Visitor Program
Want to check out what we’re doing at Lost Valley? See how we organize and govern ourselves? How we produce food on site? What the lodging and facilities look like? Partake in some community meals? If so, then you should take advantage of the Visitor Program!
There will be 3-4 Visitor Weekends throughout 2013, scheduled on long weekends to get the most Lost Valley experience in without folks missing much work back home. During these events, visitors will experience a broad array of workshops, tours, and activities that give participants a good taste of life in the community. This will include some sections that are information-based, others that are observational, and others that are active. Specifically, visitors will get a chance to experience some of our:
- Food production systems, including growing, preparing, preserving/fermentating, and eating! Communal cooking, appreciation, and eating while socializing.
- Unique, sociocracy-inspired governance system
- Work parties: natural plastering, working in the gardens or food forestry, or harvesting apples and pressing them into apple cider.
- Supporting community members with their endeavors: elimination communication, composting toilets, beekeeping, drift-wood art, mushroom cultivation, or solar cooking and dehydrating.
- Community well-being: interpersonal communication/connection, music making, themed-discussions
- Ecological-themed movie night
Partaking in a Visitor Weekend will give participants a very good idea about their interest in joining the community as a new volunteer, intern, or renter. (It is very highly recommended that new renters take part in a Visitor Weekend before – or soon after – joining as a resident.) Or give the localite a much better idea about what we are doing here. This is also the time to plan arrive if passing through on a regional tour of intentional communities or permaculture centers. Folks are welcome from as close as down the street to across the country! It will be a fun and informational time.
The cost of each 4-day event is $175-250 (sliding scale), which covers lodging (camping or dorm room); all meals, prepared by staff in our main kitchen; use of the full site, including outdoor showers, meadow, lots of forest trails, swimming hole, sauna, and hot tub; and all activities. It is an inclusive package.
The exact dates of Visitor Weekends are not yet set, but the first one is most like Memorial Day weekend (May 24-27). Labor Day and Columbus Day weekends are also likely, and fall during our prime harvest season. When specifics are set, registration will be enabled at the bottom of this page.
We are concentrating visitation during these times so as to give a full, attentive experience to visitors and for optimal ease for community members (as opposed to a light stream of folks much of the time). Visitors are not accepted during other times, so please plan accordingly so as to participate in one of the Visitor Weekends.
To learn more details, or if you have questions, e-mail visit@lostvalley.org. See you soon!
