Member Erika proposed an “EastOver” celebration where we celebrate the nexus of Passover, Easter, and the Equinox. With food, mimosas, and egg-hunting, of course.
We prepared…
Then waited…
Assisted labor
And now we get to love them! 😍
March in Montana.
Still time for some Winter activities, and a taste of warmer weather to come… until the next snow storm, at least 😉
Appreciative goats 🙌 😄
Our kids got to ice fish for the first time. A beautiful sunny day to be on the ice even though we didn’t catch anything.
–Kathleen
Glen Lake Rotary Park
Bozeman’s own Random Acts of Silliness treated visitors to Story Mill Park to a Menagerie of the Imaginary, filled with friendly, whimsical creatures!
Cedar Allison-Bunnell gets the recipe for Scottish Shortbread, offered by Woolbert, the baking blue mammoth
Enjoying some of Montana’s wide open spaces and natural beauty while traversing on skis and skates.
Raising these kiddos to be ready for playing outside no matter what the weather is easier to do in community. The kids quit complaining that it is only 5 degrees out and instead focus on racing each other to the top of the ski hill!
Not all cohousers are braving the Montana winter (yet!) — Brendan, Jane Lee currently call Hawai’i home, and recently took time to explore the Big Island and Volcanoes State Park. While Carol enjoys the balmy Colorado winter.
Of course we like to enjoy some good old fashioned grillin’ and chillin’ in the chill.
Spontaneous winter cookout, campfire, and sledding with future cohousing neighbors at the Hyalite Pavilion. The kids braved the braved the cold and by rotating who was in front of the fire, we managed to keep everyone warm.
We have a great big, beautiful Valentine for all of the current and future members of our community: After almost two months of review, discussion, and proposals on the Design Development process, we have agreed on all the refinements to the floor plans and finishes for the Bozeman Cohousing buildings. Studio Co+hab beautifully embodied the program priorities set by the group last year, so the final changes were largely tweaks and polishes based on our collective lived experience.
What began as an exercise in taking stock of how we currently live in our own spaces has crystalized into an exercise in imaging how we will eventually live in our new shared and personal spaces. And that vision of the future is tantalizing indeed.
Our family will be living in a second-floor flat next to the atrium. We’ll be able to bring things from the parking lot to the side door in our recumbent cargo trike. Then it’s up a covered flight of stairs made airy with a high clerestory and into our home. Muddy shoes and boots can stay just outside the door.
Since I’m the breakfast cook on weekdays, I’ll start out in our compact but full-featured all-electric kitchen. The marmoleum floor is soft and easily warms to my feet. The white cabinets and walls contribute to the sense of open light, as well as tease us to consider what more distinctive color we might want to paint them. From the sink in the central island, I can chop kale and onions for our morning scramble on the bamboo counter while I look out at the Bridgers through our living room window. Once she’s up, my wife can drink her tea in the sunny, open dining area, or in good weather, out on the deck, where she’s certain to be joined by our two cats.
On laundry day, we’ll be just a quick indoor walk to the shared washer/dryers in the common house, which will have all the power of high-capacity machines in a laundromat, but none of the bad feng shui. An outdoor drying rack will give our clothes that elusive sunshine freshness. While we wait for our laundry, we can go home, or we can make a cup of coffee in the common kitchen and visit with neighbors in the atrium even when it’s not terribly hospitable outside.
Friday night is our family movie night, and we can either enjoy our personal choice in our own living room, or join the group cinema experience in the common house dining room. Several members are musically inclined, and there will undoubtedly be talent shows and performances as the spirit moves.
Even though none of the private homes are all that far from the common house, other households have chosen to be a bit more away from the hustle and bustle. Some residents will stay warm with an optional wood stove. Options for carpet, marmoleum, and other hard flooring options will suit everyone’s desire for comfort and the realities of kids and pets. Folks living in the smaller homes won’t have to give up too much counter space, thanks to compact appliances just the right size for fewer people.
All told, the efficiently planned indoor spaces of our community will be so inviting, comfortable, and cozy that we may not feel like going anywhere else!
Baking goodies to give family as gifts has been a tradition in our family for years. This year, I felt compelled to make 6 different kinds of treats and bake 2 pies to compensate for a COVID Christmas. 😂😂😅😅 Its a good thing Annaliese likes to bake with me- we made quick and fun work out of baking, decorating and packaging for delivery!
–Megan
The annual Christmas Stroll looked much different this year. But Chad and Megan created their own little family fun outing. They have been walking the stroll since they first moved to Bozeman and have loved sharing the tradition with Annaliese.
Downtown is so beautiful this time of year!
Ida and her brother, Sorin, finished putting together the family’s 1000-piece Christmas puzzle, an annual holiday tradition in their household!
Aurora and her grandmother deliver presents to Cuban refugees. She helped plan the gifts for the kids of five families and wrapped all their presents. She says that meeting them was fulfilling and she was happy to give gifts to kids who wouldn’t have gotten any. She even got to speak a bit of Spanish. 🙌
