on the farm

We just bought a share in a cow (her name is Penny) at a local CSA (community supported agriculture). So now we can get raw milk straight from Penny on the weekends. Here are some pics of our kid with the calves down on the farm when we went to pick up our first gallon of milk.


We also inherited a breadmaker from Nora's Grandma and have begun experimenting with some home baked, whole wheat creations. The Fabers are really returning to the earth here folks. We'll let you know how the first attempts at making our own yogurt and cheese go...

alma mater blues

This article just came out in the Press last week, and I've been stewing on it for a couple days now.

Calvin ready to Oust Baptist Professor
Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- "Professor Denise Isom loves her work at Calvin College and her Grand Rapids church, Messiah Missionary Baptist. The problem is: Isom must choose one or the other.

The Calvin board this month refused to exempt her from a rule that requires professors to attend a congregation with ties to the Christian Reformed Church."

Here's a definition of Institutional Racism:
"Institutional racism is distinguished from the bigotry or racial bias of individuals by the existence of systematic policies and practices within the institution, that have the effect of disadvantaging certain racial or ethnic groups."

The racist, classist and homophobic policies that this current administration has decided to uphold and enforce has taken this school down a road that is not only damaging and hurtful to individuals, but will ultimately contribute to its irrelevance in our city.

Some of my best friends were people I met at Calvin and some of my favorite people work there. And this is not a slam on them or their work. I aim my criticism directly at the President and Board of Directors because it is their lack of integrity and leadership that is resulting in these irrational enforcement of antiquated policies and thinking.

Unfortunately, I believe that only until they feel their decisions in their wallet (when students stop coming to the school and paying tuition and donors stop giving money) will they change these views. And many of those students and donors share their mono-cultural worldview, so it will be a long time from now. But I don't think you can read any recent books on globalism, education and economics and see how this is a solid strategic decision to lose your talented workforce over something as small as where they go to church for an hour on Sunday morning.

I stopped giving any financial support to Calvin a couple years ago after my friends and acquaintances were forced to choose between their jobs or sending their kids to a public school in their neighborhood. Since then, I've seen additional friends and others forced out because of their orientation or because they feel the need to worship outside "the network". A recent defector from Calvin summed things up for me pretty well. To paraphrase him, he said that he learned that when the school hired him (a minority) they never had the intent to be a multi-cultural institution, just multi-racial, and there's a big difference.

chicago and becks

The family just got back from a memorable weekend in Chicago. Saturday morning we drove down with Nora's Grandma to visit Nora's uncle and aunt. They were kind enough to offer us two of their tickets to see the Chicago Fire close out their football season, which also happened to be the weekend that David Beckham was in town with the LA Galaxy. A Fire win would result in them making the playoffs, so there was extra drama on the line. The game was sold out at the new stadium, Toyota Park. In the second picture you can see the blurry figure in the middle is Beckham. The score stayed 0-0 until the 92nd minute when a Beckham mistake resulted in a turnover and a one-on-one with the goalkeeper and chip-shot win for the Fire! GOAL!


But aside from the drama of the game, the real fun of the weekend was spending time with great friends and family. We were able to visit Brian and Kendra in Oak Park and meet their new little son, Maximus. Holding a little boy again brought back great memories of how small Levi was just a over a year ago. I hope we didn't scare them too much, seeing how quickly their kid is going to be terrorizing cats, reaching for books and typing on keyboards.

Things don't get much better than eating dinner outside on a sunny October day. Levi found some balls and a truck waiting for him when we arrived, so the back yard became his favorite place too. We also got to see Nora's cousin Dylan, who came out to visit on Saturday.


Driving home on Sunday night, Nora and I said to each other, "It feels like we've been gone for a long weekend." That's a good indicator of how great the hospitality and company was.

community sayings (part 2)

"If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth." - Mitsugi Saotome

Community is far from harmonious, so I like the the little phrase in this quote, "the joy of challenge". In my experience, it is difficult to find joy in the challenge unless there is a greater purpose, achievement or something to lose. To realize that finding joy in community is going to be an ongoing challenge, makes the reaching for it less annoying and more fulfilling.

The Giant's Ladder and Brew

I'm coming off a big weekend of work and fun. Friday and Saturday were filled with a 2-day retreat for Leadership Grand Rapids. There are 34 members in the Class of '08, so there were plenty of new people to meet and enjoy. The end of the retreat had us working as teams to complete a high-ropes course called The Giant's Ladder. Imagine an extension ladder made for a giant that stood 20ft tall and you start to get the picture. The goal was to work with 2 other teammates that you were tethered to and get to the top of a 40ft obstacle. Pretty fun!


On Sunday afternoon I brewed my first batches of homebrew goodness with my friend Dave. This was Dave's 7th or 8th batch of beer, so it was great to learn from a seasoned veteran. We brewed two separate five gallon batches. One is called Chinook IPA and the other Phat Tyre Ale. So in another 6-8 weeks it should be ready.

community sayings (part 1)

I'm starting to put together some quotes and sayings on community in preparation for the move to Newberry Place. I'm hoping that we end up with some pre-dinner or celebration moments where we can pause and share some thoughts on what it means to be community and good neighbors. To have a little archive of thoughts/meditations will be helpful. If you have anything to contribute, just post a comment on one of these threads.

Here's one that I've used already and been thinking about, that speaks to the slow process of building community...

"If you want your dream to be,
build it slow and surely.
Small beginnings, greater ends.
Heartfelt work grows purely.
If you want to live life free,
take your time, go slowly.
Do few things, but do them well:
simple joys are holy.
Day by day, stone by stone,
build your secret slowly.
Day by day, you’ll grow too;
you’ll know heaven’s glory!"

'Brother Sun, Sister Moon'

first family moves into newberry

It's official. The Schaafsmas are in and unpacked. This is a really exciting stage of the project as units get completed and real, live people start occupying their homes. Over the years I got so used to talking about the project's development that I almost forgot people would be living there.

The bad news is that my foundation isn't even in yet, so we are looking at a Thanksgiving dinner at the old house instead of the new one. It's hard not to be a little envious of the folks that are getting their keys.

returning from a week off

I took last week off of work to have a little family vacation. We didn't go anywhere spectacular, but did have a great time together.

The Highlights:

• camping with Levi for the first time at Benton Lake
  
• riding my bike up White Pine Trail and fishing on the Rouge
• Nora and I biking on Monday and working around the house while Levi was at daycare
• fly-fishing on the White River near Pine Points (first time in a long time)
• dropping Levi off at Matt & Ruth's for night - getting a good dinner, waking up late, watching a movie
• watching the kick-off of the EPL soccer season on Saturday morning
• getting ready for the local food potluck tonight

Bwindi showing Levi a trick

on the lighter side

Head over to www.simpsonizeme.com and turn a photo of yourself into a Simpson's character. Here's how mine turned out...

things I learned from Bwindi Sue

Here is an ever-growing list of things I learned over the past 6 years from my dog.

• adjust and be flexible - you can be happy living in Washington or in Michigan
• tenacity is a virtue
• listen intently but don't be afraid to speak
  
• survey the room and make sure everyone is doing alright - occasionally walk around and give people special attention
• know when enough is enough and go and lay down in the shade
• obey commands, but do them with a flourish and with your own special touch
  
• stay informed and attuned to your surroundings
• be a good friend and family member
• enjoy new toys but don't be afraid to break them in
• don't be afraid of water
• protect young children, the elderly and people that are fragile
• be a good role-model and example
  
• run hard while you can
• go for long walks with the people you love, even in the winter
• greet your old, regular friends like you haven't seen them in years - make sure your eyes light up and your tail wags
• don't whine
  
• age with grace
• leave the world more full than when you were born into it

If you have any thoughts to share or lessons you learned from your time with Bwindi, please make a comment below.

we lost her

Bwindi Sue passed away at 10:30am on July 21, 2007.

EDIT: Here are some pictures of Bwindi from Matt and Ruth that I wanted to add. I just want to keep the "comment" post at the top of the list.

bwindi sue

We got word this week that we are going to lose Bwindi Sue to Canine Lymphoma. She turned 10 this spring, and we were looking forward to many more years of her helping us raise Levi. She is on a medication that will help to ease the pain, but most of the research I've done says things can go pretty quickly after the time of diagnosis. It's hard not to have hope when she acts like her old self and greets you with a wagging tail when you get home. So please think about our family as we love on our little cancer patient.

The Slow Home Movement

One of my favorite websites, worldchanging just published a story on The Slow Home. Akin to the Slow Food movement, the Slow Home Movement is about turning the places we live back into a home, instead of just an investment or a temporary landing pad.

From Worldchanging.com...

"The newest slow kid on the block is the Slow Home Movement, a web-based design community and resource library dedicated to taking residential architecture back from the grip of the "cookie cutter houses and instant neighborhoods" churned out by community-blind development corporations, to revive the presence of good design and empower individuals to create homes that will support and fulfill them for a long time."

After I read this article, I sent off a quick email to the editor letting him know about how Newberry Place has integrated many of the Slow Home principles into our design. Within a couple days, they included us in their weekly video blog report, pretty cool...

facebook and blueprint

As you can see by the newly created Facebook Profile on the right, I've given up trying to resist the lure of this social networking site. I was overly frustrated with my MySpace account because I couldn't find any of my friends, and I kept getting trashy messages. So I cancelled my MySpace account and switched over, and it is soooooo much better. I've found old college friends, highschool friends, current friends in far off places - really nice and simple.

I'm also gearing up for Thursday when Newberry Place will be getting an award at a Smart Growth conference. The award is called the Blueprint Award and it goes to 3 innovative projects every year in the greater Grand Rapids area. The compliment to us is that they really didn't know what category to put us in because we fit all of their categories for good, responsible, innovative design.

Apartment for Rent in Fall

If anyone reading this blog knows of anyone that will be looking for a place to rent in the fall, send them this link http://719livingston.blogspot.com I will be adding more specifics to this post as I have them.

Nora and I are set to move into cohousing in October and will be looking for someone to rent out our current digs. It is a 3 bedroom unit with fenced in yard and park across the street. We've loved this home so much that we just can't part with it, so we are going to try the landlord thing for a little while.

Spring Parade of Homes

The Parade of Homes started last night. Nora and I will manning a shift this afternoon. Traditionally, the Parade doesn't profile many urban developments, so we'll see if we get any traffic. The good news is that there are several green-built projects on the Parade this year. We were one of 3 projects that was featured in a small press article earlier this week. It will also be interesting to see the reaction of people to our "Tokyo-sized" unit compared to some of the McMansions that are on the tour. I took a quick peek at the some of the other homes profiled and most of them have 3 stall garages out front...so that's a bit different from what we are offering at Newberry Place.

We also did a small neighborhood cleanup earlier this week. Walking the neighborhood, you could sense a bit of excitement and energy. I went and talked with some new and old neighbors and everyone was so supportive and interested in who will be moving in and when. It is really starting to feel like a community is forming.

Last weekend we did a couple nights of Conflict Resolution as a Newberry group too. The first night was using some case studies to better understand how people in the group react to conflict. The case studies ranged from barking dogs to extra-marital affairs. Pretty fun stuff to talk about. It will be very interesting to actually see what the conflicts are that come up in the group and how we will deal. Like in any neighborhood some folks are very straight forward and direct while others site and ponder things for awhile before talking with someone about an issue.

cohousing news story

Newberry Place got a little press coverage today in preparation for the Spring Parade of Homes.

VIDEO LINK

spring rolls into west michigan

Being a native of Washington State, spring in West Michigan usually involves a series of flashbacks for me. The crisper weather, greening of vegetation and frequent rain remind me of summer in my home town. Spring in Michigan is usually a really busy time as people emerge from their hibernation and inactivity of the Winter months. No matter how you try, cabin fever is a very real part of the these isolating months. But all of that makes you anticipate the warmer weather and appreciate it even more.

One of the marks of Spring in West Michigan is the making and distributing of Bell's Oberon. This local beer is only made from about late April through the summer. It is a wheat ale that usually gets served with an orange slice on the rim of the glass. Last year I came across a bar that will mix it with Guinness to create a sort of Black&Tan mix called an "Eclipse". Because of the different densities of the beer, the Guinness rises to the top and the Oberon to the bottom.
So today I think I will go buy a pint and savor the coming of Spring by sitting down and resting like its the middle of January.

Viget

I just joined another little online community called Viget It is in a Wiki format so people can add new info as a community.

I ran into one of the site's creators this week at a "test-drive" of the new Community Research Institute's website at GVSU. He is an art professor that has a class which takes over vacant spaces in business districts or neighborhoods and turns them into civic studios. The class then tries to create art that depicts that neighborhood's unique history and future. I would love them to spend a semester in Belknap with us. I've been intrigued for a long time the role that public art plays in raising awareness of overlooked potential in a neighborhood. Anyway, check it out if you get a chance, and I'll also link out from the side.