Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Yeah, thanks for doing so. I often think, but usually need prodding to make it 'out loud'. :original:

@ Northern Sanctuary,
Consensus is the best way to steer a group, imo too. If a group is capable of being a consensus driven unincorporated nonprofit association (UNA) it has gone a long way towards ideal conditions.

The place I was speaking of was indeed consensus driven, but not a UNA. Probably should have put consensus on the "you might be in a radiant zone if" list, because it is important. Alas, even in consensus communities, processes can be subverted. ("Did that go before the House Meeting?!" :naughty:)

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

....Alas, even in consensus communities, processes can be subverted. ("Did that go before the House Meeting?!" )

A disadvantage of consensus is that it takes more time. We have a modified consensus where the person with the blocking vote is given time (3 month) to come up with a better solution, otherwise the decision goes through; this limits the "tyranny" of the minority syndrome. In the community that first used this, it only occur twice in about 7 years.

We are also looking into a trust, specifically a sovereign trust.

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

I'm miffed that one cannot access a facebook page unless one signs up for an account! Anyone have an acct that they'd like to share? juz kidding

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Hi all,

There will be a Rainbow Community meeting on Feb. 6 at 2:00pm in Montreal . There has been good progress to move ahead on all aspects of the Rainbow Community development.

The tentative agenda will be:

1. To update potential members about the latest news/ status and schedule to start construction of the community center this spring.

2. Review the events that are changing very fast on the world stage, and to discuss what the expected outlook is for the coming months for the planetary changes.

3. There are interested members both locally and out of town which have not met, so this will be an opportunity to relax, meet and talk.

4. Q & A on the Rainbow Community.


Any interested person is welcome to join. Please pm or email me at wayne49s@gmail.com.

Place to be determined.

/Wayne

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

REVISED DATE for Montreal Rainbow Community Meeting - FEB. 7/2010

Please note that the Rainbow Community meeting to be held in Montreal, originally scheduled for Sat. Feb. 6 has now been moved to Sunday, Feb. 7 due to the location being available for rental only on the Sunday.
The meeting time is still at 2:00 pm. and the location is as follows:

YMCA
4585 Sherbrooke St. West
Westmount, QC
H3Z 1E9

If you'd like to attend, you should inquire at the reception desk at the entrance of the YMCA by letting them know you are with the "Rainbow Community Group" in order to be allowed in.
They will let you know how to make your way to the room we're meeting in.

If you have questions, or need any additional info, you can PM me or NorthernSanctuary.

All are welcome! :original:

--Cosmic Dancer

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

We had a very successful meeting. There was a lot more people interested this year than last year (25). I expect this will be even more so as this year progresses. We followed up the meeting with a dinner and talked well into the evening. Here's a group photo and some pictures during the break:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/x...y/DSC00068.jpg

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Great news NS :)
Well done :thumb_yello:
No need to say your project with Love and Light.
May it be so always.

Love from me
mudra

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Symplifying Life

A chapter from the book " Nature of human Thought " by Anil K Rajvanshi

read full article here:
http://www.nariphaltan.org/simplelife.htm

"I live in a small rural town called Phaltan in district Satara, Maharashtra, India where I run a small NGO called Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI). We work in the areas of agriculture, renewable energy, animal husbandry and sustainable development.

My experiments in sustainable living for the last 25 years are as follows:

I live in a house designed by me and constructed in 1984. It is built of stone with 18” thick walls which allow tremendous thermal lag-time so heating and cooling due to ambient atmospheric temperature is delayed. It is passively cooled in the summer by laying old jute gunny sacs on the roof and sprinkling water on them two times a day. These sacs are very cheap and cost Rs. 10/m2 (1US$ = Rs. 47). The evaporating water from the sacs cools the roof from where 80% of thermal load comes into the house. Thus when the outside temperatures are about 40-450C the house is cool in the afternoon with average temperatures of rooms ranging from 25-300C. This is mostly because of thick walls and cool roof. Besides we also close all the windows and draw the drapes over them so that hot air and radiation from outside does not come inside the house. The trees surrounding the house also help. In a couple of years or so the gunny sacs are worn out because of the salts left behind by the evaporating water. These old gunny sacs are either used as mulch in the garden or burned in our hot water boiler, which supplies water for our daily bath. The water boiler is a grate-type multifuel boiler with about a 10 m long chimney attached to it. This chimney height gives an excellent draught and hence burns the wood and other material quite cleanly. In fact the water boiler is used for burning lots of different things as explained below. The ash from this boiler is used as a fertilizer in our garden either by putting it directly or composting it.

Phaltan is around 800 m above sea level and is 100 km south-east of Pune or 300 km south-east of Mumbai. Its climate is very mild 109. Still in some years during winters the minimum temperatures can reach 7-8 0C. Our house is not heated. We close the windows at night if needed and wear warm clothes and socks. It keeps us warm and comfortable.

All our kitchen waste is fed to rabbits (about 25-30 of them) who are in a cage in our garden. We do not eat them since we are mostly vegetarian. But use these rabbits to produce fertilizer (their droppings) which makes excellent manure in the garden.

All other items inedible for rabbits like egg shells, tea waste etc. are put in compost pit (with dimensions of about 1 m X 1 m X 1 m). After 2-3 months the output from this pit is used as a fertilizer in our garden.

We never waste any food. Whatever we take on the plate is eaten. The leftovers are either used next day or fed to our two dogs and cats. There is no special food for the pets. They eat whatever we eat.

We have a 2-acre plot on which our house is located. It mostly contains trees. Their leaf litter rots in the soil during rainy season and provide nice mulch. The dead branches and trees provide us the wood for heating our bath water in the boiler. In fact we always have surplus of wood so that we sell it and make a nice tidy sum.

When we purchased this land in 1981 it was completely barren and the quality of land was so poor that there would be huge cracks – big enough for whole sheep to disappear in them. Today the leaf litter from the trees and the compost fertilizer has really improved the soil quality. The soil has therefore become springy and quite fertile.

Most of our groceries and vegetables are grown within 10-15 km of our home. The eggs are from free ranging chickens, milk from cows across the road and vegetables and groceries from the local market. Most of these things are grown in Phaltan area. We use safflower seed produced on our Institute farm for crushing in local mill for oil. Thus the oil is fresh and without any chemicals.

Most of the time I still drive a 23-year-old Maruti 800cc car which transports me from point A to B comfortably. It gives me between 13-16 km/liter and is small enough to go in smallest of lanes and by- lanes of Phaltan town. For long distance driving to Pune or Mumbai (300 km from Phaltan) I use Maruti Esteem which gives me 18-20 km/liter.

We have few clothes and they are worn till they get torn. They are then used in the house as dusters and wipers and after becoming tatters are used in the water boiler to heat the water.

I wear mostly khadi or cotton spun in cottage industries. Thus I buy the cloth for my bush shirts and they are stitched by my tailor in Phaltan. This makes these shirts much cheaper than the ones purchased in the market. Khadi is a very comfortable material to wear and also makes excellent dusters and wipers after the shirts get torn.

Similarly all the papers in the office are used for writing on both sides and the used ones are brought to our house to again heat our bath water. Thus everything is recycled.

We use electricity sparingly – which is also facilitated by the Government of Maharashtra since we have 4-5 hours of power cut everyday! We have battery-powered inverters both in the offices and at home which supply enough juice for lights, fans and laptops only. So no TV or refrigerators run on them. During electricity cuts we walk, talk or read. This provides a good quality time to catch up on reading and discussions. Sometimes I think this is for the best as 24-hour electricity causes distraction with TV and other electronic media.

We do not travel very much but communicate more by phones and internet and believe that this is much more energy-efficient way of keeping in touch. With availability of broad-band internet connection both at home and in the office, it is an excellent communication and information medium.

We bring most of our groceries and vegetables in cotton carry bags and hence have little garbage of plastic. Nevertheless we cannot get away from plastic as most things come already packed in it and this is the biggest nuisance we have. We have no way to recycle it. Presently we take the plastic bags and bottles to the local garbage dump from where they ultimately go to the recycling center. Still I feel we use much less plastic than most people. Nevertheless technology for recycling of plastics in rural areas is very much needed.

We are teetotalers and drink only water, which is boiled. Thus the plastic bottles and cans of soft drinks do not litter our garden. Drinking only water is not only healthier but also helps the environment by not producing plastic bottle litter.

We buy only those things which are needed and since we live simply we do not need to buy too many things. We still use one of our 25-30 years old TV and most of the gadgets are repaired when they stop working rather than being thrown away. This reduces the garbage production and at the same time is easy on the pocket book.

The main external inputs we use are electricity, petrol and LPG for cooking. Our per capita energy consumption (from last 2-3 years data) is 15.1 GJ/yr for electricity (both in offices and home), 12.7 GJ/yr in transport (mostly for petrol for 2 cars) and 1.75 GJ/yr in cooking gas. Thus we personally consume ~ 30 GJ/person/year of energy. To this should be added the energy in India’s infrastructure which comes to about 10 GJ/person/year 110. Thus our total commercial energy consumption is 40 GJ/person/yr. Contrast this with about 350 GJ/person/year that an average U.S. citizen uses 108. Thus in 1/9th the energy that is used by an average America citizen we can live quite decently in a modern industrial society.

Our low electricity consumption results since we use only fans and CFLs and almost no air conditioning. Even in our offices we use evaporative roof cooling. The low energy usage in transport is because on an average we travel only 15,000 km/yr.

Similarly our average water consumption is 150 liters per person/day for household purposes. This is almost one-fourth that used by a U.S. citizen 111. Still we feel that this water usage can be further reduced.

Thus a satisfying and decent life style can be maintained in much less energy and water usage as compared to that in western societies and this is a lesson for our leaders who are hell bent on following the Chinese and US patterns which are both very consumptive and unsustainable.

We can make the life style even more sustainable by using locally produced ethanol in our cars and scooters and its use as cooking fuel. Similarly production of electricity from locally available agricultural residues can further help in this process 112,113. However both these things will require a community effort together with certain policy changes by the Government of India. Nevertheless if all of us become internally secure through spirituality then it can help us in living sustainably and the pressures on resources of the country can be reduced. "

Love Always
mudra

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Sorry Gnosis the post below did'nt actually describe my own way of living at the moment.
I wish I could make my life so simple though.
I realized I had given a wrong link there and omitted to mention the book this was taken from . I have corrected this now :)

Love from me
mudra

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Greetings,

I am new to this forum and still finding my way around.

I am interested in finding others in my area- particularly farms and communities.
Love to all.

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Okay, thanks for clarifying that for me. It sounded like a nice lifestyle to chill out for a couple of lifetimes of self-awakening processes, before the Grand Exit :-)

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Thanks for the welcome:original:

I am trying to find my way around the site--and still have not figured out how to send message. How do I do that?

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Excellent thread, thanks for starting.

Kevin

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Welcome in Avalon pureheart :)

To send private messages:

1) go here:

http://projectavalon.net/forum/index.php

2)then : member panel on left side of the page
3)then : private messages

or go to the member's profile and open " contact info " on top of message box .

If you want to send a message that is not private to someone go to his profile and type it in his message box.
When that member answers you on your profile to keep on the conversation going you have to do it through " view conversation " and type it in the message box that will appear then .
If you type it from the message box that is on your own profile it will just stay on your page .

Hope that helps .
Let me know

ps: as a new member you may not be able to send a PM until a certain quota of posts you make in the forum . Not sure what the current amount is . This you can check by asking one of the mods .

Love from me
mudra

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Thank you Mudra:original:

Re: Radiant zones and communities building..where are we up to ?
 

Greetings~~

I am a new member and very interested in farming and communities.

People have asked me if I feel safe where I am, and my answer for now is Yes. I live on high ground in a rustic cottage with fresh water and loads of firewood :original:


I am passionate about local fresh food, co-creating community and expressing our natural talents and abilities. I have looked at the threads relating to ground crews etc. and see little activity there, so I decided to post here.

I would also like to share this website on Intentional Communities:
http://www.ic.org/ and this:http://wwoof.org/

Change requires courage and a leap of faith~~it needs to feel right and resonate. I have been applying for farm internships in my area so I can learn.

I would love to hear from others who are like-minded or in my area.
Blessings~~