The most important part of a project like this? Of course it’s the people!  Below are just a few of the people you’ll meet, if you come walkin’ down our street, at the Yarrow Ecovillage…

Tamara, Joel and Family

Hello all! We are Tamara and Joel, and we have two little boys, (5 and 1 ½). We currently live in Cawston, in the Similkameen Valley, but we are getting more and more excited about the prospect of moving to the Yarrow Ecovillage. Aside from being parents, we are also organic farmers, Joel is a school teacher, and Tamara is an ecologist. We do our “day jobs” part time and the farming (and parenting) full time.

Our passions include hiking and camping, gardening, reading, coaching team sports (Joel), art (Tamara) and cycling. Many of our passions get put on the back-burner, since we are so busy with our multiple jobs and with raising two young kids. We try, however, to make some time for the things we enjoy most – for example, we manage to go camping by throwing all of the camping gear into the van after returning from Farmer’s Markets on Saturdays, drive to the nearby Ashnola River, set up camp, have a wonderful night around the campfire, then pack up and get back to the farm Sunday morning. It sounds hectic; it is hectic, but somehow we come back from those 1- hour camping trips happy and rejuvenated!

During the winters, we have more time off. Last winter we spent 2 ½ months camping in Baja California, Mexico. We had a wonderful time; we spent a lot of our time camped right on a beautiful surf beach. We are not surfers, but we enjoyed watching wipe-outs over our morning cups of coffee, while the kids played in the sand. Other winters, we have stayed home and went cross-country skiing as much as possible. The boys start out their skiing experience under our jackets in their snuggli; Noah has now graduated to his own little skis, and is getting quite good (though we are all a bit out of practice now!).

Our main focus in the past three years has been our farm. We grow over 60 varieties of organic vegetables, and sell them at Farmer’s Markets. We would also like to develop a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, and we think the EcoVillage would be a perfect place for this. We enjoy farming, are excited by it, and contrary to popular belief, we see that we can actually make a decent living at it. Our biggest stumbling block is access to land – we are now on our second land rental in three years, and cannot afford to buy farmable acreage anywhere in Southern BC. Having to move our entire farm takes enormous amounts of work, money, and keeps us from being able to grow perennial crops or become more efficient in our farming operation. Access to farmland is what got us interested in the Yarrow Ecovillage to begin with.

Now that we have learned more about Yarrow, and ecovillage life in general, it seems so right! On our first visit, Noah immediately took off with a mob of 4-7 year olds, and was not heard of or seen for hours! The other kids showed him the creek, the barn owl, the kale patch, and ‘dirt mountain’. Meanwhile, we were meeting all sorts of interesting people who live at or want to move to the ecovillage. While in the past, we have been worried about moving because of how difficult it can be to make new friends, this is not something we are worried about when we think of moving to Yarrow.

Ann (and Kelly!)

I’m a papier mache artist, with a little black dog, happily living and working in this messy, joyous, idealistic, practical, multi-faceted village.

And to think I came here from the beautiful island paradise of Salt Spring!

Why?  To find myself in community.

My new home is on the top floor of the finely-crafted cordwood house with a south-eastern view over blueberry fields and hazelnut trees to the misty, fir-ry  mountains beyond… in the dominion of owls.  ( Barn owls!   They raised four owlets this year in the concrete silo)

My big-city, family-raising, community-activist self remains, and now, instead of feeling isolated and under-whelmed, my new potentials are in hand.  Here, I bask in a galore of farm, fields, neighbours, children, mountains, village plans and village building.  And I can still find solitude, silence, and peace for my inner self.

I enjoy   Reeling and Writhing of course, to begin with, (Lewis Carroll) and the different branches of arithmetic-ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision, mucking about, good book-weeding,  ant-tickling, daze-dreaming, eating  muffins, and the grand outdoors.

I look for ways to do everything collaboratively ( except for a few things,  like solitude … I like to do that by myself )  and with lots of fun and eco-lightness. My religious roots are Unitarian.  Here, I grow, stretch and learn every day.  Sometimes it hurts, but I love every minute of it.

This isn’t about growing older … it’s being … full of life

How exciting it is to be throwing in my lot where my heart has long yearned to be!

Kelly: I’m a black and white dog.  I may have other colours, but then, like all other dogs, I’m colour blind.

I lie around and do absolutely nothing:  modeling healthy behavior -  patience, gentle-good-humour and calm – for other eco-villagers.  They appreciate  it…especially patience,  while they’re building houses.

Every day I go down to the back pasture to look for rodents.

That’s about it.

Not a bad life, really.


 

Michael and Suzanne

Michael: Once we bought the land for the ecovillage in Yarrow, I turned the corner on my 25 years in management in various federal agencies and non-governmental organizations.  I became a farmer.

Improving the soil and experimenting with cover crops and composting have been my contribution to the farm. I’m married to Suzanne and father of Lisa and Andrew. I love exploring cultures, being in nature: canoeing, kayaking, backcountry skiing and hiking. Reading and writing are favourite activities.

My education includes an MA in Sociology from the University of British Columbia and training in dispute resolution at the Justice Institute of BC.

I am active in the local community, particularly in social and environmental issues. I am a director of the Ecovillage Network of Canada, a member of the Yarrow Community Association and the Fraser Valley Regional Watersheds Coalition, and vice president of the BC Association for Regenerative Agriculture.

The ecovillage has been a learning centre for sustainable community for me.

Suzanne: Since retiring from the hectic world of an Executive Director’s job, in a social service agency, in the spring of 2003, I have devoted my time and energy to organic farming. The work, while exhausting and all-consuming, has been exhilarating and more rewarding than I could ever have imagined. Every day the soil teaches new and exciting lessons, the plants communicate their needs and the beauty of the land impresses one.

My change of career took place just in time to become part of the awakening of the world to the benefits of clean food and movements like the “Hundred Mile Diet”. My family

and I quickly became involved in growing and making beautiful produce available, through farmers’ markets, to the folks of Vancouver who yearn for fresh, toxic-free farm food.

Originally a Montrealer, I have lived and worked in Quebec, Ontario and BC. Each of these places is a part of me. My family of origin, the home I grew up in, the cottage,

built by my father that speaks to my soul, the excitement and beauty of a great bilingual city are all in La Belle Province. My family life, the fields, mountains, ocean and later-life friends are all in British Columbia.

Food and food-oriented “stuff” is my great preoccupation. I love to grow it, experiment with it, prepare and share it, to read and learn about it. I enjoy traveling, locally

or to far away places. I’m a dedicated walker and have a great need for being in the fresh air.

The Jongkind Family

Yonas: Home schooled, Bachelor of Technology, Masters of Business Administration, entrepreneur….. turned Dad and IT worker at local ecovillage.

Julia: Small town girl who gave up her prestigious primary school teaching position to try out being one of our super-moms at the ecovillage. Raising 4 kids 24 hours of every day — with the occasional bit of overtime.

According to Yonas  and Julia, theirs are the four cutest and smartest kids in the world .

The Jongkind’s are experience cohousers having previously lived at WindSong in Langley. They found out about WindSong through Yonas’s brother and when they attended a fundraiser for Percy Schmeiser. When asked what attracted Yonas to WindSong, he said it just “felt right”. After being on the waiting list to buy a home (at every cohousing in BC) WindSong was the first to call after over a year. The Jongkind’s got the call at the worst possible time. Yonas was just finishing his MBA and initially thought they should wait. The pull to live in community proved too strong and they moved in to WindSong in August 2005. Now the proud parents of four, they couldn’t imagine living anywhere but a cohousing community.

Cher and Shayne

The King-Scobie’s are idealists who try to balance idealism and practicality daily.  We moved to the ecovillage in 2006 so that our kids could know their neighbours, so that we could have a greater sense of community and so that we could live a more frugal lifestyle while giving our family indulgences like swimming in a creek, growing our own food, trees to climb etc. etc. etc.  Shayne grew up in Langley and had giant trees, fruit and a lot of independence on an acreage and wanted to give our kids access to the same landscape for adventure.

We are both generalists – we’ve tried many different ways to earn money for living.  Currently, Shayne is building our home and has participated in building other homes on site.  Cher is an active part of the Yarrow Deli Coop, one of the first businesses at the ecovillage.  We also both play a role in homeschooling our kids and try to contribute what we can to the village.

Our son Caius is a very busy boy who is always doing some kind of stunt or dancing or being goofy.  Eli is 5 and likes to sit and draw and build lego projects.  They are both very outgoing and are often the first to welcome new folks on site.  Our daughter Dahlia is 2- she works hard at keeping up with her brothers.

Our ‘life plan’ is to live a simpler, more frugal life in general so that we have time to deal with our spiritual growth and development.  This is a tricky goal in a budding village where there is always plenty of jobs to do, but it is a great challenge!

Beverly, Matthew, and Sons

We moved in to one of the new duplexes in August 2009 after watching the ecovillage’s progress online for a couple of years, finally coming out for a tour with Ann, meeting a few more residents, and spending the August long weekend at the ecovillage camp out.  We had attended a meeting in 2007, but we weren’t ready then to commit to the difficult work being done by the pioneers.  We are here and committed now, thoroughly enjoying the daily life that is already taking place here and feeling excited about the momentum towards a wonderful future here.

We are locals who were delighted to find this great project taking place in our own hometown. Beverly moved to Sardis when she was twelve and has taught in the school district (1998-2005) and at the university (since 2005).  Matthew has been a Chilliwackian since marrying Beverly, but he does commute to New Westminster three days per week where he works with an international development NGO (Anyone interested in carpooling?).

Our boys are three and six; we’re thirty-somethings who’ve been married for ten years.

This is what we’ve loved about the ecovillage so far: bonfires, good company, cut-throat games of Settlers of Catan, drinking tea by sunny south-facing windows, the opportunity to help build something wonderful, and eating blackberries, tomatoes, carrots, Korean eggplant, and hazelnuts that grew right here.  (Have you eaten hazelnuts roasted over a bonfire?)

This is what we’ve loved about Yarrow so far: walking 600 metres to the library, taking the shortcut past the horses to Yarrow Community School, participating in the little tykes soccer league, riding bikes along the dyke, shopping at the MCC thrift store (and depositing items there as well as we unpack and declutter!), going for tea and ice cream at Vedder Mountain Grille, walking to Rainbow Gas & Food to buy regular-priced wine at 10:00 at night (Terry carries organic beer for the ecovillagers now!), and zipping next door to the deli to grab some cheese or chocolate.  (I, Beverly, have had a crush on Yarrow since high school…we had our wedding reception at the Yarrow Community Hall, and I just loved putting the “Community Street” address on our invitations.)

Assuming that there may be other people like me who start off by watching the ecovillage’s progress online, I’m working to feed that appetite through the blog: www.yarrowecovillage.ca.

Bill and Janice

Bill: Bill loves working with his hands, thoroughly enjoys fishing, hiking, camping, canoeing and most anything connected with the outdoors.  He is also passionate about people in need or who are disadvantaged, and finding ways to bring them hope.  He is tired of renovating.  He never met a pie he didn’t like.  He is still in love with his first wife, Janice.

Janice: Janice is an energetic woman in her last flush of youth.  Passionate about food - roast chicken and chocolate especially - she also loves to read, write, garden and make fabulous coffee in her french press.  She is sappily in love with her first husband – not having had time, despite her ADHD, to find a second one – and can be found ogling or kissing him at any given time.  She longs to be closer to the ocean, but the mountain and farm view from her home-to-be is a worthy distraction.  She can’t wait to be in the village as a full time resident, and wishes someone would just come and buy her dang house as it is right now.

Krishna

I was raised by hippies in the truest sense of the word.  Not because of what they wore, or how they did their hair, but in the intentional way they lived.  My Father was Australian, Mom Brittish, and after falling in love they came to Canada to intentionally live a “back to nature” lifestyle.  I grew up on 40 acres of wilderness, and because of them learned many skills.  Everything from welding and carpentry to gardening and canning.  I was home schooled at first but then moved into public schooling later on.  I must say that after coming from such an open minded out-of-the-box upbringing I found it very hard to fit in to a small town closed minded society.

None the less I went on to University for electrical engineering for three years only to discover that it just wasn’t me.  After some soul searching (affectionately known as bumming around) I ended up with a Bsc in Forestry.   I was married.  My wife and I made the move to Cranbrook where she had fallen in love with a property overlooking a bird sanctuary.  While she thrived there, I did not.  I found myself increasingly miserable and eventually we had to make that hard choice that no one thinks will happen to them.  She, and my two children are still in Cranbrook.  I feel too far away from my children, but sometimes life gives you challenges and battles that just don’t go your way.

My journey took me to the Vancouver area where carpentry work seemed to flow easily my way.  I was in the process of moving on and reinventing myself when I met Alan through a life long friend at the WindSong cohousing development.  Through him I got work at the Yarrow Ecovillage.  I have to tell you that when I first came it was just a work thing.  I managed to find accommodation onsite (I’m room mates with Britta) and as I worked I began to develop a deep appreciation for the site, the people, and the ecovillage project on the whole.  I love the farm.  I find myself surrounded by truly interesting and caring people.  So in a twist of fate I am buying one of the units I am building.  I find myself needing some stability in my life, and funny enough I’ve found that here.

Paul, Viv, and 3 make five

We’ll start with Paul.  The funniest thing about my quiet, intelligent, calculated computer whiz is that he hates computers.  His hobbies include building garden projects (like the 100 lbs of pototoes in 2×2 sq feet, and earthtainers), composting, and renovating our rental property.  His dreams include living in a Yurt on 500 acres and starting an off-grid bed and breakfast. (Oh.  and he wants a pet goat.)  If you were to look at him you’d say, “That man is a regular suburbian dad.  He drives a ford focus wagon, and he’s never smoked… anything… in his life.  I call him My Closet Hippy.

We have three children as diverse as they are joyful.  We enjoy them even when they are challenging.  They make us better people.

Before my at-home-mommy days I collected stories.  I must be an entrepreneur first, and anything else after. I’m just an incredibly curious person and I suppose our family creed is “If you can imagine it- there’s a way to do it, and do it right.” I like to have projects on the go.  Preferably ones with a start, middle, and end in sight.  Mini explosions all over the house!

Our oldest came in 2005 and we did what I think most of my generation did; we moved to a burb.  We’d both been raised that way, and we didn’t really think about it.  It somehow felt like “what you do”.  We’ve found the expected pace of life is just light speed and we found really quickly that everyone around us was too busy being busy.  Worse yet- we were falling for it.  In the last couple years we’ve found a great deal of peace and quiet while we literally dump both physical and emotional obligations.  It has taken us 5 years to know any of our neighbors, and find some community in what we thought was a smaller town.

We want to be with people who want to be with people.  We want to help our neighbors rake the leaves while we chat instead of standing awkwardly at the side watching… (Have you ever tried to help a suburban neighbor rake leaves? It’s a hilarious experience! They’ll actually fight you for the rake back!)

We’re still in the muggle and muddle, finding our way and trying to decide if cohousing in an ecovillage is for us but we love what we see and we want to see more.  If you are curious for yourself I can highly recommend you ask for a tour.  If nothing else you’ll meet a bunch of really great people!  We sure did!

Shauna & Nevin

We are both originally from the South Okanagan, but grew up gypsy style, constantly moving all over the country. We want settle down now, have some kiddlets of our own, and enjoy a simple, community focused lifestyle. We are a Jack and Jane of many trades. We are currently in our first year of organic farming, which is our passion in life, and can’t wait to start a plot at Yarrow Ecovillage. As well, we are a restaurant’s dream team, Nevin is a fine dining server, and Shauna is a cook. We have both been in the service industry for at least a decade each now. Shauna is also a jewelry designer, designing her own line of beautiful wire wrapped jewelry called Gavigan Designs. When we lived in Thailand for half a year, we both learned the amazing art of Fire Spinning, and make a little money on the side now doing Fire shows here and there. Shauna is also an office administrator, and very much enjoys organizing and making things run efficiently. Hmmm, is there anything we don’t do? Lol ? All in all, we are hard working, intelligent, goal driven, happy, and down to earth people looking for like minded individuals.

We have been looking into Ecovillages and Cohousing communities for 4 years now, and have finally decided to make the move. Yarrow is a beautiful place, with beautiful people, and the opportunities and chances for us to help make the dream of Yarrow Eco-village a reality are many, and we can’t wait to be a part of it all. We believe life should be more local and community based, and want to start living that way. So, here we are… ?

Meg and Dorothy

Hi, we are Dorothy and Meg, currently living in Edmonton, Alberta and potential neighbors in waiting!  We are long time co-op housing folk- living eleven years in our current home. Dorothy is on the finance committee and Meg membership. We love sharing a lawnmower and sometimes trading cars with our co-op neighbors; as well as the camaraderie of knowing our neighbors and looking out for each other.

Community is very important to us and we are both and each part of several communities-singing, gardening, spiritual, work and hockey for a few!  We also love being aunties, both ‘adopted’ and in our families.  We are the parents of three young adult kids (all off on their own adventures) and the blessed grandmothers of one beloved grandson! No pets- but have been known to alternately cuddle or shoo friends cats; and walk friends dogs. We love camping and canoeing, quilting and crocheting  ; biking and walks through the river valley; and cooking!

When we first came to the ecovillage we felt a deep connection to the people and the land.  We look forward to the next steps as we explore ways to make a big move, and start a new adventure of our own.

Cheryl

After finally escaping a 30-plus year career in healthcare, I wanted to live in a close-knit, slower community. With that in mind, and several country drives, I was lucky enough to find the Yarrow Ecovillage, where I have quickly been welcomed in to the community.

I am a ‘Neighbor in Waiting’, meaning I don’t live here yet, but am waiting for my home to be built. Even in that position, I already feel a part of a growing, evolving community. I’ve attended community meals, meetings, helped with projects and have started a garden plot.

I am at a new stage in my life and feel excited to be starting it here–where there is a feeling of so much possibility!

Alan

I’m currently a part-owner,  contractor  and carpenter on the latest duplex building called 9/10 or ( affectionately) the Quad-pod.

I’m excited about Yarrow Ecovillage because it offers a live/work opportunity to residents who are looking for a sustainable alternative; being able to farm the land and grow food for themselves and others.

I live at WindSong Cohousing in Langley , B.C. I was involved in its creation and was key to the building of its membership until its completion in 1996.

I have 40 years in residential design and construction, and am a regular presenter and guest speaker at many Community Development and Housing related seminars, workshops and programs.

Since 1992, I’ve been very involved in the promotion and marketing of Co-housing in North America . I am co-founder of a North American Co-housing Network, which has since become the U.S. Co-housing Network and The Canadian Cohousing Network. I’m also a financial manager of a mortgage investment corporation, the Canadian Co-housing Network and some holding companies.

I started and helped in the formation of many of the groups in British Columbia such as Cardiff Place , Cranberry Commons , Quayside Village and Robert’s Creek Cohousing. I was one of the creators of Glen Valley Organic Farm Cooperative.

I have passion about Co-housing I can’t help myself in promoting the concept wherever I go!  And my current project is promoting  Seniors’ Cohousing at Yarrow Ecovillage.