by Margret Mueller
After a very rainy week, Sunday August 5th dawned clear and bright. Our main task for this day was to spruce up our entry from Frazier Road all the way to the tractor shed. Jeffry (weed whacker and riding mower) and Margret (push mower, hand weeding tool, and clippers) tackled the sadly-overgrown roadside entrance. A couple dozen small invasive Ailanthus trees had sprouted up along the ditches, our small decorative planting was subsumed by weeds, the shrubs and Redbud tree needed pruning, and the grassy areas were knee-high.
Wonder #1: See before and after pictures!
Next, a team comprised of Amy, Mir, Randy, Jeffry, Margret, and Lisa progressed down the drive with loppers, clippers, and weed whacker, widening and making more welcoming the whole length.
Wonder #2: The constant rains had popped out a world of mushrooms, beautiful and various. Margret identified several as edible, bearing such marvelous names as Shaggy-stalked bolete, Indigo Milky, Gem-studded puffball, and Meadow mushroom.
Meanwhile, back at the pump-house, Anthony and his friend Nate, plus our summer intern Jess, were adding supports to the roof and painting the door of what is proving to be a very cool multipurpose structure: Wonder #3:
Around 1 p.m. we convened at the pavilion for lunch and camaraderie. Margret encouraged folks to please (please!) take home some of Wonder #4–Hart’s Mill’s very own “generously-proportioned” zucchini and yellow squash. [attach photo]
Land Stewardship’s OL and ER thank our willing helping hands and encourages YOU to be a part of our next workday! (See August calendar).
Early on we decided to run the water system entirely on solar panels – we’re an ecovillage, after all – and Jeffry has been hard at work wiring them in and plumbing the water system. As of 4:44 pm on July 20th, the system went live!!! One pump pulls fresh cold pure water out of our 350-ft well and into the storage tank; the other pumps the water from the storage tank into a smaller pressure tank that then feeds the irrigation hoses at the proper pressure. Solar panels run the first pump when the sun’s out and charge the batteries that run the second pump on demand. Sound like complicated wiring? It was! Jeffry claims to be neither electrician or plumber, but you’d never guess from the results. Of course, since then it’s mostly been raining, but still, water is ready to go.
please watch for notices of special workdays and workshops in September as we experiment with this earth-building technique with the help of Greg Allen, our cob guru. Eventually there will also be a produce-washing sink area near the tank, and an outdoor shower around the back – yes, a full-service pumphouse! 
Our intern Jess and an old student and friend of mine, Nate, are shown hard at work in this photo. Randy is donating slip and some roofing left over from Cob Haven. Thanks to you all! Anyone who’d like to join in the building effort, please be in touch -– there’s lots more to do!
Hart’s Mill joined the crowds at this year’s Festival for the Eno, on July 4th and 7th at Durham’s West Point on the Eno. A number of our members helped out at a Hart’s Mill booth, greeting a steady stream of passersby and leading our “Seed Bomb” activity for children. Kids took balls of clay from our land and packed them with milkweed seeds, many of which also came from our land. Then, we invited the children to take them home and plant them in their 
yards. We explained the important connection between milkweed plants and monarch butterflies. (Actually, most of the children already knew about this connection. Do you? If not, check out 
enthusiastic to learn about us, and perhaps to join us in the future. We also had some of Margret Mueller’s gorgeous note cards for sale. In addition, we were able to network with people from other nonprofit organizations such as animal rescue groups, other intentional communities, and (my personal favorite) a nonprofit dedicated to promoting electric vehicles. To top it off, there was plenty of live music and wonderful food.
she and Anthony did the heavy lifting (literally!) of 
about who we are and what we are looking for: we are committed to creating an Ecovillage, and we are looking for people who are willing to work collaboratively, live sustainably, and learn together along the way. Membership and Marketing has focused on recruiting and supporting members, clarifying policies and levels of membership, and also building skills for collaborative work in the community. We’ve incorporated “regenerative sustainability” into our 
During the gathering, we asked those present about their experience in the membership process, whether anything has been holding them back, and what they needed to move forward in membership at Hart’s Mill. Some folks are moving slowly in membership, while others are just starting out, and some have been advancing at a steady pace. Creating an Ecovillage requires a lot of work, and some of us occasionally feel daunted at the immensity of the task. Others are very interested in the community, but have a partner who is not as keen. Some members spoke of the challenges of balancing work, family, and participation in the community development process. Others wanted to know more specific details about what the community would look like and how much it would cost to live there before they felt comfortable committing to the membership process.
more effectively. Attendees brainstormed a lot of good ideas: community participation in events like the Eno River Festival, finding more places to post flyers, expanding our online and social media presence, looking west of the Triangle towards Burlington and Greensboro for recruiting members, soliciting news and journal articles about the community, nurturing relationships with those who have already shown interest, and crafting our marketing message to clarify who we want to attract and who would be a good fit for our community. We had a few visitors from other local communities who spoke about how much it has helped their communities to have expert consultants guide them and shape their vision and approach to development.
In the second half of the afternoon, we talked about the community’s commitment to Diversity and Racial Equity. Why does this matter at Hart’s Mill, and what are we doing? Amy spoke from the heart about the urgency of addressing racism in our society, our community, and ourselves, and she talked about how this work is needed to address injustices and also heal ourselves and our relationships in the wider world. While we are still a mostly white community, we are working on understanding racism and striving for racial equity. Several members have taken the weekend trainings on Anti-Racism work through the Racial Equity Institute, and Hart’s Mill has also co-hosted an educational session with Standing Up for Racial Justice. Some Hart’s Mill members participated in the Hate Free Schools Coalition, which worked over a year to persuade the
Orange County School Board to ban displays of the Confederate Flag in public schools. In addition to diversifying our membership, our goals include supporting racial equity work in the broader community around us.
Next, we paired up and discussed what the issues of race, racism, and racial equity bring up for us, and also how people are feeling about Hart’s Mill’s approach to racism and racial equity so far. Members shared their thoughts about both the importance and the challenges of working on racial equity and deepening our awareness of racism in our community, our society, and our everyday lives.
We closed the afternoon by distributing commitment cards to invite people to name how they would like to contribute going forward. Folks volunteered for website maintenance, social media support, distributing materials and flyers, and participating in Membership and Marketing Circle meetings (first Thursday of every month). After the gathering, a couple of people decided to move up to the next level of membership!
Our June 21 Third Thursday event fell on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. About 2 dozen people arrived at Hart’s Nest to celebrate the abundance of summer with food, juggling, music, and playmaking. Though the rain held off, the air was thick 
with steamy heat. Victuals sizzled on the grill. Two jugglers—Felipe and Tain—joined forces with a spellbinding performance, culminating in a fire-y finale 
with flying torches. 
long-standing tradition of offering a reading Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on this day. On this occasion, Anthony found a shorter version for us to enact so that the evening might end at a reasonable hour. 
Costumes were hastily concocted out of colorful shawls, fascinators, and baubles brought along by Amy, Marilyn, and Victoria. With a pinch of fairy dust supplied by Puck, we were ready to entertain
each other with bewichments. The best laid plans of kings and queens quickly went awry and the mischief commenced. 
We took advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend to split this month’s work into two days. 
Under the guidance of members of the Hart’s Mill Financial/Legal Circle, presentations and discussions focused on (1) the inner workings of the financial and legal life of both the Hart’s Mill Ecovillage and the Hart’s Mill, LLC (Limited Liability Company), (2) a detailed summary of where our money comes from and how it’s responsibly spent, (3) how these topics relate to our anticipated home ownership model – a limited-equity housing cooperative 
Included in the discussions were many personal expressions of how the vision and practice of Hart’s Mill calls to our hearts and expresses our values. In the face of deepening national crises (including diminishing affordable housing, widening income and wealth disparities, shamefully stubborn social, racial, and environmental injustices, urban/rural inequities, 
and disgracefully broken governmental institutions), Hart’s Mill is resolved, through our farm and community practices, to be an agent in moving forward an agenda of deep and meaningful cultural change.
