Moved into the 'ole Homestead...

Well, I finally moved into the Cedar House, that's what 'my' house is called. Probably because it's made of cedar, like most of the original homes around here due to it's 'weatherablilty'... and/or maybe because the owner/builder's niece is named Cedar... not sure who or what came first. But either way... at my last communique, I hadn't mentally moved in yet. In fact it was only days later that I finally moved all my clothes, linens and misc. off the dining room table and cleaned the place up a bit. There was so much clutter lying around collecting dust, so many remnants of the field mice strewn about the shelves, floors, etc., that a good clean sweep was long past due. So after that, and moving some furniture around/out, the place turned back from Feng S__t, to being a little more Feng Shui. Though I've left most of the owners personal possessions about, I brought in a few of my things to take the edge off. So I guess I'm in for the winter... and that means buying firewood to last through the cold season. This place is heated by 4 wood stoves, but I'll only be using one I think. The little one in his closed off bedroom and the kitchen stove will be dormant, while I'll live by the one in the den/living room, and only light up the basement one if it gets bitter cold and need to worry about water lines & pipes. I'll soon have to learn, then fine tune, the process of having the stove last through the night and into the morning...

So here's my place from the south... I actually approach it from the north when I come home. You can see a lovely front yard that I'll probably never step foot in... You can just make out a little solar panel that charges up my power.

Here's more of a close up of the place... the stairs lead down to the homemade 'basement' where a big wood stove lives. It's rigged with copper water pipes wrapped around the back and sides to heat up water if necessary... but there are too many nob's, turn off valves, etc., for me to understand... I hope I won't have to light up the 'Frankenstove' this winter.

In my last post I showed the Commons which is the community center point I guess... so the buildings in the back ground are the wood shop and metal shop and the crib where visitors can stay. And this is the road to my house... Past the upper garden where many of the veggies come from... past the horse barn...

Said horse barn...

Down this little road... and my place is on the right.

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This is the view of the house when I drive up... small work shop on the left and wood shed on the right... And my concrete goldfish... He's living there for the winter... he's too heavy and I just don't know where to put him... (I luv you Barrie)

You can start to appreciate the 'craftsmanship' of the place now... Jeff told me it's 'Escher-esque'... I'd have to agree. So up the stairs, past the blue thing...

And you come to my front door, with wood chopping block handy for cutting up kindling, etc., in the cold months I guess...

My porch... where while the weather lasts, I can take my coffee and read. Not many more of the days I'm afraid...

And continuing around the corner to where the steps off to the left lead to my 'out house'... where scratched onto the back wall it says "Gentlemen and Rogues alike... kindly piss outside" or something like that. But it's true... around here most everyone goes #1 outside. For me it's sometimes off the front porch, out the back door... or at night... off the upstairs back porch. I definitely know of one area that will see no vegetation for a very long time ;-)

This is the path to said out house... I'll have to get the machete out soon and do some trimmin'

And here it is in all it's glory... notice the roofing tiles on the walkway for traction... things do get wet up here a lot.

And inside the house lives my electricity... all these car battery's are linked up to that solar panel and are charged up all during the day. The house is wired for 12 volts so that means no vacuum cleaner, no fridge, no charging up the laptop... and the only lights I have are CFL's and LED... which give off a weird glow... but I do have lot's a candles all over the place so as soon as I get in I light those and douse the LED's. Just like going back in time... it's a trip! ;-)

The front room where I come in... (shot from the kitchen)

Dining room off to the left with a massive table carved from two pieces of wood... pretty cool.

Cathedral ceiling with lot's of window light... a big plus up here... That and sky lights.

Off to the right is sort of a den... that's kind of stretching it but it's where the main wood stove that I'll be using is located and so it's where I'll hang out. There are two makeshift futon couches up against the wall, for either sleeping or entertaining.

Another shot of the 'den'... with tie-dye and everything ;-) That's actually where you can load wood in from the outside, so that you don't have to go out and get it every time... cool set-up.

My kitchen.. large and airy. It has a big, industrial, 6 burner gas stove and an original wood burning cook stove. I guess the previous occupants used it to warm up that part of the house... we'll see what happens this year. But I think I will try to cook with it at least once to see what that was like back in the day... eggs & hash browns in the morning and maybe a pizza at night... got to start off small ;-)

More kitchen, with a view of the front porch... and mother nature right outside the door.

So all in all, with great coffee...

Great beer...

Healthy food from the farm...

And a place to shit... What else can one truly ask for?!...

Well lot's of things I guess... but for now I'm content. I realize that I can get a little complacent, and that leads me to just living out the moment... and not focusing on the future that I want to manifest. I'm torn on that one for now though... "Am I just following through on a life that I chose to experience before 'coming down' ... absorbing the moments so fully... living out 'chunks of time' & learning experiences?..." Is that why I can't seem to figure out precisely what I want to do? Maybe it's not supposed to be on my radar... There are many who know what they want and that's great! And maybe there's 'us' ... the dreamers... the creators... I don't know. I'm rushing through this post because I think last time I was here at the library, I got timed out and most of what I had written didn't get saved. Then a re-roofing project came up that we had to finish before the rains came... blah blah blah. Anyway, all that aside, I've also been toying with the idea that the 'universe' provides us daily with what's needed. I read the 2nd book by Marlo something or other... her follow up to the 'Mutant Message From Down Under'. And in it the Aboriginal Indians of Australia were perplexed as to why the white man felt they needed to 'store groceries for weeks & months, bring water in from the outside, etc... when all they did (Abo's) is wake in the morning, face east and asked for what they needed for that day... and they got it... be it food or water... whatever... I'm letting that one soak in for a while.....

As always... please continue to take very good care of you & yours, Alexis

Moved onto the River Farm...

My good friend Eli sent me a message last week reminding me it was time for an update on my 'travels', and you know how I like to keep my audience 'riveted'... (borrowed that line from Blazin' Saddles ;-) Well I've been very busy working at the store lately... the young people are coming off of summer excursions and now gearing up for school; and the end of our heat wave has quited the summer frenzy and so business has slowed a bit. That translated to shuffling my hours around, picking up extra shifts, etc... So needless to say I have yet to settle into any routine. Which is still confusing at the moment because as my life slows down (between the ears) I'm still questioning my next step/steps... "Am I settled? settling? or resisting settling? I have yet to embrace my new 'community' and the house I'm currently occupying is... well that relationship is a work in progress. I went from that beautiful house sitting job where everything was so 'Feng Shui' to sorta 'Feng Sh_t' but that'll be next post. Don't get me wrong... I'm very grateful for the roof over my head... it's just that fall is around the corner and winter not to far behind, and I need to make up my mind as to what my next move might be... mentally or physically, or both.

Anyway, here's one of the last shots I took from my camping days up in the mountains. This one was taken just as a summer thunder storm moved in and the weather fluctuations formulated these low level 'fog' banks that seemed to just emerge from the hillsides. It was very cool to see them crawl along the crags and ravines.

And of course 'moving day'. I borrowed the store van and got all my stuff from my first shelter. It was like a game of lego's fitting everything in... and I strongly debated leaving the 100 pound plus, gold fish behind this time. My dear cousin Barrie was going to get rid of it years ago, and after she put so much effort into painting it, I thought it shouldn't go to waste... so I took it. And so now, every time I move, it comes with... always the last, heavy, pain in the ass thing on the truck. (I love you Barrie ;-)

Here are the first few shots I have of the River Farm. It's located at the end of the road and after you cross over the bridge, this is the beginning of the 'center of town'. Actually you would enter in from that road there, coming in towards this vantage point. The small building on the left is 3x separate sleeping quarters for visitors, and 'Woofers' (people who travel around, farm to farm, working while they stay there and visit. And it is also the pump room for our water supply. Across from it on the right is the work shop/barn. More pic's on that later, but there's a large wood shop area on one side and a metal workshop on the other.

And this is the 'Commons' where everyone meets up throughout the day (all except me so far) It's the communal kitchen/meeting room/laundry/TV, game room. With my fluctuating schedule at work, I've missed most of the Saturday night 'potluck dinners', held here...

Attending my first, monthly group meeting as a resident of the farm, catching up and discussing all that needs to be discussed... someone had set these flowers on the floor in the center of our circle and I just had to take their picture... Maybe it's the clouds that acts as a filter and brings such color to life... but I find it everywhere.

More color... dried flowers that the children pick to dry and bouquet. You don't see any Barbie dolls scattered around the floor here ;-) Kind of refreshing... here kids are more apt to lay in the hammock nearby and read than be playing dolly or video games... Not that those are bad... just a different choice selection I guess.

And here's the inside of the commons... pretty laid back and second hand as you can see. Here everyone shares the communal fridge, it offers a place to cook for visitors if they need, and it's where the mail is brought in. It's just your basic central meeting place... can't wait to see that wood stove in action one day.

And while I was sitting at that monthly meeting... I was looking out the window and I thought I saw a bird just sitting on the sill outside. But he didn't move... at all. So at the conclusion of the meeting I got a closer look... and yes it's a bird... and he hasn't moved in months... just his little petrified body holding some sort a vigil there...

So while down at the commons one day, my neighbor Anita gave me one of her bottles of goats milk. Yes the farm has about 7 or so goats and they give/ and get milked, and everyone gets some for their personal... consumption. And I have to say that cold, right out of the goat... it's delicious! and I'd drink it every day if it were available that often.

Another shot of inside the Commons...

My neighbor Anita, and resident astrologer. I'm closest with her so far because we have a similar mind set, and she's an old hippie from way back... This is her wooden Yurt and in my next post I'll have pic's of the inside... the 'decor' is so totally 'cool'... and/but typical of the off beat Pacific Northwest. She's away house sitting and has granted me permission to stay over as often as I want while I feed her feral cat, 'Christmas'. I might just take her up on it here and there.

This is her front porch and where said kitty sleeps. The decor speaks wonderfully for itself :-)

In Anita's backyard... just another beautiful Sunflower, with a honey bee doing her shopping...

And here, Anita is uncovering her blue berry bush so that we can pick some..... blue berries ;-) This year or garden season has been a very 'fruitful' year. Everyone, everywhere had bumper crops of whatever they happened to grow... Jeff wrote in an article that he sent off to the local rag, that it was possibly because late last year and up until now, there were fewer sunspots... I don't off hand understand the correlation, but sounds good to me ;-?

And my blue berry bounty from Anita's garden... between our small produce section at work and Anita, I've had more blue berries this summer than in my entire life... and the life is good.

But I'm still trying to work it all out... the whole "where am I going with my life?" sort of stuff. Balancing it all out I guess... being/staying in the moment... visualizing/pre-paving where I want to be... working on the 'it's all a state of mind'. At least that's how I explain it to others now. Interestingly enough... not everyone gets the L of A, science of mind stuff... that it's all shapeless, conscience energy molding to our daily mental holdings... and that we are truly the proverbial 'beautifully perfect, Spiritual Beings having a wonderfully Human experience'. Again my naivete fools me. So for now I'm starting with the basics... and when I'm on the handball court, enjoying my new found joy with the younger fella's... I continually push to be a quicker study, and faster on my feet than they are, and using Youtube video's of NY street handball players for visualization... I don't play into the aches & pains, because I AM, like everyone else... ONE with that mysterious magic that helped make us, sustains us, guides us, channels through us, is forged by us... IS us. I AM forever... and made of the stars... So let them scratch their heads and say to themselves... "45 years old huh?!,"

As always... take very good care of you & yours... Alexis