We are very sad to see Mike, Larissa, and their kids Galen and Noah leave the community.  But we wish them well on their new adventure in Atlanta.  The community is still very full, however, thanks to several new applicants.  We've got Anne, Lisa, and Betsy still in the provisional membership phase, and we've got CT, Rachel, Matt, Howard and Heart now in the 21-day visit phase.  We've also had Michelle and Ted staying with us as work-exchangers for the last couple of months.  Ted has turned out to be a bread-baker extraordinaire (Ted the Bread-Head), and Michelle is making a beautiful mosaic in the laundry room floor out of Nick's broken pottery.  I'm sad to report that they'll be leaving us this week.  Our intern Jonathan left recently as well.

Another bit of big news in the community lately is that the new large greenhouse is being finished.  Matt has been putting a lot of work into it, late into the evenings in the freezing cold, but it looks like it'll be ready for the upcoming growing season.  Matt recently wrote an article about the greenhouse that you can read here, and there are some pictures here. 

Another exciting project that we're working on is to purchase some land adjacent to the community.  Bill Anacker, who originally owned the whole valley and sold the original Heathcote plot to the School of Living back in 1965, is now in his 90's and the family is trying to sell the land that his house is on.  The community would like to buy it, and is putting together a plan that includes fundraising and financing.  If you or anyone you know would be interested in a tax-deductible donation to help preserve the land and grow the community, please contact us.

As always, Karen and the education committee have an exciting year full of workshops and classes planned, and other events will like DanceFree, music, and hot tub parties will happen over the course of the year.  If you haven't already signed up to receive the email newsletter, please create a profile now.
 

There is a lot happening at Heathcote these days.  We've had several new people join us, which has brought our numbers up to 15 adults and 6 kids.  Mike & Larissa, with their two boys Galen and Noah, have moved in and are now doing their provisional membership.  Also Gloria has completed her 21-day visit and is waiting for the room in Polaris (the staw-bale building) to be ready for her to move into so she can start her provisional membership.  We also have Betsy back, who used to be a member and is now back and taking over as lead gardener.  And then we have Anne who will be joining us to start the membership process later this month, and Steve the intern who is thinking about applying for membership.

It's been really fun to start using the wood-fired cob hot tub.  We've had a couple of hot-tub parties so far.  We're still trying to figure out how to control the fire to get just the right temperature, but we're starting to get the hang of it. 

It's hard to invite the entire wider community to these parties, since we can only fit about 5 people at a time, but if you're interested in coming to one just send us an email and we'll let you know when the next one is. There are some pictures of the cob workshop where we built the hot tub in the photo gallery if you're interested in seeing more.

There are also pictures of the new hoop greenhouse that we are building in the garden.  We got a grant from the Koinonia Foundation to build it. We're really excited about having greens and other vegetables all year 'round!