Greetings from Eastwind! April 2005 Newsletter.

Greetings from Eastwind!

Welcome to the the East Wind Community Newsletter! The East Wind Community Newsletter is a quarterly update of recent and upcoming events at East Wind, news, commentary, artwork, poems, and a some information on our community made products.

We hope you enjoy it.

This is a Text Only version. To view the full version with photos visit:
http://eastwindcrafts.com/newsletter/05april/05April15th.htm

The East Wind Community Newsletter is sponsored by East Wind Crafts, now selling Hammocks, Sandals, Drums and Nut Butter Online at http://www.EastWindCrafts.com.

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Full Moon Drum Circle at East Wind

East Wind will be hosting it's first Full Moon Drum Circle open to the public.

Admission is free, but you must contact us to get an invitation.

To find out more or if you wish to attend please contact us at drums@eastwindcrafts.com

More information about East Wind Drums can be found at http://drums.eastwindcrafts.com

We hope to see you there!

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Tornado At East Wind

In January East Wind was hit by some serious winds. Dozens of trees were knocked down. A tree fell behind Rock Bottom (our kitchen dining facility) and pulled out a 10ft. diamater root ball with it. One tree missed the Rock Bottom Porch by a few inches. Another fallen tree barely missed our new shower house.

Chainsaws were burning all the next day to clear the paths and roads. We were quite lucky that none of our main buildings were damaged.

Photos of the day after can be found at:

http://eastwind.org/photos/tornado/
and
http://eastwind.org/kaia/photos/tornado05/

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Business News

East Wind is working hard to grow our Nut Butter Business. We have purchased and are close to installing a new labeling machine, which will take potentially 2 people off our jar shift production line.

Sandals production has increased quite a bit due to some hard working members. We expect to be able to sell as many Sandals as we can make this season.

East Wind Drums continue to make and sell beautiful drums. A lot of excitement and energy is going into growing this business.

You can purchase East Wind Peanut Butter,Utopian Rope Sandals, and East Wind Drums Online at http://www.EastWindCrafts.com

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East Wind Nut Butter Gift Packs On Sale Now at http://www.EastWindCrafts.com

East Wind Crafts is proud to announce that we are now selling East Wind Nut Butter Gift Packs online!


Our Peanut Butter Gift Packs comes with 4 16 oz. jars of delicious East Wind Natural Peanut Butter for you to share with your family and friends.

East Wind Peanut Butter is a natural product made from Valencia peanuts from New Mexico.

Using such high quality nuts allows us to create a scrumptious and nutritious product without any additives or preservatives.

Our Natural Peanut Butter Gift Pack is only $11.68
Our Organic Peanut Butter Gift Pack is only $16.22

Other Gift Packs and Samplers are available

Visit http://www.EastWindCrafts.com to order yours today.

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Shower House Construction Update

Showerhouse News by Rose

There has been an increase in the activity at the New Showerhouse in the past month or so.

Gordon and I put a floor in the commie clothes room and we combined that celebratory need with Validation Day and had what I consider a beautiful party in there. People I don’t normally see out came and it felt so good to see everyone laughing and stuffing their faces and sliding around on the new smooth floor. Sarah brought her dancing ribbons and the room is perfect for them because of the high ceiling. People were dancing and drumming and playing musical chairs.

Gordon and I have been tiling nearly everyday. We had an angel show up this week in the form of David the general contractor. He pulled our electric together – we have lights and plugs and I even got shocked which was very exciting.

He has also taught us many valuable things and built stairs from wood off our land. He said he would be back and I for one hope he does. Taeo and Loan have been doing a very difficult job involving plumbing and I really appreciate that.

Ever since we had the party people have been coming up to me and asking that the commie clothes space be used for smoke free gatherings. They don’t want the clothes in there! They say the space is too nice! (and that it cost too much for a closet) Several folks say it’s too big for a closet. If 100 people had a closet 3 feet by 3 feet it would be the size of this room so that seems like good planning to me.

What is so weird about having a nice place to shower and dress and sew and give massage? If a space is nice does that mean it has to be party space? Can you imagine needing a shower or clothes and there is a party going on? I think occasional parties there could be fun like we do in the hammocks shop or Rock Bottom but to designate it as a party space and to see it that way seems funny to me.

In the meanwhile Sarah and Woody built part of their yurt in there and there have been drumming circles. I dance in there and sometimes bring little Cassidy there – she loves the big dust mop! I am happy that people like the space and I hope it renews and nurtures them as a showerhouse.

It is impossible to please everyone but we do plan to have almost everything on wheels…...

I want to say how grateful I am for this work. We are sooo close to being done! We really need help especially folks to help Kris get the boiler up and going. We need people to clean up the site and do plumbing and get the last of the skytubes installed. And there’s the whole laundry room to do!

Alex did a great job with the trim and I am hoping he keeps on! I am hoping Yarroe does the landscaping cause he has really been making the grounds everywhere else look great.

Anyone know how to install water heaters? I’ll help.

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Member Interviews: Cara

Cara is 35, has been a member of East Wind Community for over 5 years and is the mother of Kaia and Jaden.

Kaia, our local 11 yr old reporter, interviewed her mother for this edition.


Kaia: How did you find out about East Wind?

Cara: My mother saw an FEC add in Utne, and I sent away for a community directory. East Wind sounded good.

Kaia: What do you think East Wind has to offer people like you?

Cara: East Wind Provides a great home for a single mom to raise kids. It offers support for parents and provides an alternative to the "nuclear nightmare."

Kaia: What are your favorite social events at East Wind?
Cara: I love going on canoe trips, dancing, and holiday parties when they come together. Halloween usually rocks!

Kaia: What is your favorite place to hang out?
Cara: I have high hopes for the new shower house. I also like to hang out at the creek.

Kaia: What is your favorite job to do at East Wind?

Cara: I like Building projects. Making tables, sheds and the like.

Kaia: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview.

Cara: My Pleasure.


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More Land!

by Deborah

Well, we finally managed to buy that little parcel of land that we didn’t own, that was right in the middle of our big new chunk! The Roark land, about 40 acres, is now ours.

We had to pay a little over a thousand an acre ($42,500.00 total), but decided that it was worth it. We had budgeted $40K last year when Mr Roark, the absentee owner, first started making noises like maybe selling it, and an ex-member, Shanu (Shawn Porter) has donated the additional $2,500.00. It wasn’t the greatest time to buy more land, as we did loose about $46K last year, what with Pier One dropping us and all, but you know how we are about buying land. Just couldn’t pass it up!

For one thing, having a new neighbor in the middle of our new land just didn’t sound appealing, you know? We were, additionally, having problems perennially with hunters up there. We really do an amazing amount of hiking, biking , camping etc. up there. Often with dogs and children along. We also have the sawmill up there (and up and running, by the way) and are doing quite a lot of forestry work now. Having drunken hunters wandering around our woods just wasn’t sitting well with anyone. Not to mention tearing up the road, leaving garbage and beer cans about, and generally being bothersome. We can now Lock The Gate. We no longer need give access to anyone up there anymore.

So, feeling both safer and more satisfied, if a bit poorer, we are the proud owners of the rest of our little peninsula now. From Lick Creek to the North Fork of the White. From the Satterfields to the lake. Paid for too. Title is in hand.

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Barter Anyone?

by Deborah

Seems no matter how much we have of what, we are always looking for something else. There is always a wish list going around. This week a couple of us were really wishing we had some new Reggae Music. Seventy folks with hundreds of CDs, and exactly one Bob Marley album!

Many of our old vinyl albums are quite useless now too, and that leaves us with quite a shortage of old folk music, and old rock. We do have quite a lot of music now archived onto hard drives. So I’m wondering if anyone would be interested in trading music? I could shoot you a list of what we have, and you could probably do that too. There are also all our community products available for barter too.

Other things we are looking for? Dictionaries. We just don’t have any good ones around anymore. Other reference books: bird guides, tree guides, rock guides. A PDR that wasn’t a decade old would be good. New cookbooks are always welcome too. Massage music. Only have 3 cassettes. Anyone got some soothing new age stuff? Healing music? Exotic instrumental stuff? Besides products, we have some other stuff maybe barter-able. Anyone wanna seed swap? We have bought and been given a rather remarkable number and variety of flower, herb, and veggie seeds. And are, of course, are always looking for new and different varieties.

Magazines, there’s another sought after commodity. We get dozens of them a month here, but still, we are always looking for new reading material, and we can’t buy everything that everyone wants. If anyone has mag scripts, and would be into sending us back issues when they are done with em, that would be cool. Or we can swap those too. I could send you a list of ours, and see what we have that you might want.

Anyone else got a wish list? Let’s make a deal.

Write me at deborah@eastwind.org if you are interested. In the above, or whatever your creative minds can imagine.