• Take a community vacation
• Ideas?
• Write more blogs 
• Start a phone plan
• Buy a pig (a dead one that had a great life eating grass, rolling in mud, and feeling sunshine)
• Garage sale (to raise money for vacation?)
• Volunteer regularly 
• Stick to First Tuesday Activity Day. In lieu of regular book meet, we volunteer or do a fun thing together. 
• Visit each other's churches 
• Long bike ride 
• Katy
• Frisco
• Dirt Roads
• Teach a dance class 
• Take a dance class
• Contra 
• Garden together 
• Grow Shed for starting seedlings
• Plan crops to minimize overlap
• Make skin care products 
• Make house cleaners 
• Buy a giant bike 
• Business cards 
• Monthly movie club
• Cob house workshop

Long Term Goals

• Have a new home town (Springfield or somewhere else)
• Make a community product
• Beer
• Soap
• Fermented foods (kombucha, sour kraut, kimchi)
• Clothes
• Swords
• Find a stable living situation to better support each other 
• Buy land
• camping retreat
• build houses 
• DIY stuff 
• Tiny house stuff 

• To Set  A Fitness Goal: We will keep loose time on each trip and see if we get faster.

• To Study Phenology: Fancy word for the observation of changes with the seasons. Read ‘A Sand County Almanac’ by Aldo Leopold for a great example. I have gotten to see my yard and the trail at my work change throughout the year, but never such a dramatic natural location as the hollow.

• To Actually Use all of our Outdoor Gear: I have spent too much time and money on foul-weather gear that never gets used. As we have set our hike dates for the year already, we will inevitably encounter some funkiness and get to put our stuff to the test.

• To Spend Quality Time Together: Ryan recently moved from 7 feet away to 70 miles away and we need to do things together that don’t involve instruments every once in a while.

• They take weight off them tired joints: You can take as much as 25% of the force that would be on your knees and ankles and put them on your arms and shoulders.

• You haul butt: We were nearly running down these steep descents with no fear. On flat sections, you really can feel yourself being propelled by your arm strength.

• You literally cannot fall...ever: We crossed ice sheets, wet creek stepping stones, and slimy thawing mud flats. Never lost a step.

• You can poke stuff: Always useful.

In the Summer of 2012 Amber and I moved to Springfield, and right away we met with some friends at a breakfast cafe to talk about putting together an intentional community. We had a vision of what it could be like. As I reflect on that fateful breakfast several years later, I am happy to report that vision is a reality. In fact, the community that is now called Spare Key has far exceeded my hopes and expanded my vision.

We were looking for radical community. That is to say, a community that shared things. Our lives, our hopes, our day-to-day. We did not want to live in the same house with friends as we had successfully done in the past. We weren't looking for anything super immersive. We just wanted meaningful relationships with people that went beyond once-a-week interactions. And even that, in and of itself, is asking a lot. We didn't know if that kind of life would be in the cards for us at all.

As it turns out, we got much more than we asked. While the members of Spare Key do not live geographically close to one another, the community we have managed to generate actually feels more like a neighborhood than most actual neighborhoods do.

Spare Key has taught me many things over the past few years about the concept of community. Community is an abstract term, and can mean a lot of things. But while Spare Key is a community, I have come to think of it not so much as a place, or as a mission statement, or even as an expression of any philosophy or vision. I have conceptualized community primarily in those terms in the past. But now, to me, Spare Key is first and foremost a rich network of friendships.

And that's what we wanted all along.


~~~


(Jay's View from the Front Porch, January 2015)
sparekeycommunity@gmail.com

We're in phase one: Compiling a list of books from which to choose. Voting will begin once everybody has had a chance to add their book ideas to the list. Here's the list so far.


Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis (1944, 2009)

Expanding a series of radio talks into book form, Mere Christianity never flinches as it sets out a rational basis for Christianity and builds an edifice of compassionate morality atop this foundation.

The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community, Marc J. Dunkelman (2014)

“Marc Dunkelman gets it. In The Vanishing Neighbor, he shows how the traditional web of relationships that makes up American life is undergoing fundamental change, why it matters, and what we need to do about it.”

     -President Bill Clinton


 
Epiphany: True Stories of Sudden Insight to Inspire, Encourage and Transform, Elise Ballard (2014)

Have you ever experienced an epiphany, a life-changing moment or realization? This book is a collection of more than fifty revelations that changed lives forever. Elise Ballard started asking others if they had ever experienced these kinds of breakthroughs. What began as simple curiosity led to an unexpected and exciting journey.
Strengthsfinder 2.0, Tom Rath (2007)

Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment. While you can read this book in one sitting, you'll use it as a reference for decades. Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this new book and accompanying website will change the way you look at yourself, and the world around you, forever.  



 
Blessing the Hands That Feed Us: What Eating Closer to Home Can Teach Us About Food, Community, and Our Place on Earth, Vicki Robin (2014)

Taking the locavore movement to heart, bestselling author and social innovator Vicki Robin pledged for one month to eat only food sourced within a 10-mile radius of her home. Her sustainable diet not only brings to light society’s unhealthy dependency on mass-produced foods but also helps her reconnect with her body and her environment.



Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, Karen Armstrong (2011)

In this important and thought-provoking work, Karen Armstrong—one of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world—provides an impassioned and practical guide to helping us make the world a more compassionate place.





Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes, Nancy Tatom Ammerman (2013)

Ammerman examines the stories Americans tell of their everyday lives, from dinner table to office and shopping mall to doctor's office, about the things that matter most to them and the routines they take for granted, and the times and places where the everyday and ordinary meet the spiritual. 





The Art of Stillness, Pico Iyer (2014)

Iyer considers the unexpected adventure of staying put and reveals a counterintuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the more we seem desperate to unplug. In our madly accelerating world, our lives are crowded, chaotic and noisy. There’s never been a greater need to give ourselves permission to be still.
 




The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door, Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon (2012)

This unique and inspiring book asks the question: What is the most loving thing I can do for the people who live on my street or in my apartment building? Through compelling true stories of lives impacted, the authors show readers how to create genuine friendships with the people who live in closest proximity to them.




My House Our House: Living Far Better for Far Less in a Cooperative Household Paperback, Karen Bush, Louise S. Machinist, Jean McQuillin (2013) 

This is the story of three trailblazing women who came together to create a 21st century cooperative household. "Alternative" living arrangements account for a large and growing percentage of American households, and offer practical, economical solutions for people looking to live together for less and still maintain a high quality of life.


CoHousing Cultures: Handbook for Self-Organized, Community-Oriented and Sustainable Housing, Jovis (2013)

This handbook presents a selection of the most significant housing projects in Europe today, from Berlin, to Stockholm.






Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities, Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett (2011)

This book offers an in-depth exploration of a uniquely rewarding type of housing which is perfect for anyone who values their independence but longs for more connection with those around them. Written by an award-winning team, this fully-illustrated manual combines nuts-and-bolts practical considerations and design ideas.

Our mission statement says: 

Spare Key is a neighborhood of adventurers committed to fostering practical expressions of the spiritual, personal and communal goals of its members through the act of sharing in hopes of leaving the world better than we found it. 
 

Today I want to focus on the "sharing" part. Through sharing, we help each other toward our goals, and we believe we can change our corner of the world for the better.

I've tried to compile a list of things we have shared so far as a community. The list is remarkable long considering how short a time we have been at it. (Spare Keyers, help me out in the comments section and add the items I'm forgetting.) There are stories behind every item on this list, which perhaps we can elucidate in future posts. 

Some of the items on this list are held independently, and some we purchased together as a community. I have mostly listed material items, and I didn't even try to cover the more important stuff that we share as a community - things like emotional support, happiness, and camaraderie. 

 













lawn mowers
sewing machine
wii U
a side of beef
laundry facilities
2 CSA shares
pet watching
nerf guns
garden work
yard work
camping stuff
freezer space
storage space
books
skill-sharing workshops (pilates, sewing, etc)
bike tools
other tools (tool library; drills, power washers)
brewing equipment
food
talent, time, and energy spent cooking.
musical ability (vocal, instrumental)
space (porches, yards, houses)
retreat expenses
holiday gift exchanges
cell phone plans

Last July, my dad, brother, and I built a harvest table. A harvest table is basically a very long picnic table. Since then, I have learned seven things about harvest tables.




1) Autumn is for harvest tables.
Fall is the perfect time to be outside.  The colors are changing, the air is cooling, and it's often nicer outside than inside. Putting a harvest table under a maple tree basically adds a whole new room to your house!

2) Use your harvest table regularly.
We have been having Sunday breakfast on the harvest table every week at 9:30. We've had pumpkin themed breakfast, apple themed breakfast, donuts themed, cereal themed, etc. We also have dinner on the table often.

3) Put your harvest table in the front yard, not the back yard.
Front yards are more open and inviting than back yards. We have often attracted passers-by during community meals on the harvest table, and we have gotten to know many of our neighbors this way.

4) Harvest tables are for friends.
We have a big community meal each week, and we couldn't fit everybody around a regular table. This is what motivated the harvest table idea in the first place.

5) Good luck trying to find a tablecloth long enough.
I once spent five years crocheting a blanket that was monstrously too big for the purposes of a conventional blanket, but even my monster blanket is not nearly long enough to cover this 12 foot long harvest table.

6) Bring your harvest table inside during the winter. 
We made the table out of treated lumber, but we still plan to bring it inside before it snows. It is actually made of two 6 foot tables placed side-by-side. Inside, the tables will make a 6x6 foot square rather than a 12x3 rectangle.

7) Having a harvest table in your front yard generates many possibilities. 
When we bring the tables inside, we will leave the four harvest table benches outside. The benches will be placed in a diamond shape around the fire bowl so that the outside festivities can continue.

Spare Key having a meeting on the harvest table.

I have been thinking about support systems lately - people we can turn to for help when we need it. I am surrounded by a robust support system of family members, community members, and friends. We are ready to help each other at a moment's notice should the need arise.

I tend not to think of next-door-neighbors as part of my support system. I have lived in rental houses and apartments for a long time, and we nomadic-rental-people tend not to work very hard at our relationships with one another.

I currently live in a rental house with a yard, but I do not own a lawn mower. I had been borrowing a nearby community-member's lawn mower, but it broke down. I couldn't really borrow from family, because my family members live impractically far away.



So there I was, hat in hand, on my next-door-neighbor's doorstep. She's a kind lady. She lives alone. I'm worried that my lawn mower-deficiency will offend her. "What kind of man am I if I don't even own a lawn mower?" I wonder. She is probably going to think I'm a freeloader.

 I knock on her door and ask her if I could borrow her mower. She says, "No problem! I just bought a new one!" So we talk for awhile about lawn mowers, and we work it out that I will mow her (small) lawn next time she thinks it needs it. I offered to help her paint her garage, too.

She has lived in her house for a long time. She said she's mowed my house's lawn many time in the past. As it turns out, I'm not the first renter in the world to not own a lawn mower. We talked about the neighborhood, and jobs, and so on.

I mowed my lawn and brought her mower back with a full gas tank. The tank cost 7 dollars to fill, and she said for 7 dollars I could use the mower for the rest of the season. Through this experience I learned that there are four corners to support systems: friends, family, community, and also neighbors.