Sandra Stowell and Michael
Pruitt
Sandra Stowell and Michael
Pruitt As of 2017, we have been partners for over thirty-seven years, and married (choke, gasp!) since 1996. We were both prematurely aged and mentally warped by years of working with computers, so we seek solace in making art, building stuff, and find community and humanity through our cohousing. We built a fabulous Port Townsend home at RoseWind from strawbales and stucco, put in a lovely garden with many regionally native and a few exotic plants, and had a great view of the community commons from the living room and front porch. Then we sold this perfect house in 2007 in order to get a proper working art studio!
We were able to fund building both a new home and a fine separate art studio by being our own contractor and by doing a lot of work ourselves, though a bit less than with the strawbale house. It took a few years, but we have been living in the "big" house now since 2010, and the first 800sq.ft. house has become my personal art studio! The "new" house is very different, but also perfect (of course).
Our move to Port Townsend created big lifestyle changes: we cut down on working (for money), car use, and frustration. We grow a little food, primarily through a community garden where the effort is sustained by a group of volunteers who carry the load when individual members are away, or preoccupied elsewhere. Our fine straw bale house was something of a money pit, so we postponed some final construction (the front porch) until six months before we sold it. The few years we spent designing, developing, and maintaining software, working at home under the "company" name First Raven Systems, provided a little income, but not much satisfaction, and not money enough to complete the terraced & sheltered patio, or to finish and heat the basement.
Before moving in to our fine solid straw bale house, we lived in a wonderful rental in uptown Port Townsend, where I jogged the area and memorized the street names. Now my hips prefer aerobic walking to jogging. This is a fine town for running, walking, and biking, although some destinations are tricky to navigate in heavy summer tourist traffic! We no longer share our home with pets (except for the odd spider), we lost our old, deaf cat: Pudkhi years ago.
Sandra:
A quick tour of my past includes my birth in Alexandria, Egypt in 1955, a
year or so in Bahrain, my early childhood years in Kirkcudbright,
Scotland, and Cambridge, England, and my family's immigration to the
United States when I was nine. My paternal heritage includes the Isle
of Mann (the Stowell family is from there, hence the wheel of
Mannanin at left); my mother's family may be Flemish or Italian, although
they settled in Scotland, in the Paisley, 3 or 4 generations ago. I have
some information on the Sivell and Sayers
families assembled. First stop in the U.S. was Indianapolis, Indiana, and
after four years we moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where I stayed through
my college years. Due to an slight case of arrested development, it took
me about nine years, on and off, to complete my four year degree, and
leave Florida's overly sunny climes for the Pacific Northwest's more
civilized gray green delight.
Port Townsend bears little resemblence to Egypt (!), but its
climate, vegetation, and water remind me of Scotland, and of England. It
feels very much like home here. Egypt is a symbol of the exotic for me;
through the oddity of my birthplace I am drawn to vivid colors, bright
sunlight, and the scents of spices not native to my homelands.
I had a somewhat peripatetic childhood, and have found it a struggle to build a set of friends and a sense of community during my thirteen years in Seattle. Once we started to work together on the land, I found moving to RoseWind felt like moving home. I had a sense of familiarity and comfort from meeting other RoseWind members around town, or for planned get-togethers. There are, and will be, differences and struggles, but I certainly benefit from this effort in community. The land is beautiful, and while the construction process can be ugly, I hope that we will all build and plant wisely, and make it even more beautiful.
I was raised by my maternal grandparents and had a rather blissful and uneventful childhood in southern California. I was that rare animal, a fourth generation Californian. When I realized how unusual that was, in my early twenties, I promptly left the state with no interest in returning. I really can't take credit for the departure from California, that was the U.S. Air Force's idea. It was my idea not to go back though. The day after I enlisted in the Air Force and got to basic training my draft notice into the Army arrived at my grandparents home. They sent it back with a polite note of apology.
I largely enjoyed my time in the Air Force. It included a year tour in Greece on the island of Crete, it was great. Returning from Greece I was posted in northern Florida where I met my ex-wife. She wasn't my ex-wife then, she was my future wife at that time. Now she is my ex-wife - thank god. We had two children, one of each basic model. Both of them now live in Seattle. My son Mark is 24 years old and we are close and I see him often and am very thankful things have turned out well between us. My daughter is 22 but we are not very close, I see her occasionally and hope for improvements.
I met Sandra in 1977 or `78 and we started living together in 1979. In `81 we had had enough of the southern summers (both temperatures and humidity in the nineties) and decided to give the Northwest a try. I have a brother living in Kirkland who invited us to live in his basement for the few months it took us to find jobs (at Boeing.) I am still enthused about this area. My fascination with Boeing didn't last as long. I left there at the beginning of `94.
I
am very concerned about the quality of the environment and the quality
of life our children and their children can expect to live. I sometimes
fear that the human race is just the biggest natural disaster to ever
befall the planet. Other times I am a little more hopeful that things
can change and we can learn to value and nurture the earth and all it's
inhabitants. I think cohousing can be a step in the right direction. The
concept of sustainable living is very important to me and I hope it will
be a guiding concept at RoseWind.
This picture by Michael features a small tidepool fish
Extended Family: we both have siblings in the US, and Michael has two adult children living in the Pacific Northwest. As of 2017, we have an 11 year old grandchild, and another one on the way!
