Earthaven’s annual holiday Bazaar is one of our community’s focal points for creating economics on the village scale. Each year in December, Earthaven members, neighbors, friends and visitors gather in the Council Hall for an afternoon of food, fun, games, and holiday vending.

This is an opportunity to bring out our wares — experimental new products or eagerly awaited old favorites — for sale or barter. Folks come to replenish their favorite herbal medicines or aromatherapy sprays, or to get a new hand-made hat or knitted scarf or an item of stylish and creative upcycled clothing.

Members and neighbors offer everything from beeswax candles to jewelry, art, chocolates and baked goods. Some serve wintertime soups and ciders, and other delectable treats. Kids of all ages enjoy the Kids’ Crafts table at the center of the ring of vendors, making ornaments, popcorn and cranberry chains, and the Very Very Long Paper Chain, which this year was long enough to circle the hall four times!

We welcome visitors and new friends each year. Save the date — next year’s Bizarre Bazaar is Saturday, December 13 from noon to 4 pm.

River Otter — also known as Melissa Lemoing — has been at EH since 2007 and is a major supporter of the Bizarre Bazaar. She is a village herbalist, a massage and Reiki therapist, an avid gardener, the current organizer of the Bazaar, and the EH Office Manager and Outreach Coordinator.

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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.

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The LEAP is Earthaven’s complementary currency note.

In order to find out who within the community accepts LEAPS for payments (towards goods and services), we created a directory.

Recently I decided to create the directory as a shared, online document so that anyone with the link can view and edit it. This meshes with my values of open-source collaboration and public contribution.

We decided to expand the directory to include leaps, dollars, trade, barter, and gift—essentially, anything anyone wants to sell, trade, or offer.

My own entry lists “Macintosh computer consulting services for a sliding scale of dollars or leaps with the option to negotiate other trades.”

I am anticipating adding a “Wanted” section as well. My hopes are that this format will take some of the burden of updating the directory off of a central “manager” and spread it out over those who will benefit from the listing service.

I am also hoping this directory can connect the ecovillage to local neighborhoods, the larger rural area, and to our extended community of alumni, ex-residents, and friends of the ecovillage, wherever they may be on the globe.

Michael Whitmire has lived at Earthaven a total of three years. His interests include organic farming, loving people and nature, talking with folks one-on-one, his daughter and family, the Mankind Project, community networking, and Gaian metaphysics. His plans are nebulous and razor sharp at once, depending on factors still being uncovered.

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In our Council Hall, the new and gorgeous, luminescent granite and marble mosaic floor is finally finished! The design for the floor was created by Jessica Evans and provided an opportunity for Earthaven to support sweat equity by approval of Jessica’s proposal to barter half her membership fee for the completion of the second half of the floor. (She designed and facilitated the first half for Earthaven currency aka “leaps.”)

About ten volunteers helped Jess translate her vision into the physical reality of laying “rock” in such a huge space. With such a beautiful floor, it’s been hard to move functional furniture back in over it, but until we build the next community building adjacent to it, Council Hall will continue to play its multi-functional role in our lives, including reception for many classes and events, expanded classroom space for the Forest Children Program, a small sustainability library, and a living room area around the wood stove for small group socializing. If you have elegant, comfortable furniture that you think would fit in that space, please reach out to us.

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