So much, too much, so much! Between Thursday community dinners, twice weekly work parties, special pod-only events, including movie nights and a brunch to welcome back Alex who was gone for the summer, figuring out an actual budget (first time ever!), on and on . . . we are truly beginning to “take it to the next level,” as Charisse (Rebecca) declared we were about to do, early last spring. Some plans I’m not going to forecast until they begin to materialize. And of course, all the animals, their own little society, and how all species learn. More on that later. First, pics from Thursday dinner, Friday work party, Monday work party.
THURSDAY DINNER
This was only the second dinner in three years when there did not appear to be enough real food. What? Impossible! Usually, the table is groaning. But then, yep, just like last time, a few months ago, Jim showed up late with his usual huge magnificent main dish(es). Whew! You can imagine how we all cheered. But that didn’t happen until we had all gone through the paltry line once. And unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of Jim’s triumphant entrance. Oh, and then neighbor Devin, who had come for awhile and then left to attend an ice cream party, returned bearing party leftovers, an enormous cache — dozens and dozens of beautiful ice cream half pints, from local Chocolate Mouse. Whew!
Here we are, in line to get food from the new outdoor kitchen, just after we observed our new protocol, gathering to hold hands in a circle, with this time, me as celebrant. First of all, I pointed out that we were gathering on the Full Moon in Leo/Aquarius, to celebrate the full self expression (Leo) of each of us in a group (Aquarius), and then blessing sky, earth, each other, and the wonderful plants who nourish us.
FRIDAY MORNING WORK PARTY
Yep. The “morning after.” On the docket for harvesting. Beans! Lots and lots of them.
MONDAY MORNING WORK PARTY
We gathered in Maple House living room where, under Charisse’s tutelage, we broke into groups to harvest and preserve food from the garden. Here are the two amigos, Camden and Alex, who has just returned from two months on a permaculture farm in Costa Rica where, he says, “I fell in love with the earth.” YES!
They are about to head outside, where they will be picking up a certain pile to put in the cart to be hauled away. (Backstory: when picking up this pile the first time, to put on the hugelkultur beds, Chris suddenly got stung by at least a dozen wasps. There were so many wasps, and the pile was so close to where the mailman walks, that we had to call in a pest expert, and he had to poison the pile. Told us there were two nests underneath, with probably 80 wasps all together.)
After that, Charisse put the two amigos on the task of harvesting lambs quarters, which grows wild all over the property, and is a super food, terrific for salads and soups. We will dry leaves for use all winter long.
Meanwhile, inside, Charisse instructed Gabrielle and Daisy on how to skin tomatoes after blanching them, for canning or freezing.
Look up!
And she set Andreas and me to work snapping the beans we harvested during the Friday morning work party. Getting ready to can them or freeze them.
Then, wouldn’t you know, once Daisy sat down to help Andreas, Hank decided he wanted to join the discussion from his own chair.
ANIMAL NEWS
Which brings me to the big animal news: puppy Shadow, who now has to live with kitty Tiger, turns out to be Tiger’s guardian whenever they are inside another house with others, protecting Tiger from, especially, Hank! YES!
And next, in regards to that Tiger kitty, he has been busy tearing up the screens on the screened porch in this Overhill house, so badly does he want to escape. And sometimes he does manage to do just that. Yesterday, for example, when we heard him mewing piteously from a tree high above, “out on a limb.” Dan managed to coax him back to the trunk, and rescued him from there.
So. Okay. This morning we decided to open the sliding door to the back that has a screen door with a kitty size hole in it already. Let him out the back. This little Aries kitty is simply too strong and willfully curious to be constantly confined. Hopefully, we can make sure he does not go out the front again until he gets enough sense not to dart into the street.
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Of course, right away, this morning, he climbed another tree. But this time I watched him carefully back up, all the way down the trunk when he was done. But of course, we realize that with this particular tree, he will have access to the roof . . .
Oh well!
Dan is outside on the front porch, right now, having gone to the hardware store, patching the holes in the screen. We do have a kitty door out there, which we will open when we decide to release him to the front.
And wouldn’t you know, with access to the back yard now, he’s much more relaxed. Spent about 20 minutes out there, and then came back in and curled
into a nap.
And isn’t this true for all of us? We all need freedom to explore our own nature, despite the dangers freedom can entail. And when “out there,” taking risks, we also learn. Going “out on a limb” has its rewards. Tiger, for example, he learned quick. We knew he would.
