Arcosanti

After leaving the Wind Spirit Community and driving north through spectacular mountain passes with stunning vistas (and ferocious Arizona winds), we spontaneously made our way to the "experimental town" of Arcosanti at the end of a long day of travel.

Despite the fact that visiting hours were over, Mary's intuition led us down the rutted dirt road to the Arcosanti parking lot, where we met a resident who invited us in for dinner at the community cafe. Arcosanti attracts interns and residents from all over the world, and lively conversation in several languages was being enjoyed over a buffet dinner served in the cafe. Our ersatz host sat and chatted with us for some time, and he made it clear that we could certainly camp in the parking lot overnight and go on a tour of the community in the morning.

Arcosanti is indeed an experimental community or "urban laboratory" based on the theories and practices espoused by architect Paolo Soleri. Soleri coined the term "arcology"which combines architecture and ecology in a overall concept of creating livable pedestrian cities that are ecologically sustainable and an antidote to urban and suburban sprawl.

Envisioned to be a small city of 5,000 in the desert north of Phoenix, Arcosanti is currently a village of 75 to 100 people, many of whom are architecture interns who assist in slowly moving the building process forward. Although some doubt that the city of 5,000 will ever reach fruition, it seems that the goal of reaching the capacity for a town/intentional community of 500 is certainly within reach.

Soleri's designs incorporate passive solar, active solar, rainwater catchment, the use of greenhouses for the production of heat and food, and innovative concrete casting techniques.

Soleri believes that cities have been erroneously designed to accommodate the automobile, and his designs all revolve around a pedestrian city landscape using sidewalks, escalators, bike paths, moving sidewalks and elevators to facilitate movement. Buildings are all mixed use so that industrial, commercial, residential, educational and cultural functions can occur in the same areas, decreasing the need for unnecessary "commuting" from one sector to another.

Rather than seeking corporate money or grants, Arcosanti's development is supported by the sale of Soleri's signature world-famous bells and ceramics, as well as fees paid by interns who come to live at Arcosanti to learn various construction, design and artisan techniques. Soleri developed innovative bronze casting and ceramic techniques that are taught at Arcosanti to interns from throughout the world.

Although everyone who lives at Arcosanti works for the community (as an intern or employed resident), the community plans to eventually open itself to those who work outside of the community and simply reside at Arcosanti. It is a very interesting experiment, and we hope that Soleri and Arcosanti are able to propel and further manifest their vision of sustainable community and ecological urban design.

Next stop, Sedona!

A Cowboy Camper

Here's a video interview of Mike McCain, who lives at the City of the Sun community in Columbus, New Mexico. Mike is a progressive inventor and sustainable builder who is committed to creating affordable and versatile shelters for Mexican migrant workers and families.

This particular structure can be built in one day for $250, and can shelter up to three adults and serve as a taco stand or other vending enterprise. Mike is determined to also create affordable, portable an expandable "starter homes" for poor Mexican families that can be easily duplicated and transported to wherever they are needed. He is truly a visionary with a mission that is much needed for our times.

---Mary and Keith

City of the Sun

Luckily for us, we were able to a pay a visit to The City of the Sun intentional community this week while here in Columbus, New Mexico, and a very kind member of the community led us on a wonderful spontaneous bicycle tour of this interesting and creative experiment in cooperative living. Having just stopped by unannounced, we were greeted with interest, enthusiasm and curiosity by our host, and a very mutual positive regard was generated within minutes of our arrival.  

City of the Sun is home to many creative and artistic individuals whose creativity is often reflected in their home design, gardening and decor.

Earthships, papercrete structures and other alternative forms of construction are common at City of the Sun, and we hear that many passersby on the nearby highway stop when they notice the unusual nature of some of the homes visible from the street.

This gentleman, Mike McCain, is an inventor who is locally famous for his innovative building techniques which take into consideration affordability, portability and expandability. He is a humble and brilliant man who truly wishes to help migrant farmworkers and poor Mexican families achieve safe and low-cost housing as a means to a better life. At a later date, we'll post a video demonstration of his portable "Cowboy Cabin" when we have a faster internet connection.

Visiting this community was fun and interesting, and we made a few new friends along the way. Although it's a little hot down here for long-term living, we love the Columbus area and were so grateful for a wonderful and spontaneous tour of City of the Sun, and we wish everyone at CoS a happy and healthy summer!

In Praise of Sunflower River

After less than three years, the members of the Sunflower River Community (see previous post for some photos) have created a small sanctuary of sustainable living right here on the outskirts of Albuquerque, supported by the wider Pagan community and a large circle of friends.

At Sunflower River, people truly walk their talk when it comes to living sustainably and close to the land, and the list is impressive: earth-friendly household products, composting toilets, grey-water recycling, rainwater catchment, composting, organic gardening, and thoughtful reuse and recycling of a wide variety of materials.

Raising chickens for eggs and meat, turkeys for meat, and rabbits for meat and fur, animal husbandry is another set of skills being honed at Sunflower River. Everyone here has participated in the learning curve, and the depth of knowledge being cultivated and expanded is substantial. Just last night, we all returned from a dinner out to find that a neighborhood dog had broken into the hen house, killing six hens and injuring two. We helped as we were able while the residents of Sunflower snapped into action, tending to the injured, searching for the unaccounted for, and then lovingly processing and butchering the dead in an effort to not waste anything that could be eaten or used. Luckily, none of the forty vulnerable and growing chicks were hurt in the fray, but the loss of six hens was indeed substantial.

Observing the Sunflowerians at work is impressive, and their work is informed by manual dexterity, earth-centered spirituality, compassionate communication skills, sharp intuition, and intellectual knowledge on many levels. While everyone is highly literate and skilled in areas like Information Technology, literature and other subjects, book learning and studiousness are only one aspect of the breadth of knowledge at play here. Learning by doing is certainly a fact of life on the land at Sunflower, and everything they do is simply done well.

Sunflower is obviously a very motivated and successful community that is growing intelligently and thoughtfully, with a keen eye on being debt-free, financially solvent, and highly sustainable. We feel like we've made new friends here on the edge of Albuquerque, and we look forward to watching Sunflower ripen and grow into the larger community that it is destined to become.

Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Village

 Today, after a brief visit to downtown Asheville for a delicious vegetarian Reuben and pumpkin spice decaf lattes (we eat out at restaurants or cafes only about once a week on average), we drove up winding mountain roads to the town of Gerton, North Carolina in order to visit the Hickory Nut Forest Eco-Village. We even crossed the Continental Divide on the way up the mountain!

From it's website, Hickory Nut Forest is a project described as "a unique eco-friendly community close to Asheville with plans to combine land conservation, green-built homes, organic gardening and renewable energy from wind, water, sun, and geothermal sources. Here, you can be part of designing a 'net zero energy homes community' that creates more renewable energy than it uses."

Another exciting aspect of Hickory Nut is the creation of a retreat/conference center which sits along a rushing mountain stream on the site of an old grist mill, with a basement yoga room located just alongside the stream. While we were visiting, we were also able to witness how the team is beginning the process of reconstructing several centuries-old log cabins on the site. It is obviously a labor of love, and the timber recovered from the ancient cabins is beautiful and enormous.

 As far as the sites for the homes is concerned, they are magnificent sites along a ridge overlooking the valley below, and the homes themselves will be certified green, using the best low-impact and healthy materials which will be conscientiously sourced. Water conservation, super-insulation, passive and active solar, geothermal and other technologies will also be employed in the building process, and waste water will be recycled using various cutting edge permaculture methods.

 The land surrounding the conference center is lush with tall trees, rhododendron and mountain laurel---a varied forested landscape. Adjacent to the conference center site is an organic orchard and garden which uses permaculture principles and may evolve into a form of community supported agriculture or similar project.

The Hickory Nut model is very captivating because part of our life's vision is to live close to the land in community, and potentially being part of a retreat center is very attractive to us based on a life-long dream of working and living in a retreat atmosphere.

While we are not currently in a position to buy a plot of land and begin the process of building a home in an emerging eco-village, we can see that the community that will emerge at Hickory Nut is one we will be sure to watch as it finds its feet and comes to certain fruition. We wish everyone at Hickory Nut the very best, and we hope to visit again to witness what will certainly be a transformative ripening of the vision behind this community.

Crest Mountain

Due to serendipity or perhaps Jungian synchronicity, we were invited to attend the second meeting regarding the formation of a new ecovillage/cohousing community in the Asheville area known at The Villages at Crest Mountain.

The Villages at Crest Mountain is a "developer-driven" sustainable eco-community that hopes to serve as a model for the entire country. Rather than begin with a group of residents who hash out all of the nitty gritty particulars over a number of years (as is done with most new cohousing neighborhoods), this community is being developed and designed by several developers and consultants with input from residents who are buying into the project. Avoiding the endless committees, subcommittees and interpersonal struggles faced by so many newly forming communities, this particular community is already in motion, and new residents will apparently have ample opportunity to influence design and governance decisions along the way, and decision-making will most likely be made using the techniques of sociocracy. 

Impressively, a permaculture consultant (who also happens to be the founder of Earthaven Ecovillage) has been hired to develop the landscaping, orchards and gardens. Rather than high-maintenance lawns, most areas will consist of low-maintenance edible plants and other flora and fauna that provide either food or natural beauty.

The community will also make use of ultra-energy efficient building techniques, including "hempcrete", a mixture of lime and industrial hemp that offers excellent insulation and high resistance to moisture and mold.

We are very interested to see how Crest Mountain develops, and we plan to keep in touch as we continue our search for community. The Asheville area has a great deal to offer, and some of the smaller units at Crest Mountain may prove to be affordable and attractive for those of modest means like ourselves.

Straw Bale Truth Window at Earthaven

Here's another straw bale "truth window" that was just too cool to not photograph!

Earthaven Ecovillage

We just spent two incredible days at Earthaven Ecovillage, which is located in the lush mountains less than an hour east of Asheville, North Carolina.

In short, our visit to Earthaven Ecovillage was mind-blowing. Earthaven is a veritable model for sustainable living which was founded in 1994, and we could see from the outset of our visit that this is a community that truly walks it’s talk.

Combining earth-friendly, sustainable building techniques and a village design including small clustered neighborhoods, Earthaven demonstrates that people of good will and intention can live close to the land, create systems and buildings that have the lowest possible environmental impact on the earth, and provide a safe haven for those who wish to live out of the mainstream, but nestled in the heart of a thriving community on 320 acres of Blue Ridge mountain forest.

The folks at Earthaven seem to promote and foster earthy and intelligent ingenuity, and a number of cottage industries have achieved relative economic success, including the harvesting of local timber, an organic nursery, and an apprentice program.

This geographic area enjoys four distinct seasons, each of which generally conforms to the equinoxes and solstices, as compared to New England where the winters seem to last for four or five months and the summers are unnaturally brief.  There is generally adequate sun and rainfall, with only a small amount of snow that rarely remains on the ground for more than a few days.

The buildings at Earthaven are built using many sustainable and energy-efficient technologies, including cob construction and straw bale, and every building sports an array of solar panels to harness the sun. There is also one Earthship at Earthaven, a home constructed out of old tires that are filled with dirt and stacked one on top of the other. The spaces in between the tires are then filled with glass bottles and other recycled materials, all of which is then covered with a thick coating of natural stucco. Earthships are very energy efficient due to their thick walls, requiring little in the way of heating during colder weather.

The community has its own “stream-powered” hydro plant that converts the energy of a rushing stream into usable power that is stored in a bank of batteries, further supplemented by a nearby group of solar panels. The energy harnessed from the stream can provide power to several shared buildings, including the trading post/office and a nearby residence where a number of members live.

Relying largely on solar panels and passive solar, the sun plays an important part in Earthaven’s energy needs, although generators are used in extreme circumstances. Only one home at Earthaven has a flush toilet, whereas all of the others rely on composting toilets. On-demand hot water heaters, ultra-efficient washing machines and other state-of-the-art technology further add to Earthaven’s endeavor to have the lowest possible environmental impact.

 

The community grows a great deal of its own food, and several members raise chickens, goats and dairy cows. Grass-fed milk, medicinal plants, honey, eggs and biodynamic vegetables are available, and several root cellars assist in long-term food storage.

Our host, Arjuna, carries a wealth of knowledge about both the community itself and its environmental and building practices, and our two-hour private tour was thorough, thoughtful, personal, and very informative. We were consistently blown away by what we saw and heard, returning to our rig to digest it all over a cup of tea and a snack.

Earthaven considers itself “a living laboratory for the sustainable future”, serving as a model ecovillage, a center for education vis-à-vis communication, economy and ecology, a spiritual sanctuary, and a place to foster what they call a “regenerative culture”. The residents of Earthaven use a local currency, barter for goods and services when possible, and continue to build skills in governance, group process, and healing.

Towards the beginning of our tour, we realized that a beautiful (but small) apartment/condo is currently for sale for less than $25,000 in a gorgeous building near the center of the community, and it is very tempting to consider building a life here at Earthaven. If we were indeed interested, there is an understandably involved and lengthy application process for prospective members. We were also happy to learn that our application for membership could indeed include Tina since there is no quota for the number of dogs in the community, thus she would simply be a part of our family application for residence at Earthaven.

For anyone interested in community, sustainable building, ecological living, or models of living outside of the mainstream, a visit to Earthaven is something not to be missed. We know that there are other ecovillages out there, but Earthaven is the first one into whose orbit we have floated, and we definitely leave feeling entranced. 

 

The Straw Bale "Truth Window"

Straw bale homes, which are built with super-thick walls filled with straw, are eco-friendly and energy efficient, and we were blessed to spend the night in just such a home at the Common Ground intentional community near Lexington, Virginia.

In her infinite wisdom, Mary decided to do a photo essay in order to capture a unique tradition in many straw-bale homes--- the "Truth Window". The Truth Window is a way in which the inner workings of straw bale construction are revealed, allowing visitors to see just what's inside those enormously thick walls. So here is a revealing series of photos by Mary of the "truth window" of the straw bale home where we recently spent the night.

 

 

 

Within Reach

Last night at the Sirius Community in Shutesbury, MA, we had the pleasure of meeting Ryan and Mandy, a spirited and wonderful couple who are "bike-packing" around the United States with the goal of visiting 100 intentional communities, using pedal-power and solar-powered computer equipment. (Randy carries a 20-pound solar panel for charging all of their electronics.)
During the course of the trip, this intrepid and inspiring couple are making a film entitled "Within Reach" about sustainable living in its many forms, and last night we caught a tantalizing glimpse of what that film will eventually become when completed. The film will be a feature-length documentary which will inspire ordinary people to take extraordinary steps vis-a-vis creating a more sustainable world.

Mandy and Ryan are now half-way through their journey, already having bicycled 4,762 miles and having visited 72 communities. Their website is worthy of frequent visits, and you can donate by the mile for $8.33, or simply send a sum of your choosing to support their trip and the making of the film. Within Reach is now registered as a non-profit, so your donations are 100% tax-deductible.

We were incredibly inspired by Mandy and Ryan's presentation at Sirius, and hearing about their adventures and ideas for creating a better world has lit a fire under us as we continue to plan our journey of discovery.

Coming home to our new mobile abode from that lovely evening, we realize that visiting intentional communities, learning about sustainable living, and bringing the gifts of Laughter Yoga and health and wellness coaching to people around the country is something we truly feel passionate about. Please join us in supporting Ryan and Mandy, and bookmark their website so that you can follow their progress as they complete the second half of their incredibly inspiring journey.

---Keith