The author began picking native beach strawberries, Fragaria chiloensis, as shown in her photograph this week. They volunteer, take little care and are delicious. Can senior cohousing be as comforting?

 

Yup, the native beach strawberries, Fragaria chiloensis, are ripe and, this year, the third consecutive year Ive picked them, they seem bigger than last. Like other perennials perhaps they get more robust year after year.

I went out in the dewy morning hours intending to do a pre-coffee garden walkabout when I started picking just a few plump red ripe ones I couldnt resist. (It always starts like that as Im the accidental gardener; I generally have on the wrong shoes and the wrong clothes for the task.)

But once started, I kept seeing berries everywhere, tucked here and there under hardy geranium leaves and mixed in amongst little tufts of grass; so before I knew it I had more than my hand could hold; thus, the old standby, I pulled out the front of my T-shirt.

It seems obscene somehow not to harvest what nature provides, and I saw that it was me and the little grubs and slugs who had zeroed in on the bounty. I washed my first batch of berries, walked them next door to my neighbor, the real gardener and came back for a second harvest. 

The best recipe for our native strawberries? Fresh, washed, in a bowl. 

I do have fancy hybrid strawberry plants growing in my lower garden, gifts from Lisa Mattfield of Tilth garden chat fame (it meets the third Thursday, 2 p.m. in the Ocean Park Timberland Library community room). These have the benefit of cushy soil, occasional watering and lots of mulch but they havent produced any berries yet. 

By contrast, my patch of native berries arrived by magic (all volunteers) in high-and-dry sand and have had no mulch and no hand-holding yet theyve produced a gallon and a half of berries every season for the past three years.

Boomer days and senior cohousing

This, dear readers, is what I want my idyllic old age to look like full of ease. Id like plants to volunteer in my garden (or helpers to volunteer in my home) and produce scads of deliciousness with a minimum of effort. 

But what is the exchange? you might ask since our capitalistic culture demands that. Well, I have learned a few things in my six decades on planet earth that might be useful, though the utility of elderhood seems an endangered commodity in our times. 

At any rate, the central question is, Can cohousing or its hybrid senior cohousing work as a solution in Pacific County? Do we have what it takes to create it? 

Mark Musick said last week, Im not sure cohousing is appropriate for your area you have to find a piece of land with high density zoning in a rural community, property with access to municipal water and sewer and then youve got to convince a bank to finance the project.

I respectfully beg to differ. Group septic systems are a viable option in any rural place where there are multiple-family dwellings and no municipal sewer. Secondly, arent our local financial institutions here to support community development efforts like a well-thought-out senior cohousing project? But then, what about building codes and permits? Would we be hampered there by our system of dysfunctional governance? 

Models for living together 

There are plenty of cohousing, and a few senior cohousing, models out there, many in the Pacific Northwest. Check out the cohousing directory, organized by state, at www.cohousing.org/directory. I think active Baby Boomer seniors want independence and support, access to culture, a social network, available medical care and green-friendly policies. What are the possibilities?

Musicks Vashon Cohousing members created a labor-intensive structure for allowing people to get along in the very complex process called living together. As he said, This is a real world we like to say this isnt utopia but you can see it from here. From day one this took a lot of work. We had annual retreats and workshops. We took training on facilitation and group process. We meet monthly and work together on projects.

Part of the pattern built in is a level of maturity and life experience in our members. This isnt a crash pad its a major real estate investment. Were clear what the expectations are and we tell people what it is when they are considering buying in.

Marks sage and realistic advice seems to apply to all cohousing situations. A quick review of a couple PNW choices.

Daybreak Cohousing 

Daybreak Cohousing, located at 2525 North Killingsworth Street in Portland, is 30 units in just under an acre. And our very own Shorebank Pacific was the lender for this project. It appears that the rule of thumb for getting cohousing projects going from scratch takes about two-plus years. As their website says, We submitted our design for permits in June 2007. We began construction in August 2008. Move-in began in October of 2009! And this is in an urban area accustomed to new social ventures.

The preferred mode of operation in every cohousing project I researched is decision-making by consensus. Daybreak rules indicate, Consensus is different from other kinds of decision making because it stresses the cooperative development of a decision with community members working together. Since the goal is group unity, rather than winning a majority of votes, every member is considered important, and the community tries to listen to and respond to each persons needs and opinions.

A consensus decision has three essential ingredients: its made from the communitys perspective; everyone believes he or she has been heard; and everyone agrees to cooperate in the implementation of the decision.

Lets just say, consensus decision-making takes time and commitment but the rewards are plentiful.

A light eco-footprint is another feature of most cohousing developments: Natural Home magazine named Daybreak one of the top 10 green cohousing developments in America. Being an urban development, Daybreak has access to two bus lines right outside their door, the MAX yellow line light rail and two car-sharing spaces from Zipcar. Not only that but there is a bicycle storage and repair facility as well as a cooperative bike use policy. (I might note that we have a tremendous and under-used Pacific Transit bus system that operates with an incredible 35-cent fare structure.)

To join, a prospective member must be fill out an application form with a check for $250, after which a Daybreak buddy will be assigned to answer your questions. Every cohousing situation stresses that there must be a fit between prospective members and the goals or vision of the cohousing project.

Daybreak currently has units available in the $287,000 to $425,000 price range (members own their own units); and theyre still looking for new members. More information here: www.daybreakcohousing.org

Winslow cohousing

Winslow cohousing, on Bainbridge Island, is 30 households on five acres one mile from the ferry, which provides a 35-minute ride across the water to Seattle. Many of its rules are the same as those of Daybreak. The one unique feature about Winslow is that it has a condominium ownership structure; members buy shares, though they do have exclusive use of their unit while they are members. 

Winslow Cohousing has four options for sale currently: a one-bedroom loft for $160,000; a three bedroom four-plex for $350,000 or $1,500 monthly rental or a three-bedroom duplex for $375,000. See www.winslowcohousing.org. (Though these PNW options require sufficient funds, some cohousing projects have subsidized units.)

Their options are what appear to be standard for most cohousing projects: a common house with dining and meeting space, a large kitchen, a recreation room for children and a playground, community office, guest room, quiet space, exercise area, basketball area, pottery studio, workshop, laundry, acre of woods, and an orchard and community garden. Most cohousing projects also have the option of shared meals.

As noted in a recent New York Times article, Lots of middle-aged people have [cohousing] ideas, said Craig Ragland, director of the 15-year-old Cohousing Association of the U.S. Someone brings it up and everyone says, That would be so great. And thats where it ends.

Do we have the courage to retool senior living in our county?