Transformation I Want to See in Zone 1
- starting regular family rituals
- training and implementing non-violent communication
- having regular blog readers and earning a little money through our blog
Pattern Language "Family"
"The nuclear family is not by itself a viable social form.
It is too small. Each person in a nuclear family is too tightly linked to other members; anyone relationship which goes sour, even for a few hours, becomes critical; people cannot simply turn away toward uncles, aunts, grandchildren, cousins. Instead, each difficulty twists the family unit into ever tighter spirals of discomfort. The parents are so dependent on each other that they are finally forced to separate."
from: Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
With that in mind, we were motivated to join an intentional community, because the conditions of an extended family living in the same area are not given in our families. In the following, I describe our process of finding our place.
We created a document that summarizes the most important facts for us about places and communities. That way we were able to analyze and compare the places afterward.
The Journey is the Destination
Impressions of Community Visits
Our Process of Reflection
Comment About "Our Process of Reflection!
By the time I realized that we will look for another longterm-place to be, I started to reflect on how we make decisions in relation to a project. I realized that it is always the same process pattern. To visualize this "Process of Reflection" I drew a graphic and the outcome is posted above.
Communication - A Key Element in Community (Optional)
Communication is one of the most important elements in relationships. We recognized that one main point why intentional community projects fail or collapse is because of their lack of clear and non-violent communication. So we as a couple and a family want to train ourselves in communication, especially in non-violent communication (NVC).
For starters, I borrowed the book "Non-violent communication with children" by Britta Hahn from the state library. It is especially important to me that our daughter grows up in a non-violent environment. Grown up with the "normal" authoritarian language used in schools and families, we are now requested to unlearn our adapted patterns and language. The transition towards a need-oriented language is a positive daily challenge. I am so impressed by the power of how language can be expressed and I definitely want to work on healthy relations.
Tiny House
During our search in 2016 and 2017, we did not find a place to stay. In the middle of my pregnancy (Summer 2017) we decided to build a mobile tiny home on a trailer for our future family. This way we could change our place until we found something appropriate.
Advantages of a "Tiny House" (optional):
- having fewer possessions → less money needed → more time for other things
- Independence: no rent, the house is paid off, freely changing our place of residence
- small household: fewer things (no unnecessary machinery, only things we really need)
- built relatively fast and environmentally friendly
- reducing ecological footprint: a small living space needs less energy and resources
- building the house by ourselves supports broad skill-flex building and creativity: building process, floor plan, fittings
- perfectly adaptable to personal needs
Takeaways and learnings after half a year of living in the Tiny House (optional):
- Challenge: living as a family (2 adults and a baby) on 15 sqm -> looks messy quickly
- sometimes space is a little too tight
- Tiny House is luxury: We still have got more than we really need!
- life close to nature is very nice
- Winter is a challenge because the insulation is not so thick
- "I'd recommend it without exception to singles and couples who get along with each other easily," says my partner.
- "I really love our new self-build home," said I myself.
Open House
Because of the high interest of local people in Tiny Houses, we decided to plan a Day of Open House. Click here to see the official plan.
Reflections:
- We planned the program in detail, but in the end, we did not implement one single point.
- Exchange round with different people who are in the process of building a Tiny House or who are thinking to build one.
- A lot of inspiration, appreciation, and feedback.
To share the entire Tiny House building process with a wider public we published our "building instruction" on Youtube. My boyfriend Fabian explains a lot of expert knowledge, learnings and detailed steps in the videos.
Our Blog to Share Our Passions and Learnings
Two years ago my boyfriend Fabian and I decided to set up a blog where we are able to document and share our knowledge, experience and doing about a sustainable, ecological and natural world. The main design of our blog is finished and we also received feedback that it looks very professional. Now the task is to fill it with content on a regular basis. So far, I uploaded some articles about pregnancy.
In the context of this OP, it was my goal to upload blog articles about bees. As an outcome I wrote 8 blog articles:
- My approach keeping bees - personal ideals and view
- New dealing with the varroa mite (part 1)
- Comparison of the common bee-friendly hives
- An instruction: Building a Golden Hive
- An instruction: Producing a wax fabric for the hive
- Blooming landscape: What everyone can contribute
- Bee losses? What is it really about?
- Short introduction: Sun Hive
- The challenges for honeybees today
Please note: all articles are written in German. But at the bottom of each page you can find a Google translation tool, so you are able to read the article in any language.
Because there is a lot of background research required it sometimes requires more time than I planned to publish an article.
Additional goals for our blog:
- sharing and documenting our lifestyle, thoughts, research, doings, and experiences
- inspiring other people
- in each article, the reader can find further links to research by himself
- posting at least one article per month
- giving a critical book review to each book we read
- generating a small income (e.g. through affiliate links or ebooks)
- creating a Wiki with the focus on sustainable and ecological topics
- defining our target group: right now our target group are all people interested in an ecological, simple, self-directed, self-sufficient and sustainable life
- selling our future products
To broaden my skill-flexes I read a book called "Learn how to write in 30 minutes" by Thilo Baum, which was a nice inspiration.
Next Steps For Zone 1
- practicing non-violent communication
- continuing to write blog articles
- finding a place that meets our main wishes (we already signed a contract to buy a property)