We’re blessed with the arrival of Jasper Ori Millar-Swiftcreek, born to Julia and Jonathan August 29, Virgo Sun/ Sagittarius Moon!

Originally from Richmond, VA, Jonathan came to Earthaven from Asheville in 2009. He is passionate about family and children, and about food production and cooking, nature connection, health and wellness and herbalism. He works with Red Moon Herbs in Asheville three days a week. Jonathan is also Dad to Oakley Swiftcreek, who lives part-time in the Hut Hamlet.

Julia came to Earthaven in 2011 after exploring community in Europe, Israel and the U.S. She grew up in Louisville, KY. Julia lived in several neighborhoods before she joined Jonathan at Village Terraces. Feminism and women’s spirituality, Judaism, family, holistic healing and gardening are at the top of her list. When Jasper is old enough, she plans to continue pursuing a nursing career.

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In December, the residents of Village Terraces Cohousing Neighborhood planted a new grove of hazelnut trees on the edge of their neighborhood.

We planted the European hazelnuts for their improved nut quality.

The nuts are high in oils, tasty with chocolate, and can be harvested up to a month before they are ripe so we can beat the squirrels to the nuts!

The trees came from Useful Plants Nursery, which is located at Earthaven and sells over 200 varieties of edible and medicinal plants.

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Recently the Village Terraces trampoline mat ripped. For some time, we all decided to jump around the hole. After a few weeks, the Village Terrace-ians decided to replace the mat so they could have their precious trampoline to its maximum bouncing potential. “Since the old mat had gotten stretched out, the new one will make the trampoline even bouncer then before.” said newly appointed V.T.-ian Matthew.

Four people, using ropes and muscles pull on a very tight spring.

So on July 3, 2011, at 5:00 p.m., all the V.T.-ians gathered by the trampoline to apply the new mat. “I thought it would only take one hour or two at the most,” said Dylan, the youngest V.T. resident.

As it pushed the second hour and they only had about half of the springs attached they realized it was a much more strenuous task then they had thought. Then they applied a series of ropes and risky positions pushing their strength to the limit.

Mae, Liz & Dylan happily jumping at the end of it all.

To their excitement, as it approached 9 o’clock they finished their endeavor with sighs of relief. Now to everyone’s great satisfaction V.T. has a bouncier trampoline for everyone to use.

Tessa Hovan-Bartalos is a 13-year-old, part-time resident of  Earthaven. She spends summers and holiday vacations with her dad, Mihaly, and the many friends she’s made over the last 11 years at Earthaven. When she’s not at Earthaven, she lives in Nashville, TN with her mom Dana. In addition to writing this article, Tessa also took all the photos.

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Here’s the photographer:

Steve Torma has been a member of Earthaven since 1994. He lives in the Village Terraces Cohousing Neighborhood and is serving Earthaven as Firekeeper in 2011.

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The three conference organizers have been working together as a team for 5 years now. Corinna Wood and Lee Warren are both Earthaven members living and working in the Village Terraces Cohousing Neighborhood, and Ema Carmona is living a similar close-to-the-earth life in a neighboring community. “The conference gives us women the opportunity for a part-time living-wage income in a rural area without much opportunity for employment and allows us work that is deeply aligned with our values.”

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When we finished the first building at Village Terraces Cohousing Neighborhood in 2004, we had $50 in our collective checking account. As one of our intentions as a group was to grow food together, we began to think of it more as a long-term goal than a current one. Aside from the fact that clearing forest to make agriculture land was expensive, building homes, relationships, income-generating activities and contributing to Earthaven’s governance and development were ambitious undertakings, leaving little time for agricultural activities.

          Along the same time, two new members joined Earthaven and decided to build the second building in our neighborhood. What a dream come true. It meant more people to share resources and contribute to our “common pot” of funds that paid for shared systems such as heat, water, electricity, etc. These new folks also felt passionate about food growing. Being from the city, they didn’t have skills themselves, but were well versed in the looming economic crisis, peak oil, and the “long emergency” soon to be facing us. A distinct advantage of them “being from the city” was that they had life-long professional careers, unlike many of us who dropped out of the rat race early on, which meant they had some funds to make their dreams happen. Luckily their dreams coincided with ours and the Imani Ag Coop was born.

          The challenge facing our dream of food production was, as always at Earthaven, turning a fairly dense, immature, degraded forest into open agriculture land. This translates to $10,000 per acre in cost and weeks, if not months, of toiling on the part of many people. But we had a once-in-a-lifetime match born out of shared vision, skill, and passion. Mihaly and Lee, the farming couple, had the experience and desire to coordinate and offer labor to the clearing and Martha and Finch, the city couple, had the money to give to the project.

In January 2008, the three-acre clearing began. Two years and nearly $75,000 later (including clearing, fence, investment in lumber, firewood, amendments, etc.), we have an amazing example of cooperation and the best investment money can buy – the ability to feed ourselves. All with no debt!  Our neighborhood is beautiful in a different way than was the forest and our cleared land is fenced with a durable, handsome woven wire fence (to keep animals in and out of the area of homes and gardens as well as to keep predators out.) We’re focusing on a pasture rotation system for animals with resulting products such as eggs, duck and chicken meat, and small-scale dairy for family consumption.

          As most food growing enterprises go, the Ag Coop doesn’t make a profit, yet the value to our lives is immeasurable. We eat the best food in the world, gain skill and confidence as food producers, and provide nourishment for the people we love. What could be more rich and rewarding? Recently two new exploring members, who share our passion for food, are joining the Ag Coop to share in both the responsibilities and the bounty. As we take these risks to join forces, we create more opportunities for new folks to step in and find a place here. Blessed be, the community grows.

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          In neighborhood news: The Main Street neighborhood changed its name to the Forest Garden neighborhood, the Village Terraces neighborhood held several work parties to load firewood into the two-story firewood shed they built over the summer, and Brian Love and Chris Farmer moved into their new homes in the Gateway neighborhood.

The post News Notes – early Spring 2010 appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

We’ve known for quite a few years that new members coming into Earthaven needed a lot more coaching about our history, plans, policies and practices than they were able to get through the normal course of a Provisional Membership. We’ve required and offered trainings in Consensus Decision-Making since we were ourselves trained by “the experts,” but putting on a program about the broader scope of permaculture and land use as we interpret it has been a daunting commitment to keep. At last, this year—thanks to Diana Leafe Christian, Lee Warren, and myself, we presented the now required and first ever orientation to the background and current application of permaculture principles and land use operations at Earthaven. It was a terrific hit!

          New and prospective members who attended the day-and-a-half event were awed by the comprehensive and hard-earned expertise that has gone into the documents and decisions about running our community literally from the ground level. Pieces fell together like a jigsaw puzzle as old and newer members took the journey from macro to micro view of Earthaven. Beginning with a sunrise walk on Round Mountain led by Chris Farmer, treating us to a long, clear view of our property from several miles away, the day was filled with introductory presentations on permaculture, the Earthaven Site Plan, “multiple intelligences,” the hard work of transitional living, and the shock and awe of land development (aka destruction before construction). Breakfast and lunch were served by our culinary artists, and the day moved towards its end with an on-the-ground tour of the Village Terraces neighborhood, where the enormous task of applying our values and experience has gone so well. A brief look at our formal land use and ecological documents closed the first day.

          On Sunday, we also began outdoors, with a silent walk to Hidden Valley, led again by Chris, who offered a brief history and catalog of our forest at the end of our walk. I led a short exercise in “making love” with the tree of our choice, and we walked back to the Village Center among what may now be a more distinctly recognized community of tree beings.

          Shawn Swartz was with us on Sunday, and he gave us an awesome semester-in-an-hour review of forestry and so-called sustainable forestry practices. (Shawn is now the Forest Warden at nearby Warren Wilson College, where he lives with Holly, Rose and Eli—hurray… and we miss them!)

          We barely had enough time to complete the program with a discussion of forestry and agriculture at Earthaven and then it was time to eat our prepared lunch before the upcoming Council meeting. We did make time for an evaluation segment, and here’s a sampling of comments:

“Lots of info about the meaning of living at EH. Of immense value!”

 

“Stimulating. Learned lots, including ideas for my garden and orchard.”

 

“Liked multidimensional aspects. Would love a series from our ‘experts.’”

 

“Inspired to do projects. Nice to integrate this after 2-1/2 years!”

 

“Appreciate all the work so far, the breadth of content, all the alternatives.”

 

 “Gratitude for so much addressed on such deep levels.”

 

“Very informative for here or elsewhere.”

 

 “Never have to be bored again! Feel motivated, but with peace of mind.”

 

“Best weekend I’ve had in a log time. I could handle two more weeks like this.”

 

“Felt particularly benefited by having already received my permaculture certification and been at EH a while, giving me a context for all this information.”

 

“Interested to hear about how much has changed.”

 

“Glad it wasn’t all documents and codes, but also spiritual and connecting.”

 

          Of course, our presenters have a list of potential improvements and elaborations. We will certainly plan to reserve a whole weekend for next year’s orientation!

 

          Diana’s presentation on ecovillage economics was held two weeks later. Her review of the global ecovillage world, what’s worked and what’s not in a variety of locations, and a look at what’s already happening at Earthaven contributed both inspiration and confidence for the continuing evolution of a “thriving local economy” here in our own extended community.

          Most segments of these events were recorded and will be available for review in a few weeks.

One final note: when the weekend was over, I left with a certain sadness, as if something very important was still missing from our offerings to new members. And then it hit me—we teach governance and land use, two essential legs of the Earthaven stool, to our incoming members, but we don’t yet have anything to say about the vast amount of experience and practice available to us in the spiritual and healing arts. As I bemoaned this fact, Lee pointed out that nothing prevents us from creating part three of our new-member orientation, and the list we’ve started gathering on this huge topic promises to turn into yet another exciting, member-led event down the road.

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Chris Farmer and Brian Love are the two main builders of Pokeberry Hill, a two story dwelling built using ecological principles.

Farmer started by noting that many innovative building techniques are used at Earthaven, including a house at Bella Via using cob, adobe brick, and plaster, and the  Medicine Wheel house that uses lots of recycled materials – plywood from pallets, metal beams from railroads, and recycled flooring.

Stud framing

“Brian and I are fans of stud framing. We used 2×6 low-quality poplar felled here at Earthaven for the framing. Studs are the basis of the cheapest, easiest walls and are especially efficient for a complex building with plumbing, electrics, closets, and cabinets. This is a complex building, but the studs went up in a week.”

Q. What about using recycled plastic for framing?

Farmer: Recycled plastic beats treated lumber, and it’s certainly rot resistant. But we have lots of timber at Earthaven. Here, we air dry the wood then treat it with Boracare, which is low toxicity, to make the wood resistant to termites, powder post beetle, and other boring insects.

Heat

For insulation, we spray cellulose (paper) into the walls – the thermal index of the ceilings is around R23 –to R25, and the walls, R50. The walls are finished with earthern plaster – clay and lime. We used natural finishes – plant waxes and oils.

We put in concrete countertops. We don’t like Portland because it takes so much energy to make it, but we wanted this second story room to have lots of mass to store heat from the sun.

The building design maximizes passive solar heat. The south facing windows get no direct sun in the summer due to the overhang. But in winter the sun is lower and floods through the windows. The heat from the sun is absorbed by the floor (a floating concrete slab) and the countertop.

On the north, there is wood flooring, and on the south, cement. Underneath the floor, there is the potential for radiant heat. Also, insulated pipes bring hot water to heat the floor. In the winter, on sunny days, it’s warm enough to warrant cracking the windows.

Q What about noise?

The building is not as noise proof as we hoped. We’ve been running band saws which does disturb the folks downstairs. Ah well, the music lovers will have to curb their taste for loud.

Q What are your power sources?

Earthaven is entirely off the grid, relying on a small hydro-electric plant and solar panels for current while maximizing passive solar for heat. Pokeberry shares solar panels with the Village Terraces building. Most appliances run on 24V DC, including the lights, the refrigerator, and ventilation. There is a huge battery back up, storing the power. There are also AC outlets, powered by DC current run through an inverter, but the inverter is susceptible to lightning.

Q. Would you build elsewhere?

We prefer to build in and around Earthaven, but if there is work further away, we can go there. We have a box truck with solar panels (name of truck) and a storage battery. There is also a 200 amp fire truck battery. The truck runs on bio diesel.

Our goal is to improve our cash flow to the point that we can retire to farming and raise turkeys, sheep, and vegetables. This year we are growing a lot of squash and melon, and raising Icelandic sheep and turkeys.

Q. How many rooms are there?

There is the big open room, including a kitchen alcove, that runs practically all the way across the southern exposure, a bedroom, two small offices, and a bathroom. It’s basically a 1,000 sq foot, three bedroom house.

Cost

Building on ecological principles, everything takes longer. And it is all hand done – all the wood panels are joined as is the carpentry. The building itself costs $125 per square foot. About half of cost is labor.

The downstairs tenant comments, “It’s beautiful, and it is so quiet here.” The notetaker responds, “At least when the band saws are off and the building is done.”

Chris Farmer is a full member at Earthaven, a builder, and a farmer at Gateway farm.

The post Natural building profile: Pokeberry appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Bruce, Rudy, Alice, Eva, Julie, Johnny, and Mana have become full members!

Culture’s Edge hosted a wonderful Village Harvest Festival last fall and are looking forward to the second annual festival on October 12, 2009.

Arjuna’s beautiful Leela house is nearing completion and is getting its final coat of interior plaster this summer.

Ivy and Michael celebrated their wedding at Earthaven!

Useful Plants Nursery cleared an area in the old campground for a nursery expansion. The fruit trees have moved in, with many more plants to come.

The Forest Children took their spring play, Fantasia, on the road this spring, performing at the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF).

The Pokeberry building at Village Terraces is complete, with Bob, Debbie, and their two fuzzy house cats in residence. (see article)

Geoff and Debbie cleared a site for an orchard near the new campground and are busy planting apple trees and ground cover crops.

Imani farm has a new Jersey cow named LC (Large Cow), who produces most of the milk for Earthaven. Imani and Yellowroot farms are raising pigs, and three neighborhoods have new bee hives.

At Gateway farm, the five Shetland ewes had nine new lambs, and after completing the Pokeberry building, Brian and Farmer are building new homes for themselves in the Gateway neighborhood.

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