First snow of the season at East Wind Community. Cold, stark, and striking.
Early Snow at East Wind
Month: December 2020
Deep Snow at Glomus Commune
by Raven Glomus
Last week we got an early winter storm here that dumped two feet of snow on us. Here are some pictures from that.
Winter
by Raven Glomus
It’s definitely winter here in the foothills of the Catskills. We have been having snow and cold weather since November, and several days ago we had a couple of feet of snow dumped on us. I have had such problems with dealing with the winter that I talked about it on Facebook.
As you can see, we got eight responses.
Keenan knows us here at Glomus only too well (he’s been here to work on the infrastructure) but, with the pandemic, I don’t plan to travel this winter.
What do you do to get yourself through the cold and dark?
Bathroom Art at Glomus
(Originally posted on Facebook and Instagram)
Art is found in many places in the communes. One place that we have art at Glomus Commune is in the bathrooms and toilet rooms. The first two photos are from the only real bathroom that we have, with a flush toilet and a shower; the second two photos are from what we sometimes call the “poop coop”, a humanure toilet in a small building shared with the chickens; and the final two photos are from a humanure toilet that we set up in a nook in the barn. You might as well have nice things to look at while you sit on the throne.
Ira Wallace
by Raven Glomus
Ira Wallace is amazing. She helped found the Acorn community, where she lives to this day. She also has been a major force in the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Acorn’s business, which has been booming during the pandemic, and helped start the Heritage Harvest Festival, a big agricultural exposition in Virginia. The North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) recently inducted her into their hall of fame. Here’s some relevant pieces from their press release, along with a picture of Ira who, in spite of age and disability, continues working and inspiring folks.
The North American Students of Cooperation Inducts 2020 Hall of Fame
The North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) is the bi-national federation that educates and organizes youth and emerging leaders to create and care for co-ops in the US and Canada. On Friday, November 6, 2020 at the annual NASCO Cooperative Education and Training Institute, held online, four cooperators were honored as inductees in the NASCO Cooperative Hall of Fame. The NASCO Hall of Fame, created in 1989, provides broader recognition to individuals who have made a truly significant impact within the cooperative movement. NASCO is proud to honor the 2020 inductees:
Ira Wallace, Founder
Ira Wallace has a lifetime of history in the cooperative movement. Ira has been a member of Acorn Community since the beginning of the community and was instrumental to its founding. Acorn is a 27-year-long experiment in egalitarianism based on living cooperatively with each other and the environment in a non-hierarchal fashion, located on 72 acres of certified organic land in Central Virginia.
Ira is also a prime mover and shaker behind Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE), a worker-coop seed company owned by Acorn that specializes in preserving and propagating heirloom seeds by getting the seeds and practice of seed saving into generations of future gardeners. Ira started saving herb and flower seeds in the 1970s and became professionally involved in the seed business in 1998. At SESE she coordinates education and outreach as well as co-managing variety selection and new seed grower contracts with SESE’s network of 70+ seed producing farms. It is the oldest company in the southeast focusing on heirloom, organic, open-pollinated seeds. Since 1983 Southern Exposure has been helping people in the southeast get control of their food supply by supporting sustainable home and market gardening, seed saving, and preserving heirloom varieties. Ira also started the Heritage Harvest Festival in a back lot at Monticello 12 years ago and worked to grow it to a premier celebration of a vision of America of small farmers and gardeners.
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When I posted this on Facebook, we got a few comments. Here’s what folks wrote, including some replies from me:
(This was in reference to a post on feasting at East Wind and Cara, a former East Winder, said that she “met Ira the first month I was there, she came for some conference or exchange – and she made the most amazing pastries! and we realized I knew her daughter – I’d met her in college”)
BUILDING PROJECT AT CAMBIA, PART THREE
East Wind Call Out
Sumner, former East Wind member, made this video requesting videos from current or former members for the East Wind YouTube Channel. Here’s his call in his own words:
Email = sumner@eastwind.community
Interview Information: I’m looking for honest and in depth interviews with members (anyone who at least completed a visitor period) of East Wind for posterity as well as records for those interested in East Wind or other income sharing communities to view. Willing to work with people and be flexible. I have done a number of in person interviews, but most likely all interviews going forward this winter will be online. You can see your interview before being it is published and have a say in how it is edited. You can set a minimum date to wait before publishing (if you are still active at EW, for example). If you don’t want it published, it won’t be published. I’m defaulting to having No Comments set for these interview videos, up to you if you want comments turned on.
Please reach out and we will work it out! sumner@eastwind.community
BUILDING PROJECT AT CAMBIA, PART TWO
Cambia has been documenting their strawbale construction project on Instagram. Here is the step by step process of putting in the central beam for the roof. Part One of this story is here, documenting the beginning of the project.
I will post Part Three (a work party) on Friday, but first, a new video.
Building Project at Cambia, Part One
Cambia is this lovely, quirky little commune in Louisa, VA, very near Twin Oaks. Recently they started a strawbale building project which they are documenting on Instagram. Here’s the first set of pictures. I will have more on Monday.
Social Media: News or Control?
by Raven Glomus
I was thinking about Living Energy Farm’s rejection of Facebook and thought that I would begin the topic on our actual Facebook page with a question. Here’s what I wrote:
Yes, it’s a provocative, forced choice, but that’s what does well on Facebook. I was hoping for comments and I got a few. The first one was from me–I took the opportunity to explain my dilemma.
And several people did wrestle with the question. (Incidentally, for those not used to internet acronyms, YMMV stands for “Your Mileage May Vary”–meaning that this may affect different people in different ways.)
These are pictures from the Facebook feed, so don’t try to click on the links that Boone Wheeler sent.
Here are working links for these videos:
commune life 