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
As of 2005
Download 2005
Members Muse 
As of 2004
Download Barnes Tract
Plat Map  286kb
Download Members Village
Plat Map 50kb
Download Preliminary
Septic System Drawings 67kb
From 2004: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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