The Art of Simplicity

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As I sit in meditation in the morning I look out my window which captures a panorama of the heart of the community: the central garden, the community building, the chicken coops, the bathhouse and a cascade of to do’s and anxieties often floods me.  There’s just so much to do and think about!  I close my eyes and come back to just this moment: my breath, the sound of a vehicle, the mild ache in my back and I can rest in the simplicity of what’s just actually happening right here and now.  I’ve come to realizing that I need to rest in that simplicity otherwise I go crazy with the never ending lists of projects that come with being land steward, a husband, a human being. I originally thought that moving out to the country and starting an intentional community would be a simple life, living in harmony with natural cycles and deep in a supportive web of like minded companions.  I can now see that to truly experience simplicity requires a deliberate cultivation of perception    It doesn’t just come about with circumstances (human beings have the magical powers to turn any situation into a circus of craziness).  It requires the deliberate cultivation of perception, the refinement of how I choose to perceive myself, others and the things of the world.  Becoming mindful of the story I am telling myself and choosing to tell a story that is coherent, inspiring and not too complex (e.g. simple). For example:  I could sit here on this beautiful morning on the farm and let my mind go wild painting a chaotic picture of all the things I “should do” or that could go wrong and that go out the door putting out fires and generally running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  Or I could choose to take some time to really get in touch with the elements of my life that are truly most important to me, that I can be pretty sure will make fill my heart with the good stuff (satisfaction, joy, connection, pride) then proceed to craft a day or week that reflects that orientation. My sincere wish for Full Bloom is that it becomes ever more supportive for individuals to stay connected with the peace and inspiration that comes from living as an artist, an intentional story teller. “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” ― Joan Didion, The White Album

Potluck and Sauna Night…..Yumminess on many levels

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After the completion of the community sauna we established what is fast becoming one of the highlights of the week here at Full Bloom: Potluck and Sauna night.   Its a night where we put out an invitation to our broader community to come and join us for a meal, catch up on the valley happenings, and then go for a nice sweat.  This past Friday we were blessed with some seriously talented and fun musicians who busted into a music jam and sing along. Singing, playing instruments, and dancing is such a natural thing to do at a gathering and yet there’s part of me that’s still getting used to it.  I just didn’t grow up with it.   When it happens here I’m so grateful and reminded that I want to build it into our lives here more often.  I believe it to be foundational to the long-term viability of an intentional community to have plenty of singing, dancing, and music creation happening.  Its the ultimate soul food and part of us begins to starve without it..  We are wired to spend time together in “musical communion”, its one of the most powerful ways of breaking the trance of separation, of our neurosis.

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Last Friday night’s sauna was the first time we took a sauna with the tile work and entryway mosaic completed.  As you can imagine its a wonderful image to just be absorbed by while in a sauna.

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“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.“

The Greenhouse Advantage

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At Full Bloom we a have a pretty extreme climate leading to a relatively short growing season.  We’ve been know to have a frost as late as Early June and as early as early October leading barely a 4 month frost free growing window.  But that’s outside.  The Greenhouse changes everything; it gives us another two months on either side.   For several years now we’ve been able to get a major head start on our  tomatoes in the raised bed in the greenhouse planting them in April and still harvesting tomatoes in December.

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Every year I do dance with the greenhouse to get in our winter salad greens sown just after the hot weather crops like peppers, and eggplants begin to slow down in early October.  Its taken years to get that timing down ( and develop the nerve to pull that pepper plant that may have one or two peppers still to ripen) and this year I was very proud of myself for clearing the bed space and sewing tons of arugula and salad mix for our enjoyment during the winter (note: outdoor greens can end up getting pretty much killed during the winters here. Especially when it gets down to 6 degrees like it did this past December.)

Given the extreme productivity and season extension power of a greenhouse I’ve been pondering lately how we can add another to the land here and/or build a “field house” for the agricultural fields outside of the central area.  These can be put up for minimal cost and can really increase production and protect crops of frost damage.

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An example of a “field house”. A no frills green house that one can even drive a tractor through for cultivation.

Well that’s it for now.  Off to the greenhouse, cause its basically already spring down there and its time to prep the soil and start sowing some spinach and lettuce.

Till next time……Ryan

“Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.”  William Cowper

Winter Camp Winding Down…..

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The Consensus on the land here is that the inaugural Social Forestry Winter Camp at Full Bloom was a success!  (To be transparent: that’s not an official consensus, but I haven’t seen much in the way of sour faces or complaints either from the winter campers or the Full Bloom residents).   Yesterday was their “open camp” and they gave a tour or the their community and some of the forest tending they have down.  Very impressive.  What was a dense thicket of fir and cedar is now a spacious forest with a lot more breathing room and a lot less fuel for potential forest fires.

To know that this was all done within the context of a group singing songs about the land, having daily check-ins, and generally imbedding themselves in the forest ecosystem fills me with reverence as I move through the “treated” forest.

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An Oak woodlawn treated by Winter Camp

Winter camp was also successful in doing a small controlled understory  burn of an Oak woodlawn.   Periodic, if not annual, burning was an essential practice of the Native Americans who lived in this bioregion to maintain the fertility of the Oak Forests (a.k.a Acorn Food Forest).  Modern controlled burning has to be done in a different way as the amount of understory fuel has built up through years of fire suppression, clear cuts, and general lack of integral forest management.

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“But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.“
Alan Watts