The New Cluster Meets Elder Naj and Aleta at the Dome
The New Cluster
note-
italics is Naj talking
bold is Naj thinking
regular font is others speaking
"Wow. I haven't been over this way for a while and its so close."
If one had been blindfolded and took it off as they entered the area of Windmill Co-op, they would have thought this all looks wonderful. Well kept gardens, little green spaces and water features combined with native plants for small wildlife, including Mockingbirds. Outdoor art here and there. Someone laughing or talking nearby but unseen. Green, lovingly maintained, full of life.
Nearby, the landscape was dramatically different.
Only a couple blocks away were many dozens of vacated `homes and properties. A sort of suburban triage took place during the Slide. These nearby properties just didn't have the attributes of a viable place to live - not enough space to grow food, poor solar orientation, dependent on automobiles, not connected with others who had at least some idea of the historical changes.
Cheap food, cheap water, cheap energy, cheap mobility and a job - these basic parts of American life seemed so normal, familiar and dependable. Few would have ever imagined just how fragile the entire arrangement was.
Different stories were written nearby. Windmill Co-op, Karmalaya, Nastara and several others in the River Road area made it through the Transition and by 2035 had achieved a remarkable level of security and well being. There were clusters, then co-ops, then relations between co-ops, areas of town, partnerships with rural co-ops, The South Willamette Valley organization and finally, there was bio regional organization stretching from Ashland to Vancouver, former Canada.
This was not a planned economy, rather it was very decentralized, but where there were benefits to working together as needed. Juxtaposed to this impressive level of local and regional success were acres and square miles of urban and suburban infrastructure that could not be taken care of. Cascadia's population was greatly reduced from its maximum twenty five years earlier.
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From a bird's eye view in the summertime, one could look down at the changed River Road and see a far greener landscape than 30 years earlier. Compared to the turn of the century, the view would have looked almost completely green because the streets, driveways and parking lots were completely grown over with layer of moss along with decomposed organic material that supported a thriving community of saplings, shrubs, black berries and small trees. The roofs of many of the houses and buildings were also alive with plant life with many caving in.
Rain gutters became long and narrow seed beds thanks to composting leaves that accumulated. Perfect for plants to make a start but after 3 or 4 years, the weight became too much and gutters broke free of their rusting straps and dumped their contents to the ground below. You could still recognize the familiar grid structure of the streets because the trees growing in the streets were smaller than in yards, but virtually all human made surfaces that were not maintained were covered by deepening soil and abundant plantlife.
The one acre park down the street had become a huge vegetable garden. It still contained the playground equipment, which was rarely used. I had spoken years ago with the city landscape architect about this site becoming a community garden. His overt design was a conventional neighborhood park, but he also anticipated a very different use for that park as a community garden. The park was converted into a community veggie garden with little difficulty. Rosetta Park became the focal point of this part of the neighborhood for several years. As the Slide deepened most of the surrounding residents either moved or died. Windmill Co-op was the closest place with people living so in effect, inherited the two acre "Rosetta Gardens."
Abandoned Suburbia Near Windmill Co-op
There were ten delapidated houses between Rosetta Gardens and the Neighborhood Garden Center with the greenhouses and the bio gas. The yards were too small and the houses too large and tall for the properties to support a meaningful amount of food for the residents. The ten houses were built on land that had been part of a large plant nursery at the turn of the century. Windmill's long term plan was to eventually remove the ten houses down to the foundations. At that point, at least the small yards would have solar access for cultivation. The space within the foundations was covered with a thick layer of gravel. Reclaiming the space within the foundation for agriculture would take years to build up the soil, but building green houses supported by the foundations and using container plants inside the green houses did make sense. All that was not a priority.
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Several favorable locations nearby were being made use of. South facing walls with full sun were planted with citrus and olive. The microclimates were excellent locations for warmer climate trees. Other areas were planted with walnuts, chestnuts and pecans. All that was needed was the time to clear out the feral vegetation and replant with fruit and nut trees. We also made an inventory of useful plants in the nearby area and were able to look after them. And also to consider, just how much food did we need to produce? And for how many people?
Windmill Co-op looked towards its own interior and the Dome was the main focus. The co-op did includ several houses on the east side that remained unoccupied but were maintained. The former yards had been reworked with edible landscaping. These houses were also used for the occasional guests and also for the occasional new cluster. Windmill's vegetable and fruit needs were taken care of directly on co-op land along with the Garden Center, Rosetta Park and various other properties nearby. Windmill partnered with several rural co-ops for field crops such as grains and beans.
A hike from Windmill to co-ops even further from town was a passage over an irregular jumbled terrain of houses grown over. There were barely recognizable cars covered in vines, buckled concrete, all overseen by an emerging forest of oak, fir, cherry, walnut and feral hazelnut, not to mention the newly colonizing wildlife. One familiar with the neighborhood could still recognize where they were but that was becoming more difficult with each passing year.
We had to be conscious of travel at night between the more distant co-ops a half mile away. So much re growth meant a lot more habitat. On rare occasions, there had been sitings of cougar. What a radical change from the fussed over lawns, barbecues on summer days and plastic xmas decorations only 30 years earlier.
The neighborhood was about to welcome some new residents.
Aleta and Naj greeted them as they walked up the drive to the Dome from Horn Lane.
It was Don from Residential Services and the new cluster.
"Welcome. Great to see you Elder Naj and Aleta. Its so nice to visit Windmill. I am very pleased to introduce you to Jen, Steve, Bevin, Barber and Glenn."
The new cluster. Jen, Glenn and Steve looked relaxed while Bevin and Barber seemed a bit apprehensive. No doubt, they knew this was an important first meeting and no doubt, their lives had been in upheaval for years. Young as they were, Cascadia was the closest to civilization they may have ever experienced. They all looked fit and appeared to be in their twenties.
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We shook hands all around. Good solid handshakes.
Aleta stepped forward, "Welcome to Eugene and welcome to Windmill Co-op. We are eager to help you settle in."
Jen replied,"We are blessed to be here and we intend to make the best of our opportunities. You should know we have been well taken care of. This has been and continues to be a tremendous adjustment and we want to make the most of Windmill Co-op's good will and being in Cascadia."
Aleta replied, reassuringly, "We all have something to offer each other. We have much to share with each other."
Bevin and Barber looked at each other and visibly relaxed.
Don, spoke. "Here is the brief summary. Jen, Steve, Bevin, Glenn and Barber came across the Border three months ago at Ontario. They stayed at Basalt Transition Center for two months. They are all from what was Arkansas. Seems there are still some pockets of reasonable stability down there, particularly in the Ozark area."
Hmm. I thought. We will follow up on this.
Barber spoke."We have a variety of skills, most of them about survival. Among us, we know a good deal of mechanics, blacksmithing, felting, hunting and some agriculture. We did live in the Ozarks for most of our lives. It's a bit on the rugged side. Frankly both in the way we live and now I see, in social and cultural terms as well. There is a lengthy culture of independence in Northwest Arkansas even before all the economic crash. I was only a youngster at that time."
"The children are not blood related to any of us. But we knew their parents. Two are brother and sister and the third was a family friend. Their parents all died. We agreed to take care of them. At 7, 9 and 13, they have skills and were a great help during our journey."
"Did you all live in the same place?" I asked.
"We did." It was Jen. "Our conver stayed at about 60 or 70. There were other groups in the region. Our outer borders would overlap but by agreement, we kept our main activities within a given terrain. Of course, now and then there were disputes and at times there were fights. Stability was helped by intermarriage and Travelers. On occasions, different convers would cooperate for a muben but that was not so common."
A moment. "What is a muben?
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Muben? Yes. "A Muben was when two convers came together for a special occasion that would help both."
"Our boundaries were often ridges and cliffs, less often a river. Usually, there was either a natural or cultural feature that drew a population together. Ours was a beautiful little valley with several streams and plenty of flat area for growing food with hills rising up on all sides that were home to a great deal of wildlife. We hunted also. It was one of the most rugged parts of the Ozarks with a sizable river passing through on the south and east. A small church by one of the creeks had acted as the center of our rural community. There had even been an old saw mill. The group made use of several existing farm houses." It was Glenn who spoke.
Glenn was also Black. And the valley he described sounded remarkably familiar.
It was the first time he spoke. " A few times I know of, one conver might try to expand its area or take over a weaker group. This was always un successful and actually, has not even been attempted in recent years. There were also individuals who would travel within a larger area."
"These people were highly valued both for their skills as healers, readers and culture designers but also for the news they would bring. They were prized story tellers and helped keep the peace. I made friends with one and she invited me to travel with her for several seasons. It was a kind of apprenticeship. She was afforded a high level of respect and protection throughout the Ozarks. We visited many convers in that time and arranged dozens of muben. The skills I learned from her were quite helpful for our travels to Cascadia."
"Remarkable!" I declared. "I have heard similar but vague second and third hand accounts but not directly like this. What you are describing is a kind of Bronze Age tribal culture. Can we continue this discussion another time. I am a mentor to a group of young people, we call them Newbies. I hope you will come talk with them."
Glen continued. "I kept a journal. Not everyone in all the places we visited could read and write. It was a valuable skill, almost venerated. I, too, was fascinated by what I saw. I wasn't able to bring the journals with me but I have an excellent memory. I would be honored to speak with your students."
Don spoke. "Captivating. As you know, my work is to help facilitate our new arrivals' integration. Let's take a stroll to the house Jen, Steve, Bevin, Glenn, Barber and the children will be living in."
Aleta responded, "Ok, lets take a look at your new place and I will point out a few points of interest along the way you will all become familiar with."
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Aleta was our tour guide. "To the left, this is the Dome which serves as Windmill Co-op's community center. Its actually built onto an existing house. It was constructed eight years ago. You will become very acquainted with the Dome and soon. Let's take a right here. You will notice nearly every space has been designed both for practical use and aesthetics.
It was Glen. "This is remarkable. We've been here only a short time but, still, I have never imagined a human created place could look so beautiful. You have all created a wonderful home. And I suppose this is all common area?"
"Yes, thank you Glen. We have worked very hard. You would be even more impressed to see what this all looked like before. We had no choice but to make big changes in our lives and luckily, we had a great place to work with and by great good fortune, we already had models on the ground in real life to work with. Elder Naj and others in the area started makeing these kinds of changes well before most people even imagined our way of life was coming to an end. And yes, where we are walking here is common area. You will notice the gardens closer to houses that were more private."
Aleta continued, "We also make big use of the design technique called Permaculture. The principles and ideals of Permaculture are everywhere here."
It was Bevin who spoke. "That sounds vaguely familiar. I recall my parents talking about something like that. We had a small farm and a big part of that was making all those parts fit and work together. Tell us more."
We stopped and looked out over the landscape. One could see a few rooftops here and there. But mostly what we saw was pathway meandering trough a mix of vegetable gardens, fruit trees and what we called food forests, puncutated by the occasional art. There were no power lines, we had taken down the utility poles years ago. It was all green and blue.
It was Aleta again, "What you see here is an edible landscape. There are different elements but they all work together in terms of sun, shade, how we take care of the plants and how the plants take care of themselves in their own guilds or groupings. Permaculture works with Nature. Its about making designs to take care of human needs that fit within natural systems and use natural systems as models. Just as important as food is how the visuals of physical design can be used as a way to bring out the best in the human spirit and creativity. This place just makes you want to be happy and creative. That is just as important as the food produced. Its a sort of food for the soul as well. I think its fair to say, much our success - both social and physical needs, has been because we live in such a beautiful place. The surroundings just make people feel good and want to cooperate and work together."
"So over there, you will see a playground. It is often in use. You will become familiar with the playground as will your young people. Moving along, we are seing food forest on the left, rows of brambles and grapes on the right. We are coming up on the gazebo, a favorite place to relax in the shade. And who do we see? Its Elder Ardans. Hello Elder Ardans, nice to see you, please meet our new cluster. Elder Ardans came to Windmill about 20 years ago. She lived only a few blocks away before the Slide and had made many permaculture changes to her property. She was invited to join us with Elder Naj as her sponsor."
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"Yes," I said. "And took a big risk by doing that."
Ardans giggled that same girlish giggle. She always had a way of bringing out playful comments.
I have known Ardans for many years. We had made a promise to look after each other years ago before the Slide. We both saw it coming. Who would have known at that time where that promise would take us, right here in our neighborhood. There are a lot of stories. She pushed herself up from her rocking chair, a bit shaky and extended her hand to the new cluster.
"Welcome to Windmill. We have been expecting you and are excited to have you stay. I am eager to hear the stories you have from your journey and adventures. Naj has been telling me about a particular interest regarding where you come from. He confides in me. And you have three children with you? We have kids at Windmill and I am sure they will all make good friends. I live just over there."
Ardans pointed to a nearby house.
Steve spoke. "That's very kind of you Elder Ardans. We look forward to being your neighbor."
Aleta again. "Thank you Elder Ardans. We will be seeing you soon. Let's continue our walk. you will see more food forest on the left, vegetables on the right and yet more food forest on the right and we are coming up on your new place."
The house looked nice. Lucky we were able to salvage hundreds of buckets of paint while we could. So the house is dark green. There was a brick patio, garden only a few steps away, sliding door leading to the inside."
So here we are.
"Wow! There is no place like this where we come from. I have seen pictures in an old magazine with a house like this. Its like a dream."
"Yes," It was Don. "This is your new place. Your Windmill hosts will also help you make your place comfortable. Elder Ardans had a lot to do with the arrangement and colors inside. So here you are."
The inside was painted light purple. Much of the furniture was antique with an odd assortment of candlestick holders. The kithchen window looked out to the nearby food forest, patio area and kitchen garden
Aleta spoke, "Yes, you will meet your Windmill hosts a bit later. The place just needs to air out and be lived in. There are four bedrooms, two bathrooms. You will be included in the methane network, Park Garden, Garden Center. We will fill you in on all of that. But first, you will have a week to just simply relax. You will find food, some already cooked, just over there on the counter."
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"OK." Don continued. "This is good! Welcome."
Aleta again, " We will be leaving you now. You'll find all kinds of food, clothes. The clothes are made locally. We keep them simple and comfortable. We think it best you have some time to yourselves. We will bring your kids over before dark. And one more thing. To marrow night is story night. Would you all like to join us for dinner in the Dome, meet a lot of the crew and then fluff up some pillows and enjoy some stories?"
Aleta's invite was sure to be accepted.
"There is a map of Windmill. Everyone knows you are here. Feel free to wander around but please stay within the perimeter. You can check out your own front yard but please don't go out of the yard. As tranquil as you have seen, outside of the perimeter its a bit wilder, its best not go beyond Windmill at this point."
"I think I can speak for all of us. We would love to join you tomarrow night. We will simply relax. We have been in transit for so long and are so happy to be here. Believe us, this is an enormous relief. You are all so very kind. We are forever grateful."
"Sounds good. You are welcome. This is Cascadia. We will be bringing your kids in an hour or so. You can expect someone to check in on you tomarrow morning."
"Very good Steve, Jen, Glenn, Bevin, Barber, we will see you and your kids to marrow. Bring your appetite. Don't feel obligated to story tell, but, you are welcome to do so. Storys can be personal history, what happened yesterday, challenges we face as individuals or as a co-op or community. Perhaps a long journey. That's a hint. There is no preset agenda and we like stories."
