The Forecast

In my lungs is my laughter, in the clouds are my tears

In these words is my meaning, it seldom is clear

All around me vibrations, my ears turn to sound

In my pockets are pieces of the puzzles I’ve found

In my head is the picture they form, put together

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My eyes are the forecast of my heart’s fickle weather

If I came out of nowhere, then whence am I bound?

My eyes on the heavens, my feet on the ground

My hands long to touch the softness of skin

But for every woman they grasp, they end up empty again

Asleep then awake, in love then alone

A flower that’s blossomed, a child that’s grown

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Something is stirring, my hairs stand on end

Movements are measured, but measurements bend

Mystery permeates the fabric of being

Magic explains all the things that I’m seeing

My life is all memories, except for right now

The past is my promise, the future my vow

In preparation for a new chapter in life, I shaved off the old mop, which had topped out a record 12 inches. My neck feels very liberated!

As the trees bend and sway with the wind, I reflect on the winter now on the wane, an exciting and action packed season for me here, which I’ve not taken time to write about yet here on the site.  Updates with more details will probably make their way to various sections of the Paradigm Pioneers site; for now I will summarize what all’s been happening, leaving all sorts of juicy details out, for both expediency and decency’s sake!  Lots has been happening!

Last I posted was on my birthday, celebrating proponents of liberty in the face of tyranny.  I’m glad to say that the occupy movement is alive and well, ready to burst into the streets and parks as the weather warms, making a bigger ruckus than can be ignored, I’m guessing.  I’ve been participating in some of our weekly protests in Grants Pass, and I went to a general assembly of the Rogue Valley occupy groups, which was pretty neat.  Cool to see young people stepping up to design and implement positive actions.

Be warned though, my dear friends!  The restoration of justice, liberty, and peace will be strongly resisted by those who have a stranglehold on the wealth and resources of our planet.   Occupy, Giabo, Anonymous, and other decentralized non-violent groups are protesting and resisting a system that is rotten to the core.  They are not simply trying to change  superficial rules or oust the puppet dictators; they are attempting to wipe the slate entirely clean, and rethink the very fundamentals of human society.  We want to shed the illusion that we have no choice but to live under the authority of governments who lie to us and murder people, that we have to pay indefinite debts to usurers, crafty sorcerers of modern political machinations who are now in the business of toppling sovereign nations through manipulative, unscrupulous lending practices, and then taking over the land, resources, and gold of those nations, appointing banksters to prime minister positions (Greece and Italy), and taxing the middle and lower classes heavily to pay back these enormous debts through ”austerity measures.”
It’s a con, and as long as enough people are on to it, it can’t work.  The rabbit hole goes deep, but I’ll leave it at that and continue with my update.  I went to a really neat gathering of like minded folks down in Shasta for 11-11-11, which was most magical.  We went up onto the mountain and built a big fire in the snow both the night before 11-11 and the day and night of.  People from all over the world showed up to usher in a new era and to pray for peace and love for all beings.  It was incredible.  The morning of the 11th, at 11:11 am, there were easily two hundred people in the meadow where we had built a fire, and for parts of it we all joined hands and sang and such, taking turns letting forth a few encouraging words, expressions of gratitude, or heart songs.

On this voyager I made my way down to Big Bend for the first time,  a place I’d been hearing about recently where there were some permaculture projects and community minded folks.  Our friend Charlotte was setting up in a house down there, welcoming participants in a permaculture project being put together on 37 acres.  Laura and I, who had traveled down to the Shasta gathering together, then went down to Big Bend to visit Charlotte and see the land.

We were quite taken with the community right away.  We visited the hot springs down by the creek (the undeveloped, public springs) and we went to the community harvest party that just happened to be going on that night.  We met lots  of really neat people, all of whom seemed eager to know if we were going to move there.  With a landing pad already established, it seemed there was a good chance we could move there.

Only it didn’t turn out to be so simple!  Thinking about how I would write about the whole Big Bend saga, (which is ongoing…) is overwhelming, so I’m glad I’m leaving out the details here!   I’ll skip to Christmas, which was a fun time, spent here in Glendale.  Laura and her girls came to stay here up in Glendale, and that was lots of fun.  I got to break out lots of my old toys, which I had shipped up from Texas, and the girls liked that.

Making use of the elevator (ascension) tracks I bought on Ebay

Playing with Construx

It was wonderful to have two weeks of leisure time with Laura and the girls, whom I love immensely.  We played and made delicious meals, jumped on the trampoline, went for walks, made popcorn, and watched the Avatar Airbender series.  Great fun.

What lovely ladies!

I even got play Santa Claus, something I’ve never actually done.  I whipped up a mini tree from some fir branches and a log with holes drilled in it.  I stuffed stockings with nuts, chocolate, granola, and oranges…a classic old world Christmas morning!

Eva and Gaia going through the loot

Also of note is the little spending spree that Gateway Gardens went on early in the year, when Jerry’s GMC truck started having engine problems.  To replace it, we got an old Ford Super duty diesel that has a custom built 8×11 dump bed.  It’s quite a machine!  Over the last couple years we’ve shoveled many a pick up load of manure, compost, hay, rocks, mulch, and other garden and landscape materials.  Enough give us a sense of the value of a dump bed!

However, this truck is huge, and it only seats three.  We realized that our much delighted in cruises through the back country on old logging roads would not be possible in such a beast of a rig.  Nor would it serve as a suitable second vehicle for runs to town or down to Ashland.  So… we then decided on getting a Jeep as well.  A fine looking Cherokee, only a few years old, with low miles and fancy features.
Of course, there was one other thing we had long been discussing.  Two things actually: some trail bikes.  Also good for cruising the back country, able to go places even Jeeps can’t.  Jerry had driven Honda 90′s before in other places he’s lived, and he liked the idea of having a couple of those.  I liked it too, so I went on Craigslist and found some.  The guy we ended up buying the bikes from was really cool.  He had a very nice homestead down in California, with a house he built himself, and a really nice solar hot water heating system (for both his pool and for an outdoor shower) that particularly interested us, as we too are working on setting up a solar heating system at the barn here at Gateway.

The Hondas

I think Jerry’s spending spree was perhaps related to my own spending spree around and right after Christmas.  I got a few checks for Christmas cheer (much thanks everyone!!!) which I had to put in a bank, which has a card I don’t usually use, but with that money just sitting in there…. I decided to go on ebay and see if I could find more parts for two of my old favorite building sets – Brio and Construx.  Boy, did I!  Shameless consumer be me, I nearly doubled my collection of both, mostly with basic parts so that I could build things on a grander scale!  And I did!  I’ve had lots of fun over the last few months playing with the toys, sometimes with Josh’s or Laura’s kids, sometimes just with my old gang… Aussie, Billy Bong, and Womby, who have been kicking it here with me too.

Ah, the joys of being alive and free!  Let’s see… we’ve had lots of projects going here around the property at Gateway. One big project is stepping up the barn a bit, with lots of upgrades underway and in the works.  We’ve taken a few more steps towards getting the old tack room turned into a canning kitchen.  We also added a lumber rack by lowering the ceiling over the washroom, creating about two and a half feet of space between the floor of the loft and the washroom, which holds long pieces of lumber quite well, and helps us to better insulate the room below, which we are converting to a multi-use room with a shower, a sink, and lights for starting seeds and getting garden plants a head start on the season, which often kicks off a little late here.

Upgrading the Tack Room

Lumber Rack

To do this we’ve had to do lots of plumbing, and then had to redo lots of plumbing wherever we found leaks.  Plumbing is not easy work!  It looks simple enough, but actually getting it all to work…. quite educational.  We bought some heat collectors (black tubing for heating water) and pex pipes to plumb our hot water heating system into the kitchen, shower, and up to the loft above the barn.  This we see becoming a hangout/lounge area.  The open space of the barn, with it’s twenty plus foot ceiling and fairly open (24×24) room, seems to make a good place to set up a gym, which I’ve been dreaming up in my mind for a while.  A place for silks, rings, bars, and other gymnast equipment, with mats on the floor and mirrors and the whole set up.  This is all part of a bigger plan for the property, which Jerry and I are still working out.

We’ve also been erecting the greenhouse again, which we had a little bit of trouble with last year.  It just wasn’t very sturdy, so we stiffened up the framing (almost entirely PVC!) and battened it down a little better, along with affixing the ends securely and putting an actual door on one end.  We now have a greenhouse!  I haven’t moved any plants into it yet because I think they’re still happier under lights right now, being fairly young little things.

I also set up a seed starting station here at the house, in the laundry room.  It’s working out quite well, with a new round of sprouts popping every few days.  I’ve been collaborating with Josh on seeds and starts, and I’m letting him do most of the production, as his farm is actually a farm, with a couple of nice big fields in the sun.  What I’m focusing on here is garden food, and some bulk production for things like tomato sauce, pickles, and cabbages for kraut.  Josh and Dan will be growing corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, and beans on a larger scale for our CSA operation, while I do my best to keep up with all the food that grows here in our relatively small cultivation zones.  It’s lots of fun!

Second stage for starts

Speaking of fun, we had some good snow, and this hillside where we live might not be great for farming, but it sure is good for sledding!  We had a whole day of sledding with Josh and his kids and Dan and I.  Jerry was kind enough to give us a lift with the Pug (which did better in the snow than just about any other wheeled vehicle I can imagine) up to the top of the meadow.  We had some good runs, and we all got soaked, but we had some stew brewing and hot chocolate to come back to in the house, where the wood stove was a blazing.  A great day!  I went out again the next day by myself (Jerry drove me up, but did wish to sled himself) and had much fun, discovering a great jump where a road crosses the steep meadow.  With  an inner tube, I could get quite a bit of air and land at full speed, still plummeting towards the trees and flat spot below.  I had a fairly straight shot through the trees, though it was close a couple of times.

So that’s what’s been going down, in a nutshell.  Plenty more I’d like to share about…. when time permits.  I wish everybody well, and I bid you adieu!

I almost forgot!  I’ve been building a fort down in the woods, which is coming along nicely.  It’s a very good spot, right on the creek, under a yew tree.  I’ve got the roof up, and most of materials gathered for the walls.  I’m making it mostly from downed wood around the land.  The roofing I found in a pile down on the south end of the property.  Score!

Dear friends,

It is ever so exciting to be alive in this historical era of transition, in which a global insurrection against tyranny swells forth like a tsunami, drawing forth from their hiding places the architects of a worldwide prison system, whose plan, many decades (some will even say centuries) in the making, is finally coming to a catastrophic end.  The liberation has begun, and as we emerge from our cells and our sleepwalking states, we find ourselves in a position to re-design our world, our communities, and our lives.

It was not an easy road to get here.  We are very lucky to be seeing the people marching through the streets rather than military units.   This means that we are winning!  These are our streets, and this is our country.  We the PEOPLE!  All around the globe, people are marching on the financial institutions who are now being exposed for crimes against humanity, for scandals and fraud, and for unlawfully seizing control of our governmental process.   I want to pay my deepest respects to the heroes of the movement, particularly to those who have influenced me personally.  These are champions of  liberty who have risked their lives and reputations by speaking out against the crimes of powerful people, dedicating their careers to informing people of the truth behind the curtain.

Mike Ruppert

Ron Paul

Noam Chomsky

Max Keiser

Alex Jones

Michael Moore

Zack de la Rocha

Jonny 5

Daniel Quinn

William Kotke

Also, my thanks to the founding fathers who warned us about financial institutions co-opting our sovereignty!  Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James Madison… even Lincoln knew the more dangerous enemy was not the army in front of him, but the bankers behind him.

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies . . . If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] . . . will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered . . . The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

— Thomas Jefferson — The Debate Over The Recharter Of The Bank Bill, (1809)

“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling the money and its issuance.”

–James Madison

“It is not our own citizens only who are to receive the bounty of our government. More than eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreigners… is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country? … Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence… would be more formidable and dangerous than a military power of the enemy.”

– Andrew Jackson

Special thanks also to Anastasia, whose bright dream for a happier future has affected more people than can be counted, spreading and growing like mycellium.  In the plan that she lays forth in the Ringing Cedars Books, we can find great information and inspiration for redesigning our communities to be what we want them to be.

My love and respect to all the permaculturists and back to the land people who have been working out real life scenarios of how we can live in harmony with nature and supply all our needs.  Bill Mollison, Masanobu Fukuoka, Tom Ward, Joshua Smith, and so many others whom I don’t know, thanks for teaching the skills and awareness that will shape our new reality.

I want to send strength and inspiration to all the occupiers of the #occupy# movement, along with deep gratitude for the courage and determination people are showing.

Let’s build a happier world!

- From the Occupy Wall Street website, a call to action

A few more things!

Video of true democracy in action – the voices of the people drowning out the formal bureaucracy of the system that has come to see the public as mere spectators, not participants.  If you’re inspired at all by power to the people kinds of events, this will give you chills!

History repeats itself.

In the early days of the depression, working class America was in a state of revolt, with turnouts in the streets that make the #occupy# movement look quite tame.  They never show this kind of stuff on the history channel, but somebody found and compiled some incredible footage of some of these revolts, which took place all over the country.

Another American Revolution

I love hearing the voices of true American “woikers,” and I especially love that one man’s vehement insistence that

“the American people will never tolerate a dictatorship!”

Darn straight, we won’t.

Thank you my friends!  I look forward to the curious and magnificent world that awaits us as we awaken to it.

The balance of power is shifting.

Those who have profited from the looting of the planet for so long can no longer pretend that they are leading us to a better future.  We the people are no longer able to believe in the solvency of a system that creates as many problems as we now face.  The growing worldwide protest known as Occupy Wall Street represents people’s refusal to accept the lie that has for so long been ingrained in our education, our careers, and our daily lives.

As we wake up from the dream that we were lulled into with sneaky psychological programming and technocratic conditioning, our voices join together in unison to demand an end to the system that has nearly destroyed our entire planet.  Occupy Wall Street has been criticized for having no demands, when in fact, we (the 99%) have nothing but demands.  We are not fooled into thinking that our problems will be solved by raising taxes on the rich or making other policy changes within a failing, corrupt system.  We demand so much more than policy makers and money changers can  comprehend, and we’re not even going to start talking about specifics until they realize the bigger picture.  Everything is about to change.  It must, if we hope to survive.  We aren’t going to settle for another coat of paint, and we aren’t going to fall for any more superficial measures that ultimately change nothing.

Charles Eisenstein  wrote an article entitled “No Demand Is Big Enough” which stated it better than I ever could.  Below are some excerpts from that article, which give us a bit of glimpse into how big of a change we are facing.

Unemployment, financial insecurity, and lifelong enslavement to debt are just the tip of the iceberg. We don’t want to merely fix the growth machine and bring profit and product to every corner of the earth.

We want to fundamentally change the course of civilization.

For the American Dream betrayed even those who achieved it, lonely in their overtime careers and their McMansions, narcotized to the ongoing ruination of nature and culture but aching because of it, endlessly consuming and accumulating to quell the insistent voice, “I wasn’t put here on earth to sell product.” “I wasn’t put here on earth to increase market share.” “I wasn’t put here on earth to make numbers grow.”

We have no enemies. We want everyone to wake up to the beauty of what we can create.

…The money game is nearing its end. It can be perpetuated for a while longer, perhaps, but only at great and growing cost.

If GDP rises, so does our ability to service debt. But is growth really what we want? Can we really cheer an increase in housing starts, when there are 19 million vacant housing units on the market already? Can we really applaud a new oil field, when the atmosphere is past the limit of how much waste it can absorb? Is more stuff really what the world needs right now? Or can we envision a world instead with more play and less work, more sharing and less buying, more public space and less indoors, more nature and less product?

If Occupy Wall Street has a demand, it should be this: wake up! The game is nearly over. Jump ship while there is still time. In my work I meet many people of wealth who have done that, exiting the money game and devoting their time to giving away money as beautifully as they can. And I meet many more people who have the skills and good fortune to earn wealth if they wanted to, but who likewise refuse to participate in the money game. So if I sound idealistic, keep in mind that many people have had a change of heart already.

Any demand that we could make that is within the realm of political reality is too small. Any demand we could make that reflects what we truly want is politically unrealistic.

To those holding the reins of power, let us say, We will be your witnesses and your truthtellers. We will not allow you to live in a bubble. We will not go away. We will show you who you are hurting and how. We will make it awkward to do business, until your conscience cannot stand it any longer.

The truth is dwindling rain forests, spreading deserts, mass tree die-offs on every continent; looted pensions, groaning burdens of student debt, people working two or three dead end jobs; children eating dirt in Haiti, elders choosing between food and medicine… the list is endless, and we will make it no longer possible to hold it in disconnection from the money system. That is why we converge on Wall Street, and anywhere that finance holds sway. You have lulled us into complacency for long enough with illusions and false hopes. We the people are awakening and we will not go back to sleep.

The full article can be found on Charles Eisenstein’s blog.

Much thanks to all who are working towards a better world!  Courage and strength to all who may begin to consider withdrawing their own life energy from the tangled web of modern corporate colonialism!  We don’t have to storm any castles or overthrow any leaders – we simply have to walk away.  It’s been fun (for some of us) but it was all a big game that we don’t, when we really look at it, want to play anymore.  Now we can be free!

(I really love the above image of the dancer atop the big Wall Street Bully.  How appropriate that city’s official response should be this:

To serve and protect WHO?)

Sasquatch Contemplates The Moon, by Gayle Anita

Dear friends,

The Earth is tilting on back again, bringing us into fall! It still feels like summer around here in the daytime, for which I’m thankful, though the nights are getting quite chilly! It’s been quite a year! I’ve not been very active on this website, though I’ve also been having some troubles with it.

I had actually written the whole thing off, convinced that the site was down for good, but my good friend Dave Henderson pointed out to me that it worked for him, and this gave me hope.  It was actually Dave’s expression of appreciation for what I had been posting that motivated me to get on here and put together this slideshow and story of my summer.  So much has been going on that it took quite a while for me to compile it all. So here are my latest adventures.  I hope you enjoy! Power to the peaceful!

Summer, Sweet Summer

The Sasquatch painting is by Gayle Anita. I bought the card from a store in Sacramento, along with another great one!

Lots has been happening!  I would love to post stories and pictures from all of it, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to that.  Tonight I just wanted to check in and send my love out to all the good people!  I’m still going strong!  I’ve been having some grand adventures, and we’re marching on ahead in our quest to strengthen local community and reclaim our sovereignty.  We had a fantastic gathering out at Mountain Grove last July, with a great turn out and the beginnings of a really potent network laid down.  Plus, it’s summer, and the sun’s been shining!  Blackberries, thimbleberries, red caps, and huckleberries have been really going off this year!  Blueberry cobbler, thimbleberry pie, pineapple blueberry blackberry upside down cake, and lots of jams!  Hot springs and waterfalls, street dances and potlucks, an epic battle with town hall, romance and heartbreak… just a few of the fun happenings.

When I get back to my own computer (I’m currently traveling) I’ll try to get some pictures up.  Thank you thank you thank you for this wondrous gift of life! I’m doing all I can to make the most of it!

These are my reflections after a long hike and talk with Dan, my neighbor.  We talked about thought creating reality, and how it’s an art that can be crafted.  We went on a mission to cross the ridge between Glendale and Wolf Creek, via the train tunnel.  Jerry dropped us off out up Tunnel Road and we set forth.  We figured we’d head down into the valley, find the tracks, and follow them through.  We hiked a long ways, never finding the tracks.  Eventually we went up, heading for the ridge line.  We made it up there and had a great view of both Wolf Creek Valley (though not the town itself) and Glendale.  That ridge line is the divide between the Umpqua and the Rogue River drainage basins.  Also a county, and cultural boundary of sorts, which Dan and I hiked right on across today, seeing some spectacular scenery, some nice creeks, some old growth, and lots of interesting plants, some of them edible!  Snacks!

Cool Waters

In the Heart of the Magical Forest

Wolf Creek Valley

At the Vista

Mountains All Around

We went down into Wolf Creek and got some drinks.  I busted my glass water bottle on a slip dropping straight down a steep incline on the final stretch before we hit a road.  We talked to some guy Dan knew in town by the store, and we also ran into John, a fellow student of the warrior path I met last year at the Artist and Author fair there at Wolf Creek.  We talked for a while, making plans to start getting together for training every so often.  One has to have fellow practitioners to walk the warrior’s path!

We went back to Glendale via the railroad tracks, which looped us all the way around out by the highway before switching back and heading into the hills.  When we approached the tunnel, it was quite exciting, because we’d been searching for this thing all day, and we had apparently walked right above it on our hike down into the first ravine.

A Sudden Cool Breeze...

It was a mile or so long, and it got quite cool inside.  We could see through to the other side, but it got pretty dark towards the middle.   Thankfully Dan had a flashlight built into his phone, which he turned on after he stepped in a big puddle of water.  It was quite a neat place that tunnel.  When we got to the other side I did some toning and some singing, listening to it reverberate all the way through, over to Wolf Creek.

We then walked back on the tracks straight into town and out Reuben Road, where we both live.  That last leg of the hike, when we were starting to feel that we’d been hiking for six hours, happened to be when we really got into sink with conversation, really picking up on each other’s holographic thought forms and images.  It’s good to have friends who are on the same page, reading from the same book, so to speak.  We are refugees, we who choose love, exiled from a culture of lust, coercion, and fear.  We just keep on making our movie while they keep on making theirs.  They have a bigger budget, fancier gadgets, and legions of loyal followers who will happily seize up a vessel of love and nail him to a tree, but we who have love have the everlasting taste of divinity, freedom, and joy!  It can never be taken!  It cannot be bought with silver or gold!  It can only shared and grown, grokked not known.  Breathing it in and crying it out, we are it, within it, of it!  LOVE!

Scratch and Mr. Meow, hanging out. Just a while ago they were enemies and not very socialable, but with a little bit of love...

Yeah!  So I’m feeling it this morning.  This post began yesterday after the hike, and continues in the brief time I have before I head out with Jerry to meet with Joy and Cass.  Joy is a master gardener who lives nearby who is kindly donating a great deal of her starts (leftover from two county fairs she participates in) to our community garden.  Thanks Joy!  We went out to her place a while back, and wow does she have a fantastic setup.  Then it’s off to Robert’s for more tanning.  We have three hides left, one of which is a buffalo.

Working on the Elk Hide

Hooked and Ready to Stretch

Drying Out

We had a great bonfire out at the community garden last Saturday night, with a good turnout, delicious food, and some fun times spinning fire.  I lit up the new fire staff I made from bamboo for the first time out there, and everybody had fun spinning it around.  Mostly it was Josh’s family and I taking turns.  I expect we’ll be making more soon!  Probably some poi too!

Lighting It Up

Cass on the Tripod Chair

Blazing

Josh Spinning

Leighila

Catherine

Myself (Thanks to Lauren and her awesome camera!)

Jerry and I had some fun finalizing the terrace gardens recently, building some gates and a fence, closing in the greenhouse, and beginning some planting.  It’s just getting to be safe to plant most stuff outside, so the big planting day has yet to come.  The gardens are looking great, and I expect another abundant season!

Terrace Gardens

More pictures of this garden space and its evolution can be found on the Gateway Gardens page.

It’s looking like a great year!  Blessings upon us all friends!

The weather is actually quite agreeable, if one begins to understand the emotions of Gaia.  The weather is but a manifestation of her feelings.  Her waters flow freely, and we may choose what we will do with them.  We must be extremely mindful of our water!  We are of the waters.

It has been a very exciting season thus far, with more activity than I can describe in detail, for each day contains many sagas of constructive manifestation and boundless dreaming and planning.  Gardens appearing hither and yon, the game afoot for another solar season.  The community garden for Glendale finally has a home, and we have been hard at work making it suitable to grow food.  What we started with was a blackberry and weed covered field by the creek, and we’ve got it almost ready to plant.  We just need some horse poop.  We have about ten people signed up to garden their own plot, and we have plans for perennials of all kinds, spreading elements of the food forest all about.  There will also be space for growing the seed bank, and a space to grow food for the CSA.  We just got my friend Hawkeye’s sustainable backyard gardening DVD set, which we are looking forward to watching, perhaps even showing at the community garden meeting.

Yeah, we’re also setting up an outdoor theater, with equipment donated from the school.  We also got our hands on some of those old driver’s ed machines that have a seat and a steering wheel and pedals and such.  We joke about reprogramming them to get some sort of offensive driving game going.  Wouldn’t that be fun!  But the garden is far more than plots of vegetables.  It is a hang out spot, where we hope to show movies at night this summer, with a grill going and concessions available.  I also envision live music there, as well as small scale theater productions.  Good old fashioned fun, right where all the food is growing.  Not to mention we’re right on the creek by a good swimming hole with a rope swing.

And then there’s all the gardening up here.  All of it (except for hardy winter fare) is still in the nursery, but they’re coming along great!  I’ve done many of the seeds with the saliva DNA imprint method, and I planted the first few trays by the bio-dynamic calendar.  But when the box of heirlooms that I ordered showed up, I went a little crazy and planted some everything.  Soon they will be potted.  The big work here has been the greenhouse, sheet mulching the other new terrace beds around the greenhouse, and getting a new fence around the clover garden down by the barn.  It’s still got lots of onions and kale and some herbs, but the rest of it will be sheet mulched, also pending on poop.  I also have a fence to build around the terrace gardens, quite soon.

But it’s not been all work!  I’ve had some fun adventures afield and abroad lately too!  I went with Bill to Newport on the coast to meet Aldo, a powerful light worker who removes energy blockages.  We had a great time there, staying at a condo with several other people who were part of a network of awakened beings on the path of healing the planet.  You wouldn’t believe the way the world becomes when you get on this path!  It’s so full of magic and love and exquisite radiance!  I walked about on the beach, and Bill and I hit up the hot tub and sauna.  Aldo was a very skilled energy worker and a delightful fellow, all around.  He helped me to feel my way into the chakra that was blocked, Vishudda, my throat.  He kept catching me getting into rational analysis with my thoughts, and talking me back into my heart so we could talk.  What I gained from it was a new tool for physically feeling if my intellect is dominating my being, and an exercise to gently settle it down, opening the heart chakra and sensing the world in a far broader mode of awareness.  It certainly has been helpful!

Just last night Bill and I took a trip out to Glide for the Umpqua Watershed Conservation group salmon dance.  It was a smashing good time up there, dancing the night away with our fellow caretakers of the precious waters we make our world out of.  There was a folk singer, a traditional country band, a latin swing band, and rock/reggae going on last.  The kids were hilarious, out there dancing long before anyone else went out.  Eventually the tunes got moving and so did the crowd.  It was delightful!  They served up vegetarian burritos and salad and cookies, and they had a lot to say about their big plan to convert more of Oregon’s land to wilderness, protected as such.  It’s a big initiative that I’m rooting for.

Today I went down to farmer Brown’s place to help him get some hides ready for tanning and drum making.  Robert was farming it up on Woods Creek, known for his marvelous potatoes until a tractor tipover changed his course, injuring his back in such a way as to limit his farming.  He still grows lots in the greenhouse, and his son Josh has cows and a big garden, as well as chickens and now a 4H pig.  It’s always nice going out to their place.  Robert got into his native heritage after he stopped farming and now he makes all sorts of incredible native handcrafts, from drums to knives and spears, jewelry, blankets, pouches, rattles, clothes, and just about everything you can make from the natural world.  He’s going to help me make some moccasins.  We had two deer, and elk, and a buffalo hide to get into lime to remove the fur, and we had to cut away some tails and such.  Robert asked me if doing such work bothered me, as a vegetarian, and I said of course not.  Our animal allies leave their bodies behind for us to put to good use. It didn’t make me hungry, scraping away pieces of flesh and fat, but it made me very thankful.

We have many irons in the fire.  We have put together a retreat with a workshop exchange this summer, focusing on natural building.  We’ll also be incorporating gardening and food preservation, as well as the inner arts.  Yoga, meditation, sweat lodge, massage, qigong, dream designing, herbs, and all sorts of fun stuff.  Dates are to be announced, though there are to be two slots.  The first one will likely be linked with another gathering going on at Mountain Grove.  Kin’s Domain builders and earth stewards creating lifeboats of sustainable landscapes and local networks will be meeting to have a good time while making valuable contacts and information exchanges.  There will be a few speakers and probably some group activity, but also plenty of time to mingle and hike and swim and such.  The world is our playground, and to be in care of our piece of Earth is a marvelous privilege.

And there’s some really exciting stuff going on in Washington this summer as well, including a Rainbow Family gathering.  On the same trip, I am going to backpack around a bit and visit Stehekin again, a place right out of my childhood dreams.  Majesty in the forest, in a town accessible 0nly by boat or seaplane.  Or on foot, as I intend it!

Many adventures to come, and many pictures and perhaps some yarn spinning about the exciting parts.  The Costa Rica story has been neglected because of so much activity, but it will be finished yet! The adventure, however, shall not ever finish!  It just keeps on going.  Lifelong Adventure is the name of the adventure company I run in my imagination.  What a ride it is!

Here are some photos from the last month or so!

St. Francis was a capital fellow, I do say.  The city named after him here in California is a magical place.  I’ve been visiting for the last few days, enjoying quite a few of the cities perks.  For one, I love that you can walk to just about anywhere, especially if you heed St. Francis’s words, taking your time and going slowly.  I’ve also enjoyed the parks, where I find incredible trees of great size and variety.  And of course the urban permaculture going on here is inspiring.  A write-up of the two farms I visited is linked to in the previous post.

I was delighted to get the chance to catch up with friend Megan, whom I hadn’t seen in years.  She works as an architect here in the city, and we had a wonderful evening talking about all manner of things, filling each other in on all the latest in life.  She was most gracious as to listen kindly to my verbose narratives about the new culture I keep envisioning, and she was every bit as witty and charming (and beautiful) as she’s always been.

I also had a nice time visiting the Sivananda Yoga Center, where I went for a free class one day, staying for a vegetarian lunch.  They told me about an all night gathering for chanting and honoring Shiva, which sounded most interesting, so I went to it, though I was unable to stay for the whole thing.  I probably could have made it through, but I was really tired and struggling to stay awake, and I knew it would throw off my rhythm to be up all night.  I can hardly sleep in the daytime, especially not in a place where there is noise and activity all around.  So I stayed for about half the ceremony, chanting Om Namo Shivaya and various other mantras in kirtan style, with the little hand pumped organ, incense, and all.  We did a neat ceremony throwing rose petals onto the alter space while the swami chanted.  There was also this deal with pouring milk and water onto a stone that looked a lot like the one in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  It never glowed though, and no one’s heart got ripped out.

Mine sure did throb a bit harder in my chest, however, as I contemplated the beauty of the yogi goddess who taught the class I attended the day before, and who was helping to facilitate this whole event.   It didn’t enter into my reasoning directly, but I expect her gravitational force was at least partially responsible for me wanting to be there to begin with.  Alas, so many glowing galaxies and brilliant worlds through which I fly, to behold such grace and beauty for a turning or two of time, only to be carried onward on my journey like a comet streaking across the skies.

I very much look forward to my return to Oregon.  I’ve been away a long time, and it feels like a big homecoming.  If home is where the heart is, then I have more homes than I could easily name, but few that feel so much like home as quiet little Cow Creek Valley.

It’s been a pretty busy month for me!  I got back from Costa Rica in early February, and since then I’ve been on the go constantly.  I’ve been fortunate to see lots of old friends and to spend lots of time with my family.

Here are the highlights of what I’ve been up to:

A Visit To Waco

Hiking at the Hill Country Natural Area

A Visit to the Proffitt Farm in Marble Falls

Permaculture in San Francisco

Also, the latest chapter of the Costa Rica story is up.  This is the tale of our exploits in Panama, where we got detained trying to cross the border illegally.