Full Bloom is a Bloomin’

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Wow what an amazing 2 weeks!

With the weather reaching near 80 degrees every day for the last week, the farm is bustling with activity.   With this kind of heat water becomes essential to keep all the hundreds of plants, shrubs and trees thriving here at Full Bloom.  So the first step of the
“irrigation season” is to put in a large pipe into Yale Creek (the creek that bifurcates our property and is the source of our irrigation water and summer rejuvenation!).

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Two “Full Bloomers” putting the Ditch pipe into the beautiful Yale Creek.

The water travels in an irrigation ditch for nearly a mile before it reaches our pond, from which we water over 20 acres of pasture, vegetables and fruit trees.

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Our Pond with “Duthchmen’s Peak” in the Background

Related so directly with the source of our water, the source of our nourishment takes quite a bit of work and running around, but in the end its a supreme joy.  Till next time….Ryan

 

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Full Bloom Resident John Hutton with his freshly harvested salad mix

 

“Pure water is the world’s first and foremost medicine.”  ~Slovakian Proverb

 

Work And Play Intermingle at Full Bloom

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Here we have several residents of Full Bloom and a some members of the broader community enjoying some dancing in the Community Building.

On April 5th Full Bloom hosted an “Aries Birthday Party” for the 3 community members all born around the same time.  Individuals born under the sign of Aries are supposed to be fiery and passionate people, and that sure seems to be the case.  Jo Ferneau, one of the four Full Bloom land partners, played 3 songs that he wrote and rattled off REM’s “Its the End of the World” with vocal gusto to rival Michael Stipe.  A Dance party later ensued and went until 2am.

At Full Bloom we enjoy periodic evenings of rambunctiousness to complement all the work that we do on the land, in the bakery during the week.  In the “work” we do on the land we intend to bring and allow as much joy and satisfaction as we can.  Taking periodic breaks to enjoy the natural beauty, get to know one another better, or to consider a more “permacultural” way of doing something.  In the picture below for example, our landmate Caleb is a finding a way to have fun with his son, while doing the work of planting native trees on the land.

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Caleb and his son Atreya are planting a Privacy hedge of native pine trees along the road that leads to Full Bloom.

Its an ongoing art: How to blend work and play, function and art to the point that its all just life, its all just an opportunity to love and grow.

Aiden Wilson Tozer

 

Thank you for reading,

Ryan

Ceremony for our new Community Garden

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This past Saturday the residents of Full Bloom plus several visitors participated in a ceremony to inaugurate our new community garden.  We created a ceremony that drew from multiple traditions that included some singing and offerings to the earth ( we made a mandala out of flowers, branches, beautiful colored corn and candles).  Through the ceremony we were able to set our intention together to create a garden that will be a place for people to reconnect with nature and foster a sense of community.

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Above is a picture of the mandala we made, as each individual added natural elements.  It was then wrapped up and buried 2ft deep in the center of the garden.

Cultures have engaged in ceremonies in their gardens for a thousands of years and it feels good to be continuing in the footsteps of those sustainable cultures we emulate.

“The mystery religions were instituted in order to protect the marvels of the commonplace from those who would devalue them.”
― Peter Redgrove