Moving in to a new level

It has been almost a year since I have used and posted on this blog and I am really over due for a long up date. But not today..

Life has been so busy,  on June 1st we graduated the 2013 permaculture class from Leon County Extension. Eighteen new permacuture designers in our community!

Now...... I total open my heart to the universe as to what comes next for me in the world of permaculture.

I want to teach on a level where my Earth Activist Training and my spiritual connections can be better applied.
My own work on the farm has taken me to a new level and is growing stronger everyday. I need to post new photos soon.

My spiritual work has also developed to a higher level as we have moved deeper into the age of enlightenment.  The awakening of so many people has given me hope for the future and a healthy fear of those of power and domination. As an activist and an anarchist I feel it is time I use all I have learned to stand up for what I believe.

I have set aside things that take my energy, this summer my plans are to reconnect my spirit and the Earth. New adventures await!

Spring Photos

Spring and Winds of the Shifting Times

May 19 and 20, 2012

It has been little over a month since I returned from California and my trip, the workshop in Social Permaculture and the experiences are so vivid and on my mind. It was some powerful work I did there and I have been able to teach some of it to my permaculture class taught through the Leon County Extension office. We have just wrapped up the spring quarter and I am once again so impressed and blessed with the students and what we are doing for our community. Will, Anna and Wendi are such wonderful people and I am truly enjoying this experience and have a lot of gratitude for what we are creating together.
Life is moving faster that ever before. I can hardly believe that it is the middle of May already. Sitting on my front porch (Wednesday) drinking my coffee thinking of how the morning showers use to come in June and July. The feel in the air is charged with energy and renewal as well as a healthy chunk of hope and rain for the garden. A friend of mine said in our student discussion group, "when the end times come you will not be able to know the seasons" it really feels like nature is taking her own and setting her own pace. I am enjoying it and watching the animals both wild and those on the farm. I am keeping a close eye on what is coming for us in the near future, for no one really knows.


I am still working at Ace and keeping the garden center beautiful with the help of Nelda, which I am very grateful for, she is a real charm and a blessing. I have begun to fall into that place on this job where I feel my contributions are significant, but also feel totally disrespected (by management) in my work and rarely acknowledged for my knowledge, wisdom and skills. I know my purpose there is much more than what I am able realize right now, but I am waiting for what it is I need to find or do there and why. I have been sent there for something? I love the customers and most of the employees. I really hate the drama and tension, the power games. Those that I help in the garden center come back to me again and again and give great thanks for my knowledge and skills. I had a customer ask me Wednesday if I was going to stay there to help with their gardening questions. My answer was "for a while, I am not sure where I will be called".

I have not been back to the Crystal Connection since I came back from California and I really miss working there, the customers and my Crystal Connection family. I drop in now and then and love seeing the customers coming to the new store. It is different but feels good. Business has been slow and Sunshine, Stan and Kelly are there. I hope that in the future business picks up and I can get back to work there. But I have been busy doing readings as well as with farm and work at Ace. There never seems to be enough time to do all the things I need or want to do.

On the Farm
We hatched out 20 chicks from our eggs and they have moved from the house nursery to the rabbit cage in the chicken pen. These will be used for food. We are presently hatching out more, last count was 23 and a few more tonight. We weaned the Goat kids Saturday and are milking three goats twice a day, about 1 gallon per milking. I have talked to a neighbor about making soap and lotion from our milk as well as using some honey from our bees. I am very excited about having soap and lotion from our farm. We are very proud to be able to eat a lot of what is from the land. Besides from making cheese and butter, I am now making yogurt from the goats milk. I gave Jamie milk for Wiley last week. Friday we harvested and extracted 9.5 gallons of honey. That makes 15.5 gallons this year so far. There is a big black bear that has taken out two of our neighbor’s hives. Fortunately it has not found it’s way to our farm, yet. We have set up the area with dogs and our hives are very close to the house, hopefully he/she has gotten it’s fill of honey and won’t be seeking our well protected hives.

We sold trees on our other farm to get the money to put a new roof on our house. It was not an easy decision to make but it will benefit us all in the end. I have never walked the land on our tree farm that I inherited from my Mother. The land off I10 was given to my grandfather by his mother. It holds deep pain and family wounds for me. But the day before we cut 19 acres I walked the land with Noah. He had told me about the stream and the beauty for years and I was brought to tears at the landscape, he has always called "Ferngully". They are not cutting the area around the stream, just the planted pines that are about 27 years old and we will replant by hand for the future. There are plenty of pines there and we will preserve the hardwood for the wild life. But a new roof has to be put on the farm house soon. A huge tarp is protecting it for now till we get this done.

We have had only one foal born this spring, a little colt that is really special. He has dark front feet and white back feet, his hooves are also the color of his hair. He is off one of Noah’s special mares and we have hope for him. Noah has gotten rid a few horses, two colts from last year and a gelding we got as a rescue but hopefully a few more in the next month or so.


In the Garden
Oh My, what a beautiful garden I have! My permaculture sheet mulched spirals are so awesome. The squash and zucchini are just lush and green. I am harvesting tons of beautiful squash. My beans still haven’t grown even though I have been diligent and planted them four times. But the cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, onions, basil, even the collards and mustards are so happy. I found a new way to water with flat sprayer hoses and set up my drip irrigation on the outer beds. But I haven’t had to use any of it for the past week, thank you rain! Even Noah is impressed even though he will not say so, he pulled the tractor up a few days ago so he could take photos from the bucket. It is really hard to get good photos since the spiral is hidden under the lush green of the vegetables. I have been playing with sweet potatoes, even though I totally ignored my red potatoes, I am excited about the vines of the sweet potatoes and can’t wait to see what becomes of my attempts. I planted them in a sandy area that doesn’t get as much attention as the spirals, but I am drawn there everyday. I still have garlic and tomatoes in my small garden and planted some sweet potatoes there as well, Noah tends that one when he is feed the animals but we will see what it produces from the rich composted soil where we had a horse pen a few years.
On my way back from California I met a really nice man originally from Kenya (Africa) now living in Seattle Washington, he told me about his Kiwi trees/vines and I was surprised and impressed with what he told me. A few weeks ago we got kiwi at Ace and I bought two pots that have both male and female plants in one pot. You need a pollinator to produce fruit. I am really excited about seeing what I can do with the kiwi and if it will be happy in my garden. The orchard is bright and green, I don’t think we will have plums this year for some reason but I expect lots of pears, grapes, oranges, lemon, figs and persimmons. The deer has all but eaten my nectarine tree.
　
In the Spirit World
For several days I have been really feeling and hearing the shifts happening. Moving closer and closer to the Summer Solstice I feel that the Web of Life and Illusion is being pulled to it’s limits. There are strands that are letting go and others that have become so tight and stretched that when the winds of time blow across them they sings. I first heard it outside my window and when I went outside to hear it was not there. I really started listening in deep meditation and it is becoming stronger and I am hearing it often now. You can see it in the world too. Things are being revealed. Things and people are letting go and others are running in fear. Others are making huge decisions in their lives. The ones I truly am afraid of are those that have no clue as to what is happening and when their world comes crashing down they will become dangerous. You hear everyday of people just flipping out more than ever before. Some end their lives and the lives of others. Some are just simply taking them selves out either intentionally or physically releasing through illness. Regardless it is happening all around us. I feel more connected and engaged with the world that ever before, because I know I have a mission in this new world. I don’t always know what it is, but I wake each day with wonder and gratitude. I do find those moments of fear and try to understand what and why I must question things. But I also trust in the Divine and that the truth will be revealed. As we had this discussion a few nights ago, "put on your oxygen mask first, before you try to help others" tighten up your seat belts because this next six months may be a really bumpy ride. I don’t know what is coming but I am very grateful to be here. My advice is, "Find you grounding cord and hang on, we are headed though the rabbit hole and what is in Wonderland may be something we never dreamed of. But I also honor those that choose to pass to the otherside, either for fear or because they just can't deal with the changing world. There are also others that need to help those here on this side of the veil. let us give thanks and gratitude everyday for the life we have here and to be alive in these time of great change.

OK, I have tried to post the photos but my computer does not want to download.... so I will try to post the photos on a new post.　

Dawn at Golden Rabbit Ranch and Redwoods

April 16, 2012
My awakening of Morning came before the sun, I gazed out the window of the yert that hangs off the side of a mountain, I can not remember how high Star said it was in altitude here, but we are pretty high up. What I saw was a Crescent Moon not long before dawn, it just felt as if I could step out the window and touch her, so beautiful. I must have fallen back to sleep and just as the sun reached to top of the mountains I jumped off the floor and ran up the hill, I saw it but did not get my camera out fast enough to catch what I saw. It took my breath away. I sat in the meadow and watched the sun bath the world as everything came awake. The bird song and rush of colder wind swept me into a place of gratitude to be on this sacred land, yet I felt the fragality and the strength of this place. Later as I stood on the porch, I asked Charles if he heard the music from the next hill over. He told me the only music he heard was the birds song. That is not what I heard, it was voices light and soft, singing in perfect harmony.

We ate oatmeal and I said my good-bys. I drove down the hill and by Star’s house to take a photo of her street sign when I saw a huge jack rabbit, it just stood there and stared at me, almost as if it was waiting for me. I moved to grab my camera and it jumped into the brush on to a trail leading to Star’s house. You know what I think, don’t you?
Off to the redwoods! I found the River road and got to Armstrong Woods state park right as they opened at 9am. I was the second car in the lot and it was almost full by the time I got on the trail. My first glimpse of the massive trees sent me into a state of trance and tears ran down my cold face as I walked the trail alone. It took me about a half hour before I could totally embrace where I was and what I was seeing and feeling. I found a place where two huge redwoods stood side by side and a natural curve between them. I stepped into the curve between the trees. I could feel the pulse of the earth and trees, I could feel the life I was seeing and feeling. I wept for a while. Not tears of sadness but of pure gratitude that I was allowed to be here in the grace of this place. That my life’s path has opened and lead me to such beauty and enlightenment. It was not just this moment in the redwoods but life as a whole. I felt lost as to how to return such honor but also knew I was welcomed here with my gifted sight, to see the true heart of these woods. I felt the woods whisper their message to me that I was welcome here. I felt the connection of family and the collectiveness of survival over the thousands of years these trees have stood. I felt the family of birds and furry ones that lived in these trees and those that walked the woods to admire their massive beauty. But I also felt the others that lived deep within the earth and heart of this place, the spirit of this land. I took my time and walked the trails. I chatted with other visitors and shared the awe of my experience there.
I could have just stayed there and never left. I thought of home and family, of my place in this world and why I had made this journey. I knew if I stayed much longer I would never leave.

Heading for home
The little river town near the woods called Guerneville was a classic hippy haven sitting on the Russina river, complete with gift shops, a few dinners and local old burnt out hippies playing checkers around the fountain in the park. I ate Pacific fish and chips, bought some tie dye and a few small trinkets. I found a Hemp shop that was closing and had a 75% off sale, some I bought myself some, since I don’t own any hemp clothing. It was the perfect opertunity for me to unload the rental car and repack all my bags to prepare for the flight home, that took me about 45 minutes to stuff everything back into some travel fashion. I made my way back to the airport just in time to return the rental car, check my bags and get on the plane. Alaska airlines runs the puddle jumpers out of Santa Rosa with twin engine prop planes, not a bad ride but a little bumpy. I had changed into a long skirt for travel and I guess they thought I looked suspious because the patted me down and went through my computer bag with swabs like I was carrying some explosives. I was kinds laughing at their seriousness but I guess better safe than sorry.
My seat mate on this plan was a delight, a young man from Africa now living in Seattle Washington, traveling to Australian on business. We chatted about everything from the high tech world of wireless mining (his business) to growing Kiwi trees in Washington state. One day he will be living on a farm doing permaculture because of the conversation we had in the short hour and a half. I was very curious about the landscape on our trip south to Los Angeles, there were desolete spaces of dry bare mountains bordered with farmland, then not far from Los Angelas there was a mountain range with snow tops. We were flying low due to the size of the plane so I could see a lot of what was below.
The lay over in Los Angeles went slow and when I checked my carry on I felt I needed to go back and get it, the flight was packed and there were a lot of roll ons going to Miami. Sure enough my carry on bag got lost and I had a nasty 5:30 am conversation with an attendent in MIA about my bag, when I got to Tallahassee neither one of my bags were on the plane. I was too tired to deal with it but was concerned, I let American Airlines deal with it my brain needed a rest.
I walk into my house and everything was different. I was not expecting to see the living room totally changed. I hated the light brown sectional couch Noah had found at Goodwill, mostly because I really like the old one and he didn’t. It is ugly and uncomfortable to me. He had also bought a rug for the floor which I do like. A new used coffee pot and a kirby vacuum cleaner. Oh, of course our income tax money was back….and I was gone so things got changed, duh. I just really felt unhappy in the moment, I was too tired to sleep. He did get ride of two horses and not bring any more home, that was positive.
So instead of sleeping Noah and I spent the day extracting honey. This was the first time we had done it all by ourselves with out David’s help or extractor, because now we have one of our own. It was a little awkward but we managed. We need to learn the set up a little better, but we got 6 gallons from the first harvest and it is rich and golden.
I went back to the airport and got my bags in the afternoon, bought feed and my schedule from Ace and finally fell a sleep watching the news, so Noah had to do the feeding alone. It will be good to have a full day to catch up and Leslie and the kids are coming this weekend. As usual when Noah cleans the spare bedroom gets trashed and there is no place for them to stay this weekend. I havemilk to pasturize and lots of things to do.
But all and all it was a WONDERFUL trip and I am looking forward to sharing new things I learned with my friends and class.

Last day of class

April 15, 2012
I could not down load the photos from the April 14^th post so I messed with it until I totally ran out of time. It is a lot of pressure to be trying to keep up with the daily post and down load the photos as well as keep up with the hours of class, and socialize with the students. I must say this has been one of the most pleasant workshops I have ever done. The subject has been Powerful and the students really rock. I have had a few moments where I just sat back and processed the energy or either laughed my ass off at something so silly, like Beth’s jokes. This morning I really got into the conflict around consensus process when the facilitator totally lost control of the meeting. She learned a lot!
Last days are always emotional when you totally rock with your affinity groups, the teachers and the class as a whole. This was no exception, but I did not cry as I have in the past because the content of this work and the connections we have made will be through out a lifetime. Each of us has made serious pledges to continue on with this work. That doesn’t mean we will be in contact with each other per say but taking these skills out into the world is more important than promises that we will stay in touch. Many of us will cross paths again in some way, we all felt that.
We spent our morning talking more about difficult people and in meetings with difficult people. More role playing. I had to ground and draw out something that attached it’s self to Kiki after the mornings exercise, we were late for lunch because this was pretty serious. I did have a chance to process this with Starhawk later in the evening. Our closing ceremony was very touching and as we sat around the fire we build with all the stuff we wanted to dumped. For me I chose a piece of bark that a worm had chewed the figure of a snake into the center. This meant shedding the skin of the physical and the past for transformation but the snake also means power and for me has a special magical identification. We dumped what energy we had left for dealing with difficult people and stuff we processed over the class and prepared ourselves to go back into the real world.
If I would change anything about the class I would not let this been the last subject, it is the hardest but also brings up stuff students need time to process before they leave their teachers. Several times I asked Kiki if she was Ok and she assured me it was gone, I wonder if anyone else had some lingering energy of the work that was working it’s self out through people?

　

After I was packed and helped Starhawk and Charles pack up the last of the stuff, I followed them back to Golden Rabbit Ranch for the evening. Stavo rode with me but insisted we put the top down on the Eclipse, it took three of us to figure out you pushed a button on the dash, who knew??? It was pretty cool to ride through the mountains up to Starhawk’s ranch in a convertible. When I first got there I took a walk around the land and sat with the energy. It was late and I was tired and after a while I went inside for wonderful conversation with Charles, Shakti Sara, Julie, Stavo, Aresh and Kate and I crashed on the floor of Charles’s Yert for the evening. Starhawk and Carla(?) came in right at dark and we shared a meal of leftovers. We talked for hours about life, some about the workshop, a lot about dogs and animals. Sleeping on the floor was OK with me but the busy little mouse that shared the Yert and the fact that I had to pee and really did not want to get up made a restless night for me.

　

Ckicken Run and Passion Show

April 14, 2012
Last full day of class and the subject is "Difficult People". It was a wonderful day, full of information and Permaculture. We proved as a class that we have learned a lot about the subjects as we once again did a lot of role playing and discussion about difficult people and situations we have had in groups of all sorts. Process and more process and then we went out and played another role as we built a chicken run. This detailed hauling lots and lots of wheel barrows of compost into an area that the monks here will use as a chicken yard for the summer months. Our role was to stay in teams and be the best worker with in that team. It was impossible to do what that asked of us in teams in 45 minutes. About 10 minutes into the exercise as I was shoveling compost into wheel barrow after wheel barrow that we were revolting and working together as a whole group. Starhawk had already called me an Anarchist and Charles confirmed that when he realized I was going against the rules of the game and organizing everyone to work together to get more work done. I was very happy they all followed in, it was a mutual dicission and when the exercise was over we accomplished a lot more work and were given a thumbs up from our teachers for going against the system to get the job done. It was what they hoped for.
I never really identified myself as an Anarchist but I guess I am… I kinds like it!

　
　
Then I took on the role as MC for the Passion Show for the evening. I had two other that were in my group that also volunteered and we share the stage. We had 16 wonderful acts from singing to poetry, as well as so dance and stories. We even played this really cool game with cups. It was a lot of fun. I took several photos and video. But it is very late and I have to pack up and leave after class tomorrow. I will try to post one more time before I head off to another adventure, not sure what but the big Redwoods are on my to do list.

Home and finishing my Blog

I got home almost a week ago and things have been moving fast as usual. Back to work, farm and life. This past weekend all the family was here and we had a wonderful time catching up and went to the music festival in Monticello.This is the first time I have turned on my computer so please forgive me for not finishing my blog from my trip. The internet connections there were just so sketchy that it was difficult to complete my post. I
Hope you have enjoyed my ramblings...