We currently reside in the village of Wellington, a loose confederation of some 300 souls very near to the geographic heart of Maine (and ten miles from the nearest store). We’ve lived for thirty years on the banks of Higgins Stream, surrounded by 18 acres of maturing hardwood. Ours is a small house, thoughtfully designed and lovingly built from scratch using mostly local and salvaged materials. We have two grown children: Aaron born in 1983 is currently living near Seattle and Trina, born in 1985 lives in Chicago.
Barb has her Masters in Social Work from UConn, and is a school social worker with MSAD 54 (Skowhegan area schools), where she looks after the emotional well-being of the students and staff at the Canaan and Cornville elementary schools. She loves travel, adventure, gardening, cooking, kayaking, singing and traipsing around outside with the members of her Women’s Adventure Club (affectionately known as the WACkys).
After 13 years in the building trades, Steve got his degree in education and went to work as a K-1 teacher. He is now the K-6 Elementary Technology Integrationist for MSAD 54. He loves “puttering” on the land, and maintains the fruits and berries as well as the walking trail down by the stream. He is a songwriter and a musician and has performed regionally with his band, Evergreen, since 1989. He also runs Forest Audio Services – a Pro Tools based digital recording studio – and has recorded CDs for many local artists.
Both of us have previously lived in a number of communal situations, have worked with community-based alternative schools and are currently involved with a local food-buying co-op. We are active in the local RC (Re-evaluation Counseling) community. We learned about cohousing quite by accident when Steve was in Borders perusing a book on small houses. A section of the book described the design of a home in the Island Cohousing Community on Martha’s Vineyard. Not only did the house look appealing, the cohousing concept was a revelation. We bought a copy of Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves and have been researching opportunities off-and-on for several years. An ad in the flyer for the Common Ground Fair led us to Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage.
The decision to leave the home we’ve been nurturing so devotedly for so long is a wrenching one, but we’re certain that we’ll gain much more than we’ll sacrifice. Everything about this project is appealing and exciting – the land itself, the proximity to Belfast, the “tread lightly on the earth” approach to building and the opportunity for a brand new start. But most exciting of all is the human connection. To be a part of this community of smart, sincere, aware, vital and forward-thinking people of all ages is the clincher for us. We’re psyched!
