It's Sunday and I no longer live at O.U.R. Ecovillage.
So this blog- created with an intention to tell the story from "inside" , doesn't quite fit anymore.
To those of you who are followers : Thank you for your interest and I invite you to follow me through the blog on my website .
You can stay in touch with happenings at the ecovillage on www.ourecovillage.org where weekly blog postings keep you posted.
I look forward to completing my season at OUR and to new beginnings- travel to Europe and Africa and the new connections this will bring.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Planning a Natural Building Colloquium
Four months have gone by- here its been a time focused on the "Protect O.U.R.Ecovillage forever" campaign, while I was on the other side of the planet working with villagers and volunteers in Tanzania.
And as the days are getting longer and sunny afternoons beckon us to go out and rake the front yard we are making plans to host one of our favorite events: the Natural Building Colloquium; mark your Calendar for May 19-22, 2011 .
If you've been around the natural building movement you will have heard of these gatherings: people come together as community- to re-kindle their spirits, spend time catching up with each other and to integrate new members into the movement.
It's fairly informal, warm, exciting, inspiring. We listen to each others stories of successes and experimentation, see images of work, try out a new technique and go for walks with old and new friends.
Many of us still remember the last time we hosted the colloquium here: we had so much fun dancing to the music of Marimba Muzuva that the next day all of us walked around a little stiffer. So here's our promise: we'll have another dance - will you come and join?
And as the days are getting longer and sunny afternoons beckon us to go out and rake the front yard we are making plans to host one of our favorite events: the Natural Building Colloquium; mark your Calendar for May 19-22, 2011 .
If you've been around the natural building movement you will have heard of these gatherings: people come together as community- to re-kindle their spirits, spend time catching up with each other and to integrate new members into the movement.
It's fairly informal, warm, exciting, inspiring. We listen to each others stories of successes and experimentation, see images of work, try out a new technique and go for walks with old and new friends.
Many of us still remember the last time we hosted the colloquium here: we had so much fun dancing to the music of Marimba Muzuva that the next day all of us walked around a little stiffer. So here's our promise: we'll have another dance - will you come and join?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Winterizing
We had a first light frost on the ground with a half moon in a clear night sky. Yes it's getting colder and time to move the kitchen indoors.
Today was picked as the moving day and everybody jumped in. Wheelbarrow loads of stuff was taken out of the cupboards and fridges and is now in its new location for the cold months. Marisa orchestrated and many hands made the work light. And still it took all day.
At the end of the day dinner was served indoors!
A few more interns finished on Friday and have moved on. The place feels empty and quiet. Our winter population will count around 20.
There's lots more to do to be ready for winter: the garden will be put to bed, firwood moved closer to the buildings, water shut off to outdoor showers.
Meanwhile I am preparing for a trip to Africa- 10 days from now I'll be on my way. And Sundays at O.U.R. Ecovillage will resume in February.
Today was picked as the moving day and everybody jumped in. Wheelbarrow loads of stuff was taken out of the cupboards and fridges and is now in its new location for the cold months. Marisa orchestrated and many hands made the work light. And still it took all day.
At the end of the day dinner was served indoors!
A few more interns finished on Friday and have moved on. The place feels empty and quiet. Our winter population will count around 20.
There's lots more to do to be ready for winter: the garden will be put to bed, firwood moved closer to the buildings, water shut off to outdoor showers.
Meanwhile I am preparing for a trip to Africa- 10 days from now I'll be on my way. And Sundays at O.U.R. Ecovillage will resume in February.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Thanksgiving weekend
Yes, it's been a long while since I last actually sat down on a Sunday to write.
It is somewhat symptomatic for how the season takes off here at the Village, leaving hardly a weekend to sit back and reflect.
So here it is Thanksgiving weekend and we are taking three days off. Days off look different for everyone. In my case it looked like this:
Sleeping in was definitely on my list. Followed by "unscheduled time to do whatever I felt moved to do". That translated into doing some browncoat plaster in the bathhouse and cleaning out the gutter of the Art Studio.
A drive to the open water near Sooke at French Beach was a wonderful break. There's just something about sitting by the ocean and listening to the pulse of the surf.
A visit with friends also felt good and was long overdue.
So think about what time off means to you and how do you make it happen?
It is somewhat symptomatic for how the season takes off here at the Village, leaving hardly a weekend to sit back and reflect.
So here it is Thanksgiving weekend and we are taking three days off. Days off look different for everyone. In my case it looked like this:
Sleeping in was definitely on my list. Followed by "unscheduled time to do whatever I felt moved to do". That translated into doing some browncoat plaster in the bathhouse and cleaning out the gutter of the Art Studio.
A drive to the open water near Sooke at French Beach was a wonderful break. There's just something about sitting by the ocean and listening to the pulse of the surf.
A visit with friends also felt good and was long overdue.
So think about what time off means to you and how do you make it happen?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Mid Summer riches
Summertime for a builder is high season at work. For many of us, however, summertime means time to travel, have a holiday, spend time at the beach with kids and so on. It is festival season, too, and around here one could make attending festivals a full-time occupation at this time of year.
I'm experiencing the cross-over of all these here at the village, and especially over the past couple of weeks.
We've had some fun times with our "Taste of Cob" running at the same time as a kids camp. Children as young as four learned to mix up clay, sand and straw into the material for sculpture, wall or bench.
Led by natural building interns, participants young and old happily danced in the mud, flipped tarps, spread clay slip onto dry cob and pushed it all together with their newly discovered thumb power.
At the same time Robert Laporte from Econest guided the Skillbuilders, continuing Natural Building Interns and visiting econest interns in a tour de force effort on erecting the second floor of Taj 2. We applaud everyone in that workshop for their determination and hard work.
And then a few days later its all done- the Skillbuilder program that is- 9 weeks of learning and living together, struggling with the challenges of group dynamics, feeling the highs and lows of community life, of creating a new self perhaps or a new vision for one-self. And the question arises: what now? How do we take the learning and integrate the experience.
And for me the question is up: How will we create next year's program- what do we keep and what do we change? Every group is different and amazing. Our learning is ongoing as well as O.U.R.Ecovillage takes on this role of demonstration and education site more fully every year.
But as much as something is finished- we're only in mid summer and so much more is coming up. So this weekend at the Duncan Folk Festival marks a welcome break for me with music and community connections.
And tomorrow is Monday and we'll start with a check-in at 8 am in the Chillage.
I'm experiencing the cross-over of all these here at the village, and especially over the past couple of weeks.
We've had some fun times with our "Taste of Cob" running at the same time as a kids camp. Children as young as four learned to mix up clay, sand and straw into the material for sculpture, wall or bench.
Led by natural building interns, participants young and old happily danced in the mud, flipped tarps, spread clay slip onto dry cob and pushed it all together with their newly discovered thumb power.
At the same time Robert Laporte from Econest guided the Skillbuilders, continuing Natural Building Interns and visiting econest interns in a tour de force effort on erecting the second floor of Taj 2. We applaud everyone in that workshop for their determination and hard work.
And then a few days later its all done- the Skillbuilder program that is- 9 weeks of learning and living together, struggling with the challenges of group dynamics, feeling the highs and lows of community life, of creating a new self perhaps or a new vision for one-self. And the question arises: what now? How do we take the learning and integrate the experience.
And for me the question is up: How will we create next year's program- what do we keep and what do we change? Every group is different and amazing. Our learning is ongoing as well as O.U.R.Ecovillage takes on this role of demonstration and education site more fully every year.
But as much as something is finished- we're only in mid summer and so much more is coming up. So this weekend at the Duncan Folk Festival marks a welcome break for me with music and community connections.
And tomorrow is Monday and we'll start with a check-in at 8 am in the Chillage.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Festival weekend!
"Have you heard about us before? " this was the opening line for many conversations over the course of the Organic Islands Festival on the weekend. Cassandra (in the picture) and many of our interns spent their weekend time networking and introducing O.U.R. Ecovillage to curious visitors of our booth.
We shared our ideas around natural building and food production, explained about zoning issues and ecovillage development, and made new connections in the community.
Our display showed ideas like "Lasagna gardening", Seed balls, natural plaster samples and ingredients and offered a natural building "peep show" in a dome made to look like a cob oven.
While many were anxiously following the final game of the soccer world cup, Brandy facilitated a panel on Green building and sustainable development with Guests Doug Makaroff of Living Forest communities, John Gower, JC Scott, Gord Baird from Eco-sense and me, representing O.U.R. Ecovillage and my own design company "houses that love you back".
The panel offered diverse approaches to reducing our carbon footprint from a building perspective. Alternative systems, woodland preservation, sustainable harvesting of lumber, natural building and the idea of the 100 Mile house were presented in short presentations by each of us and then questions from the crowd fielded. A juicy topic like this is hard to fit into a forum like this, so I invite you all to look for "Building as if People mattered" a one day conference in the Spring of 2011!
All in all we had a good time and feel in good company among the many businesses and producers of "organic everything" .
Join us this week for a "Taste of Cob" on Thursday or Friday : cobbing fun for the whole family.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Cob in the Village
Remember that tune: "It's a cool , cool summer...." ? Ok...it's not cool but cruel in the original version but everybody got the tune anyway, right?
Well it still comes up in my head when I think about last week's "Cob in the Village" workshop.
A joyful bunch of people got together and learned to build with cob.
With Summer being hesitant to say the least (thus the tune) we spent the week creating the Bath house at the Art Studio: a two room building that will have a bucket compost toilet in one space and a shower and sink in the other. On the exterior is another sink serving the toilet and anyone needing a handwash.
All Waste water will be directed by underground piping to the berry bushes on the slope below the building. A solar water heater will provide hot water in summer and a propane heater serves in colder months.
During our time together we talked about tips and techniques around cob, foundations, roofs, finishing and design ideas.
I watched how everyone gained such confidence in working with the material in just a few days and feel reassured about the empowering quality of this way of building.
And then there was another altered disco tune: "It's raining cob, haleluja, it's raining cob..."
With that I invite you to have a look at the slideshow:
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