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About Zephyr Zephyr Valley Community Cooperative is a rural co-housing community with 8 adult members and 2 kids on 500 acres of stunningly beautiful land in the hill country of southeast Minnesota. The Coop bought the land in 1994. There are 6 individual
homes; one currently available for rent, and one for sale; a common
house; 2 barns; and several
outbuildings. T Zephyr has several creeks; four ponds,
including a swimming pond;
wetlands; pastures; bluff land; and forest in addition to the 80 acres
of agricultural
land, currently being hayed.
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Values We try to live lightly on the land, caring for it consciously, though there are different interpretations among us as to what this means in specific instances. The wetlands, woods and goat prairies lets children grow up with an intimate knowledge of the natural world--where the biggest tadpoles are in the creek, what ice is best for skating, which bluff has the coolest sand outcroppings. Zephyr has no spiritual or political affiliation. While many of us share similar views about the world we live in and most of us are individually active in various religious, social and political groups, the Zephyr Coop as a whole is not active in such groups. Adopting a particular affiliation might lead to a greater sense of community identity, but it would tend to exclude people who are not so committed to one particular path. We all believe in community — in the idea that we can achieve much more collectively than separately. However, we are also individuals, leading separate lives. We have more of a sense of community than a sub-division, but less than a tightly-integrated commune. We do not share incomes. Cohousing is a matter of degree. Urban communities in compact buildings can share many facilities and live very close together. For a rural community limited by the topography of our valley, it is more difficult. We do not want urban densities, but we do cluster homes to promote social interaction to the extent possible, avoiding the visual dominance of ridge-top dwellings and the isolation of secluded areas. Our community house has a kitchen and laundry facility, but most of us have these in our own houses. |