Living Sustainably ... Together.

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 15 adult residents and 6 child residents (ages from 4 to 15). We have an associate membership category for those who would like to be associated with Heathcote, but don't live here.

We are committed to creating a permaculture demonstration site at Heathcote Community where we can live sustainably in balance with the Earth and guide others on this path. We strive to foster gender balance and a diversity of culture, spirituality and thought. The Heathcote Conference Center helps us to maintain an interconnectedness to the larger society through education and community outreach. The community is run by a board of directors composed of the adult members of the community. Decisions are made by consensus at our weekly business meetings. We have each made a commitment to deal honestly with one another and to let the good of the community as a whole guide our decisions. Most of us lead busy lives and are involved in activities outside the community. We don't currently have community businesses, so each member earns income individually and supports the community through monthly contributions to cover community expenses and food. As a community, we eat dinner together each night, have weekly community meetings, participate in other regular meetings to deal with interpersonal relationships and emotions, do community work projects on the weekends once each month, and participate in quarterly retreats. You can find out more about who we are and what's important to us by looking at our core values and community vision. Also, if like pictures you can see more "group shots" that show who has lived at Heathcote over the years in our photo album.