Pruning the Orchard

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Last week an amazing veteran Orchardist came to Full Bloom to share his pithy wisdom and love for the art of Fruit Tree care.  His name is Terry Helfrich and he’s been taking care of fruit orchards in the Rogue Valley for several decades now.   It was a blast to see him trim up some of our trees without any hesitation, leaving them in a shape that will be super easy to maintain in the years to come  His approach really simplified things for me around pruning as I’ve been exposed to several different styles and they have left me a bit confused and tentative as I attempt to prune our now 60 tree orchard.   Thank God for good teachers!

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That’s Terry in the Red, droppin’ the pruning science

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What I really appreciated about Terry was his ability to empower each of us to take to our own trees and just go for it, giving us encouragement to not get caught by thinking there is an absolute right way to prune.  There are basic principles, then its just a matter of seeing being in relationship with the trees over years and noticing the impact of what you’ve cut and haven’t cut.

Its really difficult to convey his style in a blog post, especially since I’m relatively new to the vocabulary and would have to sketch out some nifty diagrams, so I’ll just have to let you know ahead of time the next time he comes out in case you want the direct transmission.

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”  Martin Luther

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.“

Successful Fundraiser at Full Bloom

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This past Saturday Full Bloom hosted a fundraiser for the non-profit Speak for the Trees (www.speakforthetreesoregon.org) that was formed to protect 120 acres of our watershed from being clear-cut by a timber company.  The organization hopes to raise enough money to buy the land from the timber company and put it into a land trust to protect for generations to come.

It was an incredibly fun event with a silent auction full of donated items like massages, hand made black walnut cutting boards, and hand-knitted caps.  Rise Up! Artisan Breads (Owned and operated by Full Bloom members Jo Ferneau and Rosie Demmin) brought out there wood fired pizza oven and were serving the over 200 guests with delicious pizza all night.

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Rise Up! pizza oven

Several musicians played on our stage over the course of the evening.

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Trever Jones Rockin’ his “punk americana” on the Full Bloom stage

It always fills my heart to witness all the community connections that are nourished and created at an event like this.  Amidst the stresses and complexity of our lives it becomes essential to gather together in celebration and in care for our watershed.

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I’m looking forward to more and more gatherings that reminded us about what’s important and that feed our community literally and figuratively.

Ryan

Inspired by the Leviathan Studio on Lasquitti Island B.C.

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Just coming by from two inspirational weeks at the Leviathan Studio in B.C.  Mark Young is the founder and coordinator of this center dedicated to exploring the form of contact dance.   He has a certain devotional energy around the form as he attributes it to helping him recover from brain trauma.  He built the studio mostly by himself and some teenagers from the island he restled up to keep them out of trouble and give them something to focus there energy into (moving and stacking rock for the walls seen in the picture).    The Studio was built completely into the landscape with large rock and trees incorporated into the interior.  It creates an experience of still being in wild nature.  As a dancer I felt inspired to include the feeling and texture of the place into my dance.

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After the trip I am emboldened to create a center her at Full Bloom that can offer individuals the opportunity to dance, enjoy the natural world, and connect with other kindred souls!
“There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good”.  ~Edwin Denby

 

Inspirations from Sierra Hot Springs Contact Dance Festival

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Just returning from 5 days of dancing and soaking and connecting with amazing people at the Sierra Contact Improvisational Dance Festival in Sierraville, Nevada.  The event was started by one of my favorite teachers of the form Karl Frost (www.bodyresearch.org) who has created a type of event that is beautiful blend of a structure and freedom to follow your own impulses and desires (which makes sense given that “improvisation” is the key word for what we are doing).  Every morning during the festival the whole group (around 40 of us) would gather for a facilitated movement warm up led by different facilitator each time. We gave each other body work, explored different degrees of contact with each other, and laughed and played into the second part of the morning: an open “Jam”.

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Above you see the tail end of the morning “jam” which in contact dance is a term referring to a full improvisational context for exploring dance.  Anything can happen; somedays I dance with one other person for nearly 45 minutes, other days I shifting from partner to partner or I’m in a trio for an extended period or some combination.  Every jam ends up being an adventure into the previously unknown ways of moving and relating to oneself and others.  Its deeply invigorating and fun and I always learn something new about myself.

The major aspect of the Festival was the Socializing.  I always get so much out of meeting and getting to know the people that are so passionate about such a courageous and creative practice.  Over the cours of my time there I cam to know a transportation planners, several performing artists, an anthropology and a math professor, and a paragliding instructor.  Its always so fascinating to me how they came to Contact Improv.

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I feel so grateful to have ended making this form a central part of a my life and I am looking forward to hosting events such as this at Full Bloom in the very near future!

 

 Siobhan Davies 

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