Back to the Land

As the song goes, "... Blow up your tv, throw away your paper, move to the country, build you a home, plant a little [or big] garden, eat a lot of peaches, try to find Jesus [the divine] on your own..."

You didn't miss anything, these are not our children.

It's been two weeks since we landed at the farm, our final destination for the time being. Our internship is going well. We've been working hard- definitely putting our Arnica to good use. Quite an adjustment from sitting in a truck all day! Our bodies are slowly warming up to standing, bending and lifting all day. Fortunately, we've had super delicious food to support our physical transition. Everyone here in our community is a fabulous cook! We are definitely the weakest links, but we're just getting started so there's room for growth.

The first weekend we arrived, one of the goats gave birth to 3 kids. They are the sweetest! Still no names; it's kind of a difficult job. They're growing so fast and are super playful and awkward.

There are also a few sheep (two little lambs), turkeys and about 30 chickens at the farm. Andrew and I have been doing morning and evening chores feeding and taking care of them. The farm fresh eggs are super bright yellow and delicious. We're looking forward to goat milk in the next few weeks and to making our own yogurt, cheese and sour cream. Yum!

Here are some photos of the farm I took one snowy morning a week and a half ago. We love the mountains, trees and the way fog rolls in.

The common house where we cook our meals and hang out.

And a dewy morning a few days later...

And now the photos you've been waiting for (I mean there's at least 3 of you who still read the blog, right? haha) We put up the tipi last weekend after a week of rain, and as it turned out, before a week of rain too! For the record, southern Oregon has dry summers but ehh, not so much in the spring. 

Our forested tipi site- can you see the erected poles?

18 foot diameter tipi (tepee, teepee)- with smoke flaps, liner and all.

Hanging the liner.

Our awesome tipi interior, complete with futon, fire pit and fancy rugs, and Leah's prayer flags...

We're grateful for our own, private space and the connection to the earth with living outside. However, with all the rain we've had the past week, it's been a bit soggy. Ideally tipis are supposed to be pretty water tight if you set them up right. Maybe we just haven't mastered the art of tipi living yet. After drying out this weekend, we've put away our rugs in favor of the plain, base-layer tarps for a while. Once it dries out in another few weeks, we'll be set up pretty cush.

Mastering the art of silhouette puppets in the tipi- obviously
 this is a Platypus... before the injury.

In other tipi drama, Andrew chopped his hand with a hatchet yesterday cutting up kindling for our tipi fire. Thankfully, the damage was minor and didn't require a doctor's visit or much more than a couple big band-aids. Whew. He did choose to abstain from the sauna last night though which was a pretty big bummer. After getting me to wash all his dishes the past day and a half, I caught him today with the same hatchet- chopping away on a wooden spoon project. The guy loves wood, what can be done?

We're expecting to post to our blog this summer, but perhaps only once a month or so. We're definitely keeping busy. More than anything though, who wants to be inside at a computer when it's so beautiful outside? Today it had to be over 60 degrees in the sun. Even the rain is nice. Naturally, we want all of our friends and loved ones to move here right away. :-)