half's drive north from the San Francisco Bay area. The setting really is a study in lyrical and idyllic descriptions: 80 acres of gently rolling hills and pastures and wooded magic, nestled only eight miles or so from the coast. The Center is surrounded by farmlands, redwoods and apple orchards on the fringes of wine country. There are around three acres of organically grown gardens, in addition to little oases of fruit trees and other edibles dotted here and there in the approximately 10 acres of developed land. In what is called the core area, there is also a surprising but somehow graceful and fitting variety of structures, most of them built by staff and workshoppers over the years, using primarily recycled materials and a lot of hard, often leam-as-you-go labor. There's a huge bam, a wonder of nail-less construction, with an attached greenhouse/honey extraction area; a ceramic studio, and shops for metalwork, carpentry and automechanics; a library and visitors' center; an office (with a largely undocumented history as a former chicken coop); a real chicken run and house for the local layers and cluckers; six solar cabins for staff housing and one for community needs and occasional overnight guests; a solar bathhouse; a kitchen and spacious new dining area; a dormitory and attached greenhouse/plant propagation area; and a number of composting privies scattered discreetly about the landscape. What does go on at the Rural Center is an incredible smorgasbord of activities, projects and programs coupled with a large dollop of daily work and maintenance chores that keep the place running. Every once in a while there is a hiatus in the whirl of busyness, usually on a Sunday when the Center is closed to the public, or during the winter months when most people are holed up against the cold and the rain, but for most of the year, the norm is a dazzling array of stimuli, all vying for attention. When all is nearly quiet, there are around 15 people living at the Rural Center. There are usually 10 or so staff members, along with a few residents (people who receive no salary, but work in a specific area in exchange for room and board), and some interns (people who pay to be at the Rural Center, in exchange for an education that includes individual instruction in one or more areas, and that requires a certain amount of labor related to the field of study). However, during the workshop season (April- October) the population can swell to 35 or more. Traditionally, staff and others involved in the day-to- day life at the Rural Center have lived there as community members, with the exception of occasional office employees or contractual workers. It is becoming more common for people to live elsewhere and be at the Rural Center during the day only. This change is a gradual and healthy one, and has begun to broaden the base from which the community and staff work. The business side of the Rural Center is administered in a more or less equal manner by the staff members, called area coordinators. The community side is run by all long-term members. When decisions are made, they are almost always by consensus. This is sometimes a lengthy process that can be as frustrating as it is rewarding, depending on the issues at hand, the people involved, the degree of divergent opinions, the perception of who has what kind of influence or power, and the amount of time people are willing and able to give toward working things through. It is not an easy task, but with practice, the administration of both the business and community aspects of Farallones is getting smoother. Since the Rural Center is a residential community as well as a non-profit corporation, there are two levels of life that go on simultaneously. Everyone who lives at Farallones is encouraged to attend the once-weekly community meetings. If you're around on a Friday, you are expected to do group work and clean-up, to spiff up the site and take care of the never-ending jobs that require a little extra attention. Longer-term community members alternate cooking duties and lead Saturday public tours. Often life is full of overlapping business/community issues and responsibilities, which demand skillful juggling just to keep the balls in the air and away from knocking you on the head. At the same time, a primary purpose of Farallones is to be a resource center and an educational facility. Some people come to learn more about solar energy or gardening or water and waste systems, or community work. Others drop by to check out what seems to be a quaint tourist attraction on the edge of a town known mainly for its three Italian restaurants. Still others come out of curiosity, as much to see a living, breathing, working community as to gaze at solar buildings and experimental devices and beautiful gardens. We try to emphasize that it is important to live with the technologies and toys and experiments to find out if they are workable and compatible with different lifestyles. There are mistakes and snags and failures, and we tell people (and ourselves) that these are as valuable as are the successes and breakthroughs that are all part of what Farallones is about. For the most part, we seem to provide some inspiration and motivation for people to improve the quality of their lives by showing them some alternatives that are attainable. We also provide data on the research that has gone on at the Institute, but it is balanced with the human side of the picture. It is all too easy to fall into a holier-than- the-rest-of-you attitude, and it is important not to do so. Much of what we are learning is similar to what Nigel Dudley says is being learned at the Centre for Alternative Technology: a sense of wonder and satisfaction in being able to provide for many of our basic needs; a realization that it is important to communicate what we are about in ways that are not dogmatic or pompous; and an understanding of why it is essential to live and work in camaraderie rather than in competition with one another. We are also learning that we can grow a lot of our own food, conserve energy and local resources, and live a little more lightly than is considered normal for mainstream America. We are finding out how to use our brains and hearts and muscles instead of just looking for someone else to do it for us. I think we are learning about our ability to take charge of our creativity and do something with it to help save the planet. It was touch-and-go for a while, but it seems that there is a light that has burst through the doom and gloom to shine the way with a bit of comic relief every now and again. It's about time. And we've started to find out how to keep the gophers from the gardens. One solution may be in burying fish scraps. It sounds so simple; maybe that's why it seems tc be working. After all, if it does work, it may be one of th< more important discoveries made at the Rural Center. □□ Farallones Rural Center 15290 Coleman Valley Road Occidental, CA 95465 Oct./Nov. 1982 RAIN Page 17
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