Dr. Monique Mazza explaining her raised bed gardening system

The post Raised Beds Anyone? appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Simultaneously this year, three new members in three different neighborhoods are working on setting up their own unique versions of the tiny house. Near the front of the property, in the Forest Garden neighborhood, Liz Diaz and Joseph Rasband have just moved into their creation. Joseph built the house on the trailer bed liberated when a tree fell on their trailer in 2016. In addition to a separate utility shed for their solar components and other equipment, a detachable mud room has been joined to the front door. Both Joseph and Liz are dedicated farmers, whose cows, chicken co-op and other gifts to the community continue to thrive while the construction project heads towards completion.

Donna Ireland recently relocated the magical little house to the Bellavia Gardens neighborhood that her son, Richard, built her for the purpose of living at Earthaven. An unstoppable gardener, her neighbors can look forward to her myriad contributions to the beauty, nutrition and all-over fertility of the Bellavia experience. Donna is a professional bodyworker and health educator whose Beneficial Way program will be presented at Earthaven in the near future.

above: Donna and Richard stop a moment for a snapshot during his recent visit.

Also, up at Hawk Holler, Sam Del Vecchio is fulfilling his long held dreams about living lightly on the land. His tiny house project has various Earthaven experts chipping in their experience and expertise for this slightly less than tiny moveable living space. The approximately 32’x10′ (interior) space will be built with natural, non-toxic Thermacork walls that are 100% cork and completely breathable. Sam and his family (wife, Julia, and young ones Luca and Meira) came to Earthaven several years ago, finally winding up in our Eastern-most neighborhood, where Julia plans to build her little house on the very next site. An acupuncturist, Sam has several other healing modalities under his belt, but is devoting most of his time these days to his new home.       

 above: Sam and the Thermacork.

The post Earthaven Tiny Housing Boom appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

above: Spillway at the new micro-hydro installation.

 At long last, the second micro-hydro station at Earthaven is up and running, serving the delighted residents of Medicine Wheel and Bellavia Gardens neighborhoods.

Through an ingenious design by neighbor Leon Birstein, each neighborhood is served differently so that their residents’ not-quite-adequate solar arrays are boosted and bolstered by the steady flow of creek water through the landscape.

Suiting the different ways our neighborhoods are set up—one with a large common house and the other with several separate homes—Medicine Wheel’s micro-hydropower is constant, while neighbors’ batteries at Bellavia Gardens are boosted at intervals during the day and night with modest but adequate backup charges.

The dream of a second micro-hydro station has been alive since Earthaven’s first micro-hydro was built in the Village Center in ’96. The first station serves the Village Center and Hickory Knob, home of the White Owl, and has been known to offer backup power to several nearby homesites.

right: Travis Robb treads carefully beside the trench that will direct more power into his Bellavia Gardens neighborhood. 

The post New Micro-hydro Plant Amps Up – Adds Power for Two Neighborhoods appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Some Earthaven neighborhoods are balancing collective and personal ownership issues by forming housing cooperatives. While used in other parts of the country, housing co-ops are new in our region and could be a reasonable model for other ecovillages, especially in rural areas.

One of the last neighborhood “pods” to get involved in the land-ownership revision, folks at Bellavia Gardens finally took a look at the details and dimensions of this “restructuring” process, which Council has been working on for several years. Here’s what we learned.

Entrance to Bellavia Circle in the lush heart of summer.

After restructuring, our Homeowners Association (HOA), of which our neighborhood “pods” will all be members, will continue to own most of our land for us, meaning the forest all around, the Commons, and much of the agricultural areas. But instead of bearing the burdens of caring for residential parcels, the HOA will pass the baton of “ownership” and responsibility to residential pods incorporated in a couple of formats.

Two neighborhoods have decided to pursue becoming religious societies, finding those more aligned than housing co-ops with their values and needs. Bellavia Gardens will have just enough Full Earthaven Members (five) to comply with the requirements for cooperative associations in North Carolina. Other neighborhoods with fewer members are joining together to start their co-ops and may branch off in the future.

left: Medicine Wheel Collective will become a religious society.

Not everyone has been excited about these changes (putting our NVC education into intensive practice!). In addition to slowpokes like the Bellavians, other challenges to accomplishing restructuring included determining which agreements would have to be amended and which can remain the same. Our commitments and understandings regarding residing on, sharing and co-owning Earthaven land have had a searchlight review and updating in preparation for becoming a federation of neighborhoods.

Earthaven Association comprehensive site map before restructuring

Much intensive and dedicated work was accomplished by Council’s Strategic Transition Group (STG), which Kimchi Rylander organized and nurtured these last few years, and which has guided the process to its maturity. Hats off also to Patricia Allison, Bob Lienhart, Debbie Lienhart, Martha Harris, Sue and Geoff Stone, Alice Henry, Norm Self, Carmen Lescher, and with a great bow to Dimitrios Magiasis, who kept interpreting for the rest of us what was happening in conversations between legal counsel and the STG team!

All in all, what has been a laborious and sometimes bewildering process has created a new way of organizing ourselves that we think will be more appropriate and supportive of our similar but also distinct neighborhood personalities.

      Visitors Map showing some Earthaven neighborhoods.

Stay tuned for updated information here and on our website about ways to continue to connect with us, including visiting and tours, work exchange and other short-term residency options, educational and economic opportunities, and membership exploration. To twist the African Ubuntu saying just a little bit: “we are because YOU are!

Arjuna da Silva helped found Earthaven in 1994 and is a member of Bellavia Gardens Neighborhood. 

The post Bellavia Gardens (among other neighborhoods) is Becoming a Co-op! appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

This past summer, long-time Earthaven member Mollie Curry and her partner, Steve Kemble, supervised the final plastering of Bellavia Gardens’ neighborhood composting toilet, known as the Ojo de Conejo (eye of the rabbit) Lounge. Folks from around the village, eager to get muddy, joined Gaspar and Travis for a day of plaster pleasure. Most of this work was paid for by neighbors in “leaps” our community service currency.

The post Really Local Economy appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Who better to start a fire than the “fire warden” of your local safety committee?

My neighbor, Marjorie, stood firewoman duty around a burn of dead and diseased tree stock and other brush that she and neighbor Gaspar recently set on an overcast day that promised to rain … sooner or later! (It did finally begin to drizzle as the sun set.) The next day came a downpour.

When the charcoal that remained from the well-burned, pre-ash wood was dry enough, neighbors began collecting the precious bio-char to help nourish our orchards and fields for generations to come.

The post Earthaven Fire Warden Starts Fire appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

A couple of days ago I had a most pleasant visit with Gaspar. We sipped hot herbal tea, munched on pecans and exchanged some wonderful stories at his cozy space in the Bellavia Gardens neighborhood. Gaspar came to Earthaven in the summer of 2003 and became a member soon after. He is a wonderful force of positivity, healing, and beautiful energy that he shares with members and visitors continuously.

Gaspar has over forty years’ experience as a practitioner of chiropractic healing arts. He’s often known to give out flower essences to those in need of personal healing, and to everyone during difficult community meetings to bring ease to all involved.

He teaches “Magical Passages” twice weekly for energy enhancement, shares “Brain Gym” techniques, offers a variety of other healing modalities, and hosts collage picture-making parties.

Gaspar with Earthaven friends, NikiAnne and Mana.

Gaspar is passionate about the local Earthaven currency (known as Leaps), which is earned by community service work and often traded for goods and services. He has instigated several barter fairs and has been instrumental in extending the Leap system beyond Earthaven to include neighbors. He also established the “Free Store,” where folks can drop off items no longer wanted and, perhaps, pick up something that is needed.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg about one member who gives and receives in this wonderful and amazing community!

 Rae Jean has always lived on the edge one way or another. For the last seven years it has been at Earthaven. Along with raising heritage chickens, ducks, veggies and herbs, she designs and creates knitting patterns.

The post Member Profile: Gaspar Robles appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Previous owners gifted Earthaven’s main street with a healthy stand of bamboo that’s now prolific near the Forest Garden Learning Center. Early Earthaven members added additional stands around the community.

What a beautiful and useful plant (we thought)!

Bamboo IS beautiful. AND useful. But like a beautiful and useful animal, bamboo has to be trained and maintained. Otherwise, despite one’s love for it, IT WILL TAKE OVER!

We had the naïve idea that if bamboo is planted between natural “barriers,” such as creeks and roads, you don’t have to worry about its invasiveness. Think again. Bamboo spreads, like any grass, in every direction through networks of rhizomes and root mats. Although it may be stopped by a road bed or other deep boundary it’s definitely hard to control. If it gets close to a road, come heavy snow and ice, it will lean down frozen and stiff and block traffic.

Excavation to remove Bamboo from the Bellavia pond.

One year, we tried making eating bamboo shoots an incentive to control one stand, but the thrill of eating them didn’t seem to justify all the effort to prepare them. This year, encroachment on a building became too risky to ignore, and a major excavation was undertaken. It will take several years of pruning as new sprouts emerge before we can consider the job done.

Now all neighborhoods and the commons are being managed for bamboo to stop its spread. Harvests are providing material for future decorative and useful experiments.

The post Lessons in Bamboo: Love it but Don’t Leave it Alone appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Hillside above Bellavia Neighborhood.

Misty morning after 10″ of rain.

Local Mountains.

Creeks amble through the landscape.

Punch-hole cloud.

Cold frame in the early-morning light.

Troy Swift, a self-portrait by the photographer.

The post The Land Where we Live appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Over 30 people participated in a work party in the Bellavia Gardens Neighborhood on Saturday, February 26.

Earthaven members, guests and work exchangers pulled together on beautiful sunny morning to clean up after the construction of “Leela,” the naturally built home of Arjuna da Silva.

Volunteers ranged in age from 5 to 79.

Leela has been a favorite attraction for Earthaven visitors for more than five years. Numerous natural building workshops have been given using Leela as a demonstration site.  Friends came out to put their love into action also by cleaning up and preparing the neighborhood commons for fruit trees and shrubs.

The post Many Hands Make Light Work appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.