Welcome to the new Heathcote website!  We're excited to give our old site a facelift.  The content it pretty much the same for now, but we started using a web framework called Drupal, which will allow us to add lots of new features.  So keep checking back over the next few weeks to see what we come up with.  The plan is to have it be very interactive.  Let us know what you think.

It's an exciting time at Heathcote.  One big news item is that we've got a family living in the new strawbale building now!  Greg, Juji, Ursa and Avin, who had been living in the mill apartment while waiting for the new building to be finished, moved in during the July visitor weekend.  It's been a long time coming!  We still need to finish up the two units on the first floor, but the end is in sight!

Another exciting piece of news is that we built a hot-tub out of cob.  At the workshop last weekend we had a crew of about a dozen people learn how to build with cob and in the process they built a hot tub that we'll be able to use for community socializing.  They used a book called You Can Make The Best Hot Tub Ever, and hopefully it will live up to expectations.

One other thing to mention is that we've got a new family applying for membership.  Mike and Larissa have two young boys and they're looking to start the process next month.  They seem like good people and we're excited to have them join us!

Spring is here in the valley, and the flowers are out and very beautiful. The wysteria along the fence in the playground were very colorful this year.

We have some new members on the gardening committee, and the gardens are swinging into life again this year. Actually, since it was a mild winter we had a little bit coming into the kitchen from the greenhouse almost all winter.

We're glad to have Karen back from her 5-month sabbatical on the Scholar-ship. And we've been enjoying getting to know our newest member, Thia, who is going through the provisional membership process. Also, our homeschooling intern, Regina, has been here for the whole "school" year.

We've had a couple of new membership applications, including Cindy and Peter (and a couple of others who have said they'll be filling out the application soon). Right now we're concentrating on filling up the farmhouse, but the new building will be finished later this year, which will open up 3 more spaces. So membership recruitment continues to be a big focus for us.

We've had a variety of events recently, to fulfill our educational and mission (and just 'cause it's fun!). In February the open classroom had a Chinese New Year celebration, which included a parade with a Dragon! In April we had a house concert with Chris Ayer, which was well attended and lots of fun. Bob also led a bowl-turning workshop in April, which turned out some really nice wooden bowls. In May we had a 5-day leadership training workshop led by Teryani Riggs on a technique called the Zegg Forum. Keep an eye on the website for more events coming up soon, like our summertime party, dance free, and fall house concert.