About

Sandra: Sandra lives in a modular, blue, two-bedroom house made by Blu Homes and unfolded on-site in September 2010. Sandra is doing a lot of gardening and hopes for a future of orchards, great hikes, listening to wonderful audio books and podcasts, singing with the local chorus, and lots of cutting firewood with her chainsaw to heat her house. Sandra works in development and fundraising for the local public radio (classical music) and television stations.

Jens and Spee and three children twenty and older: Spee's passion and paying work is international humanitarian work, which she does on a consulting basis for Save the Children and others. Jens is very involved with the Alternatives to Violence Project internationally and with preservation and food production right here at QIVC. Among their many projects are care of parents and grandchildren, beekeeping, orcharding, soil improvement, and natural building. They have lived and worked in many countries around the world, including Ecuador, Palestine, and Costa Rica. In 2009, Jens completed building their three-bedroom First Day Cottage house and in 2017, to make space for his elderly parents, completed a cool addition with a sod roof and an upside-down tree in the middle of the timber frame.

Dee: Dee is a retired child and family psychologist and sometime mediator who has a tiny house named Tiny Red. She is happily enjoying living in a small, tidy, simple space of her own, where she can meditate and create. Drawn to spiritual traditions that cultivate the heart and its expression in the world, Dee, a Buddhist Quaker, finds vipassana meditation and Quaker worship complementary and practices both. Dee's passionate aspiration is to bring more Love into the world.

Eric and Jean: Eric has a passion for creating the infrastructure for a post-monetary economy based on wealth as thriving living systems, which he does as part of the MetaCurrency Project and Holo. His other interests include collective intelligence and social architectures, the open-source revolution, and renaturalization (Jim Corbett). He also makes excellent scones. Jean joined Eric recently. She passionately explores thrivability, and she has been writing and living into this intention since 2007. She works as a participatory process facilitator and project manager on social technology. She shares Eric's interest in collective intelligence and social architectures. Ellen, who was a beloved member of the community and Eric's wife, died in 2016. Eric and Ellen's children have gradutated college and live nearby. Jean and Eric live in a three-bedroom straw-bale house built by local craftspeople, heated with a masonry wood heater. They have solar panels and drive an electric car (charged in a community parking area).

Helen, mother to Eric and Jens, moved up from Ecuador to join the community in 2017, after a lifetime of service as a nurse and family therapist. She shares her gratitude for the beauty around her, especially the many shades of green. She prays for community members, her international network of connections, and the world at large from her rocking chair.

The Michaud family lives in a self-built three-bedroom First Day Cottage heated with wood and solar-heated water. They enjoy living both on the inside and the outside of their cozy little house on the uphill side of the land, where they have a view of the beauty and love that abounds. Emilie-Anne is dedicated to her family. She is retired from her work as a pediatric psychiatric nurse practitioner. Her main drive is supporting her children in their growth and struggles with disabilities and chronic illness. However, under-girding all this activity and work is her conscious noticing and holding of the mundane moments of life, thus allowing the Light to emanate. Dan is a recently retired social worker. His greatest interests are in existential spirituality, outdoor sports (running, mountain biking, kayaking, camping, snowboarding), spending time with his children, and growing, raising, and cooking food. Daughter Elon lives nearby in Troy, NY and is often here on weekends. She has a passion for nature and animal care. She enjoys music and literature, and inspires others with her courageous fight for recovery from tick-born diseases. One young adult son is living in the area, and another grown son, daughter-in-law, and their child live in San Diego.

Eric Bear held a small home-school group here, for a couple years, some years ago. Eric continues years of constant travel with frequent visits home to connect with the community.

Hana and Noah, and their son Lev and daughter Shira like to forage for wild foods and dig around in the dirt. Noah is a musician with many hats—pianist, singer, conductor, and fledgling jazz musician—and Hana is a journalist, wrestler, and volunteer fire-fighter (training for full-time). Lev and Shira's favorite activities include jumping on the trampoline, digging, reading books with anyone who will join them, and eating pears.

Robin and two daughters live on the land and enjoy community and being near family. Robin is a worker-owner at Random Harvest Market in Craryville, NY

Michelle and Devin with two children are involved in everything at Flying Deer Nature Center in Chatham, NY.

Sam is an occasional villager, and an intentional wanderer.