We’re excited for our upcoming feature article in Edible Bozeman, which highlights our hopes and dreams for community gardening, harvesting, cooking, eating and general merry-making together!
Sometimes the secret ingredient is… MUD. Couhouser kids prep their own “community dinner” at the property’s mud kitchen. Earthy!
Thanks to members Megan and Chad for arranging the shoot at their current digs. We carefully staged some shots with Covid precautions in mind, but it made us long for the days of real gathering and meal-sharing which can’t come soon enough!
Keep an eye out for the Winter issue, at news stands around town soon!
Baking
We’re doing a lot of baking these days, and this year Tor initiated daughter Aurora in the family tradition of making julekage, a Norwegian Christmas bread. The cardamom spiced bread with candied fruit and raisins is a breakfast treat around the holidays. Almost as good as Grandma Torvik’s 😋
Sunset on the Bridger Mountains, a stellar view from the property — courtesy of member, Garl
Cohousers prepare the barn for the arrival of Zeus the billy goat!
Our agriculture club decided that three of our does will become mamas this spring: Apple, Sunday, and Trouble. Working on a farm is often a fantasy of kids and our goats allow us all to live this dream with shared responsibility. This new venture in animal husbandry is ripe for all-age learning.
Preparing “The Love Shack”
Mark works, kids jump around
Kids are especially helpful because they love to climb and can fit in small spaces.
Searching through the snow for the fence post. We love our snow, but ahhgh!
I’ve also found they enjoy doing this helpful work waaaayyy more than room cleaning.
Of course the weekend we needed to prepare the barn for Zeus, we had just received a dump of snow and frigid temps. Ahh, Montana life!
HALLOWEEN pumpkins
The witch cat surveys the possibilities
We carved pumpkins and the kids each named theirs. Lochlan chose the name “Pumpkin Leif” after our youngest cohousing member.
Mask up!
Firewood Stacking
Every year we get a load of firewood delivered to feed our woodstove for the winter. The kids love helping to stack the wood. With young kids, this is the most we can do right now, but I hope that once we live in cohousing, we can have firewood cutting parties. Imagine a group of friends heading out into the national forest in the winter to harvest firewood to heat out homes for the winter. Chores like this are made festive by sharing them with a community. Many of the home types in Bozeman Cohousing have the option for a woodstove. — Kathleen
❆❅❆SNOW!❆❅❆
Yep. Sometimes we get snow in October — but we make the best of it!
Anna demonstrates proper snow-angel technique
Aurora likes sliding down hills, and so does her Dad.
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… 🙌 💪
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:
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.
Cohousing’s commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability
That’s right. Bozeman Cohousing has officially declared net zero carbon intentions. We’ve set aside $400,000 of our budget to equip our whole community with solar panels on homes and/or garages. The exact placement will be determined by comparing sun load at each location. This proposal was approved unanimously.
What does Net Zero mean?
“Net zero” refers to the balance between carbon emissions produced and carbon emissions taken out of the atmosphere. In order to halt climate change The Paris Agreement sets forth the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius warming target by mid-century. And to get there the IPCC reports that CO2 emissions must fall to zero. This doesn’t mean that CO2 cannot be emitted ever again, but we must balance our output and our input, and ideally have negative emissions.
Why did we do it?
Bozeman Cohousing recognizes the reality of climate change and the necessity of humans working together to combat this crisis. Since the industrial revolution, the influence of human activities – primarily burning coal, oil, and gas – have caused excess greenhouse gases to accumulate in the atmosphere, thus amplifying our atmosphere’s natural ‘greenhouse effect’ which warms the earth, the oceans, and increases climate instability (floods, droughts, fires, hurricanes). We’re changing the chemical makeup of our atmosphere and our oceans. This is a global crisis.
Our vision states: “Our community is designed and constructed with an emphasis on sustainability, which our lifestyles reflect.” We believe that to set our community up for success to achieve the goal of net zero carbon required an adjustment to our budget and designs to include solar arrays from the start.
Our community is designed and constructed with an emphasis on sustainability, which our lifestyles reflect.
–from Bozeman Cohousing Visions Statement
What was our thought process?
Proposal: Include in the budget the cost of sufficient solar photovoltaic arrays (solar panels) to reach the project’s Net Zero Carbon goal.
Questions raised by the community
How will this impact the cost of homes?
Studio Co+hab estimated the size of the solar array needed to be ~200kW or about $400,000 total based on Cadius’ Solar Division’s cost of solar installations. This analysis was presented at the Private House Workshop. The cost of the solar installation would be distributed like other construction costs on a per-square-foot basis averaging to about $8,500 to $16,000 per household. (Energy use scales relatively linearly with home size.) There is a 30% federal tax credit available for renewable energy purchases, which is already factored into the price.
How would this impact HOA dues?
It would lower the cost of occupancy by ~$750 per household per year. That would likely be a reduction in energy bills, rather than a change in HOA dues, however that structure has not been determined at this time. Based on installation costs and avoided energy costs the estimated payback is approximately 13 years.
How would the systems be owned?
A: Unknown at this time. There may be an advantage to commercial (HOA) ownership for some or all of the solar. It may also make sense to have the arrays tied to each home at their electrical meters. In Cadius’ South Rows project, each array is owned by each unit. This is a question that would need to be investigated as a solar array design moves forward.
What are the benefits of doing solar now vs later?
Solar Now
+ Climate change is an immediate issue now, not later + We can use being net zero for marketing + We get to live our values at move-in + Some money may be saved through economies of scale + Less hassle, administrative time, and cost doing it during construction + The project will have a single array type, so maintenance is simpler/consistent + Roof life is extended under solar panels, often more leak-proof fasteners and roof penetrations can be used during initial construction + NW Energy is trying to make the net metering agreement far worse; now would likely grandfather the project’s solar metering structure + Energy prices may/will likely go up in the future making an investment in solar now increase in value over time + Investments in solar can historically be recouped at the time of home sale + It will not look hodgepodge – Home prices increase by an average of $10k – Debt buyers have to qualify for a larger loan and pay interest on it
Solar Later
+ Lower initial home prices + A homeowner could have more flexibility in the size of array + Solar technology is slowly and continuously improving while costs are slowly decreasing over time + Perhaps better state or federal solar rebates/tax credits will exist. The opposite is also a possibility. (The current administration has worked to try to end the federal tax credit, though ultimately the authority rests with Congress, which does not appear likely to act on this issue). + Solar rental companies may exist in Montana in the future, eliminating the need for large cash outlay – The opposite of most positives in the “now” category
The members discussed the impact of changing tax credit over the next several years and brought up whether purchase would be community-wide vs. individual units. Ownership is still to be determined.
