Progress is slow

**Clearing branches from the boulevard after the ice storm**

We welcome feedback and ideas. Send email to outreach@kawarthacommons.ca.

NEW READERS who are asking “What is cohousing? What are KCC’s goals? What will the building and site be like?” “How can I find out more?” will find lots of general information on our website: https://kawarthacommons.ca/ .

This and subsequent newsletters will have three main sections.

1. UPDATE ON THE SITE AND THE BUILDING

2. GETTING TO KNOW OUR PETERBOROUGH: What Peterborough area has

to offer you.

3. OTHER KCC NEWS (including “What has attracted me to cohousing”, part of a

series by members)

1. UPDATE ON THE SITE AND THE BUILDING

Cleanup after the ice storm of March 30, 31. 736 Maryland Ave. was hit badly, with much of the cedar hedge on the street damaged. Erika Steinhubl describes the cleanup this way. How do we show the earth that we are good stewards? We explore it with our hands, our eyes, our ears, our nose and yes, our tongue. This past Earth Day, April 22, nine members of KCC came together to clear away the many fallen branches that resulted from the ice storm.. We climbed up tree trunks to saw off precariously hanging limbs. We smelled the sap from the cedars as we fed the branches into the wood chipper to make mulch. We saw and smelled worms in the loamy soil as we used a tree puller to uproot buckthorn bushes from the area that will be our future patio and gardens. We used chain saws to saw 24-inch diameter uprooted tree trunks into pieces we can use in future bonfires. We heard birds chattering as they searched for food among the fallen limbs. We touched the bark of the birch, maple, pine, spruce and cedar. We tasted the sweet sap oozing from a wound in the maple and sticky sap from the pine and spruce. We breathed deeply the clean fresh air and imagined our home here in two years' time. It's time to come to visit your new home, this piece of earth, and get acquainted. Why not come by during a Super Weekend?

Updates on the City and construction funding

KCC's major focus continues to be rezoning on our property with Peterborough City, and submitting applications to government funding agencies for financial support for a rental co-op. Rezoning has been slowed by discovery of a high water table on the site, about a metre below the surface in the spring. That means that planned retaining walls would force water to the surface to flow into storm sewers, which is not allowed. The proposed solution is to leave the building on the same footprint, but to raise it 1.4 metres, and the City seems open to this plan. Remaining issues are garbage collection access and possible green roofs to reduce water runoff from buildings and pavement.

Applications for federal construction funding have been slowed by the change in government, but we have a funding application in the works with CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) with another being investigated. We’ve also been getting advice from the Co-operative Housing Federation (CHF) of Canada. We did apply for the CMHC Co-op Housing Development Program, but it requires a minimum of 75 units in our Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), which includes the city of Peterborough, the townships of Cavan Monaghan, Douro-Dummer, Otonabee-South Monaghan and Selwyn, as Curve Lake and Hiawatha First Nations. IF ANYONE READING THIS NEWSLETTER LIVES IN THIS AREA and is considering developing a rental co-op, let us know, so we can discuss a potential partnership.

We do want to meet those who are interested in our community.

● We hold monthly casual get-togethers at the Silver Bean Cafe at Millenium Park on the third

Wednesday of every month at 11am.

● Our next “super weekend” will be on October 24-26, and we are planning to have a gathering on the building site to celebrate our ownership of the land. Contact us for details.

● If you would prefer to just meet for coffee with one of our members, drop us a line

and we will try to set something up.

2. GETTING TO KNOW OUR PETERBOROUGH

Peterborough Free Folk Festival August 14-17 at Nicholls Oval Park is Canada’s longest running free-admission folk festival. It will feature Basia Bulat as the headliner for the kick-off concert, with Jeanne Truax as the Emerging Artist opening the show. Bring a blanket for sitting on the hill.

Peterborough’s music gig scene, by Clifford Maynes who plays regularly with the Crash and Burn Band and Charlie Horse.

A veteran Peterborough musician long ago said, partly in jest, that Peterborough has only one band: it has about 80 members and different players show up to each gig.

That’s not quite true anymore: there’s probably a lot more than 80 of us now. But it is true that Peterborough and area boasts a vast community of first-rate musicians, ever ready for a fresh challenge, and always open to newcomers. Sometimes we play in formal bands. Often as not we come together in ever-changing line-ups to create spontaneous musical happenings. The atmosphere is relaxed and fun. Styles embrace blues, jazz, rock, country, folk, bluegrass, and pop music from down through the decades.

Gigs often keep “geezer hours” suited to older musicians and audiences. Those with youthful stamina can find great music later at night. Cover charges are modest. Tips are customary.

The Black Horse has live music every day of the week, including British invasion on Mondays and jazz on Thursdays. Jethro’s features bands on weekends and an all ages blues jam every Sunday afternoon. Other venues include the historic Pig’s Ear, the Crook and Coffer on Hunter, and many more. Larger venues like the Market Hall offer special events. Every third Saturday afternoon catch a wonderful musical party at the Social to raise funds for the Peterborough Musicians Benevolent Association. See detailed listings in Kawartha Now.

3. OTHER KCC NEWS

Superweekend July 18-20

As with all Superweekends, this was a great opportunity to get together to reflect on our cohousing aspirations and get to know each other better. It included Friday supper at the Hanoi House, Saturday morning at the 200th anniversary of the Farmers’ market with lunch and games on the Maryland property and a potluck dinner at Marc and Kris’ farm, and Sunday brunch at Erika’s.

What attracts me to cohousing, by Henrietta Blom

Co-housing is for me an ancient mindset for modern times, a lifeboat for neighbours, community, and environment. Since the early days of university housemates, I maintained a wish to return to shared community life. Where those housemates today reflect on less-than-happy memories of our days together, I fondly remember our caring, co-operative cohesiveness expressed through the long, chatty, marvellous evening meals shared by candle light. We had separate lives that came together in a place of belonging, even if that belonging was the common path university students share. Of course it wasn’t all cozy meals; we had to work hard to share our space, but we succeeded in what I realize now was a sociocratic means of order. We were there for each other in times of need yet celebrated each other’s independence and separateness – a caring micro-community, a family by choice. Little did we realize the power and nurturing energies of our cohort.

I look forward to the connectivity and mutual support of neighbours, and an engaging interdependence within KCC’s purposefully sculpted space on Maryland in Peterborough: I look forward to reducing my footprint on the environment while growing a larger footprint within a mindful, social habitat.

**Henrietta is 3rd from the left in this KCC Superweekend photo, October 2024.**

Newsletter editorAugust 13, 2025