Culture & Education

What is Sin?
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What is Sin?

I just viewed Mel Gibson’s riveting 1990 performance of Hamlet. At its core, Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece is an examination of the effects of sin that results in mental illness and death.

Sin is often too narrowly defined in Judeo-Christian theology by the narrow minded. Narrower still, where sin does not exist, in materialist secularism.

Sin is so much more than the breaking of ten profound, yet rudimentary commandments etched in stony tablets and stonier hearts.

Sin is simply the source of pathology.

Whether physical, mental or of the spirit, it is all the same.

Even genetically based sin-induced pathology is suspect under the new science of epigenetics where the sins of parents may be expressed in subsequent generations. Genes can apparently be turned on or off by our thoughts, actions and reactions (sin or virtue) and passed on to our children.

The consequences of unresolved sin are therefore, inescapable regardless of world view, religious orientation or whatever.

Then, well-being is the product of overcoming the source of illness, that which I broadly define as sin.

“To be or not to be”. Hamlet famously soliloquizes on depression and suicide, the modern psychological equivalent of the common cold. Is depression the consequence of sin? Well. . . Check the definition.

Hamlet’s father’s Ghost reveals that it is not his murder that is to be mourned, but its unfortunate timing . His ghost is stuck in this world, caught unprepared before he could repent of his unresolved sins. Later, Hamlet is given an opportunity to avenge his father’s murder by killing his Uncle, the murderer. He defers specifically in order to achieve a ‘just revenge’ because his Uncle is, at that moment, in the act of repentance for which Hamlet assumes his Uncle will be forgiven and therefore be rewarded in Heaven despite his grievous sins.

It’s an interesting way to re-think sin and repentance. If sin is nothing more than the cause of illness, it should not evoke feelings of superiority or holier-than-thou judgement or shame any more than a physician judges the victim of a heart attack or diabetes. It exists wholly independent of religious beliefs, doctrines or dogma.

Or does it? Do doctors routinely judge their patient’s for their sins of unhealthy, cholesterol or sugar-infused lifestyles? Is an unhealthy lifestyle a sin? Depending on your definition, yes.

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The Low Road to Freedom – How Buildings Learn

This BBC-produced video showcases low cost construction and its relationship to freedom.  As a lifelong follower of Thoreau’s philosophies, this resonates with me. Freedom to build “what you need” is a principle upon which the Village on Sewanee Creek rests. 

So, we have a roughly 5,500 square foot mansion currently under construction here. It is anything but low cost. But it is what the owners decided they need. From my point of view, that’s wonderful. If you have the resources so that the building does not become a lead weight on your life, it can become such a blessing, not only to the owners, but to those they chose to share it with. In the Village, where we are collectively all about voluntary sharing, what a blessing that can be!   It’s what’s inside that counts.  I’m confident that the owners who will become the heart of this magnificent home when it is completed, will bless all of us with their generous spirit and wise hearts.

On the other extreme, we have three “Tiny Homes” that are “finished” and occupied with capacity for future expansion and creative expression as need dictates. Large or small, expensive or low cost, or somewhere in between, the range of homes in the Village expresses our core values.  One of the most important among our values is the individual freedom to build according to needs as each of us defines them. 

Out of that freedom, comes a natural diversity of expression. That diversity, or lack of sameness can be viewed in different ways.  Differences can be viewed either as low-end eyesores that depress property values or as egotistical displays of wealth on the other extreme.  As we elevate our consciousness and supress lower ego-driven impulses, these differences can be perceived as beautiful, artistic expressions of freedom.  Again, where the building is only an expression of the builder, it’s what’s inside that counts.

When our personal artistic senses are challenged by diversity, it is an opportunity to reevaluate the depth of our spirituality and the quality of our values – to dig a little deeper and discover more enlightened ways of perceiving and interacting with the world around us. 

Monday, we celebrate the 4th of July. For me, it’s a celebration of the liberated human spirit, not just freedom from political tyranny. My fondest hope is that the Village will continue to evolve and improve as a society that values freedom in its deepest, spiritual sense, thereby securing not only freedom for ourselves but fostering it for others.

Keep reading to my previous post.  You are invited to celebrate the 4th with us tomorrow, or for the rest of forever.

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Voluntary

The Village on Sewanee Creek is located in rural Tennessee, the “Volunteer State”

“Voluntary” is a key word in our community. Expectations, demands or compulsory involvement are kept low in favor of personal choice and personal circumstances. We trust that the primary reason for joining our community is the desire for community. Largely due to lack of compulsion or pressure, the community has flourished with high levels of regular, voluntary, joyful involvement.

Regular traditions include:

Friday Project. Rotates weekly by homestead, as calendared on our Private Village website. Each week, a designated home owner plans and gathers materials. Everybody shows up to work about 10 am, sometimes earlier in summer. A simple meal is often provided by the home owner. Project work is usually planned to last two hours, but frequently ends up an all day project as members generously linger to volunteer time. The payback is simple and obvious. We enjoy each other’s company and we learn project, leadership, organization and social skills. We learn to trust each other in all the important dimensions of trust: reliability, competence, integrity, respect, caring. And we know that as each gives, the gift is returned in a regular rotation. It’s a virtuous spiral. Hundreds of discrete projects have been completed. A short list includes such things as help building houses (primary and guest), a chicken coop, a large hoop greenhouse, raised bed gardens, maintenance on the community amphitheater or trails, harvesting cabbage and making sauerkraut, canning green beans or venison, installing a rainwater catchment system, a goat enclosure, house painting, framing and roofing a carport, and on and on.

Monday Evening FHE: Games, discussion, lesson, problem solving, planning, followed by light refreshments.

Bi-monthly formal potluck dinner. Host rotates between families.

As the community has continued to grow in numbers, greater specialization has emerged. Members are assigned and voluntarily accept callings that include: director/coordinator of music, drama, facilities, community scheduling, security, beekeeping, Open-Source Ecology (distributed manufacturing), games, etc.

We maintain shared, online virtual libraries of books and movies and a private website for sharing of ideas and general communication. These don’t require a leader or curator, just the initiative of someone to create the format for a shared online database and the generous trust of friends volunteering to share their resources in an open, organized fashion. We have no need to build a physical library, only information about what resources are voluntarily available and stored by each member in their homes. It has been said that the millennial generation cares little about ownership; it’s all about access. Older generations, on the other hand, care about personal ownership and care of things. The bridge is TRUST. We do not own many things in common, but we actively cultivate trust. As trust develops, open sharing is a natural consequence. Where there is no need to replicate assets, personal costs decline; abundance increases. This isn’t a new idea. It’s the way communities functioned before they became fractured.

As you can see from our Friday Project tradition, this concept is applied to the sharing of skills and services as well as things like books or tools.

The community is composed of active, accomplished individuals with diverse skills and backgrounds that include:
PhD’s in plant genetics, Psychology, Counseling & Philosophy.
Masters in Engineering, Bio-Chemistry, Business, Computer Engineering.
BA’s / other certifications in mathematics, elementary and secondary teaching, textiles, registered nursing, and more.

Equally if not more important and respected are our member’s practical skills in construction, plumbing, electrical, landscaping and excavation, military and police, bee-keeping, water purification and management, horticulture (organic & greenhouse gardening, orchards), animal husbandry and the performing arts (singer/songwriters, instrumental music, live theater, film directing and editing)

Each year community strength grows. 2014 has been a watershed year, as our active population and skills sets virtually doubled. Over the years, more lots have been sold with the promise that, as homes are built, transitions made, new trusting relationships created, the Village will only grow in strength and stability. It’s a pretty nice place to live for a volunteer.

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Interesting People – Rich Life

From the outset, I have made it a point to target interesting people who will become not only Village neighbors, but the fabric of a lifestyle that makes life interesting and rewarding. There are many prepper communities emerging these days. They typically aim to fill their ranks with a comprehensive list of survival skills. Welder, blacksmith, gunsmith, military tactician, plumber, electrician, mechanic, hunter/trapper, tanner represent just a few of hundreds of basic skills. Important as these may be, they address only survival. For Villagers, life is about much more than survival.

I believe we have been successful in attracting a certain type of individual who is a cut above the mundane, normal, or average. So far, our small community boasts interesting people with distinguished accomplishments from diverse backgrounds.

  • Some have advanced degrees, like Tom who has a PhD in plant genetics or George who is a bio-chemist with deep experience in water quality systems management, mycology and toxic environmental clean-up.

But intellectual capacity doesn’t always require a high level degree or formal education. Street smarts are just as valuable and interesting.

  • Jeff J. humbly acknowledges a lack of formal training, while his accomplishments as a highly sought-after Hollywood film editor are impressive. Having worked on such famous films as Star Wars and Hunger Games among many others, his experiences, instincts and observations on life have brought great pleasure and growth to me and other Villagers. Knowing my interest in movies, a residual from my days at Blockbuster, he even contributed a huge library of DVD’s to the Village to enhance our movie nights, whether at our large screen home theater or the bigger one at the amphitheater.
  • Mike and Barb are accomplished singer/songwriters who infuse their art with the values we embrace as a community. Their music strengthens both the moral and social fabric of the Village.
  • Fred is our inventor / engineer / communications expert extraordinaire. I affectionately nicknamed him Mr. Inscrutable because his intellectual and scientific prowess often makes me stretch to grasp a point he is making. Those who attend a lecture he is giving at the University of the South on Open Source Ecology this Wednesday will likewise be stretched and enriched.
  • Jim has a deep, practical history with self-sufficient living. Now retired, he is an effective investor who loves tending his garden and chickens while experimenting with all kinds of projects from alternative energy to alternative construction. Jim donated many years of Mother Earth News to the online Village Library. His soft, engaging nature makes him a natural in group dynamics where he instantly puts people at ease.
  • Jeff P. and his three sons are all Eagle Scouts.  Jeff is CFO for his company and has been a scout leader for years.  His practical knowledge of outdoor life and appreciation for nature derived from scouting contribute to our mission in many ways.
  • Micah stopped just short of completing a PhD in philosophy, and deploys his prodigious intellect and work ethic in his highly successful internet business, helping America’s best and brightest choose colleges best suited to them. In his spare time, he raises goats, cattle and chickens for home consumption and has purchased several hundred acres nearby to build a cattle ranch with his brother.

The Women in the Village contribute to the richness of daily life just as much if not more than the men.

  • My dear wife, Becky, is known for her home-making skills that range from amazingly artistic quilts to the best home-made bread ever, made from home-ground flour, to fresh veggies and eggs from her greenhouse and mini-farm.
  • Judy cans, sprouts, sews, gardens, bakes and cooks some of the finest food you will find anywhere and tutors neighborhood children in math.
  • Stephanie brings her personal brand of wisdom to the Village. She is a counselor who listens attentively and serves up help to University students, meanwhile raising her two little boys with patience and love.
  • Linnette is an accomplished artist who excels with ceramics.  She created the beautiful tile work and fired the individual tiles in her large kiln for the sign at the entrance to the Village.  Her sons include a doctor, an architect and a business man.
  • Linda is a natural organizer-leader.  She runs the Meetup group, “Provident Living and Self Reliance” out of Nashville. She was instrumental in organizing Preparedness Fairs here in the Village and many other group meetings for Villagers as well as hundreds of other Self-Reliance oriented people throughout Middle and Eastern Tennessee.

I could go on. For the sake of brevity, I will limit the list, but you get the point. Beyond specific skills and accomplishments, most Villagers are well traveled, intellectually open and, as a result, qualify as interesting people who contribute at many levels. Because they are all focused on self-sufficient living, each one also contributes to the list of survival skills and the general resilience of the Village.

The work I do to attract and woo interesting people results in tangible value to people who move here. And the longer I do it the more valuable the Village becomes. That is why the value of the product Villagers buy into is less and less about the beautiful land and more and more about a rich lifestyle built on relationships with extraordinary people. For fans of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, you might recognize the Village as a kinder and gentler Galt’s Gulch.

It isn’t enough that we have many interesting people here. It is just as important that those interesting people each desire to share their knowledge, insights, skills and talents or we are just like any other upper-income neighborhood, filled with people who are busy, successful, and isolated in social silos. So we try to select people who love people. It’s implied in our motto, in harmony with nature AND PEOPLE. I believe we have also been successful in developing a culture of sharing.

And, while attracting interesting people who want to share is the essential foundation, it is only the beginning. As we continue to weave and expand this fabric of many colors and textures into a culture of interesting people with an interesting, rich life, I think it is not enough to simply have them here. We must continuously draw people out in interesting venues and situations where all can naturally benefit from such rich natural resources. We must enhance our natural human resources through activities, processes, customs and traditions that we all embrace.

  • Our weekly “Village Project” is one such tradition that puts talents and skills to practical work while creating an atmosphere for mutual, service, positive social interaction and sharing.
  • Our Monday “Family Home Evening” gatherings are a regular place for sharing on a more intimate, sometimes more intellectual level. We teach, share stories, play games, discuss world events, books, and movies, share treats, and plan together.
  • Our Monthly potluck is a time for reaching out to Village land owners who have not yet built and relocated here. It’s less frequent and allows them to travel from Nashville or sometimes more distant locations. It’s also a time to enjoy great food and casual conversation in an unstructured environment.
  • Since I have joined the staff at the University of the South, I am much more tuned in and do a better job of sharing the abundance of culturally enriching, and mostly free activities there. Lectures, discussions, plays, concerts are plentiful to overwhelming in their availability. We try to get Villagers together to share in many of these experiences too.
  • At less frequent intervals, we have made field trips to Nashville or other outlying towns, like the trip we made to see Les Miserable or recently to Athens to learn about earth-bermed housing.

As more interesting, sharing people join us, the opportunities grow exponentially along with the need for careful tending. I take seriously the responsibility of creating value for Villagers. But, I think everybody knows that it’s a group project, not wholly dependent on me.

Frankly, I’m not satisfied with the type and quality of activities we do now. We can do more and be more. I need all of your help.
Please share your ideas and your energy to bring them to life.

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Saving the World one person at a time … starting with me

“Teach them Correct Principles and they Govern Themselves”.  This is the foundation for a sustainable world.  This is my message to the world.
I was asked to give a talk to the Economics club at Sewanee, the University of the South on our independent local currency initiative, the Sewanee Dollar.  But when the sponsor, a student representing the Economics Club read my BLOG, he decided there is more to the story.

He admitted to being a closet Libertarian, an unpopular position at liberal Sewanee U.  But, he said he was having a hard time reconciling “sustainability” with some of the libertarian views I had written of on this blog.  In his mind, these were polar opposites.  To which I responded,

“I can’t imagine anything sustainable unless founded on true principles, including the freedom to act on them”.  

That led to a broader discussion of sustainability.  Sustainable extends into eternity.  It’s not just about restraining ourselves from destroying natural Eco-systems, although that is part of it.  It includes spiritual, moral, physical and economic sustainability.   It’s about being wise, good stewards.  It’s about being the change we want to see.

In other words, Saving the World one person at a time. . . starting with me.

PS:  For a list of some of the community projects referred to in the above video, see my post, Socialism Fails as Free Markets Flourish In the Village.

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Please move the deer crossing

People like this are voting . . . for both parties.  That’s why they’re called parties, right?  Because life is a party.  Everybody should vote for a big, popular one.

If this is the product of our school systems, what can we do about it?

Some progressive legislation ideas:

  1. Move the signs to locations where there are fewer deer (as proposed above)
  2. More laws with stiffer penalties on lawbreaking deer.
  3. Increase deer crossing signs in high traffic areas to attract more deer.  Facilitate the early demise of the terminally stupid. Eugenics via natural selection.
  4. Reenact the “trail of Deers”.  Put them all in FEMA camps.  The deer, that is. . .  or not.
    And my favorite for practicality:
  5. Move the remaining smart people out of high traffic cities to the country where there are very few deer crossing signs.  Get beefy bumpers. Road-kill makes good venison.  Proposed relocation center for smart people, the Village on Sewanee Creek.

So many possibilities.  Go ahead.  Add your best suggestions.  It’s a legislator’s dream world.

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Build a great house for under $10,000

I was needing to build a guest house. Inexpensive, but strong, well insulated, attractive and off-grid ready.  There is a series of YouTube videos featuring Bob Vila building houses with Steel Shipping Containers, sometimes called CONEX boxes.  When finished, they make attractive houses, indistinguishable from others in the tract.  But the cost per square foot is about on par with standard construction at $150 to $200 per square foot.  Other than the appeal to save-the-earth recyclers, I have a hard time seeing the point.  There has to be a better way.

Done, for less than one tenth the cost.

A little over a  year ago, I bought two CONEX boxes to build a guest house.  They cost $2k each, delivered in rural Tennessee from Atlanta.
I put them on six steel reinforced concrete piers next to the main house.   I purchased good quality used double pane windows and doors from a local salvage place for about three bars of a song.  It was handy to already have plenty of dry storage with the containers already in place.  The old saying “time is money” turns out applies not only to the cost of labor and capital, but to one’s ability to buy materials at a discount.  A dry, secure place to store materials while you take the time necessary to buy frugally and build is an important feature of CONEX boxes that saves lots of money.  Over months, that dry storage was put to good use to accumulate inexpensive surplus or used components like sinks, toilets, cabinets, counters, carpet, tile and a wood burning stove from CraigsList, eBay and other local salvage sources.

Immediately on delivery, the boxes are dry and secure.  But they aren’t insulated and that’s a big deal on a house.  Without it, these steel boxes become ice boxes in winter and ovens in summer.  We are fortunate to live in an area where Tyson has forced the closure of all the older chicken houses.  That’s good in several ways.  First, the toxic stench is gone.  Second, the neighboring chicken farmers are no longer subject to Tyson’s vassal labor conditions.  Third, the chicken houses are slowly being disassembled and sold for scrap metal and the 1 to 2 inch thick foam insulation panels are often discarded.  I acquired two kinds of insulation for less than a song (about the chorus of Yankee Doodle Dixie), almost nothing.  The spun glass type went over the container tops and under the low-pitch steel roof.   Because each container is built to handle the weight of ten or fifteen more containers stacked on it, each loaded with tons of cargo in hurricane force winds on a tossing ocean, there’s no worry about having a higher pitched roof to carry a snow load, especially in mild southern winters.

With a plasma cutter, a friend cut holes in the sides of the CONEX for doors and windows and a gaping hole between them to open up a large space for a living area.   It was a fairly simple task to frame the holes with standard 2X4’s and install doors and windows.  Using standard framing and drywall, it was easy to add interior walls for a storage room, bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, living/dining area and laundry room.  Needing more space in the main house, the laundry was immediately moved into the end of one of the CONEX boxes, installing plumbing and electrical in the process.  A huge chest freezer was added.   In short order, parts of the new house were functional even before it was insulated. The thick marine plywood floors could be easily drilled for plumbing.  Used cabinets and the electrical panel (also bought used) were easily mounted to the steel walls in the new laundry room and hooked up by a licensed electrician.

Then I installed more vertical studs on the exterior walls, screwing them flat, directly to the steel walls from the inside.  The two-inch depth of the studs is perfect to frame the 2 inch thick insulation panels.  Next, I ripped some treated deck boards and screwed them horizontally into the vertically oriented studs. I nestled another 1 inch layer of insulation panels between the deck boards and on top of the 2 inch ones.  That makes three inches of solid foam insulation on the walls, almost what you would have in a commercial walk-in freezer.   With the insulation in place the difference was immediately gratifying.  The space, while not yet aesthetically pleasing, was comfortable and livable.  People interested in sustainable housing often speak of the relative advantages of insulation vs. thermal mass.  With the container house, you get both!  By putting the insulation on the outside, tons of steel are on the interior where the mass absorbs, retains and radiates heat or cold from AC, wood burning stove or other heating system.  This thermal mass helps keep interior temperatures relatively even.  Meanwhile, the insulation on the exterior keeps the extreme temperatures outside.  Another benefit of putting the insulation on the outside is that it doesn’t eat up precious interior space.  Finally, top off the insulation with exterior siding, and Wa-La, it’s beginning to look pretty nice.  Eventually, as time permits, I am thinking of cladding the exterior with cord-wood harvested from the property to give it a rustic feel.

A trip to Dalton, Georgia, just across the Tennessee border was well worth it.  Dalton is the carpet and flooring capital of America.  I found a great deal on commercial quality carpet squares that stay in place without glue or tacking.  You can easily replace just the soiled or worn ones.  Granite tiles go under the wood stove and vinyl for the kitchen and bath.  I love the look of the corrugated steel walls.  Granted, they aren’t the smooth drywall look most people are accustomed to, but something a little different is nice.  So, keep the variation in the walls.  Simply paint them with some lively colors and accent the larger reinforcing members and doors with a contrasting color.  It wouldn’t be hard to overlay the steel walls with drywall or paneling, but if you enjoy a different look and like saving the time and money, paint works just fine.  I especially like the back-splash wall behind the kitchen sink.  Blending several vibrant colors, you can create a rainbow effect that gives life to the kitchen.  The deep corrugation in the steel is perfect for up or down lights that wash the wall and intensify the colors.  “Inexpensive”, “innovative” and “attractive”.

CONEX guest house kitchen

As you work with these big steel boxes, there are endless outlets for creative innovation to be discovered.  Once set on the level, you have already conquered the carpenter’s primary challenge – plumb, level and square.  After that, it’s just a matter of hanging stuff on them.  Rather than try to make the finished product look and act just like the surrounding cracker-box tract houses, it’s fun to  tease out the unique benefits of building with them.  From thermal mass/insulation qualities to the unique undulating aesthetics of corrugated walls, to very serious economic benefits, there is  a lot to be learned and achieved with steel shipping container construction.

This project is only the beginning.  The goal is to make this little house sustainable and off-grid with the same kinds of economic savings.   Use Solar PV (photo-voltaic), but spend $10k or less to do it.  Use hydro-electric from the 50′ waterfall nearby and wind.  Integrate and balance these complementary renewable power sources for both the house and transportation.  Use the battery pack on a golf cart to flexibly store and supply energy to the house, the cart and portable applications like running an electric chain saw or MIG welder somewhere out on the 750 acres that make up the Village.  Folks in the Village on Sewanee Creek are looking for the freedom that intelligent, frugal, debt-free design can afford.  We’re experimenting with these and other abundant lifestyle solutions.  Thankfully, we share and help one another in our common goals, so I don’t have to do it all myself.

If this appeals to you, contact me for more info or a tour here

More shots of the completed guest house are in my talk on sustainability at the University of the South

10/16/17 read about, see new photos of this updated house, now available to experience for yourself at Stay in our Amazing CONEX Tiny Home

 

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Why We Tip

Some time ago, Fred posted a somewhat inscrutable comment that said something like the things we are embarrassed about can be the glue of like-mindedness.  Fred’s comments are usually thought-provoking and I have thought about it frequently since then.  Apologies in advance if I misinterpret embarrassment as guilt, but it’s a good segue, so I’m going for it.

I received a link to this NPR piece on Why We Tip from an old food-service website subscription.  It piqued my interest.  Its conclusion is that most people tip out of generalized guilt.

Despite that I spent my entire career in food service, with the accompanying social tipping pressures, I am an inconsistent tipper at best.  I have been told that I’m just plain cheap.  I choose to call it frugal, but that’s not the real reason or the point.

I believe deeply in the effectiveness and goodness of clear rewards and consequences for behavior.  If there is anything in my life that was successful and I am proud of, it is my children.  My approach to fathering was to let natural consequences be the primary teacher.  I chose to be a poor buffer and a good mirror.  It worked fabulously.  My kids were and are wonderful, exceeding me and my expectations in every way.

Apply that philosophy to tipping.  It is nothing less than a metaphor for life.  Early in my food service career, I was taught and completely bought into the story that tipping began in medieval rough-and-tumble road houses as an incentive for good service.  Simple and straight forward.  Get the food to me from the cook before it gets cold or spoils.  I will pay you for your extra trouble.

When I get poor, inattentive, surly service I often respond with either no tip or a penny to send a clear message.  I feel no guilt because I have done the right thing.  My intentional action has the potential to result in a positive change that could make the world a little nicer place, at least  for the next patron…. Or not…  At that point it’s out of my hands and rests firmly with the server who will either change the behavior for better tips or become more surly and angry at me.  Their move, but at least I have provoked a conscious choice.

On the other hand, when I get really good service, I take genuine pleasure in rewarding the server with a generous tip.  I often go out of my way to clarify the message by commenting to them and/or the on-duty manager what a pleasure it was for our paths to have crossed.  I don’t need one of those impersonal, anonymous comment cards.

I was once told that what we are building here at the Village is an “intentional community”.  It occurs to me that I have been trying to live all my life out of intention.  That is, I think, the opposite of living out of unthinking, guilt-based, or unexplored and poorly understood traditions.

To be clear, I am no saint and no stranger to feelings of guilt.  But as I look back on my life, I find that the things I did that worked and I am proud of, almost always came from a positive, intentional motive.  Actions starting from guilt often lead nowhere but to more guilt with unintended results.  As a motive for quitting a bad or ineffective behavior, I like natural consequences a lot better than nagging, amorphous, brooding guilt.

I am consciously working to build a culture at the Village  on Sewanee Creek  that is intentional and therefore positive.  A place of continuous learning, endless creativity, openness to exploring and recognizing the beauties of this world in their stark, truthful and sometimes harsh natural reality.  Nature is a great teacher.  I guess a certain amount of guilt is sometimes useful, but I hope that the glue of our like-mindedness will be made mostly of intention.

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Surround yourself with Extraordinary People

What do you want to surround yourself with?
I wanted to write something for you about this, so I Googled “surround yourself with” and here is the advice that came up on the first page.

I agree.  I NEED to surround myself with the best, the extraordinary, so that I can become my best.  That’s easier said than done.  It takes work to attract and keep the best in your life, especially if you are looking for people who are better than you are.  I have spent the last five years of my life with that single-minded goal, to attract extraordinary people to the Village.  Our list of permanent residents is still small, but it includes people of extraordinary talents, skills, accomplishments, experiences and character traits.   To name a few, these highly accomplished people, all with post-graduate degrees in their field and stellar life accomplishments, include among their skills:  published philosopher and writer, chemist, plant geneticist, musician, Sr. business executive, successful entrepreneur, web developer, teacher, world travelers, electronics/communications expert, linguists, etc.  If you include those who have purchased land but have not yet built and moved in, the list becomes too long.  Overlaid on these skills are values of hard work, positive thinking, humility, mental toughness, creativity, generosity, mutual caring, independence, self-sufficiency and a strong desire to be part of a cohesive, sharing community.

Have you noticed that on my website, the request for information page includes a text box that asks an unusual question?  “Tell us a little about why you are interested in living in the Village on Sewanee Creek and what you would bring to the community as a neighbor.”  Do you know of ANY other developments where land is offered for sale, but applicants are asked to justify their contribution in terms other than dollars?

I don’t refer to myself as a “developer”.   My primary focus is building this community, so my business card says simply “founder”.  Unlike developers whose work focuses exclusively on subdividing, meeting government codes and selling, I actually live here and have different, vested, personal interests.  So I spend the bulk of my time blogging to attract extraordinary people, then interviewing and observing to understand whether they would be happy and contribute here.  When a person buys land in the Village, only a little of the value they are getting is in dirt, trees, creeks and a nice view.  They are buying years of my single-minded labor to assemble a community, a circle of extraordinary people.  For some, it is hard to recognize tangible dollar value in that.  Those who think the above quotes are only nice platitudes won’t join us in the Village.   They are unlikely to commit to the lifestyle we aspire to or even discover my website with its carefully crafted key search words.  And that is good.  We aren’t looking for average people who have money but don’t get it.

For those who strive to surround themselves with greatness, with people who will lift you higher, people who are like-minded, passionate, intelligent, creative and so on, to these the beautiful land is a nice incidental.

That Village residents understand and value this was recently demonstrated to me by one of them.  We were on an outing together to Nashville to see my favorite play, Les Miserable.  As we drove together I took the opportunity to discuss some community business.  I mentioned that property values in the Village have stayed significantly higher than any nearby as indicated by recent sales.  I sought their views on changes to the covenants because I want to make them as minimally restrictive as I can while maintaining the beauty, tranquility and productivity of the Village.  A Villager with two young children dismissed higher property values.  “Resale value is irrelevant to me”, he said.  “I plan to live here the rest of my life.”  Then he added, “I just want to be sure you will continue to be selective with the quality of my new neighbors.”  BTW, this young, extraordinary man is our post-graduate philosopher/writer/entrepreneur and I would say he gets it.

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I like liberals

despite the fact that I am not one.  

I know I’m venturing into dangerous territory, the no-mans-land between opposing trenches.

I am conservative, and cautious, sometimes fearful, repressed, yet sometimes driven.  People like me keep the world from spinning out of control or at least we like to think we do.  We live within our means.  We save for the future.  We plan for the worst.  We are captivated by a steep moral code that puts boundaries around our lives.  Boundaries make us and others around us feel safer.  We’re fairly predictable.  Politically, we demand fiscal sanity; recognition of what is real.  We analyze the data, find trends and, unless we anticipate something huge happening to reverse the momentum, we generally expect trends to continue.

But there’s another side, buried deep inside of me, that cries out to be creative.  It is an irrepressible force that bursts out of its cave from time to time with a defiant roar.  That creative urge demands that I sheer off the constraints, think unthinkable thoughts, and believe the unbelievable, that insoluble problems can be solved simply, damn the data.  A liberal thought might be something like there is plenty of money to go around to feed the hungry, clothe and house the poor from government coffers that can somehow be magically filled simply by printing more money or redistributing it from the rich.  It is an urge that tells me mankind is basically good, that despite the endless trail of failed utopian societies that depended on people to be unselfish, love others more than themselves and share without restraint, utopia is possible and deserves to be attempted yet again.

Fortunately, my primary self reasserts and I usually come to my senses.  I realize that communes where all property is held in common never survive long, not in a pure form.  Almost nobody loves others better than or even equal to themselves even if there have been one or even a few exceptions.  And though I try to be otherwise, that includes me almost all the time.  That’s why I recognize that personal ownership of property is essential.  Without personal ownership, we typically slide into sloth and “poor greed”.  That is, the back side of the greed coin most people attribute only to the wealthy, which is “driven greed”.  In the end, greed is a problem everywhere.  It is not limited by class.

Consider two unlikely questions together.  “Why do I like liberals?” and “How often do arch-conservatives excoriate liberals as the cause of moral corruption and America’s destruction?”  “Rome is falling because of the damned liberals.”  If you hang around Republicans the refrain is familiar.  These two questions together remind me of another odd couplet.  “Why do I love my wife?”  And “How many jokes are there about men who can’t ask for directions, won’t put the toilet seat down and women who refuse to think logically.”  Why do I love my wife even if she drives me nuts?  Maybe it’s because I need her so desperately.  In the balance between the yin and the yang of our profound but natural differences, something magical happens.  Two halves make a whole.  Take away either half and you have . . . a hole.

If we were a culture made up only of conservative accountants, who would plant the beans to be harvested, much less counted?  (That is NOT to say that only liberals are productive, LOL.)  Or, more accurately, who would dream the big dreams, take the leaps of faith, think outside the steep walls, invest their life savings on an impulse that has less than a 1% chance of success, yet ends up surprising everyone with cold fusion?  Those are liberal, throw caution to the wind, faith-driven impulses.  When I was young, my avowed liberal private sax teacher often said I must play with abandon to be any good as a jazz musician.  There is something liberating in being liberal that allows people to abandon reason, take illogical leaps of faith, and come up with something totally unexpected, fresh, new and good.  It is the ultimate expression of faith.

Isn’t it a bit ironic then, that faith in God, is generally thought of as more natural to the politically conservative side of the aisle while atheism is associated with the educated liberal elite?

Of course, the argument favoring the flip side of the yin/yang equation is equally important and, if you are basically conservative, I don’t need to elaborate.  If you’re not, well, you just don’t get it, do you?

That conservative/liberal dichotomy helps explain to me why the art community seems to be disproportionately full of liberals.  I love art.  There is nothing that validates me more than when I feel creative.  I love creativity, whether I observe it in the scientific laboratory, in the tinkerer’s back yard, the artist’s easel or an inspired jazz improvisational performance. 

If I love creativity, how can I help but love and need creative people?  Many if not most happen to have a wide liberal streak running through them.  There’s an old cliché that I think applies equally in love, politics and life.  “Can’t live with ‘em and can’t live without ‘em. 

And so it is; I like liberals.

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Mechanical Art of Self-Sufficient living at the Village on Sewanee Creek

My father was the kind of artist who regularly built amazing things out of discarded trash. If he didn’t have the right tool he didn’t go to harbor freight to buy it, he just built it. He grew up on a farm, dreaming of becoming an aviator, building working scale model airplanes, whittling balanced propellers from sticks. During World War II, he became a mechanical flight engineer on bombers in South Africa and Italy. After the war, he built helicopters for the military as a civilian in San Diego.

He built both houses that my brother, sister and I grew up in. One of my fondest memories was when he took Spring Break off of work to help me build a dune buggy from an old ’49 Chrysler sedan. It wasn’t the best choice to start from, but one we had sitting in the back yard. Another treasured memory was building a canoe from scratch that we took down the Colorado River together during another spring break. He was also a skilled oil painter, wood worker, mechanic, welder, electrician, stone mason, worm farmer, dabbler in solar energy, and the list goes on. You name it, he could do it. If he didn’t know how, he tinkered with it till he figured it out.

My parents never owed anyone a dime for either of the houses they built or the land they were built on. When my father passed away, my brother and I went to his workshop to divvy up the tools. We were shocked to find how little was there. His creative ingenuity was amazing. He was an artist in every sense of the word and my ideal model of a Mechanical Artist.

In my career I took a very different path from my father. I was white collar all the way, never developing the skills he spent a lifetime refining. Yet I continuously longed to express myself artistically as he did. I have a dream that some day the Village will be filled with people who have the same desires. These will be men and women with varied experience and talents. None of them will be afraid to get their hands dirty. All will be driven with a desire to create and share wonderful things that make our lives easier, more beautiful, more fun and more practically sustainable.

Please share your ideas on things we can build – together.

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3rd Annual Independence Day Celebration @ the Village

An independent, self-sufficient lifestyle is one element that defines the Village.  So, Independence Day is OUR day, our 3rd annual.

We will start celebrating on Friday the 3rd with a double feature on the big screen under the stars in our amphitheater.  Call for an invitation to join us.  You might even consider bringing a tent or RV to camp out near by.

The 4th will start out with an early flag ceremony.  Bring a flag to plant in a field of flags.  Celebrate the freedom and independence promised by our constitution.  At the amphitheater stage, we plan to have bluegrass and country music with some free form jamming.  I’ll bring my sax.  You’re welcome to join in.  You can hike and explore our 500 acre nature preserve.  In the evening, villagers will share a potluck dinner and fireworks.

If you would like to join us, please RSVP us at (931) 442-1444.

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Sustainable Living Progress Report

Progress Update

OK, so I have been really bad about posting updates lately. That’s because I’ve been working hard on projects and I’m dog-tired at the end of each day.  The good news is that we’re moving forward with lots of cool stuff here.

Thanks to my wife, the greenhouse is planted and lots of little sprouts are poking their heads up. The weather has gotten warm enough to shut down the greenhouse furnace for now. Daytime temps are in the 70’s and greenhouse temp’s are in the 80’s and 90’s. We still need to install the shade cloth for the summer. Should be arriving this week.

We have engaged a land company on several projects. A huge track-hoe is now sitting on the property ready to begin work this week expanding the retention pond where we plan to raise cattails to be distilled for alcohol fuel and retain water for irrigation.

Chuck is making good progress on the wood gasifier that will also make fuel for the stationary generator installation. This green electricity generating system will also become an economic mainstay for producing a valuable product in the Village.  Chuck is part of the larger community web of folks dedicated to being self-sufficient. When you visit, you should make time to meet him. He’s an amazing resource and an amazing guy!

We have finished grading a large pad for a workshop / storage building. I’m excited about this prototype project because we will be using 40′ X 8′ shipping containers as the green building blocks. These large steel containers are built for ocean shipping conditions. Therefore, strong enough to handle hurricanes but inexpensive because there are millions of these things piled up at sea ports needing to be salvaged. I plan to face the sides of them with oak slab paneling – a FREE byproduct of local saw mills and insulate them with recycled insulation from the many commercial chicken houses that have closed near here. We will install roof trusses with a pitched steel roof and, once again install tanks to collect rainwater for irrigation. The shop will be heated in winter from the same outdoor wood furnace that will heat the greenhouse and two other homes. So, when we’re done, we’ll have a state-of-the-art green facility that costs not a lot more than our sweat equity and has an attractive, rustic look to boot.

Now for the part that really gets my creative juices going. We have purchased three of these containers – two for the shop and a third one that will be used to hosue the screen and backstage at the amphitheater. By this year’s third annual July 4th event we hope the amphitheater will be fully and permanently functional. The stage container will also house electronic sound equipment, a small kitchen and serve as a multipurpose community center.

My brother has been here for the past month working on his house and helping with all these projects. It’s great to have like-minded people who you love focused together on the same goals and having fun at it.

It seems that the worse the economy gets the better it is for the people in the Village.

We look forward to seeing all of you soon.

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An Abundant, Low-Impact Christmas

Back again after a relaxing Christmas holiday. This was perhaps our most low-impact Christmas ever. We just vegged in our cozy home with the sounds of the babbling brook just outside our back door while we worked together assembling a big puzzle. I’m not usually one for puzzles as they seem like a waste of potentially productive time. But sometimes that’s just what we need as background to slow-flowing, deep conversation with those we love most.

Our absence of focus on things commercial was periodically interrupted all Christmas morning as we took turns asking each other,
“well, should we take a break to open presents?”
Followed quickly by, “Naah, there’s no hurry”.
I think that puzzle strangely resembled our compost pile in that it slowly created rich soil for discussion with our teen-age daughter. I had no time left for blogging, gardening or anything else. Without a doubt, it was the highest and best use of my time for the holidays.

I want to recommend some of the gifts I received, particularly two sets of wonderful books. This morning I’ve been absorbed in Bill Mollison’s seminal work, Permaculture Design Manual. I’m also looking forward to consuming Dave Jacke’s Edible Forest Gardens (both for knowledge and the fruits). Both are huge repositories of knowledge on sustainable living. These are the gifts that truly keep giving for a lifetime.

I just got a call from a new friend who flew in to Nashville last night and is on her way for a visit to the Village. We have carried on a delightful correspondence and are looking forward to welcoming her into our family for a couple of days.

We hope your Christmas has been as relaxing and peaceful as ours. God has surely blessed us with all we need and much much more. We live in marvelous times.

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Top 9 Antidotes for hard times

While there is some really good news happening at grass-roots levels with thinking people, there is plenty to be concerned about and to prepare for. I always try to stay positive in my communications.  Sometimes, that is only possible because I’m feeling well prepared and getting more independent every day.

Prepared for what? Read the articles in the link below.
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/BreakingNews.html

So, how have I prepared?  My private website, “the friends of Sewanee Creek” chronicles that preparation over the past two years. A long time ago, on our forum, I outlined what I consider to be the key elements of preparedness.

Recently I was told by a prospective Villager that what attracted him to the Village is our “authentic” marketing. I think anyone who visits and witnesses how we have focused our resources will plainly see that our interests are in sustainability over green window-dressing. That’s intentional.

We want neighbors who are intelligent, aware, resourceful and ready to contribute within a community that is ready to roll up their shirtsleeves and create real value – together. I don’t think that happens with slick marketing that glosses over the challenges with an appeal to a cushy, yuppie-luxury lifestyle. We have found from experience that our marketing message doesn’t appeal to the masses whose primary objective is ease and comfort and are in denial about what has already happened in our world. That’s a good thing.

Authentic? You bet. Here’s what my family have accomplished over the past two years:
I started with the absolute essentials to sustain life.
1. WATER:
Secured an independent and renewable water supply using rain water catchment.
2. FOOD:
Secured our independent year-round food supply. We set up an intensive garden, improved the soil, began organic composting, implemented a renewable, independent irrigation system, planted, worked and learned how. Built rabbit hutches and began raising rabbits. Bottom line, we raised about 80% of what we ate this summer in addition to canning and preserving a substantial amount for the winter. We are now completing a greenhouse, roughly twice the size of our garden. This winter, our objective is to learn how to raise all the food we need to sustain our family year round.
3. SHELTER:
Built a comfortable, sustainable home right-sized for our needs that incorporates passive solar heating, good insulation, multiple redundant heat sources and potable, independent water supply.
4. FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE:
Financially secured our home and personal land and all personal assets, free and clear of all debt.  Paid off all bank debt on personal property.
5. ENERGY / TRANSPORTATION
Secured renewable transportation. Purchased an all-electric plug-in vehicle that provides adequate transportation between our home and Tracy City.
6. ENERGY / HEAT & ELECTRICITY
Planning to build and implement low-cost renewable, energy solutions for home and greenhouse heat and electricity generation.
7. COMMUNITY / EXTENDED FAMILY:
Educated my extended family about impending failures of global finance, energy and food supply, social disintegration and opportunities of sustainable living. This resulted in a commitment to gathering of family and co-investment in renewable assets and permaculture living.
8. COMMUNITY / THE MOUNTAIN:
Developed relationships with resourceful people who live a sustainable life style in the larger community to provide opportunities for trade of skills, information and other critical resources.
9. COMMUNITY / THE VILLAGE:
Planned, developed and facilitated government planning approvals for the Village. Built key facilities to promote Villager interaction and appreciation of natural assets – the amphitheater, community garden and trails.

Reduced costs on property and slashed prices to attract the right kind of self-sufficient, independent and responsible people to our community at the lowest possible, sustainable cost.

My family and I are at peace with our preparedness and action plans for the future. It has taken more than two years of concentrated effort to achieve that. Most days if you visit, you will find my wife and I personally on the land working with our own hands, learning, building and growing. It’s a big change in lifestyle from that of a senior executive. It is not without its challenges, but we love it. We have a sense of personal connection and accomplishment with what we are building, not to mention the thrill of living in close connection with the beauty and rhythms of nature.

Are you comfortable about your future? If you are one of the intelligent, resourceful and aware people, not in denial, ready to go to work, aware that it will take time, work and the help of other like-minded people, but confident of your own ability and drive to live sustainably, please don’t delay another day. The time to prepare is now.

Having made the transition, having done it, we can confidently help you make the transition too.

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Amphitheater, Community & Movie Reviews

As some of you know, I’m an unabashed movie lover. I got my start when I worked for Blockbuster Video years ago doing international development in places like Japan, Brazil and Thailand.

Since then I have built several home theaters, one with a small stage. From that experience I learned the power of having an active venue that brings people together for expression, entertainment and education. We regularly invited friends with their families to enjoy a movie and some light refreshments or a barbecue. It frequently amazed and delighted me when, as the adults enjoyed some light conversation and prepared the food, the kids would disappear into the basement only to reappear an hour or so later. They would announce that they had put together a skit and wanted us all to come down to the theater to watch them perform. What a joy that was! That experience brought us all so much closer together.

We began to actively plan our social visits by choosing a short play in advance and doing reader’s theater with our friends. It was easy, required no memorization, but brought out new sides of our friends that we hadn’t seen and it brought us closer together. Similarly, enjoying a stimulating movie together followed by some discussion created links of mutual understanding.

That’s why, as we work to build a close-knit community at the Village, the first thing we built is the landscaping for the amphitheater and a simple stage.

When we have enough people resident on the property to assure some oversight, we will install the large movie screen that we have already acquired and set it up with low power FM broadcast, a projector and media player. Meanwhile, we will temporarily use our smaller 12′ screen on an as-needed basis at the amphitheater and in our home, that now boasts a comfortable home theater. We have a standing offer for Movie night at the Millers pending RSVP.

As for content, like just about everything else in our lives, we enjoy being a bit eclectic. Recently I have felt a sense of responsibility to share and educate others about the need to live a sustainable life.

Here are a couple of recommendations for documentaries I have recently viewed that I think do an excellent job of speaking to two of the four important elements of sustainability that are part of our mission, renewable energy and food. You can rent these from Netflix (my current favorite source).

They are:

* The Future of Food: a sobering look at the industrialization and control of our food chain. This one will make you want to start your own garden – soon.

* Car of the Future: A humorous approach hosted by Click and Clack, the tappet brothers of NPR “Car Talk” fame with an optimistic view of what is achievable and already achieved.

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Arts and the University at Sewanee

University of the South

Sewanee Cathedral

Here’s a link to an article posted in today’s The Tennesseean, Nashville’s paper.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/FEATURES0502/804270306

It highlights how wonderful it is to have the University (locals call it simply “Sewanee” or as it says in the article, the domain) nearby.

Several of you have mentioned the importance of a local arts community like the one around Asheville, NC. The article alludes to several artists in and around the domain, but there are many more tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the larger “mountain community” that includes the towns of Sewanee, Monteagle and Tracy City where we are located.

In case you are wondering about the connection with our name, the Village on Sewanee Creek is some 20 minutes drive from the town and campus of Sewanee. We derive our name from Sewanee Creek that flows through our Village. I added “the Village” to our name completely unaware of the use of the term as it applies to the domain. I just wanted to capture in our name my intense interest in building a strong local, integrated and self-sustaining community. I think the word village best expresses this ideal.

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Tennessee Mountain Community

I’m intensely committed to BUILDING a close-knit, self-sustaining community of like-minded, intelligent and resourceful people within the Village on Sewanee Creek.

But there is a sustainable mountain community surrounding the Village proper already in existence.  It is filled with highly resourceful people who already know how to live joyfully in good times and hard times in harmony with nature and people.  Let me tick off just some of the resources that surround us here.
– Band Saw Mill within 1/2 mile.
– Free Range Cattle within 1 mile.
– Free Range Chickens within 1/4 mile producing free range eggs.
– Bees that produce local honey
– Worm Farm (one of 3 largest in the US) produces worm casting compost for organic gardening (not to mention fishing worms)
– Many small and medium acreage farmers and a well-organized web based farmers market selling everything from organic soap to indigenous herbs and ornamental shrubs to organically grown vegetables and delivering them to your door.
– Greenhouse within 1.5 miles producing sprouts for flowers and vegetables.
– Many skilled craftsmen in masonry, timber frame and traditional construction.  Strong Mennonite community in nearby Altamont.
– An artist community within about 2 miles that features experts in welding, glass blowing and pottery.
– Two mid-sized supermarkets, 2 dollar stores and a home improvement center 5 minutes away for every day shopping.
– Outstanding educational and cultural institutions that span Kindergarten to University within 20 minutes.

As we build the Village, it’s good to know that a larger wonderful village already envelops us.  There is a certain peace of mind being anchored in such a community.  We are truly blessed to be in this part of the Tennessee Mountains.

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“Intentional Community” or just an “Old-Fashioned Neighborhood”?

Much has been written about the “Intentional Community” or “Eco Village” where like-minded altruistic people band together to create an idyllic, Utopian lifestyle. We intend to enjoy an abundant community lifestyle without the pitfalls.

Despite best intentions, about 90% of these social experiments fail for different reasons including: – Unclear Vision or Mission – Common Ownership of assets that creates a crucible of conflict. – Insufficient resources to accomplish community goals. – Consensus government without the skills required to manage conflict or reach consensus. – Unrealistic expectations of a life of simple ease, basking in nature’s glory while leisurely tending a communal garden. History records that most IC’s never get off the ground, quickly crumbling into internal bickering and cynicism. See http://ic.org for some thought provoking insight.

The Villagers of Sewanee Creek believe there’s a better model of Intentional Community that simply harks back to an old, proven institution, one that survived the test of time before our unsustainable modern lifestyle of extreme suburban mobility isolated us from one another and blew it apart. Read the rest of my BLOG and you will see that there are many elements of Intentional Community which we share.

So, what’s different about our model from unsuccessful IC’s and why does it work? In the Old Fashioned Neighborhood Model:

  • The burden of common ownership or shared livelihood is not imposed on its members. In its place a good measure of independence with private property ownership keeps everyone accountable for their own life.
  • It is not a commune of social dropouts, lacking the financial resources to function in the real world. There is a cost of independent ownership that provides a necessary screen.
  • Only critical assets that would be unsustainable or impractical to hold individually are held in common. –
  • Group Participation in community activities is optional, although encouraged. It is no longer a burden, but a joyful choice.
  • A conscious effort is made to organize healthy activities using the assets of the Village. The clubhouse is, therefore, not eye candy built to make the development look nice. It has a purpose and is in constant use.
  • The community garden is in place and functioning at the outset so that as people move here, community assets are already actively in use in a scalable fashion.
  • Those who desire privacy and personal space (and who doesn’t at times?) are welcome to as much of it as they like. For those who are ready for something other than isolation, it’s ready and waiting.
  • It would be tempting to call this an “active adult community” also a popular model for retiring baby boomers, except that the Village strives to attract people who are (1) diverse in age, (2) diverse and accomplished in their talents and interests, and (3) want to interact with others to enrich their life experiences in diverse ways; and they take personal responsibility to make that happen. Hence, it is not a specialized golf community although there are wonderful golf courses nearby. Take the word “Adult” out and it’s closer to what we are. We are an “Active Community” with a purpose.

Hmmm… Maybe we are a hybrid, an “active  eco-community“? What’s the glue that holds the Village together differently from your typical suburban neighborhood? – People who choose to live here are attracted to the village because of shared values,  their love of nature, including the earth and all living things. People with those values tend to care about other people as well. They are the kind of people who go out of their way to help each other.

People choose to live here because of a clear, articulated vision that emphasizes the importance of community – caring for other people. They like people. They understand that life is enriched by sharing with other people. They seek to learn from others who have something to share and they enjoy teaching from the wealth of life experiences they have accumulated. They are the kind of folks who might intentionally linger on their front porch at dusk not to miss a neighbor strolling by. They also take comfort that, in a pinch, their neighbors would go out of their way to help, just as they would. And they know that’s not an idle promise because people who live here have first made the effort to be independent with things like renewable energy so that they have the personal resources to give back and become interdependent. I call that “provident living“. Subtle things, you might think. But then, the best things in life aren’t forced, but are the natural outcome of making wise choices about simple things that are often overlooked.

People will be either the problem or the solution. And I guess that brings us back to the word “intentional“. I believe good people of good intent in the right environment are the solution. Call us what you like. We are simply, the Village on Sewanee Creek.

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Is There a Prepared Community Out There?

Pick up today’s newspaper and you will likely be hit with news of surging grain prices, “peak oil”, changing weather patterns, flooding, drought, economy woes, terrorist threats, war….  Bummer!  So, toss the newspaper and just hunker down, right?

At the Village we see a bigger picture.  “Being prepared” for life at The Village on Sewanee Creek is made into a full, joyous lifestyle.  This “intentional community” plan is based on sustainability, self-reliance, and unity in a drop-dead gorgeous piece of nature in Tennessee where 500 of the 750 acres is set aside for a nature preserve, shared by Village neighbors.

Why Tennessee?  While the Village could have been founded anywhere, there’s a certain allure about a state that has:
–  no income taxes,
–  low property taxes,
–  low cost of living,
–  lush, green woodlands,
–  rocky bluffs overlooking canyons and streams,
–  and a diverse culture from “mountain folks” who know how to live simply to academia.  (The ivy league University of the South is nearby with its rich cultural offerings).

Sustainable living at The Village is an old-fashioned concept with insightful new applications on four levels:

Energy:  10% of the purchase price of a lot up to $10,000 is rebated for building with alternative energy such as solar, geo-thermal or wind.

Food:  A community garden is maintained with help from a horticulturist and an organic gardening coach.

Water:  Rain water collection systems are encouraged and the rebate offered may also be applied here.  Most food storage would be useless without water.  Many who have rainwater collection systems are able to be completely independent of municipal water for both household and garden use, even during drought years.  Municipal water lines are still available, of course.

Community:  The most important thing that distinguishes the Village on Sewanee Creek is the sense of community.  Hiking and biking trails wander through pristine woodlands and past waterfalls through the 500 acre nature preserve.  A community garden brings neighbors together in America’s favorite pastime, gardening.  On the cleared bluff is a common area with breath taking views of the canyon and the mountains beyond.  An outdoor pavilion and barbecues will welcome you for a picnic or to watch a spectacular sunset, or even to linger for an outdoor movie.  A natural rock amphitheater surrounds a stage and large screen where family movies are shown against the backdrop of a starlit sky.

Located between Chattanooga and Nashville, the 750 acre Village on Sewanee Creek is placed in a rural setting, with shopping, restaurants, etc. an easy 5-25 minutes away.

Whether you’re looking for your primary residence in a prepared community, a beautifully located retirement or vacation retreat, or a second home safe haven, The Village on Sewanee Creek is an ideal choice.  Prices for a two acre lot start in the low $30’s.  One-of-a-kind home sites feature stunning bluff views, creeks and magnificent waterfalls.

I have seen the world from many angles having spent 30 years as an executive in international business.  I’ve worked in over fifty countries and have seen the way societies all over the world function, noting the ever decreasing self-reliance of our own.  My experience with and love for people, cultures and places around the globe were instrumental in developing a unique philosophy on the development of a diverse, healthy, intelligent, intentional community in harmony with people and nature.

All in all, It’s not just prepared living.  It’s joyful living.