Outside the downtown of Fairfield, Iowa (centered around the Maharishi Institute and Transcendental Meditation) is a small community called Abundance EcoVillage. This was actually the primary reason we stopped through, though TM (Transcendental Meditation) became much more thought provoking in hindsight.

We called in and scheduled an interview with a family that is currently living there. The community is small, located on 15 acres of land. But the houses are large. The one we visited was close to 2500 square feet with high ceilings and and well built, beautiful architecture.

Only a portion of their acreage is designated for residential living (some is reserved for greenhouses and gardens). They have 24 lots designated for homes and 14 of them have houses on them (ten are yet undeveloped). One of the built homes was vacant. Our host informed us that in the ten years he'd been there, only 2 families had ever left.

The community used to be totally off the grid but now supplements with electric and propane. The homes all share solar and wind renewable energy and rain water systems. To minimize the efforts to share these resources, the houses cluster around the battery storage facility and water cisterns nearby. The house we toured and from my understanding all of the others use wood stoves for heat in the winters.

Each house built in the ecovillage must meet a set of building requirements. They use Vastu Shastra as a guideline. I'm not sure what that involves, but I was told that if a tiny house was accepted it would only be for the interim until the house was constructed. They maintain a certain standard in the community.

The house we toured had air ducts that cycle air up from the Earth into the house, naturally moderating the temperature. Everyone in the village owns their own home. They pay an HOA fee of about $105/month plus property taxes which we were informed were rather high for the area (as compared to the homes in the town).

The food our host was eating was all from their community gardens and looked amazingly fresh. The families that live there define themselves as having cutting edge technology that utilize energy efficiently. They are proud of their community and I perceive a little bit protective of it. I view the community more of a commercialized solution to live healthy on our planet. Other than a few meetings about community issues or gatherings a few times a year, it didn't sound like the community is very active together.

Our search continues as we discover places that offer (or strive for) sustainable living, together. Stay tuned as we explore more!