We are Mike and Margie Shannon. Before moving into our new home at BC&E, we lived at Raven's Place on Frye Mt. in Knox, Maine, in a hand-built solar homestead. We enjoy living lightly on the earth, and have endeavored to share our lifestyle with family and friends.
For thirty years we lived and worked on nature centers and wildlife sanctuaries in Conn., Ohio and Mass. After coming to Maine in 1990 we found ourselves still engaged in education – Mike teaching ornithology and natural history courses at Unity College and Margie teaching reading at SAD #3 in Thorndike. Now we are both retired and continue with naturalist activities, on the Schooner Mary Day and at the Audubon Camp on Hog Island. Mike also teaches natural history at Senior College at the Univ. Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast.
We are avid gardeners and grow most of our vegetables. Each fall we enjoy canning, freezing, drying and storing the harvest. We live well over the winter! Hobbies include hiking, snowwalking, canoeing and camping. We are both spinners of wool, and Margie knits and weaves as well. We have two married children who live in North Carolina. Heather is a 4-H County Extension agent and Ian is a software engineer.
We consciously sought to create community on the nature centers where we lived and worked. We were members of the New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod, where we were introduced to permaculture and cohousing concepts. So we've been interested in cohousing for a long time. We've been involved with the Belfast Cohousing group since December 2007.
This past June we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary! We have lived without close neighbors for most of that time and are looking forward to being near friends and activities. As elders of the cohousing group, we look forward to sharing our experiences, wisdom and passion for living lightly on the earth.
