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Demolitions Begins, With a Little Help from Our Friends

Building healthy communities in Montana

Since Bozeman was first homesteaded, the site of Bozeman Cohousing has been a small farm. A large animal veterinarian and his wife most recently owned this 5.3 acre property where they grazed cattle and horses. As Bozeman Cohousing moves towards development of an intentional community, the tradition of the land will continue to include goats, chickens and shared gardens. The wood from the old fences weathered by years of exposure, will, too. The architects plan to repurpose the materials as part of the common house in our new neighborhood. 

It takes extreme care and time to dismantle the boards so they can be repurposed by removing rusty nails and stripped bolts. Bozeman Cohousing members have been incredibly grateful for the help of teen volunteers who have come to Montana from around the country to learn about sustainable farming and ranching, permaculture, and Western life. Much of the learning includes the hands-on process of volunteer work, and the kids have pitched in to help at the cohousing property removing invasive weeds and carefully taking down old fences. They have also had the opportunity to hang out with the goats on site, watch a milking demonstration, and learn about the philosophies of cohousing.

The teenagers came to Gallatin Valley as part of the organization VISIONS Service Adventures, which normally runs teen programs around the world, but cancelled everything this summer due to the pandemic. VISIONS is now running a singular program here in southwestern Montana, where the home office is also based. They implemented COVID protocols, which means that kids sleep in their own individual tents at a farm outside of town, everyone was tested for the virus, the group was divided into pods, and masks were worn for the first two weeks.

Volunteer work has also taken on a new form for VISIONS, which always focused on construction and labor projects in under-resourced communities around the world. This year the teenagers must be socially distanced from the community, but they’ve nonetheless been able to help with outdoor Food Bank projects, the Learning Garden at Story Mill Park, farming and gardening, and the cohousing site. 

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Member Spotlight: Lynn Hellenga

The first eighteen years of my life were spent in Devils Lake, North Dakota. The same home town both of my parents grew up in. I’m a retired Registered Dietician/Nutritionist, most recently working at MSU on a Center for Disease Control and Prevention grant. Presently I nanny part -time a 15 month old child, and parent our two sons. Alex is 19 taking a gap year, and Braeden will be a Senior at Bozeman High this fall.

As many 50 something’s I enjoy the outside activities Bozeman and Gallatin valley has to offer year round. My family also enjoys participating in international home exchanges. These exchanges have allowed us to travel to many countries, live overseas and gain a sense of basic everyday living through living in other established households.

For me, the concept of Cohousing is a way to have deep connection to multigenerational families through daily activities and informal interaction. The idea of downsizing, sharing a common house, gardens, livestock and chores through Co-housing is of interest to me. It will allow me to try new things and still be able to travel. The idea of moving from our large family house to a Cohousing community to “age in place” is appealing to me as well.

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Ever Dreamed of a Neighborhood without Traffic?

Then you’ve maybe been dreaming about Bozeman Cohousing. The neighborhood is designed as a neighborhood should be—where communing with neighbors, interacting with kids, and enjoying open spaces such as gardens and yards—isn’t bisected with cars speeding through. Cohousing neighborhoods value connection, healthy living and aesthetic design over the mighty automobile and roads, which tend to carve up neighborhoods, redefine our social engagement, and make life more dangerous and noisy than it needs to be. 

Sure, many cohousers own vehicles, but parking is in a designated area with garages and an open lot. It abuts the community area of homes and shared spaces, and it is convenient to access and walk to from each home. But serving vehicles isn’t a mainstay of the community; instead, it’s a peripheral necessity that is properly designed for.

Building healthy communities that aren’t dominated by vehicles

In most cohousing communities, children as young as two or three can run across the pedestrian path to ring their neighborhor’s doorbell without needing to hold an adult’s hand. By age four or five, children experience a level of freedom within their own neighborhood that is uncommon these days. They can go to the playground or visit the community garden for some fresh raspberries without having to cross a road. Bozeman Cohousing will be without a doubt one of Bozeman’s safest neighborhoods for children.

Another fun note about Bozeman Cohousing and vehicles: We’re doing a car share for anyone who is interested! Also, there will be shared community bikes in addition to plenty of space for your personal bikes. 

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Member Spotlight: Kathleen Owkes

Kathleen Owkes is one of the founding members and visionaries of Bozeman Cohousing. She works tirelessly on everything from membership to finance while also raising her kids, Denali and Lochlan, ages six and two. Kathleen originally hails from Michigan.  She earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Colorado, where she met her husband, Mark. The Owkes moved to Bozeman in 2014 for Mark’s job as a professor at MSU. In addition to helping build this incredible Bozeman neighborhood, Kathleen homeschools her children, spends time skiing, hiking, and camping around Bozeman, and also manages a large family garden.

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Spontaneity

A Key Ingredient to Meaningful Social Interaction with Your Neighbors

When was the last time you scheduled a dinner out with friends, an afternoon walk, or a zoom call days or weeks in advance only to find that when the appointment came, you were just not in the mood? Or the reverse—have you declined an invitation and then had your schedule open up and wished you had some company? 

Social interaction was not meant to be so scheduled, prescribed and budgeted. Social interaction should happen spontaneously more often than not. We enjoy the most spontaneity with those people to whom we are closest. I never schedule a time to talk to my mom on the phone, I just call her, and if she doesn’t answer or she’s busy, I might call my sister or think of something else to do. My husband and I don’t schedule evenings ahead of time deciding which nights we’ll read after the kids go to bed and which nights we’ll sit and talk about our days or work on a project together. We decide that evening. Sure, we schedule a date night once a month, or more realistically once a year, but our casual regular interactions are unplanned.

And so it could be with more of our relationships if only we lived a bit differently. If your best friend lives down the street, you can pop by her house on your way out for a walk or drop something off and stay to chat for a while. We can see when a neighbor is outside working in their garden and go say hi. If the neighbors are out barbecuing it’s easy to holler an invitation over the fence. In cohousing communities across the country, neighbors gather for meals, bike rides, music, conversation and games, and usually without an appointment. 

Have you always wanted to live next to your best friends and be able to live more spontaneously with them? Now is your chance—call them up and tell them about Bozeman Cohousing!