Amazing birthday alignments in the Safe Haven Villages project

There seems to be a positive omen in the line-up of several birthdays among those of us involved in the Safe Haven Villages project. This line-up goes so far beyond the probabilities of chance that it leads one to conclude that some kind of higher power is guiding things. Of course all of use believe in a higher power guiding our lives, but it is kind of fun when fingerprints show up.

Three out of nine founding members in our Safe Haven Villages project have birthdays clustered within four days of each other from Feb. 17 through 19. Also in this cluster is Michael Spitzauer's birthday, today. He is the CEO of Green Power Inc (Waste to Fuel), and has been sponsoring our work at PES Network, and he will be helping finance the procurement of our community land and the building of my sustainable home.

I posted an exclusive article today at PESN about a major breakthrough for his company, announcing that their revolutionary process for cleaning up the planet has now been verified by the U.S. military. So this present article is somewhat of a sister article to that one, also in honor of his birthday.


We discovered this thing about the birthdays a couple of Sundays ago (Feb. 14). Cheri and I were at her mom's place (Susan Carter), and we were looking up various birthdays in the book: The Secret Language of Birthdays: Your Complete Personology Guide for Each Day of the Year (Penguin Books; 1994; ISBN-0-670-03261-1). In this book, the authors Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers give two pages of meanings for each day of the year, addressed to people whose birthday falls on that day, along with a listing of famous people born on that day. My wife recently checked the book out from the library again, and we were looking up the birthdays of various people we know, amused at how insightful and applicable the descriptions were. It had us laughing as much as pondering.

How could it be that the day on which a person is born could play such a profound role in shaping the kind of person they are? It's almost as if this has more bearing of significance than genetics or environment. It's like a day-specific astrological sign of much greater direct relevance than the month-specific astrological phenomenon. The only way I can think to explain it is that there is some kind of resonance set up with each day of the year.

So there we were a couple of Sundays ago at Susan's place looking up the birthday's of various people. It so happened that we looked up the birthdays of three of the founding members in succession, whose birthdays are within four days of each other. Kathleen's (who is our treasurer/secretary) is on Feb. 17; Torg's (who is drawing up our house plans) is on Feb. 18; (another person likely to build soon after we finally get some land, Diana, has a birthday on Feb. 18 as well); and Renee's (who launched "Safe Haven Villages" at http://ic.org several years ago) is on Feb. 20.

Then I thought of another friend I wanted to look up: Michael Spitzauer. I went to Skype to see what day he was born on, and it turned out to be Feb. 19. So in a span of four days are four consecutive birthdays of people involved heavily in this place of refuge project, who we happened by "coincidence" to look up at the same time in a cluster.

Also, my parent's wedding anniversary is on Feb. 20. They too have been intricately involved in the project. I'll be spending some time with them tomorrow.

Regarding this birthday range, Renee said: "Aquarians are out-of-the-box forward thinkers and humanitarians, they see the big picture. Pisces' are artists, healers and spiritualists, the 'old souls'. These b-days are on the cusp and so have both qualities, I know I do."

Speaking of coinciding birthdays and this Safe Haven Villages project, Randy Tolbert, whose solar guest house we are renting, down the road from his solar home, shares my birthday. His guest house has been a great transition for us, holding us over as we have sold our conventional Eagle Mountain home to roll its value over into our new, sustainable home we will be building soon. He installed much of the solar in my parent's amazing home.

My family has a cluster of birthdays around mine. I'm on Nov. 30, my boy's is on Dec. 7, my youngest daughter's is on Dec. 8, and Cheri's is on Dec. 10. We have some nephews and inlaws birthdays nestled in that region as well, including Cheri's brother who shares her birthday, and Susan's husband, Ren, whose b-day is on Dec. 14.

What's the significance of all this? I don't know. I'm sure there's stuff written in the stars the guides these kinds of things. It certainly can't be dismissed as random chance, though.


One thing that comes to mind, though, in the context of our procurement of land, and some decisions we have to make in the next few days in that regard, is that the south-facing 90-acre piece we've looked at and may yet get, has been looked at and liked by more of us mentioned above than any other piece we've considered. Yesterday, Michael told me that he would help us get the 90-acre piece, since it has the most advantages of all the properties we've considered, so it is back on the table as an option.

I should mention, for those of you who have been following our land-procurement saga, that the beautiful Levan property (53 acres) we are under contract on (closing postponed to March 5) turns out to have a limitation of one home per 160 acres, being in a watershed area, so we may end up pulling out of that one.

There's another little cluster of dates I might mention. Aaron, Kathleen's son and Diana's business partner, who has been interested in our project as well, has a birthday on May 18. When I called him just now, he said he just happened to be reading my 2012 article where I mention these birthday coincidences. His wife's birthday is two days later, May 20; and Cheri's and my anniversary is two days after that, May 22. Raphial Morgado's demonstration of his MYT Engine to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in Oregon, is on May 15. He changed it from May 22 so I could attend and do the webcast of this monumental event. He phoned me today to mention that the event now appears on the SAE Oregon website.

Levan property under contract; revised floor plans

Today we accepted a counteroffer on a 53-acre piece of land south of Levan, Utah, up a canyon. So finally, after making half a dozen offers on various parcels, we're finally under contract and can focus on a specific plot of land to make it work.



It's a beautiful spot of land, up a mountainous canyon climbing eastward, dotted with large Juniper trees. Shrub oaks surround the creek bed that runs through its narrow valley. The south side (north-facing slope) is arrayed in Juniper trees and has a rock outcropping that runs the length of the property, adding an artistic element to the land. The north side is more sparse, mostly dirt (shale), due to the sun hitting it more directly, bringing out its desert attributes.



About 20% of the property is suitable for putting buildings on (e.g our home, guesthouse, walipinis, outbuildings, etc. for the Safe Haven Villages community); the rest is too steep.

We found a spot in the East side of the property, on a south-facing slope where valley gives rise to the northern ridge, providing a view on the south of the tree-filled, rock-outcropping.



The property is quite remote, with the closest neighbor being ~3 miles away, and the tiny town of Levan (pop. 688) being ~9.5 miles away. Nephi, population ~5400, is about 15 minutes north; and the Utah Valley with all modern conveniences begins about another 15 minutes north of that.

I'm not a hermit by nature, so the idea of living so far removed from civilization was not attractive to me. Those in the community project assure me that once we get a property and start building that others will join in and we won't be alone for long. In a scenario of societal melt-down, being out of the cities is a good idea, but neighbors are also important for helping each other out. So we'll be anxious to get some close neighbors in soon who are likeminded.

Here's video I shot a couple of weeks ago.



We went to see what the property would be like in the middle of winter. Just the last ¼ mile would need to be plowed by us to keep it accessible.



We'll have to buy some water rights. A friend who drills wells said the water in this area is excellent. However, we're hoping that in our home we'll be able to get enough from rainwater capture to handle all our household needs, circulating the grey water, and using compost toilets.


Revised Floor Plan

In launching this first Safe Haven Villages community, one of the SHV members suggested that we get rid of the loft in our great room and put in a second floor there to be used as a community center. We'll call it "guest quarters".



In addition to retreats, classes, and wellness sessions, people coming to help build the community could stay there temporarily as well, speeding up the build-out of the village.

We moved the storage room down next to the garage, making the second floor space that much larger for the community center.

We also decided to get rid of the solarium along the south side to cut back in building costs. We can add that in later. This required us putting a hall through the office area to get to our master bedroom, which used to be accessed through the solarium.

Randy Tolbert suggested that we put the solar thermal array on the hill behind the home, with a drain-back system, rather than trying to space the panels between the second floor windows and connecting them in a drainable set-up.

Torg expects to be finished with the house drawings by next week some time.



Next step is all the regulatory hoop jumping, getting approvals and permits to begin building. Tim Hall said it took him a year to get his building permit for the home he showed me in Hawaii. Hopefully the hard work by others, being referenced in our application, will speed up the time it takes us.