I’ve been out of town on business, vacation, and more business, for most of the past month.  It’s nice to be back home in Nevada County, especially now that the cool mornings and warm afternoons have prompted the deciduous trees to start displaying their gorgeous yellow, orange and red fall colors.  Tourists travel to the Sierra foothills to view the spectacular fall colors, and the serenity of watching the leaves on the Redbud outside my home office window turn pink and flutter to the ground reminds me why.  The young deer have lost their spots, and the fledgling wild turkeys are now nearly full-grown — the times they are a-changin’.

While I’ve been out of town, our cohousing community has weathered some financial challenges.  We raised enough additional money from community members pre-paying their home purchases to be able to pay some municipal fees in advance of those fees increasing several-fold.  That’s a good thing!  We also received news that our bankers were putting a temporary hold on our construction loan, due primarily to the financial challenges evidenced in the world around us.  Although there was substantial disappointment about construction being delayed, I think we’re all in this for the long haul and realize this just gives us more time to continue to get to know our future neighbors and work out our community agreements before moving into our new homes.

With winter rains on the way, Wolf Creek Village has now been hydro-seeded to prevent erosion into the creek.  Hopefully the housing and banking markets will begin to recover — and new members will join us over the next several months, thus encouraging our financial partners about the soundness of investing in our cohousing community — and construction will begin pushing forward again once Spring rolls around.  It’s been almost 18 months since I attended my first slide show about Wolf Creek Village and began investigating the cohousing concept and the Wolf Creek Commons community in particular.  I guess I can handle a few delays while waiting for our deferred gratification.