Whoa

Our land

is grounding. 💫

Repeat after me.

Our land

is grounding. 💫

Remember this.

When other things 

want to suck you in

and spit you out.

And this they do

so often,

lately.

In August, my sister Colleen came to visit from Michigan, and she visited our land with us for the second time. The first time she was here the land was still very raw and we hadn't yet figured out where we wanted our homesite to be. She had found bear tracks in our creek bed and we now call that part of the creek Bear Paw Creek. This time, we were able to pull into our driveway to park and we hiked up to our potential yurt site, up on a hillside, where we chopped and moved wood to clear out some trees we had felled. We shared a fire, got eaten alive by mosquitos and shared a delicious local beer together to celebrate our work and us being together, here, again. So grateful for my sister. We have seen each other four times this year and I am so so grateful.

Also in August, we scheduled a visit to Two Girls Farm in Acworth, NH. These are the people who we plan to purchase our yurt from. We were able to tour their beautiful farm and buildings they have built from the ground up as well as to see a 20 ft. yurt with 5 ft. high walls. We felt greatly inspired and were able to narrow down our specifications and get a quote for the exact yurt we want. We plan to get a 25 ft. yurt with 6 ft. high walls. We want at least one real window and a second (back) door. We had hoped to be able to purchase the yurt this fall but things just did not come together that way. But, we left feeling inspired and looking forward to when that time will come for us.

On August 17th, I was in need of something that would provide a calm, relaxing and quiet place to be. To unplug. To be at peace. This was the one year anniversary of my close friend Nicole's death. Nicole died by suicide and this particular day was going to be heavy - I knew it, my body knew it, my heart knew it, my mind knew it. So, we booked a Vermont Huts yurt which also happened to be one made by Two Girls Farm. It was magical. You have to hike into it and bring what you want in with you. It was very rustic and right up our alley. We gleaned so much inspiration and also got to see the complex platform they built underneath to enable the yurt to be built on a hillside. I think this is where we started to feel stumped at the idea of building a similar platform on a hillside such as ours, which also has rock intermingled in, which will make putting in sonotubes extra tricky...

Rain collection barrels.

The deck they had built and view were just beautiful!

They had simple water storage under the sink and you pumped up the water with a foot pedal. I think we may use something similar.

A crooked sonotube. These are tricky, especially if you have rock underneath your soil & especially if you have to put them deep enough so that frost doesn't heave them out.

6 foot walls feel good!

My dad had been planning to visit and come help us get some work done on our land for a while and we were greatly looking forward to it, whenever that could happen. We landed on August. He brought Norma on this trip with him, who he has been dating for a few years. They traveled from Illinois with a camper, his dog Molly and Norma's cat Honeysuckle. They helped us tremendously in the time they were here - cutting, moving and stacking much wood over a few days, which further cleared out our potential yurt site. We also were able to burn some wood, which was great, and there is plenty more of that to do. We also had some great conversation and connection, which was more what was needed I realized than anything else. I had never met Norma before and we were able to spend some time getting to know each other and I discovered she is a fellow animal lover and compassionate human, which was a breath of fresh air. There were some rainy, wet days and we also spent some time away from the land, doing other things in the area. We didn't get to spend as much time working on the land maybe as we had all hoped, but we greatly appreciate the time we were able to have.

Molly - my dad's dog - traipsing through our creek in search of a thrown ball.

Norma and Honeysuckle. 

Honeysuckle is a very sweet kitty who cannot walk independently but she has her ways of getting around when she wants to. I loved to meet her.

Keith and my dad fell a few more trees.

My dad chainsawing it up.

Some time in September, we were able to hold ceremony for our cat Smalls and release her ashes on our land. We were able to use sunflowers we had grown down by our driveway. She is now with us there. We miss her and we love her, always.

On September 30th, we got a phone call that my oldest sister Deana's husband, Josh, had died suddenly. Unexpectedly. From a heart attack. This is something I still, cannot process, or find proper words for. The tears still just flow. It is so unbelievably unfair that such a present person, a present husband, present father, and human was taken so soon. It isn't fair. His presence meant so much to so many.

Josh and Deana and their three adult kids (whoever of the three could make it!) had offered to come help us put up our yurt this fall, 2023. We absolutely wanted to take them up on this offer. We had originally planned/dreamed/hoped that this would happen this year, but life had different plans. I had just recently written to Deana saying that we aren't able to do that this fall but next year, hopefully!

For the funeral, we drove out to Iowa, got to hug my sister, and her children. We got to see some of his family, who we have not seen for years and years. His funeral was on my birthday, which was that wild and raw reminder of how precious and sacred life really is.

Mary Oliver's words come to mind - "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

My heart aches. Keith and I are grateful for the memories we made and for the time we spent with Josh and will carry his influence in our lives onward.

On Keith's birthday, we were informed that our younger cat, Boo, likely has lymphoma. And this, likely means she has just a short life left. Long story short, her cells came back negative for lymphoma and every other test they gave her also came back negative. We are still in the unknown territory at this point in time. She is currently doing better. But, we haven't yet pinpointed the root cause of her health issues. Lymphoma is not completely off the table. Every day is a goddamn gift. 🤍

My family has other life and death journeys going on as well. And other things, too. You don't always know what other people are going through, you know? Not to mention the state of the world right now. Kindness matters. So much.

🌊🌊🌊

After some time, deep rest and reflection, we realized we were hitting some tension. When considering the yurt platform, septic design, the cost/difficulty of these things as well as which order to do them in, we were beginning to feel lost. Our land is raw, hilly, rocky, and rough. After some phone calls, we were told that a septic could now cost us $20,000-30,000, which is far greater than we originally anticipated. There is only one naturally flat area, and that is where our septic feasibility study determined would be the best place for the septic mound to go. In Vermont, a full septic/wastewater system is required for a primary residence - even if the residence will be very minimal and even if a composting toilet will be in use. Sometimes, this feels so frustrating. We begun to question some things. For the first time, we found ourselves questioning this piece of land, and questioning Vermont. I discovered a bill that had been started in the state legislature where some state representatives had wanted to ask the state to reconsider requiring a full septic/wastewater system for minimal living situations - I wrote in to them and discovered this bill has stalled unfortunately. I know we're not the only ones who struggle with this - sometimes, it feels harder to want to live simply/minimally than it would be to just plug into the grind and do things the way the systems expect you to.

We recently met with the septic design company and we arranged for a new feasibility study to be done so that we can hopefully move the septic mound to a place that will open up the one flat area there is. Our hope is to be able to use the one flat area for our new yurt-site. This will enable us to put in a simple, basic, and temporary yurt platform - one that does not need to be permanently in place using sonotubes.

While working at the library, I have a patron and his partner who often check in and ask about our yurt and land progress (and our cats :)) and I had told them that we are feeling a bit stalled for now - and that our focus for this fall was to plant some native wildflowers along our driveway. They quickly offered to give me some native plant seeds they had dried and saved. On my next work day, there was a bag full of a variety of seeds with my name on them. These kindnesses...they mean so much. We need more of this. I reflected on this and how much it impacted me in that moment and I realized that we have so often come across people who share these kindnesses...and that these people have all played a role in the continuation of that hope that propels me along, in the beauty of humanity. I thanked them profusely but I don't think they realize what kind of hope this type of kindness brings to me. I had also purchased some wildflower seeds from Vermont Wildflower Farm and we waited until just around the first few ground freezes to plant them all along our driveway.

Can't wait to see what pops up next spring!

We are remembering to work with the land and not against it. 

I recently borrowed every book I could find in our library system about yurts and tiny homes, and also found this gem called Farming in the Woods by Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel. Our land is full of woods - and we have discovered some more ways to work with this, instead of against it.

We would like to tap some of our maple trees next spring and make our own maple syrup. We just need to build the proper set-up to be able to boil the sap over our campfire area.

We just purchased over 1,000 mushroom spore plugs; a variety of oyster, shiitake, and lion's mane. They are intended to be put in during the winter - but, snow has been falling and it might be quite a fun journey to get these in anytime soon! But, we are inspired. Keith is researching all he can about getting these things set up for hopeful success.

This book informed us that paw-paw trees are shade-tolerant, and highly delectable fruit-producing trees - we would like to plant some next year.

Winter is coming...winter is here? We stopped by our land this past Saturday, November 25th and it has snowed a few more times since then. :)

I have been using this book since January 2022 to keep track of every day we have visited the land, and observations on weather, temperature, plants, animals on each of those visits.

Lately, it feels like life always has different plans. I am trying so hard to roll with the punches. Adapt to adversity. Go with the flow. Be flexible.

I am grateful for the love that surrounds me. And the land that grounds me.

In gratitude.