Raising the Roof

I have never done a barn raising before. Truth be told there are all sorts of things I hadn't done before moving to an ecovillage.

I've done some research now. And I can't wait to raise a barn!

The idea of a whole community coming together to bring alive something as big as a barn astounds me. To assemble walls- and then raise them into place? To support people in such an integral way as making a barn! I'll spare the rewrite- there is a good 10 minutes of wiki should you be interested in the olden day way of raising a barn. My favorite part is when they talk about how it was unheard of to skip a barn raising. The idea that every single person was expected to support their neighbour, their town, their community. Is that what is missing? Now days it is hardly taboo to skip voting, never mind helping a neighbour. What a different world we live in "nowadays".

We laughed today about the food it took to feed a barn raising.

Food for a Barn Raising

115 lemon pies

500 fat cakes (doughnuts)

15 large cakes

3 gallons applesauce

3 gallons rice pudding

3 gallons cornstarch pudding

16 chickens

3 hams

60 pounds roast beef

300 light rolls

16 loaves of bread

Red beet pickle and pickled eggs

Cucumber pickles

6 pounds dried prunes, stewed

I large crock stewed raisins

5 gallon stone jar white potatoes and the same amount of sweet potatoes

(Enough food for 175 men).

The reality is that I would never have even thought about a "barn raising" if it weren't for my neighbour Tam.

Let me tell you about Tam. (and then I pause for a good 15 minutes trying to find words for my amazing neighbour)

Tam is one of our farmers. She turns 30 in a few weeks. She has two beautiful sons, and a darn tootin' neat husband. The trick about Tam is that she is so versatile. The first time you meet her she'll probably be hauling a load of dirt, or sawing a piece of wood. The next time you see her she'll making that thrift store dress she found last week look beautiful. Two weeks later you'll learn she's also artistic AND she can use photo shop AND she can slop around in a stream looking at Tadpoles.

Truthfully I don't know very many people as versatile as Tam. She is a hard working, smiling, endeavourous creature. She is thoughtful. She is kind. She is a joy to have in our neighbourhood.

Speaking of endeavours... Tam really wants the community farm to have a barn. I don't know where she has found the time to put this little number together but here it is! A barn-raise-fund-raiser! I hope you'll be able to help us. Every penny counts. Every forward of the URL counts. Whatever you can do will be a string pulling up our barn!

Thankyou for reading!

(wiki post on barn raising linked below)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising

Garage sale proceeds to Hope International

Our Garage Sale raised more than $300 for Hope International. We are a third of the way towards a well for a village in Cambodia.
Thank you to all donors and buyers. Items not sold were taken to our local MCC Thrift Shop to raise funds for their good work. If you hurry, you may still be able to buy your favourites back so you can sell them in our next garage sale. :>)

Apres le Deluge

If you look down the blog, you’ll find an earlier item showing pictures of wind-damaged greenhouses with the title’

“Apres le deluge, c’est nous.

That’s me playing with words, an uncontrolled pursuit of my over-heated brain. What had originally come to mind was: Après moi le deluge.

Deluge is absolutely the right word for the weather we had, but when the phase popped into mind, I wasn’t clear on its provenance and meaning. So I wiki’ed it.

Merry Christmas, wherever you are.

Hi Folks,

I'm not your normal Blogging Voice. Christmas is a funny time, and the ecovillage changes this time of year. Many leave to visit family, some stay close to home and have people in. Common Meals may be quiet, or full of new faces of company that has come to see what all the fuss is about. The one thing you can count on is that The Villagers are with loved-ones, in one form or another.

My voice comes from afar. Edmonton to be exact, where my husband and I live as Neighbours-In-Waiting with our children. When you fall in love with a home that is so far away from your... well... home, you feel a calling to make the trek at the Holidays. To see the overwhelming progress the village has made since you last visited, to reconnect with your future neighbours, and even to steady your resolve of moving towards the unknown. Sometimes moving a province away seems scary and even foolish. We have good friends here, you see. And compared to many of our fellow suburbians, I really think we have excellent relations with neighbours. Throughout the years we've collected so many wonderful people and I can proudly tell you I know at least 8 of our neighbours well enough to exchange baked-goods with this time of year. There are days, as much as we love the ecovillage, when we suddenly start to think we should just stay put. Why give up what we know is good? Why are we moving oh-so-far-away when we have so much going for us here?

When we realize we're slipping, we know we need to make the trek back to Yarrow to replenish and remind ourselves why we're moving. This year we planned a trip out for Christmas. A gruelling 16 hour trip through snowy mountains with three young children. We were crushed when it turned out we wouldn't be able to make the trip. Some things went south for us with some spontaneous renovations we are doing in order to ready our home for sale when we finally get to move into Groundswell.

This is the kind of neighbourhood you buy into at the ecovillage folks. After letting some of the neighbours know that we wouldn't be able to make it this time we got a call; they would come to us! One of the families who had some other family in the area decided they could change up their Christmas plans and make the trip to us.

So here I sit in Edmonton with ten of us gaily enjoying each other's company. Six kids, four adults, a few board games and wine. The kids are playing splendidly, and we're enjoying every minute of it. It gives us a good taste of what village life will be like; people around to help with dishes, fantastic meals made by one and enjoyed by many, kids with playmates. However the greater thing we're moving to is neighbours that will drop everything (even Christmas plans) for you when need it.

So Merry Christmas to you folks! Wherever you are. If you're a Resident, I hope to see you soon. If you're a fellow Neighbour-In-Waiting, I can't wait to be neighbours with you. If you are just a curious onlooker from afar I highly recommend you make your own trek out to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe in the New Year.

Blog-happy!

Happiness is a website with blog that reflects how we are... a great team of folks, working at our best and creating the village we all want to live in and share.
Thank you , thank you, website team!

Volunteer Bees

A swarm of volunteer bees appeared last week, so Alan Carpenter phoned his wife, Tricia, whose friend Echota was on a "swarm wait list." (Who knew such things existed?) These photos show their process of collecting the bees to take them home to her hive.

A Bedtime Story

I'm happy to share this story written by Liz as a bedtime story for her small granddaughter. Liz is a newcomer who (is dreaming? was thinking? could be now planning?) to live here with her little one. She spent Saturday at Windsong with us, so her magical story includes many of the activities and places which the group decided to include during that day's process.

Once upon a future time there was a little girl named Karen. She had big blue eyes, glossy dark hair, and enough energy to dance her friends a merry chase from sun-up to sun-down.

Karen lived in a magical place brimming with splashy pink flowers and chirpy flitting birds and golden gentle butterflies and brilliant red berries and crunchy fruit and sweet and juicy and spicy scents and all manner of creatures from teeny weeny tadpoles to great big old sway-backed horses with swishy tails living their retirement years under the sprawling trees at the end of the road.

Karen had lots of friends big and tall short and small and every day was a new adventure.

Out the door, round the corner stopping to smell a rose with Ann. Hip-hopping along playing leap frog with Jason and Mary and Iris. Down into the underground cave and round the edge of Volcano Mountain. Climbing the mountain and rolling down, up and down up and down with the little kids and the bigger kids and even the big kids with beards and real jobs. A new treat today laughing at Beverly zipping the line and letting Beverly lift her up, up, up, until her whole body hung from her little fat fingers tingling and swaying as she flew down the line and dropped like a ballerina onto her flexy little toes. Up the hill, higher still to linger in the fort and peek out the windows to see who might be out to have a chat or sand some wood or dig in the flower bed. Out of the fort and down the slide racing along the path to find the hose that offers a cooling gush of thirst quenching water. A little spray over Gerry’s feet and off again to splash at the water park with the babies and join the art society to paint a bevy of royal dragon flies on the back of the climbing wall. Veggie dogs and juice at the fire-pit. Slowly she tip-toed down the quiet path to the secret place to slide through the leaves, into the comfy hammock to swing and rest and contemplate her next adventure. Wheels are turning and kids are laughing. Its time to race down the farm road and back until hearts can’t beat any faster, the adults and dogs are lying on the grass gasping and the kids are feasting on juicy, dusty, purpleicious plums.

The gong sounds and Karen’s community drifts towards the smokey smells of veggies and fish on the barbie and pizza and pies in the cob oven. Dusk falls, folks cozy up on comfy bancos with gentle music wafting overhead to thank the earth and the farmers and the cooks for this bounteous feast.

A fire, a song, gooey marshmallows on a fork then good night, good night. The moon is out. Scrub a dub in the tub finds clean fingernails, brown knees and sweet smells behind the ears. A story, a song, a cushy bed and an open window. Karen drifts to sleep with the stars in her eyes and only the sound of crickets in her ears. The gentle voices from the hottub and the firepit drift through the trees surrounding her with peace and security.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow will be a new adventure.

Thank you for this story, Liz. In the middle of all this planning, it is grounding and pleasurable to read this story and think of the day-to-day life which we will be living. :-)

Ecovillage Heading South – in a good way!

I’m not hearing the high traveling skeins of migrating geese anymore.  They must be well past us now, in their journey to their wintering grounds.  It is amazing to hear their indistinct high-up honking, even through the clouds, and then to catch glimpses of them in ‘V’s so large, that there are smaller ‘v’s branching out from the bigger one.  Many connected small dots in a thinner atmosphere.

There are lower flying geese and swans too, but invariably they’re headed the wrong way.  Making quite a flap, but going north.  (This is not a scientific observation, but I swear it’s a consistent one.)

Honking has become part of the vernacular around here.  It started when one of us was complimenting another for good leadership.  “HONK” she emailed ...HONK, HONK!  ... with an accompanying explanation that geese flying in formation and following a leader, honk as they go, holding the group together while backing up the leader.

Now, quite frequently, I’m getting and sending email ‘honks’.  And I’ve painted HONK on the side of my wheelbarrow so I can barrow and honk, at any time, in any direction. 

Wild poultry are inspiring for an Ecovillage, I reckon.

From the internet; http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/geese.html
Scientists have determined that the V-shaped formation that geese use when migrating serves two important purposes:
 First, it conserves their energy. Each bird flies slightly above the bird in front of him, resulting in a reduction of wind resistance. The birds take turns being in the front, falling back when they get tired. In this way, the geese can fly for a long time before they must stop for rest.
The second benefit to the V formation is that it is easy to keep track of every bird in the group. Fighter pilots often use this formation for the same reason.

There are a couple of ideas I like in there.

‘Taking turns being in front, falling back when tired’, is one.

 That’s what I call “dynamic leadership” I see that at work around here. And a good thing, too!  Creating an ecovillage is tiring. But there’s lots of honking around here on Clean-up Tuesdays organised by our carpenter...  and the barn is looking much more tidy and useable. 

When we take turns coming up with energy for initiatives, we can contribute our best, and then fall back later and allow another in our group to do the same. 

That strategy speaks to an imperative for each person to know where their own strengths are, and to offer only those.  If I fly in front, and not because I want to, but because I feel I should and that I’m afraid that if I don’t, no-one else will ... then I’m exhausting myself and not serving the group.  And I may be denying the strengths of others, too.

And those swans going north?  I’ve figured them out ... they’re Trumpeter Swans ...a considerable number of them winter in the Fraser Valley at Agassiz. (They were endangered, but their numbers are improving.)  I guess they do the Circle Farm Tour in a counterclockwise direction. http://circlefarmtour.com/index.php?page_id=13

The other idea that strikes me as fine, is that ‘it is easy to keep track of every bird in the group’.  This is another appropriate Ecovillage principle. And when Chuck Durrett comes in January to help us plan our village site plan, I’m going to be sure to contribute a lot around this one. Let’s plan our homes so the living room windows face each other and we can keep a close eye on our neighbours’ doings.

Just kidding! 

This is where Ecovillagers are different from geese, who have no sense of humour!

HONK!