Themes of the Summer

MASCULINITY The men in my life have become a constant reminder of what it is to be a woman. I look to these men daily to understand my relationship to the masculine world of understanding and relationship. I always think of these men. Last night Gary Brian Baker took our whole family to a Van Morrison concert in my dream. In Arizona. The desert was calling my skin.

Here we have the men in training, growing, seedlings, the men in my life who are my peers and not my father and brother and dog. The men in my life who inspire creativity and heartache. The men who go with the dust and come with the wind. The salmon men who skate and ride and spirit sing and music play and love crystals and tea. These are the men in training who filter through our lives.

The Full House Our Container is just too full now. The container of the fullest house is overflowing. We are moving at the end of this month. The container of tears, or homework, of heaviness, of snowpocolypses, of house shows, of barn life, of wine dinners, GREAT DINNERS, dinners where we feed each other for the whole meal, death has been experienced here, birth, love, falling in love, faling out of love, animal spirituality, old, new. THE FULL HOUSE. the pallet of summer. Many visitors have come and stayed. The Gembrokers, Oregon country fair goers, farmers looking for land, Ancestree Reggae cooperative, Beshert Klezmer, Lauren Stansbury Cajun Extroadinaire, Tom. The travelers come and visit as Alexa and I and Ben and Joe HOLD DOWN the land based Olympia fort. WE lay down pallets soft and low when the people got nowhere else to go and we feed them with our farm food bounty and WESTERN hospiltality inspired by Evita Puyet and all the memories. So much fun and folly here and the fullest house that is ready to close down and go to another affordable family. We will take the chickens and memories and they will take the garden and barn mess.

MUSIC Music is our language here in the summer time- all the time. The way that we play music with each other, and with ourselves is the way that we are. Its an entire language of realtion with all of life. Music is a great way to find out what is going on in there, all up inside there. Lets leave it at that

FARMING land understanding, farm plans, WEEDING FOREVER, organic philosophies, but mostly FARM ART AND ORAL TRADITION has been the endless growing progression through the PSA inquiry. Learning how to be a poetic land steward and learning what feels good about it and what doesn't. Learning about irrigation and horses and The Small Farmer's Journal. Cooking and trying to attend school. Feeling the importance of land stewardship and VEGETABLES and really immersing thyself in the Northwestern LANDSCAPES. THANK YOU EVERGREEN ORGANIC FARM PATHWAY to lifestyle choices. WE'VE GOT FALL TO GO.

MESSY ROOM and focused attention. THEMES OF SUMMER surround and I know that the fall is coming, times are changing, people will come back. Who? im not sure. But one thing is for sure. This summer has grown a lot of vegetables and immunity. A LOT OF STUFF. a lot of music and lonliness and banjo and faeries and elders and moons and animals and vegetables and plants and minerals and longing, longing, and regression and jaded decision and loving connection and stillness. The hot sticky stillness -the winter of summer. The longer season of introspection, music, home, projects, and attention. WE ARE STRIVING FOR BALANCE HERE.