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
Stop by for Open House Sunday 1-3

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.

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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Open House every Sunday 1-3

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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Come by and see us Sunday 1-3pm

Today, one of our elders passed away.

Posted with permission from Tierra Nueva Cohousing community.

Today, one of our elders passed away. Tierra Nueva Cohousing has had other elders cross over in our early days, but Ken has been with us for our entire 12 years of living here. He was a staunch purveyor of World Peace, always bearing witness in any discussion involving conflict, as an advocate for peace. The children of Tierra Nueva adored Ken, as he was fond of reading them stories in our Common House library. Today, a table in the Common House has a photograph of Ken reading to young Aiden, who shared the same birthday, surrounded by roses from our cutting garden.

I was baking bread this morning, just adding flour to the sponge and could see outside my window a tender scene. Ken's wife was being hugged and held on the pathway, by another neighbor. This touched me so deeply. A simple gesture that says so much about why community is important. Why we do the difficult work of relationship. To be here for one another no matter what. To be present for one another through thick and thin, through both joyful times and times of grieving.

This is how a community's heart beats.
PattyMara

ps: something that I thought of later today, about Ken, I saw Ken every morning (their home is very near ours) as he walked to the mailboxes to pick up his newspaper. Very often I was out in our yard gardening. Whenever he passed by I would say "Good morning, handsome!" and he would light up with a big smile. And like clockwork he would reply "Good morning, beautiful!" And every time he said it, I believed him. What a gift.

Joining neighbors - feeling good

We had a good work day on Saturday, thanks to a lot of people, including Scott, Julia, Lynette, Jenny, Susan, Violette, Ruth, Valerie, Rebecca, Bryan, George B, Pat, and probably more!

My opinion: being part of a Saturday landscape crew is an ESSENTIAL part of the cohousing experience. Joining your neighbors while working out the fresh air and making your community more beautiful --it's a feeling obtained no where else, and if you havent done it, you're missing something good.

So progress in the garden marches on

A big thanks to Jeff for filling in the space between the small raised beds with base rock and filling the large raised beds with top soil.

Thanks to Dr Don for mowing the weeds along the west fence and to Jenny for planting her tomatoes along the north fence. George pulled some enormous weed roots. Joe and Sean smashed some pumpkins to add to the compost.

Bryan diligently worked on the irrigation both Saturday and Sunday.

The herb spirals are planted. The tomatoes survived the rain and wind.

The plea for help is to have someone water the non-irrigated garden beds. The best time to do that as the weather gets hot is early in the morning. As soon as the irrigation is complete it will be automated. I would just need help on the days I go to work, which is Mon-Fri and call weekends. Hopefully the irrigation will be done by my next call weekend.

Please let me know if you are free to help me with that chore. I will show you the place that need watering.

There is lots of lettuce in the long beds ready to eat before they bolt or turn bitter. There is also red Russian kale, spinach, and chard. The herbs in the herb spiral are newly transplanted, but should be ready for use soon.

Spend some time enjoying the garden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fojs69sJLAM

Thanks

Rebecca

Garden 2010

How does this sound? Get more physically fit in the great outdoors, boost your self esteem by accomplishing a task that benefits yourself and your community, decrease your carbon footprint by growing your own food and thus eliminating the fossil fuel requirements of food processing and transportation. All of this adds up to working to be more healthy and enjoying the benefits of your efforts.

We will be receiving a delivery of base rock tomorrow to put down paths in our community garden. Tomato, eggplant and sweet pepper starts are doing their thing on the window sill.

Next weekend is 3 days long for many of us. What a great opportunity to dig out the planting areas to grow our own food this year. There will be tasks for all levels of physical strength, age, time restrictions, dirt phobia, and familiarity with gardening.

Next season's garden has the potential to be beautiful, bountiful, and to make us greener and healthier.

Please harvest TODAY: heirloom cutting lettuces, carrots, beets, celery

What we have to look forward to: spinach, chard, tomatoes, eggplant, sweet peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, popcorn, summer squash, winter squash, melokhiya, herbs, heat resistant greens (spinach substitutes), ground cherries, grains, capers, sunberries. And much more. A mix of perenials and annuals so we can have food crops growing year round. We are blessed to live in a climate that supports the ability to have our own sustainable garden.

Holiday Activites

Much happened over the recent few weeks - Starting with a breadmaking class, followed a week later by a cookie exchange in the morning of LaQ folks then a lunch for a large group from our new neighbors the Buddhist Church - two doors down. A week later there was a Holiday Open House, then Christmas Day Potluck, and New Year's Day a Polar Bear Plunge into a 50 degree pool - followed fortunately by hot cocoa and a dunk in the hot tub. This Saturday there will be a Lance canales concert(tickets are still available) Steve and Cindy Concert (tickets on sale now) movie nights, more dinners and so many fun things you won't want to miss any of it!

See the photos on our flkr site & the plunge video on YouTube - plus of course the brief account of the events here - Enjoy! Don't forget to Stop By any Sunday between 1-3 to see the houses and the community and have a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Bread Making
I just got home a few minutes ago and got down to the CH for the Tasting
Section of the workshop. Wow--what bread! Pat

Holiday Open House
That truly is one of the best, most joyous holiday parties I've ever been to! Thanks to Don Gaede for this terrific idea. I hope this was the "First Annual," and that we'll continue with Second Annual, Third Annual, etc.

We're sitting in the Sacramento Train Station now (with free wi-fi--yaaay!), waiting for the Zephyr to Denver. Thank you, Bryan, for the early morning ride to the Fresno station. Everything has been on time so far.

Back to the party: our dog-walking friends that we see when we take the boys and girls out walking were totally impressed with our community last night. As they left, Jan said they had lived in Napa for almost 30 years and had never had a connection with their neighbors like we have.

So many thanks to all--Joe, our violinist, the accordion play from Don, all the people who set up, cooked, opened up their homes, greeted people, cleaned up--it was one of my most memorable and enjoyable times in cohousing!. This is what it's all about! Happy holidays to you all! Pat and George

More on Holiday Party
It takes a Village to raise a child and it takes lots of LaQ Villagers to put together a fantastic Holiday Open House!. Got some more people to thank:
Candy, and Barbara Cutright for helping with the Common House decorations. Mary, Candy, and Jenny for organizing the Cookie exchange. Barbara Cutright, Joe, Ana, Ruth, Lilly, Sean, and Emma for making the Paper Candy Canes and using them as CH decorations. Mary and Susan for taking on cleaning up and organizing the Children's room (looks wonderful. Christmas Elves who cleaned up after the party (these are only some of the names I could remember ) Bev, Bryan, Mary and Jared... It was so much fun, Thank you Don and Jenny for your wonderful ideas :) - Violet, for the social committee.

A big THANK YOU to all who helped out last night to make it a BIG success!
Kudos to Joe Syverson (the next Joshua Bell??), Violet and Mary and their helpers for decorations; Susan, Scott and their crew for preparing the common house; all those who opened up their homes; all those who brought snacks to the common house; and the Christmas elves (you know who you are) who cleaned up the common house after the party. Way to go, everyone!

Don Gaede

Polar Bear Swim
We had our first LaQ Polar Bear Swim (George's idea) around noon today, and you can see the brave souls that did it. Fortunately, we had our cheering section as well, and Violette brought out hot chocolate for all of us. The pool temperature was
50 degrees! The Syverson family went in twice, and Scott came running in at
the end, while we were all in the hot tub. Pat

Rainbow over cohousing

This was the most glorious rainbow I've ever seen--and then it
turned into a double rainbow!

It looks like in the first photo the rainbow ends - at the composting bin - no suprise there... the bounty of vegetables grown in their community garden last year, and the delicious meals prepared & shared by community with them would certainly indicate that it is indeed a pot of gold. Photos provided by Pat

Childcare a Community Thing

Written by Bryan - cohousing resident.
Reliable childcare is a recurring theme in the cohousing experience – from folks taking children to school to help with a scheduling problem or as a matter of convenience or for a few days as shared here by Bryan. In a couple of weeks, Rebecca and I will celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary (and 30th anniversary of meeting each other). We're going away for a 4-day weekend. Pat & George are going to look after Joe for us, so we can fully enjoy the Esalen Institute experience. Just last Monday, I needed to go to class in the evening but Rebecca was on-call and working late. Violette looked after Joe "no problem" and Joe wound up helping Lily with hours of homework.

Joe's concert and the flat tire

On a Sunday, a bunch of cohousers went up to Sequoia Lake to enjoy a concert and a picnic. Joe, who plays violin, was finishing a week of camp at Lake Sequoia Symphonic Music Camp and his ensemble was one of those performing a concert at the lake. Rebecca and Neil made a picnic to share. Ruth, Ana, Neil, Bev, Candy, Emma, Sharon, and George all came along.

On the way back from a concert and picnic, Neil & Bev had a serious tire blowout. They called us and, cohousers to the rescue! We caught up with them and picked up their passengers, and left George there to make sure Neil didn't try to fix the tire himself before AAA came. (Neil was there to make sure George didn't, either!) We also left them with an umbrella and water to go along with their chairs.

Moving Day

So, I sprained my ankle Friday afternoon. Frankly this event rendered continuing to prepare to move and to move boxes-o-stuff problematic. To our rescue on Sat am came a bevy of marvelous community members (Bev, Violet, Heidi, Good Don, Scott, Lorenzo, Lynette [I don't think I have left anyone out, but frankly it was a blur of activity so if I did, please forgive me]) who swept in, ignored the mess, and carted over a bunch of boxes and assorted stuff over to our new house and UP the stairs.

I am / we are very blessed, indeed, to be part of such a community.
Susan C.

Moving is not fun

We haven't moved for 20 years. Now, we are sorting, giving away and packing "stuff" so we can move to our new La Querencia home. We called and Disabled American Vets came with a big truck and picked up boxes and boxes full of our former stuff a week or more ago. Very liberating. And we do hope others come across that stuff (books, clothes, knick knacks) at the thrift stores and find it useful, or beautiful, or funny, or thought provoking. We bought a lot of it, especially books, at thrift stores and used bookstores, over the years ourselves. Now we are trying to do as our friend Bev wisely says, take only what we love. Easier heard than done. However, we are looking forward to a less cluttered, more full life. Dichotomy? Not at all. Less clutter of stuff, more full of living.

Things happen in 3s

We've finally got a sunny day again, and we need it. Although things continue to go well in our cohousing community for the most part, we've had 3 recent incidents of sadness. Dexter, Barbara's dog, escaped from his back yard and was run over by a car in the rush hour traffic on the street going by the community. Dexter was one of the dogs that George and I would walk every morning (along with 4 others)--and we miss him.

The second incident was the loss of our beloved cat, Nina, whom we had to have put down because of kidney failure. She had lost about a 1/3 of her body weight and could no longer groom herself. She was still purring, though, and sleeping on our bed at night, but the vet said she was too far gone to try to keep. Nina would have been 15 years old in January. She was named after Nina Totenberg (and we named Nina's sister from the same litter Cokie, after Cokie Roberts).

The third incident occurred just yesterday, when Neil and George were doing some work on the laundry. George was cutting a board with his saw and asked Neil to help him stabilize it. As Neil walked around George (who was on his knees) to get to the other side of the saw, he tripped over George's feet, fell and couldn't get up. In less than 4 minutes, there were about 6 cohousing residents at Neil's side, with blankets, pillows and any other aid that could be useful, as we all waited for the ambulance to come. Neil's hip was broken, and he'll have his surgery on Wednesday. The hospital peeps have finally found a pain killer that works for him (morphine didn't), so he's dopey but more comfortable. Bev is a rock and doing well--but you can be a rock just so long! I'm glad we can be here for here--and Neil.

Six weeks in Cohousng

Where is the time going??? My body feels like it's still last January, but the calendar tells me that it's Nov. 7 and that we moved into our new cohousing community exactly six weeks ago today. You'd never know it to look at all the boxes and piles around the floor...our neighbors put us to shame! Last night, though, I realized that being a procrastinator has its benefits: we've had six weeks for reality testing to truly know how much we really don't need and how much we can do with far less than what we had before. I'm speaking primarily of kitchenware. We moved here from the World's Greatest Kitchen, one I vowed never to leave...but here we are, and I really like the new one! The peninsula is actually larger than the island in the old house. The new one is a one-person kitchen, rather than the two-person space of before, but I can work on one side of the peninsula with George on the other, and it all works out.

I have never slept so well as I do now in our new house--and that's been every night! The cats are missing the fireplace, I think, but now they spend more time on the bed with us at night. We couldn't find Nina last night when we went to bed. She's a creature of habit, but last night she broke her mold and disappeared to places unknown. She has seldom ventured outside for more than 30 seconds, so I had no doubt that she was still in the house--but I looked everwhere--and no Nina. George turned over in bed around 5:00 a.m., and there she was, in her usual place next to me on the bed, in her usual sleep--totally unconcerned that she had added another gray hair to my head!