This story was written about 3 years ago. I did some editing–but reading this history is amazing to me, and I feel so grateful for this exhilarating and in so many ways, miraculous experience.

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Thanks to the help of a person who is choosing to invest in our community infrastructure, we now have the funds to move forward in implementing our plans.

It seems amazing that it has been almost 2 weeks since we got really serious about putting together a proposal to present to our investor who approved it, and gave us the green light to take the steps to create an almost instant infrastructure for the (old name) Jesus Vegans Community.

Robert, my former husband and present partner and friend in building community, is that rare person who has all the skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to plan and over see the creation of a sustainable community in this short amount of time. I feel honored to support him as a kind of administrative assistant and organizer. I also feel grateful to Barbara Hulley and Sky Masters both of whom are now community builders in this effort. They are invaluable as friends and people who have great ideas about how to build community.

Chris, my son, will be helping with work like chain saw work and weedwhacking. We have a friend who is a mechanic who has a shop on the Living Springs neighborhood property which is the larger part of (previous name) Jesus Vegans We need some mechanical work on various projects so this is an amazing resource since we are 20 minutes from town. Plus he is honest and an excellent worker.

Cliff,  my other former husband and Maud, my daughter have offered to help as well. We will be hiring some local skilled help like Bryan Leffert,a long time friend who helped Cliff build his house.

We are happy to hear that the 92 Dodge truck that was gifted to us about 8 years ago is worth getting a new lease on life. Gary, our mechanic friend reassured us of this.  We have been working on resurrecting it for a few years, and finally with the extra funds we can bring it back to full capacity. A good working truck is essential for the kind of work we will be doing, including moving up a wealth of supplies that Robert has been accumulating over the years.

Today Robert rented the backhoe which will be a main tool for much of the work we are doing. It is like a miracle that he could have the ability to operate this equipment. Plus, we were able to rent it at a contractors rate thanks to Robert’s ability to negotiate.

Robert bought a really good Jeep station wagon for the great price of $1750.  Our current small car is not happy on the gravel roads.  This will help us to be more mobile, move stuff, and not have to wear out the truck which we want to use more for the land rather than commuting. Eventually we would like to get a electric car kit so it will be electric.

We have a good utility trailer which is need of repair, and we hope Gary can repair it. Sadly, we went through a time where we did not deal with our trash well, and it was piled up in bags on the trailer. Maud and I worked hard to get it rebagged and ready to take to the dump. We thought this was symbolic because we were getting rid of the trash to make room for the new stuff that is yet to come.

We are making a kind of time line, flow chart and priorities list so that we can stay on track. Our main goal is to get the (previous name of the Common House) Agape house up within 2 or 3 weeks. to have a community building up in that amount of time is truly miraculous. But Robert has experience in building metal buildings, which can be insulated and heated.

Robert is going to be designing a solar system which will supply all our needs. We have found some solar panels which are much cheaper than usual, and Robert will be talking to a local guy who is a solar expert to get some advice. I love how the resources we have are already in place in so many ways. (our solar system is not happening for various reasons–but hopefully in the future this will be implemented)

Tomorrow we go to the land once again. I will love having my son Chris, and Robert there. Hopefully, Gary can work on the trailer repair. (we ended up being able to buy a new trailer) I will finish cleaning out the trailer, tying up the bags, and doing some organizing work on the resource yard where we have gathered items we thought might be handy in the future. since Robert is an inventor and we hope to attract other inventors. I look forward to people going to the resource yard to look for parts and things and being able to use the different things that would have otherwise been wasted.

Chris did a lot of weed whacking so that we can walk around and get things done. I want to pray over our land tomorrow and tell all the plants and animals and beings that we are going to be working quickly, and it will be noisy, and not exactly as I would like to things–but we are doing our best to work to create a foundation that will help create a better world. We will do so as sustainably as possible.

I have a long list of things for Robert to do tomorrow. We may go until dark. He has purchased a rechargeable battery operated spotlight so we can get everything done. We need to figure out things like where to put the piles of gravel so we can prepare the road repair. Miraculously, the road is still drivable even though we have neglected it for years. Robert knows how to do things to help divert the water and prevent erosion. But we still need some repairs, and are looking for a bulldozer operator to do this work. (never could find someone–but I did work by hand to repair the driveway, and it is holding up!)

It is very hard to find heavy equipment operators on short notice, so Robert is prepared to use the back hoe to do as much as possible. So far, many things have just flowed into place, so we are hopeful that at just the right moment someone will come forward.

We learned that a large house is for sale within one mile of our community. we are going to learn about how much it costs. It could be a community house in itself. Living springs, our neighborhood, was purchased just a year or so before Y2k was predicted. the people who moved here built huge houses that were designed to sleep many people, and have storage for food. One of these is for sale. Perhaps someone will be inspired to buy it and people who are interested in (now Wellspring) Jesus Vegans can live there immediately. (Our investor ended up buying the house. But it won’t be used for a community house.)

I think the land we steward is happy we are back. Robert and I have not been there for many years. That is a long story. We never were able to get our vision of community off the ground. But I never gave up my dream, and I am glad I didn’t give up. some day, when the beautiful people who are drawn to our community are sitting around the campfire (maybe this will happen when Jonno, the permaculture teacher comes and helps us make a permaculture design) we will share the tragedies and the beautiful things that have happened on this land. Just the miracle that we have it and it is paid off is an amazing story.

I have had the experience of planning and implementing projects in record time when I had at least one partner helping to plan all the details. I believe that Robert and I can be coordinators, receiving in put from other wise people, who can create a completely self-sustaining community within the next  weeks. We want to have most of things ordered and delivered by end of Oct, and everything up and running by Nov. 20. (Robert and I have had some irreconcilable differences which keep us from co-founding a community–most likely he is going to be a friendly neighbor. We still cooperate a lot.  I own the land now, and will ASAP get it put into a legal structure so it is owned by the community.)

I am getting ready to invite a number of people to our land to join us for the permaculture and sustainable living retreat. This will be a wonderful time to come together to learn and bond–potential members of the community will be coming, as well as folks who might want to buy land near by. I think I will alert Will Tuttle and see if he is willing to invite folks he trusts to come out, as well as the people I met at the permaculture convergence and friends I met in the Bay Area. This will be open to people who we sense would be compatible with our values, which I hope will be written out in the near future. (The values are written out–it took me 3 years to get them close to completed! We never did have a retreat–but now with Corona Virus challenge–more people might feel drawn to explore living here.)

Your prayers and positive thoughts are welcome. We are really doing well, but continue to experience bouts of opposition which try to keep us from moving forward. Robert and I and others are praying, and meditating, and doing our best to listen to our Creator and all the beings of light who want us to succeed. My relationship with Barbara has been an immense source of strength. And Sky joining us at this time has been wonderful. Sky and I have known each other for almost three years and we have built a foundation of strength that is invaluable.