another awesome SCHA Board Retreat at Max's cabin

Here is a good pic of us all at the cabin.  It was great weather for snow fun and we think that we accomplished some of our goals (ask about the naked snow angels). There should be some kind of report that will go out for those who are interested.  The New Houses at J street should be coming online soon!  It should be a fun and exciting new year.  See ya'll soon,
Charlie

New housemates at Sunwise!

We're very happy to welcome Alex and her daughter Marina to Sunwise!  We're already seeing some changes and learning a lot from them: our dinners have been moved up to 6:30p, and now we have the first indoor pet at Sunwise for some time: a charismatic rat named Marshmellow. 

Olive harvest!

It's olive harvesting time in Davis! Last weekend housemates at Sunwise joined the community picking efforts around campus and gathered 42 Lb of olives, enough to make 3 quarts of fresh olive oil. More olive picking for drying and eating now underway! Below, Erica and Ashely perfect their harvesting strategies.

Cats and Meetings

Another great reason for making it to those long board meetings at J Street:

Yes, that's right, a cute and friendly cat will curl up on your lap and fall asleep purring softly.  This is Coo, who has been a J street resident for a couple months, making him by no means the newest J street resident but certainly the envy of every Sunwiser (including those too allergic to live with such cuteness!)


Rumor has it that there's a lot going on in SCHA right now, building a new co-op and managing interns and outreach and all.  Apparently there's even a new fancy-smancy web-page being built: currently you can preview it at http://www.schadavis.wordpress.com before it goes live on the web at the official http://www.schadavis.org address; but you've all ready found the home of the real news in these houses.  Bike rides to Winters, picking and pressing olives for oil, and a Sunwise early thanksgiving all coming up.

Halloween and other happenin's

It's been an exciting Fall at the Sunwise Co-op, somehow haven't managed to sneak into the journal with some updates for a while.  Halloween is always a special time in the community -- when a young boy stopped Derek in the garden and asked for an encore of last year's vomiting pumpkin, Derek delivered in style:

This pumpkin is feeling a little sick....

Our three pumpkins greeted more children than we had candy, before they wandered off to join the Village Homes annual pumpkin parade of all the neighborhood pumpkins, amid kids and popcorn the following evening:

See more in the Derek's Sunwise photos from this fall, with narrative-style captions.

It's Open Access Week at Sunwise

Open Access takes on a brand new meaning at our house...
after we messed up the chicken coop combination lock and were unable to get in for a week, someone had to do the inevitable: take out the entire latch+lock! But...our historical latch was now unusable, and chickens are too smart not to get out from a semi-closed door...
What's more...someone put a juicy prize on the challenge of separating lock and latch (nothing less than a long-term title of king*, with open choice of what to associate it with). Lady Betta did not resist the urge to fight this important battle of honor and dubious practical reward, and armed with time-tested technology (top right in picture) restored the right order of things. Now peace and prosperity can reign over the lands. Let's rejoice.

* regretful sign of distrust in female leadership? John Knox, I'll kick your darn a*s.

First big OpCo work weekend spearheads the greenest - and most fun- retrofit in town!

After moving houses, pouring foundations, and sloowly lowering the houses to ground level, what shall we do? well, what about smashing all the walls and ceilings? besides being everyone's dream work day (don't do this at home now), that's what needs to be done to retrofit the houses with state-of-the-art insulation, and to reshape rooms
to meet the new household
design.

The long hours and the intense work-out did not deter the brave volunteers,
who hammered, pulled, tossed, scraped, slashed, moved, banged, sawed, and carried wheelbarrows with great skill and virtue. Long repressed frustrations vanished each time the hammed shattered the plaster. Growls, cheers, and songs filled the balmy air.

All interspersed with music, games, great food, and alien jokes! 43 volunteers were hammering away on saturday, about 30 on sunday. The result? interior walls stripped
to the studs, ceilings too, old insulation and wiring taken out. All waste materials were separated and recycled. Doors and trims were saved for reuse.

Thanks to everyone that came out, you made a big difference and we hope you had a great time. Stay tuned for the next event! In the meantime, I think we all earned a looong stretch of sleep, so good night!