Transforming Communities

Be They Families, Neighborhoods, Towns or Cities.... or Countries

  Community change consultant Peter Block states the case that

“The essential challenge is to transform the isolation and self-interest within our communities into connectedness and caring for the whole.”

Peter Block's website name should tell you all you need to know about what he represents. His website is titled ABUNDANT COMMUNITY: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods.  

I first came across Peter in an article about building community in international schools. I loved what he had to say, including the above stand-out quote. 

Found an Eagle

Remember that song, "Found A Peanut"?

We were at the tail end of a winter solstice walk

tinged with snow on the ground and lots of cold air - Noah, Ken and Sarah came across an eagle on the ground at Walker Creek. It was frozen, perfect condition. Just the tiniest pin-prick blood spots on its white tail feathers.

What do you do with a dead eagle? Aside from keep your dog away - you are to call the National Eagle Repository.

Before we knew this, Noah was so excited about the eagle's talons: keeping them, tallying how many they were and who of his friends and family would be given one of these incredible power-packed claws. We didn't know what the National Eagle Repository was, or what it did. But Noah was feeling a bit deflated about this foiled eagle talon plans.

Sarah called to report the eagle - and passed on to Noah what she found out. If the bird is in good condition, like ours was, feathers and talons and sometimes the head are given to tribes for use in their ceremonies.

Noah's first words, when he heard the news about how the eagle parts would be used was, "Oh! That makes me feel so much better!" His reaction makes me think - we've taught him well.

From the wise collective of Wiki:

The National Eagle Repository is operated and managed under the Office of Law Enforcement of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service located at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge outside of Denver, Colorado. It serves as central location for the receipt, storage, and distribution of bald and golden eagles that have been found dead. Eagles and eagle parts are available only to Native Americans enrolled in federally recognized tribes for use in religious and cultural ceremonies.

After the legal protection of the bald eagle, Native Americans had no access to feathers and other parts of the birds they need for certain religious and cultural activities. The best known use is in war bonnets and other feathered headdresses. Some continued hunting and considered it legal on reservation grounds as hunting and their cultural self-determination was guaranteed in treaties. In the early 1970s the National Eagle Repository was operated out of Pocatello, Idaho and in the 1980s distribution was out of the USFWS Forensic Lab in Ashland, Oregon. The office collected birds and distributed them further. But the process was slow and the numbers of birds low.

President Bill Clinton signed an executive memorandum on April 29, 1994, after meeting with 300 tribal leaders at the White House. He reformed the National Eagle Repository and obliged all federal agencies to send dead eagles to the repository.^[4] Following this memorandum, in 1995 the repository moved to the Denver area and got its own offices at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.

Former Walker Creeker Publishes Memoir

Congratulations to Joshua Safran, whose forthcoming book Free Spirit: Growing Up on the Road and Off the Grid will be available September 2013 in all the usual places (you know, your local bookstore! support them!) Hyperion, $24.99, (288 p.) ISBN 978-1-4013-2460-5.

Publishers Weekly already has given the book a big fat red star "of note," and a rock solid review. Here's what they have to say:

Raised by a woman (Claudia, never mom, whose quest to flee modern society survived long after hippie idealism became passé), Safran spent the 1970s and 1980s in communes, cabins, and the occasional bus. The author didn’t regularly attend school until he was 11, when his bucolic upbringing made him a target for bullies. Adding to the misery was Claudia’s big heart and idealism, which allowed for a series of bad relationships, culminating in a tumultuous marriage to an alcoholic ex-Salvadoran revolutionary named Leopoldo. The young Safran can only sit helplessly as this sporadically employed thug regularly beats Claudia, apologizes, and starts the cycle anew. As he gets older, Safran recognizes that education is his way out—and that he can confront Leopoldo. Safran, an attorney, has written a beautiful, powerful memoir that shows how a son and his mother both grew up and survived amid chaos. Even better, he recalls events without condemnation or condescension. This assured debut is reminiscent of David Sedaris’s and Augusten Burroughs’s best work: introspective, hilarious, and heartbreaking. B&W photos throughout.

What's Going On

"Humans have a long genetic heritage of belonging to a tribe, a clan, a village, a group. In today’s modern societies, people meet this need in many ways such as church congregations, clubs, extended family, etc. Intentional community is one way to meet some of our human needs as well as benefit economically."

Here here, Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski.

Michael wrote this introduction in a call for people interested in exploring the forming of a permaculture community in northwestern Montana. He also inlcuded an intriguing and informative link to a well-established and thriving permaculture intentional community in Australia, Crystal Waters Ecovillage.

Skeeter was instrumental in founding the Northwest Herbal Fair, which Walker Creek Community helped host at a property adjacent to the land trust.

Here's to amazing people doing amazing things --- together.

Summer in the Garden

Wordle the Turtle

Here is a Wordle created from the text of an essay I wrote on living at Walker Creek. (I love how it randomly created the Wordle in the shape of a footprint. Walking on earth.)

Watch for the essay in an upcoming Communities magazine issue. Meanwhile, read between the lines......!!

We Have Chickens!

Talk over the fences between us 'neighbors' at Walker Creek, if there were any fences, has been about chickens recently.

After a bit of ongoing banter, one community meeting, the transformation of an abandoned sheep shed, and the offer of five free hens -- we Creekers are in doing a happy-egg dance.

The kids named them the minute they met them. "Rootbeer!" and "Sawdust!" for the brown hens, says Noah. Fluffy for the big white one and Cotton for the smaller one. Katey chimes in, "And... Lolipop!" (go figure, her favorite food) is offered up as a name for one of them. Hannon deliberates over the rooster. "I think it should be 'Flame'." I say, how about Lolipop? Hannon grimaces. No way. Later, it gets established. The rooster henceforth shall be named: Flame Sword.

Teresa and Claire are busy turning brown paper egg cartons into custom works of art in gilded tones. Creeker Eggs, coming soon to a fridge near you (if you are so lucky!)

We Have Bees!

Yes, the air is abuzz.... No kiddin'. 36 hives in six tidy stacks of six hives each.

I don't know how many bees that adds up to but I do know that the air sounds significantly different now, tucked into the edge of the trees on the edge of the meadow near the old community center building.

Bruce the beekeeper wanted an area close by to his other hives in the neighborhood -- and we as a community of gardeners and fruit-lovers wanted bees on our land doing their happy pollination dance. And voila, a win-win partnership was won. The bee boxes showed up last week on Bruce's giant flat-bed truck.

The air hums now, and on certain days, the hum is a cloud surrounding you everywhere you go near the greenhouse. Observing if this 'fruit year' in our orchards are any different will be interesting.

Tree-mersion

An April 2012 New York Times article touts the benefits of trees, and recent scary mass-deaths of trees across the globe. More positively, it mentions something I've never heard of -- forest bathing.

In Japan, researchers have long studied what they call “forest bathing.” A walk in the woods, they say, reduces the level of stress chemicals in the body and increases natural killer cells in the immune system, which fight tumors and viruses. Studies in inner cities show that anxiety, depression and even crime are lower in a landscaped environment. Trees also release vast clouds of beneficial chemicals. On a large scale, some of these aerosols appear to help regulate the climate; others are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral. We need to learn much more about the role these chemicals play in nature. One of these substances, taxane, from the Pacific yew tree, has become a powerful treatment for breast and other cancers. Aspirin’s active ingredient comes from willows.

I wanted to title this post "Forest Bathing" but realized it might sound too much like a bunch of dirty hippies taking baths in the woods. Tree-mersion feels like... what I feel... living here.

The concept of "forest bathing" helps me understand why I might have adjusted so quickly to living at Walker Creek. I couldn't believe, after four decades of mostly big-city existence, how deeply I felt at peace living here. Like, we're talking, in the space of about two weeks. And in the face of the depths of a Western Washington winter (our family finally moved to our forest home completely on October 1, 2011). It is truly amazing to live at Walker Creek. Thank you, woods, for the daily forest bath.

Easter Warmth, in 3D

Okay, the 3D lure was just to get you to see the movie.

So, the clip is merely a 360 degree glimpse of Easter 2012 at Walker Creek... and it comes with a warning: you may have to tilt your head to the side as the camera spins around in a circle. By clicking the link, you agree to assume all responsibility for dizziness and/or warm fuzzy feelings that you may experience.

Filmmaker's note: Prior to all this merrymaking and munching, nearly 20 dozen eggs were hidden and discovered in the meadow/orchard during the Children's Egg Hunt. And several Golden Eggs along with chocolate ones in the Adult Egg Hunt (aka $$$$$$$). Thank you: sun, friends, family! With much gratitude for simple pleasures.

Cherry Tree House

One day, that being today, you wander into the orchard with your two kids. Someone has told you there was "a suprise" for the kids there...

Behold - the beginnings of a magical tree house in the cherry tree.

I see many hours of deliriously happy children sitting in this tree..... Thank you! To the visionaries - and the do-ers - in our sweet community.

A Pattern Language of Natural Homes

These natural home concepts make me drool.
They are from A Pattern Language.



A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander, is a collection of 253 ideas that can make your living environment a pleasure. Mouse over the pictures to see which pattern the picture illustrates and click to see the picture on their facebook page to follow links to the house from where the picture came.

It will lead you to a paragraph, like this one: Pattern No.199, which is essential to my well being in the dark and gloomy kitchen of the Sunshine House (no pun intended).

Pattern No. 199: ‘Sunny Counter’. Dark and gloomy kitchens are depressing. The kitchen needs sunlight more than any other room. If you can, place the main part of the kitchen counter on the south side of the kitchen with a big wide window so that the sun can reach in to flood the kitchen with light. This is the kitchen at Deacon Vale Farm on Mayne Island, Canada which was built by Cob Works in 2005.

Looking for Leprechauns

Ken was clearing one of the areas in the back orchard after a major pruning push with Miyabi (hurray, blueberry bushes!) and uncovered this gorgeous moss mountain. He called the kids to come take a look.

The magic of Saint Patrick's day and tiny forest creatures takes hold.

Kids Movie Night at The Abbey

Who knew I'd like the sound of these words so much: "Kids movie night tonight at our house! Parents optional..."

Thanks, V and DJ for the spontaneous dark-night-of-winter-in-the-woods warmth, inclusion, and thoughtfulness. Gotta love your fellow communitarian neighbors looking out for your well-being in the form of a night off. Life is good.

PS How To Tame Your Dragon is good, too. The kids definitely thought so ("kids" being loosely defined - see photo)

Solstice Glows Orange

like a salmonberry...

Sometimes, when the sun doesn't shine, you have to look extra hard for beauty. This means slowing down, changing your definitions, altering your expectations. And when you look through this lens, you'll always find it. Beauty.

Happy Summer Solstice, Walker Creek. Liquid sunshine, golden berries, glowing children.

[P.S. Much as it may appear, the sun did actually shine on the actual Solstice. M & I watched a gaggle of nine children, who had a heavenly time playing outside together in the Meadow, and later our family played at the creek near the watering hole - the air felt just warm enough that I plunged into the deep part of the cool creek. And came out renewed.]

May Day "Party"

Hurray for Community Work Parties!

R&L were busy putting up our gorgeous new signs (thanks T for her work and artistry); while V&K were wrangling with the mower, that pesky mower we so need as our spring grass rapunzels; and the rest of us Hit The Road!

Our group of eight (four big people, four little people) filled four giant trashbags with roadside litter, along one of the most gorgeous stretches of Walker Valley Road.

Hurray for litter-free lands! Hurray for Walker Creek Community!

Skookumuke Meeting at the Abbey

Skookumuke, Skagit's first ever that I'm aware of ukulele group met on a very snowy day in March.  We are up to over 8 chords thank you very much and busting out Dylan, Old Time Religion and several gospel songs.  We don't sing well, play a little worse than we sing and just have a great time.  Anyone wants to join, let us know.

Dandelion Fritters: Befriend an Enemy

Who knew dandelions could be so beautiful?

People fight them and are vexed by them - so hard to pull out of the ground they are. Dent de lion. Tooth of the lion. Dandelion. Damn hard to pull out of the ground they are.

So today I took Katie out to the center, the meadow, with a woven basket with a handle and we filled it up with dandelion blossoms. Just the bright yellow pompomed tops, all fluffy and ready to cheer.

We mixed up a cup of flour with a cup of milk, added and egg and voila. Goop in which to dip them and fry them up in a pan. One side. Then the other. Comfort food. Gooey center, egg-y soft sponge exterior - sprinkled with powdered sugar, dipped in sryup, or hot sesame oil if you prefer the savory. The spicy seed oil won over with the adults.

How fun to make friends with an enemy. Or, more a stranger you've seen around and never really stopped to say hi - to talk to - to discover. What!? We can eat dandelion treats? Make dandelion wine? Make dandelion greens salad? Dry dandelion root for tea? I mean, really, how cool is that. Why fight them in our fields of green. Just go pick them.

A member of our sister community, Bianca Raffety, does the same befriending techninque with a yoga pose. A pose that has vexed her, eluded her, called to her in its challenge - she embraces for a year. Takes that sucker on. Gives it a big ole hug, every day, when some days you might want to punch it in the gut. She untangles its reason for calling to her, through diligent effort every day. This year, Hanuman.

Today, I felt as if I made friends with a maligned stranger - saw him in a different light. These flowers we poison and chop and bludgeon and hack. These roots that we pull and break off and curse. These wild yellow pompoms - I can eat them in gooey delight. [hello, Dandelion Blossom Fritters]

Remember to Stop -- and Fire Up the Sauna

Ceaseless dripping from the sky, lake-finding adventure through soggy field, warm bath, hot soup. Fire dries clothes. Rest. Listen to ceaseless dripping from the sky.

Wood sauna? asks Ken. Yes. Forge creek. Ice cold rushing water. Heavy with silt, thick with rain. Katie contemplates new green on brown twig (salmonberry). Hello, Hot sauna. Ceaseless hissing from steam, dripping from heat. Cool off. Cedar umbrella in the green.

How can we not remember to stop -- and fire up the sauna -- on a wet soggy heavy-with-gray day. Like today.

Thank you to Ken, who leads the pack on how to stop and smell the flowers.

All work and no play makes Walker Creek a dull boy.

***** soggy photos from April not available ;) **** sauna and cedar bridge are from our winter 2010 gift of snow ***

Chickens in the Greenhouse?

Joe calls. I answer the phone. Instead of starting with "Hi" I say, "Chickens in the green house!??!"

He has no idea what I'm talking about. He thinks I'm merely being weirdly obtusely random. I am not. There are, indeed, chickens in the greenhouse. And I figured everyone knew why they were there but me. Turns out Joe has no idea either, about why there'd be chickens in the greenhouse and who put them there.

But he has a pretty good guess. It goes along the lines of T. or M., borrowed chickens, maybe to eat bugs. Ding ding ding ding! That's right! Miyabi borrowed four chickens from our neighbor Lenda, how funny is that. Can I borrow a cup of sugar, no wait, four chickens for a few days?

Last year, these pesky little pill bugs invaded our greenhouse soil - and ate way too many of our beautiful plant starts. All growing season long. Let's hear it for chickens in the greenhouse. May they have eaten their fill of those little pills.

PS It might be much more effective to show a photo with chickens actually in it. Ah well. Here's a glimpse of our winter greenhouse, post-chicken-slumber-party-pill-bug-buffet fest. Nary a pill bug in sight, right?!