Cohousing-L Mailing List: A day at RoseWind

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

A day in the life of RoseWind, Port Townsend, Washington.
My neighbor interviewed folks at supper last night to get a flavor of 
what interactions we had as a community on just that one day. Here are 
some of the findings:

Shared child watching- Seven children aged 3-7 were watched by members of 
their 4 parent households, in many combinations, allowing non-watching 
parents to do errands, work, attend a meeting, help each other in other 
ways. A number of non-parents also watched one or more kids, including a 
mom and her 10-year-old daughter, who watched a preschooler during and 
after supper while mom churned out a work-related report at home. I 
taught 4 kids next door the old game of Stone School, as they sat on the 
porch steps. After dinner, in the kid room of the common house, Gunnar 
probably had as much fun as the kids, building improbable block towers. 

Shared stuff: A car borrowed, shared kitty litter, extra plants, use of 
Internet connection, use of floppy disk drive, a drill, some wire, some 
metal stakes, a lawn sprinkler, garage- sale kid clothes, magazine 
article, and a beer.  

Shared skills: Help assembling a new workbench from the store; assessing 
a second-hand stereo acquisition; proofreading; advice on a new worm bin.

Social/networking: A meeting set up between several people; two members 
work at the same deli (the new member got the job on the recommendation 
of the first); learning about work as a medical transcriptionist from one 
who does it; offer to loan some chairs to a new family; many outdoor 
chats as people passed  others who were gardening, playing with their 
dog, taking a walk, or watching children. Five members went on a bicycle 
ride together - a weekly occurence. Tea for three. Tea for two. Lunch for 
three. Purchase of a washing machine from another member. Discussion of a 
possible car share. Plans for a welcome-home party for a couple who have 
been away. News of a sick pet. Announcement of a sing-along in a few 
days. Ride offered to Seattle for the day. Info on a catalogue of kid 
clothes. Supper conversation included sharing information about surgery, 
Internet services, mattresses, and digital cameras.

Help with common work: Weeds torched on common driveway, pizza supper for 
37, coordinated and pizzas picked up, cleaned up; others donated salad, 
beer, juice, and cookies. Visitors (potential buyers?) shown around and 
conversed with at supper; another visitor directed to the lot for sale. 
Info given to treasurer about our insurance changing. Planting along a 
common path. Gardening in the community plot, protected by deer fencing.

And this being RoseWind, more guerrilla artwork surfaced on the commons: 
painted wooden dolphin fins and diving whale tails! (from our underground 
sea?)

And this was just some of what happened in one day! Sure, it's work, but 
for those who thrive on this sort of community, it's great.   




Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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