Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Fresno CoHousing and the La Querencia Community!

Each year we love to put on an Easter Egg coloring event and Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids. Our numbers were fewer this year because lots of kids were out of town, but that didn't stop us :) Those that were around enjoyed a time of dying eggs all kinds of colors.


This Easter Morning, we had a wonderful common meal put on by Pat and George who made homemade crescent rolls, deviled easter chicks, and fruit salad. YUM! I wish I had a picture of the crescent rolls, they were to die for! 3 different kinds: Plain, ham and cheese and chocolate!



Today we had the Annual Easter Egg Hunt. We had a great turnout of kids and everyone found some eggs. Each was stuffed with stickers, erasers, and gummy candy (nothing that would melt in the 80 degree sunshine!). Several of the kids commented that this was "so much fun!" and "the Best EVER!" Even some of the adults got in on the fun and helped steer the little ones in the right direction :)


Everyone took off running when I said, "Go!"


Sammi needed just a little help with this one :)


I think George helped direct the kids here...


The girls were so proud of all their eggs


Everyone got their share of eggs


Kamryn proudly shows off the Golden Egg. I think it helped that she was taller than everyone!

Stomping Bottles

We got an email the other day from our neighbor Neal who was needing help with a little project. He had a garbage bin overflowing with plastic bottles and wanted them crushed in order to make room for more...so who would be the best person/people for the job? Why the LaQ Children, of course! :) The kids had fun stomping and crushing all the plastic bottles, everyone got into it! Thanks Neil, for a teaching the kids that a "chore" really can be fun!






When the bin got too full, Neil had a little Helper stomp them down some more!

Story time

Something I just love about living here in our community is the interaction that my kids have with older neighbors. I feel that when kids are around adults, on a regular basis, they learn how to converse, be respectful, look people in the eye when talking or being spoken to and learn appropriate actions as well.

We have the pleasure of having a wonderful neighbor across the path who loves to spend time with our daughters. Barbara is a gem of a woman! On several occasions she and my 3 year old would go for walks or feed her dogs. Over the past year, this has become such a special time for my little one that we made it part of a regular routine. Three times a week Sam will spend time with Barbara reading books, playing legos, feeding her dogs, and going to the library. The other kids in the neighborhood have heard about her books, and snuck in for a little story time too :) so I snapped a quick picture...it was priceless! We just love Barbara and so appreciate her caring heart and love for the children!
-Jen Schultz

'Pi' Day

Here at La Querencia we like to celebrate the little things in life :) So, March 14th is Pi day (get it, 3.1415926...). We have a potluck, and those who attend are asked to bring a meal in a circular pie dish. We had Chicken pot pie, pizza's, quiches, and of course, apple pie! This is a fun tradition that we have enjoyed here in our community. Maybe it's something you may want to try too! Introduce this fun kind of a dinner to your family and friends. Who knows, it just might become your new tradition too!

A 'Not So Common' Meal

3 Cheers for the Cooks!!
Tonight George and Pat cooked up their famous macaroni and cheese dinner with basil pesto chicken and a fresh green salad! And for dessert: Baked Alaska!! The kids had never seen such a dessert and were in awe of the torch George used to finish it off.

It was a fun dinner, and the kids really got their fill :)

Score For La Q!

The kids in our community have been showing a recent interest in soccer, so George came up with an idea: Soccer Goals! The following in an article submitted by one of our resident 5th grade students about this new addition.

La Q is a wonderful place full of kind people. The kids love to go out on the grass area after school every day and play soccer. But something very important was missing. The goal posts! So our best builder in the community, George B., built 2 very fine goal posts. "It's great, and the kids love it," says Chris S. "I love it! It's awesome!" exclaimed Sean. So the kids now know where the right goal is.
-by Kamryn



Thanks to George for all your hard work in making our community so much more enjoyable for the kids!

Welcome Spring!

You can always tell spring is around the corner in our community because the air smells so much sweeter, friends are emerging from their homes to chat a little longer along the pathway and the geese are honking their "hello's" to us as they pass over on their way to the ponding basin. I love spring time in La Querencia!

This past weekend we followed suit with a Community Spring Deep Cleaning day of the main areas of the neighborhood. Many volunteered to varnish the play structure, sweep the driveway, clean the pool area, and deep clean the kitchen. Even the kids came out to lend a hand. Thanks to all who participated in helping to keep our community clean and inviting.





We love visitors! Come and check out our unique community. We have open tours every Sunday from 1-3pm.

Garden

Last weekend we had a wonderful turnout of helping hands in the garden. It was planting day and neighbors came out to get to work weeding, amending, pruning and yes, planting. Saturday morning turned out to be perfect weather for the work, with a light breeze and not the hard hitting heat.
We planted lettuce, peas, parsnips, beets, radishes, carrots, chard and much more! What a feast we will have available to us come this fall. For those of us who lingered, we were rewarded with a violin and piano serenade coming through a neighbor's window. I wish I had a sound bite on this page just to give you a feel for what we got to experience that morning. It was like none other and I have to say, it was a cohousing HIGH in my book!
Many thanks to the men and women of the community who helped.

Some Memorable Events...

Over this past year, we have had the privilege of participating in some really neat events here at La Querencia. I wanted to post a few pictures of the events related to the kids, since that is what my world is at this stage in my life! :) There are 3 events in particular that stand out to me and my family-the first being the Rocket Launching party!



George had the idea that the kids might enjoy building and then launching their own rockets. Why not, right? Well, the kids LOVED this idea! Each child who participated built and painted their own rocket. The day of the launch each kid got to shoot off their rocket and then go catch the parachuting top.


I love this picture, you can see the smoke from the rocket and the initial reaction from each person as they look to the sky!


Here is the crew of rocketeers! A memorable morning was had by all. Thanks George (and Neil for helping!) for making it happen!

The next memorable event here at La Q was a Kid's Water Day. Several families were returning from different vacations as well as new families joining our neighborhood. We thought it would be a good idea to get all the kids out on the lawn and have them meet and interact in a fun way.

First we had all the kids meet and tell us their names and one thing the LOVED!


Then it was time for the slip-n-slide. We also played a water balloon toss, and water balloon tag. Then it was time for a dip in the pool.

We not only had a great turnout of kids, but many of our other residents came out to enjoy the fun and watch the kids get wet! We finished the night off with popsicles for everyone.

Finally, though I know there will be more memorable moments to come yet this year, was our Movie by the Pool night. George came through again with another great idea: why not have a movie night by the pool? Awesome! We had a great turn out and the kids swam into the night while watching Toy Story 3.




My family just loves living here at La Querencia! My kids have found a home where they are accepted and loved for who they are. We see them interacting with people of all ages and learning life and social skills that will take them far beyond their years here at La Q. As a parent, that is a wonderful thing to watch. Cheers!
-Jen Schultz

Gorgeous new moon tonight, which brought about 10 of us out to sit and watch it rise, contemplate what it would be like to live in a world with 11 moons, like Jupiter, sing moon songs, enjoy the breeze coming off the ponding basin (our own "Lake La Querencia!") and enjoy each other's company--a cohousing moment!

Fresno Earth day 2011

April 30 – 11 am & 4 pm FREE and Open to the Public
Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno 2672 East Alluvial Clovis, CA 93611

Join the Fresno Earth Day Coalition for Earth Day 2011 at Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno.

This is the second year the Unitarian Universalist Church has hosted Fresno Earth Day. This successful event was well attended last year and has expanded this year. 2011 activities include over 75 participants, live music, local food, practical workshops, tours, exhibits, films, kids' activities, green car show, free e-waste recycling, solar cooking & bio-fuel making demonstrations, green car show, bike ride, walking tours - xeriscaping, green building tour, bird watching, vermiculture (earthworms), composting workshop, care for garden tools workshop, children’s activities, vegetarian cooking and paper making workshop, valet parking for bikes, Free Bike and Helmet Safety Checks and much more.

Additional Details:
Live Music includes: Lonesome Jem - Jem Bluestein and friends - Master of many kinds of American and European ethnic musics; Soul Kitchenette - organically-raised, free-range musicians who play highly sustainable rock/pop/soul music that you will find delicious; Heartland Harvest - Mixing traditional and contemporary folk, blue grass, old-timey, and other Americana - including funny stuff; Bound for Oblivion - a blues influenced rock trio. They do lots of original music, but also have lots of covers in their repertoire; Roscanna - a terrific traditional Irish music group

Practical Workshops: Paper; Raw foods; Composting; Care of garden tools; Bio fuels

Demonstrations / Displays: Vermiculture (garden worms); Solar cooking; Bio-diesel processing; E-cars; Wind turbines;
Bee hive; Solar power generation

Bikes: Bike ride to Fresno Earth Day from Tower Velo; Bike ride to Woodward Park; Bike helmet check; Bike safety check; Free valet bike parking.

Tours: Native plants / xeriscaping; Birdwatching: Green features of the Unitarian Universalist Church & Fresno Cohousing

Exhibits: Green businesses; Non-profit organizations; Faith -based organizations; Government agencies

Kids' Activities: Zoomobile; Hula Hoop weaving using old T-shirts; Seed Bombs; Coffee grounds; Recycle relay; Paper making

Green Car Show: Bio fuel vehicles; Electric and high fuel efficiency motorcycles; Hybrids

Free E-Waste Recycling (no additional wording per Steve)

A partial list of participants include: Food and Water Watch, San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, City of Fresno Water Conservation Program, California Native Plant Society, Green Hope Veterans, ALA in California, GRID Alternatives, Fresno Chaffee Zoo, Save the Foothills Coalition, Fresno Audubon Society, Sierra Foothills Conservancy, Master Gardeners/UC Cooperative Extension, Tree Fresno, Sierra Club – Tehipite Chapter, Fresno Recycling Program, Fresno Chapter of Green Building Council, Fresno Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, National Parks Conservation Association, Healthy Dairies Commission, Coalition for Clean Air, Community Food Bank, Heifer Int., CCROPP, Roots of Change, CSUF Organics Program, Critical Mass, Fresno Bike Coalition, Birchwood Conservancy, County of Fresno Recycling, Clovis Botanical Gardens, Fresno Wildlife Rehabilitation, Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District, Sun Mountain Solar Cookers, Sierra Cat Haven, Mokichi Okada Association, Fresno SPCA, Restore the Delta, ReStore (Habitat for Humanity), Fresno Bike Kitchen, S.I.L.O., CSUF Organic Farm, LUCA - Latinos United for Clean Air , League of Women Voters and ABC Cooling and Heating, A La Mode - children's used clothing, Charlotte's Bakery, Hart's Haven, Intermountain Nursery, OFFLINE Solar Co., Real Goods Solar, Rustica Kollection, Shaklee, Squaw Valley Herb Gardens, T&D Willey Farms CSA, The Center for Mindfulness, Three Springs Community & Garden, Tower Velo, Urban Salvage Central Valley, Whole Farms Market, Educational Employees Credit Union, Holistic and Integrative Family Medicine, Halloran Dentistry, Casa de Tamales, Lucy’s Lair, Food Not Bombs, Revive Cafe and MANY, MANY MORE!

Autos confirmed for the green car show include: 2011 Nissan Leaf all electric 2005 biodiesel VW Beetle 2005 biodiesel Mercedes E-320 2002 Veggy oil converted VW Jetta 20?? Prius Plug-in Hybrid 2 X 2010 street legal Electric Carts Valectricar 2011 Chevy Volt plug-in electric hybrid 19?? Motorcycle to electric conversion 2012 Honda Insight Hybrid 2012 Honda Civic gas, high mpg 2008 Vectrix Motorcycle 2011 Smart Car Solar Toyota Prius CART High School Biodiesel Processor

Fresno Earth Day Coalition includes: Fresno Betsuin Buddhist Temple • Fresno Co. Bicycle Coalition • Fresno Metro Ministry • GreenFresno.org • Interfaith Social Justice Collaborative • Fresno Cohousing/La Querencia • San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust • Sierra Club Tehipite Chapter • Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno.

For More info: www.fresnoearthday.org or 559.322.6146
Completely Solar Powered!
http://www.fresnoearthday.org/
559.322.6146

Please help us make this a well-attended event - post it on your facebook and twitter accounts.

Easy Cheesy - What's Not To Love?

It was La Querencia’s first Common Meal by the kids! It was George’s idea. After consulting with the parents, who all agreed, George asked for volunteers, got many enthusiastic participants, and the planning began.

The first task was creating the menu. All easily agreed on mac and cheese, chicken, salad and dessert (the last one was easy!). George googled “Easy Mac and Cheese,” and, lo and behold, up popped up a very easy recipe! There are just four ingredients: macaroni, cheese, sour cream and one egg. None of this Kraft box stuff for our community! George proposed ice cream sandwiches for the dessert, and everyone enthusiastically voted for those.

Prep work started yesterday after school, with the kids coming to the Common House to bake cookies. Fortunately, we had an abundance of cookie dough that had been sold to community members by several of the girls for their school’s fund raiser. Armed with ice cream scoops, trays and parchment paper, all took turns scooping the dough onto the paper, putting the trays in the oven and then, not so patiently, watching the cookies bake.

After a break for dinners at their homes, the gang reassembled for the great Ice Cream Sandwich Assembly Project! It got a little messy here and there, as the ice cream melted, but all was completed without a hitch.

George did the grocery shopping while the kids were at school. It was an early dismissal day, so when the kids arrived home, they all trooped down to the Common House to set the tables (34 people had signed up!), and combined the ingredients for the mac and cheese. It was off to play, then, with a return to the Common House at 5:00 p.m. for the finishing touches: filling the water pitchers, putting the salad greens in the salad bowls, putting all these plus the bottles of salad dressing on the tables and sautéing the chicken (already cooked and in bite-size pieces from Trader Joe’s) briefly in olive oil and mixing Trader Joe’s pesto sauce in with it.

Still a half hour to spare before 6:00! Belinda and Lilly, to fill up the time, choreographed a dance to do for dinner entertainment. The girls also practiced taking a group bow to acknowledge the “Three Cheers for the Chefs” that was sure to come from the impressed diners!

Show time! There was a special Chefs’ Table reserved for the crew. The food was hot and delicious, and everybody raved!

It was a fun evening, a great collaborative meal—and one that we’re all looking forward to having happen again!

Submitted by resident Pat L-B
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A book and a bear, vision realized.

I recall that at one of our first organizational meetings, back in 2004 (I think) we were asked to describe an activity that we would be doing when we were in cohousing. My vision was that I would be sitting on my front porch reading a book to some children.

Well, today, that came true! Ana, Tessa and Elijah wanted to sit on my porch swing with me, so we did. Tessa ran home and brought back a Berenstain Bears book and I read it to them. What a wonderful moment it was for me, and I hope, for them.

From home owner - George

Comments from the cohousing neighbors:
That's the coolest!!
Thanks for sharing George!
What a wonderful grandpa and role model you are:))!
Agreed. We're grateful for your influence on our children. We believe strongly that our children will have a greater development as human beings because of the connections with others, especially adults. So thanks for caring about our kiddo's, it is appreciated.

Weekend Highs

From the Shultz Family Blog - A family living in the Fresno Cohousing Community.

Our last couple of weeks have been busy getting back into the school routine. We are slowly finding our rhythm and discovering the homework load/busy-ness of Clovis schools. We walk to school every morning and really enjoy the time to talk and spend time with the girls. Chris gets to walk with us on Mondays and Fridays and we love doing it as a family. We also walk to school a couple of mornings with our neighbor friend, Lilly. Her brother Sean walks home with us because he is in afternoon Kindergarten.

Weekends are always fun around here in cohousing. There are a bunch of kids to play with. Last Saturday our house was filled with little people! We had my niece and nephew over, and neighbor kids filling the house with laughter and noise. Thankfully they all get along very well.

Read more about their experience in the Fresno Cohousing community

What A Day in Yosemite!

What a day! Yosemite was perfect in every way: clear weather, comfortable temperature, very little traffic, easy parking, and a great group of cohousing hikers!
We all chipped in for a 15-passenger van that Bryan rented, and Chris and Jen drove their own van with their four girls. One of our 15 couldn’t go at the last minute, so we were a merry band of 20, ranging in age from 18 months to 70 years.
Bev swears she had the best time of all, holding Winnie the Poodle and watching us all, especially the teenagers, stuff ourselves into the van at 7:15 a.m., some awake, some not so. We picked up Mark at his house in Coarsegold and zipped on up to the park.
Rebecca and Bryan planned a great hike that was do-able for all: first to Sentinel Dome, then to Taft Point where we had lunch, and then a finale of Glacier Point—all in all, 5 miles on our boots. Violette had been to Yosemite just once before and had only a fleeting glimpse, so the views for her were spectactular. The young kids did great. Sammy, the 18 month old, was the envy of us all, especially at the end, with her dad, Chris, carrying her in a baby back pack.
We made it all back to Oakhurst for dinner at El Cid’s and then took Mark back to his home. Mark invited us in, and we topped off the day with a whee of a time on the zipline he and Marilyn have installed behind their house!
We headed home, arriving about 12 hours after we started, tired and happy—a great day for being with our neighbors!

Submitted by resident Pat Looney-Burman
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Loving Cohousing

I just love living in cohousing. Here is a glimpse of a morning here in our community:

I wake up to the sun shining through my windows and the geese flying overhead to rest in the ponding basin just behind our community. Getting the girls off to school, I visit with Heidi who has just come in from walking her dogs. Barbara is walking along the pathway and stops to visit as well. Samantha is trailing behind me and decides to stop and say good morning to the dogs. The morning air is finally cool and we feel at ease taking our time and enjoying the fresh air. more

Extracted from the Shultz family blog. Friday August 27, 2010

Neighborliness Expands the Circle

It's hard to know sometimes how the things we do touch each other - In cohousing, thank you and appreciation abounds. These two "Thank You's" one internally and one to the neighbor next door are good examples I think of cohousing feels different from other "drive into your garage, close the door" communties. Following the "thanks" you'll also find a story reprinted from the Tree Fresno group about a tree planting. Several Fresno Cohousing residents participated.

David Firth (custodian/sextan at the UU church next door) gave me excellent information on how to enlarge type on my iMac desk-top computer, how to send e-mails, make copies, send copies, and how to FAX using my Canon Printer/iMac Computor. Resident Pat M.

Thanks to George, Michael, and Neil, the crafts room got a coat of primer. Thanks to Katie Kelley and Joe Syverson, we now have the first coat of paint, and thanks to Katie and Joe for putting on the 2nd and final coat of paint. Now we can move on to phase 2. Also - Thanks to Sarah, Katie, Joe and Cyndee for helping to haul the recycling ($23 more for the teen room). Resident Bryan S.

Reprinted from the Tree Fresno site

Planting one tree every two minutes may not be record breaking but pretty darn fast. You've got to dig, pull, plant, fill, build a berm, pound the stake, then tie an eight.

That's exactly what our volunteers did on Saturday, June 12. They put 70 trees in the ground in just over two hours at the Fresno Metro Flood Control District stormwater basin on Chestnut, just north of Alluvial. On this beautiful morning, Basin neighbors and volunteers from all over came out to build sweat equity in the 18-acre site. Soon the top one-third of the basin will be seeded with turf and the result will be much like the beautiful basins at Maroa and Herndon, and at McKinley and Weber.

Trees and turf will be watered by an irrigation system which draws water from the basin itself or from the nearby Maupin Canal. Surface water irrigation systems save millions of gallons of potable water each year. This planting was the 12th partnership between Tree Fresno and the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District in a continuing effort to beautify stormwater basins throughout Clovis and Fresno.

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Would Your Neighbor Show Up With a Truck?

Last night, after attending Back to School Night at my son's school, my husband and I went out to our car and it wouldn't start. While waiting for what turned out to be the first of three tow trucks (the auto club dispatcher just didn't seem to believe that we were unable to put this hybrid car with electrical problems into neutral, nor could it be jumped, so we needed a tow truck with a dolly or with "go-jacks". Yes, this is much more than I wanted to know about car towing, too!), my husband called our neighbors Bev and Neil to see if they could be available to drive us home from the car repair place after the car was towed there. Well, they had an even better idea. They both showed up, Bev in her Prius, and Neil driving the small pickup truck that belongs to the community. Members of the community can use the truck to haul stuff, or for occasions like this when an extra vehicle is needed. Neil handed us the keys, both of them said some words of encouragement, and were on their way. We stood there in the twilight, feeling so grateful that we live in cohousing. Posted by resident Lynette Bassman

Editors Note: Neighbors helping neighbors is a wonderfully common theme in cohousing communities. The days where you popped in at a neighbors' house for a cup of sugar are almost only a memory. The exception seems to be the 150 or so cohousing communities across the United States where neighbors are still stopping by to share tomatoes, or beans, cook a meal or wash clothes for someone recovering from surgery or offer a kind word of encouragment. Cohousing is the future of community today.

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Hawaiian Marinara, Peach Upside Down... Fit for a Prince and Princess

What’s it like to cook dinner for 35 people? Well, actually it’s not bad—and to be truthful, it’s exhilarating and I’m coming down from a high! George and I cook twice a month (the community expectation is once a month, but we love to cook….), and I feel like this each time after we prepare a community dinner. Tonight we had spaghetti with a special marinara sauce (a recipe I got from a Japanese woman I worked with in Hawaii—go figure!), regular meat balls and veggie meat balls (thank you, Trader Joe’s, for both), tossed salad with veggies from the community garden, hot garlic bread, freshly grated parmesan cheese, and fresh peach upside down cake baked this afternoon by George.

Usually we do a lot of the prep work a day or two before the dinner, but this week our schedules were packed and we just couldn’t do it earlier. I did most of the grocery shopping yesterday on my way home from work and then started in on the sauce this morning around 8:00 a.m. I chopped the garlic and onions here in our house and then took that to the Common House to load into a big pot. Once I got the sauce put together and simmering, I set the tables while George picked the veggies from the garden and made another trip to the grocery store (eight more people had signed up after I had done the initial grocery run—fortunately, TJoe’s is just around the corner!). I showered and went to work, returned home around 3:30 and even got in a 45 minute nap before heading back to the Common House to finish the last minute things. George baked the cakes while I was napping so that they would still be warm when we served them.

Almost everything was ready when people poured in at 6:00 p.m. Michael helped George get the spaghetti in the serving dishes and tossed with olive oil while I ladled out the sauce. Without a shred of modesty, I say that it was all delicious! There were good conversations going on at each of the four tables. George plated the “late plates” for Joe and Heidi before Michael, Cindy, Jenny and Candy took over the kitchen for clean-up. I saw Chris wiping down the tables, even though he wasn’t on the clean-up crew.

People strolled on the walkway after the dinner, chatting. Jeff pulled Kara and Sean in Kara’s wagon, with the two of them looking like the Prince and Princess of La Querencia! The evening light started to fade, and Venus was lit up brightly up in the western sky. The squadrons of geese took off from the ponding basin (our own “Lake La Querencia,”) passing over our houses, with another squadron coming in for a landing. What a sight!

George and I went down to the pool about 8:15 to join a smaller group of residents, ranging in age from 15 months to 81 years old! Four year old Tessa wanted George and me to stand in the pool “right there” so she could swim over to us. Addie urged George to do an underwater flip—and he did! I tried it, too—and couldn’t!

So—that was my day in cohousing—and I know there are more to come! I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

Written by resident Pat Looney Burman
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ice cream, wedding & world class soccer

What a great cohousing time it's was, and what a success! Almost everyone turned out for the ice cream and play, and the last people went home about 9:00 p.m.
People probably would have stayed longer, but it got too dark for the kids to play their games on the green lawn.
We had decorations up congratulating Jeff and Lisa on their marriage and had
a card signed by community.
The kids had an impromptu soccer game. Everyone played from the very little ones to Don Gaede and Bev and Neal's 18 year old grandson all playing together.
Wish you could have been here!

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