Spring 2009 Ananda Arpan’a’
With winter and its major water problems and nothing but “NO”s from the building/zone enforcement office, spring was most welcome here at Ananda Arpan’a’ with its renewal and rebirth.
Mandy Creighton and Ryan Mlynarczyk came to Ananda Arpan’a’ in late April to interview me for the movie they are making about sustainable communities. They are riding bicycles, carrying everything they need and visiting intentional communities around the country. They’ve bicycled 3000 miles and plan to go 9000 more. During their stay in the Knoxville area they did a SWAPORAMA in downtown Knoxville in Market Square—a popular place lined with restaurants and small shops. I brought a couple bags of clothes and found a bag full of stuff to take home. They stayed at Mandy’s sister’s place and had a yard sale of all their worldly possessions to raise money for the trip. They were very inspired by what I said about community and sustainability and about Ananda Marga. They are looking for the best place to settle and they put Ananda Arpan’a’ at the top of their list, knowing it is for margiis only.
Mandy, Ryan and me at the SWAPORAMA
The building commissioner finally got tired of me politely asking to meet with him about the laws his office said prohibited the use of tires in construction and to find out what I could build. He told me he would get me copies of the laws and after I read them I could make an appointment with him. Over a month went by and still he hadn’t contacted me about anything to read. I called him and asked him. He started rattling off all the laws that prohibit the use of tires in different types of construction. I
knew he was trying to make me forget about building an earthship so finally I said “What about earthships?” He paused and then admitted “Well, they’re approved for use in earthships so bring me engineered blueprints and engineered soil compaction tests.” My engineer has built earthships and he and I have an appointment to talk to the building commissioner. We still need a building permit.
A visiting Dada did a lot of work around here, which included digging a good sized garden down in the bottom lands. Then it rained and springs popped up in the garden, flooding it. Most of it has stayed flooded because it has been a wet spring. We put in a drainage ditch, which helped but didn’t cure the problem. I think it will be a good place for tomatoes after things dry out a little.
Planting tomatoes
There are three margiis in this little unit now and a potential margi or two in process. Monday yoga went quite well last semester with good attendance throughout the semester. It will re-start in the fall. I’m meeting more people interested in meditation through my homeopathic practice than the Sunday DC, Thursday collective meditation at the church or Monday Yoga at the university.
Last spring I applied for federal money to fence off Ananda Arpan’a’s wetlands, spring and creek from livestock and put in self filling water troughs. This spring I re-contacted the farm service agency earlier in the season and they came out and evaluated the farm. Since I was able to document the fact that over $1000 per year of hay (according to the local market price each year) was harvested, Ananda Arpan’a’ qualifies as a beginning farm, which put it up in the ranking of possible recipients. In exchange for the hay I got the fields mowed.
The winter water problem was the outflow pipe from the upper cistern, which had broken free from where it joins the cistern. At first I thought it was just frozen pipes, which did not crack and worked normally after I thawed them out. Fortunately, I found the big problem (someone had to go inside the cistern) and I was able to get a man with a backhoe who owed me money to come over and work off his debt. In addition to other hoe work he dug all the way to the bottom of the cistern to reveal the broken pipe. Then I was able to locate the parts I needed and reconnect it using a section of somewhat flexible material. Putting the dirt back was a 2 day job.
BEST NEWS FOR LAST: Jayanta, one of the two Knoxville unit margiis besides me has decided to move to Ananda Arpan’a’!
