Early Glimpses of Magic

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to give you a sense of what I've been seeing and doing out here at Magic for the passed several days.

Unlike many other Sustainability Models we have visited, Magic is situated in the heart of a residential neighbourhood where property is laid out in a suburban style with predominantly single-family homes and the benefit of large front and back yards. Magic now owns three adjacent homes, and in the yard space, workshops, offices and additional sleeping quarters have been built.  Most of the buildings around the central home are connected by narrow winding paths bordered with citrus fruit trees.

One of the newly constructed sleeping quarters at the back of the property, built from salvaged redwood.  The walls are packed with a clay-straw slurry for insulation, and the floor is packed earth, geo-thermally heated, which is real cozy on the feet.  My friend Chris built this place and lives here.

Two more sleeping quarters.

Shacks and Citrus

Different angle of shack from previous picture and, of course, more citrus

Office and living space tucked-in together under the tree canopy 

This is one of the many storage areas for the bikes that play a central role in the lives of Magic residents.  That's Andrew camouflaged in the bikes.
 

With so much bike usage, in addition to the on-site construction projects, having tools and work space is handy and cuts down on costs.   Much of my time at Magic so far has been contributing to tuning up the Magic bike fleet.

It helps when things are well organized!

The revegetation of the nearby foothills is a project that Magic has been contracted to coordinate by one of the the big forces in town, Stanford University.

Member of Magic unloading suppled for revegetation project.

Volunteers and members of Magic make berms around the young oak trees.  These south-faced hills were once 50% canopy covered, and the north-faced hills were historically 100% canopy covered. 

One of the main sources for for the large stores of communal food available at Magic is the local stores and the farmers market, where food that would otherwise enter the waste-stream is saved and pick-up by Magic members using bike trailers.  In the case of the farmers market, 2/3 of the foods collected by Magic are donated to shelters and 1/3 remains at Magic.  People who stay at Magic can either pay rent, or work in exchange for room and board.   Currently there are around twenty people living at Magic with handfuls of others peripherally involved.

I'm interested to learn more about the structure and behind the scenes functioning of this intentional community,  and in the meantime will likely be tinkering away with the bikes to earn my stay here.  This is the longest I've been in one place for a while now, and the itch to start moving again is coming on already. We'll see how long I can stay put....

Also, belated Happy Birthday to Grampa O'Brien who on January 14th turned the healthy age of ninety!  Way to be and we love you lots.

Bed time for me. Take care,
Steve