Hi All,
Some of you may be interested in our cohousing project - 37 units
clustered on 56 acres of farmland - pesticide free soil. Check out
our web site: www.legacyfarmcohousing.com.
We are interested in returning our land to farming, but that idea
hasn't been developed so far. A farmer is raising grass fed beef on 5
of our acres. Please get in touch if you're interested, or attend one
of our open meetings.

Spring forth,
Linda

Linda Gluck, Co-General Manager
Legacy Farm Cohousing aka Ulster County Cohousing, LLC
POB 88
Rosendale, NY 12472

www.legacyfarmcohousing.com
845/255-8869



On Apr 9, 2009, at 7:47 PM, pauleknapp wrote:



Hi Susie, Kevin and Sean and all others out there watching!

I'm sorry I haven't responded back earlier, I just figured I would
giving it a few days to see how many would respond. I have read about
700 of the oldest posts and can see exactly what both Kevin and Sean
have said. I looks to me like some, if not all of the original group
have moved towards doing something up in the High Falls area(my back
yard by the way as I live in Wallkill) I'm not surprised by this, nor
disappointed really. It is more than possible that many people are
not ready for this type of move or community and are trying to test
the waters as well as start something to help support themselves and
the community. I guess that is why I am here. I want to see if I am
ready. And the best way to do that is to talk to others.

I have always wanted to be a part of a small farm. For myself, I can
say I am and will continue to be an omnivore. But I am disgruntled by
the way our food is raised, from vegetables to beef. I believe that
there is a better way, and that way is to work with nature and let
animals grow naturally. My vision is of a small community on probably
less than 100 acres, most likely less than 50 adults (not counting
kids, bring'm all) that could not only raise enough to support there
own household needs but that of a large CSA of around 200 families
plus have the ability and resources to take in interns and teach
others how to grow food sustainably. To be a gathering spot for its
members and community at large. I believe that this could be done in
orange, ulster or putnam counties.
Believe it or not, the price of land isn't what bothers me, but
finding the right group to establish the community with. Am I a
millionaire? Ah...NO. But there are programs to help begining
farmers. It might take a little fancy foot work to put it all
together, but I believe it can be done...and believing is half the
battle. I understand not everybody is interested in this type of
community living and working. My partner for example would not work
in the community, he would like to stay with his job. I would like to
start a small farm and leave my job in the dust. Different ideas are
what I see. Different ideas are what is needed. I saw the same thing
with this group in the first 200 messages I read. Maybe an eco
village wasn't started, but progress has been made!
I try to look at things differently than other's. Someone mentioned
that they looked at property, but they would have to cut trees and
didn't want to do that. Well, I'll cut if needed to open some
pastures, but I'll cut as selectively as I can. I don't believe in
wholesale deforestation, I don't care whether those involved replant
or not, it's just not right in my opinion. Like the saying goes, In
order to bake a cake you must break some eggs so Ill cut a few trees.
Small breeds of animals reduce the need for large pastures and
fields. I like the original sized Jersey cow, which after much down
breeding is now called the mini jersey! Funny, how all the years
spent breeding up and then back down brought the breed right back to
where nature had them in the first place...there is a lesson in there
somewheres I think. I say it is work with nature, it knows what it's
doing. But like everything, that is my opinion on things. Working
with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy can yield extensive
information on rare breeds of pigs, sheet, cattle that would fit well
on a small farm and help preserve the breed while providing profit.

So on that note, I'll say thanks to Sean and Kevin for inviting me up
to High Falls. One of these weekends after Easter I'll have to take a
ride in the country and drop in on everyone.

Have a safe and happy holiday everyone!

Paul

--- In HVEcovillage@yahoogroups.com, Sustainable Land Stewardship
Alliance <stewardshipalliance@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Susie, and Paul, and all new folks
>
> I was a formative part of this effort something like five? years
ago. We
> had a group that was meeting for a long time, something over a
year. It was
> an good and learning experience i'm sure for the folks that went
thru it,
> though it didn't end up in an eco-village.
>
> The time may be better to make something like this happen now,
than back
> then. The changes politically, economically, etc may start to make
it more
> appealing to people.
>
> In my perception, the biggest barrier back then was all of the
various
> attachments, or fears, or very real concerns that comes about when
people
> start putting their real money down on something like this. And
back then,
> in the midst of the real estate boom, there were a lot of
"tensions" (by
> this i don't mean direct conflict, but more like differences in
paradigms
> perhaps) around how people would make the big investment necessary
to get
> something like this off the ground.
>
> These challenges are inherent in all efforts like this one, and up
here is
> a cohousing effort (legacy farm) that has been trying for years to
get off
> the ground, and even bougfht land, but still hasn't been able to
start
> building because of money (credit crunch now) and committmnet
issues. I
> think it is because the prices were (are) just too high.
>
> For myself, and a few others in the group, part of the fundamental
values
> that we were coming into the project with (i was an initiator of
it) was
> that we saw an ecovillage as an alternative to the destructive
isolation,
> commodification, and basic inequality that are fundamental to the
current
> speculative property model.
>
> In practice this meant that we wanted to create opportunities for
people of
> various incomes to have access to a home or homesite at the
ecovillage. And
> we wanted to change the paradigm of commodification of land, such
that
> people could no longer speculate on it, and would enter into a
healthier
> relationship with it. And of course do this all in relationship
with like
> minded people.
>
> Anyway, out of all of that effort came some good things. One is this
> Community Land Trust - The Sustainable Land Stewardship Alliance
> www.sustainableland.org that embodies the values that i described
above. And
> i think that many people involved in the previous effort are also
doing
> things in their communities, and are still even connected to this
list.
>
> I and my partner Sarah are still working towards building
community every
> day, one way is through this CLT, and the other is through our
CSA. If any
> of this resonates with others here, we'd love to talk more. Come
up for a
> visit sometime. www.regenerationcsa.org
>
> peas,
> kevin
>
>
>
>
> >
> > Posted by: "Susanne" susiecara@... susies_mail
> > Date: Mon Apr 6, 2009 5:28 am ((PDT))
> >
> > Hi, i just joined too, i read an article about cohousing in a
magazine so
> > did a search and this was the closest group I could find,
disappointed it's
> > not a "real" ongoing effort. I would love to be involved if a
group could
> > reenergize.
> >
> > Susie
> >
> > --- In HVEcovillage@yahoogroups.com, "pauleknapp" <pauleknapp@>
wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi everyone,
> > >
> > > I just joined this group and to my dismay it looks like it's
defunct. Is
> > their anyone still out there interested in starting something in
the Hudson
> > Valley?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Paul
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --- In HVEcovillage@yahoogroups.com, "kskvorak" <k.skvorak@>
wrote:
> > > >
> > > > from: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HVEcovillage/
> > > >
> > > > This is the former Mailing list for the Hudson Valley
Ecovillage
> > planning group.
> > > >
> > > > The group is not currently having regular meetings, but that
can change
> > if people want to
> > > > reenergize it.
> > > > Please feel free to use this list to connect with like
minded people
> > in the Hudson valley
> > > > and beyond.
> > > >
> > > > Excerpt of our former Vision Statement:
> > > > Our Vision is to design a culture and practice of a nurturing,
> > collaborative, sustainable
> > > > model of living that chooses social and environmental
responsibility,
> > diversity and
> > > > creativity.
> > > >
> > > > It is within the ecovillage model that we see the greatest
> > opportunities for serving the
> > > > widest range of peoples needs. To house ourselves we will
work together
> > to build
> > > > affordable, low impact, high efficiency shared and
individual cohousing
> > units, set within a
> > > > permaculture designed community with such practical
'innovations' as
> > constructed
> > > > wetlands for treating and recycling greywater, shared
greenhouses,
> > passive and active
> > > > solar heating, and edible landscaping.
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Messages in this topic (4)
> > __________________________________________________________
> > 1b. Re: New group description
> > Posted by: "Sean Maley" semaley@... semaley
> > Date: Mon Apr 6, 2009 6:51 am ((PDT))
> >
> > As a past participant in the dialog here, I'm still watching. It
might be
> > a good idea for any new core group that emerges, or re-emerges,
to have read
> > Diane Leafe Christrian's "Creating a Community Together". Diane
will be
> > returning to the region in May, if you wanted to initiate any
events or
> > seminars in your area.
> >
> > I'd like to see several projects form. I'm still hopeful that the
> > organization which emerged from the dialog several years ago
will one day be
> > able to provide services and assistance to such projects. Please
consider
> > helping Green Phoenix Permaculture help you. Check out our
growing examples
> > over at Camp Epworth in High Falls. Consider a tax deductible
donation (we
> > are 501c3).
> >
> >
> > -Sean.
> > --- On Mon, 4/6/09, Susanne <susiecara@...> wrote:
> > From: Susanne <susiecara@...>
> > Subject: [HVEcovillage] Re: New group description
> > To: HVEcovillage@yahoogroups.com
> > Date: Monday, April 6, 2009, 8:26 AM
> >
> > Hi, i just joined too, i read an article about cohousing in a
magazine so
> > did a
> > search and this was the closest group I could find, disappointed
it's not a
> > "real" ongoing effort. I would love to be involved if a group could
> > reenergize.
> >
> > Susie
> >
> > --- In HVEcovillage@yahoogroups.com, "pauleknapp"
> > <pauleknapp@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi everyone,
> > >
> > > I just joined this group and to my dismay it looks like it's
defunct.
> > Is their anyone still out there interested in starting something
in the
> > Hudson
> > Valley?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Paul
> >
> >
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>








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