Our journey with each other
For the past three weeks I have been out of touch, and for that I am sorry. The first two weeks were at Whole Village, an ecovillage in Ontario. The past week I was at a stateside retreat.
There has been much growing, much seeding, and there is fruit coming to bear as well.
I am in the process of getting social media back up and percolating through it’s various membranes. Some will take longer than others.
Thank you for your patience with me as I return to your world.
In September of 2017, the Buller family visited Whole Village near Caledon, Ontario. I had originally read about it in Finding Community, but hadn’t looked too closely. It came up again when we started googling for other communities in Canada.
This time upon looking closer, the family was very interested. We visited during the community’s September 2017 orientation. We arrived a day beforehand, staying in one of their AirBnBs. In the meantime, before the orientation, we checked out Orangeville and St. Jacobs. We find this area of Ontario just gorgeous. It’s so very different from the Great Plains that both Julia and I have grown up on.
Whole Village is a community with well over a decade of establishment. Their intake process is graduated, and membership has a number of different tiers. For ten dollars a month we became Supporting Members, and are subscribed to their meeting minutes so we can start getting an idea of what is talked about in their meetings.
A lot of thought had been given to this, and I am a fan of intake procedures. A great reason why intake procedures are a good thing is when potential members ask weird questions and current members get a feeling of this person being clingy and high maintenance. An intake procedure screens people and doesn’t destabilize a carefully cultivated equilibrium in a community.
John Gagnon conducted the orientation, giving us a good idea of the community policies, why they do what they do, and their plans for the future. The fact there was an orientation was a plus for me. Seeing the community take steps to bring ecovillage aspirants up to speed is important to me, as it gets people onto the same page as the community quicker, staving off potential conflict. This is particularly helpful if people are visiting and want to get an idea of what the community is all about.
Another feature my family really appreciates is the residential building, also known as ‘Greenhaven’. With about 20,000 square feet subdivided into eleven different suites with anywhere from one to five bedrooms per suite, it affords a great balance between having our own space and shared space. Suites are spread out in multiple wings, and because it’s horizontal development, it doesn’t feel like an apartment either. Laundry is shared, and we don’t have to go outside for it. There is a playroom for kids right next to the kitchen, as well as a play area outside. There is also an office near the kitchen. The dining space is the size of a double-sized yoga room, and there is a separate library. This sort of arrangement changes the carbon footprint of multiple families, severely negating the expenditure. It’s a great blend of the dormitory-style housing found in Twin Oaks and the individual housing of say, Northern Sun Farm.
The big thing about the suites is that there are no ranges for a full stove, rather each has a kitchenette. The builders had to keep it to just one shared kitchen due to zoning restrictions. Already Julia is working out ways of cooking and baking without a full stove and oven. Electric induction elements are one option, and are about $80 at Costco. Tabletop convection ovens are also available for about $150 at Costco. The community runs a CSA farm, and residents buy shares, so there is always organic vegetables to eat.
There are shared meals during the week, giving community members the opportunity to get to know each other. The community asks for 5 to 8 hours of work a week, which is unpaid but includes things like building maintenance, gardening or other responsibilities of home ownership. As a current homeowner, this is exactly the kind of arrangement that I like, as it lets me do work that is appreciated by my neighborhood and benefits more than just me and my family. I’m at a place in my life where I’d rather my work go directly towards my community. Win-win, right?
In addition to Greenhaven is the original farm house where more people stay, as well as campers where people have their own space too.
The property was designed in the beginning by a Masters of Landscape Architecture with permaculture in mind, which is also pretty cool. It gives the layout a very organic feel. The community runs permaculture design courses on their land, which is not only a great method of living their ecological values in the world, but a potential revenue stream for them. A swimming hole can also be found on the property, as well as a fire pit. The land was beautiful and felt spacious, despite having a large facility like Greenhaven on it.
The September visit was a great time for the family, and we are headed there again on April 22, 2018. We will be there for a two week immersion, discovering more about Whole Village, the people that live there, and what life is like for them. I will post another write-up after we get back.
(Edited 4/19/2018 10:43 PM)
View the photo gallery on ecovillages.ca here:
http://www.ecovillages.ca/2018/04/19/whole-village-on…o-september-2017/
As far as my views and beliefs of the world, let’s start with that proverbial glass of water. Most people like to look at a glass of water from the side. It limits you to only two perceptions; half full or half empty. If you look at it from the top, it’s likely a round circle with the surface of the water visible. If the water is clear, you’ll see a diffracted bottom. You can tell water is there, but actual level is debatable. It may even appear full. If you look at it from the bottom looking up, you may not see very far at all, vision will be hindered by the bottom.
It’s a matter of perspective. That glass is full as far as I’m concerned.
An oldie from my April 12, 2007 entry on LiveJournal. Seems oddly relevant for today.
Right now the Mystery Machine is stuck between two pairs of tracks. The first, is a runaway president. It’s horn is loud, scary and we can’t tell if it’s a freight train or a caboose, but there’s lots of smoke and definitely oil cars. The second–and this is one in the distance–is one of climate change, the smoke from the first obscuring some of it, but we can begin to make out a long freight train approaching.
The Mystery Machine doesn’t start, and it’s not going to. These old vans moves verrrry slowly on their own. However, you can’t just leave the van and run, because unfortunately, it’s our reality. We don’t have a backup plan, yet.
What’s the choice people are forgetting in their panic? To get out of the Mystery Machine and push.
An oldie from my July 17, 2007 entry on LiveJournal.
If a vortiquat falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, did it really fall?
Well, you have to know what a vortiquat is before you can determine what happens when it falls and what–if any–sound occurs. So without an understood symbol for the frame of reference, it’s just abstraction.
If a video camera with a microphone records a tree falling in the forest, it still falls and makes noise. If a video camera with a microphone records a vortiquat falling in the forest, it’s still abstraction because there’s no symbol in consciousness for reference. Whoever views the tape will see and hear the tree, but the flexibility of their consciousness will determine whether or not they can sense the vortiquat.
Arthur asked a big question last night. ‘Who is God?’ I smiled and said that’s a great question and a really big question too.
I also suggested that maybe the question isn’t ‘Who is God?’, but ‘What is God?’. Now, instead of trying to personalize it into a small human relation, it can be kept more conceptual. This is where I said almost the same thing I said to my oldest son when he was about 9, many years ago.
“Son, God is everything. God creates everything. God is the stars in the sky, the sky, the sun and the warmth you feel from it. God is the water you swim in and it’s wetness. God is the air and the breath of wind on your skin, and the grass beneath your feet. God is everything.”
I had also mentioned a little about religion and how it is often a way for different people to understand God. But at this point, it’s important to keep things simple. I like keeping answers to big questions big, yet simple.
I recently read this article on PsychologyToday, and it really drives home a lot of my intuition about screens. I’ve always been hesitant to put screens in front of the very young. It’s captivating in a way that leaves me unsettled. When we’re older, being captivated by a movie or show we enjoy is a real treat. It’s an escape. With the young, there is a vast developmental difference.
Now I’m not a neurologist, just an observer. When I observe the very young (say under three years old) being captivated by a screen, I find myself unsettled. This unsettled feeling delineates from a knowing that this is very new technology and we do not know the full extent of it’s effects. It’s one thing for adults to design a technology that can help other well-balanced, reasonable adults share and communicate. But when that technology gets in front of people who haven’t learned critical thinking faculties, much less communication, who are still in their very formative phases of human development, there are more unknowns here for me than knowns. And when it comes to the healthy development of children, I like knowns. I like knowing that something is beneficial and constructive. Just because I grew up with something doesn’t mean that it’s beneficial for healthy human development. And the knowledge of people like Steve Jobs not letting their own kids play with the technology they developed adds more weight to my suspicions.
The message of this article underscores one of the reasons I pursue ecovillages. Their communal environments are facilitate nature and it’s wisdom, and not the escape of screens. With all the challenges facing our planet today, I do feel that Richard Louv’s statement of ‘the health of children and the health of the earth [being] inseparable’ all the more relevant. We need a generation of children more connected to nature, and that isn’t going to happen with screens.
Having lived in Winnipeg since 1995, I’ve learned a couple things about surviving the ridiculously cold winters. Layering is key. That way you can remove top layers when you get too warm. One layer that I added during Christmas last year that has kept me wonderfully warm is electric.
Having kept me warm for three seasons now, these are indispensable. With a battery that has both standard USB and Micro USB, it can not only be charged by the old Android standard, but also charge a phone. It has three different heat settings. On low, it can keep me with heat for a good 8 hours. It has a warm up cycle and then defaults to medium heat which can give me 4-5 hours of warmth. On high it will give me 2-3 hours of continual use. I usually just use medium when I’m outside and turn it off when I’m inside. However, I work in shipping and am frequently on loading docks where the line between outside and inside is very blurred. I find that as long as the wind is shielded, I can navigate frozen 53′ trailers with a lot of warmth. Even without the heated part it is an extremely warm hoodie.
Made by Ororo, there are a few different colors available. My navy one goes with jeans and other work pants.
Heated hoodies can be difficult to find locally. The Milwaukee brand you might find at a Mark’s Work Warehouse, Tuff Duck or other outdoor work garment store. My Ororo brand one was an amazon purchase.
Between the heated hoodie and a windbreaker, I’m good for down to -20C. For colder temperatures, I put a jacket liner over the heated hoodie and then my high visibility windbreaker shell. When there are windchills of -37, my core stays entirely warm. It’s my hands and face that get cold.
A purchase from last January, my steeltoes are meant for a ‘transitional’ environment, which means getting in and out of work sites and trucks. They are ‘Korkers’ which have a patent on a novel solution for replaceable soles. There are a bunch of different soles for different situations, but the soles I have are for snow and the other for ice.
The snow one is rubber and gets great traction on it’s own. I use it in the warehouse at work.
When I wear the ice one I feel like Spiderman on the ice. It just sticks. Sometimes I need to tap my boots together to knock caked snow off, but it walks over ice like it’s not there. I mention to the guys I work with when I see ice, because it can be misleading when I walk over ice and don’t slip and the guy behind me does.
You know that tensing of the leg muscles you get when walking on ice to keep your feet under you? Yeah that’s no longer necessary with these soles. However, there is a trade-off: I do have to tense my legs when I stop in coffee shops on my way to work. Cleats on stone tile is like walking on ice without spikes.
These are quality work boots and as such are indeed expensive to anyone who isn’t familiar with the pricing on good steel toes. At $260, they are about average for quality steel toes. That said, these have become my outdoor boots even when I’m not working. They keep my toes extremely warm, are waterproof and come up over my ankles. A pair of snow pants that comes down over them makes these a better choice than the Sorrels that have been my winter boots for a few years.
Additional soles are available from the Korker website for $20 – $50, so I can get replacements if something wears out or breaks. There are even fishing soles with super grippy rubber that would fit.
Before buying the Korkers I had done a quick search to see what people thought of them. Part of what sold me were the high rating people gave them.
Wearing these for my bus ride to work is fantastic. The ice on the Winnipeg sidewalks vanishes. And if you’ve been through a Winnipeg winter, ice is everywhere.
If $260 is too steep for a nice pair of winter boots with spikes, there are $20 cleats that wrap around any boot that can be found at Costco. I got a pair for Julia and they are just fine for her use. The thing about these is that because they wrap around, they are prone to shifting and stretching during use. They are the PPE that work provides. Boots with spikes in the soles work much better.
We call warm hats toques in Winnipeg. This has been one of my go-to hats for just being outside in cold weather. An easy pair to any phone, they eliminate wires. And if you’ve ever got wired up and tried to play outside in the snow, those wires pull the plugs out of the ears easily with the bulk of warm jackets. Wires also ‘freeze’ and loose their elasticity, making them awkward. Bending frozen wires can cause breakage.
Many jackets have interior pockets meant for phones, and they work great when you don’t have to get to your phone. A Bluetooth Toque means your headphones aren’t limited by wire length, and can go in any pocket, including easy access exterior pockets. Basic controls for play/pause, previous track/next track and volume up\down give you more control on the toque than the buttons on a wire.
Another thing, they are open air headphones. Unlike earbuds, you can hear the people around you. Turn it up loud enough though and you can drown them out.
It does have a microphone, but it really isn’t good enough for decent phone conversations. Unless you are all alone you are still going to want to take calls using your phone. Which is why I suggest keeping your phone in an exterior pocket.
Any one of these can make a tough, cold winter–like Winnipeg ones–a lot more bearable.
I got to work this morning and it felt like I was entering Hawkins National Laboratory. Now if only I had brought my blindfold.
Today I was at this location, and while I might be able to see that some people might think it’s desolate, I found it fertile. STOP for a moment, and look around. Inhale. Breathe the rural air. Take responsibility and don’t dump. Of all things, responsibility is needed at this juncture. They all go together. And celebrate the magnificience of this planet.
