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Wolf Creek Lodge Newsletter
Adult Cohousing in Grass Valley, CA
May, 2017
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Community is a big deal at Wolf Creek Lodge.
First time visitors usually want a "tour". We can show them the common house with its dining room, common kitchen, sitting room and other shared facilities. We can show them the patio, the gardens and the open space. Perhaps a visit to some individual homes to see the different floor plans. This is fine but it misses the point. All is designed to foster community - the essential human interaction that can be lost in the typical American sub division.
We intentionally work to create community in many different ways. Certainly
common meals regularly throw us together, not only to eat but as members of cook teams.
My cook team is dedicated to preparing the best Austrian Goulash outside of Vienna. We have recipes written in German, we know an abundance of onions is critical, we have experimented and rejected cooking the meat "sous vide". We plan the fourth iteration in May.
In this newsletter we feature the Friday night "social hour and movie".
Currently only a two bedroom home is available at Wolf Creek Lodge. See "Available Homes" below.
Contact us if you are interested so we can be more specific.
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Most all the work here at Wolf Creek is accomplished by formal teams, each with a job description approved by the whole community. There are also a few informal groups that loosely operate under an official team. One such is our Movie Team, connected with the Social Team. It started over dinner one evening a few years ago. Several movie buffs started listing about 50 films that we thought should be on everyone’s Watch List.We started showing a film virtually every Friday night.
To strengthen the community interaction, we first have an hour social gathering (if there is no common meal that night). Potluck treats are brought and usually there’s enough variety and quantity that it can substitute for a meal. The movie starts around 7 or 7:30. Attempts to have a follow up with an in-depth discussion have, in general, failed, but sometimes a powerful discussion will follow the next morning during our daily coffee klatch.
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One of our members offers creative nibbles. Here are chicks for Easter.
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And, celebrating their release by the landscaping team to eat our aphids, here are Lady Bugs!
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In the winter months we gather for social hour in the sitting room. The gas fire creates a welcoming ambiance.
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In the summer we gather on the patio. After the rainy winter we enjoyed a sunny afternoon in late April.
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The movie of the week is advertised by posters on the common house door and in the elevator
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The selection committee tries to mix up the offerings, new and old; drama and comedy with an occasional documentary or bio-pic; domestic and foreign; steamy and family oriented. Sometimes we’ll have a theme over a month or more: Black History Month; LBGTQ themed; films of Robin Williams, Johnny Depp, Judy Dench or Helen Mirren;
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directed by Barry Levenson, the Coen Brothers, Richard Linklater, or Pedro Almodovar;
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series (all three in Swedish plus the one in English). In early March, right after Mardi Gras, we went with a Lenten theme: “Chocolat” starring Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, and Judi Dench. It was a great success.
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Our Watch List has grown to over 500 films. We add more than we watch; the list grows bigger and we’ll never come to the end of it! Usually several of the selection group are familiar with a film but we’ll sometimes go with a strongly held conviction of just one member. Rarely that decision is a complete bust (“The Lobster” comes sadly to mind) but at times it’s led to our most popular films, garnering those meaningful discussions and much praise (such as “Swing Kids” and “In a Better World” [original Danish title ”Hævnen”]) and making us wonder why it wasn’t more widely known.
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We have a large state of the art screen. Richard led the selection process, oversees its use and helps others use it.
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The audience is ready - time to click the right buttons and get the show on the road.
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The audience varies according to the movie.
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Another night - a different movie.
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Letter from #104
Suzanne Marriott
Coloma, Where It All Began
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I recently explored the historic town that kicked off the gold rush of 1849. Coloma is located in El Dorado County on California State Route 49, the 300-mile highway that features the sites and towns made famous during the gold rush. The name of this highway pays tribute to the rugged 49ers of this era.
It was in Coloma, on January 24, 1848, that James Marshall discovered gold in the tailrace of Sutter’s Sawmill on the banks of the American River. Only an hour from Grass Valley, it’s well worth the trip. I hope these photos will inspire you to explore this area, much of which is now a state park. For more information visit http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=484.
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Digging in the Dirt
Claire Miller
This past month I have been sidelined from ‘regular’ gardening duties on account of surgery – 5 days in hospital and then instructions to “desist from lifting anything, and from using my arms for any pushing or pulling.“ eeek!
The truth was I didn’t feel much like lifting - or pushing or pulling either for that matter - for a few weeks. However, I’m very happy to announce that I’m healing well, and gradually getting back into real life.
Wolf Creek Lodge Community truly comes into its own when someone is ‘ailing’!
Our gardeners have been very busy taking up all the loose ends that my absence has left, and then some. Vegetables are planted. (and coming up with a flourish ) Truckloads of well weathered compost from Krista’s horse barn have been spread. Weeds are under control, and jars of fresh flowers are on the tables for common house meals. Now all the rain has agreed to go away for a couple weeks of promised sunshine. Sit back and watch it grow ;-)
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Here Claire is providing on-the-spot guidance while Gayle takes notes.
(The "surgery" Claire refers to above was open heart surgery to replace a defective aorta valve. We expect Claire to be better than before in a few weeks' time - Editor.)
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Living in the Lodge
Magdalene Jaeckel
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We recently added a new class to our activity schedule. It is called: “Qui Gong for health and wellness”. An ancient Chinese exercise that is especially suited for seniors. It is gentle and somewhat meditative and is easy to follow. If you need to you can do much of it in a chair. We have had two sessions so far, and people seem to enjoy it.
We now have Yoga on Monday, Qui Gong on Tuesday and Karate on two other days.
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We asked some members of the class to give us a demonstration as they gathered on Tuesday.
We see them here with Iris the instructor.
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A two bedroom home is now available.
We try to keep the latest status on our website. By checking on these links to the website during the month you will get the latest updates. Here are the links:
Contact us: phone: (800) 558-3775
For details of Open Houses and much more visit our website at:
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Grass Valley and Nevada City
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Want to know more about
Grass Valley and Nevada City?
Here are some links we have found useful:
Down Town Grass Valley -
Bear Yuba Land Trust
GIS Receational Viewer -
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