Posted on

Member Happenings: What we’ve been up to

Anna and Marci making a shoebox float.

MSU Homecoming had a virtual parade instead of a real one due to COVID. Anna had a total blast getting glitter all over Marci’s office. 😂😂 

Look who came to see the Bozeman Cohousing property! A mama black bear and her cub use the riparian corridor along Matthew Bird Spring Creek as they look for ripening fall fruits before the snow comes.

The Bozeman Cohousing official site plan modeled by Lochlan and Denali with Magnatiles and Playmobil.

Notice how the parking is clustered at the front of the property to make a safe place for children to play. The interior pathways allow neighbors to interact face-to-face instead of car-to-car. The small clusters of homes face each other to create smaller pods within the larger community. If you look closely you can see the goats, chickens, bunnies, dogs, and some wildlife.
🏆 💯

The Gallatin River!

Bozeman Cohousing members enjoy the many outdoor activities that southwest Montana has to offer including world class fly fishing, white water rafting, and rock throwing.

The Potato Harvest

When you live in community, the simple chore of harvesting becomes a festive event. Young and old gather to work, share a drink, and maybe make some music. Digging potatoes becomes a treasure hunt for children and a social event for the adults. Even if you’re not that passionate about gardening, your children can still participate in these types of community events. Perhaps you’re days of kneeling in the dirt are past, you can pull up a chair and enjoy the next generation’s delight. Potato, carrot, and onion harvesting, apple cider pressing, cherry pitting, or pea shelling. All these chores become festive when shared by the whole neighborhood.

Aurora had the chance to conquer the low ropes course at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp since the campers were gone. Online school does have some benefits…
🙌 💪

Posted on

A Game of Cat and Mouse

by Aurora Gilbertson

Squeaks crept out of her mouse hole. She didn’t want to leave her comfy pin-cushion-bed or spool-of-thread table, but she was hungry. She scampered along the floor trying not to make a sound because cats can hear anything. The Xeiders (zee-ders) had two cats, a kitten and its mom, Squeaks didn’t have to worry about the mom, Zeta, but she had a problem with the kitten, Leila. Squeaks almost made it to the cracker cabinet when she let out a squeak and skidded to a stop. She clapped a paw over her mouth, there standing on eight legs right in front of her was the Xeider’s kid’s pet tarantula, Harry. She tried to go around him but he started to chase her around and around the tiled floor in the kitchen. Apparently they were making a lot of  noise because there was a faint click click, when squeaks turned around there was Leila. 

…to be continued…

Posted on

Mini Member Spotlight: Denali

Denali, age 6
by Aurora, age 11

Do you have any pets?

Denali has one pet, a dog named Pickles.

What games do you like to play? 

Denali likes to play a game called “Splendor.” Basically you have different gem tokens and you use those to buy “Noble Tiles.”

Do you play an instrument?

Denali likes to play piano and her favorite song to play is “Short Story.”  She has been playing for 2-3 years. Denali likes that you don’t have to bring it anywhere ;P

Do you like to do art?

She has recently done a watercolor of a pumpkin getting into the fall spirit. Her method was to begin with the outline in pencil, then the green paint of the grass, and then the pumpkin ridges in oranges.

What is your favorite food?

Her favorite food is tacos and sushi. She would have sushi for her birthday, but it’s a special treat because she only eats it once or twice a month.

Do you do a sport?

Denali doesn’t do a sport currently but she used to take dance lessons.

What are you most excited about Cohousing?

Denali is most excited to always have a friend right out her door to play with.

Posted on

Member Spotlight: Megan Welborn

Hometown & current location:

I grew up in Kansas and then my family moved to Forsyth, MT my senior year of high school.  I’ve been living in Bozeman since early 2003.

What does your life look like now?

I met my husband in 2005 while we were in college, we got married in 2011 and had our first (and only) child, Annaliese, in 2015. I have been a stay-at-home-mom since we brought our little bundle home. We also have a 12-pound princess of a dog, Schatze, a Maltese Yorkie mix.

What is it like to walk in your shoes every day?

When we aren’t homeschooling, I am running errands and doing lots of experimentation in my kitchen. I love to cook and bake and try new recipes – or tweak old ones. One of our favorite pre-Covid days included hopping on the Streamline bus and going downtown to the library and to parks and trails. Or we would swim at Bozeman Hot Springs, visit the Museum of the Rockies, go on hikes, or meet up with other families for play dates. Homeschooling has been a great way to fill our days now and it’s been fun to learn (or re-learn) alongside my daughter. Though some of the best days are ones when we stay at home and just play or relax. On the weekends we usually do home projects or go on longer family hikes. 

I am hopeful that my daughter will amass social and emotional gains by growing up in a neighborhood like this. I love the idea that she will have neighborhood friends and can have hours of unstructured play.

— Megan Welborn

What drew you to cohousing?

My family doesn’t live close enough to see as frequently as I would like. And like many college towns, the friends you make during that time in your life who become your family, often move away. I miss the camaraderie of frequent, shared experiences with friends. Once I became a mom, I realized more than any other time in my life I needed and wanted community. There are so many benefits to living in a cohousing neighborhood but having a community of people who are invested in one another is important to me. Also, as a mother, I want to make sure my daughter is raised in a safe, supportive and nurturing environment. I love the idea that she will have neighborhood friends and can have hours of unstructured play doing things like riding bikes on the pedestrian pathways or splashing around in the creek. 

What is something that makes you hopeful for the future?

I am hopeful that my daughter will amass social and emotional gains by growing up in a neighborhood like this. I like that she will develop a broader sense of the world by living with and learning from a diverse group of people. 

What do you feel is one of your greatest strengths that you have to offer the world?

I feel I am at my best, that I have a sense of purpose and satisfaction, when I am helping others. I enjoy working collaboratively or on my own. 

What do you hope to be doing 10 years from now?

Living the cohousing dream with my family and friends! We love Bozeman, so I can’t picture ever leaving.

Posted on

Horses: “The hospitality around here is excellent.”

Bridger Foothills Fire forces evacuation of residents

The destruction and displacement caused by the Bridger Foothills fire has been front and center in our town over Labor Day weekend. As Bozeman community members were quickly offering lodging, water, food, and necessities for evacuees, Bozeman Cohousing members Garl Germann and Marci Young recognized our unique capabilities to help four-legged evacuees. The Bridger Canyon area is home to many ranches with horses and cows who needed to be evacuated. Because our site was previously owned by a large animal veterinarian and we have continued to keep grazing animals on the property (our Norwegian Dwarf Goats), we are able to bring other livestock onto our property. Garl and Marci posted several ads offering our space. Late Saturday night, Garl met Tom Fiddaman with his three horses: Daisy, Georgette, and Emmy.

The next day Mary Maj dropped off a stock tank to water the horses. Our fantastic neighbor to the property, Dorothy Dacar, offered her spigot, but couldn’t supply a hose long enough to reach the trough. Cohousing member Karen sent her daughters over with a 100-foot hose and the horses were happily watered 20 minutes later. And to make sure that it wasn’t only our four legged guests taken care of,  Kathleen Owkes coffeed the human evacuees. After three nights our guests, the horses, and their families were able to return to their own home.

Daisy, Georgette, and Emmy

While it was our desire to help our Bozeman community that we offered our pasture, we did get something out of it, too. I think the most excited people about the horses on the property were our kids. Tom and his family generously introduced each horse to kid members Aurora and Denali. The girls pet and gave haylike pellet treats to Daisy, Georgette, and Emmy. And then, I knew it was coming… The obvious next question from Aurora, “Can we have horses at cohousing?” I’ll leave another member to let her down easy on that one as my constant “No” hasn’t damaged her enthusiasm for the possibility. Or maybe I’ll let her pitch her proposal to the membership for why we should have horses. ;D

We are thankful to be part of a supportive and caring community and are proud to call Bozeman home. We are glad we could do our small part too by sheltering some horses and their humans that needed a temporary home. We were humbled when Tom told us: “The hospitality around here is excellent.”  We hope to always earn that designation from our community.

NBC MT wrote an article about all the helpers in Bozeman, including Bozeman Cohousing members:

https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/bozeman-community-helps-fire-evacuees-animals

Our hearts are with all the people who have lost and to those who fight, including the homeowners who have done what they can to protect their homes, the firefighters, smokejumpers, first responders, coordinators, hand crews, the Sheriff’s department and many others who are tirelessly working to protect our community.