The Leaves of Twin Oaks
Winter 2002 - No. 96

The 2002 social season is off to a busy start. First there was New Years, with three successful parties to enjoy. First was an early evening quiet hangout in Harmony Living Room. Around 9 PM folks moved to the annual Black and White Ball in the Bijou. Ballroom dancing was featured, but some folks just chatted and shared the variety of proffered snacks and drinks.

For those into a louder, more crowded celebration, Tupelo kicked in around 10, with lots more food and drink, kick-ass dance music DJed by jAz, a hot tub on the deck, the Green Room for chillin' out, and quite a few off-the-farm guests (although many fewer than last year's bash). At midnight the traditional champagne, balloons, and nakedness occurred.

Barely a week later, a sad occasion (Yanco and Virginia leaving) prompted another great dance. This time the crowd got down in Zhankoye, with Mele playing the music.

Three nights later, a host of young activists and friends danced and hot tubbed, and generally carried on at Tupelo. Twin Oaks members were in the minority compared to people from the Food Not Bombs, Little Flower Catholic Workers, and Queer Paradise in Richmond, plus many college are visitors. Doubtless there was much successful networking and strategizing, especially in the hot tub.

Speaking of Food Not Bombs, Oakers journey to Richmond every week to cook a free meal for the needy. Ingredients are scrounged from various places, and sometimes supplemented with our own premium tofu. The table is set in Monroe Park, Sundays at 4pm.

We had lots of hammocks but they were the wrong ones. This winter Emerald City bulged with family size greens but Pier 1 needed thousands of amazingly bright purple-blue-teal-orange-green faux-Guatemalan fabric hammocks. The company that sews the beds for us was late delivering. The grommeter at EC ran 18 hours a day when ever a load of beds would arrive. Instead of weaving, hammock shop workers are churning out bright purple harnesses and piling up set-ups on the floor in Ta Chai Living Room.

High inventories have been the kiss of death for two Other Entities (shops that make hammocks for us). Blue House in Savannah had significantly slowed its hammocks production as it moved into community gardening projects. We also regretfully closed Kudzu Crafts, located here in Louisa County and run by ex-Oakers Free, Sophie, and Clay. Kudzu also employed a couple of the best workers left over from the close of KnotWorks (the Louisa shop that Twin Oaks operated in Louisa for awhile).

Twin Oaks is doing well economically. There is enough money and labor available to fund some exciting new projects. Among the exciting OTRAs funded for 2002: outside stairs for the south end of Harmony, to replace the inside stairs; repairing the tipi; a composting toilet in the Courtyard area; rebuilding the ZK deck privacy screen; safe tree-climbing expeditions; kite-making workshops; a sauna (probably by the pond); onion curing racks for the old dairy barn; a drip irrigation pilot project; fixing up the greenhouse; and much more.

Quota will fall to an even 42 hours a week (easily dividable by seven, notes Labor Manager Jake) for the first half of 2002, assuming that population stays up. Then we'll see what happens on the mid-year Trade Off Game, which we already know we're going to have. Yea!

Water, water, everywhere, but not enough to irrigate. We've finally reached the limit of our current agricultural well. A committee has been working on options, the first of which will likely be a couple of big storage tanks to even out the flow between high and low use periods. If that isn't good enough then we may drill a new well. Garden is also trying out drip irrigation, which uses less water but more labor. And we plan a rainwater cistern for toilet flushing.

We are beginning to talk about new buildings. We don't have enough money yet, but folks still get excited dreaming about possible projects. Plus, we will have months (or years!) of process before breaking ground on anything.

The three building ideas that have gotten the most attention so far are a medium-size residence, perhaps for a "simple living", family-oriented residence, and two different recreation facilities. Keenan proposes a "rec barn": big, simple, flexible, cheap. Jake prefers an addition to Zhankoye. Some people also like the idea of rebuilding Degania.

In Twin Oaks' early days we slaughtered and butchered our own livestock, but for many years we've sent out the cows and steers to the local abattoir. This winter we resumed home processing. Jay learned the skill while homesteading in northern British Columbia, where he dispatched and butchered at least 21 moose, a half dozen bear, and numerous smaller critters. Each one we do ourselves saves saves several hundred dollars, hours of loading and driving, and presumably cause less suffering to each animal. Some members organized a ritual blessing and honoring the steer for giving its life for us to eat it..

A recent Richmond Style weekly cover story on Twin Oaks combined the usual profile of the community with the perspective of someone who's father was an early Oaker. It was interesting for us to read Melissa Sinclair's account of her dad Gabriel's strong feelings about Twin Oaks. We hope she succeeds in convincing him to come back here for our big 35^th anniversary party this June. (Hear that, Gabe?) You can read the article in our media periodicals articles section.

And speaking of entertainment, there's lots of music going on. Soul Couch took an autumn break while the bass player did a solo tour of South America. Groups sing rounds and other part songs at least once a week.

Last summer's music OTRA enabled us to upgrade equipment. The music store repair guys loved our Gibson Ripper bass - it's a classic! Same for the big Music Man amp. Griffin and Tim fixed a bunch of acoustic guitars including one at ZK, for anyone who wants to sing for their supper. We got some much needed cables and new mics, and even some recording equipment, which is seeing heavy use.

Pele's dream came true when we found a used banjo in a sports and ammunition store for an unbeatable price (living in rural Virginia is so great)! The community now has a banjo and books for whoever want to learn.

Read on for more News of the Oaks....