Two Weeks in the Life of Alpenglow
By Pam Eddy
Shawn and I joined Alpenglow late in 2019. June 2021 was our second opportunity to head to Colorado (from Bloomington, Indiana) and spend time getting to know our future neighbors in our beloved Rocky Mountains.
Our visit began with a lovely dinner at a local member’s house. Christi hosted those of us from out of town (Bodega, California; Bloomington, Indiana; and Lawrence, Kansas) with solar-cooked appetizers and grilled delights. All of us had met virtually but this was our first physical time together. We all were as we seemed during our regular Zoom meetings, but there was finally time for stories! This is one aspect of cohousing that I really look forward to: sharing meals and telling stories.
Next we headed out for a few bike rides to acclimate a bit. The 22-mile round trip ride from Ridgway to Ouray on unpaved county roads is the only real way to get to Ouray without getting on the highway. County Roads 23 and 17 took us past ranches, a marijuana grow facility, and up about 500 feet above the Uncompagre River for great views with an easy, short-graded climb. Fantastic iced mochas (and a steady downhill grade) got us back to Ridgway with enough energy for me to hang out in a hammock and for Shawn to go on a hike. Another ride the next day out to the reservoir gave us enough lung capacity to start hiking.
There are enough of us in our growing Alpenglow membership to find someone with the same level of physical ability. I hung with the slower hikers (well actually, I was sort of the star slowest walker) while Shawn hung with the fast crowd.
All of us like to be in the mountains – some hiking, others biking, fly fishing, or exploring above tree line via jeep. I partook in most. Again, the thought that we will have others to share the outdoors and have adventures with was, for me, as warming as the Colorado sun. The wildflowers weren't bad either!
Community and Making Decisions
Although most of the local members were extremely busy with weddings, birthdays, and work, we were able to meet for some important training and decisionmaking. We started with our first meeting in our common house (more accurately, our common house site). We shared what the common house means to us – commitment, honesty, community, care, and each selected a rock to commemorate our meeting.
This was followed by some training on Sociocracy focusing on the decisionmaking process recommended during individual meetings. Ensuring each round of discussion has a clear purpose and learning how to effectively create, consider, and object to proposals are all elements we can add to our bag of organizational tools.
Our biggest decisions last month were to delay the building of Alpenglow for one more year, in anticipation of reduced costs and to make some changes to the designs that may further reduce our costs and environmental footprint. It was a difficult decision, but our experience is similar to many other cohousing communities who are in the forming and building stages. Fortunately, our communications training and usage of some Sociocracy methods helped us through a difficult time
More Fun and a Surprise Visitor
We also volunteered at the Ride the Rockies Bike tour that spent two nights camping at the Ouray Fairgrounds located at the edge of Ridgway. Ride the Rockies involves close to 2,000 cyclists riding for five to six days across some of the most challenging roads in Colorado. Our job was to staff the beer tent for two afternoons and evenings. Given that we were allowed to drink any of the offerings, we were soon sharing the cohousing story with about 200 to 300 cyclists (admittedly they were somewhat forced to hear our pitch as they waited for their beer – kept cold in icy water in a kayak). We had some great conversations and found that many were willing to donate a small tip for our cause. By far the most prominent client was Karin Hoskin, who is the executive director of the Cohousing Association of the United States (CohoUS) and was riding with her daughter, niece and husband. We were able to show her the property and discuss the challenges faced by most cohousing groups who are forming or building in the time of COVID-19. We wished her luck as she and her family headed out on the last day of their ride.
