The Land Trust
at Four Quarters
Trust. Everybody talks about it, but what is it?
In God We Trust? Trust Me! $avings and Trust?
Four Quarters is about a different kind of trust. We trust that the Land and the
Planet is our source and our return. We trust that the Sanctuary and The Stone
Circle can be preserved into the future. We trust that the Land will support us
and that we will support the land. That preserving beautiful Land as our spiritual
heritage, under the auspices of a committed non-profit, is a very worthwhile goal.
Lofty phrases. But at some point words must become action
and our actions become facts. Thus this page.
Over the past ten years Four Quarters has developed a pragmatic, can do attitude
towards realizing its stated goals. We feel that is a big part of why people actually
choose to support Four Quarters with their time, energy, gifts and pledges. The
reciprocity, the giving back by Four Quarters, is reflected by assets on the ground.
Buildings, roads and improvements. But central to that process of giving back
is our efforts to preserve the Land. How? By owning it.
Four Quarters really began in 1993, when Orren Whiddon decided to move out of
his corporate career and found a campground for the use of Earth Spirituality.
By 1994 he had located Four Quarters, sold his home and in 1995 moved to the property
and held the first Stones Rising that May. Those early years were difficult, as
is any process of birthing. But by 1999 Four Quarters had found its soul, found
its Members and that June signed its first contract to purchase Land. That was
the Members Village. One acre with a nice mobile home, the $10,000 down payment
raised by a small group of very supportive Members. We were on our way.
In 2001 Orren challenged the Membership with our first Capitol Funds drive. The
deal? Orren would gift Four Quarters with his interest in 50 acres of land, the
heart of the camp, if the church could raise the $30,000 down payment needed to
secure its own mortgage. That year $40,000 was raised in Members gifts, pledges
and in matching funds from the church. The spring of 2002 the church took possession
of the Land, preserved for the future, in trust.
Since then the tempo has steadily increased. The ground level of our kitchen finished
in 2001, new generator capacity, water tankers and buried power in 2002, a second
drum circle in 2003 along with new roads graded out; and in 2004 the Members Camp
roads reconstructed with state of the art geo-textile fabric and a new merchants
deck in the High Meadow.
Now we are presented
with the biggest challenge yet. Through the course of the 2004 season Four Quarters
invested over $7,000 in soil testing, permits and engineering work to support
code legal sewage disposal for the camp. We now have approved sites for expanding
the Farmhouse and Members Village; and new approvals for the Members Camp area
and the North Crook. We have engineering drawings for the system to be installed
in the North Crook, which will support the kitchen and a new winter worthy shower
house. And our plans for the future.
This very expensive
process is laying the ground work for our long term goals. The bottom line? Infrastructure
that will allow winter time use of the camp with comfortable and heated dining,
sleeping and sanitation facilities. And summer time cabins and bunkhouses. The
tempo increases again.
Further, Orren has presented
the Members with another challenge for 2005. To convey to the church the remaining
40 acres of Land that is actively used as the camp. And a second building
lot to expand the Members Village area.
In the Land We Trust.
That's
the Land Trust. Everything that has to do with supporting and preserving the Land
and peoples ability to use it in their spiritual lives.
When you make a donation, and especially when you commit to the pledge program;
those funds will be used to preserve the Land. To pay down the new commercial
mortgage. To fund the construction of the new septic system and shower house.
And all the things to come.
Detailed
Info
Download Barnes
Tract Plat Map  286kb
Download Members
Village Plat Map 50kb
Download Preliminary
Septic System Drawings 67kb
The Mortgages
Currently Four
Quarters pays three mortgage each month. For the Barnes tract (90 acres), The
Members Village (1 acre) and Liesinger (50 acres). The Church currently owns the
Members Village and Liesinger. Monthly total on these mortgages is approx. $1,700.
After the transfer the church will own four separate
parcels of land. The additions are the subdivision of Barnes (40 acres) and a
new lot next to the Members Village (1 acre). Monthly mortgage total with the
commercial bank loan should be about $1,400 a month.
The commercial loan is amortized at a 15 year payoff. It is our intention to allocate
enough funds from this and future pledge drives to pay at least $1,000 a month
directly towards the loan principle. If after a few years we can adverage $1,500
a month in principle payments, we will be able to pay off the note in a little
more than 5 years.
Septic
and Engineering
The first perk tests were done
way back in 1995 in what became the Big Bottom Members Camp. As we suspected,
these tests showed that the soils in the river bottoms are ideal for conventional
in-ground systems.
In 2003 we began planning for
a septic system to service the Starvin Artist Kitchen and to allow a relocation
of the showers. But we also wanted to do the tests necessary to support expansion
at the Farmhouse and the Members Village.
In early
spring we began with test pits next to the Farmhouse and uphill from the Members
Village. These are preapproved backup sites in case there are any problems in
the future. They all tested out well.
In the North
Crook we conducted an extensive series of test pits and percolation tests designed
to support a very large system. The soils tested as near perfect for an in-ground
system. Our instructions to our engineering firm were to design a state of the
art system, which they have done.
For those who know
the site well, the system will be installed just to the left of the single lane
road that connects the North Crook turn around area with the Lower Fire Circle.
We have gone to some effort to minimise the number of large trees that will have
to be removed, we think about 5 or 6. When finished it will be planted in grass.
Shower House
We do not yet have prints for the new shower house but
our design goals are as follows:
Four interior shower stalls, 1.2 gpm heads.
Four interior low flush toilets, 1.4 gpf. Eight exterior shower heads on common
deck, 1.2 gpm. Architectural block construction, slab floor, heated, propane and
wood stove. Water heated by on-demand propane heaters.
It will be sited on the hill to the west of the kitchen building, on your left
as you walk from the kitchen down to the North Crook. It may be possible to site
a second open deck shower in the North Crook proper.
Members Villages
Yep, there will be two buildings in the Village, the new one sited up the hill
from the original. Work on this project has progressed nicely. We have stubbed
out the drain and water lines, graded the buildings pad and cut the access road,
with gravel. All that remains to prepare the site is to pour the concrete pads
to support the mobile home. When our plans are approved in late October we will
then be able to move in the mobile home and tie it down. This building will house
some of our live in staff and will also treble the about of off-weekend sleeping
space for Members during winter time visits. And it is sited so that it can be
expanded.
Service,
Ceremony and Celebration
Joining the World of Spirit and the World of Today
a Work of Years... Stone by Stone
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