..........

Hello:

The spring equinox is upon us and tomorrow, Easter, several friends of mine and I will be celebrating, in part, with a bonfire on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. This came together suddenly for it has been a while since we've all joined together.

I have a chance to meet up with a group that has plans for an intentional community. They meet up monthly about an hour's drive north of San Francisco. My intent is to participate, network if possible, share what I might and sit down with persons who are finding their way to the same thing we are.

They are meeting in a town called Glen Ellen on the 29th. If anyone wants further details see the letter I received below.

Also, I'd like to have people consider another online meet-up, a chat. We can use our YahooGroup or find another means. SKYPE is another option that would allow computer to computer conversations. Let me know!

I updated some of the information on our profile at the F.I.C..'s website. No major changes just some odds and ends.

The directory: http://directory.ic.org/

The site: http://www.ic.org/pnp/cdir/1995/01kozeny.html

Again, seasons bet from us both, Wendy and Dan

Community of Light

We want to co-create a community in a rural area, grow a good portion of our own food, create a profitable cottage industries, and so be self employed. We would keep well the land that we live on and engage in right livelihood. We also want to contribute to the community around us and so benefit our society. Ideally, we would want to be near enough to a good sized town maybe some 50,000 or so, a college community would be something to consider. We could each use our talents, abilities, or professions to provide for ourselves as well extent help to others.

You are all welcome to express your ideas about what our community should be. We are, after all, the persons who will make it up.

There are a lot of ideas that we've discussed but I want everyone to know that what is or has been in issues are meant as working concepts. This whole idea is a work in progress and so let us know what you think.

If you have not been to the Community of Lights web page we now have a listing of communities that are forming. It may be educational to visit some of those sites to see what's new in the community universe See the links at: Community of Light

Thanks, Dan and Wendy

Email Address: creative1@creativeideasforyou.com

These are the introductions from persons that have written us since the last issue. Please go to Subscriber's Profiles if you would like to see the profiles we have on file currently. Some but not all of these people may have additional information there.

 None at this time

 None at this time

These are some excerpts from a longer letter from one of our more distant participants, always good to hear from him.

Pace Pace ………. minnesinger5@yahoo.co.nz minnesinger5

Dear Kindred Spirits, Be well

Happy Vernal Equinox.

Here in Bavaria there is wind and snow and a few icicles clinging to the cobwebs above in the woodshed where I will spend more time today chopping heavy Beech and some fallen oak. Yes, solar is the best way- some of the moneyed neighbors have fins panels on their step, red roofs but here in the old Mill house where once the brook ran and where the Celt graves were disinterred some time ago, there is just the big wood pile and several ancient iron stoves- just like Great Grandpa used to stoke.

I have been searching for years now for a suitable alternative to the rat race A.W.O.L. (American Way of Life) and that is how I came to be part of Community of Light.

I am most interested in finding community SOMEWHERE OR OTHER on this planet. If you could fill in your information on what to do (March 29 or when and wherever) to find KINDRED SPIRITS preferably doing KINDRED ACTIONS toward sustainable, alternative, NEOCON_FREE and CORP_SRESS_FREE good things, please let me know.

I am devoted to you all and practice compassion as I can- even with this email this morning and would go just about anywhere to help and work and be with those KINDRED people and things of which you have mentioned.

Be well, again, Happy Vernal Equinox, Easter, Bird Returns etc.

Love and Peace to you all.

Pace RH Pace

Still a prodigal in exile in the Bavarian woodlands (usually) in view of the towering Alps.

Concerning the Eden Project .......... T

The Kindred Spirits Meet on March 29th What's that all about? Creating an Off the Grid Community.

We share in the creation of a new vision of an Earth Restored and a World at Peace.

All are welcome to come who come in good spirit. This is just one small branch on a very big Tree.

All friendly voices do need to be heard and there is a place for all that is good and right to be included.

It all begins at 11am on Saturday Morning on MARCH 29th 2008.

We will meet right out in front of the Jack London Lodge restaurant area right in the middle of the tiny town Glen Ellen and that is just about 45 miles north of the golden gate bridge.

One topic will be the significance of the spirit of place that all

people have been wrestling with. Who are we in relation to our place and our community and how to do we sustain that and leave something to future generations might be of some interest to you all.

We can make it all happen by combining our own intentions to collaborate together and to start making things happen. Pass this message around to everyone you know.

http://edenvillage.net/18.htm

To join our main email group - just send a blank email to:

Eden-Project-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Lets collaborate. I would love to meet you. Just thought I would put that our there, just to see what happens. Everything has to be Self Reliant and Amicable. &endash; T

This letter came in a week or so ago, the solar furnace looks interesting, so you might want to look at the video then go to the site and see the step by step directions .......... Dan -

Hello Folks!

Many many thanks for the emails, suggestions and encouragement... by popular request... I have now evolved to Video, complete with audio narration!

You can view the footage of the solar furnace being disassembled for maintenance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz7k9El_d7A and now on a new landing page at http://beam.to/solarheat

Both show video of the solar collector. Thanks!

This letter just came in today. I have sent word but have not heard a reply as of yet. I thought that I'd check it out, but then thought, why not let others see the information as well? .......... Dan -

160 acres at 20,000 big basin way - Boulder Creek CA - Owner is Roy Kaylor. He wants it be an eco-village.

I am getting help from my connection to queen of www.natural-villages.org - Mrs. Johanna Cougar - 831-335-7194

Maybe we can all team-work, collaborate? - peace, Star*

Go vegan sans domestic-animals, eschewing/avoiding all toxins drugs alcohol smoking, and help me make such like pure vegan eco-villages, thanks ! www.geocities.com/brolittlestar

Voicemail: 831-425-3334 Santa Cruz, CA California, USA - Little-Star * Sevadar - p.o.box 1086, BEN LOMOND, CA 95005-1086 http://infinitestarlight.thedragonscave.org/brotherlittlestar/movies/

"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive..." -- Eleonora Duse

A very easy way to give food to the hungry is to set the Hunger Site as your browser's home page. Check out the Hunger Site to see what it is about and how it works.

If you want to research intentional communities this is a good place to start.

Communities Magazine comes out regularly and is a resource for those seeking to explore communities. The directory that is a great primer in the variety of the community universe. You can write them at the address given below. This is their office address.

Communities Magazine, 138 Twin Oaks Road, Louisa VA 23093 USA or call them at: Tel/Fax: 540-894-5126. Their website is at Intentional Communities

The resources on the Northwest Intentional Communities site might be valuable. There are lists of legal documents, process advice etc. They're at: http://www.ic.org/nica/resource.htm

This list of places seeking members, communities forming and the like. It's at the F.I.C.'s website: http://directory.ic.org/iclist/

It might be a place to do research, who knows there may be a place within a relatively short drive.

My yahoo ID is available for use as a means to chat online. I am willing to schedule a time(s) during a given month where we could chat. I am thinking that a Saturday or Sunday would be the best time overall, however I am open to suggestions. Please advise.

If you are a member of our Yahoo group you can access the current polling data, or vote: this is the link to our group This is what we have at "press time"

Would you consider a location outside the United States?

Choices	Votes	%
Outside the U.S. preferred	2	9%
depending on country chosen	5	22%
Neutral - no preference	2	9%
would but not first choice	9	40%
NOT consider outside U.S.	4	18%

Should we have a membership fee of some kind?

Choices	Votes	%
Income of entering members	5	27%
Money making capacity of the community	13	72%

If we had an entry fee what should it be based upon?

Choices	Votes	%
Number of entering members	0	0%
Income of entering members	2	12%
Money making capacity of the community	2	12%
Other	4	25%
A share buying system	8	50%

Areas or regions we'd like to consider: (See the site for details)

Choices	Votes	%
AZ, NM, W. Texas	0	0
Cent. US: NB KS OK DA	0	0
G. Lakes, AK, MO, IL, IN,WI, KY, TN	1	6%
E. KY, E. TN, WVA, W.VA, W.,PA,	2	13%
G. Coast, FL, LA, MS, AL	1	6
E. PA, NY, NH, VT, CT, RH ME, MD	0	0
N. Idaho	1	6
NW/W OR, W. WA,	7	46%
CA, NV, UT, E. OR, E, WA, MT, CO, Wy	3	20%

What kind of climate would you want to live in?

Choices	Votes	%
Tropical	2	8%
Subtropical	5	21%
Forest	7	30%
Woodland/meadow	9	39%
Tundra	0	0%

What land locations would you like?

Choices	Votes	%
Island	13	18%
Peninsula	10	13%
Land bound w/coast	14	19%
land bound no coast	11	15%
High altitude	13	18%
Low altitude	11	15%

What sorts of things would you want to use the land for?

Choices	Votes	%
Farming	19	13%
Raising livestock	14	10%
Raising feed crops	11	7%
Hunting	6	4%
Gathering	15	10%
Fishing	14	10%
Utilitarian crops	10	7%
Fruit bearing trees	22	15%
Lumber/milling	5	3%
Water/solar for alt. power	23	16%

Would you consider a buy/sell/relationship with the outside world?

Choices	Votes	%
Yes	22	100%
No	0	0%

Although we may never seek to set down roots overseas, still the topic comes up. Wtih that in mind I include a couple of letters from South America for their instructional value .......... Dan

Gary .......... gary19561956@juno.com

Bolivia is also a great place to live on very little money. The land is cheap and to live there you must only exit the country every three months and return again until you have permanent residency.

I almost moved there when I was divorced because like WV is a place I could retire without working since I have a pension. You can get a nice house in 'WV with payments in the $200 range. In Bolivia you can rent a nice apartment in the good part of town for about $100 a month. Utility bills will also be cheap there and the weather is what you want depending on the place you settle down. I chose Cuchabamba the city of eternal spring. The average temp is in the 70's year round with warm days and cool nights

Vegetables are cheap at local markets. A man I email there is retired from the UK. He orders dinner 5 nights a week from a local restaurant and has it delivered by taxi all for $8.00.

I hate being hot so I only considered the Philippines for a short time. A full time maid/cook can be had in either Bolivia or the Philippines for $35 a month.

You can grow vegetables on cheap land build your own house from local materials and live like the natives but you will probably be poor too. To see a doctor in Bolivia is cheap though less than the co payment in the USA or about $5

You will need an income stream from the USA such as a rented house or pension to keep from being poor. You can only sale produce at the same price others get in that country. So you end up working just survive. But that can be quite good too

*******************************************************

Joel .......... Comunidad Los Visionarios http://www.uevn.org/Ecuador

Throughout Ecuador foreigners are quite welcomed. There have been times I have tuned to more English music stations than Spanish. There is a huge selection of Hollywood movies in each street corner. For some reason or another American USA foreigners are quite welcomed. Hollywood movies have a lot to do with it, they see Americans as a sign of the success they are seeking for themselves. Over one million Ecuadorians live in the states, and approx. 3 million in Spain and hundreds of thousands in England. On the other hand you will have a hard time finding an Ecuadorian that approves of the US Government invasion of Colombian, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the desire to do the same to Iran.

There are no intentional communities that I know of as we define it in Ecuador, the closest are in Mexico and Bolivia. There are several million indigenous Indians of which some live in a communal style. I do not know of any that exercise the level of cooperation we define/seek. As best as I know there are only 30,000 or so individual living in cooperative intentional communities worldwide, perhaps with the exception of the Israel's Kibbutz.

Regarding stability.- The US Government has done an excellent job on selling it's population on its glory, something that is quite opposite from the real worldwide truths. For example from our point of view we are pretty damn confident that we are not going to be attacked with a nuclear bomb any time soon. We are not at war or seeking war with any one that I know of, can you say the same? Ecuador can very well and very easily handle a financial collapse. I know we live through one already a few years ago and no one starved. Thought Ecuadorian overall are quite poor, no one starves. Ecuador is a food exporter. Ecuador has a government that actively seeks the improvement of its constitution. I can go on and on on a comparison of what stability can mean. What about USA vs. Ecuador crime and a government police state? We only have 6,000 prisoners for a population of 13 million, USA has millions; think about that little detail. Do people fell safe in the USA? We get about one real violent crime per year for a population of 400,000 or so, on the other hand petty theft is quire common, but no one gets murdered. Almost no one owns a firearm in Ecuador, for example the province where we live has fewer than 1,000 gun owners. The big cities like Guayaquil and Quito do have lots more crime, but even then way below in comparison to just about any large similar city in the USA. When you start doing a fare comparison you quickly see the wisdom of moving as far away as possible from the USA, and small countries like Ecuador start seeing as a paradise in comparison.

Ecuador's biggest problem is financial. Though one could barely tell from the enormous amount of new vehicles and housing projects. The economy is booming everywhere, but I still say there is a huge problem. Average pay rate is $150 per month. Since the country started using the US Dollar for its currency lots of things have changed. One thing that has change for the worse is people's desire for material things, such as the latest cell phone, TV, clothing, etc. Another thing that has been quite bad for Ecuador is that 25% or so of it best population has left to other countries in search of higher paying jobs; but this has left a lot of great opportunities for people like us

Do not take me wrong, Ecuador is far from being a true paradise, but it sure is better than any other place I know. In fact I challenge anyone to show me a better place to live for the price at this point in time in history.

Dan regarding your personal finances, look at it as a team effort, you may not have all you need, but surely there are others in your team that do. After all what is an IC for if it is not to help each others. My advice is start weeding out the ones whom are not serious, the ones that are only seeking virtual entertainment. Post plenty of questionnaires. Get rid of the ones who are not serious about making a move, even post these question to yourself, are you serious enough or is it just fun taking about it?

Regards, Joel

Comunidad Los Visionarios http://www.uevn.org/Ecuador