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.

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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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Finally, an Earthaven office! And, in addition, an internet and coffee spot with goods from our neighbors, a warm place filled with information and other enticements. This comforting venue now exists and just the thought of it brings some kind of shift in our collective energy, much needed after a challenging year and cold winter. Our creative staffing includes 20 weekly hours of approved community service hours and 20 hours donated by the managers and another community member. Thanks to Jen, Cealleigh, redmoonsong, Jack, River Otter and Kai, and many others who helped with the details of getting set up.

Now, at the end of week four, the work goes on! The possibilities keep expanding for this small and lovely space. Right now, visitors stop at the Trading Post at the end of the tour to chat with members and pick up additional Earthaven literature. Here’s where about-to-become Provisional Member Mana McLeod connects with her courses from Gaia University, and where Suchi, one of the managers, plays Scrabble with a neighbor who stops to drop off her honey, dried shiitakes, and umeboshi plums. At the administrative level, we are also here to have an ongoing update of our database. Meanwhile, members come to pick up eggs from a local farmer, and our gifted craftspeople can showcase their wares. Upcoming events, committee and Council minutes, and other important announcements and information are posted inside and outside. The “News of the Neighborhoods” section is beginning. We hope to increase the amount of information posted to include jobs needed and labor available, housing needed and available, and so on. We post ways people can earn community service hours (LEAPS) and items for sale/barter/giveaway.

In the ideal future, we will double in size so that office and internet space are separate from socializing space. We are open to many other ways to serve the community in the future. As we plan to renew our lease, we have begun to think about bringing our mailroom nearby.  Can we centralize and coordinate rides to town? Post general messages, needs for assistance, interest groups forming, etc.?

Please stop by.  Our spring hours are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10-6; Saturday 11-4 and Sunday 11-2.  Meetings and small events can be scheduled for times we are not open. Come check us out.

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Over the years Earthaven has tried to prioritize agriculture, and to provide ways for skilled folks to be able to be at Earthaven even if they hadn’t amassed savings. First site option 3 was created. It allowed a few people to be here, but it just delayed their inevitable need to pay for their site. They were also busy trying to get ahead in order to pay those delayed fees, while still doing the huge work of being here. It was very much like running on a conveyor belt going in one direction, while trying to move forward an actual mile in the opposite direction. Most people were making progress, but at a dauntingly slow rate.

Then council made it possible for a farmer to pay for the equivalent of one site with leaps accepted for food farmed on the land. Sadly, almost none of that exchange was acted upon. Their was only one field cleared, and no one really had the time to farm. They were still busy running in place. We needed a way for people to get their livelihood from making agriculture happen here. It had to happen in a specific order, that was the key to the riddle we had yet to solve. So, we made logging trade-able for a site payment. But, the riddle still had folks running in place.

When the Sweat Equity proposals were passed, we were made aware that all the pieces of the puzzle must be present at once and in large enough quantity to accomplish a truly progressive and substantial difference. Also, a large part of the riddle was getting facilitators to ensure that each agricultural project was taken to completion, so that part of it wouldn’t get cleared only to start growing back toward forest in a few years. Praise be, Farmer and Brian took on the Gateway project. They brought all the pieces through council. Their hard work and brilliant minds seem to have gone a long way to solving the riddle of how to make Sweat Equity at Earthaven translate skilled people without savings, into the members and agriculture that we need.

But they did not do it by themselves. In fact, isn’t that the point? It takes all the pieces present at the same time and in large enough quantity. Again we get to acknowledge that our community is developing, and limited by that development very much like a child. We wanted to walk long before we could. Then we took our first steps and fell down quite a few times, acquiring a few bruises and scratches. Now we are finally able to run some.

You may ask, but who are the people actually doing the Sweat Equity, aren’t we talking about new members? Yes we are! One of the people working on the Gateway project to pay his membership, is Joe Dofflemyer, pictured here in the act of Sweat while making it look zen. Also working on the project to pay off their membership fees are Dan Penny and Cailen Campbell. Andy Bosley and Robert Carran are working toward paying off their site fees along with Farmer and Brian. And soon maybe we will be able to buy our food with leaps!

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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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