A Walk in the Woods…..

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Every year at Full Bloom we put some work into restoring are surrounding Forest acreage which amounts to over 200 acres.  Much of it was logged quite severely in the 1980’s and 90’s and it has grown back in thick patches of Douglas Fir and Manzanita.  In order to provide reduce the competition in the forest our forester Luke Rudieger of Black Oack Forestry has cut down several of the “weedy” fir and given space for the beautiful Madrone tree behind him to grow unencumbered.  We will use the fire logs for firewood to heat our structures and the wood fired bread oven in the communal building.

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Above is a picture of my wife Eden Luz during a walk through our forest.  It always fills me with a sense of enchantment and gratitude when I come by these special spots on our land.  DSCN0096

 

Above is a picture of the beautiful watershed we live in.  Speckled homesteads and lots of wildland for miles.

It always puts things in perspective to take these walks on our land and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to do so.

“Only with a leaf
can I talk of the forest,”
― Visar Zhiti, The Condemned Apple: Selected Poetry

 

 

Our New Community Garden!!

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Its an exciting time here at Full Bloom as we create our Enchanted Community Garden in the center of the land.  Above is Micaela measuring out the space as part of the garden bed mapping out.  She was our inspired designer of the garden, creating a mandala of shapes including a heart, a star, and a yin/yang symbol.  How fun huh?!

We will be planting an assortment of “permaculture” plants.  These are plants that serve multiple ecological functions such as food for us, food for friends (birds and beneficial insects), soil improvement, and of course beauty (a key piece of sustainability, for beauty will attract people to the place to the garden to take care of it).

Below is a picture of the beds actually being hand dug.  We are digging out the topsoil of the paths and putting the soil on the beds so they will be extra rich.  The final layer will be a couple of inches of premium local composts.  The plants will be ecstatically happy!

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We’ve sowed hundreds of plants in the Greenhouse to fill in the garden and have a nursery order coming with all kinds of perennial shrubs and small trees like lilac, elderberry, hawthorn, and serviceberry.

What a gift it is to be able to co-create beauty and abundance.

“There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling.”  ~Mirabel Osler

 

Community Work Day at Full Bloom

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Every month at Full Bloom we host a “Community Work Day” where all the individuals living at Full Bloom  focus on an area of the community we want to improve or beautify.  Our teamwork gets the job done in a relaxed fashion and deepens our relationships with each other and the land.  In past work days we have built steps down to dwellings and “sheet mulched” an area for planting in the spring.

During this month’s work day we a began the process of creating a “living roof” for one of the dwellings. We formed a bucket brigade, hauling bucket after bucket up ladders to the roof to be dumped.  The roof was already covered with pond liner to keep any moisture from coming through.  Later we will seed the roof with grass and some drought tolerant flowers like poppies and it will burst forth with life, blending into the landscape.

Employing different natural building techniques such as a living roof helps us accomplish our vision of creating a community that meshes with the natural landscape, a “permaculture” community.  We are no “Shire” yet, but moving in that direction.

“No house should ever be on any hill, it should be of the hill, belonging to it, so hill and house could live together, each the happier for the other.”  Frank Loyd Wright

Nature’s Peace

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DSCN0002Next time you take a walk in nature look around and ask yourself: “Is there any tree, animal, plant or mineral that is struggling over-efforting here?”  I think that is why we receive so much nourishment and balancing in Nature;  it reflects back to us an easeful way of being.

Full Bloom is currently composed of a 13 adults and 3 children who are intentionally moving towards a more easefull way of a being, of moving, of relating.  A way of being that models the intelligence of the natural world.  The practices of Yoga, movement arts and dance, wilderness awareness, and permaculture design are invaluable tools that previous generations have left for us that facilitate this process, guide our journey.

Last weekend most of us (some parents were doing nap time)  took a walk through the forest adjacent to our property.  During the hike I notice how transformative it is to be in truly wild nature with these other individuals.  We let in the “spirit” of the natural world and begin relating to each other in different ways.  There a subtle air of sacredness that begins to infect the group.

I look forward to sharing the land here and its gifts with many individuals in the future as we open the Gates of Full Bloom to the broader public.  The Natural world has so much to teach us, so much to medicine to offer us if we only allow ourselves the opportunity.

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” John Muir