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Checking out Lost Valley

kaseja and Rainyrain outside the lodge at Lost Valley

After our move to Oregon, we were looking for a place to live. We had been invited to visit Lost Valley Educational Center, and we wanted to check it out. Here's a synopsis of our first impressions from Marty's point of view.

Week one

Anyway, we crossed the border and got as far as Ashland before we pulled over. Oregon greeted us in the morning with a light rainfall. We took the kids to the Rogue River for breakfast. We got to Eugene around 4 pm and kaseja took the kids straight to her mom's house. I took the U-Haul straight to the storage unit. We thought we were gonna get all our stuff into one 10 x 10 unit but it turned out we needed two of them. With the help of Ruby Matthews' daughter Iana and her partner David, we unloaded most of the stuff in two hours. Joan (kaseja's mom) came and helped, too. That was Monday. We stayed at Joan's for two nights and then we went to Lost Valley. LV is an educational community that teaches courses in permaculture, sustainable building and personal growth. We were invited to come and stay for week because I had applied for a position they had available on their Sustainable Building and Maintenance Team. They asked that I work 5 hours a day to compensate for food and utilities. kaseja was invited to pitch in whenever she could around and in between watching the kids. If she could get in 5 hours, fine, and if not, the cost is $15 per day. Very reasonable considering that they make great vegetarian food every day.

We showed up a little bit late (despite all of the careful preparation that kaseja and I put into getting out the door, someone needed to poop at the last minute). They were in the middle of moving their library and kaseja and I both jumped right in. Kite pulled the cart that was loaded down with books. We were occupied with that through to lunch. Scott is the guy that I'm working with. He told me at lunch that we would be insulating a cabin next. They salvaged fiberglass from a walk-in freezer. So that meant that the fiberglass didn't have any backing paper on it and we found that if we cut it to size, we could just stuff it in place and it'd stay there. We had good masks on but some of it got in my throat anyway.

Meanwhile, kaseja was in the new library helping them restack the books. The kids hung out near the Big Dorm (where the new library was) and played Wendy and Captain Hook. Kite wanted an excuse to tie Rainyrain to a tree with long blades of grass tied together to make a rope. They entertained themselves for a quite a while. After lunch, they were introduced to Karly (who was doing childcare that day) and the kids' room. The kid's room is set up for homeschooling or indoor childcare when the weather is bad. There's books, a blackboard, arts and crafts, and some science stuff. The place they gave us to park our camper trailer was right across from the kids' room.

After Scott and I used up most all of the fiberglass we had on hand, he took me back to the old library site to talk about what would happen there. Basically, the plan was to put in a dividing wall and make two thirds of it into a small classroom and make a small office space out of the remaining third. The problem is that the ceiling is insulated with asbestos. The wall installation will disturb the asbestos, so there was a discussion about what to do with the asbestos. Scott presented three options: leave it the way it is (which is sealed so that the particles are not airborne, but it leaves a toxin in the building), pay a lot of money to have professionals come and remove it (which he indicated was beyond the capacity of their budget), or spray it so that it is less likely to become airborn and scrape it off themselves. He was very clear that he didn't want to ask me to do anything I might be uncomfortable with. I told him I was uncomfortable with the thought of exposing myself to asbestos, but I was willing to research it and if I became convinced that we could do it ourselves with relative safety, I would consider it. I also had an opinion about removing it and I prefaced it by commenting that it sounded like I was coming in after due process on this one. But Scott indicated that even though a decision had been made to find a way to remove it, my input was welcome and could be influential. So that gave me a glimpse of how the process goes. FYI, it was my opinion that if they are going to remove it, they should do the whole building at once, not just the part they are renovating.

The next day, Scott wanted to take a break from fiberglass. In fact, he took the day off. He set me up hanging a few joists to connect two lofts in the cabin we were insulating. I enjoyed the challenge of working on a project like that on my own. I got the joists hung pretty quickly since some of the joist hangers were already in place. Then it took me a while to ferret out enough plywood from the salvaged lumber to do the job. I felt at home being in a shop again. One of the pieces of plywood had old chipped paint on it. Scott and I both concluded that it was probably lead paint. I tell you, after the discussion of asbestos removal, lead paint removal sounded like a walk in the park.

Kite running around while Rainyrain plays mother bird and makes the soccer ball his egg.

Speaking of walks in the park, by the second day Kite and Rainyrain were starting to get a feel for the lay of the land. Kite especially was like a caged animal unleashed. It was really something to see him have the space to run around freely. Also, he bonded with a sweet kid named Martin. Rainyrain was being a little clingy and wanted to be carried a lot. But he enjoyed playing Legos in the kids' room.

Dianne is the elder on the land. At dinner she came up to me and asked what I thought so far. I talked to her about the work I was doing. Then I heard that she asked kaseja the same thing and kaseja immediately brought up Huckabee. In fact, kaseja had been using our dog as an ice breaker with all the residents she met. Lost Valley put out on their website that they are at their maximum capacity of domestic animals on the land. kaseja figured that if she got a flat out "No" from everyone, then we might as well not waste everybody's time. But it seemed like everyone had a similar response. "Oh, the dog issue." They all said that it was a big issue and some people on the land felt very strongly about it, but that they themselves were open.

That night, I met Peter who was also on the maintenance team, but he cut back his hours to take on an engineering job in Eugene. We talked about energy efficiency on the land and the pros and cons of refurbishing the existing cedar shake cabins versus tear-down and rebuild of eco-buildings. Apparently, Oregon hasn't approved cob or straw-bale for living spaces, only for outbuildings. I guess when I read the website, I envisioned that Lost Valley would be a place where all the structures would be earthy or the layout would be designed like LeGuin's "Always Coming Home" or something like that. I was surprised to see that they were mostly functioning from the exisiting design of the previous owners. Although Peter's very practical explanations made sense to me, I hoped that if I chose to stay here that I could help make it different somehow. I had envisioned working with all natural materials and already in the first week, I'm dealing with fiberglass, lead paint and possibly asbestos.

On Friday, Scott and I split up. He worked in the shop and wiring phones. I went back to finish the loft project I'd started. It was incredibly hot that day, over 100 degrees. I ran into some frustrations, but I finally got it all completed. I found out that we didn't need to work on the weekend. I talked to Scott again that night. I told him I was still feeling out whether or not LV would work for us. Some things were great and other things were not what I had expected. He asked what was not what I had expected. I said for one thing, there seems to be no queer presence at Lost Valley. "Start it!" Scott encouraged. Well, yeah, I've been in that position before and it's not all it's cracked up to be, even in an accepting environment. You still need to have someone to connect with around it. I thought if beth was around, I would feel like I had support. I also mentioned that although I was really enjoying the work, I wasn't really getting a chance to mingle with people and get a feel for the community. Scott suggested that if I really want to know how the community ticks at LV, I should take Naka-Ima. Naka-Ima is Japanese for Here Now and it is the name of the personal growth practice they teach and live by at Lost Valley.

That weekend, we got a chance to be on the land, explore, and meet people. There were more kids around since two of the kids were at a day camp during the week and Martin's sister was at summer camp. We went to the swimming hole in the creek. There were events happening all weekend, so we ate our meals at the outdoor kitchen. It had the feel of the staff kitchen at Michigan (from what I hear, I've never been). kaseja inspected the grease trap in the grey water system and found that it needed to be cleaned out. So she and I asked around and worked on that together. kaseja was noticeably different being back in her trees. She was more relaxed and easy-going (except for the heat). Also, kaseja loves talking about relationships and here there were all these interns coming through and so many people to talk with about stuff. I could see this environment really working well for her as long as she has her trailer to retreat to when she needs it.

In fact, privacy was the number one issue that came up when I asked about residency on the land. Several long term members had recently left and that was the one thing that always came up when I asked why they left. Also, it seemed like the members who lived and worked on the land kept to their private space as much as possible, coming late to dinners and ducking out before they got caught up in conversation, etc. With so many interns, worktraders, and visitors coming and going, I can see how that could start to wear on you. It seems like there's enough internships and worktrades open that ming san and beth could come and be on the land with us off and on. That'd give us a sense of close community while we are still building connections with other members. kaseja and I found ourselves becoming more and more open to staying. By Monday morning, the kids were jumping out of bed and ready to go to breakfast and hook up with kids and grown-ups that they'd bonded with. I was ready to go back to work with Scott. kaseja was ready to work through some personal stuff she'd addressed in a conversation with an intern.

I worked independently again on Monday and kaseja was able to help Tracy with event planning while the kids entertained themselves. At one point, Kite got into conflict and kaseja brought him to where I was working. I was reinforcing bookshelves in the new library, so it was fine for Kite to sit in the library with me and cool down. I thought this was ideal! I always wanted to work near my kids so that they could come to me when they needed it. When they're older, they could even help me if they wanted to. As kaseja and I watched Malachite and Rainyrain acclimate and establish themselves, we thought more and more about becoming members. This would be so good for them. If we tried to build our own community, it'd be years before it grew to the point where they could have an experience like this. And we both felt completely safe here. If I didn't know where Kite was, I knew he was safe. I could ask anyone biking up the path (everyone here seems to have a bike) where he was. Rainyrain preferred to be with kaseja, but he was also happy playing with rocks at the swimming hole. kaseja could work in Tracy's office while Rain played with Legos on the floor.

On Monday night, there was a dance. Martin and Kite came running up to kaseja in the early evening and said, "Do you know where the dance is? We looked in the lodge and the outdoor kitchen and we can't find it anywhere!" kaseja suggested they look in the classrooms. We didn't hear from them for hours. kaseja and I asked each other if we should go check on them. We both felt totally fine about Kite being out there. We knew he was having a great time and in good hands. I went to go find him and instead of bringing him back to bed, he hauled me onto the dance floor. He made me dance the last dance with him. He was up til midnight with the best of the them, dancing his little heart out.

Dianne came by at one point and asked Scott if he could take kaseja and me to Core Group. They meet on Tuesday mornings. Core Group is like a subcommittee that meets to make decisions for the community that don't necessarily require everyone to be there. Core Group brings their decisions to the larger group at Purpose meetings. There, everyone gets to give their input and can even request that a decision made by the Core Group be put before the whole group for reconsideration. Purpose meetings happen every other week on Tuesday nights. The other Tuesday nights are Well-Being meetings. Anyway, they asked us to come and make our pitch for becoming members. They were particularly interested in filling the maintenance position for which I was applying. But we also talked about kaseja being a member, our dog, living spaces, and the queer issue. If kaseja didn't work on the land, she would need to get a job in Eugene to cover membership costs, etc. We talked for a while about Huck and in the end, they asked us to bring Huck to the land the following Tuesday so they could meet her. They asked us what we needed in terms of living space, but they weren't able to indicate what might be available. On the queer issue, they let us know that they are open to anyone who is committed to the goals of Lost Valley as long as we recognize that queer rights is not the purpose of this community. Our next step was to attend Naka-Ima and the Community Experience Week.

That night was the Well-Being meeting. Lila pitched in at the last minute to do childcare. We all circled in a yurt at the far end of the inhabited part of the land, past the meadow. The energy in the circle was connected, sincere and moving. While we explored the sacred in each of us, Lila and the kids were running and laughing in the meadow. It was beautiful. We had this moment of feeling like this could actually be home for us.