A new way of living is not only possible, it is happening now!
The FEC is a union of egalitarian communities which have joined together in our common struggle to create a lifestyle based on equality, cooperation, and harmony with the earth.
Since the last edition of the Leaves, we've gone from the frigid cold of Winter to the sweltering heat of mid-Summer. We're taking advantage of the sun these days with our latest solar energy project. We've just completed the installation of a 10 KiloWatt array of 48 photo-voltaic solar panels in the central field of the community. The electricity generated will be used to power three of our buildings and one of our well pumps, with any excess electricity being fed back into the main power grid (via our local electic co-op), and we will be compensated for that power.
installing one of the 48 panels for our new solar energy array.
Earlier in the year, we found out that there's nothing like being snowed in for days and weeks on end to bring out people's creativity. In January, Twin Oaks took advantage of the avalanche of snow we received (and the 30-hour power outage) and members' inventiveness was bustin' out all over! Our very own 'outsider-artist-in-residence', aka our member Purl, used the time to construct a chair out of hickory saplings and hemp rope for his daughter Anya, aged 15 months. And when our pond froze, Noah decided a game of ice-hockey was in order, but we only had 2 sticks. Undaunted, he used some scrap wooden stretcher bars from our hammocks business to construct 6 very realistic hockey sticks, 5 of which lasted until the end of the game! And on a more cultured artistic note, Kayde organized a Variety Show in which members could showcase their talents, including poetry, singing, piano, dancing and a puppet show featuring Marshall Rosenberg of NVC (Non-Violent Communication) notoriety as the main character.
Anya sits in her new chair.
Another big January event was the arrival of our newest Oaker, a healthy baby boy born to Elsa and Scott. Elsa delivered him into the world at home, with the help of a midwife, her assistant, a doula, Scott and big brother Luuk. We welcome Ridgeley Ember Jennings Linden to our lives!
Ridgeley Ember Jennings Linden
In February, as an alternative to Valentine's Day, Twin Oaks celebrates Validation Day, a day in which everybody, not just people in intimate relationships, receives a handmade, individually designed card, inside of which other members have written validating messages. On Validation Day, we hand the cards out after dinner, and then break out into a dance party. This year, we also had a 'Songs of Love' performance, which was graced with the presence of the KITCH Army, sharing their version of KISS's new song 'Stand'.
Memory, Calliope, Claire and Keith transformed in to the KITSCH ARMY
Some people might say Twin Oaks has hit the big time, when we were featured in an Earth Day special on CNN news in April. In two of our fifteen minutes of fame, the piece focused on Twin Oaks as an example of how to live a sustainable lifestyle in contemporary America. We were pleased that information about our alternative culture was able to reach the masses.
There's also good news for our two largest community businesses. We've launched a new and improved website for Twin Oaks Hammocks. We sell hammocks both to wholesalers and to retail customers, and the new site makes it easier for our retail customers to make a purchase. Please go to www.twinoakshammocks.com if you'd like to take a look. And with our newest tofu account, we've increased our workweek to 5 tofu production days. This enables us to make the additional 5000 (yes, five thousand) pounds each week for the new account.
And several members have been busy working on creating new community.
We've been having meetings of a group of former and current members
who are working towards creating the Living Energy Farm. Now in the
process of finding land, the project will ultimately encompass an
intentional community with an environmental education center, which
will focus on sustainable ways of living, free of fossil-fuel. It has
been informally dubbed neo-amish (ie. Amish-style, minus the
patriarchy).
6 a.m. My alarm wakes me up and I roll out of bed, ready to start my day. The sun hasn't quite come up yet, but there's some soft light coming through my east-facing window. I don't have to get up this early--we each set our own schedule--but I like being up before the hustle and bustle of the day really begins. Plus, since nine of us live in my building, I probably won't have any competition for the shower.
6:15 a.m. I make myself breakfast (toast with homemade bread and an egg from one of our chickens) in the kitchen in the Courtyard, where I live. Lunch and dinner are served buffet-style at Zhankoye (ZK), our main dining facility and community center, but we also have a handful of smaller kitchens for breakfast, snacking, and preparing meals for small groups of people. As I eat, I read a novel I pulled from our public collection of several thousand books--no library card needed.
6:55 a.m. Since I like being up early, I signed up for a 7 o'clock tofu-making shift last week when all of our labor was being scheduled. I head to the Tofu Hut, a mere two-minute walk through the woods from my room--not a bad commute. It's chilly out, but the Hut is warm and steamy. I put on boots, gloves, a hairnet, and an apron, and start pressing curds into big slabs of tofu.
10 a.m. My shift is over, and I head back to the Courtyard. I check my email on one of the public computers in the office. In addition to actually making tofu, I also do a lot of customer service for our soyfoods business. Someone has contacted us to find out where they can buy Twin Oaks' tofu in their area; I respond, and also check out the orders that have come in locally from stores and restaurants in Charlottesville and Richmond.
10:45 a.m. I see my friend Sabrina outside with one-year-old Anya in a carrier on her back. She's doing a "primary," labor-creditable child care. We make tea and go for a walk together, Anya making cute faces at me the whole time.
12:05 p.m. It's lunch time, so we walk up to ZK. Lunch is mostly leftovers, supplemented with a fresh salad and baked potatoes. We grow greens throughout the winter in our huge greenhouse, and we harvested enough potatoes in the summer and fall to last us through the winter.
12:50 p.m. I walk back to my room to put on work boots for my forestry shift, then ride a public bike up to Modern Times (MT), where Carrol, River, Purl and I will meet for the shift. MT is our main shop building, with space and tools to fix our cars, bikes, tractors, and vacuums.
1 p.m. We head out into the woods, where we'll selectively cut trees and haul them in to be processed into firewood. All the wood we harvest is done so sustainably, and all of our buildings are heated with wood all winter long. It's too hot to do forestry work in the summer, so during the off-season, I'll switch some of my work scene indoors to do data entry and accounting work to monitor our communal money budgets.
5:15 p.m. I hang out in my room a bit before dinner, finishing up a letter to my family and listening to music. I find it's important to carve out alone time for myself--it's very easy to get sucked into the social scene 24/7 here. There's always something going on, someone to talk to.
6:00 p.m. Dinner is served! Tonight it's my favorite--veggie burgers. (And, OK, hamburgers too. But I'm a vegetarian.) There are plenty of side dishes, like steamed spinach and sweet potato fries. A large percentage of the meal, both veggies and meat, is homegrown. I sit in the Lounge with about ten people and chat with McCune about his latest plumbing adventure. Sometimes at dinner there's one main conversation but tonight several smaller discussions have sprung up. Besides copper-vs-plastic waterlines, people are talking about the new fruit orchard we're planting, the latest news from our sister community 8 miles up the road, and trying to work out if people's schedules will allow our belly-dance troupe to meet on the same night as the queer-theory discussion group.
7:30 p.m. Mala has invited me to her residence (named Beechside) to hang out--there's a really cozy kitchen/living room there that's highly conducive to fun social gatherings. A bunch of people come over, and we sit draped on the couches and on the floor. Debbie and Trout play fiddle and guitar, Casey is knitting a pair of socks and Ezra makes a large amount of popcorn. Zadek, age 4, and Samir, age ten months, provide a lot of the entertainment. It's a festive atmosphere, though there's no particular occasion; we just like to enjoy each other's company.
10:00 p.m. I head home to my room. I record the work I did today on my labor sheet and write in my journal a bit to unwind before bed. I'm very tired, but happy. It's been a good day.
Jessica Marie Quintet
by Summer
Debbie (above), Elsa, Jessie and Summer, 4/5 of the Quintet
I'm standing downtown in Charlottesville with my 6-month old daughter strapped to my front, singing with four other women. We run through our repertoire as a small but steady crowd of people gathers to listen. We are appreciative of the donations they leave, and afterwards we go to soothe our voices at the gelatto place down the street.
I am part of the The Jessica Marie Quintet, nee Oakapella or FEC-Sharp, which started in 2008 with eight original members singing a broader range of a cappella music, and has gradually narrowed to a focus on barbershop. When the idea first arose, I squealed with irrepressible dorkiness my delight at the thought of being in one of these groups again--in high school I was head of our 8-member a capella group. Characterized by close harmonies and four distinct voices that often sing the same lyrics (as opposed to doo-wop, which usually features a lead singer and several backup vocals), barbershop feels more egalitarian, more cooperative.
After a few months we were down to 5 people, and renamed the group the Jessie Marie Quintet, in honor of the two members who share that name (Jess, our bass; and Jessie, our tenor). Free online sheet music eventually gave way to specific arrangements ordered off the internet; one practice grew to two 2-hour rehearsals a week; and we began to perform as much as we could, including at homespun coffeehouses, busking in Charlottesville, at the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, Christmas/Solstice caroling, at a nursing home, at Acorn's Land Day, and for Twin Oakers in full-on JMQ concerts. Twice we've taken an educational trip to town to rehearse with the Skyline Chorus, Charlottesville's Sweet Adeline 30-member women's barbershop chorus. Their director has come out to Twin Oaks with two members of the chorus to help us through a rehearsal. We finished the practice with new warm-up exercises, help with posture, breathing, mouth shape, diphthongs, and lots of other information that has helped us advance our singing together. Last summer we used Twin Oaks' recording equipment and squeezed ourselves into the young adult library on hot evenings to put out our first CD.
Recording together was another learning experience: how far away do we each have to stand from the mic? Which room captures the best sound? We feel proud of the result and hope to make another album once we've added enough new songs to our repertoire. Right now the group is working on our theater debut singing and dancing for the community's performance of Greasel. After that, a belated two-year anniversary concert is in order. And after that, who knows? [The Jessica Marie Quintet is comprised of Jessica Marie (Jess) on bass, Summer on lead/baritone, Debbie on lead/tenor, Elsa on lead/tenor, and Jessica Marie (Jessie) on lead/tenor. Our CD, *In the Good Old Summertime and Other Modern Hits* is available for $8 (sliding scale).]
From Seed to Seeds
By Cloud Supernova
Edmund processing seeds.
As Winter comes to an end, and warmer seasons slowly unfurl, I look
forward to working again in the Seeds gardens. I remember last year,
three days after harvesting a van full of over-ripe (as they must be
to ensure proper seed maturity) Suyo Cucumbers, the experience of
slimy, smelly, fermented cucumber pulp on my arms, which I admittedly
enjoyed, as I plunged through phase II of the project. After
fermenting the seeds in buckets of water for three days to help
disengage them from the gooey cucumber innards, as well as kill off
potential pathogens, I disturbed the viscous liquid and waited the
minute or two it took for the viable seeds of our bounty to sink to
the bottom of the bucket. Once the floaters were poured out, and the
process repeated 2 or 3 more times, good seeds were set onto screens
and placed into fan powered drying racks. Germination tests were
administered and met the standards of our biggest buyer, Southern
Exposure Seed Exchange, which are often much loftier than the national
average.
Twin Oaks Seeds business is contracted by seed companies, such as
Southern Exposure Seeds and FedCo, to grow and then process our own
organic seed yields. And like our seeds, we've grown. The business
started out as a solo project in 2006 by ex-member River with an
income of approximately $5,000. Under the managership of Edmund
Frost, along with a dedicated crew and expanded growing area, Seeds
generated an income of $27,600 in 2009.
We project doubling our profits, which means doubling our output for
the 2010 growing year. Why? We have demonstrated to the Community
that the Seeds business is a viable business and one worth investing
time and money in. It's an income area we feel really good about;
it's organic, our methods of cultivation rely heavily on our own
sweat, and the products couldn't be Greener. Our seeds inspire
backyard garden sanctuaries, help provide nourishing food for many,
and promote the genetic diversity necessary in preserving our food
sources for the future.
Twin Oaks Theatre: 'Greasel'
by Kelsey
To most of American society, 'community theatre' means a group of theatre people, who happen to live in general proximity of each other, bound together by the act of putting on a professional-looking show. Here, it seems we take the word order of 'community theatre' more literally. It's more community, with a 'Hey! Since we're all here, let's do a ridiculous Twin Oaks-based spoof on Grease this winter!'
Talent? That, we have in buckets here. It started with the unbelievably hilarious team of writers (or re-writers, rather) creating songs and a script for the fantastic band and actors that then assembled. From within our ranks also came choreographers, set designers, props and costumes managers, publicity, lights, and no fewer than three directors. Not to mention those that pick up the slack within the community for this motley and brilliant team to have time to put a show up.
We knew we wanted to spoof the plot of the original show, placing it in a Twin Oaks setting, with lots of references to our alternative culture. Just the name alone-- 'Greasel' -immediately presented itself as a tip of the hat to the alternative energy practice of using vegetable oil for fuel, so-called 'greasel' instead of 'diesel'.
The 'cool kids' in this show were we communards. Members Michael and Summer starred as a hippie, dread-locked Danny paired with Sandra V, the mainstream commodities trader plopped into the middle of our commune for a visit. Musical highlights included 'Oberlin Dropout' as Crunchy (aka Frenchy) ponders returning to grad school, and 'You're The Ones That I Want' as an homage to polyamory. And what would Grease be without 'Hopelessly Devoted to Tofu' (performed, of course, by some of our most committed tofu workers)?
Really, though, there is more to what makes theatre here so interesting: while we do happen to have a lot of talent residing on these 450 acres, talent is also not exactly the point. In community, art is everywhere, and everyone can have a role-not just the 'artsy' people in society to whom we delegate the task of moving our culture forward. Anyone that wants a way to contribute here can probably find one, and while we don't aspire to Broadway with our work, we do aspire to enrich all of our lives through a collective creative process. So, we do. We shape our time together as we wish, and it is certainly never boring. Besides, what makes life worth living if not some Twin Oakers singing about how unexpected romance can blossom over pickling the beets?
Politics at Twin Oaks
by Valerie
Here at Twin Oaks, we generally consider ourselves beyond conventional conversation restraints; this becomes immediately obvious by listening to a mealtime discussion of the lurid details of gruesome symptoms related to the latest sickness going around.
When it comes to talking about politics, it becomes a little more complicated. There are certain topics that we can all discuss with ease and generally agree upon. However, somehow there are others that are more like opening a can of worms while walking through a field of landmines...
Acceptable: global warming and polar icecap melt
More delicate: what temperature to set the communal hot-water heater, and the ecological implications of using ice-cubes
Acceptable: Obama versus Hillary
A bit trickier: Organic versus Local
Acceptable: increasing water shortages and the evils of the bottled-water industry
Tread carefully: the fact that a certain communard-who-shall-remain-nameless replaced the low-flow shower head with one that delivers the approximate force and volume-per-minute of Niagara Falls, without any process.
Acceptable: the discriminatory aspects of impending US immigration policy
Walking on eggshells : our membership process about whether to accept that controversial visitor from the last visitor period.
Acceptable: gay marriage
Call in the Process Team: your lover announces their desire to form a polyamorous triad with that statuesque blonde who arrived as a new member last week.....
Copyright 2008, Valerie Renwick-Porter and Communities magazine. This
article first appeared in Communities: Life in Cooperative Culture,
Autumn 2008; for further information on Communities: communities.ic.org.
Twin Oaks Conferences!
You are invited to come to Twin Oaks and participate in our two summer events:
Join us for a weekend of sharing and celebration at the 2010 Communities Conference, August 13-15th.
With workshops and events focused on:
Intentional relationships
Group process
Collective child raising
Creating culture
Forming communities
Sustainability
Appropriate technology
Community economics
Music
Dancing
Slide shows
Campfires
Swimming
Magic
More!
The Communities Conference is a networking and learning opportunity for anyone
interested or involved in co-operative or communal lifestyles.
Come join us for the annual Twin Oaks Women's Gathering on August 20-22nd.
Our 27th gathering to celebrate the strength, diversity and power of women in community! All female and non-male ID folks are welcome to this event, which is a three day conference on themes ranging from sex and sexuality to positive relationship building to DIY music, art and movement. There will be scheduled workshops and performance spaces, as well as lots of free time to network, drum, dance and play at beautiful Twin Oaks Community. Registration fee (sliding scale from $60-$160) includes meals and tent space.
Goats and Barns? Two unrelated topics that are joined together here for the convenience of having to only make one post.
At Acorn a small crew of us have been hard at work this past month building a new barn. Its two stories tall and 30 by 32 feet. The first floor is framed with post and beams and the second floor is stud wall framing. We are parking tractors and keeping garden tools on the first floor and the second floor is a massive new drying space.
Also, we recently got two goats. We bought them from a nearby goat rancher we are friends with. The breed of goats is Kiko, a type from New Zealand. Whalers would leave goats on the island and in between trips come and harvest the goats for meat. The goats became quiet feral and after a long while they were rounded up and selected for various qualities. The Kiko are very hardy foragers and have high tolerance to worms and wet climates. We keep them in a stationary overnight paddock and we have a rotating day paddock that we bring them too that we move every two days to fresh browse
We are have lots of different types of events here at Twin Oaks. Anniversary is one of my favorites, in part because it is a principally internal affair, with most of the guests being ex-members and the closer friends of community.
This year was a smaller celebration (43 not being an especially significant number) and it was precious. The weather cooperated, the home-grown entertainment (especially Uncle Trout’s Dead cover band) engaging, the food was glorious (see viz Rich’s fabled flame thrower salmon below) and our spirits were high.
Rich viz
uses flame thrower to cook salmon
From a funological perspective, we even had our bonding crisis experience. For the last few songs of the Dead cover bands performance, the wind kicked up and what looked like a serious storm started to blow in. Communards, quick to help jumped up and deployed tarps. I had a precious moment dancing with Mushroom as we both held on of the canopy poles to the ground wrestling the storm winds. And in what perhaps typifies our collective response, as a handful of dancers moved in to secure the stage from the storm, other participants who had been sitting, instead fo getting out of the pending storm jumped up to take the dancers places. The storm blew past the revealers partied on.
telegenic entertainers
As i looked around at the highly telegenic crowd of current communards, each more interesting than the last, i realized that the old adage was true. Kat‘s last book was cleverly called “Is it Utopia yet?” To which we occasionally answer “No, but on a good day you can see it from here.”
The 2010 Communities Conference at Twin Oaks will help you learn more about communal living, connect with potential and current community members, and give you the opportunity to play and celebrate with others who believe in communal living.
The Communities Conference is a networking and learning opportunity for anyone interested or involved in co-operative or communal lifestyles. Join us for a weekend of sharing and celebration!
Friday August 13 through
Sunday August 15, 2010
$85 (sliding scale) includes
meals and camping
The Schedule: The conference begins late afternoon/suppertime on Friday. Activiites are scheduled throughout the weekend, and will either be posted elsewhere on this page, or email us for details.
Facilities And What To Bring: Our gathering site is rustic but has showers (often hot), hammocks, picnic tables, a fire circle and a kitchen. There are tent sites in the woods nearby (and space for a few small RVs, but call ahead). No electricity for individual use. You will need a tent, sleeping bag, toiletries, flashlight, towel, rain gear, mixed-season clothes, and good natured flexibility. No pets, please. You may want to bring musical instruments, toys, games, and any outreach literature (brochures, feature articles, slideshows, photos, videos, etc.) you might have about your community, if you live in one. Child care will be cooperative: we will arrange space for parents and others to share child care.
About Food: Food will be predominantly potluck. Twin Oaks will provide breakfasts, bread, milk, yogurt, salad, and much more. We ask you to bring three things to share:
1.) a refrigerated covered dish (stew, casserole, soup, but not chili), preferably frozen,
2.) some fruit, and
3.) a snack item or juice.
Each should be enough for 10 hungry people.
What to Expect: We invite people to get together and talk about intentional community of all sorts. We expect about 200 participants including members of many communities: large, small, spiritual, secular, tightly communal, loosely cooperative, and so on. We also welcome people looking for a community, and those just interested in the idea of cooperative living. This conference will be lightly structured. Everything is optional. There will be workshops and sharing circles, but also lots of time to just hang out, meet people, network and play together.
What is Twin Oaks? This conference is hosted by Twin Oaks, a community of 100 people living on 450 acres of farm and forestland in central Virginia. Founded in 1967, we share communal income and property, a labor credit system, and a self-sufficient economy. Tours will be available during the conference. The community is off-limits except during tours.
Who we are: This conference is sponsored by two different inter-community organizations. The Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) is a loose organization of almost 100 communities in North America. The FIC publishes the Communities Directory and Communities Magazine (you can order them through Twin Oaks). The Federation of Egalitarian Communities (FEC) is a network of groups which hold their land, labor, and other resources in common and are committed to equality, participatory government, ecology, and non-violence.
Benefit Auction: As one of the conference events, we will be holding a fast-paced, high-energy benefit auction for the Fellowship for Intentional Community, publisher of the Communities Directory. Proceeds will help the FIC continue to bring the exciting news of community to a world hungry for it. You can help in two ways: 1) bring items to donate to the auction-- products, crafts, services that can be delivered locally, a weekend stay for two at your luxurious home... use your imagination! 2) bring your wallet--there will be bargains galore, and every dollar spent will be used to make community that much more accessible to those seeking it.communities conference
Where: We are located near Interstate 64, between Charlottesville and Richmond, VA, 100 miles southwest of Washington, DC. We will send you a map and directions after we receive your registration. If you want to carpool, we will try to match drivers and riders until August 19.
Our gardens are a tremendous mish-mesh of styles right now. We’re constantly experimenting with how we grow things.
Andy has been forming his raised beds by hand with an eye hoe. Tiny variations in the beds are amplified with each iteration, so we have these gorgeous curves. He’s also planning to irrigate minimally.
Andy’s in the background of the picture, using a scuffle hoe on aisles that barely show weeds – the idea is to break up the surface just as the weeds are germinating, so they never even get a chance to get established.
River’s garlic and perennial onions, on the other hand, are in beds formed using the bed-maker implement on our tractor. We mulch them all winter long, with our own straw, to keep the moisture in and the weeds out. With all that mulch, they need to be hand-weeded to control the few weeds that do make it through. In the spring, we pull the mulch off and into the aisles.
Jon’s experimenting with strip tilling and hoeing those strips into hills. I know he wants to write about this so I won’t steal his glory.
I am dumbstruck by the size of these Imperial Star artichoke plants! We're growing them as annuals - these were started very early this spring in the greenhouse, then transplanted out under row cover. Along with cotton, it's one of the few things that's been under row cover this spring.
Andy transplanted out these Purple Hyacinth Beans today. They're an eighteenth century heirloom flower grown by Thomas Jefferson himself, and they can grow 10-20 feet tall.
Our Hanover Kale is beautifully in flower! One of the joys of growing things for seed is getting to enjoy the flowers.
The collards are enormous! With our spring spinach not yet bolted, we're overwhelmed by fresh greens. Tonight we ate sauteed Bull's Blood beet greens with dinner.
It has been a rough couple of weeks, projects have been crashing, i have been struggling with some of my intimate relationships. And a couple of days back when things got bad and i was in the Twin Oaks courtyard i asked myself “Who should i go see? Who will make me feel better?” And i remembered that Willow was with Trout down at the pond fishing. So i toddled down to the pond to find my son, his fishing instructor and a 17.5? wide mouth bass.
Willow Star Falcon with his fish
Trout (who is a member here) informed me that Willow had caught the fish on his very first casting of the day. Apparently, this is not unusual for Willow. While i was there, Willow caught another fish that he knew was too small before he even reeled it out. Trout used the pliers while Willow held it and then threw the happy to be released fish back in or tiny pond.
As therapy for me it worked brilliantly. My son was pleased and proud of his accomplishment. i ran around and got a camera to take a couple of shots. Trout agreed to cook the fish that was served at the community dinner and Willow got to take some of the time he spent catching it as labor credits – which made him doubly happy.
Today is National Train Day. You can earn quadruple Guest Reward points if you can arrange to be on the choo-choo this day. Much as I love the train—and I do—I will happily be at home instead, celebrating Sandhill Farm's 36th anniversary.
Sandwiched delicately between Beltane and Mother's Day, I like to think of it as a bridge party, drawing on both: a) the raucous pagan energy honoring the surging growth of the Earth in spring; and b) the supporting and hearth energy that are the quintessential qualities of mothering. Today, you might say, we're honoring both nature and nurture. Also, we'll be eating and drinking a lot.
Mostly, today is about camaraderie, and suspending our normal routines to indulge in visiting with friends and neighbors (many of whom are both). We expect a crowd of about 60-75, with people coming from as far away as St Louis and Madison. Many will stay the night. Festivities officially begin in the afternoon, with a few semi-organized activities to punctuate the progression of the day: —A Maypole at 3 pm —Potluck feast at 4 pm, preceded by a welcoming circle that will fill the entire side lawn —Contra dance (after digestion has proceeded far enough to no longer inhibit free movement), featuring live music and even livelier calling —Sweat lodge, staring around dusk and continuing in rounds (we can take about 10 at a time) until everyone has had enough or the wood runs out
I’ve been doing a bunch of research lately on electric vehicles to see what might make sense for us at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage for our vehicle co-op. For 12 years we have been focusing on biodiesel and vegetable oil based fuels but things have not always been smooth. The main issues have been related to winter fuel gelling and fuel filters clogging in general. We’ve also never gotten a steady system for collection of used oil and production going, so we have been using biodiesel made from new veggie oil which is only marginally better for the environment than petroleum.
We are now embarking on a major re-evaluation of vehicle technologies for our co-op, with a team researching things like electric vehicles, hybrids, ethanol (including home made, potentially from cellulose), bio-gas, wood-gas, human and animal powered, and any new technologies in the veggie oil world.
My interest in electric vehicles (EVs) has come out of my research into a village-wide electric power co-op with a largish wind turbine to power our whole village. With an abundant source of renewable electricity, EVs could be our most ecological option. There are ecological issues related to batteries of course, but my research shows that EVs are a net benefit over petro based vehicles and on par with other bio-fueled options currently or soon to be available (more on that in a post soon).
This is a report from the 2010 Assembly from Drew Acorn, Enjoy!
My name is Drew Howes, and I live at Acorn Community in central Virginia. I was privileged to be a delegate at the latest FEC Assembly for 2010, held at Emma Goldman Finishing School in Seattle, Washington. This was a wonderful opportunity for me, because I have never visited the Pacific Northwest, or Emma Goldman’s. Seattle is the major city in the region, and is beautifully tucked away on Puget Sound between the Olympic Mountains and the Cascade Range. It is a creative city, a musical Mecca, and home to fantastic attractions like the Space Needle and Pike Place Market. Emma’s is an easy walk to downtown through Chinatown, and sits on Beacon Hill overlooking the striking cityscape. The local area was pleasantly diverse in culture, and I was happy to eat Chinese noodles, Mexican tortas, and Super Bowl bar food within an easy walk of the community. It was also wonderful knowing Emma members were out making a difference in this area, like social working, child activist training, and community gardening.
For today’s blogathon-fundraiser we are trying to power our computer via pedal power but pedaling is certainly not the answer to all of our energy needs. America’s electricity use per capita is over 35 kilowatt-hours per day. If you wanted to supply all that energy via pedal power, each person would need to bike at full speed for 118 hours per day. In other words it would take the entire population of the US and China pedaling 24/7 to generate enough electricity for the current US demands. Or…
Conservation is almost always a key element to meeting our needs in a sustainable way. Before we look at alternative power or fuels it is best to look at reducing our demands. Once we are consuming less, sustainable sources of power are a lot more realistic.
How you can reduce your computer’s power consumption
Your average desktop computer uses between 150 and 300 watts while it is running. Your first step in conserving energy is to turn off your computer when you are not using it or at least make sure that its power management settings are configured to have it sleep or hibernate when it is not in use. It used to be that people worried about wearing out disk drives from turning computers on and off, but that is not really an issue any longer, given modern drive technology and the typical lifespan of a computer these days. This is the most important thing you can do to save power – make sure your computer is sleeping or off when you are not using it.
We’ve been promoting the blog as being Pedal Powered but the company that was supposed to ship us the pedal powered generator never shipped the product! Annoying…
So last night I went into McGyver mode to see if I could come up with some way to power the blog with a bicycle. I had less than 24 hours, so I had to use what was on site or could maybe go to an auto parts store (in the end I didn’t have to). Here’s what I came up with:
First I found an old training stand and mounted my bike on it.
Bike Mounted on Training Stand
Then I found an old cordless drill that I hadn’t used in years because it wouldn’t go in reverse. I hooked up some wires to where the battery would connect and then connected it to the training stand.
Cordless Drill For Bike Generator
Then I found a pocket inverter that would convert 12 Volt Dc to 120 Volt AC and hooked that up to the wires coming from the drill.
Our organic vegetable gardens Do you love to grow organic food?
Do you want to garden with friends and share the fruits of your labor at every meal?
Would you like to experience community life in an off-the-grid, sustainable ecovillage?
If you answer yes to these questions, then you should be interested in this work exchange opportunity.
Come Garden with Us
Skyhouse is looking for an experienced gardener to join us in growing food for our table for the 2010 season. Our ideal person would have some experience in growing organic vegetables and interest in fermentation, dehydrating and canning. We are looking for a gardener from April to November (shorter positions may be available). Ability to work independently and collaboratively a must. We have currently been growing and storing most of our vegetables for our group of approximately 8 and hope to continue that this year.
In exchange for your work in the garden we would provide organic vegan meals, tenting accommodations, and basic expenses. You'd also help out with cooking, cleaning and other rotational chores and could of course join in with other work that interested you (food processing, natural building, etc.)
Skyhouse is a small income-sharing communal group within the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. In many ways you would be joining both communities for the duration of your stay and would be part both of our tight-knit household and our ecologically focused village. While Skyhouse is a small group now we are looking to grow so long-term membership is also an option.
it’s been a few weeks since my last post. we’re still doing old-fashioned mondays, i still have a lot of crafty stuff to do. i still have laundry days and wash my things by hand (my clothes now, too, instead of just my cloth wipes), and we’ve had more snow since early december. here are a few photos from the past weeks.
orange and blue sunset
this beautiful horizon was a nice surprise one evening as i went out back to bring my laundry in before dark. i love the silhoette of trees in the wintertime.
gloves from a cut up old sweater, fixed
i made these fingerless gloves in the winter of 2007 with two then-interns at acorn. we cut up a hole-ridden sweater from commie clothes and used dental floss to make gloves. i knew better than to attempt fingers with cut-up knitting. and now, two years later, the edges were getting awful ragged – and i finally had enough basic knitting skills to just pick up some of the hanging loops to keep it from unraveling further. other places required more creative measures.
i almost forgot! i meant to share a picture of our first snow. it was a lovely day – bad for driving, but great for staying in and sipping hot cocoa. i walked around late the next day to catch a few pictures. it was cold enough that even two days later patches of snow still lingered in the most shaded areas.
i grew up in rural pennsylvania, and really appreciate a good snowfall. i spent my elementary school years making forts in 5-foot snow drifts and sclupting snow turtles, tromping around in snow clothes knowing that Mom was waiting with hot chocolate when i got home. it’s nice to see snow come back to visit this year… i’ve been living in richmond and alabama for the past ten years, and the snow was… not plentiful, there, to say the least. i’m looking forward to hunkering down at acorn for a snowy winter.
here’s the wood pile outside of heartwood – we’re in the midst of a huge re-siding project, and this is the pile waiting to be de-nailed. needless to say, no de-nailing happened that day.
Acorn Community
Founded: 1993
Location: rural Virginia
Population: 16 adults, 3 children A community of work and play, and distributing rare heirloom seed varieties.
East Wind
Founded: 1973
Location: rural Missouri
Population: 65 adults, 11 children Doing things ourselves, individual freedom, stewarding our beautiful land.
Emma Goldman Finishing School
Founded: 1996
Location: urban Seattle
Population: 10 adults A social justice commune in the heart of Seattle.
Sandhill Farm
Founded: 1974
Location: rural Missouri
Pop: 7 adults, 2 children Organic homestead & child-friendly family of friends. Local and regional outreach projects.
Skyhouse
Founded: 1997
Location: rural Missouri
Population: 4 adults, 1 child An income-sharing group within a larger ecovillage, dedicated to sustainability.
Twin Oaks
Founded: 1967
Location: rural Virginia
Population: 90 adults, 13 children A long-term, stable community based on rich culture and diverse economy.
Dirt and Dreams is the E-mail Newsletter of the FEC. Dirt and Dreams will bring to you news about our communities, articles about our values, and clips of our art and culture.