(Excerpted from the Governing Board's "State of the Union" letter to the community).
In 2005 we welcomed LindaVan Deusen and Colin Goggin and their daughter Charlie. Shortly thereafter Zoe arrived as the newest member of their family. Meanwhile, Ray and Marilee made good progress with the construction of their home.
In that same year we further completed some major cleanup of downed or potentially falling trees. Always an ongoing project, to varying degrees.
Our annual Maypole and Winter Solstice gatherings were well attended and enjoyed by friends of the community as well as members.
Development of the community garden progressed.
In 2006, the certificate of Occupancy (CO) on the community building was the result of many enthusiastic work parties on the building during the course of the year, with our annual Solstice gathering celebrating the completion.
We also had a Maypole in 2006 and enjoyed our first Thanksgiving in our community building.
In 2006 we welcomed another new family, the Quillens, as members of the community. They planned to rent until they could build, but were close by, and immediately felt like great additions to the community.
While several families had been home schooling, community member’s children up to grades eight began attending the Mountain Discovery Charter School. Members of the community have served on the school
Board and one member now teaches there.
We had a lovely ceremony and gathering, celebrating the marriage of Tom and Gillian and celebrated numerous birthdays.
At the end of the summer, of 2006, Esther, Wayne & Family rented out their home and temporary moved to Virginia for work opportunities. We like their renters, the Hollins, and are always glad to see Esther, Wayne and kiddos come back for visits & look forward to their return.
We were able to reach an amenable agreement with the Summerhills and the dog noise has happily diminished, as they were able to construct some enclosures.
We had major grading and graveling on the roads and met other necessary needs of the community and had continued community garden participation.
In 2007, we significantly increased community garden participation, hooked up the underground wire from the community building to the pool and removed the overhead wire and completed the storage shed.
The sacred circle meetings were resumed and we were entertained by many of our talented members, of all ages, at our various gatherings including our first mid winter storytelling in our community building. We have enjoyed many other joyful events including our second Thanksgiving in our building, as well as Linda’s Sunday worship services and another Maypole celebration.
Colin and Linda, who had been busy increasing the size of their home, welcomed another member, Henry, to their family. And Alder became a mother and Kathy a grandmother to Gavin.
Rachel moved to Boston to be with her fiance in 2007 and Micah went off to college.
Much progress was made and completion is closer on Anthony and Anne’s homes, to be part of their elder family cooperative.
We were happy to see the Quillens move a mobile home onto their property and begin construction of their future home.
