Bella Vista!

Someone mentioned to me this week that people reading our blog might think that all we do is work!  While it is true that we have 2 workdays per month and that we do much of the work required to create and maintain our community by ourselves, we have plenty of time for play (and work can be play too!)

Tonight is a music night (we have them twice a month), Wednesday night is bookclub, Saturday is a community fire at neighboring Potluck Farm, next week there is a discussion on the book Die Wise, and on the 12th we're having a meeting to talk about our vision, our personal inspirations and how to make it really live at Elderberry.  And that's just the next two weeks!  We eat together once or twice a month, sometimes planned and sometimes spontaneous (we hope to do this more when we are all living there).  And of course all of our activities are voluntary - we all have different interests!

Today we did have another workday, this one at Bella Vista.  Bella Vista is a 11.5 acre piece of property that is jointly owned and maintained by Elderberry and neighboring Potluck Community Farm.  It has a beautiful view, and we are working over time to maintain the view by keeping the hilltop cleared (it was clear cut before we bought it).  There are a LOT of rocks, which makes this task challenging.

Today was sunny and 68 degrees and a handful of hardworking souls came out to enjoy the perfect weather and to help move rocks so that Phil could bush hog. We definitely got our exercise!

 Marj, Jim, Cathy, Dave and Mary (Dick taking the photo!)  Where the rocks are too large to remove, we build cairns on them so that they can easily seen by someone on the tractor doing the mowing.  Beautify and useful structures!

 Phil driving doing the bush hogging and helping to pry up the big rocks with the front end loader

 Jim, Marj, Dave, Mary and Dick

 There are going to be a lot of cairns!

 This is our usual spot at Bella Vista to watch sunsets and moon rises.  After working we all chilled out and watched Phil finish the bush hogging.

Looking better (there are still a lot more rocks!!)