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: right) Don Young, Lacey Rowlett and Dan Glenn pose for a photo
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A HIDDEN HAVEN
Local artists form organic,
sustainable community
Don Young stops abruptly to point something out
on the trail. Kneeling down, he picks up what closely
resembles something like a tiny ball of lint.
“Do you know what this is it’s owl vomit,” he
said, picking apart the ball of hair.
“Looks like it ate a mouse. Let’s see if we can find
some bone.”
In the protected forest behind Orange Twin
Conservation Community, Young, a six year member,
clears fallen branches from the trail as he describes
life at the sustainable community located five miles
from downtown Athens.
It all started about a decade ago, when Laura
Carter, a musician in the local band Elf Power, and
friends Laura Glenn and Barbara Denvir decided to
become stewards of a tract of land outside Athens.
“We wanted to have natural surroundings and a
garden where we could share the work,” Carter said.
They secured 155 acres of land and are in the pro
cess of developing an eco-village and organic farm,
while preserving 101 acres under a conservation
easement with the Oconee Land Trust.
In 1999, Carter launched the label Orange Twin
Records to help cushion the expenses that would
come with developing a community and give mem
bers a way of selling their art. However, shareholders
and investors, she said, haven’t been hard to find.
“A lot of times people already expressed an inter
est and it just took them touring the land a few
times to want to have a hand in its development as a
sustainable living community.”
And naturally, many members have freely relished
the opportunity to step free from the herd.
“If someone is interested, we invite them to come
hang out, come to a potluck, come to a couple meet
ings. But we also tell them to take it pretty slow
because it’s easy to get an idea in your head. They
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Story and Photos by DANIELLE MOORE
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could end up being like, ‘These people are annoying,’
or, ‘I hate dogs,’” Carter said.
The commune claims members and volunteers
ranging from local artists to an electrical engineer.
Here, the major family history is not determined
by genetics but written according to the unique
sldlls and experience that each member has to offer.
After graduating with an electrical engineering
degree from Penn State, Young moved to Japan to
design HDTV computer chips and then to Thailand
to teach at a university and was even close to becom
ing a Buddhist monk before deciding to come back
to the U.S.
“My heart wasn’t in high tech, you know? I
thought ‘well shit, if I do a really good job, I’m gonna
make a better mousetrap for advertisers so people
will just consume more,”’ Young said. “‘They’ll be
transfixed by the television, and then go into that
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path of receptive brain wave state, where, you can
tell them anything.’ I didn’t want to put my energy
into something like that.”
He worked and lived in several sustainable living
communities before moving to Athens a few years
ago and becoming a part of the ongoing projects at
Orange Twin.
Such ventures include the maintenance of walk
ing trails, a swimming hole, the construction of a
vineyard, a garden, and the moving and remodeling
of an old dilapidated house that was purchased for
sl. It was later turned into a farmhouse where a few
members now live.
Another member, Terry Rowlett, was an art stu
dent at the University in the ’9os and believes living
with idealists has helped him explore his creativity
without having to worry about social standards.
“There are so many people who have so many
different creative sides it’s easy to express here
someone could come out on a unicycle or some fabu
lously strange costume it’s a mini-style culture.”
Lacey Jon, from Atlanta, came to work in the
garden and has lived at Orange Twin for three years.
Herbal medicine jars from an apprenticeship line the
dresser in her room and fill the farmhouse with the
strong scent of peppermint oil.
“I just liked the idea of living with different people
of different ages ... people with like minds ... and
becoming more self-sufficient building things and
working with the land.”
For Nana Grizol’s lead singer, Theo Hilton, the de
cision to become part of the community came down
to a balance of relationships and solitude. His life on
the road is loud and chaotic, fast and transient.
For him, being in one place with a community is
comforting.
“It’s just the idea of people being super respectful
of each other and including one another. And But
terball may be a big part of it, too Butterball’s the
cat.”
See HAVEN, Page 5
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