so, it snowed and we have this hill...

We could have done this all day long. You might want to turn your volumes down as I do whoop a few times !! Absolutely could not help it.

Best thing about video #1 is the wiggle slide hip thing she does to get herself to the hill. And #2 please take note of the hand extension. I will write more about this magic day later, but I had to post these to share.

blessings of gratitude,
Em

the rope swing and a beautiful day...

I can't remember when this was ... must have been two weeks ago or something like that. It has been so nutty busy lately it is very hard to keep track of things but this was a really sweet sweet day.

This is our new rope swing and other pics. The swing is now not a "lemon" but it is a circle instead which is much easier to maneuver.

:)

death in my backyard

It's country to be close to the real stuff in life and that pull towards living where there were more fields than parking lots is what brought us back to the green mountains of Vermont. We have been trying for the last year to create a homestead here. I believe in homestead education - not so much homeschool, although that's how it breaks down. It's amazing seeing experiences through my young farmer's eyes. She adamantly tells me that she wants to be an ANIMAL farmer and is clearly the reason we were pulled to raising chickens. Always interested in animal chores and helping feed, care for, love the farm animals (or all animals) of the world. What amazes me is her beautiful understanding of death and how raising chickens last year would bring me to a greater understanding of mortality and the wonder of life, the dance of death, the sustanance of life. All life comes from death. We eat to survive, we eat vegetables, meat, grain - all the foods we eat are linked to death. You don't have to kill a plant to eat it, but many times especially in large scale farming, there are many little tiny furred or feathered deaths from machinery. So whether you eat meat or not - birth, death, life - they are all linked.

We weren't completely ready when we got our first set of chickens. We loved them though and when one started cock-a-doodledooing.

It's all life except for the birth and death and those two experiences usually make you grateful for the life part. The NOW - right now. Nothing brings you more right now than how we come in and how we go out. Vermont tends to be on the real side of things anyway, but when most of your friends raise and sometimes slaughter what they eat, you know you're not in the city - not in any American city. Somehow we here have wrangled death out of our picture. We put people in hospitals to give birth, send them to a nursing home to die, and we have people way out in the middle of the country where most of the people don't live raising and killing and packaging what would otherwise be our daily or weekly or at least monthly run-in with death.*

We hadn't intended to raise meat birds. When we realized that we had a rooster, we both were excited, maybe we would have chicks in the spring, he could protect the hens, he was so beautiful with his bright orange feathers and purple-green tail. I don't eat meat, really, and it has always been my mantra that we just don't eat our pets.

However... we were unprepared for the 5:30 wake up call and his need to break out of the pen and then there was poop on the car and he ate one of my gardens. He was a force in the world - man he was one cool rooster. He jumped on everything and his crow was adorable, but he was streaming like a shooting star and we knew it. It quick became just too much for us, and nobody wants a rooster, and then we were really coming unglued with the daily 5:30-6:30 crowing sessions.... We even tried leaving him out at night but he still crowed until someone went out and talked him into stopping.

Greg was going to do it himself, but I thought we should have help, so we arranged a dinner/slaughter. I was going to flee the blessed event, but as the day wore on I knew I wouldn't be able to. I stayed. I made a dinner for ourselves and our friends who came to help fitting for the ritual of lentil soup, beer bread, and salad topped off with peach tart and whipped cream. I did what I could to hold the energy for it all and I stayed outside to give thanks, say good-bye and wonder a minute at death.
"It's time?"
"Yes."
Oliver caught him without any problem and held him gently as we all stroked his feathers and said good-bye. He was so calm and beautiful. Still full of life and ready for his journey. We all backed off a bit and I watched Oliver slide the rooster over to my husband who caught his head in his hand as if they were dancing. The other hand brought the knife to the rooster's neck, paused once more in gratitude and sliced the head clean off. The body did it's last dance with mary-jane and it was all over. All but the gratitude which has permeated the structure of this casa and our selves since. It's the cycle of life. It's a circle or a spiral or whatever you believe, but we all are born and we grow and perhaps reproduce and then die. Our physical bodies remain and can be used for sustenance to feed the remaining life on earth.

Animals aren't caught up with the quantity of their years here in this physical world. They are happy to be here, super present with the eating and the drinking and the reproduction and survival, and when their time comes, they aren't fearful. The moment of death is beautiful and they know it. All life comes with death. It's the molecules from plants and animals that sustain us. I felt so grateful to my family for being the ones to bring this death right into our backyard. It's here all the time, but to experience it with intention and gratitude and without sadness or attachment to fear is something to be marveled at. Where there is reverence there will be light and we're illuminating the dark sphere.

blessings of gratitude,
Emily

*or out at sea fishing and gutting, you get the picture ;)

sweet peace

Greetings,

I am feeling the softness of the ground so blessed with an abundance of rain. Everything is green and an earthy sweetness seems to be rising from the ground. It's paradise. I am freshly back from a three day retreat and fast and I managed to bring back the peace I found there. Life is sweet and breezy and warm and I am divinely grateful for it ALL.

I seem to have an ongoing obsession with trees and clouds. They have such grace and bend or blow as the wind suggests. I am calling all this into my well-being and it is indeed a blissful reminder for my spirit. Freedom comes with letting go.

Mostly, I just cannot believe that we live here in this little paradise on earth. It is magical every moment if I pay attention.


Oh and of course we found some Chanterelles, so we had to kabob 'em and grill em!


Greg and Luna coming back from pickin' raspberries and blackberries for oatmeal...



brambles :)
Another cloud moment...




Mimi and Bampy :)

Walking back to the pond.



with blessings of gratitude,
Emily

walk to the pond at twilight

It was magical and sweet. We had our first grill out in the last 2 and 1/2 years and then ate on our picnic table only to then all suit up and walk out to the pond. It was sunset and the moon was rising up over the hills and we had friends to share it with. Everything was reflecting and if it wasn't for the mosquitos we might not ever have come back....

blessings of gratitude,
Emily

is there an upstairs....?

This is Greg's tiny closet door. The hinges and door handle/latch are wrought iron. We're really happy with the doors. They are so beautiful and add more wood to the whole scene.


Let it be known that my man can shovel a whole lot of shit!




our room .... :) greg and my favorite room I think. The red is intoxicating.





the sweet shed :)

stained glass at night

settling in....

This weekends favorite activity: starting my rock garden :)





the color: teal
now what do we do about trim ;)
picnic table :)
stream from the pond



It is so beautiful here. The weather we have had lately is so magical and mystic. The rain makes everything so green and then everything glows through the filtered light. White clouds hang low in the surrounding hills. We have been feeling very blessed (when we remember to ;)

We're settling in more each day. It's been amazing to take little walks at night and play frisbee in our front yard with the port-a-potty. Life is sweet.

blessings of joy!
Emily

No pictures just words. Just needed to get out of my head and onto somewhere else for a change. My thoughts have a tendency to float around into something festering if I don't give them a chance to run free of the confines of my mind.

I've been reading this Alberto Villoldo book, Dance of the Four Winds, and it's altered everything. I've been revisiting the Incas but this time with San Pedro.

Things are amazing here on our little once and future farm. Busy, tense at times, and still a little boxed out in our bedroom, but really, really good. I've been making dinner again and we actually find that we love not having a dishwasher. There is a beautiful ritual to the unloading of the drying rack and the washing of the sink of dishes. It's simple and sweet.

Greg, Luna and I went out to the pond last night. There were three herons and it seemed as though two were sitting on nests. When we got out there, one took off in flight and circled around the pond and back to a nest. Neither of us had any idea that they might be nesting again this year. We had been told that they had abandoned the pond except to fish. Rain and a little dark funky cloud kept us from there tonight, but we'll be back this weekend, so we'll check it out again.

The camera must be lost in the chaos that remains in our room. I bet that I unearth it tomorrow and can post pictures of the house, mini garden, shed and picnic table. Thanks Grandma & Grampa :)

blessings,
Emily

moving day

so supposedly we're moving today. I am so present that it somehow doesn't even seem real yet even though I am sitting in a little house of boxes here on the couch typing this...even though Greg is supposedly going to get the u-haul in 10 minutes and then my coffee will be done, kick in and I will power through one more round of packing. Sean's coming at noon and we'll load the truck and kick it on outta here and up to our new home.

last night was then perhaps our last night here? we heard the chimes at midnight .. that was sweet. The town was saying "good-bye, enjoy your new home on the hill...."

Yesterday as we were leaving the house, we drove down the lane a bit and saw a great big snapping turtle. She was amazing - I could have watched her walking around for hours. Her legs were so strong and she moved much faster than I have ever seen a turtle move. Even still, every movement was methodical and melodical. So thought out and precise. Turtle medicine is ancient medicine. She represents a strong tie to the earth and the water and serves as a reminder to move slowly on your life path. She speaks of a sense of purpose and meaning to movement. She says - take it easy, be sure to center home and be mindful of your actions and don't forget the gratitude.

We are to be stewards of the earth with a place to practice. We are moving to our once and future home. The time space continuum is bending and worlds merge, collide, sparks fly, egos die. I am filled with love and gratitude for all that is.

blessings of abundance and joy,

Emily

whoa, that was fast

It's been a fast six months ... here's a breakdown of where we are:

The septic is in ... everything is all leveled and lovely. When I was there today around 5:30, they were loading the machines onto trucks and taking them away! It will be a little more peaceful with that crew gone. The gravel for the shed is layed and the shed is ordered and will be arriving in 7-10 days. Thank you again, mom and dad. :) Seed and hay spread tonight before they left just in time for this rain I hear we will be getting. Timing is everything, it seems and everything is in divine order. Good thing, eh?

Last week, the big digger dug clear through to clay, which Luna *loved*. She was covered and must have spent a good 20 minutes just walking around it.

Greg and I spent most of the weekend taping, painting and erythaning. Whoosh! Time to pack...


blessings!
Em

that what we do

I spent the other night up at the house erythaning the window and door trim. Since it was dark, I had lights on and when I went out to the car to call Greg and check in I took this picture. Junebugs tapping on the windows, glowy cozy feel in abundance, Fats Waller singing out about his Honeysuckle Rose .... let me tell you it was sweet.

There is a feeling you have when you are new to something wonderful and suddenly you allow it into your being and begin to experience it on a deeper level. I can remember my little one not even a day old, holdng her up and kissing her little face all over and her eyes and tiny lips - I just had to. Greg came in and said - "Ohhhh, you can just kiss her...?" like a little light of recognition went off inside him that would allow him access to a greater happiness through a more authentic connection: one that has no boundaries. We hold ourselves away from the new - we distance ourselves as if we aren't sure it is really for us. Do we truly deserve to have that deep a connection? Can we allow it?

As I painted the other night - really loving all the wood. Watching it glow under the erythane and see the knots come alive under my strokes, I started to open up. Some of this process became real for me, as Luna said "really real"...

trimmed windows and apple trees a bloom :)

So far this is where Luna loves to play.

Our sockets are in, but they don't work yet. There is one that works, and the rest will be functioning soon! The whole house is just a big mess as they just brought in all the wood for the upstairs flooring as well as the wood to finish off the outside of the house.

The upstairs floor is in the kitchen ... ;) I just think it sounds silly.

Bruce did a really nice job trimming our windows. It almost makes me cry it's so beautiful!

Ahhhhhhh................ :)

blessings,
em