It's hard to believe that it's been almost 10 years since we moved into Heartwood Cohousing and our dream of life in community became a reality.  In those 10 years Heartwood has developed into quite an amazing little village.  Our relationships have deepened immensely, the children are thriving, our ability to make wise decisions together and resolve conflicts continues to improve, the gardens and landscaping are flourishing, and I think it's safe to say that we've all grown individually as a result of living together in community.  We are living the dream.

I don't know if it's the times that we live in or the reputation that Heartwood has developed, but inquiries about Heartwood and visits by prospective members are at an all time high.  

If you're interested in realizing your dream of living in community, Heartwood's Phase 2 might be a great opportunity for you.  I'd suggest you check out our extensive website (www.heartwoodcohousing.com)where details on reserving a place in phase to can be found. And maybe schedule a visit if it's been a while since you've visited.  We've really grown and evolved.  I've also set up an email chat just for people interested in Phase 2.  To join, send a blank email to:  HWP2-subscribe@googlegroups.com.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email or call (970-884-2196).  Note that I will be at the national cohousing conference in Seattle from June 20 - 29 so if you try to get ahold of me during that time, it will take me a while to get back to you.  Unless of course, you're at the conference, in which case, please make a point of connecting with me there.

I'm looking forward to co-creating Heartwood Phase 2 with you.

Yours in Community,

Mac

-- 

Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing

Southwest Colorado

http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com

Heartwood Cohousing in Top 10

Heartwood Cohousing has been selected at one of Natural Home Magazines top 10 Green communities. How Cool!

Here's some of their list.

Common area includes guest rooms, laundry and exercise rooms, library, game room, kitchen and dining room.
■ Solar-powered pump and gravity-fed water system move irrigation water to landscaping around homes.
■ Residents grow food and raise animals.
■ Two natural gas wells
■ All community and private homes are Energy Star-qualified.
■ Straw-bale workshop uses sustainable lumber.
■ Pathways and roads increase water permeability.

http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/People-and-Places/Natural-Home-Top-10-Green-Cohousing-Developments.aspx

Heartwood Food Sustainability

Several of Heartwood's members are working on building out the food sustainability of the neighborhood. While this video is not about us, it is a great video showing what is possible.

Garden Common Meal at Heartwood Cohousing

Bevan and Mimi have spearheaded a push to have food grown on site here and recently celebrated a successful start to that effort. They hosted a common meal that included locally grown food from Heartwood and LaBoca Ranch.




Great weather and a great meal.

And Tennis Lessons too

After some delay... (Cough Cough)

The Tennis court is now up and running. Recently we have had some Tennis Lessons start for the kids. I stopped today and took a couple of shots for all to see.

Passing Thunderstorm with Rainbow at Heartwood Cohousing

Just last week we had a passing thunderstorm to the south of us. It created this beautiful Rainbow that I was able to catch from my front deck.

It is "Monsoon" season here. That basically means that we have bright sunny morning (often cool and crisp). Then it warms through the day and there is then a chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon.

Massive Work Party day at Heartwood Cohousing

Was this one of the biggest work parties we've had? Don't know, but it was big.

We

• Cleared huge amounts of Oak Brush
• Pulled 100 year old Barbed wire
• Replaced Irrigation Pipe
• Cleaned the Common House
• Seeded some of the pasture and
  
• Fixed fence

On top of it all we had breakfast prepared by another resident and lunch was a hoot too.

Reseeding the Heartwood Cohousing Pasture

Lots of work going on down in the pasture. More to come on that as we just had a HUGE work day that was a blast. Food, Fun and work.

Back to the Pasture. One of the big projects we are working on is reseeding large sections of the pasture. Right now we have a group of people working several hours a week getting the field turned over so it will be ready for the seed. This is part of our 5 year plan to get the pastures up to our standards.

A Different Kind of Neighborhood.

This from someone who lives here at Heartwood Cohousing.

It occurred to me the other day just how much interaction I have with
my neighbors that I usually take for granted. Here is how my day
went. Could this happen in any other sort of neighborhood?

It was snowing-again.

Our car is no good in the snow and I needed to get to Durango.

I asked to borrow Ted and Martha's little four wheel drive car.

First I used it to take 2 of my kids and kids from 2 other families to
school.

While this went on Beth was taking Hugo to the high school for me and

Teresa was taking Al to the elementary school.

While I was in Durango I dropped off the cardboard recycling that was
in the back of the Pasternack's car.

After my time in Durango I picked up the same kids I took.

Beth brought Hugo home and Teresa brought Al home.

I headed over to the common house to help Sondra with the meal because
the other cook was sick. She already had help from Aurora and Sue so
I went home.

On the way home Aurora stopped me to give me some homemade soup
because I casually mentioned I didn't feel well.

I went home and ate that, felt better and then went to a fabulous

common meal that was cooked and cleaned up by more of my neighbors.
If you ask me the give and take that happened in that one typical day
is utterly amazing.

Thank you to everyone who lives here and contributes to my life
everyday in a thousand small but significant ways.

Love,
Sandy

Heartwood Cohousing Greenhouse pictures

Exterior of the Greenhouse





Here are some photos of the Heartwood CoHousing greenhouse. We have a bunch of starts that are in or are "starting" to go in. I'm going to try to get over there and show the progress of the starts /seedlings and then when we begin planting the garden I'll get photos of that as well.

I think Many of these starts are destined for LaBoca.

Common Meal and Visitors

We had our usual Wednesday common meal tonight. Yum....Fajitas



Visitors included Raines from www.CohousingCoach.com and the Lippers (Who also helped cook).. Way to go.



Following the meal the kids played a game in the main room.



And we don't want to leave out Jeff, and remember that there is "some" work to be done. He did a bunch of the cleaning. Thanks Jeff...

A Cohousing Community Moment

This from one of our members...

I just gotta share this "community moment" with you all. . .

Yesterday, when we came back from Bayfield, we noticed that llamas were still stuck up at the top of their pasture, even though Barry had just put out hay in their corral. They were obviously agitated and upset, but seemed unable to get down to the corral though the snow.

So Jack climbed into the corral, and then proceeded to "drag" a path with his legs (snow up to his waist) all the way up to the top of the pasture where the llamas were stuck.

It took him more than 20 minutes- pretty grueling work-out. Then when he got to the llamas and encouraged them down the path he had made, they still wouldn't move. So he then turned and walked them all the way down to the corral.

I realized belatedly what a wonderful picture this would have made- Jack with 5 llamas following on his heel- and didn't get back with the camera in time. So I am sending you all this mental picture of what it means to care. . .

Super Bowl Party at Barry's

Unfortunately my Patriots couldn't finish the season with a Super Bowl win. I will not hold that against them. They had a great season.

We all gathered at Barrys' and did kind of a potluck snack thing. We all had a great time and it was a Great Game. Lots of ups and downs for sure. So Congrat's to the NY Giants.

Snow and Cohousing

Boy did we get another big snowstorm overnight. It is still snowing too. Over night we got at least another 12 inches of snow. This is unusual for us.

But everyone pitched in and cleared away parts of the community. We had people

• shoveling walkways to the common house and the hottub,
• operating the tractor to clear the parking lots and walkways,
• using a snowblower to clear paths,

Later we're going to the sledding hill for a bonfire and fun. I will hopefully get some pics up of that too.

Electrifying experience

So last night around 10pm I headed out to the hot tub. Mac was there and we got to talking about a bunch of things, but he mentioned that this snow we've been having is perfect for rolling in. (Nice powder). So I'm thinking, you mean I'm supposed to sit in this hot tub all comfortable (while it's like 20 degrees outside) and then get out and roll in the snow?

Yes was his answer.

So I did.

You're allowed to get back in the hot tub. In fact it is recommended. :)

Definitely invigorating. Almost Electric.

Heartwood's Christmas Posada 2007

Christmas Eve we had a 3 house Posada with Hors d'œuvres (That's hard to spell) served at Eric and Laurie's and then over to Sue and Dave's for Soup and the main course and then over to Liz's for deserts and coffee.

Lots of smiles and laughter. The food was great. And of course...Pictures here to follow.
At Eric and Laurie's:





Nicely Done Kelly!!!




At Sue and Dave's:







At Liz's:

Cohousing Movie

I got an email today telling me about this movie/documentary on cohousing. It's basically a cohousing video. It looks to me like it was filmed in Europe. This video was NOT filmed at heartwood cohousing here in Colorado. Thought is was interesting though.



Here is the email I received

Hi, we just published a documentary on the cohousing phenomenon. It won an award at the 34th Ekotopfilm festival 2007 and was designed to show what is cohousing “from within” as a complement to the existing books.
The trailer can be watched at http://notsocrazy.net/video.html
Enjoy!
Matthieu
Director of “Voices of Cohousing”

Holiday Party

Sunday we had a holiday party here at heartwood cohousing. This is an annual event and it starts off with people performing songs and playing musical instruments. Many of the kids here took voice lessons every Wednesday after school. So we had a parade of songs both group and individual.

We also had songs played on the Piano and Violin by a couple of the kids as well.

Then ( and not necessarily in this order) some of the adults with talent got up and played songs on the guitar and piano topped off with a performance by a group of three guys here who got together and played the violin, guitar and flute.

You think we're done yet? Nope. The evening went on to include a sing-a-long that just wandered through a dozen or more christmas carols. Does anyone really know the words to the "Twelve days of Christmas"