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Laytonville Ecovillage

A sustainable living community in Mendocino County, California

Winter 2014

March 2, 2014 By Dan Antonioli

Winter 2013/14 has been quite a challenge with record low freezing temperatures and record drought. Most of our pipes froze with the December freeze and luckily we didn’t have any breaks!

The drought has immersed California in a scramble to make ends meet with record-low rainfall, low snowpacks in the mountains, and entire municipal water supplies running close to dry in many towns, Willits to name but one! Laytonville is lucky in that we’re in the Long Valley, which has a huge aquifer supplying the town’s water supply and many wells. But most homes in Laytonville are out of the aquifer zone and many wells are running dry this winter. Fortunately we’ve finally gotten some good rains, but it’s literally a “drop in the bucket” compared to what we need to have enough water to meet demand.

The Laytonville Ecovillage is blessed with a very deep well that I’m now monitoring with a groovy new electronic depth gauge. This allows for measuring the elevation of the water, which in turn allows us to determine if we have enough water or are running out. Measuring wells is called “sounding the well,” and many well owners are just now learning how to do this.

Drought or no drought, we will conserve water and implement more water saving strategies. This June we’ll be installing another greywater system, and I’m looking into rainwater catchment tanks, swales for gardening, more drip irrigation, and of course practical low-flow plumbing basics.

Hopefully we’ll have a wet rainy Spring. But if not, we’ll be prepared to make the best use of the water we have.

Filed Under: LEV Update

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A green community in the making located in California’s beautiful Mendocino county town of Laytonville offers a real estate opportunity. Find out more…



Cohousing Consultant

Katie McCamant of CoHousing Solutions has been involved with cohousing development for 30 years. Having developed and designed dozens of communities, as well as having lived in her own communities for most of the last 25 years, Katie brings a wealth of experience to our Project. She co-authored the book that introduced cohousing to the US, Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, as well as its update, Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities. Learn more on CoHousing Solutions’ website.


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