Fw: NeighborWood Spring Meeting 4/23 and Our First Home!

[Patrick Zieske]

Hi everybody,

I thought maybe some of you would be interested.  We are having a presentation on our ecological community followed by an outdoor pizza party this Saturday, April 23rd.  Feel free to forward to your friends who might also be interested.  Weather is looking good, high of 76 -- imagine that! -- with only a 17% chance of rain that day.  If you attend the pizza party, please bring your favorite toppings.

See more details below.

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm.  Both of those conditions appear to be improving!

Patrick

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Patrick Zieske <patric...@yahoo.com>

To: neighb...@googlegroups.com <neighb...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2022, 11:26:36 PM EDT

Subject: NeighborWood Spring Meeting 4/23 and Our First Home!

Hello, NeighborWood people!

See the attached announcements/photos in the forwarded email at the bottom...

We have quite a lot of updates for you.  On Saturday, April 23rd, at 11:00 AM, we start with our community presentation which you may or may not be familiar with already.  After that, we move on to our outdoor pizza party and continuing discussion.  You can come to one segment of the day, or both.  Bring a friend if you know one who may be interested.

When you get on site, you will see a big change on the landscape: the first home completely framed and roofed!  We can hardly wait until it is ready for indoor events -- serving its dual purpose as a community gathering space.

There is the possibility of building another home this year, under present zoning.  If this interests you, it is something to discuss with us.

The hempcrete workshop -- mentioned below -- will be held on the weekend of July 9th and 10th.  For the workshop fee, participants can learn the process of mixing, applying, and hand-packing hempcrete wall insulation for the new home on site, as well as enjoying the camaraderie of a team effort.  We'll have an EventBrite registration page pretty soon -- publicized to our group before it goes out to the bigger world.  During the week following the workshop days, we will be completing the job with spraying equipment, and there may also be opportunities to stop by to observe that process more informally.

Before that, we are going to be building out the interior electrical wiring and two solar power systems: one standalone system for pumping water and one for the house itself.  Although these will not be official "workshops", we welcome involvement, especially if you are already into solar power.

Planting, planting, planting... We will probably have two community planting days coming up, with some more fruit trees and shrubs, maybe herbs.  Exact dates TBD, later April into May sometime.  We are presently cultivating two propagation beds with cuttings from berry bushes or vines.  The planting we did two years ago has already started bearing fruit -- literally!  We might even have a limited planting activity on the afternoon of the 23rd after the community presentation in conjunction with the pizza party.

Zoning, zoning, zoning... what everybody is wondering about.  Frankly it's been the main drag on our plans for a couple of years now.  We will have more to say about the progress on this front also on the 23rd.  Basically, now there is substantial, sustained movement toward the Open Space ordinance and there appears to be a broad consensus among township officials to enact this key ordinance.  We are being patient in consideration of progress underway, but also ready with backup plans "just in case".  The next few months are literally a moment of truth for which path we get to pursue.  We can share more details.

See you all on the 23rd at the Arctic Breakaway banquet room and/or the community site afterward.  It has been a long winter and it is time to celebrate spring!

Patrick

(P.S. This is an open forum to which anyone can post information, thoughts, or questions.  Simply "reply" or send your own email to neighb...@googlegroups.com)

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Sylvan's NeighborWood Team <ad...@neighborwood.us>

To: Patrick Zieske <patric...@yahoo.com>

Sent: Friday, April 1, 2022, 08:36:02 AM EDT

Subject: NeighborWood Spring Meeting 4/23 and Our First Home!

We will have our next community meeting, (presentation and pizza) on 4/23. We have also begun construction on our first home!

View this email in your browser Greetings! Big news first: we have begun building our first home! We believe the home will be Michigan's first approved residential hempcrete structure. The house features 1000 sq.ft. of living space (the current minimum size for a home in our township) and an attached barn. The home will serve as a beautiful example of ecological construction, a community gathering space, and an efficient way to get folks living on the land for more intensive stewardship. The barn will be used for farm equipment, initial gathering space, and potentially wintering livestock. We will have a Hempcrete Workshop, tentatively July 9-10th, for those wishing to work with nationally recognized professionals in learning how to work with this incredible natural construction technology. We will send finalized details and registration information soon. Community Meeting: We will have our next community meeting on April 23rd, 11am-12:30pm at Arctic Coliseum followed by a gathering on our land with pizza and good company. As usual, we will have a presentation and time to dive into details at Arctic Coliseum, (501 Coliseum Dr, Chelsea MI), in the meeting room at the top of the stairs. Afterward we will meet on our land for oven-fired pizza and lots of time to get to know each other. The meeting is a great way to get introduced to the project, get the latest updates and find out ways of getting involved in this year's opportunities. The majority of peach trees we planted at the beginning of the pandemic are doing wonderfully. We plan a few smaller plantings this spring, as well as other events like home construction projects and pizza parties. If you would like to help, or get more involved in general, please let us know, and keep an eye on your inbox for more opportunities with us. If you can't make our meeting, or would like to talk to us individually some time, please give us a call. We look forward to seeing you! With Spring Warmth, Patrick Zieske and Christian Smith 734-389-8880          517-862-1559

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