Kids in Earthaven

Livin' In A Children's Paradise

It is true like Earthaven's website says; many parents in Earthaven are very busy with jobs, community service, community socializing, gardening and often building their own houses. While that sounds like it may be a bit of a hardship, in my experience it is all but. Children are included in much of the adult's work around the village, there are many kids for them to hang out with, there are many adults around to keep an eye on them, they live in a forest where the greatest dangers seem to be the ones they are biologically adapted to (they tend to notice the snakes before any adult does and know keenly which ones are dangerous)and many of the kids here attend one of the schools in the village as well.

Child Labor
Within the work of the adults there is often time for meaningful interaction with the children (both ones own and neighbor kids). This works both ways. While I am working in the garden or dying some yarns with locally harvested pokeberries, I may have a small informal class of kiddos helping me. But later that day Liefke and Luna may spend a few hours helping our farmers plant cucumbers and harvesting tomatoes (they are very good at finding the ripest cherry tomatoes!) so I can get some work done that goes smoother without a bunch of kids around. Just about very one is happy -eager- to include the children in the work. Whether it is farming, making yogurt, laying the floor of the Seedlings (our kindergarten) building, helping to set up for events or even helping to slaughter chickens for tonight's soup, children are invited to come along.

Liefke Otis and Luna helping prepare a dye from pokeberries

This morning, for example, Liefke, Luna and I spend a few hours right after dawn, witnessing the slaughtering of about 45 chickens in one of our neighborhoods. It was an amazing, calm, spiritual, fun(yes, really), communal and interesting experience and I am glad my daughters will grow up with the full awareness of where their food comes from. On the way back Liefke sang a thanksgiving song very softly, so the souls of the chickens could hear her.

Liefke, Anne and Christine scrubbing rocks for the school floor

Another example is the construction of the floor of the "Annex" which is the building that houses the Seedlings program. The building is completely hand build and right before school started (last week) we were still working on laying the floor. For several reasons it was decided that we would use local rocks (just found in the creeks or randomly laying around) set in mortar for this year. It will be covered with and earthen floor next summer. The laying of the floor involved lots of works by lots of people and help from the children was eagerly accepted. They were helping in carrying rocks from the pile to the wheel barrow in which they scrubbed the stones and then carrying into the building where other people were laying them into the floor. Not only did the kids have a real sense of satisfaction and contributing to their own school (these were the little ones, 3, 4 and 5 year olds) but their help actually made things go a bit faster and smoother. And the floor came a out great and the Seedlings spend the first day of school pointing out which stones they helped scrub and carry.

Mana, Liefke and Aidan working on the floor

School
As I mentioned, most of the kids that live in Earthaven attend the Forest Children Program. The Seedlings program (which is the kindergarten part of the Forest Children and I am their teacher) meets in a lovely little earthen building in the Hut Hamlet neighborhood. There are 4 kids right now with most likely 2 more starting before the year is over. Seedlings are kiddos from 3 1/2 to 6 years old and school is 3 mornings a week. The older kids meet three full days (till 3 pm in the council hall. Their ages range from 6 to 11 and they are officially a home school enrichment program. Both programs include Earthaven kids but also children from the surrounding areas.

Luna's ready for her first day at school


Play
Mostly the kids run in a pack. The older ones (9 and 10) take care of the youngest ones. (Luna being the youngest at 3 1/2). All the kids that live in the Hut Hamlet, where we live, have the rule that they may not leave our neighborhood without and adult and an okay from their parents. Mostly they obey that rule just fine. The neighborhood is bordered a small bio-dynamic farm, two creeks and the hill on which all the houses are built and so they tend to stay within that area. Of course in our second week here, Luna took one unauthorized trip over to my mom's cabin, a good 10 minute walk along Earthaven's main road, in her underwear and holding her shoes in her hand...
It is often hard to keep the kids away from each other and mostly us parents don't try, although it is sometimes a struggle to get your kids to come in and eat or for the kids who live with another parent in town for part of the week to leave. The children also often hole up together in one of the children's houses or hang out in the Hut Hamlet Kitchen, which is a common building where there is usually something going on. Childcare is also easily arranged between the parents here and kids generally don't even notice, or are excited about it.

All in all, like the title of this post suggests, Earthaven is a children's Paradise. While our girls miss there friends in Colorado and Luna occasional complains about the lack of "restaurant food", they would not trade their life here for anything. Good thing too, cause I think we are staying.

Love from the boonies

Tanya

Pooping

I figured I'd start this blog out with a bang and talk about why have have chosen to move to a place where we would have to "poop in a bucket". The whole no-indoor-plumbing thing was not what initially attracted me to living in an ecovillage (surprised?). As I started to learn more about Earthaven and permaculture design (the practice of designing sustainable human habitats by following nature's patterns is one definition) I came across the notion of "humanure". Human manure that is.

(the picture on the right is Liefke running toward "our" outhouse)

This is how people take responsibility for the wastes here at Earthaven. By far most toilets here are of the composting or mouldering type. Some of these are located indoors and typically consist of two buckets with lids and seats. Two buckets because we separate urine and feces. Urine, as it turns out it a very rich source of minerals and other nutrients that garden plants really love. Urine is used directly (after diluting)as a fertilizer. Apparently the urine one person puts out in a year is enough to fertilize the amount of vegetables that person would eat in that time. One of the neighborhoods has an ingenious pressurized system that dilutes and distributes the collected urine from its members to its vegetable gardens.



(Pic on the left is another view of our neighborhood's "pooper")


Members and visitors of Earthaven are encouraged to "pee here now" and to "not be modest", and many of the members (especially the children and the men, but it is not terribly unusual to see a woman squatting in the bushes somewhere either) happily pee in the woods. Outhouses and composting toilets are only used for number 2.

Speaking of which, the number two's here at Earthaven are captured in buckets or barrels or other storage places. Its actually a bit of an precious commodity. One person built a human waste methane producing thingy but the biggest issue was to get enough poop! Indoors people usually use a bucket, right next to the pee bucket (covered with a lid when not in use and fitted with a regular toilet seat). After using the facilities one would drop a cupful or so of sawdust over the evidence and that's that. When the bucket is full it is taken to a special compost heap or dumped into a large, covered container teaming with earthworms. One way or the other, over time and with the help of microbes and animals this human waste is turned into rich dark soil. Several of the outhouses are situated over large dug out holes and meant to be used until the hole is full and then relocated.

(On the right is the entrace to the Benchmark neighborhood's out house. This one even has a name: The Eye of the Rabbit Lounge)



Some toilets in the village use a great design feature eliminating the need for two "toilets" and the accompanying need to choose between number 1 and number 2 at any given moment. Built into the seat is a funnel of sorts, situated in the front part of the opening of the toilet. When a woman sits on the toilet, her pee will effortlessly land in this area and get carried away so as not to mess with the mouldering poop below. Men have to aim their pee toward this area, but I think most men welcome a peeing challenge once in a while and most of them pee outside anyway.



(here is one of the simpler structures; a little wooden shelter with fabric hung for privacy)


Okay, so frequently asked questions:

Eeeeew, gross!(people, that's not really a question...)

Not really. Unlike an outhouse that you may have experienced at a campsite, in a mouldering toilet the poop is completely covered with sawdust and that pretty much eliminates the odor. The mouldering toilet our family uses is the Hut Hamlet's toilet. It is used by something like 12-20 people or so and it smells like saw dust. No flies either, but I hear the occasional mouse likes to set up shop in one of the toilets. Our neighborhood has Midnight, who is a fantastic mouser nad who has his own door to get into the outhouse.

What do you do at night?

Well, many composting toilets are located within homes. Our house does not have one so at night our children use a chamber pot. I, personally, have actually really started enjoying my early morning trip to the outhouse. The dew still fresh on the plants, the rooster crowing in the distance, I get to have a small early morning forest walk I would not otherwise take.

Is it safe to use humanure on food crops?

Theoretically, yes. The poop goes through a composting process using thermophilic bacteria and high temperatures. These temperatures should be high enough to kill any pathogens. As far I know however, most people use humanure to fertilize orchards and other plants that are higher off the ground.



Now let stalk about the benefits.

It does not use any water
It does not require plumbing
It produces a useful material out of our wastes
Most of the outhouses have a lovely view
It is simple and completely ecologically sustainable
It inspires creativity; many people make a work of art from their outhouse and one business in the village ( Three Women and a Toolbox) started out building toilets. (see the pictures)

I am thoroughly committed to composting toilets. They are the perfect solution to the human waste problem and I look forward to one of these days building the coolest outhouse around...

love from the boonies

Tanya

Remember: Close The Lid