Heathcote is an intentional community located 30 miles north of Baltimore, MD and 20 miles south of York, PA. It is nestled in a narrow wooded stream valley on a 44 acre community land trust plus a 68 acre plot of woods that's owned by some of our members. We are a community of friends and family who choose to live cooperatively and consciously create a better way of life. We strive to care for one another and for the natural systems that nurture us.

Our diet is organic and vegetarian. We have several organic vegetable, herb, and flower gardens; bees; hiking trails; and stream-side hammocks. Heathcote is a drug-free and smoke-free community.

Members live in a 150 year-old grain mill, a 100 year-old farmhouse, a 200 year-old log cabin, and several outbuildings. We plan to build alternative, energy-efficient group housing with individual and family units. We are in the process of renovating the mill to improve our shared living spaces.

Our current big project is building a new strawbale house. The new residence features many aspects of green design and natural building, including strawbale, cob, natural plasters, natural paint, an earthen floor, and a masonry stove.

We currently have 10 adult residents and 4 child residents (ages from 4 to 12). We have an associate membership category for those who would like to be associated with Heathcote, but don't live here. (continued...)

Web Site Features to Check Out
	We're looking for people to come live with us here at Heathcote. Maybe you'd like to live in the new eco-friendly home we're building. Is Heathcote the place for you?.
	If you'd like to visit Heathcote, please look at the visitor page. Our calendar has a schedule of upcoming visitor weekends.
	Also, please join our mailing list to receive emails about upcoming events and natural building workshops.
	We're really excited to have had an anthropology student, Angela Greco, make a film about Heathcote! You can watch the movie to find out a bit more about us.
	For information about permaculture workshops see the Permaculture page. For long-term learning experiences, please email us and we'll be happy to customize an internship experience just for you!

	Bob is looking for people go to sailing with. Give him a call if you're interested.
	Heathcote members are starting to blog. Find out more about what's going on with individual community members.
	Visit Dana's Heathcote Earthings booth, coming soon to a festival near you.
	Our next visitor weekend will be the weekend of June 6 - 8. During the day on Saturday (June 7) we'll be having a Tie Dye Workshop. You can come to the visitor weekend even if you don't do the workshop.
	Come to Heathcote and learn to Tie-Dye on June 7! More information coming soon...
	Watch the Heathcote Movie! Take a look at our Photo Album! Visit us at MySpace!

December 2007 - Natural Building Update
It has been a long, long time since the last update on our strawbale building. This spring and summer we completed the 3 coats of lime plaster on the exterior of the building. We then put on three coats of white lime wash. So the exterior of the building is now pretty well complete. We still have final grading and landscaping to do, but that will happen spring-fall of 2008. Inside, the final coat of earthen plaster was applied this summer. Many of the ceilings and interior walls have been painted. (We are experimenting with natural paints—milk, lime, etc.) Window sills and trim are going in as well as interior doors. We have begun firing the masonry stove which helps keep the inside temperatures up. The exterior of the stove needs a bit more work before it is finished. The earthen floor will go in sometime this winter. Given how small an area it is and how difficult timing things has been, we have decided not to do the earthen floor as a workshop. We hope to move in sometime in the spring. We expect to have an open house once the building is "done."

November 2007 - We had a great summer and are starting to wind down for the cold season. We had several interns this summer and we appreciate all their help. Peggy was our intern supervisor (with some help from Karen). Some of the interns were Magda (who was here for just about the whole summer), Simone, Lili, Harriet, John, Katie, and then Niall later in the summer. Niall just left the weekend after Thanksgiving, and now we're down to just Regina, who is working with the homeschoolers in the open classroom. (continued...)