Winter

Winter has officially arrived with highs in the 20's and snow on the ground. As I type, I look out the window and notice it looks like it has started snowing again. There are major differences between winter here and winter in Philly. First, is the water factor. It's quite dry here so the cold doesn't sink into your bones the way it does back east. Also, there are a myriad of winter sports to enjoy from your front doorstep, no need to drive at least an hour outside the city to enjoy. I picked up a snowboard from the annual ski swap for $20! I'm psyched to try it out though we'll need a little more snow for that. Another difference is the lack of noise. A Philly snowstorm means plows, snow shovel scraping, and cars sliding down the road sometimes crashing. Here it is simply quiet. It's as if the snow absorbs the sound out of the air. It is one of my favorite things about winter here so far. At times, if you are still enough, you can even hear your heart beating. If you have trouble hearing your heart, you can always chop some wood and get the heart pumping faster.

We may have seen the ground for the last time until spring. Same for the road. Though it is plowed and sanded, they save the salt and de-icer for more frequently travelled and dangerous areas, like some of the curves on Twisp River Road that, if missed, will easily lead you into the ditch or field below. There is one curve that reminds me of the recurring dreams I used to have of driving off a cliff and flying towards the ground below. I slow down plenty for that one!

Winter also means layers of clothes, preferably wool. My long johns were still in my storage bin this morning so I grabbed a pair of my cotton yoga pants to wear under my 'outer' wool pants...the ones that are ok to get all goat-ified (billy goats have a distinct aroma). Though I was warm enough not to be running back inside, the cotton yoga wear isn't as warm as a pair of long johns. So, two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks or one super thick pair, and then at least 3 shirts under the coat. Today it was a tank top, a wool long-sleeved T-shirt, a wool zip-up, and then my coat. I could have used one more layer. My skin will be lily-white before spring, giving it time to repair from the sun damage of the last few years.

Rest assured, I am staying warm. All the wood collecting of the previous weeks has paid off. It's fun to learn to regulate each stove for it's size and 'draw.' (Draw is the amount of oxygen it will pull through the dampers and up the chimney.) In our little cabin, we can rock the temperature up to 90 degrees with little effort. It will get hot enough in there that the windows beg to be opened or you feel compelled to run outside in your underwear or just a pair of boots. Super fun. With the shared bathroom, there hasn't been a need to heat up water on the stove and bathe outside, but...you may think i'm crazy...i'm looking forward to it. Maybe tomorrow will be a good day with highs of 11-17 degrees.

For now, back to slicing apples for the dehydrator. We just filled a 5-gallon bucket and are working on a second. Tonight we may also fire up the sweat lodge. Ah, life is good. And it's definitely snowing again. 

P.S.  i wrote this entry a couple of days ago.  Since then the high's have been in the teens, dipping easily into single digits and below zero at night.  Enough to make the water pipes freeze!  oh, and some more snow! 

Close to the Earth

Today, after a couple of weeks of seeing snow on the mountain tops, it finally snowed here in the hills. Woo hoo! Yesterday, when I heard the weather report called for an 80% chance of precipitation, I thought it would rain. The snow is much nicer. We were planning to have a full day of work framing out a greenhouse we were hired to build by a friend of ours. Instead we are here in the 'play' room, next to the fire, bellies full after our BAT sandwiches. That's bacon, avocado, and tomato, yum! The bacon came from the pigs that were raised last year. In the last entry, I mentioned we were fattening the pigs and chickens. Since then...and my vegetarian friends or those sensitive to such realistic information may not like to hear this...I've learned how to butcher pigs and pluck chickens. It is amazing the difference in the taste of the meat...even different from the 'organic' labelled meats from Whole Foods. If you're a meat eater, I strongly encourage you to find out where your meat comes from, beyond the label of organic. If you're not eating organic meat, please watch the movie Food, Inc. and you may change your mind. If for whatever reason you can't afford such high priced items, say prayers before you eat your food that it nourishes you and nourishes the earth it came from. A few years ago I stopped eating chicken after watching baby chicks have their beaks clipped in the movie Baraka. It wasn't just that they were getting their beaks clipped, it was that thousands of them were being thrown into these chutes and handled as if they were just another item on a factory assembly line...actually that's just what they were. Any thought of these animals being another living, breathing item seemed to be removed from the equation. I only started eating chicken about a year and a half ago on my first visit to this place I now call home.

How can I eat something I've been raising? How can I kill and butcher something I've been feeding and spending time with? Looking it in the eye, talking to it, sending it prayers of good health? Intention. Having experienced the whole process, I can share that it is way more humane to feed your own animals for eating than it is to buy them from the grocery store. You know exactly what you're getting, where it has been and how it has been treated. These days, even if something is labelled 'organic,' there's no gaurantee that it was treated humanely or with care. These pigs and chickens had a great life. They ate grain that was grown here, grinded and mixed by us, as well as being fed yummy scraps of veggies and fruit. Did you know chickens will eat a giant zucchini in a very short amount of time? Just give it to them whole, they'll peck at it and devour it quickly. Some of you may be of the opinion that to kill an animal and eat it isn't very yogic. However, I am of the mind that anything done with awareness and objectivity is a yogic activity. Even if you are a vegetarian, do you know where your food comes from? Do you know how you would eat if the grocery store wasn't stocked? What will happen if oil becomes scarce and delivery trucks don't run?  Not to be an alarmist, but it's a reality that we are no longer producing as much oil as we were. The are past what they call 'peak oil' and are now on the down slope of the bell curve.

In this area, I am surrounded by people who think about measures of sustainability. We can raise animals because we grow the grain and hay they need to eat. From these animals we receive our meat and dairy. Other meat sources are wild game, mostly venison and turkey.  The only eating out I've done are the pot lucks held at a neighbor's home with the food they've been growing or have raised or hunted themselves.

And speaking of yoga, I can say that it is an absolute necessity in maintaining my ability to live out here. After a couple of weeks of no yoga, my body started twisting up and feeling out of whack (hence the back spasms a few weeks ago). It's often a challenge to make time for a practice with all that has to be done while the sun is up, but recently I reached the point where I realized I have to practice in some way every day to maintain a level of sanity and physical function. I've started a simple morning routine: a few shoulder streches, the six movements of the spine, and a breathing exercise. It takes about 10 minutes all together and I've noticed a difference just in the last couple of days. I am so grateful for all that i've learned and am continuing to learn. I look forward to sharing my learning curve.

Sat Nam.