Starting to Miss the West

PEOPLE: I miss my community out West. I miss my farm friends, I miss my Wilderness Awareness friends... I miss having elders as an integrated part of life. I miss singing in large groups. I miss eating with people who want to take the time to give deep gratitude and smile at one another's face holes. Creating community is hard. I know that I'm in this amazing place where there is already community, but its still so hard to get tapped in and surround. Although missing so much can be painful, its a blessing to show me how much I truly cared and how much those things brought me joy and fulfillment. Someday I will live in community again, and here, where I will bring it in and surrounded myself in it like a blanket.

EARTH MOMMA: I can feel the fall approaching. The days are growing shorter and the moon glows orange as it rises, appropriately named the "harvest moon." Sleeping outside feeds me more than I can describe... despite the voles that crawl around underneath my tent and wake me up during the night. I feel more alive when I wake up, more connected, more sane. I can't help but worry about winter. Am I going to go stir crazy?

WATERS: With the fires raging out west my heart stirs around water. I am so grateful for its abundance on this landscape. The path I made to get to my little cabin-to-be crosses over a spring-fed stream. Lining that path are many little, orange jewelweed flowers and big, bright goldenrod stalks so that from a distance it reads like a little fire on the landscape. On the east side of Washington there was a cabin near and dear to myself and many, many others that burned to the ground during the worst of the wildfires. May the lake there hold the energies and spirit of that landscape as it goes through this huge transition. 

TREES: We are building on-contour hugelkultur berms. "Uhhh what?" you say.  Basically as we weed, clear, or remove vegetation, our brush pile grows like a snake, following the topographic lines of our forested hillside. We have a very unproductive, North-facing slope that is steep and does not hold water or soil well. So the idea with these on contour mounds is that the debris will slowly turn to soil, hold the leaves and forest debitage in place to begin building soil, and creating elevated spots for us to plant new trees when the time comes. This is essentially the same as people making swales, except slower and without the need of large machinery.

PLANTS: I am already having trouble keeping up with the garden, how is that possible? Right now I've got 25 pounds of sauerkraut going. I made stuffed peppers for dinner tonight and grilled zucchini last night. I am literally putting zucchini in every meal. Why is the Squash Fairy not common knowledge like the Tooth Fairy? Late at night the Squash Fairy comes and drops off these huge zucchini "clubs." She giggles and hides them sneakily under some of the big lower leaves and waits to see your dumfounded reaction in the morning. "What the fuck am I supposed to do with all these??"

  

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BIRDS: The other day I was over at Dryden Lake kayaking with a friend and I spotted my first cedar waxwing. These have always been one of my favorite birds--they are so beautiful... sleek and artistic. They have these orange waxy looking tips on their wings, a yellow tail, and a smooth,  slicked back mohawk. So purdy. 

ANIMALS: I desperately want rabbits... and chickens... and turkeys and ducks and pigs and sheep and maybe a cow or two. I want them so badly it literally hurts when I think about it. 

WIND/WEATHER/SKY: It has been hot and muggy here lately. The humidity is really hard to get used to. I wake up early and start working, but by late afternoon I just melt. I cant do anything outside other than swim in my pool. Tehe. Some people are good with the heat, but I much prefer the cooler seasons. We'll see how I complain come winter though. I just finished insulating the floor and foundation for my cabin today in anticipation of the below zero days. Its crazy to imagine how different its going to be here in just a matter of months. 

BODY: Honestly, I've been up and down. My Lyme is getting worse again but I'm working on it. I'm taking life slow and resting when I need it. I'm managing and generally still in really good spirits. Its a continual reminder to honor and respect my health. There's a new doctor I'll be seeing in October and I have a really good feeling about her. Last week I did a 36-hour fast and really enjoyed it. It felt like a good reset button to spark my love and appreciation for good food and for cooking. This winter I'm going to try a 7-day or longer fast. I've heard some people having it become a successful way to starve out the Lyme spirochetes and overcome the disease. I cant do it now though, of course, there's way to much garden abundance that needs to be eaten asap. 

INNER TRACKING: I've spent some time recently reacquainting with friends from high school and its  so peculiar how comfortable I feel with them. I'm trying to figure out how to reapply this feeling of being confident in my own around new people. Strangers have always been a struggle for me. I feel shy, but I know that often that shyness comes across as being unapproachable or stuck-up. But with my buddies from high school, whom mind you are basically strangers as we haven't talked in like 6 years, I feel relaxed and social even if they have very few of the same interests as me. Weird. I'm excited to be able to walk more confidently in both of those worlds. 

Stunning day. 

With my brother at 6-mile Creek in Ithaca. :)

Thank you for listening.