The basic idea is that elderly and fragile people can band together to create themselves a friendly, safe and affordable environment. This is where my new not-for-profit corporation Rocinante comes in. Many old people would like to band together but are not strong enough to buy land and manage the infrastructure. With Rocinante to hold and manage the infrastructure, a group of elderly and fragile people can be as collective as pleases them.
At the other end of the spectrum of life, the skills of natural childbirth are in danger of being lost in the shuffle and high finance of the medical world. Basic human skills, such as infant breast-feeding are becoming rare. To this end, Rocinante gives a home to the woman-centred-and-developed Farm Midwifery centre.
This is the reason that I bought the 100 acres next door to the Farm to begin this endeavour and start the ball rolling. We have brought in electricity, 25 pairs of phone lines, drilled and cased a well and installed pumping equipment and begun road work. We cut a firebreak 40 feet wide and 1,600 feet long through dense forest. We also laid 2,400 feet of water pipe to hook up the three main housing sites. This is part of creating the infrastructure.
It is our intention to raise funds to build low cost, energy-efficient housing for people who might otherwise be homeless. Also, qualified people are given the chances to help build themselves a cabin on our land which will be their home for their lifespan and then will revert to Rocinante to be offered to another old or fragile person who might not have been able to build themselves a cabin. In this way the project can build itself.
The project is seeking donations: one form a donation could take would be to endow a midwife cabin. This could be your retirement cabin and be used and maintained by the midwives until you are ready to move in yourself.
Stephen Gaskin, Rocinante, 41 The Farm, Summertown, Tennessee 38483, USA (tel 615 964 2519).
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