We briefly hosted the African Showboyz, a percussion/dance group of brothers from Ghana, Africa. Their high-energy performance featured professional hand-made gourd drums, traditional African stringed instruments and a clapping/leaping dance style designed by their family to accompany the music. [23 July 2004]

This long-standing alternative to Valentine's Day ensures that February 14th is special for everyone, not just those with romantic interests. A card is handmade for each member, individually designed with the recipients' interests in mind. [14 Feb 2004.] Read about this holiday here.

February 1st marked a milestone in Twin Oaks history—we reached our highest population ever! We started out in 1967 with 8 members, and as of February 1 have grown to 93 adults and 15 kids living here. If only one more member joins, we'll have reached our maximum capacity, and we'll have to start a waiting list. [4 Feb 2004.]

Living as closely as we do here at Twin Oaks means we talk about issues a lot. NVC is a process that uses various tools to help people communicate more effectively. An NVC practice group meets once a week at Twin Oaks, and interest is so high that we're about to form a second group. We meet to learn more about how to resolve conflicts, by listening empathically to each other, identifying people's needs, and making respectful requests of each other. For more info, http://www.cnvc.org/. [4 Feb 2004.]

We recently completed a new approx 200 sq ft wood-fired sauna and are having saunas sometimes several times a week. It's conveniently located right beside our pond; we use scrap wood to heat it. With temperatures below freezing, last night we had a "breaking the ice" sauna. Once people were heated up, they could cool off really fast by breaking the layer of ice on the pond, and jumping in! [Posted 18 Jan 2004.]

Large new kit greenhouse near main garden was completed. There are two plastic layers with a small pump that inflates the space between layers.  [Fall 2003.]

In late July 2003, a group of Oakers volunteered at the Richmond Vegetarian Festival. For their work handing out free samples of vegetarian fare, processing the festival's recycling and trash, and other tasks, they received shirts bearing the festival logo. At the Sept 27 2003 Charlottesville Vegetarian Festival we had representatives from our soyfoods business as well as an outreach booth for Twin Oaks Community. Viva las vegetarianos! [Note the Festival will no longer be offered as of their announcement in 2011.]

Homemade Organic Apple Cider. Adults and kids work together to press early season apples harvested from our orchards. The freshly pressed cider is so good! [August 2003]

Good year for berries! Now that the drought has truly ended, all over Twin Oaks there is a profusion of berries ripe or ripening such as the exotically named goumi berry planted next to Kaweah. Goumi (Eleagnus multiflora) is a tasty berry related to the native autumn olive. Gooseberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and others are all heavily laden with fruit this year. Strawberries though are suffering from excessively wet ground. [Jun 6, 2003]

Shitake mushroom logs. We've started again cultivating shitake mushrooms for our own consumption. Dozens of white oak logs were prepared and will be cultivated in the moist woods near Zhankoye. [Summer 2003.]

A grand total of fifteen Twin Oakers descended en masse on the recent conference at The Farm intentional community in Tennessee. (We made up ten percent of the total attendees!) The conference was triple-themed: Community, Sustainabilty and Activism. Twin Oakers presented five workshops at the gathering, (including Radical Resource Sharing, Living in Community as a Form of Activism, and Radical Intimacy) and made many wonderful connections both with other participants as well as members of the Farm. In the spirit of a little healthy competition (which actually ends up being cooperation) we challenged the Farm to send equal numbers of representatives to our Communities Conference on Labor Day weekend. [Posted May 23-25, 2003.]