A momentous decision

After more than two years working to establish Raccoon Creek Community
with my fellow members, it has become clear to me that the community,
as we have envisioned it these past years, cannot become a reality on
the site in Owen County, Indiana, at least not within a reasonable
time frame, one much longer than I can accept, nor without further
compromises on waste treatment and perhaps other areas.

Over the next few weeks I will explain some of the reasoning used to
arrive at this difficult decision on a new blog.

We have put our hearts and souls into the project. Much work has been
done on and off the site, many meetings have been held there and
elsewhere, and much of the property was walked many times and marked
for various purposes. Walking away from the beautiful site at Raccoon
Creek is not easy.

The property will revert to Marion, our member who owned it to begin
with. Disposition of other assets, especially the large barn-to-be
will be decided over the next few weeks.

I hope Marion will still build on the site. It is currently zoned
"agricultural" which allows at least a single home to be built on it
with no further permissions needed.

I invite you to read about what we are doing now at
http://greeneviewsprings.blogspot.com. Your comments are welcome, but please send them to me at mailto:ed.paynter@gmail.com. This is my last post on this blog.

The next step for us

While there has been no progress on the ground at the Raccoon Creek Community site since last fall, we have been moving along on the task of getting our waste treatment system(s) designed. More to come on that soon we hope.

In the mean time I've spent the winter working to get our home in Indianapolis ready to sell. We are planning to move as soon as it's sold, whether that's to temporary quarters on the Community site, or to a nearby alternative.

You can help. Tell everyone you know about our "House for Sale" ad which is now on line with 19 more photos. Here's the front with the yardful of yet-to-bloom perennials:

6140 N College Ave, Indianapolis, IN

It's finally winter in Indiana

We are finally "paying" for the mild fall and winter we've had so far. Temperatures over the next few days will likely fall below zero. We are more convinced than ever that we need to sell the home in Indianapolis and make it available for a larger family that can justify its size.

So what can one do while it's too cold outside to do any real work? How can one continue to promote a smaller footprint and a cleaner Earth? Here's what I've decided to do...


I have become an independent direct seller for a new program from a company called Citizenre. They will rent a complete photovoltaic solar electric system to any homeowner for a single up-front deposit. One's current electric rate will be locked in for the term of the rental, even if your local electric utility raises its rates. I'll reserve the rest of the details for those who are interested. Click on this sentence or the yellow "Rethink Solar" box to the right.

Even if you aren't interested in solar panels for yourself, please consider sharing this posting with friends and family who might be interested. Opportunities for other resellers are also available.

We now have a way to inexpensively provide solar power for Raccoon Creek Community homes without each household having to lay out tens of thousands of dollars for the equipment and to eliminate virtually all of our contribution to global climate change due to our power usage. Great!

By the way, the Citizenre unit will satisfy all of the power-related aspects of the LEED certification for homes soon to be released by U.S. Green Building Council. The LEED Rating System is the nationally recognized standard for green building.