Full Moon: Lunacy

[A closeup of the broken bobbin winder shaft]

Today was a strange day. The strangeness began when I broke my bobbin winder on the first bobbin of the day. I have used this winder nonstop since February. The shaft turns about 150,000 times a day for a total of about 22,000,000 revolutions in 5 months.

I noticed early on that it had a tendency to "chatter", vibrating from off-center bobbins or something. I guess after a few million times flexing the shaft like that it just gave out.

I took the failure of a trusted tool to be an indicator that I should check in with our problem visitor before I cobbled together a bobbin winding solution. With two of us facilitating, it took 4 hours to untangle the story. In the end, I think he is suffering from a persecution-flavored paranoia. He had concocted some unbelievable stories of malfeasance directed at him and was then lashing out at us to retaliate for the horrors he had endured. They were completely imagined.

When we gave him the choice to talk directly with the person he was accusing or to leave, he chose to leave. I think that's a shame, since the conflict resolution process is one of the most beautiful and enlightening things we have to teach here. In the end, it's better for community health if we don't have someone threatening us and our land.

Then, last night, two friends showed up. We laughed, caught up, and shared our stories from the last few months. I stayed up too late for an ice cream social and watched the full moon rise into a misty sky.

[Harlan at morning tea]

It was a whole day off from weaving cloth, but the energy spent weaving our community is well worth it.

Feels Like Autumn

[The parched landscape still supports Crocuses and happy honeybees.]

The days are hot, but reasonable. The nights feel very close to freezing. The Halston temperature regulation routine that I learned from Rabbit is hardly necessary anymore. It goes like this: leave things open at night and let the house get cold. Close them in the morning. This cabin, chilled in this way, will stay far below the outside temperature until 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

The caretakers are all away, and yesterday's events made clear the importance of one phrase in their agreement: "...to facilitate visitor stays." A visitor arrived a few days ago with no prior connection to this place, expecting to stay long term. He has already laid claim to the temporary indoor living space, refusing to share with potential weekend visitors and declaring instead that we should evict long term visitors from their cabin. To top it all off, he appears to be inventing conflict with another long term community member, going so far as to threaten calling the police, but refusing to tell us what it's about. It's extremely doubtful that there's any real malfeasance, just annoyance if we have to defend ourselves.

As a community we're doing the best we can to handle it but this really is the job of the caretakers. Nobody here wants to overreach their authority, but things could get very ugly if nothing is done. Since I seem to have the most experience of anyone here and the least to lose to community backlash, I'll probably step up and facilitate resolution of the situation this afternoon.

Despite a slow pace yesterday, taking time to work with this visitor, and then working with Mattie on a yummy garden-grown dinner, I am exactly on schedule with my weaving. I'll be caught up from the "July Slowdown" at the end of the day tomorrow. Then I can start earning this month's income.

Things I Know: Boundaries, communicated clearly, and enforced immediately, are crucial to the smooth functioning of an intentional community. (This also applies to the training of dogs. Coincidence?)

Power Outage

[Weaving by available light meant moving the loom near the door]

We had a little windstorm this afternoon. It didn't do anything much, really - just slammed a few doors and dropped lots of acorns on the tin roof. But somewhere nearby it must have done something. The power flickered a few times then went out entirely. It stayed out for about four hours, I guess.

When I bought my loom, I was specific that I wanted it to be completely mechanical so I could weave in a cabin in the woods with no electricity. So, it was no skin off my nose when the power went out. I actually got what I had wished for in Pam's office at AVL back in February. I just kept on weaving, but a little more carefully since I couldn't see as well.

I keep giving my little status blurb, 11 yards a day, blah, blah, blah... Let me show you how much cloth has been cut off the loom after 7 days.


That's 60-something yards of 60" wide cloth. It weighs about 60 pounds and is stacked about 12" deep. This pile has 20 cloaks and 9 yards of cloth. There's another 4 cloaks (11 yards) still on the loom from today.

Tomorrow I really want to create mouse-proof cloth storage. Right now it's just up off the floor and away from walls, but that won't work forever. I haven't placed this at the highest priority because in three winters on the land I only had one t-shirt munched by them, next to an altar where they came to drink the olive oil from my lamps. Handwoven cloth raises the stakes, though, so I don't want to take chances.

Flightless Birds, Flying Homes

[Our melodious fowl and two tiny chicks on their first outing]

This morning I awoke extra early to get my work done before an outing to a treehouse resort in Tekilma, about an hour away. On the way home from tea I ran into the Guinea Fowl on the path. We've known that they were trying to hatch out a brood and protect them from the bluejays, but this was the first sighting of the tiny chicks.

During a break from weaving, I stepped outside and found that the wild turkeys aren't afraid of me now, either. Here's a snapshot of the mom and her little ones, taken with a camera phone from about 10 feet away.

And then the field trip... It was amazing. These people have built a whole bunch of treehouses in the woods, and rent them by the night.

You can see more pictures from our outing HERE

The website for the resort is HERE

The house that caught my eye is, of course, the tree-suspended yurt platform.

Once I've built myself a yurt I can think about this sort of thing. How cool would it be not just to live in the woods, but to live in the trees?

The dreamer in me can picture several structures to serve as studio, home, and store. They could all be connected with outdoor decks and rope bridges...

But, before any of that, I need a yurt and the income to acquire property. And, to stay on the long path toward those ends, tomorrow it's back to the loom.

I did manage to get enough woven yesterday and early this morning that I'm right on track even with an outing. Yay!