midst.  (Yay!)

10th Anniversary Camping Weekend is coming August 4-6 Are you considering moving here?  Have you been a part of our history in a small, or maybe large way?  Come and help us celebrate ten years of hard work, joy, learning growing and great food!  Ann has the planing boards out.  We're looking for people to help with the details.  Soon well know exactly what we'll be up to!  For now I can tell you that saturday night will be the big night.  We'll be singing and dancing... and of course there will be great food.  Want to join us?  Come camping?  Or just come saturday night.  An RSVP as soon as possible would really help.  Email us! Maureen sports a bright orange demolition permit! Only Maureen could smile in a colour this... well... orange!  Okay.  I'm lying.  We were all smiling when Maureen found us hanging out on the Quad porch.  We were already having a lovely afternoon and seeing here parade about with our demolition permit for the barns made our day even better!  Yes, it is true we'll miss the barns.  But we have our eye on the prize now.  We see more and more of the village we are aiming to be everyday and those barns coming down are a mile stone.  So Yip Yippee!

Groundswell Cohousing Represented at US Cohousing Conference Nat and Viv headed down to California mid June for the National-gone International cohousing conference.  The biggest take away?  A deep sense of pride and awe at how much international attention our project has received.  Our project is still learning and growing, and others are learning from us!  People are impressed by the wholistic approach to community in our project.  They love the farming combined with walkability.  We were also the only project at the conference that is combining a seniors and intergenerational cohousing in close proximity.  Something that we take for granted here was a huge inspriation for the project builders of the future.  The other thing?  People already living in built out communities tip their hat at our three community dinners a week despite not yet having our common house.  Eating together is a pillar of community building and we take it very seriously around here. One Mile Ale brews first batch! Paul and Joel have bottled their first batch of test brew.  The barley is in the feild.  The Hops is... well the hops is the next big hurtle.  The guys are determined to brew a one mile organic ecovillage ale.  Want to try some?  Email me with "beer tester" in the subject line and I'll see if I can get you a personal invitation to the guys testing party! Kids and Slides David and Denali are the proud owners of the ecovillage kids!  Well- not all the kids- just the funny little white ones that like to slide down their wooden ramp.  As you can see they are an ecovillage treasure and are enjoyed by all the kids onsite!  Imagine the breakfast when the chickens start laying eggs and the goats are giving milk!  mmmmmmmmm! How Food should taste! My CSA basket brings me so much joy!  This week's pick up meant garlic scape pesto on pasta for supper last night. (Same as normal pesto but scapes replace basil)  This pretty picture is of a swiss chard, young garlic, and roasted almond stir fry that made up my lunch last week.  Why is this important?  Because we're here!  I remember when I first started reading the newsletters myself.  Before I had even visited the village.  I remember Ann wistfully discussing her hopes for the day when she could pick up her veggies from the neighbour farmers.  Now we have that.  And a farm stand.  And amazing neighbours.  And more amazing neighbours to come.  We're almost there!  Amazing! Thanks to our amazing musicians at the bye bye bunker silo party! When I counted- there were 8 different people playing instruments that night!  What a rockin place we're going to be!