This past month (November) has been a very busy one. Through the constant contact with LEF we were able to plan a visit in the early weeks of the month. Our first visit was amazing. It was extremely eye-opening, not only because it was the first intentional community we had ever been to, but becuase it was so neat to meet the families, interact with the children, receive a full tour, and have lunch with them. During our first visit we took some notes/pictures on the tour but towards the end of the day we had already began discussing the next possible time we could come back. The following week the interviews were conducted the interviews. I loved this part because it was so personal and very interesting to hear the different thoughts people had about the community. After the interviews the children gave a tour of the ducks and their home. It was an extremely wonderful experience to feel so included within the community. As we finish up our project in the coming weeks I hope we are able to really open the eyes of others to this unique way of life. I think the areas we have within the website work to section off the different information and allow for people to fully understand the desire for this community.
Project Updates
This week, Savannah and I will be editing the project website by adding information for each of our pages; “Home Page”, “About the Authors”, “History”, “Interviews”, “Life and Responsibilities”, “Photographs”,”Principles of the Community”, and “Programs Offered”. We currently don’t have enough information to supply some of the pages like “Life and Resposibilites”, “Photographs”, and “Principles of the Community”, but we will add more as we get interviews from its members and founders.
We have to figure out how to re-order the list of pages on out project website, so that they aren’t alphabetical and so that the home page pops up when arriving at the site.
I spent last week into the weekend applying for an IRB review of my future visit to MorningSun, and it should be getting approved today. I will visit MorningSun by the end of the week, most likely on Sunday. I’m very eager and excited to go to MorningSun in order to fill in all the gaps in my understanding of their community. I know that there are only 9 members of MorningSun, according to the website, and I really want to know if they live there full time or not, and how much of their resources that they’re able to get from their own land and work.
LEF Visit
This past weekend, we finally got a chance to visit the Living Energy Farm. Getting there was challenging, from finding the right address to walking the half-mile path from the end of the driveway to the main building.
When we first arrived, we found two young adults sitting in a warm living room with four kids running around and playing happily with toys. The two young people turned out to be visiting for a couple of weeks through a national tour of different intentional communities. Then we met Debbie Piesen and Alexis Zeigler, who showed us around the Farm and talked to us about our project.
On the tour, I was struck by the amount of powerful and simple technology that LEF members made from scratch. One example I particularly admired was the heating system, which collects hot air from the roof and blows it underneath the house using a solar powered pump.
While I was somewhat concerned by the possibility that the members of LEF might view a website as an unnecessary extension of the industrial world, Alexis seemed excited by the idea that our project might help outsiders better understand the mission of the Farm.
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