Green Garden Earth

Skill and Hobby Center

noreply@blogger.com (tearslake) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:18:00 +0000

We now have a 1-hectare land in Ontario, Canada, near Meaford. We are starting off with regular events and celebrations. Next event is Siberian Cedar Planting event.

Further along we will have workbees, workshops, seminars, lectures, summer learning camps, thematic winter retreats. We are also now looking to purchase a neighbouring 100 acres for the Ontario Kins Domain Settlement project.

This is the website for our Skill and Hobby Center.

Plan for creating a sustainable community

noreply@blogger.com (tearslake) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:53:00 +0000

We now have been working closely with 7 other activists on creating an Ringing Cedars Kin's Domain ecovillage here in Ontario for several months and with no doubt are gaining managerial and communicational experience. Reading experiences from other ecovillages it seems to be a common trend to go through rough times as virtually every group goes though this. For our experience major causes for this are no common vision (or different visions among the members) and a poor planning with some stages missed or jumped over. Here is a plan based on cohousing communities plan (from: Cohousing - a contemporary approach to housing ourselves) which can be helpful to some:

Getting started

find others interested in proposal
establish an organizing group
agree on general goals, location, and financial expectations
define organizational structure and decision-making procedures; draw up initial legal agreement

Preparing a Developmental Plan

specify goals and establish priorities
select consultants - architect, financial consultant, attorney, etc.
identify potential sites
formulate developmental strategy: consider concerns of officials and neighbours, residents' role, developer's role
consider finincing options
develop a design program
draw up legal agreements for partnership or joint venture arrangement
acquire site
establish project timeline

Design and Construction Documents

develop schematic design proposal
complete design development
obtain planning approvals
secure finincing
complete working drawings and building specifications
obtain building permits
solicit and negotiate construction bids
select contractor
finilize construction contract, loan and schedule

Construction

monitor contracted work
secure mortgage loans
complete resident-built work

Move in!

As you can see it is concentrated on construction whereas this would be the least important in ecovillage plan and it also ends at moving in which also not the case with ecovillages. So for our purposes I would remove the construction stages from the plan (make it optional) and add another stage:

Develop the Vision

continue crystallizing the common goals and objectives
create a New Member protocol and procedure for accepting new members
create a set of documents describing the Vision and the village
create a long-term developmental plan
develop finincing structure for personal and communal sustainability
setup infrastructure: school, roads, possibly central electricity, hydro

In the personal field we are still working on financial sustainability. Latest news is that we are now part of the family business upgrading houses with energy-saving appliances and installing sustainable power sources. Pro Line Electric Ltd. - a company of Yulia's aunt and her husband who already have several employees and whom I have just built the website http://www.prolineelectricontario.com and Yulia is helping out with the auditing, engineering and research on sustainable and renewable energy.

Are you building a healthy community?

noreply@blogger.com (tearslake) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:27:00 +0000

As we as a society are moving from the subconsciously controlled state to a conscious state of awareness and conscious co-creation it naturally comes to attention that it is a good idea to define the vector (direction) of development and a system that would allow to track the progress and evaluate just how close are the actual results to the expected/planned results. For building an ecovillage a handy tool for this is a list of "Signs of health" (the shortened version is provided below) also found in the Finding Community book by Diana Leafe Christian (www.NewSociety.com). Of course, and as the author notes, not having one or more of these signs does not necessarily mean that the community is not healthy.

Signs of health - indicators of a healthy community.
- Community members generally seem to be upbeat and glad to be living there.
- People seem to like each other enjoy one another's company. They are warm and friendly with one another. They seem to care about one another.
- They enjoy their meals together and they often linger in conversation after dinner.
- The children seem well-cared for, happy, and confident. You see kids of different ages playing together.
- People seem to enjoy working together. The group as a whole seems proud of their community.
- People mostly listen respectfully even when they disagree or dealing with controversial issues.
- People seem generous: they loan tools and help each other's work.
- People laugh openly, and are affectionate to one another.
- People tell each other how they are feeling emotionally.
- The community buildings and common spaces are relatively clean and well-organized.
- Music and art are part of the community life. They come for evening jam or drumming circles, have art on the walls, flowers. They sing together.

Why ecovillage (intentional community)?

noreply@blogger.com (tearslake) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:01:00 +0000

One of the current problem on the society level is lack of conscious development of values and character. You don't learn that in school and the overwhelming number of parents is incapable of teaching this. An intentional community, and especially ecovillage environment assist in the self-development let alone the fact that many communities are specifically organizes with that goal in mind. Take a look at a couple of interesting lists from a book by Diana Leafe Christian "Finding Community" (see the full descriptions in the book).

What works well in a community?

- Confidence, self-acceptance, self-esteem.
- Assertiveness.
- Humility, willingness to listen and learn.
- Willingness to serve, to contribute to something larger than yourself.

Who does well in a community?

1. Someone who does not "need" it.
People who are fulfilled and effective in the world and doing well in their lives are more likely to thrive in a community.
2. Someone with a healthy sense of self.
People who know what they want, their strengths and limitations, and are on a program of personal growth for themselves, who are secure enough to seldom feel the need to defend, protect, or prove themselves.
3. Someone who is open and flexible, and able to hear and consider other points of view.
The rigit person; the aggressive, competent loner who knows best; or the person who's never worked cooperatively with others before, either don't do well in a community or change and grow enormously.
4. Someone who has a sense of connection to people, an interest in the well-being of others, and well-defined boundaries.
In the community situations which involve living closely with others each person will be affected by other people's lives and their challenges.
5. Someone willing to abide by group agreements.
A person who realizes that their identity remains intact no matter how they may cooperate with a group can move from "i" to "we" without losing the sense of self.
6. Someone willing to find a balance between the community goals and the personal goals.
Many people are happy to give their time and energy to the needs of the larger group. While it's healthy to do it in moderation, it's also healthy to know when to say no, and create balance between community needs and personal needs.
7. Someone willing to speak up...
This kind of person is assertive, willing to risk taking the initiative, and when called for, to disagree, or ask for what they want.
8. ...And to listen.
For some people there is a need to tone down, so that other people down't resent them for seeming pushy, or like know-it-alls.
9.Someone willing to learn and practice good communication skills and fair and empowering decision-making skills.
This often takes actual training and mentoring as, again, it goes against the grain of our typically competitive, agressive, isolated way of life in North America.
10. Someone with a desire to see themselves as they really are.
This is really difficult - and painful - but exceedingly worth it. A person with this attitude can grow, in terms of self-awareness and emotional maturity, far faster and more effectively than they ever thought possible.
11. Someone willing to stick with it.
For community to succeed, its members need to be willing to persevere through conflict, changing individual needs, and higher-than-normal demands on your time.

The "Finding Community" book is available from the New Society Publishers www.NewSociety.com

Ringing Cedars Conference in Turkey

noreply@blogger.com (tearslake) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:46:00 +0000

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

From 10th of October to 17th of October 2008, there will be held an international readers’ conference with the participation of Vladimir Nikolaevich Megré, author of the “Ringing Cedars of Russia” books.

It is planned to hold the conference, which will be seven days in duration, in a five-star hotel in Turkey.

Programme of events:
http://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/conference/Main/HomePage?userlang=English
Participation application and pricing:
https://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/conference/apply-to-ringing-cedars-conference.php

Our vision of the Ecosettlement

noreply@blogger.com (tearslake) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:15:00 +0000

As discussed earlier one of the questions that need answering is the financial question: we need
1. Source of income for the first several years
2. Long-term source of income
3. Increasing flow of income to cover the development and inflation
4. Stabilizing fund for emergencies

And "money" in this case is a virtual object that in reality can be substituted for its equivalence in any other form.
So far we are developing the following:
1. Green Garden Earth Project: www.GreenGardenEarth.com is a listing of all ecological, prermaculture, organic farming, raw foods, ecobuilding, ecovillages and so on projects that are working towards the same goals.
This is to be used for collaboration and
knowledge exchange.
2. Green Garden Earth Almanac: www.GreenGardenEarth.com/almanac is an online Almanac of the Green Garden Earth projects including all of the above and the Ringing Cedars worldwide movement.
I consider Mass-Media to be a key element in our business as well as in our self-expression, in forming the knowledgebase, and and many other aspects. Green Garden Earth Almanac is scheduled to become a printed periodical next year.
3. Campground or Cottage Resourt is a good way of generation of income for the first few years. Later on this could grow into a themed School/Art/Seminar/Medical center and more.
4. Common Garden/Green house/herbal garden/mushrooms/seedlings/seeds/and so on is another way of generating short-term and long-term income. This is to be a common venue in addition to each family having its own garden.

Free signup for online version of Green Garden Earth Almanac: www.GreenGardenEarth.com/almanac

Email info@greengardenearth.com to add your project/business to the Green Garden Earth project.

What is required to build a Space of Love?

noreply@blogger.com (tearslake) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:46:00 +0000

You would expect me to start with listing such things as knowledge, dedication, support of family and community. But. And before I continue with the "but" part, allow me to take a short excurse into the recent events.

In university I was one of those unhappy teenages not really knowing what to do or where to go. The problem was that I felt obliged to study, to get a good job, and so on but never felt I wanted to. Didn't find this future to be worth doing anything, let alone slaving on a job or university. Obviously, a change in mindset had been required.

Of course, when you need something the Universe gives it to you so this is what happened: an alternative had been shown to me in a couple of books that got into my hands at that time. One of them was the Ringing Cedars of Russia series by Vladimir Megre. Haveing had read this book I was still as clueless of what to do and how to go about it but what is important is that I had planted a seed of alternative point of view. From "it happens" it changed to "I make it happen". And here is where we come back to the "but": I would have started with listing the requirenment for the Space of Love, but instead I started with change in consciousness. And that is the first thing that happens and need to happen in order for you to get anywhere.

Well, to continue the story, after having had read the books I went looking for people who are working in the same direction, we have met with local Toronto like-minded individuals and had formed a "Source of Life Association" - a group dedicated to assisting with building ecovillages based on the ideas described in the Ringing Cedars series (an ecovillage that consists of so-called Kin's Domains two and a half acres each).

Meeting, creating and managing various projects (such as Kin's Domain Library at http://www.sourceoflife.ca/Library/) we have come to several conclusions:
(a) an ecosettlement is a place more suited for comfortable living,
(b) life in an ecosettlement creates better conditions for productive work,
(c) basically ecosettlement is were we all want to live.
My next mindset issue, or even our collective mindset issue was finances. And now we are working on financial sustainability of our project: each one of us in his or her own way.

Next time I'll continue with the story, for now I'll briefly cover other important things that are planned to be done:
1. Financial sustainability (businesses, skills, sustainable garden, sustainable house, sustainable infrastructure within the settlement)
2. Creation of the vision of ecosettlement, setting up the governance system, by-laws, registering non-profit organization
3. Building stable relationships within the group of activists. The more I think about this the more I realize that there is much we need to learn which was well known to our ancestors in this area. Often, closed or narrow mind, causes disaster
4. Inviting more people to join as to have a full strong durable ecovillage that would stand the time and weather. The aim is to have 100 - 150 families in this ecovillage.

As for the knowledge, it appears to be readily available. Much information is available freely on the Internet with all the other groups doing the same thing. There are sustainable houses, sustainable gardens (permaculture), home schooling and lots more. I will get into details in the later posts.

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While keeping harmony of soul and body, is it possible to stay within the norm and rules?
(Lao Tzu)

Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (tearslake) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:31:00 +0000

For starters, let me introduce myself. My name is Leonid Belov. I am 28 year old, have a Bachelor in Computer Science, experience of about 20 different jobs here in Toronto, including software development and 5 years of working experience in RingingCedarsofRussia.org.

A little bit about RingingCedarsofRussia.org. It is the company that is closely related to the Ringing Cedars movement. It is all about raw, untreated, chemically, biologically and genetically pure products from ecologically clean environment of Siberia. RingingCedarsofRussia.org also provides tourist trips to Russian dolmens, and sells hand-made products from existing Ringing Cedars settlements.

A little bit about future plans.
To me, a Space of Love consist of a family, income with own business or soul-inspired profession, which allow for flexible schedule, sustainable garden on 2.5 acres of private property, and in a settlement with like-minded people with a normal school. Normal school is a school that educates rather then handicaps children as public schools do.

So how would I get there from here? Read my next post.

My way to an ecosettlement

noreply@blogger.com (tearslake) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:14:00 +0000

Hi and Welcome!

This is a blog-opening post. I'll be posting here information on my
experiece of moving away form a big city to an ecosettlement.
Having had moved from Moscow, Russia, to a smaller city of
Toronto, Canada I have not felt much a difference: big city is a
big city no matter where you are.

I feel that right now I am just above the point zero: almost have a family, almost have a solid group of likeminded individuals, almost
have my own business, what's left to do is to get it all together.
And on the way to tell you in the hopes that it will help somebody
who is following my path.
Although there are more and more ecosettlement every year it is
still almost as hard to make that move.

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If you have discovered that you are riding a dead horse - dismount!
(Dakota wisdom)