T
he New Year’s Planning Party on January 13th lived up to its name, with music, dancing, food, fascinating conversation — and a solid path for getting to groundbreaking! 2019 is THE YEAR for Hart’s Mill to pull all the pieces together towards building the integrated Ecovillage of our dreams. Plans for the community farm are well underway, forest stewardship (the Wood Wide Web) has begun, and now we’re blazing to build the village in 2020.
The Wise Owl raises a glass
There’s so much to be grateful for and appreciate right now, and we opened the afternoon by filling glasses with sparkling beverages to toast our achievements to-date: the wonderful people who have come together, the beauty and abundance of the land, and the critical accomplishments that have gotten us to this launching point. Hart’s Mill is a vibrant community already, and it was wonderful to acknowledge the many ways in which we have already made a positive difference in lives and lands.
Yes, kudos for all of that…but what’s next? We’re fortunate to have among our members a planning maven, Allie Van. The Governance & Training Circle worked with Allie to shepherd an intensive all-Circle planning process that began in September, 2018. Some results of that process include a timeline of critical events and a set of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) defined by our Circles to achieve these goals. (Click here to view the PowerPoint slides.)
The timeline lays out an ambitious and optimistic (but not delusional) path focused on getting to groundbreaking. Katy Ansardi and others worked tirelessly with Allie to identify key benchmarks aligned across several project elements that will guide us through the year. It’s a great education in Ecovillage development to see all that must be accomplished compressed on a single page!
As for how we get there, each Circle has been working hard to identify what they can achieve to reach these goals. Circle leaders presented OKRs for the first quarter that correspond with the master timeline. A rich round of thanks goes to Allie and all who devoted their hearts and minds to forging–and to walking–this path.
It was time to take it all in and reflect on how each of us could fit into this picture. What 
will Hart’s Mill look like/feel like in 5 years? What will we be doing? How will we be living when we are on the land, together? It was a rich experience to go inside and visualize what Hart’s Mill has meant to us, explore the joys and challenges, and envision our lives based on the many Principles and Intentions that have moved us thus far.
After sharing with each other what we discovered, we all had an opportunity to explore what we can do during the first quarter to move this process along. What is each of us passionate about; what are our skills; what brings us energy; what would we gladly do to realize this vision? Participants translated their dedication into action, creating personal OKRs with specific offerings. It was wonderful to harness and receive such generous promises of time and talent.
And now….let’s celebrate! Turn up the music, clear the dance floor, enjoy the food and libations, and mostly–have fun with each other! It was a great way to energize all that we have become, all that we are, and all that we will create to make this corner of the world more beautiful, more loving, more sustainable and regenerative. And a lot less crazy.
Want to get involved? There’s a place for YOU at Hart’s Mill Ecovillage. Contact us and be a part of it–NOW!
That’s what happened Saturday, December 8, when a few hardy souls met at Hart’s Mill (in 40-degree weather) to get started with our 
on Stand 6, respectfully removing some pines from crowded areas and less respectfully whacking every invasive privet and ailanthus sapling we could find. For now, the logs and trimmings are in segregated piles lining the driveway, the former to be chipped for mulch, and the latter to provide habitat and weed suppression while it degrades into useful nutrients for the land.
Much gratitude to Randy, Jeffry, Hope, Nell, Virginia, and Margret for this rewarding workday.
at Hart’s Nest on November 17-18 exploring and applying a development and design process called regenerative development. The aim was to discover how regenerative development might add to and enhance the work of Hart’s Mill. Many thanks to Hope, Joe, Katy, Maria, Marilyn, Paul, and Randy for participating. 
regenerative development is a system of methodologies that develops capacities in living systems to continually evolve to higher levels of health and well-being, from the scale of individuals to sites, neighborhoods, cities, and beyond. Regenerative development is different from other approaches in several ways. It shifts us from:
Regenerative development charts a path for thrivability within which more specific regenerative and ecological design technologies and strategies may be used. These include biophilia, biomimicry, bioclimatic design, Permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and Living Building and Community Challenges.
We also found thinking about Hart’s Mill as part of the Upper Neuse River Basin helpful. Looking at how all of these scales relate to one another, we explored ecological and social flows, patterns, and relationships that have given, currently give, and could give your community and its surrounding landscape vitality. We looked at elements for life including water, organisms (including people), nutrients, soil, infrastructure, and information, among others. We discovered that west-east flows of humans, commerce, water, and creatures (beavers, coyotes, foxes, turtles, birds) have been and continue to be important. We found that connections, exchanges, and mutually-beneficial relationships amongst these elements are important for vitality.
We began exploring potential collaborations and guild relationships. These are relationships within the larger community that would result in mutual benefits for all. Potential members include neighbors, other local communities, Minka Farms, Triangle Land Conservancy, Eno River Association, Orange County Planning Department, City of Mebane, Commission for the Environment, local universities and schools, green developers, Sally Greene (Orange County Commissioner). Participants noted some actions that can be taken right now to generate income and move towards Hart’s Mill’s vision, including on-line teaching and beginning an educational center at Hart’s Nest.
For our next weekend workshop, we intend to evaluate Hart’s Mill’s current principles, vision, and mission using its regenerative development concept and the regenerative community development evaluation tool. We will then use the tool to co-create regenerative development goals and strategies specific to Hart’s Mill. We will then use the tool to discuss how specific design technologies and strategies can help implement regenerative development. We will discuss potential regenerative development indicators for your community. We will also explore your role as regenerative individuals in enabling vitality in Hart’s Mill and beyond.
This is the time of year for general garden clean-up and preparation for the next wave of plantings. On October 28 we had a Fence-Raising on our land, a take-off on the concept of barn-raisings, which operate on the idea that “many hands make light work”. Jeffry plotted out a new, much larger area for the farming activities, which includes enough space to maneuver the tractor inside the fence. 60 ten-foot T-posts were pounded in to mark the perimeter, with help from Paul and Randy. Old deer fencing, chicken wire, and posts were wrestled out of the morning-glory-vine-covered borders by Margret and Nell, while Marsha, Paul and Jeffry started putting up the new 8-foot deer fencing. 
storage container and tractor shed. Three loads of trash and recycling were sorted and hauled off thanks to the efforts of Nell, Paul, Hope, Lisa, Margret, Randy, Jeffry, Tara, Rick, 4 1/2-year-old John-Michael, and two visitors, Terry O’Keefe and Mary Johnston. By 5 o’clock the temperature had dropped into the low 40’s and we were more than ready to gather around a fire and share some yummy food. A special treat was wild mushroom soup, made from maitake mushrooms previously gathered right from our land! 
Last month, Paul loaned me this book, which has provided the latest fodder for a many month long contemplation on how to best serve the Harts Mill forest (and people). It’s a great read and a helpful guide for me as I embark on a couple year effort that will mostly entail, in the forestry profession’s lingo, a “thinning” of parts of the forest. While it’s beyond the scope of this post to delve too deeply into either my own contemplation or the nitty gritty of what the Land Stewardship Circle has been chewing on, there is a 
To set the context, Hope led us in a review of the key values that are guiding the development of our architectural plans. It’s a wonder that there are more than 50 of them! Using a large Wheel of Sustainability taped to the wall, participants selected pre-marked post-its and placed each value in the most appropriate category. Here’s a sample: Social values in play include shared spaces and resources, shared dwellings, supporting diversity, a balance of public and private spaces, accessibility for all ages and abilities, and connected flow between homes. Ecological values include compact village layout, orientation to sun and wind, low 
energy demands, natural, local, and recycled/able materials, attractive outdoor spaces, kitchen gardens. Culture/Worldview values include intimacy with the natural world, a movement from “I” to “We”, inspiration, beauty and creativity. Economic values include economic viability, small homes, fewer possessions and more sharing, affordable housing and low building costs, self-build options, multi-use spaces, cooperative ownership model, flexible housing to meet different needs, and fairly comparable dwellings — no built-in inequality.
Next, I came forward (electronically, from Chile…) to briefly review the last six months of intensive planning work that have brought us to this point and that informs the plans we were about to unveil.
Katy then unveiled the floorplans and elevations for the two prototypes. She walked us through each of them in turn. You can find them 
repeatedly pointed to the thoughtfulness of the layouts, the flow of the spaces, the prospect of well-lit interiors, many outdoor spaces, and the earthiness of the colors and finishes as very attractive features. In fact the biggest complaint we got was a general dislike of the wet bar in the bedroom of the two-room suite, which is easily changeable with a few strokes at the architect´s keyboard. Those of us who have had our noses to this particular grindstone for months (OK, actually, it´s really fun sometimes too, but still a long haul) are gratified and grateful all around – to the community, to Jonathan Lucas, and to each other – for a job done well. And now, onward!
Hope and Paul walked the trails and did some minor clearing. They reported that a large dead pine came down between the tractor shed and the pump house, thankfully missing both structures as well as the trailer holding our two precious solar panels. I was also pleased to see that this was not the dead pine the Pileated woodpeckers had chosen for a home!
workday dawned clear, bright, and cool. The major workday plan was for trail maintenance. Hope and Maria tackled our newest wetland trail while Jeffry, Margret, Lisa, George, Vanessa and Lizel worked on the McGowan Creek trail. We met Paul and visitor Jamie coming from the opposite direction, and we all converged on the cob house to admire Joe and Randy lime-coating the nearly-completed structure. Randy was called upon to give an impromptu explanation of this project. 
It was not until Jeffry backed the tractor out of the shed so I could mow, that we noticed Michael’s more extensive effect. A large pine tree had fallen onto the roof of the tractor shed from behind, crushing a portion of the metal roof and cracking three rafters! With Vanessa’s “seize the moment” attitude, a team was assembled to tackle the repair on the spot. With George acting as foreman, he, Vanessa, Jeffry, Paul and Lizel utilized our hydraulic jack and existing scrap lumber and nails, and Voila! The shed was repaired. Spontaneous cooperation in action!
workday/workshop to raise the slipstraw walls of the pumphouse. Terry, Joe, Randy, Amy, Sean, and me, all of us led by NC’s cob guru and HM advisor, Greg Allen, got ourselves thoroughly clay-covered and all literally had a hand in the building of walls between the frame structure that I have been patiently assembling with the help of others — most recently George. You can see the first steps — some cob beginnings, and some of the forms for the first layer of slipstraw, basically straw coated with a thin film of clay — in the first photo. 
In the event, Florence was not so bad. I have been able to take off the tarps and the wrapping, let it start drying out again, and am resuming work again before I head off to join Amy in Chile. In fact if anyone wants to join — helping put on the roof especially — I expect to be at it all weekend (29 and 30 September) and would welcome the help — just let me know. Regardless, though, stop by and have a look next time you are on the land. The stone bench built into the front is meant for sitting — give it a try!
Wednesday, September 19, was sweet-potato-digging day at Hart’s Mill. What began in June as 3 1/2 orderly rows of sweet-potato slips had become a solid blanket of tangled purple-blossomed green vines. Here and there “volunteer” watermelon and tomato vines popped out of the mass, and bees buzzed happily around the flowers.
You may have noticed that we did not send out an announcement or a plea for help. It is an unfortunate aspect of small farms that many tasks occur on a “seize-the-moment” basis. We knew they needed harvesting soon, but the 6-plus inches of hurricane rain we got Sunday and Monday moved the task to the front of the line. Prospects of wet, rotting roots were all the motivation we needed!
There was no question of taking the tractor into the muddy bed. Jeffry and I spent a good part of the very hot day using clippers (to cut vines), spading forks, and our own two hands to pull the potatoes out of the wet soil. We spread them onto a tarp as they came out, to get a start on drying. Most of the potatoes were beautifully-shaped thanks to having an unusually sandy clay soil. 
Next we crated up the potatoes and toted all three hundred pounds of them to the container shed for curing (consisting of a week or so in dark, very warm conditions), which will be followed by cooler storage at home.
We grew 5 varieties. Top-to-bottom in the photo they are Hernandez, Purple, Carolina Ruby, Mahon and a mystery variety moved from Anthony’s plot in the former community garden. If all goes well they will eventually find themselves gently washed and for sale at the Chapel Hill Farmer’s Market!
