Green Valley Village
Who we are...
Where we’re located...
Good times to Visit…
When we formed...
What we are creating...
How we are guided...
Why land-based community...
Who we are...
We are a collective of thirty-five adults and a dozen children spanning three generations, who live, learn, work, and celebrate life together on 300 plus acres of farm and wilderness in West Sonoma County. We share five residences among us, which are part of the historic Giovannini homestead ranch.
We count among us ecologists, farmers, homesteaders, permaculturalists, entrepreneurs, innovators, educators, healers, crafters, eco-builders, child-rearers, musicians, artists, and re-thinkers.
We are part of the larger movement of “Cultural Creatives” that value peace, social and ecological well-being, justice, sharing, and expansion into new ways of being.
Who we’re wanting to join us...
(Both as residential members and non-residential members)
We appreciate that every prospective member has a distinctive range of talents and personality traits that can benefit the wider community in unique ways. Generally, we look for flexible team-players, good communicators, and people committed to honest transparency. More particularly we’re interested in financial partners and people with time, energy, and skills to offer to the endeavor. We hope to attract ecologically and socially-conscious entrepreneurs so that we can host more on-site businesses. We also value those who can help in the building /carpentry trades. We can always use more permaculture & farmer folk, those with knowledge of forestry and tree care, those with knowledge of herbal medicine and alternative healing modalities, people practiced in animal husbandry and the business of edible mushroom cultivation. We also are interested in green technology engineers and need help from people with web design experience and legal expertise.
Where we’re located...
13024 Green Valley Road is in the rural, unincorporated part of Sebastopol, California, closest to the small towns of Graton & Occidental, and also situated near the towns of Sebastopol, Forestville & Guerneville in West Sonoma County. Not far from the Northern California coastal area of Bodega Bay & Jenner. We are four miles down a rural road from the intersection with state Highway 116. Santa Rosa, the largest city in Sonoma County, is less than a thirty minutes’ drive away.
We inhabit an edge-ecosystem, where a mixed forest of Redwood, Fir, Oak, Bay and Madrone meets acres of open valley bottomland. The 158-acre forested parcel we call WildNest is the top edge of the watershed for Green Valley Creek, a year-round flowing stream (and important salmon habitat) that travels through our property en route to the Russian River.
Based on archeological evidence, we’re situated where Pomo people once lived. At the turn of the last century, the Giovannini family procured the property and prospered in the businesses of cattle grazing, dairy ranching, and lumbering wood.
Good times to Visit…
We request that visitors make an appointment & receive an invitation before showing up to our Village.
Our community is a place of interest, but also a place where people reside on a daily basis. We are not currently set up to receive people who just drop-in.
Please, contact us in advance and make an appointment with one of our designated coordinators.
~ Email our Guest Coordinator if you want to ask about visiting us! guests.gvv@gmail.com
~ Email our Event Coordinator to RSVP for our Second Saturdays or inquire about hosting an event here at Green Valley! gvv.events@gmail.com
~ Email our Membership Coordinator if you have questions about membership at Green Valley Village. gvv.new.membership@gmail.com
(These emails are only checked 2 times per week, so please be patient in waiting for a response.)
There are specific times when visitors are pre-invited to come to our Village.
~ On the Second Saturday of each month, we have an "open-village" day. Our second Saturday event is an all day open house where potential members and interested visitors can experience a day of life at Green Valley Village. This is when we're most prepared to orient newcomers and is the best introduction to our Village. Guests are welcome to come for all or part of Second Saturday, which includes a work party, lunch, a tour, a skillshare, a potluck dinner, and an evening event. (Follow this link to our Second Saturday Event page. )
Our Saturday work party generally begins at 10AM Meet at the Main Barn (visible from main entrance @ 13024 Green Valley Road.) Please bring work gloves and sturdy shoes, a sun hat, water bottle, and dress in layers.
Lunch is at 1:30. People who participate in our work party are welcome to be our guests for lunch. Otherwise, we ask you to bring a potluck contribution so there's sure to be plenty of food. Email our Event Coordinator to RSVP for our Second Saturdays! gvv.events@gmail.com (This email is only checked 2 times per week, so please be patient in waiting for a response.)
You will be guided on a walking tour to see our Farm and Pond, goats, chickens, llamas, etc. The tour starts to gather at 2PM at the Main Barn (visible from main entrance @ 13024 Green Valley Road.) Please bring good walking shoes, a sun hat, water bottle, and dress in layers.
~ We also allow visitors by invitation at our dinners on Mondays and Thursdays. We do request you to have an invitation from a Village member and do not just show up to dinner. Dinners start at 6PM and the location rotates. Confirm with the person who invited you about where dinner will be for the night you have been invited. We ask guests to bring a potluck contribution, although if that's inconvenient, helping clean up can be a great contribution, too.
~ When we have vacancies, there can be a tour of the available spaces. (We do not currently have vacancies.) Email our Membership Coordinator to set up an appointment. gvv.new.membership@gmail.com (This email is only checked 2 times per week, so please be patient in waiting for a response.)
When we formed...
“Land Scout” Chris Paine had already been looking for land suitable for intentional community for years by the time he met his future wife Kai Harris in 2002. Together they searched from a home-base in Sebastopol for nearly two years with their housemate Raphael Wolf before they discovered Green Valley Ranch in spring of 2004. Chris and Kai rented an available cottage on the property and encouraged Raphael to find others to share the rental of the large Victorian house that was unoccupied at the time. Former member Lindsay Hassett (aka Betty Biodiesel) responded to this initial call to create land-based community.
In the winter of 2004, Chris joined with his father Michael Paine to purchase outright the “WildNest” -- the 158-acres of undeveloped forested land adjacent to the compound ranch.
As additional houses became vacant on the property over the year 2005, more members joined our Village. The community helped to host the marriage ceremony of Chris and Kai who adopted the new surname Panym , held on the Wildnest Forest in August of 2005.
In the final days of the year 2005, after arduous negotiations, Michael Paine became the new owner of the 170-acre compound ranch with multiple dwelling units and old mill site, as well as an additional adjacent 23-acre parcel.
Feeling more securely anchored, the years 2006-12 brought tremendous growth to the fledgling community. Rhythms became established for meetings, celebrations, cooking rotations, and work parties. Projects budded and community businesses were built. Also through these years, the need for some form of community ownership in the venture became apparent.
In 2012, the community formed a community-owned LLC that will hold a long-term lease from the M.R.P. Trust which holds title to the property. Green Valley Village members are the Member-Owners of our continually developing Eco-Village!! This is an exciting evolution in our organizational relationship!!
What we are creating...
We Envision
We envision a world in which every being’s unique contribution weaves together a vibrant web of harmonious inter-relationship. We bring this larger vision home by walking the path of an embodied spirituality that is rooted deeply in loving relations, life-affirming economics, music & dance, on-going learning, and connection with nature. We join others regionally and globally in sending out ripples of positive influence, encouraging the evolution of joyful and sustainable communities that promote prosperity and justice for the next seven generations and beyond.
We are dedicated to modeling an intentional, integrated culture that fulfills the broad spectrum of our human needs in harmony with all Life. To insure balanced development of ourselves and future generations, we pay attention to the following spheres: personal & ecological health, honest & loving kinship, life-long learning & holistic education, resourceful ingenuity & creative expression, and peace within and without, honoring our interconnection with all that is. We aim to help revolutionize how humans meet their needs on a national and global scale as well so as to usher in a new era of conscious and compassionate humanity.
Specific Projects Include:
~ We have a large herd milking goats, cows, laying chickens, pigs and a large vegetable gardens. We also host a small Village vineyard.
~ We're entering our seventh year of our Green Valley C.S.A, which prepares dozens of boxes of produce to CSA members every week, and sells produce at local farmer's markets, restaurants and other locations.
~ We host regular sweat lodges, full moon fires, heart circles, and yoga classes.
~ The CRIC House (Cultural Rehabilitation and Internship Center) offers people from all over the world a lively and engaging place to sojourn, learn, and develop skills in sustainable living… CRIChouse.BlogSpot.com
~ We are developing cottage industries, including a crafters collective, and have a licensed oak tree nursery onsite.
How we are guided...
Our (Abridged) List of Values and Principles
Earth to the North: Realm of the Material World
* We treat the environment with respect, acknowledging and celebrating our kinship will all life.
* We treat ourselves with respect, noting the need to balance individual care with that of the wider community.
* We aim to safeguard and nurture the diversity of life with special attention towards native species.
* We seek to create & support our local economy by using & producing resources as close to home as possible
* We seek prosperity through working in harmony with nature to create products which truly serve human need.
Air to the East: Realm of the Mind & Intellect
* Through clear, honest communication, we seek mutual understanding.
* We value understanding the Laws of Nature through scientific inquiry.
* We are a community where everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student.
* We each seek to “Know Thyself,” and see living in intentional community as supportive of this evolving process of inquiry and reflection.
* We encourage the full expression of the potential of genius and wisdom in each and every one of us.
Spirit at the Center: Realm of Connection to the Divine
* We practice presence.
* We practice seeing and honoring the divinity in everything and everyone around us.
* We care about our interconnection with all of life and thus act consciously, aware of the bigger picture.
* We maintain an attitude of gratitude and a perspective of abundance.
* We cherish and cultivate the impulse to serve the common good.
Fire to the South: Realm of Power to Transform & Create
* We honor the creative process in its many forms: music, dance, arts & crafts, poetics, architecture, invention...
* We respect peoples’ unique contributions.
* We value “solutions – oriented” thought, discussion, and actions.
* Our intention is that life in our community maximizes the creative potential of every resident.
* We endeavor to harness the creative energies of community members to create a diverse array of prosperous cottage industries.
Water to the West: Realm of Conscious Kinship
* We perceive, love, and accept ourselves and others exactly as we are.
* We are courageously honest and transparent with ourselves and others who may have differing views.
* We are nonviolent in our words and actions, acknowledging our own and other’s short-falls with compassion.
* We take our place responsibly, recognizing the impact we have and our contribution.
* We come from a place of fun, humor, joy, and good-nature as often as we can!
Why land-based community...
We recognize the critical times on our home-planet earth. Mass extinction, habitat degradation, global warming, political unrest, and economic injustice are outgrowths of unconscious and unwise human activities compounded by our exponentially growing population. These complex challenges are, thankfully, coupled with unparalleled opportunities. The Chinese pictograph for the word crisis highlights this duality by containing the images for both danger and opportunity within it. To name but a few opportunities of our era: women in many parts of the world are enjoying more equality and freedom than they have in the last few thousands of years; the Internet allows for nearly instantaneous global communication and exchange of ideas; spiritual seekers may learn from ancient wisdom traditions previously available only to a select few. The question of our times is whether we will capitalize on our innumerable opportunities to meet the myriad challenges with love instead of fear, generosity instead of greed, wisdom instead of ignorance. Buckminster Fuller summed up our era as “humanity’s final exam.”
How does a conscious human being respond to the challenges of our times? We come together in community to live the answer to this most compelling question. We recognize that we as humans all have needs that can be categorized as physical, emotional, intellectual, creative, and spiritual. We endeavor to create a cultural context that allows for us to meet these needs in ways that regenerate and give back to the web of life rather than depleting the ability of future generations (of human and non-human species) to meet their needs.
We come together to support one another in becoming our fullest expressions of who we are so that we can each facilitate this “Great Turning” of human collective consciousness, moving away from a sense of isolation and toward integration. We hope that our community can serve as a model and inspiration for others to likewise “bloom where you’re planted.”
Our elder beneficiary Michael Paine has been pondering issues relating to cultural evolution for decades, and has distinct ideas about how a shift in the understanding of “value” could radically alter our economic system for the better. Why should unemployment be a given? Is it wise to be a “post-Industrial” nation that ceases to produce the things it needs? Green Valley Village aims to work out of a new paradigm that calls these questions to the fore by successfully demonstrating another way that benefits all life. Of this, we are certain: economic principles must work in harmony with basic laws of nature for our home-planet and those who inhabit it to survive and thrive. One key aspect to why we are forming, then, is to explore and model how humans can more intentionally integrate economics and ecology.
The evolving ownership structure...
Philosophically, most of us like to think of "honor-ship" of land rather than ownership. We intend to work within the current legal system, however, to create a more communal situation that shares ownership responsibilities and decision-making power amongst committed, long-term members.
There are obviously more details to share; please email gvv.new.membership@gmail.com with any questions you may have about becoming a member. (This email is only checked 2 times per week, so please be patient in waiting for a response.)
Please come visit and get to know us
~ explore becoming part of our community!
Email our Guest Coordinator if you want to ask about visiting us! guests.gvv@gmail.com
Email our Event Coordinator to RSVP for our Second Saturdays or inquire about hosting an event here at Green Valley! gvv.events@gmail.com
Email our Membership Coordinator if you have questions about membership at Green Valley Village. gvv.new.membership@gmail.com
(This email is only checked 2 times per week, so please be patient in waiting for a response.)