2016–A Year to Celebrate!

By Anthony Weston

Photo by Joe Cole

I was just back from Wisconsin, Amy was still in New York City, so I was alone for New Year’s night and decided to spend it on the land and at Hart’s Ease. The minute I got a fire built and started to watch the last sunset of the year I decided that I wanted to write some sort of year-end/year-forward missive, so here goes. Of course these are only my views, but perhaps they will help prompt some discussion and new moves.

 We should recognize and celebrate what a huge year 2106 was for Hart’s Mill:

• We achieved fully functional Functional Circles and two in-house sociocracy trainings, continuing to actualize the power of sociocratic organization.
• We set and now are quickly nearing a firm date to buy the land, and we have more than enough money to do so.
• We consolidated our determination to set ourselves up as a co-op.
• We launched a new web site with an active blog and a new creatures, plants, and mushrooms inventory
• We acquired a tractor, built a shed for it in a series of workdays culminating in a Memorial Day work-camp, and subsequently ourselves are mowing a major portion of the open land, including the Far Field that daunted all of us but Jeffry.
• We (mainly Anthony) built a charming retreat cubby called Heart’s Ease.
• We expanded the garden, growing tomatoes, pole beans, basil, sage, and more using both organic and strictly biodynamic techniques
• We finished the trail network and now have some 2.5 kilometers of trails making a loop around the land from the pond to McGowan creek. 
• We established a new loo – complete with a painted seat and privacy tent.
• We started 3rd Thursday Common House Night, learning some great new games and enjoying whole new aspects of each other in the process.
• And perhaps most amazingly, we went from having no idea what HM might look like to a schematic design that is still fluid, of course, but also is definite, liveable, and, to many of us, potentially lovely: a full-year process during which multiple committees and groups, involving large numbers of members, interviewed a variety of architects, selected a design partner, and undertook an extensive series of workshops. All of this and more is due to so many people and so many different ways that I cannot even begin to name them/us. Kudos to everyone!

A huge year… and given the national political scene, we must continue, maybe even double-down on, what we are doing – building an alternative while remaining active in the larger society and, well, being celebratory and creative in all we do, like our Mission Statement says. What a privilege to be able to respond to so much dismal news with such generative and regenerative work.

Hart’s Mill Ecovillage moves, develops, evolves, and thrives because of YOU.  Thank you to everyone who came to the table, the land, the workshops, and who wished us well.  We look forward to growing with you in 2017. 

Photo by Joe Cole