2015 was a year of big comings and goings, big happenings, and big progress at the Port Townsend EcoVillage.
- Laurence and Deanna finished (well, almost finished) their beautiful light-clay straw-walled house and moved in in March.
- Elliot’s new baby brother Henry arrived at the end of March, and has become the bestower of the best smiles in the village, as his parents Zach and Judy surely would agree!
- Ruth retired from her job with the school district, and took off on a big road trip, renting her house to the Wyeth family, who have blessed the village since August with their two spunky 10 year-old girls!
- New renters Bedelia, Julie and 5 year-old Kai arrived in September at the CoHo, the village’s large shared home, and are adding their energy and presence to the village.
- Bob purchased the cottage in the woods, becoming the newest ecovillage co-owner.
- Bekka travelled to Europe, worked as a woofer in Latvia, and brought back some excellent buckwheat recipes.
- David fulfilled a lifelong dream of walking across the Olympic Mountains, first dipping his toes in the waters of Puget Sound and ending at the Pacific Ocean. We celebrated his journey, and his 70th birthday, at our first community meal of the fall.
- Stacy became Port Townsend School District’s director of food service, realizing her passion to feed kids healthy food, and, with Kees’ election to the hospital commission, the number of hospital commissioners here at the Village doubled!
- In June, we held a design workshop/charrette to explore low-cost housing alternatives for people interested in joining our EcoVillage, especially younger folks and families with limited income. The workshop included both current EcoVillagers and people outside of EcoVillage who helped us envision creative, yet practical strategies for affordability.
- At the end of the year, we consensed on a low-cost affordable housing proposal that provides for building a duplex house for families on one lot, and installing infrastructure to accommodate 3 tiny houses (to be built by their inhabitants) on another lot. Plus, we’ll start designing our Common House!
- The CoHo got fresh stain on the entire exterior and is looking spiffy, having received some major maintenance attention, with lots of elbow grease from many community members.
- Huge transformation took place at the shop/art center: the exterior was stained, a beautiful bridge built to the second floor to make it accessible without going through our newly organized and well equipped woodshop on the first floor. Plus a storage loft and an insulated arts and crafts space were created, with more windows added, opening up lots of new possibilities for using this amazing community resource.
Shop/Art Center with New Coat of Paint and Bridge to 2nd Floor
- For a second year, we experimented with a community garden approach in which each participant chose a crop to plant and tend, leading to great abundance despite the dry and seemingly endless summer.
- Monday night shared meals continue to be part of our community glue, and also we share yummy community meals after our monthly community meetings and work parties.
- We continued to build relationships both with individuals and the community-at-large of Port Townsend and hosted many visitors to the village.
Looking forward in 2016 to…
- Building a duplex for affordable housing for families, and putting in infrastructure for 3 tiny houses and finding new people to join us as we grow!
- Designing a Common House, to be constructed by the end of 2018.
- Working with an outside facilitator to help us examine and refresh our vision, community dynamics and processes.
- Gardening with coordination from Bekka, working toward healthier soil building and intentional land stewardship, and adding to our perennial plantings.
- Blessing the journey of the Gayne family (Zach, Judy, Elliot and Henry) as they move to land they have purchased and plan to farm nearby, and having Bob move in to the cottage where they’ve been.
- Welcoming Ruth back from her amazing post-retirement 9-month road-trip.
Only two house lots remain available for sale. We welcome new members, especially families with children. If you are curious what life is like here in community, we invite you to come to a tour, a community meeting, a work party, or all three. We believe that building relationships with potential owners is the surest way to grow a happy, healthy village.