Enchanted Gypsy ~ Travel Diaries

Home On The Range...

2009-08-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

We are STILL here on the farm in Oregon...going on almost a year now since we parked our bus in the lower meadow. There is still so much to do as far as renovations go, but I think we are finally beginning to find our rhythm and learn all about settled life.

Our business is comming along nicely ! Recently we vended at our beloved Faerie worlds Festival, which we do every year. I spent months working on my new piece to debut at the festival, a giant, life sized banshee puppet, that is as of yet still not completed. She is the first puppet in series that is being made for our production of the Grimm's tale, The Nixie of The Mill Pond. Despite the 100 degree heat and no shade, we did well and the festival was incredible. We did not sell many boots, most likely due to the 100+ degree heat, but our hats sold out quickly as well as some small dolls and yarn.

It is interesting to me to look back to the beginning of this blog, when I first started it, it seems so long ago now and I looked so much younger. We began with the intention to make a rolling home and to make a living off our art. The rolling home we DID create but making a living off our art was never really that easy in the bus, but then our expenses were so much less as well. It seems like now we are finally fulfilling the second part of our original intention. It will be intresting to see where this all goes and weather or not we will eventually merge our new found business success back with the bus again and take it on the road. I often get the feeling with this blog, and with life in general, that I am reading a story of someone else's life, wondering how it will all turn out....

This is the 4.5 foot tall banshee puppet I have been working on..

Firming up a doll at Faerieworlds Fest. This one just sold ! Finally !

Helping Sage adjust her wings..

Me in another of our new hats..

Sage giving her apple to Pan....

Helping out in the garden...

Looking very vouge in this pic..

Spreading Our Wings....

2009-07-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

Moss and I are still here in Oregon and very busy working in our new studio, making dolls, puppets, boots and hats for Faerieworlds Festival, which will take place on August 31st here in Eugene Oregon. Our fiber art business is starting to pick up and it seems settling down in a house was just the right thing for us. The extra space has really allowed us more room to expand and create, just as we had thought. After hand spinning my own yarn for many years I just recently decided to start selling it on Etsy and at the local weekly craft market here. Surprisingly people really liked it and we sold it the first day ! Needless to say I will be spinning more yarn in the near future.

With all this extra space we are finally able to fine tune our skills and production. Our hope is to work it out so that everything we are doing can be easily replicated in the bus. This will enable us to eventually go back out on the road again, selling and making our items in a more consistent and lucrative manner. Weather we will do this in our current bus or start over again building a smaller, more efficient one remains to be seen. We would really like one that could be easily taken over seas for travel in European countries....

While I will continue to update my blog from time to time as the mood strikes me..I have been also doing a lot of posting on Facebook and would like to invite everyone to connect with us there as well. I have included an app in the lower left hand corner of the page here and you can access my Facebook site that way.

I will leave you here with some random pictures from my life in the last few months...

A view from our kitchen window..

Moss and sage enjoy one of the many hot springs in Oregon...

Summer solstice celebration at the farm. That is our friends Bus-sauna in the background !

Moss and Sage at the beach on her second Birth Day..

Sage flies a kite all by herself for the first time, on her second Birth Day. She was SO excited !

Sage among the flowers

Sheep inspect a new fleece..

Preparing fleece for washing....

Faunas..the gentle one..

Our humble abode..

Settling In....

2009-05-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

It's been five months now since we have settled, here in this beautiful meadow, and now that the initial thrill has worn off the reality has set in, the reality of rent, bills and the inevitable inertia I feel whenever I am in one place for a long time. I sometimes wonder, if only for a fleeting moment, if we made the right decision. Then I look at Sage romping joyfully through the house, exploring the meadows and woods out our front door and I know that we have made the right decision, at least for now.

Although I very much miss life on the road, I feel no bitterness about the situation at all, nor do I feel as though I am being made to live a life other than I would chose. I am learning how to breathe through my impulse to always just go when things get tough, and things have been tough lately. Although our rent is very little compared to most, it has been difficult as we are used to paying nothing for rent. The whole idea of paying huge amounts of money to someone every month to live, is a new experience for me, and it is taking some getting used to.

To make ends meet we are still selling things on our etsy site and working hard on the felt boot aspect of our craft. We have finally, with the help of our friend Babu, a leather shoemaker, come up with an all weather, rugged sole for our boots. They can now be worn in just about all climates. In town here there is a weekly craft venue, Saturday Market, and we will be vending there. So far however we have not been able to get in as one must acquire a certain number of points to get a place and everyone else seems to have more than us right now. We expect to have enough within the next few weeks and in the meantime we are working on building up our stock. It is slow going as each boot takes about 9 hours or more to complete, but we keep at it. A few weeks ago we took the last little bit of money we had and purchased a drum carder. This is a hand cranked device that combs fleece into batts, batts that can be used for felting or spinning. It is an expensive item by anyone's standards, but we hope it will pay for it's self by saving us money on the purchase of already prepared wool batts. In addition to that it allows us to experiment more with color blending.

Our days have been so busy here, busier than I am used to, and perhaps than they ever have been. Trying to jump-start a business ( in this economy no less), raise a small child and renovate a house while at the same time making sure we have money for food has proven very challenging. Yea I know, you are all saying, welcoming to the real world, right ?

Truth be told there are times when we literally have nothing, but then something will always come through weather it be an online order or sometimes a trip to the local food box. I feel strongly that once we get established at the market we will do exceptionally well. We have given ourselves one year and by that time if we are not making regular money we will go back to the bus where rent is free and living is cheap.

Whatever happens, we have both agreed that there is no way either of us could ever be content with an office or other job. Not that there is anything at all wrong with those jobs, they are just not for us. It is either make this work, or back to the bus.

Our little community here on the farm, now consisting of five adults, four kids, three horses, three sheep, two dogs, and two cats, is growing in new ways. We now have a name, The Land of AHS... ( A. Healing. Space). There is also a small garden and a wooden yurt that is being used for retreats and workshops. It is turning out to be a wonderful place to live and I feel so blessed.

In other exciting news, I have recently realized my long time dream of becoming a shepherdess ! We have adopted a small Shetland sheep family, a mama and two lambs ! They are the sweetest little family and I plan to use their wool for hand spinning and felting. Sage adores them as well and helps me feed them every morning and evening. She already understands that the sheep have wool that mommy and daddy use to make things out of.

Speaking of Sage, she is thriving...speaking in complete sentences now and continues to amaze and surprise us every day, constantly pushing me to expand and flow with her in new directions. In a few weeks she will be two, it is hard to believe. I know parents always say that but it really is amazing to witness her growing, it all seems to go so fast. For her birthday we hope to have the room we are fixing up for her completed with a bed, play area and such.

This whole settling process brings up a lot of fear for me. Mostly fear of being stuck. More and more though I am realizing that I can only really be stuck in my head. I am learning how to let go of things and just flow from a place of stillness as opposed to one of constant motion. It seems when we were on the road in the bus, we were always home and if a situation or place was not working for us, we would just move on, flowing and floating freely about the country. It was rather like changing the channel on a TV. Turn the dial and, da ta ! , a whole new scene and cast of characters !

What I am learning is that, in a settled life, when things get bad, that same flowing, the letting go or surrendering to what IS still needs to take place, but instead, from a place of stillness inside my heart and mind, as opposed to moving about in the world physically. I must realize my true home is not where I am at in the world, but where I am at in my heart and mind.

That is the challenge.... and if I can master that, then I can be free wherever I may be....

A trip to the oregon coast beach..

A trip to the oregon coast beach..

A view from our porch...

Sage helps feed the baby lambs..

Jameila, the mama....

My new Strauch "finest" drum carder...

The Enchanted Gypsy Has Landed

2009-01-16T12:20:00.001-08:00

When I last left you we were parked on friends land in Oregon making preparations for our bus renovations. I had been feeling as though we were on the verge of some momentous change....and indeed I was correct..

We continued planning our bus renovations, dreaming and scheming throughout the month of November. Towards the end of the month the rains set in and it became obvious that it was not the proper time to replace and raise our roof. Around this time the bus was beginning to feel quite small as Sage continued to grow and explore her surroundings. The near constant rain and cold kept us indoors quite a bit more than usual.

It so happened that, in early December a friend was moving out of one of the small house 's on the very property we were parked on. Our friend asked us if we wanted to rent the place for the winter and without knowing exactly how we were going to make the rent, we thought about it for a few days and said ....yes.

So, here we are now, living in a house .....

For the first time in my adult life I am renting my "own" house, that is, I am not just living with others for a time. I have never, as an adult had a place with a bathroom or hot running water. It has always been outhouse's ( which I still prefer) hauling and boiling water for me. The place is small and lovely, with many large windows overlooking a meadow with peaceful grazing horses. There is no central heat, only a wood stove, which I like as it keeps me more in touch with the natural world. Having more than one room is a wonderful luxury as well. I now have room to set up a fiber studio in and can finally bring my large floor loom out of storage from down in California.

Most importantly however, Sage loves the additional space. She runs around and around, dances, rolls on the floor and seems to play more enthusiastically. We are taking the other bedroom and making a playroom for her. There is a a lot of work that needs to be done on the place, and we prefer it that way. The birds are even getting larger quarters with a big aviary we are building in the living room for them and an outdoor one as well.

On the down side, one of the immediate differences I noticed was the greatly reduced connection with the natural world. I am used to ti-pis, yurts and bus's , dwellings with thin walls, where you can really hear wind blowing , the rain, even the sound of snow falling. In the house the walls are much thicker and so all the many wonderful outdoor nature sounds are eliminated. It is SO quiet, too quiet and almost claustrophobic. Not being able to hear the rain on the roof or hear and feel the wind blowing my home about, is rather like watching a movie with the sound turned off. I will adjust though and will dwell instead on the many opportunities this change presents for us.

There are horses here and many acres to run and explore on. I even found a way to reconcile my feeling that there is not enough wild-land for me. Across the road here, a charming and winding country road, and down about 1/4 of a mile, is the land we used to live on all those years ago in the tipi..many thousands of acres. There is a back door to the property there and I can ride the resident horse here, Tom , over and explore all I want. We also try to go for regular walks there. I feel very strongly that Sage should know what undomesticated, wild land is like, and that is the best I can do for now. The land does have many wild inhabitants . The other day while hiking , we crossed a stream and noticed fresh black bear tracks. Upon looking up we caught a fleeting glimpse of the tracks owner as he bumbled behind a tree. Sage said he was a dog and I of course pointed out that he was a bear. I like the idea that she witness's animals in the wild first, instead of a zoo.

So, Is this the big change I was anticipating ? If so, what does all this mean for the enchanted gypsies and our travel blog ?

Yes, I do think this is the change we were sensing, or the beginning of it anyway. It may not seem very momentous by most standards, but for us it is significant. It is possibly the beginning a new chapter in our lives. Being still for this time, weather it is ends up being just through the winter, or possibly longer term, will enable us to embark on many other projects that have been difficult or impossible to accomplish on the road. We can focus more time on developing our puppet show and I my fiber arts . Moss can finally work on and record his music, something almost impossible to do on the road and something he has neglected for far to long. We can grow a garden and if we stay on long term, are planning to get a few sheep, chickens ( for eggs) and raise some bees. In addition to that I can even get back into wildlife rehabilitation, which I had done for many years last time I went through a prolonged stationary phase.

As for the blog and it's future..well the content may change a bit as I grow and explore various topics, but it will remain, and I will continue to update it as well, when the mood strikes me ( or when enough angry people write demanding an update..LOL). You can expect detailed posts on everything from sheep rearing, mothering, felting projects, birdwatching, animal tracking and naturalist studies to case histories of various wildlife patients that may come through my doors ( if I end up back into rehab work).

After all, the Enchanted Gypsies are us, and our journey through life and how we view things, not just about our life in a bus or on the road.

As for the bus, it is now parked near our place and will be used, for the time being, as a recording studio for Moss's music. I do not see us ever parting with it and we will most definitely be living and travelling in it again, maybe in a year, maybe in two.....

Who knows ?

We could, and very likely will, leave here at any time, just as quickly as we arrived, in any manner or mode of transportation. Such is the nature of our lives, and we like it that way.

So how are we paying our 400 dollar rent in this new place ? We are still selling our fiber art online, which brings in a decent amount from time to time. We have also begun doing production type felting work. We are making large flat sheets of felt for a local leather shoe maker who wanted to add a line of felt shoes to his business. We make the felt and he cuts and sews them into shoes. The shoes are very different from ours which are done using a resist and are seamless. It does not pay a lot of money at this point but holds lots of promise.

In this manner, we hope to be able to make ends meet. We prefer to have less money and more time with Sage and each other. Getting a 9-5 job, if it is even possible for me having virtually no work history in the past 18 years to speak of, would sure make it difficult to spend time together as a family and pursue our creative endeavors, as those are our priorities.

I leave you with various pictures of life on the farm, our new home and pics of us on solstice morn...

Our view of the meadow from living room window.

Sage rolls on the floor, enjoying the extra space to play.

Feeding Tom.

A funny picture of Sage, laughing and bouncing on the trampoline.

Breathing In ....and Breathing Out...

2008-10-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since my last post and as usual when my posts lag, we receive many nice emails from concerned folks wondering if we are o.k . Once agin I would like to remind people that, although I do intend to continue to write this blog for an indefinite period of time, it is reflective of my somewhat unpredictable and constantly changing life. Because of this, there will be times when, due to the natural ebb and flow of lifes circumstances and to a lesser extent my mood, I will not be able to write regularly.

Rest assured though I will always, in good time, resume my somwhat regular postings.....

Before going any further let me just take a mommnet to rejoice, along with the entire world, over our new president Barck Obabma ! We returned to Eugene just in time to vote for Obama then head to the county fairgrounds and watch the returns along with hundreds of others. Although supposed to be a non partisan election hall, I think everyone in that room was rooting for Obama. When CNN announced that he was the next president the entire room began to cheer . Out in the street of this very liberal town people ran from their houses cheering and crying, hugging neighbors. I kid you not. It was quite an amazing experience. I feel the time is comming where I can once again be pround of our country. It is definitely a new day here in the USA, and it makes me so happy that Sage will live the first four and likely eight years of her life with Obama as her president....

We are all doing well and currently still parked for an unknown period of time at a friends farm in Oregon. We had previously spent the last two months in southern Oregon, working at farms in the area and doing various odd jobs.We have been saving up money to to do some work on the bus. We would like to finish our water system and add a sleeping loft on top. This would free up space in the back of the bus that we could use to create a playroom for Sage.

There are many ways to create a sleeping loft on a bus. One could raise the roof in metal, build it up with wood or use the body of another car welded to the top. After thinking about it for some time, talking it over with various people and reseraching the options we are leaning heavily towards the, "welding another vehicle on top", option. In our case we will likely be using the body of an older VW van, with a pop top included. This is by far the easiest and most economical option. We have already located the vehicle and will likely begin the project within the next few weeks. I will be certain to document it all and include lots of pictures.

In addition to the loft we will also be finally finishing our water system. We have located a nice deep tub and the tanks and the on demand water heater we have had for quite some time now, we just need to put it all together. The idea of hot running water, or any running water in the bus is very exciting !

Sage is now 17 months old, as of Nov 9th, and is suddeny a real little kid. She is talking up a storm, it seems every day she says new words. Seeing her personality take shape and emerge is fascinating. She really loves animals, especially horses and birds. There is a horse on the farm here, three in fact. She particularly likes one by the name of Tom, who we spend a good deal of time petting and talking with every day. When not hanging with horses at the barn we go for long walks in the nearby woods, eating apples, watching and listening for birds, deer and other animals. Sage really likes owls and can identify and imitate the call of a great horned owl from a picture.

We also go to the park in town now and again as well as the library and a little place called Bounce, where kids can just run around, jump and play on trampolines. We try to let her have as much unstructured time as possible and prefer to just let her play freely at whatever she choses around the farm or woods.

On a very sad note, our dear dog Gaia has passed on. She had become very ill in the last two years and for the last year had been with Moss's mom, as she was to sick to live on the bus with us. Our plans were to find a place to stay for a time, then bring her there to live out her remaining days . We went down to california to get her a few weeks ago and brought her up to the farm with us. Sadly though, after only a week, she passed on. She was 15 years old and had been with us since she was a puppy and the first year Moss and I were together. She spent many lovely years with us in this valley, right down the road a bit where we lived all those years in the tipi. Perhaps she was just holding out for us to come get her and bring her back to this valley. We burried her on the farm under a several hundred year old oak tree. Her death marks the end and beginning of a new phase in our lives. Farewell Gaia we miss you terribly and will love you always. ....

Moss and I are beginning to feel the stirrings of some big changes on the horizon for us, though we are not quite sure what or when. It seems to be a cyclical thing, occuring every few years, where we feel the need to reasess the direction we are going and to recreate our lives aknew.

It usually manifests itself at first in conversations about dreams and visions we have had, then a gradual, yet dramatic increase of energy and ideas that build up over months or sometimes years, followed by an inexplicable series of syncronistic events and ultimately an explosion of frentic activity then finally......massive change. In the tarot deck, for those familar with those sorts of things, this might be represented by the fool card, followed by the tower, followed by the world.

Actually, I think most people feel these feelings quite regularly, but tend to ignore them. Then again, maybe other people just posess some measure of self control that we do not seem to have....

The kind of change varries from time to time and we never quite know how it will end up. There is often the feeling that we are along for the ride, that the ideas are comming through us but not neccesarily from us . Actually, it is more like a collaboration between myself, Moss and the universe. We just notice and observe as the various realities emerge and begin to take shape then merge back into the sea of possibilities . Eventually one possibilty will begin to stand out as events happen to move us in a certain direction, until it becomes obvious that, this is the change we have been waiting for ( yes I have been listening to Obama speeches quite a bit this month. )

I realize this sounds insane, but the big difference is that we do have veto power over the universe, while an insane person does not, they are simply at the mercy of the universe and the various entities it contains....

In the past this has resulted in several spontaneous, creative and somewhat dangerous ( on retrosepct) adventures. Hitchiking solo around the country, getting lost at sea on a small sail boat for nearly a month, living in a tipi for eight years and building this crazy bus, among other things. ..

Whatever the result may be it is always exciting to see what the next change will bring when we feel it comming on. I wonder if now that we are getting older and more domesticated if these cyclical life changes will reflect this. I would not be opposed to that in any way, to every thing there is a season, right ?

However, I do know that, Moss in particular, has been seriously kicking around this idea of a horse and wagon journey in this continet and in Europe. Maybe we could combine that with the puppet show we have been working on. There is also our long time dream of living and sailing aboard a house boat. The again, settling down and building an off the grid homestead sounds nice too..

For right now though we are enjoying the slow pace of life here on this lovely farm ,where we will soon begin work on the bus. We will take the winter to hibernate and dream, to nurture our visions, there are so many and so many to chose from. In the spring we will have a much better idea of what our next move will be, if there is a move to be made at all.....

A good friend once told me ,
"Life is all about expansion and contraction. In breath, and out breath..."

I like that. It is true on so many levels.

I leave you with a few lines from one of my favorite Cat Stevens songs from the movie Harold and Maude...

If You Want to Sing Out

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free,
be free

cause theres a million things to be
You know that there are

You can do what you want
The opportunitys on
And if you can find
a new way

You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can
make it undo
You see ah ah ah
Its easy ah ah ah
You only need to
know

Well if you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say
no, say
no cause theres a million ways to go
You know that there are
........

Our bus in the meadow.

Sage offers Tom same hay.

Sages first real Hallows Eve. She is an eggplant.

Hallows Eve in Ashland, the freaks come out.

Election Central in Eugene, people react to the news of our new president. Photo from Register Guard.

Gaia ~ 1993-2008

Just a Little Update...

2008-09-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it turns out that our computer which was supposedly fixed was actually not.

We drove the 150 miles to pick it up at the computer store in Medford, but when we got it back to Eugene discovered that some of the keys did not work , they gave us the wrong cord and then the computer suddenly froze. All this within a few days of having it back. Alas... I am now back on the library computer and hence my infrequent postings. In a few days we will travel south to southern Oregon for some work related activities and at that time we will drop off the computer to be fixed again. The computer store seems to think it is due to an error on their part and we, of course, agree.

It will be at least another week or two before I can get back to my more regular infrequent postings. Gotta go my computer time is ticking away.........

Laying Roots.....

2008-09-01T23:01:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report we now have our computer back ! We can now manage our etsy site and begin selling things once again. This also means I can resume my somewhat regular postings..

When I last left off we were just beginning our journey north. We went first first in the car, with Moss driving south at a later date to fetch the bus and bring it back up. Our initial plans had been to stay in a hotel while we worked a local initiative and saved money to bring the bus up. However, at the last minute we caught wind of a fellow who needed someone to caretake his land for part of the summer . The land was in the Applegate valley in southern Oregon, beautiful, wild, remote and right on the river.

We stayed there in the bus and used our little car to drive the 40 minutes to Ashland once a week for groceries and supplies. Our chores were simple, in exchange for a place to park, we were to feed the animals, water and tend the garden. The rest of the time was spent immersed in felt making, creating boots , dolls and puppets for the festival and dyeing many pounds of wool . We saw very few people for those two months, just the thee of us and the birds in a beautiful timeless world of forest, river and sky.

On June 9th, Sages first birthday, we decided to take a trip into Ashland for a visit to Lithia park. This park is stunningly gorgeous and was designed by the same person who made golden gate park in San Francisco. Sage had a great time playing in the river and climbing on the playground equipment with the other kids. We were not able to get a birthday ring this year but we did have a yummy carrot cake and I gave her the doll I made for her which she seems to really like.

In early August our careaking position came to and end and we packed up our camp and headed north to Eugene and the Faerieworlds festival. We were excited to be moving again but our time in the woods really drove home our desire to be rooted some place.

The Faerieworlds festival was nothing short of spectacular, as always. We met a few regular blog readers and some fellow etsy artisans as well. Two of them wrote up a nice little feature on us, which you can read here and another one here .

While financially it was not a huge success, we did meet a man, a professional shoe maker who wants to collaborate with us on making felted clogs. He makes great ergonomic soles for his leather boots and has been interested in making felt clogs for a long time now. When he saw our boots at the festival he was (apparently) impressed and asked us if we would like to work with him on this project. Basically we will make the felted boot part and he the soles. It looks very promising and could be a long term production felting gig for us.

Brian, Wendy and Toby Froud were there as usual and I almost fell over when Brian walked up to me and complimented me on my newest large piece, saying "she really has presence ".. This of course thrilled me to no end as he is the KING of Faerie after all.

We saw many of our old friends which was wonderful, including Sunshine, Dylan ,Timothy and there new baby Lila ! This was the family we met a few months earlier in Santa Barbabra. Sunshine ended up having her baby unassisted in the back of there rig at the Health and Harmony fest. Her birth story is amazing. You can read it here,

Gypsy Amore

After the festival we went to our friends farm outside of Eugene Oregon. They are old and dear friends of ours and have invited us to stay for as long as we wish on there land . In exchange we would help out around the farm with the gardens and horses and pay a small rent. The land is twenty acres of rolling meadow with a small amount of woodland. There are horses (including a pony), fruit trees, and a big garden space as well. We are seriously contemplating staying for a good long while, at least through winter, maybe longer. It would be a perfect place to build that roof extension on our bus.

Sage loves it as well. There is so much to explore and she adores the horses and apple trees. There is also a huge and ancient grandmother oak tree, many hundreds of years old with a swing tied to it, overlooking a meadow.

We have looked into a few other land possibilities in the area as well, but cannot seem to decide between them. There seems to be something wonderful and also something lacking in each choice. So far though staying on our friends farm seems to be leading, at least for now.

Although it is beautiful I cannot seem to shake the feeling that it will not be the place. It has many lovely meadows, but very little woodland for exploring and no riparian area at all. My vision of our home-land has always been something more much like what Moss and I lived on years ago in the tipi.

I really loved that land. I loved not being able to see any houses or man made things around me, just a narrow old deer trail that meandered from our tipi through the woods and across a meadow, a 1/4 mile to where we parked our car. From there it was a half mile or more drive down a dirt road , through the property to the main road. All this on a few thousand acres only a couple miles from town.

There was something just so right about being able to walk out my door and keep walking for hours through woodland, forest, streams and meadows, then to return home again without having come across a single person or man made structure. I would go for these long walks regularly, sometimes on horseback and often have the feeling that I was a pioneer, exploring uncharted territory for the first time.

The interesting thing is, upon reflection, it was the experience of all these habitats together that made it all so magical, at least in part anyway.

I remember well the dark, mysterious and moss drenched forest beckoning me deeper and deeper into it's depth. I wander the deer trails lost in a timeless world, my senses all engaged. The smell of wet earth, the sound of twigs cracking and birds singing sweetly from tree tops. I stop momentarily to refresh myself and reflect beside a stream, and on bending down I notice fresh bob cat scat placed carefully upon a rock. Nearby I see coon tracks in the mud leading away from the stream. The tracks are are pebbled with small holes from yesterdays rain, telling me they are at least a day old. I walk on, emerging from the darkness, slowly at first, as the conifers give way to broad leave trees and a sun dappled oak woodland. I soon find myself upon the edge of a great rolling meadow stretching on as far as the eye can see, the sun shines brightly as a red tail hawk circles over head. In the distance I can see clusters of oak hammocks scattered throughout the meadow, and beyond that, more forest, so much to explore...

Unfortunately, in today's world this type of rural, intact ecosystem is somewhat rare, with most land having been fragmented into tiny parcels. One parcel may be all woodland, while the neighboring one has mostly meadow and the adjacent one has the riparian area. We forget it is all really one great whole living entity and each habitat has beauty, meaning and a place in the collective unconscious. The forest represents mystery and intrigue, the meadow, possibilities and expansion, the streams cleanse and renew. Each with it's own gifts and lessons to teach.

Unless one has lived on such an increasingly ( for private rural land anyway) rare and intact piece of land, it is hard to imagine the intimate and subtle experience I speak of. It seems to tap into some sort of ancestral memory of our species having evolved within all these habitats. Now that I have had this experience, it is hard for me to accept anything less, at least for long term living. I do want to point out however that it is not the acerage that is the important thing to me here, in as much as the quality of the land. Five acres containing a small woodland, a few meadows and a pond or stream would be perfect !

The place we are at now is beautiful and magical in so many ways, and I do not mean to sound ungrateful, but Moss and I both feel in our hearts it is probably only short term. As much as we love our friends and the land, we feel this is true.

In other news, our lawyer called a few days ago to tell us that she has officially filed our civil suit against the un named giant super store ( hint - think "bulls eye"). She says it could take from six months up to two years for this to be settled, depending on if we settle out of court or go to trial. If all goes well with that we can use the money to buy land ourselves or go in with others on a piece of land that really does speak to us. We are not going to count on this happening, but it would be nice...

In the meantime, we will likely remain on our friends farm or in the Oregon region, watch the seasons change, grow some veggies and ground out for a time......

This is how we do our wash, in a lovely little machine called a James washer.
Moss working a pair of felted boots.

Moss fulls and shapes the boots with Sages help

.
Our friends, Elvolution, a travelling circus that performed at The faerie Fest

A Great puppet at the Faerie Worlds Fest

Everyone comes in costume.

This is one of my favorites.

Still Here .......

2008-08-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a very long time since my last post, so if anyone is still reading this blog, I just want to let you know we are alive and well in Eugene Oregon. The festival did not do to great financially though we made a lot of connections that will hopefully be panning out into good opportunities for us in the near future. Including a possible production felting gig for a shoemaker.

Thank you for all the offers for computer repairs. Our computer is fixed and at a computer store in medford Oregon where it will stay until we have 230 dollars to get it back. The problem is that most of the money we had been making was from etsy and various other online sales, which we obviously need a computer to manage. It's a revolving door nightmare scenario, but we are doing our best to remain posotive and keep our options open.

At this time we are here in lovely Eugene Oregon staying with friends on various pieces of land and trying to sort out our lives and finances. Our email service and website has been turned off for falure to pay . In the meantime to send an email you can use,

enchantedgypse@gmail.com

I have so many wonderful photos, stories and thoughts to share, but I will have to leave it at this for now, as my library computer time is running out and I must go.....

S.O.S

2008-07-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

I am writing this quickly from a computer store in oregon. We are not dead but our computer has been for the past month. We made it to Oregon with the bus and are camping in the woods in abeautiful remote spot in southern Oregon near a river . Hopefully we will have the money to fix our computer shortly. We will be here for the next few weeks then will be heading to Eugene for the Faerie Worlds Festival.I have lots of updates and pictures to share from the past few months.

The sales guy is shooting me looks so I better get off......

2008-05-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a quick update before we set out on a longish road trip up north.

Now that we are no longer bound to this area for reproductive or legal reasons ( at least for the time being anyway) we are once again free to travel. Unfortunately, quite a few things have changed since before I was pregnant and these changes present more than a few difficult, though not insurmountable issues.

For starters we no longer have our veggie system. Secondly, the price of bio diesel and all other fuels for that matter, has risen to ghastly new heights. This is all complicated even more so by the addition of our previously mentioned Mercedes diesel. We acquired this when we mistakenly thought we would be settling for a while . THAT in turn is further complicated by the fact that we do not have a tow hitch nor the money to purchase one.

But wait, it gets worse ( oh, cm on admit it, you love this ! The drama of it all ..)! Not only do we not have enough money to purchase a tow hitch, but we do not have enough money to drive both vehicles up north where we can make some money working a few initiatives.

What to do....

After a few moments of panic and confusion we sat down and thought things through a bit. We thought of selling the car, this would bring in about 3-4000. Then again the car will really come in handy at some of those remote campsites we will be going to. Also, if we do find a home base of sorts anytime in the near future, the car would again really come in handy. After thinking through all sorts of options- we left none out mind you, including the increasingly tempting one (Moss's favorite)of trading all vehicles for a wagon and six mules- we decided at least for now anyway, to keep the car and park the bus at a friends house for two weeks. We will then drive the car up north where we have some initiative work in Washington. After a few weeks Moss will take a greyhound down south, pick the bus up and head north where Sage and I will be waiting, probably in hotel. At that point we will be in the beautiful northwest region, land of many free and cheap campsites. Here we will remain for a few months, maybe longer working on stuff to bring to the Faerie Worlds Festival in July. It makes me sad that we have to leave the bus, but it will only be for about two weeks.

With all that out the way we breathed a collective sigh of relief and turned our attention to other matters.The last few days have been spent refinishing the floor,cleaning and repacking the bus. This is a time consuming, though necessary task that we try to do at least once a year. The task consists of taking everything out of the bus's various storage areas and tossing it into three piles. The piles are as follows,

Pile 1 ~ Need it
Pile 2~ Want it
Pile 3 ~ Gotta go..

Following that we scrub down the bus interior, reorganize, and finally burn some sage. This is to cleanse the vibes, ward off any lingering, unwanted spirits and keep the air fresh.

I actually like this activity, maybe it is just my triple Virgo nature, but the bus feels so good when we are done. I also really like the idea of having to take stock of our belongings every so often and reassess what we need. It is a noteworthy activity that even those in brick and mortar houses would be wise to practice as well.

Refinishing the floor was something that we had wanted to do for a long time. When we first put the floor in we applied, regrettably, a coat of polyurethane . The walls and other furniture which we did later, were finished using Osmo Hard Wax Oil, an all natural oil and wax mixture. We liked the look and feel of the walls so much better, we decided to refinish the floor in the same manner. This tedious process entails removing every floor board, stripping the old finish, sanding and applying the wax.The difference in the floor so far is nothing short of remarkable. Also, it feels good knowing it is an all natural environmentally sound finish on there. I will post pictures when it is finished.

On another topic, Sage's birthday is coming up on June 9th and I am sure no one would be surprised if I said I cannot believe it has been one year already ! Although it will likely make no difference to her at this point we would like to start the first birth day off with rich family traditions that we will cherish and return to year after year. One tradition we really like is the northern European tradition of the birthday ring or wreath. Here is a description from Three Sisters Toys,

The Birthday Ring is a classic German birthday tradition. It is a symbolic way to celebrate the anniversary of your child's birth and show reverence for each year of their life thus far. A birthday ring consists of a wooden circle with holes representing each year of life. You may place ornaments or candles in the ring to adorn your birthday table or cake top.

Traditionally, on your child's first birthday, you place one candle on the ring and fill the rest of the holes with figures. On each consecutive birthday, you replace one figure with a candle. Place the unused figures in the center of the ring to signify the child's previous years. Finally, on the twelfth or sixteenth year (depending on the ring you choose), the ring will be fully illuminated. This is truly something your child will look forward to each year!

You may choose to create your own variations on this tradition, perhaps placing figures that represent events your child experienced during the year since the last birthday or using just one number decoration to represent the child's age along with the corresponding number of candles. The birthday ring can also be used as a decoration throughout the year. It is a beautiful addition to a nature table when the decorations are changed with the seasonally.

A lovely tradition indeed, though it is a bit pricey and money is tight, so it may have to wait until next year, we'll see.

I am also making for her a doll that I will present to her on her birthday. In addition to that we will have some type of healthy cake and hopefully will be in the woods some place near a stream, river or lake that we can swim in.

We should be done repacking and cleaning the bus within the next few days and at that time we will say goodbye to friends and family and drive north to Washington where we will work for a few weeks to earn enough to bring the bus up. We will also likely buy a tow hitch at this point for the car.

After that, it's into the woods for the next few months to soak in the hot springs, swim in the lakes and of course work on items for the festival...

An example of a birthday ring.

Moss pretends to be crazy while holding Sage. What can I say, he has an intresting sense of humor.

My friend Jackie, a photographer, did a photo shoot of Sage. This is one of my faves.

Moss looking more his usual self..

Two Roads Diverged........

2008-04-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

In early March we said goodbye to our friends in Santa Barbaara, (with the exception of Sunshine and Dylan who split town in true gypsy fashion. I understand guys, when it's time to go it's times to go ! No worries !)and drove south for Moss's court date.

I am happy to report everything went well. At the last minute the DA suddenly wanted to make a deal. She offered to delay for six months then drop the charges. However, Moss would have to agree to some community service work. Our lawyer advised us to take the deal because it would not hurt our civil case at all and it would save us money in the long run with not having to go to trial. Now we can proceed with the civil trial, but not before a much needed six month break from legal hassles.

In mid April Moss, Sage and I flew to Florida to see my mom and dad, who had yet to meet Sage. We stayed for 12 days and had a wonderful time swimming in the gulf and visiting. My dad and step mom live in Sarasota and my mom and step dad live in Vero Beach.

We are now back in California and contemplating our next move. As always, we have many options. We will be vending at the Faerie Worlds Festival again this year and need to find a nice woodsy place where we can settle in for a time to make boots, dolls, puppets and dye 30 lbs of wool. The question is, where would be the best place to do that. It needs to be someplace easy to get to, but at the same time remote, wild and inexpensive. There are some beautiful and very remote campgrounds in the mountains north of Santa Barbara, but the tiny mountain roads that lead to them are winding, narrow and prone to rock slides. If we can make it down those roads, it would be a lovely place to nest for a time. We may also head north ( which we need to do anyway this summer for the FW festival), and stay near Cougar Hot Springs in oregon. Then again, Northern California has some very beautiful and inexpensive campgrounds as well.

The truth is, with our veggie system down, we now have to pay for fuel and diesel is up near 5.00 a gallon. Increasingly we find ourselves parked for days at a time in one spot as we save money just so we can drive to another spot. To make matters worse we have recently purchased another vehicle, a 1983 Mercedes 190 D. It's a great little car that gets about 40 miles to the gallon. We bought this car a month ago for only 3000 dollars. We bought it because we thought we would be staying on some friends land up north for an extended period of time and needed a way to get in and out of town easily. Now however, due to to some serious family/domestic problems on his part,it seems we might not be able to stay there after all. That is really to bad as it is such a beautiful cabin, hand built in the 1850's right on the Rouge river.It has the most beautiful balcony and porch, as well as a bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. Gorgeous. We were going to stay there in exchange for work on his organic farm. There still is some hope that we can stay there, but it is slim, so we are making other plans.

As much as I love bus and nomadic living, I have been a bit conflicted about it of late, and am starting to wonder if full time travel is the best thing for Sage.

There is something to be said for staying in one place year after year, watching the seasons change and the trees grow. There is a feeling one gets from knowing a piece of land, it's secret trails and wildlife, as intimately as the lines on a lovers face. To know, through careful observation and long quiet walks in the woods all the magic and revelation the forest holds. To know the deer and vole trails, the best watering and swimming holes, where the various plants grow from year to year in all there many cycles. To see yourself and life cycle reflected in the seasons. To know the joy of planting a garden with your own hands, helping to care for it and then eating the food you helped grow. When living this simply and close to the earth in a day to day sort of way, there is a true magic and peaceful rhythm one experiences that cannot be substituted or experienced in any way other way. I deeply miss this connection to place, to land.

Having experienced these things myself ( Moss and I lived in a tipi for years at one point )it is my hope that Sage will have the opportunity to as well. This is difficult on the road. Yes, we can walk in the woods from place to place and explore many and diverse habitats as we travel, but it is not quite the same.

I guess what I am saying is, I am feeling a bit like it may be time to try to lay some roots. In my ideal world we would have a home base, somewhere wild and remote, preferably in a community but not necessarily, where we could grow a garden and build a cobb house. A place with lots of trees, a pond or stream and a nice sunny, south facing meadow. From there we could travel part of the year in the bus, maybe even leave the bus at times and travel internationally by foot, wagon or boat.

So, we are putting that out there in the universe as our prayer, that we find a piece of land someplace wild and full of magic. A place where we can lay some roots and grow a garden, at least for part of the year anyway.

One thing is for certain though, neither Moss nor I could ever settle down permanently. We both have the heart and spirit of a gypsy nomad. I have known since early childhood that I was destined, for better or for worse to spend a good deal of my life wandering, seeking out the dsuty, remote and wind swept corners of the earth.

Gypsy, rolling stone, nomad, wanderer, tinker, hobo..call us what you will,we have been called by many names, but one thing is true, most people who wander relentlessly do tend to feel this call from a young age. You know who you are. Keep in mind, this nomad that I write of is quite a different animal than the one who enjoys frequent trips, usually pre aranged via travel agents, to resorts all over the world. For the true nomad it is more about a way of life. There is also a kind of frantic yet aimless quality to the travel. It is rather like you are racing to experience as much as life has to offer in the short amount of time given

When ignored this calling for the road only gets louder and louder until you find your thoughts increasingly filled with images of travel in all forms, train hopping, bus conversions, gypsy wagons, RVs, hitchhiking, sailing. Before you know it your drifting off at work or school, unable to concentrate as you continuously design and redesign the perfect bus conversion or gypsy wagon in your head.

As much as I love this wandering life, at the the same time I have always been a homebody, believe it or not. In fact I am probably the biggest homebody I have ever known. I would much rather sit in the bus and read, work on felting, watch the fire or clean than go out to a movie or friends party.

It's true, I am a basket of contradictions and somehow I must find a way to marry these two sides of myself, the side that wants, no, NEEDS to keep moving and traveling, with the side that wants to be grounded and have a home base.

I believe I have found the answer and now we just need to manifest it in the form of a piece of land or community....

Every Sunday this group of Veterans gather on the beach in Santa barabara and put up this memorial to the fallen soliders of the Iraqi war. One cross for each person. It is heartwrenching..

Sage enjoying the beach in FL, who by the way, is now walking fully at ten months ! In fact, she is running !

Camping on the beach , we have a nice view....

Our friend Sunshine drew this picture for sweet pigeon Palomino, no longer with us..

Sage peers from the bus window....

The Arrival of New Friends and the Passing of an Old One....

2008-03-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

It's been many a moon since I last updated, or so it seems anyway. After spending a month or so up north in Oregon rambling about and visiting with friends ( where we had on going and seemingly never ending computer woes, hence the delay in updating the blog ), we headed down south again just in time for Moss's court date.

Once again, it was delayed until April 9th. We contemplated driving back up north to wait it out, but alas, it just did not make sense to drive all the way back up there only to turn around in two weeks and come back here. As of now, we are in the only place in southern California that we find to be the least bit tolerable, the Santa Barbara and Ojai region. Here we will remain until April 9th, when Moss's trial begins, hopefully for real this time. After that we can go back up north for an indefinite period of time. Due to the high cost of bio fuel we will have to stick to even more regional living than we normally do, in an effort to save money. That means spending extended periods of time living within one region, seeking out free and low cost campgrounds and out of the way places ( there are lots in Oregon!). Once we get the veggie system up and running again we will be able to ramble aimlessly once more. Hopefully this will happen in time for the national Rainbow gathering in July. While here in C.A we are enjoying the wonderful sunny weather and Moss is earning a few extra dollars working some good initiatives, one of which is another great alternative energy initiative.

Since Sage is now nine months old and is actively crawling and standing (in fact today she took her first forward steps without holding on!), we felt she needed a little play space of her own. We created an area in the living room of the bus, a shelf with some toys and a place for her high chair. It is not much, but she loves it and has great fun pulling all the toys off the shelf and tossing them around.

We have been trying to spend as much time in nature, real wild nature, not the manicured kind of nature that one may often encounter at the local park ( although that can be wonderful too !) as we can. The last few months, while up north I was very happy to have been able to go for long walks in the woods with Sage in the carrier. Here in Santa Barbara we enjoy regular walks along the beach and pier. She has so much fun waving to everyone and is working on saying her first word, "Hi". I have to laugh because she looks like a little parade queen in her stroller (which she now prefers to the sling carrier) waving and laughing at every single person. She really loves people !

We met another family here in Santa Barbabra recently, Sunshine, Dylan, and their two boys Timothy and Trace. They have given me permission to write about them, which is nice as we meet many fascinating people but so few will allow us to take pictures or write about about them on the blog ( which I more than understand and appreciate.) They live in their RV, and have begun their nomadic journey within the last year. Sunshine is pregnant and expecting her baby around June 4th ( Sage was born June 9 th !). They are such a loving and kind family. Sunshine is a talented artist, she sings, draws and makes beautiful art from recycled stuff that she finds. Dylan is talented musician who plays guitar flawlessly and knows every song you would probably care to hear. I have been helping them get their blog and Etsy shop set up. You can check it out here,

http://thegypsyamore.blogspot.com/

I have some sad news to report as well, Palomino, my sweet pigeon friend has passed away. I tried her for days to help her, but she died on Easter Sunday from a combination of head trauma and canker ( a protazoan parasite). I am very sad and do not care to go into the details at this time. My friend Sunshine drew a beautiful picture for me commemorating her life. She is still working on it and when she finishes I will post it here. It means so much to me.

As much as I enjoy this area ( as cities go anyway) I am eager to get out of the city and back into the mountains or on the beach. In a few days Moss will take a break from working and we will head into the mountains around here and camp for a while near the hot springs, or maybe on the beach. I think we will take that opportunity to do a deep internal cleansing and fast as well. It will be a nice thing to do just before Moss's court trial and will help him remain clear headed and positive.Then, once that is all behind us we can head back up north for the remainder of the spring and summer.....

Sage enjoying her first strawberry.

The play space we set up for Sage.

Sage and Mom on the beach

A windy day on the beach..

2008-03-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our new friends Sunshine, Dylan, Tim and Trace

Legal Update and a Trip Northward...

2008-02-09T20:24:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update to let you all know how Moss faired at his court hearing. He went to court last week and all went fairly smoothly. They allowed us to switch lawyers from the public defender to a private lawyer. Because of this the trial had to be postponed yet again, until some time in early March.

At this time we are preparing for a trip up north to visit our friends and the farm. We will have to be back in a few weeks though for the trial. This is all getting really old, although I have a sneeking suspicion it is not even close to over.....

While visiting with family, Sage helps dad play his banj-mo (cross between a dulcimer and banjo).

Fun in the basket...

Legal Saga Continues...

2008-01-23T17:20:00.000-08:00

The New Year has come and gone and we are all doing well here in rainy southern California. We have to stay here until the beginning of Feuary, then we head North for more farm work.

Moss's pre trial date came and went in early January. They set a date for the criminal trial. It will begin on February 1st. I wrote briefly about the legal woes back when this all began, but in order to sufficiently update the saga, some more details are needed. ....

As some of you know who follow our blog, Moss was arrested a few months back for exercising his right ( protected by both the state and federal Constitution) to gather signatures of registered voters on a state initiative. He was in front of a certain big name store which I am not going to name due to the legal issues. It is a very well known and established fact that this activity is allowed any place that is "open to the public" and connected to other stores via a sidewalk ( like in a shopping plaza). This particular store chain knows this and has challenged this fact many times in court and lost, the ruling even being upheld by the supreme court. However they continue to find new and inventive ways to harass people working on state initiatives and registering people to vote.

Despite Moss's best attempts to talk to the police and store managers, including showing them the laws and cases upheld in superior courts, they threw him in jail and made us post 5,000 dollar bail. This by the way is the bail amount reserved for felonys, he was booked on a misdemenor.

At this point we went directly to a civil rights lawyer who agreed we had an air tight case. She is so sure that she is willing to take our civil case on contingency (meaning she doesn't get paid unless she wins).

First however, we need to get through the criminal trial, which is the scary part....

What makes it particularly scary is a man, a passerby who showed up while the managers were asking Moss to leave and interjected himself into the drama. He approached Moss and told him that the sidewalk was for "walking not harassing people with your damn initiatives " and that he should leave. Moss declined. He then got in his face and threatened to "kick his ass", to which Moss just ignored him and turned back to trying to reason with the store managers. At this point several of the store managers took him aside and began speaking quietly to him for some time.

While this was happening there was a woman present, the woman who was in the middle of signing the initiative when the managers first approached. She happened to work for a lawyer, and heard the whole thing from start to finish, including the interaction with the man who threatened Moss. When the cops came she tried to help by explaining to them that it was indeed his right to petition there, regardless of private property or not. They of course refused to listen and Moss was inevitably thrown in jail.

A week or so later when we got a copy of the police report we were stunned to read that the man who approached Moss and threatened him bodily harm, told the police that Moss had physically blocked him from entering the store! We also noticed that he was booked on a 602.1., "interfering with a business operator". A quick search on the net revealed that a 602.1 is the following.....

(a) Any person who intentionally interferes with any lawful business or occupation carried on by the owner or agent of a business establishment open to the public, by obstructing or intimidating those attempting to carry on business, or their customers, and who refuses to leave the premises of the business establishment after being requested to leave by the owner or the owner's agent, or by a peace officer acting at the request of the owner or owner's agent, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for up to 90 days, or by a fine of up to four hundred dollars ($400), or by both that imprisonment and fine.

This is ludicrous of course as Moss did not harass or intimidate anyone. We realize however that this is how the store and police are attempting to spin the situation in order to legally arrest him, as they know they cannot simply arrest him for partitioning. We were very surprised to learn that this man has decided to go before the court in February and tell this lie. We however also have our witness, the woman who was in the process of signing the initiative and saw the entire interaction. She has agreed to testify on Moss's behalf.

There are a few other interesting points as well. In regards to the 602.1 there is a little clause at the bottom which states the following,

c) This section shall not apply to any of the following persons:

(1) Any person engaged in lawful labor union activities that are permitted to be carried out on the property by state or federal law.

(2) Any person on the premises who is engaging in activities protected by the California Constitution or the United States Constitution.

(d) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to supersede the application of any other law.

So, even if Moss had been physically blocking the man from entering the store, which he most certainly was not, according to this law, he could not be arrested for it. We brought this up to our public defender who in turn brought it up to the DA and we are awaiting his response.

We have also recently been made aware of the fact that this man, who has decided to go before the court and lie, is a retired police officer. This brings up a whole host of interesting possibilities.Was he working for the store undercover ? Was he a plant ?

The trial begins on Febu 1st and if found guilty by a jury Moss could go to jail for three months. If he is found not guilty we will then proceed with the civil trial and lawsuit.Currently we have a PD for the trial but we are quickly loosing confidence in her. Our civil lawyer said that she would take the criminal trial for us, thereby relieving us of our public defender who means well but is way over burdened with cases. She said they very rarely will take a criminal trial, especially on contingency, but she really believes in this case .

Going with the civil lawyer means that the trial will be pushed back another 30 days and that eventually we will have to pay a lot more money. The money saved will mean nothing though if Moss is in jail for something he did not do.

Both our PD and civil lawyer have mentioned that the area where this occurred is very conservative. The judge, as well as the jury is likely to be conservative as well. What's more is this particular station is well known for being corrupt. The lawyers even went so far as to mention, independently, that they would not be surprised if the store (located directly across the street from the main police station and courthouse)had favor with the court and police.

We came into this whole thing very naively, thinking that if a person is innocent, that is all they need, they will be found not guilty and justice will be served. However, we are becoming increasingly uneasy as we realize that this is not always the case.

I think the court blkif himself said it best recently.

At the last hearing Moss asked the judge (filling in for the previous one)to return the 5000 cash bail we posted six months ago. At the first hearing the judge ruled that she would return the bail under the stipulation that he must not come within 500 feet of said store. The bail however never came and as it turned out the court clerk neglected to write it down, so there was no record of it. Our PD asked the judge about this and he decided that, regardless of the previous ruling, since there was no record of this, the bail would not be returned until the conclusion of the trial. Moss questioned the judge about this and he did not take kindly to the questioning.

On the way out of the courtroom the bailiff whispered to Moss that he should not ever question the judge that way. Moss responded,

" You know what happened ! You were there, she ruled that the bail be returned. It's just not right.." The bailiff indicated that he did indeed recall.

" It's not about what is fair ", came the bailiffs almost aplogetic reply...

" It's about doing what they tell you " .......

Original painting entitled " Hypnagog " by Carey Thompson

Happy New Year !

2008-01-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

We left the land in Oregon towards the end of November, with lots of hugs, sadness and promises of a speedy return, and headed south towards California. Along the way we stopped over near Mt Shasta for a few days, to visit with some friends. While there, on one of the nights the temp got down to 11 degrees. This was the coldest temperature we have ever endured in the bus and all things considered, it was rather comfortable. If we were to remain in those kinds of temps long term however, there are a few simple winterizing things we could do to make it much better.

The front of the bus where the stove is stayed very warm, but the back where we sleep was a bit cold. We realized that directly under our bed where have a storage area, is the only place we did not put insulation. That, coupled with the fact that the bed is surrounded by windows, is the main reason it did not heat up the way the front of the bus did. We blocked up all the windows near the bed with pillows and blankets and this helped a great deal. We did this during our recent stay in Oregon as well, as there were some real cold nights. For living long term in below freezing weather I think that some cut up wool blankets sewed into curtains and hung behind the regular curtains would be all that is needed.

Moss went to court on the 5th but the lawyers requested another extension. The new pre trial is set for January 7th. Sigh...these things can take a long time.

We celebrated Winter Solstice/Christmas/ Hanukah with Moss's folks and his sister's family. This is quite funny as they are all atheist Jews and Moss and I celebrate pagan holidays. We had a great time none the less and exchanged gifts, lit candles, sang songs, ate cookies. A merry time was had by all.

Sage was gifted a few nice wooden toys, Moss received a printer for his music Cd's and for myself some wool roving for spinning on my wheel and some pre spun yarn as well. I have been in a knitting frenzy lately, making wool soakers/pants to go over Sage's diapers.

I love my in laws dearly but they are such techno savvy geeks ! Since we have decided to definitely not do t.v, video games and electronic toys, this may present some difficulty in the future.I realize that it is unrealistic to think that we could shield her entirely from t.v, video games and the like, nor would I want to. Our goal is simply to limit her exposure while we are able to ( being careful, of course to not "demonize" it therby making it more desireable) and gently encourage her towards other intrests while still young. We do plan on introducing computers and movies, but not until she is 8 years or older and then only if she expresses and interest. Instead we will focus on exploring nature, making things with our hands reading and listening to the radio. It is not that I feel computers and movies are inherently bad somehow, I just question the effect they have on developing minds and imaginations, and feel they are best left for older kids and adults.

Speaking of my inlaws, I want to take a momment to help them out by shamelessly plugging their websites...

Moss's mom, Carol Ratafia has been in the art business for 37 years selling her paintings with her husband, Less, at art shows all across the nation. They have just put up a new website featuring her work,

http://www.pyxels.com/Ratafia/index.php

Also, our brother in law Scott Mccloud, is a comic book artist and has a great website featuring his work,

http://www.scottmccloud.com/index.html

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog posts...

As of January 9th Sage will be 7 months old. In late Decemebr she began crawling and now is quite mobile. She has also been having a terrible time with teething lately and after having tried everything, I bought her an amber teething necklace. These are very common in northern European countries where they have been used for centuries to help alleviate teething pain.The amber necklace, when worn against the skin gets warm and exudes an oil that is then absorbed into the bloodstream where it has an anti inflammatory affect on the gums.

It really does seem to work ! I am thinking of making these and selling them on etsy to help generate some extra income.

Speaking of..we opened a shop on etsy this month and I am happy to report that in the first week we made a whooping 435 dollars ! I sold my favorite needle felted guy ever, the elf in the green overalls on the top of the page, for 350 ! We also sold a beautiful pair of boots that Moss made and a small needle felted figure. This is very encouraging and we are now busy making more stuff .

We will be in California through January then we are going back up north to do some more work on the farm in washington..

Sage on solstice morn, playing with her new favorite toy, a silk play cloth..

The soaker pants I am curently knitting ....

Sage and her new amber teething necklace. These really work !

Miles to go before I sleep.....

2007-11-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

We are back now in "civilization" after spending several weeks at a lovely and remote farm in Washington. We had a wonderful time harvesting the crops, learning about perma culture and helping take care of the animals. Getting in and out on the half mile long dirt road was a bit of an ordeal, but not nearly as nerve wracking as first crossing the small bridge in our 27, 000 pound bus. The farm was huge, many hundreds of acres with apple orchards, grapes and much more. There was an adorable little cabin built in the late 1800's on the property and we spent a good deal of time there when not working, visting with Nadine, the grandmother of our friend who owns the place. She is a wise and generous woman who Sage took to imediately. We were sad to move on but have plans to go back as we made many wonderful new friends and connected with old ones as well . A good time was had by all.

It's kind of sad as we meet so many wonderful people and have many adventures in our travels that I would love to write about, but I must draw the line somewhere. It is one thing for me to divulge my own thoughts, feelings and life online here, but I cannot expect everyone I know and meet to want to be part of our blog as well. So, out of respect for folks and their privacy I have a policy of not writing too much about or showing pictures of friends and relatives on the blog. That is , unless I have been given express permission to do so. Instead I try to keep it mostly about Moss, Sage and life from my own perspective. That of course means that only about 3/4 of the stuff I would like to write about actually gets in. You'll just have to use your imaginations as to what the rest of the stuff may be....

Anyway, we are now on a friends farm outside of Eugene Oregon, our old home town. I mentioned in a previous post that we were invited to move here and become part of the community they are creating. My friend, I will call her Meadow, is a midwife and her partner, Stone works with horses . They have a five year old girl and an eight year old boy. There is another lovely family here as well with a three year old daughter, Maya. All the children are now being home schooled, after being in a Waldorf school for several years.

We have given ourselves this month to feel out the vibe, and to see if it's right for us here. . .

The people are wonderful, we already knew that and our visions are in sync...to create a healing space and a self sustaining community of artists and musicians. A place to hold outdoor concerts and workshops.

The rain, which has not let up much since we have been here, does not bother me one bit. I am a rare bird in that I like the rain. In fact, I welcome it ! I love to get cozy with a cup of chai tea, and a book by the fire. Sometimes we will listen to the radio..Coast to Coast AM with George Noory or a radio drama. Often we will just sit and watch the fire and listen to the sound of the rain on the roof. Sage really seems to enjoy watching the fire as well, and I love the fact that she is staring at a fire rather than a t.v .

When we have had enough of being cozy there are lots of indoor gatherings around here this time of year . Sage has already been to three since we arrived two weeks ago. It is all very laid back with lots of other kids and babies, campfires and spontaneous live music. I was worried at first that it would all be to much for a barely five month old baby. Sage however takes it all in stride, smiling and cooing at everyone she meets. She really seems to enjoy just being held in our arms or the mei tai as we chat. Eventually she falls asleep and there is always a quiet, dark room nearby for her to lay down in.

So now we have the task of deciding if we will come back to live here for awhile. Although everything seems perfect, there are other things to consider. We need a place here to work our fiber business in the winter. Down south we can do it outside on the beach or at a campground. Here, we need an indoor place. One option that is becoming more and more attractive is to buy a small yurt and somehow attach it to the bus. That way we will also be able to pack it up and take it with us if we need to move. The other thing we need to sort out is, are we really ready to settle some place for any length of time ? On the other hand, it might be nice to travel about then have a home base to come back to.

Wow..so many options..

Anyway, for now we are just here and in the bus, on this beautiful land. We will be leaving a few days after Thanksgiving to head South. Moss's trial is on the 4th and we cannot miss that. We plan on visiting with his folks for the holidays then working in the area before making our way back here in January or February.

I am so intrested to see where all this leads..........

An old abandoned mill on the farm.

A fresh bowl of grapes from the farm

The resident geese.

Sage Evenstar.

An old cabin on the property.

2007-11-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

The scary little bridge we had to cross on the way to the farm.

A view from the bridge.
A view into one of the rooms of the cabin.

Sage sleeping in one of the rooms in the cabin.

Sage and dad out for a walk.

Lord I Was Born a Ramblin ( Wo ) Man......

2007-10-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

We finally are headed north ! As I write this ( we have a new E.V.O.D card that allows us to access the net wherever there is cell coverage) we are driving north on the 101 to an organic permaculture farm in northern Washington, where through a mutual friend, we have found temporary work ! I will probably not t have regular net or cell phone access while there, (I will be able to go into town or use a land line to check eBay auctions though) so this will be my last post for a week or maybe more . It was quite difficult to get Moss's pre trial changed, but we did it after much back and forth phone calling to the lawyers. It is now set for December 5th instead of oct 17. That means we will have to drive back here in the next month or so, but for now we are northward bound !

Santa Barbara is lovely and has been nice to us but it was so time to leave. I can always tell when it is time to really move on because a place starts to look and feel different, sort of empty feeling and desolate . This is however different from actually wanting to leave and feeling as though it is time to leave. We can want to leave a place badly, but if it is not really time to leave then it becomes quite difficult. I have seen this time and time again in my travels over the years. Some towns have a particularly strong hold, New Orleans is one of them. The other reason I know it is really time to leave is the steady stream of visitors throughout the day and being unable to take a walk on the beach without running into someone I know. Don't get me wrong, we love meeting people but it can get tiring when all I want is a little privacy.

Living in such a high profile home tends to attract a lot of attention. People see our bus and make all sorts of assumptions about us. They often identify us, correctly, as free spirited, caring and open minded people. Certainly, like everyone we have our many flaws, but we do strive for this ideal. Because of this, unlike folks in a conventional RV, we regularly attract a LOT of people, of all backgrounds who come looking for healing and someone to talk to. We don't mind this at all and are happy to listen and give and receive energy to a person when we can, but it can sometimes be scary and a bit difficult to read someones real intentions and allow them into our home. We often have trouble defining our personnel boundaries and knowing where to draw the line. Now, with a baby things are even more complicated as we want her home to be a safe and healthy place. It just seems that sometimes the rules that apply to those who live in brick and mortar houses are different than those that apply to rolling homes. This is understandable, to a certain extent and is part of why I love travel, but it can be complicated at times.

For example, this week we were sitting in the bus reading when there was a knock at the door and a voice called out

" Spare a little time for an old Vietnam vet ? " followed by, " Permission to board ?" in a very military sounding voice.

I went to the doorway to see a weathered looking bearded, grey haired man wearing a faded black cap with the words "Vietnam vet" on it and a huge back pack. He was a bit dirty and smelled of whisky, but my heart went out to him. These kinds of situations can be difficult as it requires one to make a character judgment of a person in the space of a few seconds. So far we have never been wrong, but there is always that possibility. When I was younger and hitchhiking around the country by myself I got a lot of practice in this art form. When someone pulls over and offers a ride, you have about twenty seconds to asses the person and make the right decision. I rely a lot on my gut instinct and intuition.

Moss and I looked at each other and shrugged,I turned back to the fellow and told him,

"O.k, but leave your pack outside "

He put his pack down and hobbled into the bus, sitting down on the bench, thanking us repeatedly. We then began over an hour long conversation consisting of him crying hysterically and reliving, in vivid detail , story after story of his time in nam. He showed us bullet holes, where he was damaged by agent orange and cried bitter tears for his brother William, killed in combat. This was a broken man and my heart went out to him. The intensity of his emotion was frightening and we did not know what else to do so we just listened, which I think was all he wanted anyway. At one point I reached out and grabbed his hand and he seemed to appreciate this. When he was finished we offered him some food, which he ate then thanked us and went on his way.

This is just one example of an often repeated scenario, with a varying cast of characters, all with stories to tell, some sad, some happy, some rich, some poor, all just wanting to share.

Anyway, Sage is doing well and seems to enjoy traveling, though this will be her first long trip. We are trying to provide a sort of stability in our day to day rituals to counter the constant stream of new places and people that she encounters. I think she is adjusting well. I took a series of photos of her, my favorite to date, showing the first time on her belly and having "floor time".

I have included them below.....

Song to a Seagull.......

2007-10-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today was such a beautiful windy day ! The kind of wind that shakes the bus and bends the trees ! I adore windy days. There is something magical about wind that seems to transform any ordinary day into one of mystery and wonder. I went out to the beach for a walk while Moss stayed back at the bus with Sage. They are both sick..runny noses, coughing. Poor girl, this is her first cold and she is teething as well.

I wore my mohair poncho, as I always do on windy days. It's warm and cozy and flaps around behind me like a cape or wings as I walk. I had a great time on the beach alone reflecting on all the recent and wonderful changes in my life. I also took the opportunity to study some bird species I was unfamiliar with and take some photos. I saw a few dead birds out there which was sad. I wonder if it's from all the pollution in the storm run off pond where the sea birds hang out.

On a sad note..early this morning while driving from our night time sleeping spot to our daytime hang out spot, I saw a dead sea gull in the road. He was recently killed, just a few hours maybe. Such a beautiful bird he was, so clean and white and healthy looking. He lay on his back, wings spread out behind him like an angel and head turned to one side. In some morbid way he looked quite beautiful. If it wasn't for the small trickle of bright red blood coming from the side of his beak, one might wonder if he was still alive.

It made me so sad to see him like that, cut down in his prime. He was an adult herring gull , and judging by the beautiful condition of his feathers, had probably recently finished a molt. Perhaps it was his first adult molt, as herring gulls retain their brownish feathers for several years before growing the typical white and grey ones.

We stopped the bus and Moss went out to move him from the middle of the street to a patch of shrubs on the side of the road . We frequently do this for animals we see that have been killed in the road. We do this for a few reasons... one because neither of us can stand to see such beautiful creatures rotting on asphalt, instead of earth, and two because it keeps the crows and other scavengers from being hit while attempting to feed.

There are a lot birds around here, especially on the beach where we park. There are a few juvie gulls and a flock of pigeons that we have become acquainted with as well as many other species of gulls and salt water birds of which I am unfamiliar. Every day the pigeons are there to greet our big green bus as we pull up. I throw them bread, bird seed and whatever we have that's healthy. A few times I had Palomino with me on my lap and it was interesting watching their reaction. I think they trust me more now because they saw another pigeon being friendly with me and now they don't venture far from the bus during the day.

Seeing that sea gull and my walk on the beach today reminded me of one of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs, Song to a Seagull.......

Song To a Seagull

Fly silly seabird

No dreams can possess you

No voices can blame you

For sun on your wings

My gentle relations

Have names they must call me

For loving the freedom

Of all flying things

My dreams with the seagulls fly

Out of reach out of cry

I came to the city

And lived like old crusoe

On an island of noise

In a cobblestone sea

And the beaches were concrete

And the stars paid a light bill

And the blossoms hung false

On their store window trees

My dreams with the seagulls fly

Out of reach out of cry

Out of the city

And down to the seaside

To sun on my shoulders

And wind in my hair

But sandcastles crumble

And hunger is human

And humans are hungry

For worlds they cant share

My dreams with the seagulls fly

Out of reach out of cry

I call to a seagull

Who dives to the waters

And catches his silver-fineDinner alone

Crying where are the footprints

That danced on these beaches

And the hands that cast wishes

That sunk like a stone

My dreams with the seagulls fly

Out of reach out of cry.................

Some of the regulars gathered in front of the bus. The view from the pop out window.

Business Plans and an Epiphany......

2007-09-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

Before I begin this latest update, I wanted to mention that I have added a photo archives on the left panel. Here you can view most of the photos contained in this blog, including a chronological order of bus construction and a separate folder for travel photos. I will be adding more regularly as we go along...

We are still in Santa Barbara and probably will be in and around the area for awhile, or at least until Moss's legal stuff is resolved. The other day we got to listen to Dennis Kucinich speaking down by the pier. He is, as most of you know, a possible candidate in the presidential race, and one of my all time favorites. Last time he ran on the green party ticket. It was so refreshing to hear someone tell it like it is. He will certainly have my vote if he ends up a candidate.

Anyway, I do enjoy this area but it seems we have been trying to head north for so long, and each time we are delayed. On the bright side it feels sooo good to be back in our home again ! There are a few good paid initiatives that Moss has been working on and that has been wonderful for our cash flow, although we are trying to wean ourselves off petitioning and onto more creative ventures. These initiatives will be going until possibly December which will give us lots of time to save up money to invest in our fledgling business's and to live off.

There are a few things we have been tossing around, but so far the best ideas seem to be a combination of eBay sales, felt boots and a travelling puppet show. The felt boots have been coming along quite nicely and we have recently sold three more pairs ! We are still perfecting and fine tuning them and I hope soon we can offer them on our site here. In addition to the boots we have also been selling the herb kratom on eBay and doing well with that, picking up lots of regular customers and bringing in hundred or so a week. This is great, but our cost of living is higher now since our old engine was destroyed and with it the veggie oil system as well. Until we get that up and running we have to pay for bio diesel, which is more expensive and harder to find, though there is a place here in Santa Barbara. The new veggie system, when we finish it, will be way more efficient and operate on three tanks, two for the veggie and one for the diesel.

The other thing we are working on is a travelling puppet show. For the past year I have been experimenting with turning my felted dolls into puppets. That's the easy part . The hard part is coming up with good stories. Ultimately we hope to have a mix of stories, some political, some educational, and some fairy tales for children as well as psychedelic ones for adults. Some shows will be specifically for street busking and some geared more to schools, libraries and museums.

Moss, who has extensive theatre training and experience ( a BA in theatre and one in audio engineering) , will be doing the audio and probably most of the puppetry. He has been dabbling in puppetry since he was a young child, even doing paid shows at country clubs and dinner theatres! His sister, Holly has a degree in puppetry and lots of professional experience (she taught him how to move them well) to lend. We are very excited about all this and will update everyone on our progress as we go along, though it may take a year or longer to develop.

Warning..I am about to launch into another deep, poetic and sappy soliloquy about my beloved daughter, get used to it......

Sage is doing well and growing so fast ! Everyone always says how alert she is for a three and a half month old. Since we both have had very little experience with babies, or even children, we both assumed that's just how babies are, but people keep telling us that is not really so.

It seems I spend a good deal of time just gazing at her, dreaming of all the things I want to share with her and teach her. I realize we do not have the money that many other families have, so my aim is to fill her life with so much love, magic, beauty and poetry that she will grow up completely unaware that we were a "poor" family. It will only be when she is older that she will suddenly realize that her family was poor. As I dream so many things for her it is hard not to lose myself completely in her. At the same time though, I now understand that to a certain extent it is part of being a mom. However I also think that it is important to keep a part of myself for me. This may seem obvious but it is surprising how so many women seem to forget that. It is also, I have recently realized, the secret to allying my sadness of her growing up. The love one feels for their child is so encompassing that it threatens to swallow you up. One can become so identified as a mom that as the child grows and needs you less and less, it can feel as though you are withering away. Eventually when they move away there is great pain and sadness as the role of mom is diminished.

The inevitable question at this time becomes, "If I am not a full time mom, then who am I ? "

This is even more so for younger moms who have not had the chance to really find out who they are and explore their world. I have had 18 adult years to do so and so it is easier for me to recognize this as it happens. The answer, I am discovering, is to continue to pursue your passions and to follow your bliss, whenever possible, so that when your baby grows up and leaves, you have something left for yourself.......

Sage and I hanging out. The rocker in the picture is a folding antique one I got on ebay for 30 bucks ! Comes in handy for nursing Sage to sleep, yet takes up very little room.

Sage and I..

Our house plants enjoying a sunbath...

Palm trees and sun..need I say more ?

Dennis Kucinich telling it like it is.....

2007-09-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

We are finally back online with a new, or at least refurbished computer, thanks to Moss's brilliance ! He found a computer on eBay for 200 bucks with a 10 gig hard drive, bought it and replaced the smaller hard drive with our bigger 30 gig hard drive.. He then went on to replace the screens and wifi cards, figuring it all out as he went along.

As of this writing we are in Santa Barbara, after spending two weeks house sitting and visiting with our friends Jackie and Frank in the Valley. While there we took the time to get some much needed work done on the bus. In the back,above the bench/bathtub combo, a shelf was added for Sages clothes and diapers. Then we added a cabinet at the foot of the bed for our clothes and moved the bookshelf from the foot of the bed to above our heads. We also took the bottom of the birds cages and created storage areas. Some time ago we noticed that the birds never venture to the bottom of the their cages and hence that is wasted space. We now have a great place for recycling, trash and various other things. Lastly we took the ugly black windows on the outside ( spray painted black because they are blocked on the inside by walls) and painted them green to match the bus. SOOO much better looking ! Now all we have left to do is install our water system, which we have all the parts for, including the Paloma on demand hot water heater, a 70 gallon fresh water tank and a 40 gallon grey water tank. What we don not have is the money to have the tanks welded under the bus.

In addition to the work on the bus we also spent a good deal of time last week calling around looking for a lawyer to take our civil case against the "unnamed store" and "unnamed police Dept". This is in regards to Moss's false imprisonment last month. Every lawyer that we met with was willing to take the case on contingency. They all said it is not a big money case by any means, but it is the principal that interests them. All agreed Moss's civil rights were clearly violated and that he was very much allowed by law to be there. This, according to the lawyers is a clear cut case of false imprisonment and there is no doubt we would win in court. They are so sure that they will take the case on contingency. We went to court on Sept 17 to plead and a public defender was appointed for the criminal case, as we can not afford a lawyer for that part.The public defender seemed clueless and the only reason he did anything was because we suggested it. Moss of course pleaded not guilty but surprisingly the DA still wants to go ahead and prosecute. Everyone was sure he would not go forward. That's fine because it just makes our case better in the end.We go in again on oct 17th for the pre trial and according to our lawyer the judge will likely throw it out. After that we begin the civil trial. If for some reason the judge decides to let it go on and the DA goes forward then we have a full blown trial on our hands and we get to subpoena the store video surveillance, call our witness and have all kinds of fun !

If we do win we don't expect to receive large amounts of money by most standards, maybe 15,000 after lawyer expenses and such. Of course, that will help us tremendously, but it is, as our lawyer stated, the principal as well. Moss spent 24 hours in jail, was extremely disrespected and forced to post 5,000 dollars for his freedom. All for absolutely no legal, justifiable reason. Surely that is worth some compensation.

All of this means our plans to head to Oregon in October are delayed for and indefinite period of time. It looks like we will spending more time in Santa Barbara, which isn't to bad. We found a new place to park near some gorgeous botanical gardens. Sage has been enjoying looking at the flowers and trees. I noticed she is very visual, preferring intricate patterns and bold colors. From the time she was two weeks old I noticed her staring intently at the art on the walls and smiling. She does that in the bus also where the walls are much closer and adorned with artwork. Perhaps she will grow up to be an artist ?

On another note, to the person who made the (unpublished), nasty comment regarding my spelling and their hope that we were not planning to home school sage, thank you... It is true my spelling in the previous post was horrid ! I am actually an adequate speller. That post was written in a hurried manner and when I am doing rough drafts I misspell a lot of things then go back and fix it all later. At that time I had forgotten to do that. So thank you for bringing it to my attention, but I do think there was a kinder way to word it than the way you did. And to answer your question, yes, we do plan to home school.... :)

The bird cages with new closets underneath for storage.

Shelf for Sages clothes and diapers.

Book shelf above bed and Sage sleeping peacefully..

New closet above bed.

Bus windows now painted green.

To Everything There Is a Season...

2007-08-24T23:41:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how having a baby brings out the kindness in everybody. Moss and I have received so many congatulatory emails and even gifts from folks we never met . One such gift came from a sweet woman named Lori. Despite recovering from surgery she took the time to quilt a baby blanket, and crochet another blanket as well as booties and a hat for Sage. How very sweet ! They are gorgeous and so appreciated. What a nice story to be able to tell Sage. How someone she never even met loved her enough to hand make all those beautiful things for her.

Another wonderful hand made gift came from my very own mamma ! She hand made a gorgeous patchwork blanket for Sage. In addition to that she passed on to her a cloth doll that HER mom made for her when she was little. How wonderful for Sage to have a doll that was made by her great grandma for her grandma.

This week has been crazy hectic, and finally after nearly a week straight of preperation we are ready to leave here. As I write this update we are just minutes from leaving. I am so grateful we were allowed this space to nest and give birth. We have been very busy packing this week and it is with a bit of bitter sweetness that I go about disasembling my birth alter and taking down the carefully placed pictures that only a few short weeks ago I put up. I am reminded of the day I gave birth in that room, now almost three months ago exactly, though it seems like just yesterday. I replay the events over and over again in my mind , relishing every deatil. The smell of lavendar oil, the way the sunlight filtred through the curtains at the momment of birth, Moss's strong and loving support all forever etched in my mind. I remember too the beautiful air of excitement and energy that seemed tro envelope the house and everyone in it , in the days leading up to her birth. In the days after I recall the special, magickal other worldliness the three of us existed in as we got aquanited.

I have been so enjoying watching her grow these past few months, all her little milestones. Every day I hold her tight and as I look at her my heart fills with such love but at the same time a deep sadness knowing that she is already three months old.I mourned her newborn stage, I mourned her one month and two month stage, and now her three month stage. I suspect it will be this way for the rest of our life together. As much as I delight in her growth I also realize that every step she takes, with my love and encouragement, is a step futher from mamma. I am struck by the irony that I want so much to hold on to her, yet it is my job to guide her towards independance in a selfless and loving way. In the end I reaize that I cannot hold on to her, for she is not really mine to hold. She is her own person and all I can do is love her unconditionally and cherish every single momment.

What a profound lesson in true love and detachment mothering is, the ultimate bhakti yoga .......

The blanket made by blog reader Lori. Thanks Lori !

The blanket made by my mama. Thanks Ma !

This doll was made by my grandma for my mom.. Thanks Gram !

Sage all straped in and ready for her first adventure !

And away we go....

Computer Down....

2007-08-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that Moss, Sage ,myself and the flock are all alive and well. We have received a few emails inquiring about our well being and asking why I have not posted in a few weeks. There are a few reasons....

The most important being that Casper, that mischevious goffins cockatoo of ours has suceeded in chewing through the computer cord which in turn shorted out the computer and fried the motherboard ! This has resulted in us being temporarily computerless as we scrape together some funds for a new computer. At present I am on a borrowed computer ( borrowed as in for a few minutes to write this update). We hope to have a new or rather, refurbished computer within the next the next week.

Long time readers of this blog may have noticed that my posts do tend to be rather infrequent, although I try to post at least once a month. My philosophy of blogging emphasises quality over quantity. Instead of countless entries filled with meaningless dribble about what I had for breakfast or what movie I watched last night, I prefer instead to wait until I feel really inspired and have something to say. There seems to be a necesary waiting time between each post to allow myself to sufficently fill up with inspiration, before I once again purge myself for all the world to read here on this blog.

Anyway, Moss and I have finally fixed our solar electric system and are currently packing the bus in preperation for our maiden voyage as a new family. Our plans, if you can call them that, are to "go north", eventually ending up in Oregon at some point to visit with some dear friends, introduce them to Sage and check out an intentional communitry as a potential homebase for us. How nice would be to have a place to settle for a few months out of the year !

This week was full of excitement for us ,LOL..... Moss was in front of a store that will herefore go unamed (due to a pending lawsuit ), gathering signatures for a california initiative, and the store called the police. This lead to him being arrested for refusal to leave and tresspassing . He refused to leave because it is his constitutional right to gather signatures on state initiatives any place that is open to the public. This is interperted by the court to mean in front of any store that is in a shopping plaza connected by a sidewalk to surroundng stores. Moss sat in jail for a day until I was able to bail him out. The good news is we now are looking for a lawyer, and already spoke to one who believes we have a very good case against the store ( although he does not take civil cases anymore ) and can sue them for violating Moss's civil rights. A friend of ours who was petitioning in Washington at this same store and arrested for it, recently received a large compensation . The thing is, Moss tried to tell them, he wanted anything BUT to get arrested . He kept telling them to call the city attorney. This usually works because the city attorney informs the ignorant officers of the little known law and we are released. He tried showing them the papers he had outlining the various court cases supporting this law, and still they did not listen. They never even read him his rights. Luckily there was a lady nearby who works for an attorney and saw the whole thing. In fact, she tried to explain to the officers the law also, but to know avail. As Moss was being put into the cop car she gave him her number and said she will testify.

He goes to court on Sept 17th at which point he will plead not guilty and we will proceed with the lawsuit. If all goes we'll be able to sue this obnoxious store BIGTIME.......

Moving Right Along....

2007-07-29T15:15:00.000-07:00

Sage is now seven weeks old ! The time seems to be going so fast, and though barely two months old Moss and I look at her and think she looks so old, practically a toddler. Our lives seem to be slowly reforming themselves into some semblance of their previous incarnation. I say "some semblance" as things are the same, yet quite different. Sage's birth seems to have opened my heart in so many ways. I have more patience and love now for everyone I see. I look at people, even the hardened criminals and think, "that is someones baby !". I realize that in so many ways, we are all children...

This week we managed to get a seat belt installed in the bus, and hence Sages car seat, after of course, some initial problems. The seat we had would only face one way and would not work right on our bus seats. So, we had to go out and buy a "convertible car seat". That is a car seat that goes from infant to toddler (40 lbs). We can now turn the seat facing back as is recommended for an infant, without having to rip out and redesign the bench seat. The down side is it cost 90 $, the up side is now we have a safe seat for Sage that we can keep for a long time.

This week we also added another member to our family. Her name is Palomino and she is a very dear, very sweet, brain damaged pigeon who will be joining us and the rest of the flock on the bus. My friend Jackie, a fellow rehabber, took her in a few months ago, as a fledgling. She was found almost near dead following an attack by a hungry family of crows, which resulted in severe head trauma and a badly damaged eye. Jackie nursed her back to health over several weeks and I volunteered to give her a home. The sad thing is, because of her brain damage, she has never learned to eat on her own. Their is a high likely hood that she will need to be tube fed twice a day for the rest of her life. This is no problem for me though, tube feeding a pigeon is not a difficult thing and something I have done many, many times when I was actively running my wild bird center. She is such a sweet girl and I am so happy to have her with us. She also cannot fly well,( she flies backwards sort of and cannot go very far) despite the fact that her wings are in perfect working order. This is also due to her brain damage. Besides that she is healthy and happy, though one does get the impression that there is something not quite "right" about her. She loves to snuggle on laps and have her beak and head scratched. She is very handle able and I look forward to her being a sort of ambassador for pigeons everywhere.

Anyway, now that the car seat is in, we are just waiting on our new solar charge controller to arrive from our good friends at the Mobile Homestead ( I highly reccomned these guys for all sorts of great alternative energy RV products), before we can leave. Our old one broke some time ago, leaving us with no electricity. This one , The Solar Boost 2000 is supposed to ultra efficient, to the point where it is like adding an extra panel.

The plan is still to head to Santa Barbara for a time where we will sell my sculptures and the new felt boots Moss and I have been working on. We are very excited about the boots and have been saving up money to start a business making them. I love making my felted doll sculptures, but they take so long and each one must be an individual work of art. The boots are great because we can have just a few styles, we can both make them, and they are the same every time. Moss is doing quite a bit of the boot making and is becoming quite the cobbler. He felts them, lays out the wool and shapes them. I am responsible for making the soles and surface design. We both dye the wool. When we get the first three display models done I will be posting pics and taking orders if anyone is interested.

I have some other excellent news as well. Some dear friends of our from Oregon bought some land awhile back and have recently contacted us with an interest in setting up a small commune, or intentional community, on their land ! There is already another family there and lots of children. They offered us a space for our bus, and in return ask only that we participate in building projects, help in the garden and just be part of the community ! What a wonderful way for Sage to grow up ! These are long time friends of ours near a town where we lived for quite awhile, Eugene. So, we will be heading up there probably in fall to check it out.

At present we are still enjoying our time with Moss's folks, though eager to move on, which we will do, just as soon as the part we are waiting on arrives....

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream....

2007-07-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

I am standing on the beach, as the ocean rushes and swirls about my ankles. The waves are large and the waters are filled many hundreds of strange and unknown creatures. I am frightened . Looking to my left I notice my mother standing beside me, she looks so strong and confident, her back straight and her head held high. She is a portrait of poise and grace and she walks slowly to meet the rushing waves.

"Are you not frightened mother ? ", I ask, incredulous.

"what is there to be frightened of ? " , she responds, smiling sweetly.

"The waves are huge and the ocean is filled with so many unknown creatures ! " I respond.

"Nonsense", she says squeezing my hand gently, "there is nothing to fear. You just dive in, like this.."

With that she dove into the waves. I watch her twist and turn joyfully in the waters with ease. Suddenly, I lose all fear and with a running start I too dive into the water, letting the waves take me away, there is no resistance as I swim effortlessly along side her. Together we swim into the wide open ocean as the great mother envelopes us...

That is how my labor began June 9th at 7:00 am. I awoke with a contraction and running to the bathroom I noticed a good amount of blood on the TP. This is it , I say silently to myself, with a mixture of excitement and dread, this is the day !

Suddenly all my senses are heightened, I pause briefly, to savor the moment. Looking out the window at the sun filtering through tree leaves, I notice what a beautiful day it is. A male house finch sings softly from a nearby perch, a redtail hawk cries in the distance and a slight breeze blows gently through the open window, carrying with it the many smells of late spring and early summer... recently mowed grass, warm cedar chips, freshly blooming flowers . I notice, just outside the bathroom window on the ledge, the resident pigeons are nesting and the mama looks down on me from her place upon her nest. I will soon be a mother too, I think, as ours eyes meet .

A contraction draws my attention back to the immediate situation, I rise and walk excitedly back to the bedroom. Moss is just stirring from bed as I tell him, this beautiful day will be the day of our precious daughters birth ! He is excited, though sweetly nervous. Since the contractions are not real strong or regular at this point we take the time to clean up the room a little, prepare the birth pool and make sure all our supplies are in order. I then settle down to meditate, listen to my c.d's and relax.

Around 1:00 pm contractions are becoming a bit more regular and I am feeling some nausea. We decide to call our midwife Kari and give her a heads up, as well as our friend Jackie who will be providing labor support and photography. After a short conversation, everyone agrees that it would be best for them to make their way slowly over to our place.

Despite the fact that I am handling everything well, I am eager to get into the birthing pool. Moss fills the pool for me and after a half hour I get in. If this is it, I am gonna sail through labor, I think smugly as I lower myself down into the warm water. The relief is nearly instantaneous and seems to actually halt my contractions. I fear that maybe I got into the water too early and although I know this is probably not helping my labor along, I could not bring myself to get out. kari arrived a short time later and upon seeing me in the tub laughing and talking, decided to check me for dilation. After checking she announces I am 2 cm dilated.

Yikes..on hearing this my previous smug confidence disappears. Things are going to get a lot more intense...

Kari suggests I get out of the pool and walk around to get things going. I pace the hallway for a while and this really does seem to speed things up. Before long I am needing to lean on the stair railing during contractions. I keep this up for some time, until I can no longer bare the sound of my in laws arguing downstairs over 1940's actors and old tv shows, which although I find very amusing, was becoming distracting. We decide to move out to the bus to labor for awhile. It was here that things really started picking up as I began to lose all sense of time and really entered my own little world. At one point I stopped pacing to throw up, sit on the birth ball and moan through a contraction. Once again Moss was there for every contraction, rubbing my sacrum and offering me kind words of love and support.

At some point we move back into the house and on the bed, with Moss behind me, rubbing my back. My main coping method was to breathe slowly and deeply between contractions while concentrating on actively relaxing my bottom as completely as possible. When I felt a contraction coming on I would signal and Moss would rub my sacrum, as I vocalized using low and open throated tones.This helped incredibly. I read that there is a subconcious link between the vaginal canal and the throat. By keeping the throat loose and open with use of certain tones, the vaginal canal is relaxed, which in turn allows for an easier, less painful birth. I noticed the few times my voice began to rise to a kind of squeal, my pain intensified dramtically. As soon as I brought it down low things were much more manageable.

We stayed on the bed in this way for what seemed a very long time. At some point kari came in and asked if I wanted to be checked. Reluctantly I agreed. After checking kari announces I am 7 cm dilated ! I am both pleased and disappointed at this news. The good news is I am nearing transition and will soon have Sage in my arms ! The bad news is..I am nearing transition...

On hearing this I felt well within my rights to finally get into the birthing pool. I slip into the warm water with a huge sigh of relief and let my body float with my head resting against the side of the kiddie pool. Moss was right there, as he was throughout the entire labor, holding my hand and rubbing my back. This was the most intense part of my labor. The only way to deal with the intensity of what I was feeling was to completely surrender to it. I could not run away from the feeling, or stop it. I could only submit myself, body and mind to it, and keep telling myself to relax all my muscles. The Beatles were playing on the ipod,

"Turn off your mind relax and float down stream, this is not dyeing, this is not dyeing" ...

I had to smile at how perfect that mantra was. Gotta love those Beatles. I was then reminded of the dream that began my labor and visualized myself diving into the waves of contractions I was now feeling. I continued on in this way, laboring in the water for some time, riding the contractions like waves. They were coming hard and fast at this point, starting as an ache in my sides and quickly building to an extremely intense tightening across my lower belly and back, then gradually subsiding. At the peak of every contraction my hand would shoot out, almost involuntarily, grasping and clawing wildly at the air like a person drowning. I wanted to grab something, anything, and pull myself back. It felt as though I was sinking , being sucked down into the very earth herself by the force of my own body. Always a hand would quickly emerge from some where for me to hold, usually Moss's, but there were others as well. I noticed every time the sensations got to much to bare I would feel a rush of energy, followed by a feeling of ecstasy, which I figured was the much talked about endorphins, "the body's natural pain relief."

At some point my thoughts began to turn towards pushing, and just as I was thinking this I started to feel the urge. Thank Goddess, I thought with a renewed strength. I am so close to holding my baby !

These pushing contractions were distinctly different. I felt them throughout my entire body instead of just my lower back and belly. Every muscle in my body seemed to surge at once, causing me to bare down with very little effort on my part. I was doing nothing at this point, my body was in complete control and I was simply along for the ride. The Moody Blues, To Our Children's children, was playing on the ipod and faded in and out of my consciousness between contractions . At last the contractions seemed to slow a bit and I had a long and much appreciated rest. I draped my head over the side of the kiddie pool and breathed slowly, relaxing completely in preparation for the final act..

Before long I felt that intense aching again in my pelvis and lower back that signaled the start of another contraction. With this one however there was an added sensation as my pelvis seemed to separate, to my amazement. It felt like I was splitting in two as my body literally opened and became as a vortex for this new soul to enter the world. I realized this was the baby moving down lower into the birth canal . Oddly though, there was little pain at this point, in fact there were fleeting moments of what I might call, pleasure, followed by the very strange and some what alarming sensation of my body opening. Another rest, then a contraction, my entire body convulsing at once and baring down hard, then the "ring of fire", that intense burning as the head crowns. Excited voices drift in and out of my consciousness, the smell of lavender oil fills the air, time stands still, then silence as I go deep within myself searching for that last bit of strength to actively push the baby out.

The next thing I know there is a huge release of pressure and Holly, Moss's sister exclaims excitedly as Sage slips out into the water just in time to Moody Blues, Eyes Of a Child, playing on the ipod. I cannot see what is going on because I am turned around and draped over the side of the tub and and on my knees. Everyone is oohing and ahhing excitedly. I turn around, Moss lays Sage on my chest and our eyes meet for the first time. Breath taking....

"Hello beautiful daughter ! So wonderful to meet you !"

But wait, something is not quite right. There is concern in Kari's eyes as she tells me Sage is not breathing. Rub her back Kari tells us. Moss and I vigorously rub her back. Is she o.k I ask repeatedly ? Kari does not confirm that she is. The room goes quiet as we continue rubbing Sages back and kari suctions her nose. Finally after what seems like an eternity, the first cry, tiny at first, then louder.

We all breathe a collective sigh of relief as Sage lets out a healthy wail. She is wrapped in a warm bath towel and the two of us, still attached, are helped out of the tub and onto the bed, where we are joined by Moss. We cuddle for awhile and eventually Moss cuts the cord. Soon afterwards Sage begins nursing.

This was the most profound and beautiful experience of my life.

I am so pleased I chose to birth naturally and I cannot imagine doing it any other way. Yes, it was intense but never did I feel that I could not do it or that it was too much to handle. I actually found myself longing to re live my birth experience weeks later. In some strange way it actually felt good.... to feel the awesome power of my body, to be aware and conscious of this sacred event, to witness and honour the emergence of this new soul into the earth plane in such a deliberate manner. I simply cannot imagine a more peaceful and sacred way to welcome a child.

Sage Evenstar Ratafia was born on June 9th 2007 at 7:05 pm, weighing 7lbs 14 0z, and we couldn't be happier ...............

2007-07-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

2007-07-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

The Birth of A Family..

2007-06-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all the many blessings and comments, both private and public, we have received ! I am finishing up a few details and waiting on some photos from my friend Jackie, then will be posting a detailed birth story.

We three are doing very well and enjoying our new lives together. I have to say I am shocked and surprised at how in love I am with this little girl! The intensity of what I am feeling is beyond anything I could have imagined. I thought for sure I would take a long time to bond and that I would be horribly depressed and unable to cope with the demands of motherhood. I was convinced I would have no idea what to do with a baby and that breastfeeding would be a nightmare. I imagined myself sleep deprived and suffering from severe post partum depression. I made sure moss was well versed in the signs of post partum psychosis and knew where to get help for me if need be.I think it is precisely because I read every post partum horror story and imagined every conceivable difficulty that I am having an easy time of it. I prepared myself for how difficult it can be,as well as what to reasonably expect..so there were no surprises.

Yes, I know this flies in the face of now conventional wisdom, a la "The Secret" but I do think it played a part in my easy adjustment. That and the fact that I am the luckiest woman in the world, as I have a husband who is incredibly supportive. He is as good or better than any postpartum doula. The other thing I think may have helped is the two fish oil capsules I take every day (it definitely helped with stretch marks !)

The truth is, my post partum time has been a joy and a delight, and motherhood has been, so far anyway, purely natural and instinctual ! Sage is a great nurser and breastfeeding couldn't be easier. She has also been sleeping well through the night (as much as can be expected of a newborn anyway) . We have been co sleeping, meaning she sleeps in the bed with Moss and I. This is, I believe, where babies are meant to sleep. It is where they feel the most secure and comforted, snuggled in next to mama and papa ! When she wakes in the night hungry, I simply roll over, offer her a breast and go on sleeping. I barely need to wake up. It is no wonder most folks with newborns get little sleep, as it is customary in this country to put baby in a separate room in a crib. When baby cries mom needs to get up and go into the other room, calm baby down and nurse her to sleep, or worse, go in the kitchen and fix a bottle. Finally when the baby is sleeping, she is placed back in the crib again only to start screaming the minute she is put down..starting the cycle all over again.

If only more people in this country would embrace co sleeping, as do cultures all over the world and, as our species has done since the beginning of time, parents - and babies - would sleep much better !

In an effort to be reduce landfill waste, save money and for Sages health (avoiding synthetic plastics) we have chosen to cloth diaper. We are using a mix of pre folds and fancy fitted diapers. So far that has been easy as well, though I have been warned that when she starts solids we may really consider going with disposables. Moss has been a wonderful dad and partner and is doing most of the diaper changes, helping fold laundry and just being the amazing nurturing person he is. We have an agreement, I take care of what goes in and he takes care of what comes out. I do my share of diaper changes, but he has been doing most of them and really enjoys spending that time with Sage, being silly and having fun. He is also a master at calming her down using infant massage/touch ( Moss is a natural healer, very good with reiki type energy work) when booby, wet diapers or gas is not the problem.

I do have my weepy moment's from time to time now, but not for the reasons I thought I would. I figured I would be in tears and berating myself for having thrown my life away. Instead I am in tears thinking how quickly she will grow up and leave..

Anyway, our plans are to remain here at Moss's folks house for a few more weeks. We need to install belts in the bus for Sages car seat, fix some problems with the electrical system and do some other last minute baby proofing things. Once that is done we can move back into the bus and begin our new life as a family. Hopefully, we will get things done in time to make it to the Faerie worlds festival in Eugene, on July 21. If not, the plan is to head to Santa Barbara for the summer, where we will sell some art and save up a bit of money for the fall and winter.

In the meantime we are are at the folks house, counting our blessings and enjoying every second of Sages babyness, as I know it will pass all too soon....

Sage Is Now Earthside !

2007-06-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that Sage is now earthside !

Sage (still deciding on middle name) was born at 7 :05 pm on 6/9/2007 (my birthday is 9/6/72) weighing 7 lbs 14 0z and 21 inches long. She was born in warm water into Moss's arms.

There just are no satisfactory words !

The song that was playing as she emerged was Moody Blues, "With the Eyes of a Child", perfect..

Needless to say we are in a state of bliss and exhaustion with few words that really convey at this point all that we are feeling and the realizations we are having. I did not expect to be feeling SO much so quickly, especially after initially feeling nothing, just very neutral.

We three are enjoying our baby moon and want to thank everyone for all the love and energy sent our way. The following photo was taken at just a few hours old by my dear friend Jackie Wollner, who was there at the birth offering her strength, love and wonderful talent as a photographer. Thank you Jackie for everything..

Of course, a detailed birth story and more photos to follow shortly....

The above pic is two hours after birth. The following are exactly one week to the day she was born, she just gets more beautiful seemingly every minute....

Waiting....

2007-05-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hi folks just another quick update here. I am just a few days away from my June 5th due date and still no baby.

I continue to enjoy my nesting time, which is really kicking in hard lately . Everything is finally in place and I am feeling closer to being ready, or as ready as a person can be anyway. We have our birth tub, clothes, cloth diapers, special labor food, candles, our Ipod birthing playlist, including Moss's new song, "Song of Sage" , which we will play for her as she is being birthed. I even had time to make some wool diaper covers out of old sweaters. My friend Jackie, who is an amazing photographer will be present during the birth and taking pictures. Holly, Moss's sister will also be there as well as his mom. At the very moment of birth however, I am hoping it will be just Moss, Sage and I.

The only thing left to do now is give birth and begin the rest of my life...

To say things are becomming sureal would be an understatement , as I hoover in this strange sort of timeless place, awaiting and still unable to completely grasp the immensity of the fact that within the next week or so I will be a mom. A MOM ! I imagine it is rather like a moth or butterfly in a cocoon awaiting to emerge. Yes, it seems in giving birth, I give birth not just to a new soul but also to a part of myself.

Moss and I have been enjoying our last days together as a couple in a sort of melencholy way. Things will never be the same for us and we are just trying to honour this time as much as possible. We have had nearly 15 years though of just being with each other and spending time together. That is so much more than most people ever have together, before having kids. It is definitely time to spread the love around.

As for the bus it is finally finished and seems to be working quite well. It is curently parked in front of the house here at Moss's folks, where we will be birthing...any day now. Stay tuned ...

I love this picture of Moss, taken on a recent visit to the nearby Santa Monica Mountains..

A not so flattering picture of me, but I figured I needed one in there to document my last days of pregnancy.

I am Opening Up In Sweet Surender...

2007-05-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Before I update everyone with whats going on, I just wanted to say a few words about some changes we made to the blog this last week....

In an effort to generate a little cash flow for our new family, we have adedd a few pages of items for sale. On the left we have adedd a button that will take you to a page featuring my sculptures and other fiber related art work. There you can view and purchase any of the items profiled. I will be updating the page as new items are made. On the right we have adedd a button that will take you to Moss's page featuring his music. There you can download and purchase individual tracks, listen to samples or purchase the c.d. It will also be a place where Moss will post new music he is working on. Hopefully he will also be adding some blog posts now and again. On the right hand side of the page here, further down, we have adedd a few re sale items for purchase, rope sandals and the sacred medicinal herb, Kratom.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post....

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant, and yes, believe it or not we are once again changeing care providers. Previously I mentioned how we had settled with the wonderful midwives and staff at South Coast Midwifery. However, a lot of the funds that we were putting towards that had to go to fixing the engine, which was destroyed by some nasty person putting an unknown substance in our tank ( the consensus seems to be powdered sugar). This, coupled with the fact that work is starting later than we had anticpated, has forced us to look elsewhere for an afordable midwife. Our options were becoming slimmer and slimmer, and driving up north, where midwives charge much less was looking like an increasingly likely option. Either that or unassited birth ( moss is not a fan of this idea) or hospital birth ( we both were not a fan of this idea).

I then began calling around, looking for a midwife that was willing to accept what we could pay. I figured since I am so far along, that my chances were good, as I only need a few more pre-natals until the birth. As luck would have it, I found a wonderful nurse midwife, Carrie, who Moss and I both adore and is willing to take us at a very reasonable rate. She has been a midwife since the early 70's and has delivered many hundreds of babies.

Moss has family in southern California who we have been staying with as the bus is being worked on and that is where we will give birth in a few weeks as well. We have made ourselves comfortable in the upstairs bedroom and when I go into labour I only need to call the midwife who will then come and assist. We will probably stay for a month or so afterwards, as we adjust to our new lives and so Moss's family can enjoy Sage. Then in late July probably head up north, though even that's not for certain.

The last year or so that we have been travelling in and around the southern California region, selling our stuff, hanging out on the beach, visiting with Moss's folks off and on and helping them renovate their house to sell. Moss put in a new floor for them, painted, drywalled and various other things. Since we have been comming here with the bus, the neighbors have done nothing but complain, despite the fact that we have moved the bus regularly as per the law. It was here that the vandalism occured to our bus. It seems someone recently called the local paper who then did a small piece on us, which you can read here,

http://www.toacorn.com/news/2007/0329/community/042.html

In an effort to present our side of the story, we responded with our own follow up article,

http://www.toacorn.com/news/2007/0419/community/022.html

Since the community is a small one and many people read the paper, we are now frequently stopped on the street by folks expressing their condolences,which is a little embarassing. While there have been no leads, there have been a few folks who contacted us asking if they could donate to our bus repairs and encouraging us to put the donation button up. I wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent us words of encouragement, good vibes/prayers and donations, it really helps, every little bit.

As for the bus, it still sits in North Hollywood where it is being worked on. We found an excellent diesel mechanic who is working on it in his off time, after working during the day at a commercial auto repair business. He is giving us a good deal and Moss and I both feel he is very trust worthy.

Meanwhile, we are here in Thousand Oaks with family. I have been feeling the nesting urge so strongly and am finally enjoying time to really settle in and prepare for Sage's birth in (gulp) five weeks. I have created a birth alter and brought some stuff in from the bus to put in the room. Some familar objects that make it feel homey and comfortable. It is so nice to know that all I need to do now is just BE and let my body do it's thing.

I have been senseing an amazing shift in my conciousness lately, and seem to be entering this sort of timeless state where everything is suspended. It is very psychedleic as I see myself almost from above looking down on this woman moving through life in slow motion. It's as if the mommet Sage is born everything will sort of catch up and move at a normal speed. I realize this is my spirit preparing for this great rite of passage, my going from maiden to mother. It amazes me that this will happen so soon, less than five weeks until my life changes in ways that I cannot even begin to fathom....

The River Is Flowing, Flowing and Growing.....

2007-04-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to let folks know what is going on with the bus saga...

At this time our bus sits in North Hollywood, gutted and awaiting a new engine. The engine is being shipped from Michigan and should be here by Thursday. If all goes well we should be back on the road by late next week. Now we just have to hope that it is as good an engine as the guy we bought it from claims (gulp). Meanwhile, we have been staying at a dear friends house in Van Nuys and a family member in Ventura County, counting the days until we are once again back in our home.

My belly is getting bigger seemingly by the hour as Sage put s on weight for her impending birth, in one and a half months. I managed to find a wonderful childbirth class for Moss and I to attend. It is in the tradition of Birthing From Within by Pam England. Last night was the first class in Santa Barbara, along with three other couples, all planning natural home births as well. It felt so good to finally be around other pregnant women and to share all the fears and excitement with others who understand. It was good for the dad's too and they are very much included in the class. We practiced using various pain coping techniques while holding ice cubes in tightly clenched fists. It is surprisingly painful. There are three other sessions we will be attending before the end of the month, as well as various other breastfeeding and child care classes I have lined up for us. The Birthing From Within Class is normally 300 and some odd dollars, but the teacher agreed to a partial cash payment and trade of one of my fiber sculptures.

Now that the bus issue is sort of on it's way to being solved, we have to think about how we are going to come up with the money needed to pay for our midwife. It ended up that a good portion of the money we were going to give the midwife, went to get our bus fixed, as without that we are esentialy homeless. On top of that, work is starting up later than we had hoped. There is a slight possibility that we will have to just pay for the service we received thus far, then leave and head up North in May, where midwives are much less expensive (in Oregon state insurance will cover all costs), to have the baby. Then again, the idea of driving all that distance in the bus, bouncing and shaking, in my last month is NOT appealing. Not to mention we really like the people we are with. However, we will do as we must when the time comes. If work picks up soon, which it is expected to any day, then we may not have to do that.

On another note, I have an auction up On Ebay.Below I have included a photo of the piece. If anyone is intrested in any of the fiber art shown now or ever, feel free to contact me for prices and availability.

*Update* ~ "Spirit Wind has sold on Ebay

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LIFE Is Like a Little Boat Upon The Sea....

2007-03-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that the whole thing with Greg fell through, he was not able to get the bus he thought he would. We now are faced with having to buy a new engine for the bus. In addition to that we will have to replace the whole fuel system and flush the tanks to ensure all the sugar has been removed from the system. If we were to put in a comparable engine to what we had we would be looking at a little over 10,000 dollars...obviously way more than we could ever come up with in two months.

So..we are forced to purchase a good used engine, which I believe we have found for 2,700 plus 700 for shipping. It has 91,000 miles on it, which, according to our mechanic is just "breaking it in" for this particular engine. The engine does come complete with oil pan, fuel system and starter. They also do not want the core of our engine in return, which apparently, many places often do. This means that we will have our engine to salvage additional parts from. All this should cost around 6000 , which will come from money we were saving to pay our midwife, moving to N.C and a loan from a family member.

I am a firm believer that all things happen for a reason, there is always a lesson to be learned and some kind of wisdom to be gleaned, especially so with disasters like this. Aside from buying a locking gas cap, I have been wondering what lesson is here for us. For one thing it has made me realize that we need to have some kind of safety net in the future, because next time there will be no loan from anyone. Either a large savings account or a some type of credit card that we use only for emergency situations . Obviously, the large savings account is the more preferable, but the credit card is the more likely scenario at this time. This will take time though as neither Moss nor I have ever had a credit card.We do not have bad credit, we just have no credit..almost as bad.

I have been on the road both by myself and with Moss for 16 years now, and have become quite used to braking down and being towed , penniless, to some remote place in the middle of nowhere. It has never been a problem and I have always found that a positive attitude, lots of creative thinking and good bit of waiting have solved most issues. In many ways, this is what I really love about vagabond travel ! There is a level of complete trust and acceptance that must take place. One must be ever ready to flow with whatever happens and live always in the moment. It is a very zen thing. Often we find that there was a good reason something happened, either we needed to be somewhere to affect another persons life in some way, or we benefited in some way we otherwise would not have.

In the past this philosophy has always been enough, though I must confess, I now worry how it will all work with a child. In some ways I feel we may simply be called on to use these skills and techniques in the same way just more so. However, I do think that there must also be a middle ground, a safety net. Yes, we can continue to follow our bliss, travel and live in whatever other way we choose, but with a child there now needs to be an extra level of assurance.

On a lighter note...I went in for an ultrasound a few weeks a go and the tech asked me if I wanted to know the sex. I had not intended to find out, but in a moment of weakness I caved and now we know the sex of our baby. Honestly I have never been the sort of person who could handle surprises. I am ashamed to admit I was the child pinching little holes in the wrapping paper at Christmas time .

So then, we are having a little......girl !!

Her first name will be Sage. We are still out on a middle name, but are strongly considering Anias. Sage Anias Ratafia. It's very odd but it feels like I know her already and cannot imagine life without her. It's not as though I know her personality and can see what she looks like, but there is just a very familiar presence and energy I sense around me at all times now. In the early months we felt like she was not around as much. It was as though her spirit was spending more time detached from her body. Somewhere in the middle of the second tri mester we started to get the feeling that she was spending much more in her body and that's when it seems I could sense her energy and presence more.

I went to another appointment with Amber, our midwife, and she was as lovely and supportive as before. She has a great spiritual strength and her thoughts on our current predicament were very encouraging. I am not going to lie, this whole thing with the bus has been incredibly stressful on me and I worry how Sage must be feeling. I wish so much that I could be spending all my prenatal time in one place, in the forest or on the beach, instead of in the outskirts of LA dealing with all this. She echoed our thoughts that everything happens for a reason and that we need to just trust. She also said that Sage is head down and growing well.

Only two months and counting until we meet her in person......

2007-03-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

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When it Rains, It POURS......

2007-03-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

I have some bad news to report..VERY bad news. In fact the worst news possible, baring death or illness.

It seems some a**hole thought it would be funny to pour an unknown substance (not sure exactly what yet, something gritty. Looks like maybe sugar.) into our fuel tank. We of course, did not realize it at the time and were driving merrily down the 101 freeway the other day when the engine started making this horrific banging noise followed by lots of smoke. We pulled off the freeway and came to stop on a residential street in front of a school. Moss jumped out and threw up the hood. After the smoke cleared we saw what appeared to be a hole in the engine block with a rod poking through.

We inspected the oil (at this point pouring through the hole in the engine) and noticed right away it did not look right, it was sticky, gritty and unusually frothy. Immediately we were suspicious and recalled how several weeks ago we returned to the bus to find the gas cap unscrewed and hanging down. This was the same area where previously we had been vandalized ( ironically an upscale neighborhood outside L.A ) with glue in our locks , stolen license plates, nasty obscene notes and repeated egging.

We called our friend and diesel engine mentor Greg who confirmed that indeed sugar in the tank would cause the symptoms we described, but wouldn't show up until after a few hundred miles of driving. That corresponded to exactly around the time we found the gas cap open.

The engine, which was a BRAND NEW, four year old complete factory rebuild is.... DESTROYED ! The timing could not be worse..just a horrible way to start our new life as a family..sigh

When it first happened we were in such a state of shock we did not know what to do. Then we had moment or two of deep despair where we considered throwing in the towel, gutting the bus and selling it for parts. Thankfully that stage did not last long . We soon came to our senses and realized that we must fix it, no matter what it takes, The Enchanted Gypsy must live ! We put way to much work into it and it is our home.

We then set about figuring how, in the next two months we were going to come up with the nearly ten thousand dollars for the cost of the midwife and to replace the engine . Things began looking up a bit after we spoke with our friend Greg however, whom we bought the bus from originally and who still sells bus's.

He said he has a bus with the same engine , (though almost 200,000 miles on it compared to our new one with well under 100,000 on it ) that he would sell us for 800, plus drive it out here for the cost of gas AND help us put it in. He says he has taken out and put in big diesel engines like this nearly twenty times. He will work with Moss and show him exactly how to do everything and thinks it will take about a week or so to finish.

The upside is that Moss will then really know the mechanical aspects to the bus, including how to take out and put in an engine..a very good thing to know when your home is on wheels. The downside is now we have to pay thousands of dollars, plus time and work to put in an engine that is not nearly as good as what we had. If we could only upgrade the engine, or at least put in a new one it wouldn't be so annoying. ARGHHH......

The other lucky thing is that the petitioning season has just started up again and promises to be a good one. For now we have borrowed a car and spent our last two hundred dollars getting towed to a good friends house in the valley. We will be going back and forth between there and Santa Barbara for the next few months working. Greg thinks he can be here within two weeks to help with the engine and it looks like we will be able to work on it at our friend Jackie and Franks house.

Meanwhile.. I have entered my third trimester this week and am feeling quite large and bloated. I am trying not to stress despite all the...well, stress in my life right now. We have two months to make all this money and fix the bus before our baby is due.

I am however optimistic that things will work out, it has too, there just simply are no other options.....

The Times They are A Changeing........

2007-02-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone for your continued messages of support and congratulations. All the positive energy and love is appreciated and well received.

Moss and I had a wonderful Valentines day and celebrated by doing one of our very favorite things... hiking and spending time in wild places. We found a nice state park in the area and went for a four mile hike to a secluded, cascading waterfall, a rare scene in this otherwise arid bio region. The hike included an additional bit of rock climbing to get to the top of the falls, where the most magical little rock waterfall pool awaited. It was smooth and rounded, sculpted by the flowing water for tens of thousands of years. The nature spirits were abundant and I am certain this area was sacred to the native Chumash Indians who lived (some still do) in this area. It feels good to keep active during my pregnancy, though the climbing and walk were a bit more tiresome than usual for me.

I am now 25 weeks pregnant and there is a LOT going on....

Last I updated we were deciding where to have our baby. Like most things in life, we find if one just puts forth good intention, then releases and trusts, everything ultimately falls into place.

As much as we love Oregon we have decided that southern California will be the place our child is to be born. There are many practical reasons for this as well, not the least of which are financial. Here in California, during this time of the year we can make and save a good deal of money. For one thing, people in this area, Santa Barbabra in particular, love my fiber art and I am able to sell it easily. Secondly, this spring is supposed to be a particularly good year for liberal and progressive initiatives in this area. If we stay here we can make and save thousands, in addition to my art sales. Also Moss has made many friends in the area and is curently collaborating on music with some, so he would be able to finish his new c.d..an important goal of his.

In Oregon, we have a place to stay, friends and full coverage for a midwife, but no way to make money, not like we can here.

So..we spent the past month interviewing many midwives all over the southern California region. Most are not covered by medi-cal and the average price in this area for a midwife is 3,500 dollars. On top of that, the ones we have spoken with definitely do not have the vibe we are looking for.

That is until we spoke with the women at South Coast Midwifery. They do accept medi-cal for part of the care, but 2,500 is not covered and would need to be paid out of pocket by my due date (June 5th). South Coast Midwifery is an all women run, midwifery birthing center. They have beautiful rooms with jacuzzi tubs for birthing in, or they will come to you in your home. The midwife we spoke with, Amber, was genuinely excited about the idea of attending a birth in a bus, unlike some of the other midwives we interviewed, who seemed to raise an eyebrow. Moss and I felt a connection immediately. Everything was so positive about our experience with them, and we left feeling very uplifted. With the other places there was often a feeling that we were just another birth. It was very business like and "bottom Line".

The next big decision is weather to have the baby at the birthing center or in the bus. What we would like to do is find a campground we can stay at for a month, or some private land. Then we could set up our 16 foot tipi near the bus. Within that we would put a small wood burning hot tub that could be used for a water birth. This is essentially a wood fired stove that is immersed in the tub, it can be either a wood or metal tub. In our case it will probably be a small circular stock tank. We used to use this for bathing when we lived in the tipi in Oregon, and it works great.

Like everything else I am certain this will all fall into place according to what is for our highest good. If we are unable to find private land or an appropriate campground, then we will go to the birthing center. Both are great options and either one we would be happy with.

As for me personally and physically, all is well. The nausea of my first trimester is long gone and I am now feeling fine, full of energy and life. I can clearly feel the baby move and have been for the past three weeks. It is quite an active one ! I may have my hands full with this little Gemini baby. Moss can feel the baby move as well, and even watch as my stomach shifts and changes shape. I try to walk at least a mile every day as well as do yoga and meditate regularly.

I have some not so good moments as well, usually in the middle of the night. I wake up with a feeling of dread and ask myself "what did we get ourselves into ?" I wonder if I will be a good mom. I think of all my many flaws and how they will affect our child. I worry about the birth and weather or not I will be able to handle the "sensations" of natural birth. I worry that I will suffer from post partum depression or have difficulty breastfeeding. All normal things that many expectant mothers worry about.

Soon these feeling pass as I drift off to sleep, dreaming of our child and all the many things I hope to teach her/him about life and the universe, the magic that is within us and all around us. I awaken in the morning, no worse for ware ( though occasionally a bit cranky and tired), once again feeling full of life and it's many possibilities......

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Happy 2007 !

2007-01-01T10:03:00.000-08:00

Happy 2007 everyone !

Moss and I are still here, rambling around southern California in the bus. We have been spending a bit more time with family lately as we decide where to have our baby.That is the big question right now, as I am 19 weeks pregnant, halfway through my pregnancy...wow..it is going so fast.

We know the kind of birth we want, a midwife assited waterbirth, preferably in nature, and near the bus. The problem is that the state insurance here will not pay for a midwife. In Oregon, where we have previously lived for many years, the insurance will help pay for a midwife, at least partially. Here though, we have family, which is important to us. In oregon, lots of wonderful friends.

If we do got to oregon though, it turns out that it will likely be in March, as that is the soonset that the insurance will help out. That gives us a bit more time to figure out things here. If our cash flow is good by then, we may just be able to pay out the 4000 bucks for the midwife. We'll just have to see. Meanwhile I am seeing an OBGYN monthly, doing lots of reading, yoga, and will be attending natural childbirth clasess.

It looks as though we will be renovating the bus, hopefully before June. We want to put an addition on the top, probably an old VW shell, that will serve as our bedroom. The back will become a playroom for the baby. We have lots of other ideas as well, but most of them will not be done by June.

We spent New Years at the park, exploring, meditating and just being. We said fare well to 2006,in a somewhat melencholy way, knowing full well that things will never, ever be the same in our lives. It was goodbye to life as we know it, goodbye to our life as a couple.

We greeted 2007 however with great joy, anticipating all the wonderful ways our life will change in this year, the year of the birth of our child. There will be a third person with us, always, we will be three, and no matter how may times I think of this and imagine what it will be like, i just cannot fathom. Three.

A magic number indeed....

2007-01-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

A gorgeous place to spend New Years day..

2007-01-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

Pix kicking back in the bus...

2007-01-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

Moss kicking back in the bus..

2007-01-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

My little bump so far....

2007-01-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

I have started doing these face wall hangings recently, this is one I liked and decided to keep. Still needs a bit of work actually..

Turn and Face the Strange Changes....

2006-11-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

Brace yourselves folks, I have big news and you should be sitting down for this one.

Moss and I are having a baby and it is due June 5 ! I am 14 weeks pregnant at this time !

That's right, you did read correctly. No need to adjust your monitors or reach for your glasses. It is quite a shock to both of us as well, but a rather pleasant one. The truth is, we had decided some time ago that we would probably not have children. The last few years have seen us both soften a bit to the idea, but still, this is a BIG surprise.

We are both very happy and excited though and have been having a great time thinking up names and such. I rather like the name Sage, and Amaya is pretty too. Feel free to send in your suggestions as well !

At this time we are back in California, visiting with Moss's family for the holiday's and sharing our good news, then we head up north to Oregon. I really hate this area, people are so uptight and nasty about our bus. The law states that we can park anywhere in the neighborhood for three days then we have to move it, and drive at least a mile, before parking either in the same spot again or a different one. We have been very good about following this, yet the neighbors still continue to not only harass us but vandalize our bus ! They have spray painted on us, egged us repeatedly, stolen our license plates and put Crazy Glue in our locks ! I fear what will happen next . The cops said they have received dozens of calls, and it seems everyone in town knows of our bus and has an opinion.

The funny thing is, we have been in some very sketchy places, and never, ever have we been vandalized until this place. Keep in mind the area is rather upscale and was voted the safest place in the country a few years in a row. It has the highest concentration of retired cops of anywhere, and yet our bus is repeatedly vandalized ! I am really sick to my stomach about all this, and just cannot believe the amount of obnoxiousness the people in this area display.

We are thinking really hard now about finding a piece of land somewhere for a home base. We still want to travel in the bus with our child, but it would be nice to have a homebase, if even just an empty piece of land we could go to at times to lay some roots. Another option would be to find an intentional community somewhere to become part of, or at the very least renting a spot on someone's land where we can put up a yurt.

So many options ! Which one will we chose ? It's all so overwhelming.

I sometimes feel as though my life is like one of those "Choose Your own Adventure" books. You know the ones, there is a brief short story followed by several possible scenario to choose from. You make your choice and the story continues from another page according to the scenario you picked.

That's how my life is. Just a list of possible choices that I chose from, hoping, but never quite sure if I made the right one, and the only way to find out is to keep reading the book.....

Homeward Bound...

2006-09-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

After spending a few months laying some roots and working in Santa Barbara, by late June, we were more than ready to hit the road.

So it went, on a beautiful June day, we packed up and headed towards Steamboat Springs Colorado and the National Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes...the largest, free, completely non comercial gathering of hippies, gypsies, freaks and nomads in the world.

Everything went smooth for the first few hundred miles, until just outside Las Vegas Nevada the bus began to sputter and cough, right before coming to a stop on the side of a very busy interstate in 111 degree heat. We tried for hours to get it to work with no luck.The cars were wizzing by at 80 miles an hour, inches from where we were working.

It was around 6:30 at night when we decided to take what little money we had left and pay for a tow. We called up the nearest place and they said it would be at least a two hour wait.

Ughh..

What could we do ? We waited, and waited, and waited..two hours stretched into four, then six..we called repeatedly and each time were assured they would arrive soon. Soon we saw the sky beginning to lighten and knew that sunrise was close at hand. The thought of sitting through another day of 111 degree heat was agonizing.

Finally, well after sunrise the tow truck arrives and takes us to the nearest truck stop. The cost was near 200 to go 5 miles. It was a good safe spot where we could stay for a few days if need be. The time was 11 am and already the temp was near 100. Moss wasted no time getting to work on the bus. He worked for hours, even as the temp continued to climb to 113 degrees. I have never felt heat like this in my entire life. The candles on the wall were literally drooped over, like a wilted flower.The birds sat with their wings outstretched and moths open. It's all I could do to stay concious. There was a small water bottle that we kept filled and I went around the bus constantly spraying everyone down, including the birds and Gaia. ..but Moss would not stop ! Sweat was pouring from his head, there was no shade and still he continued to work.

Honestly, Neither Stone or I understood how he was able to do this..but do it he did. Finally by late evening Moss had isolated the problem and fixed it. It was simply a small crack in the gasket on a veggie filter.

By early the next morning we were off again with filters fixed and full tank of veggie. Earlier in the year we were given a Garmin, gps navigation sytem. You just type in where you want to go and hit GO! and it takes you there,telling you by voice when to turn.It knows all the rest stops,food, gas stations, shopping centers. I managed to get the gps coordinates for the gathering and puched them into the garmin, and we were guided the whole way by this thing. We chose shortest distance , rather than fastest time setting, which also tends to be the more "scenic" route.

At one point we were guided 60 miles down a dirt road with washboards so bad we could go no more than 5 miles an hour ! The scenery was beautiful though, huge red rocks dotted with sagebrush ..which of course we had to stop to pick some of.

We arived at the gathering site around the 18 th of June...a very remote site in the rocky mountains, 10 miles down a dirt road and many,many miles from the nearest town. We were met at the front gate by a couple of older hippies with walkie talkies who informed us that the feds had a road block further down and that they were aresting, searching (with dogs)and ticketing people going to the gathering. Suprise suprise..

This back and forth between the forest service and Rainbow has been ongoing for years, with the feds trying everything possible to put an end to our first amendment right of freedom of assembly. In 1995, after losing sevral court cases to the family, it was ruled that the feds have the right to decide "time, place and manner restrictions". From that came this new rule that any gathering larger than 75 people required a free permit. The problem is that in order to obtain a permit, someone needs to sign it, which means taking responsibility for 20,000 plus people. Not only that, but rainbow has no recognized leaders or organizers in the way a religous group, the girl scouts or a festival would, so there really is no one to sign!

For more info on Rainbow legal battles ( it is quite intresting really..) go here,

http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/nfs-regs/fsregs.html

After a brief discussion we all agreed to take our chances. We went about 7 miles down this windy mountain road until we arived at the roadblock..a bunch of green forest service trucks and uniformed forest service officials standing around.

They waved us down.

We stopped and opening the door with a big grin and playing dumb, we asked what this was all about. The woman forest service agent was quite nice and wanted to inform us that this was an illegal gathering and that, if we continued on we could be subject, at any time to arest or ticketing.

We thanked the woman, explaining that we had come a long way and that it was our first amendment right to gather on our public land and we would be going on. She nodded, we waved and off we went!

Unfortunately, for so many others this was not the case. At some point I guuess they received their orders and inevitably there were hundreds of arrests and tickets. So many in fact that they set up a makeshift courtroom at some remote forest service fire station, and volunteers at the gathering ( lol..we are ALL volunteers at a gathering) trucked bus loads of people out to make their court dates.

This continued for another week or so until they realized, as always that the wave of people comming in could not be stopped and to do so would require the national Gaurd..so they gave up (or at leat reduced their ticketing activities) and all went well. There were some tense momment's however, especially early on when 200 gatherer's decided to confront a roadblock of police armed with riffles. The gather's joined hands and walked toward the roadblock, oming all the while.

The officers retreated.

Following is a link to some amazing video footage of part of the incident..unfortunately this otherwise peaceful act of civil disobedience is punctuated with highly provocatory and negative cooments from a disgruntled and obviously frustrated A Camper. Check it out..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hAx5G0I9mU

Despite all this the gathering for us was a good one (excluding a week long toothache for Moss and a bout of stomach flue for me), we met many new friends and saw many old ones. Unfortunately my camera battery charger was lost and we were unable to replace it until recently, so the whole summer we were unable to take pictures.

After the gathering we drove up the backbone of the Rockies ( taking the back roads whenever possible), through some truly trecherous roads, some of which were still being made ( I'll try to get a video I took up) and into Oregon. We stayed at a free campground, right on the Mckenzie river, and down the road from Cougar Hot Springs, for about two and a half weeks. We stocked up..working like mad, making dolls and felt boots to sell at the Faerie Worlds Festival in Eugene. At the festival we met Brian and Wendy Froud, who both coomented that they really liked my work.I had a roving vendor pass and sold 1000 worth off stuff, many of which were custom orders.

We stayed a few weeks in Oregon, visiting with some friends, before meandering back down the coast via the 101 freeway bringing us full circle back to Santa Barbara, where we are at this time.

We are currently busy filling the orders taken at the Festval, basking on the beach and working another good initiative..lower tuition for Community Colleges. Our plans, as always are tenetive and sporadic.In afew weeks we may leave for Northern California, then head to the east coast so I can visit my mom, who is sick.

After that we need to decide on a place to winter over. Any suggestions ??

2006-09-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

On our way to the gathering..a view from the captains chair..

2006-09-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

At a rest stop in Utah.

2006-09-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

Moss takes some time off from driving to enjoy the view ( wich you cannot see here, but trust me..it 's a GOOD one) at a rest stop in Utah..

2006-09-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

Casper enjoys a good stretch at the rest stop, after many long hours of bus travel.

2006-09-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

One of my newest creatures, here shown enjoying a lovely lupine flower growing in Colorado.

2006-09-21T07:00:00.007-07:00

On the main trail.Photo by,http://www.flickr.com/photos/nonprophet/tags/rainbow/

2006-09-21T07:00:00.006-07:00

One of the many fine kitchens at the Rainbow gathering.Photo by,http://www.flickr.com/photos/nonprophet/tags/rainbow/

2006-09-21T07:00:00.005-07:00

Looking across main meadow.Photo by, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nonprophet/tags/rainbow/

2006-09-21T07:00:00.004-07:00

Tipi Village. Photo taken by, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nonprophet/tags/rainbow/

2006-09-21T07:00:00.003-07:00

The G Funk Crew ! They actually made a full size Pirate ship stage out of downed trees, for the talent show stage ! You can kind of see it in the background. Photo by, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nonprophet/tags/rainbow/

2006-09-21T07:00:00.002-07:00

Main Circle. Photo taken by, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nonprophet/tags/rainbow/

2006-09-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for the concerned emails regarding our well being ..we are fine, and no, we have not been abducted by aliens or run off to live with some remote tribe in the jungles of south America. The truth, I am afraid, is far less spectacular, but only slightly so..

Lets begin where I last left off, in Santa Barbara...

All told we stayed in Santa Barbara for nearly two months,...working very hard on the alternative energy and marijuana initiatives and saving green energy to get us through the year. We met some wonderful people and even managed to do a little bus work on the side.

Southern California has always been one of my least favorite parts of the country, in sharp contrast to it's sister, Northern California..which is one of my favorites. The last five years however have found me ( due mainly to financial and familial reasons) having to spend a good deal of time in southern California. Faced with this reality I have been trying to make the best of it, seeking out the quiet, wind swept places at every opportunity and observing the bizarre and sometimes shallow culture.

Santa Barbara is a very wealthy city, one of the wealthiest, yet oddly small and intimate. Because the cost of living is so high, the " middle class" is nearly non exsistent..the majority of folks are either rich, very rich or living on the street. What is intersting is how little physically divides the rich from the poor. In many of the other wealthy areas of southern California..it would be hard, if not impossible for a homeless or rubber tramp to live at all, as it has been effectively rendered illegal to do so. This was recently the case in Santa Barbara as well. In fact there has been, for some time an ongoing war of sorts between the city, who want very badly to sweep the whole unsightly "homeless problem" under the rug (for the benefit of the tourists and locals) and local grass roots activists. What it really amounts to is class warfare of sorts.

In an effort to crack down the city has made it illegal to park anywhere from 2:oo am - 6:00 pm. In response, local activits have aranged a program where by one can get a permit to park for the night on several Santa Barbara county lots. In addition they are apealing the parking law..and so it goes..

For now, on any given day you will see a wide variety of vans, campers, rv's, bus's, shopping carts and rickshaws parked along the main street that borders the beach. Directly across, on the opposite side of the street you will find the million dollar resorts..and in them people who have paid unspeakable amounts of money for a room with a view of the ocean...not to mention the parade of rv's, bus', campers and shopping carts..

Many of the people we met seemed to harbor a deep seated resentment towards the "rich bastards" who live in the area, most notably in Monticeto (home to Oprah winfrey, among many other celebes ). We were warned repeatedly not to trust anybody. Well, as it happened we had the occasion to meet some of the folks who lived in the area, Montociteo in fact...

In order to respect the personnel privacy of individuals, I will not be using their real names.

I was sitting in the bus working on one of my sculptures, when an energetic woman with fiery red hair, popped her head into the open door to say hello, and that she loved our bus. I invited her in and we ended up chatting for a good 45 minutes. Before she left we found ourselves invited to a party at her home in Monticeto... She wanted us to drive our bus up to her home and park it there ( I found this particularly interesting as usually people are demanding that that we move immediately from near their house or they will call the cops). She would then have a party and an "open house" type tour of the bus. The idea was to educate folks about veggie oil, solar and other renewable/alternative energies. Since this was keeping in line with one of our original visions, we readily agreed.

The day came and we were met by, Dan, Brendas husband. He drove in front of us, leading the way as we followed behind in the bus. We soon found ousrselves winding through the narrow, steep hills of residential Montecito, passed sprawling mansions and palatial estates until finally reaching the home of our friends, a beautiful, earthy house, on a steep, tree lined street.

We parked and went inside, passed the courtyard/ gardens, and through the glass doors leading to the kitchen.

On the tables inside there was laid out many kinds and varieties of foods, dips, veggies, pates, cake, wine, juice, soda. We chatted for a time until soon, one by one, the guests began to arrive. We were introduced to each and every person as they arrived and gave "bus tours" when asked. We explained about the veggie oil system, solar energy and shared our vision with folks, coming from the heart as much as possible. Moss and I were, admittedly, a bit apprehensive and not knowing quite what to expect, but the genuine warmness and enthusiasm of the people soon allied any initial discomfort. Before long we found ourselves sitting in the bus welcoming a steady stream of people inside , sharing wine and heartsongs. Many of these folks were exceedingly wealthy, TV/Movie producers, writers, owners of large business's, musicians...

At one point in the night we were inside the house, enjoying the food and chatting, when suddenly Brenda steps forward and rings a bell. The room becomes quiet as all turn their attention to Brenda, who then proceeds to announce us as the "guests of honor". Their is a donation jar up front, she explains and she would like it if folks would donate to our bus project.

Moss and I were stunned, frozen between fork fulls of food (which we were now almost choking on) as the room fell silent, all eyes were on us.

This was totally unexpected.

"uh..well...gee".. I stammered, taking the fork from my mouth and setting my plate down slowly.

I am VERY uncomfortable with public speaking , I could feel my face burning and my mind freezing up.Moss came to the rescue though, thanking everyone and saying a few words about our vision of a sustainable lifestyle, and how all the things we have tried to incorporate in our bus, and much more, can be applied to a stationary house as well.

After the party we stayed over, chatting long into the night and enjoying our new friends. We had a lot in common. One of Dan's favorite bands is the Incredible Stringband, as it is ours. We showed him our DVD copy of Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending, and he delighted in the old footage, saying it brought back many memories for him. He also was a fan and friend of Joni Mitchell, as am I (a fan that is..).

We ended up staying over a few days before then saying goodbye and heading back to reality in Santa Barbara. I am sure we will continue to keep in touch with them as it is quite obvious they are kindred spirits and literally some of the most loving and joyous people we have ever met.

Another amazing person we met was Jason and his dog friend Dakota. Heir to a family restaraunt business in Texas, Jason gave it all up five yeas ago and set out on foot with Dakota. When I say gave it all up I mean gave it All up! He gave away all his possessions and created a rickshaw from some bike tires and scavenged wood. He then set out on foot, from Texas, to walk across the u.s...taking odd jobs here and there , moving at his own pace and camping in secluded areas on the edge of towns. What always impressed me about him was how incredibly articulate and clean he was. It's not that I think there is anything wrong with a little natural road dirt, and I know first hand how hard it can be to keep fresh on the road..but he always was. He always had a sparkle in his eye and some words of inspiration to share.The three of us shared many days relaxing on the beach, collecting shells and engageing in some great conversations. When we last saw him he said he was heading out that day..walking to the redwoods.. a life long dream of his. I know we will see him again somewhere down the road.

Meeting Jason brought to mind another intresting nomad we once met..

Years ago, while on our way to the Wyoming Rainbow gathering we saw a strange sight on the side of the road. We saw what looked to be an old wooden gypsy wagon, a few on them hooked to together, with what seemed to be a train of donkeys pulling it. Walking next to the donkeys was a small bearded man in his 60's ( later we found he was in his 70's) wearing an engineers cap and red suspenders. We stopped to introduced ourselves and chat for a bit. His said his name was John and he had been on the road with his donkeys for close to thirty years. He said that he travels the western us walking along side his donkey's. In the coaches that they pulled was everything he needed to live sustainably. He had chickens for eggs and a goat for milk. In addition, he fished and took advantage of the abundant wild edible plants that grow naturally in the forests and meadows. In the spring he would approach a farmer and offer his services as a farm hand in exchange for a small plot to farm. Then, in the fall he would harvested what he grwew, canning and storing it in his wagons for the winter.

We were enchanted and fascinated by John..and talked long into the evening. He offered to teach us his lifestyle, teach us how to build a wagon and everything else...he WANTED to teach his lifestyle, to pass it on. We were very tempted, but at that time quite intent on moving to Oregon and living in a tipi. We wanted to lay some roots.

Seeing Jason, had brought all this back..and we are now seriously thinking, in a few years we would like to persue our old dream of traveling the states in a wagon,....carrying on the legacy of John Stiles. The only question is, do we do this before or after sailing the oceans in a pirate ship ?

2006-05-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

One of several beautiful beach's we have enjoyed in Santa Barbara.

2006-05-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Stairs leading down to the beach

2006-05-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

A friend of ours and her amazing "smart car".

2006-05-27T10:43:00.001-07:00

Anti war demonstartors on state street..Santa Barbara.

2006-05-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Many hundreds of UCSB students take part in a demonstration, sleeping outside, overnight on state street, in an effort to bring awareness to the plight of Ugandas children. Tens of thousands of demonstrators, in many areas of the u.s, also took part.

2006-05-27T10:40:00.001-07:00

On a cliff, overlooking the beach. This shot stired up ancestreal memories of an ancient ireland.

2006-05-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

Our dear friends Jason (human) and Dakota. Four years ago they gave up all worldly posseions, built a cart, and togeher began walking to california. We met them in santa barbara and shared many wonderful sunsets, on the beach engaged in conversation. They are now walkng north to see the redwoods.

2006-05-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

I love the way windows on the bus create little framed sort of pictures, that change, depending on where we park. This is the picture created when parked for the night on the side of the road next to a gorgeous meadow.

2006-05-27T10:38:00.000-07:00

So may wonderful ways to experience life !!

2006-05-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Building our Sofa/Tub in the back of the bus. When not being used for bathing, we flip the lid over, throw on some cusions, and we have a great day bed or soafa !

2006-05-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

This is a shot of the fold out bench/table we made for the bus, in the locked position.

2006-05-27T10:28:00.001-07:00

We have added another battery box and five gel batteries to our solar electric system.

2006-05-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

The bench unfolded, ready for sitting, washing dishes or selling our wares..

Computer Down AGAIN...

2006-05-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

Just another quick note to say that Moss and I are not dead and that, yes, once again we are having computer problems. I am writing this from a pay internet machine in Santa Barbara. Our computer should be fixed soon and I will post an update detailing our adventures within the last month.

An intresting month here, to say the least, stay tuned....

Any Way the Wind Blows...

2006-03-13T12:30:00.000-08:00

It's raining here in santa barbara where we now are parked.

This has resulted in us spending a greater amount of time indoors, curled up upon the window seat, watching the wood fire, sipping tea, practicing our insturments, reading, and contemplating things. It is actually quite nice. I love the rain and colder weather. I find these conditions to be most inspiring and creative of all for me. I enjoy snow especially. To me a winter and spring without snow and rain is like summer without the sun. I need this weather and ocasional times of hibernation, to help me incubate new idea's and create new works.

We moved from isla Vista to Santa Barbara (just a few miles south) beacause we are working a new initiative that is only applicable to those registered within santa Barbara city, proper.

It's another wonderful one....a marijuana initiative that would make posseion in santa Barbara a lower priority offense. Santa barbara, we are finding, is another little bastion for liberalism in southern california, as is Isla Vista. The people are amazingly kind and pleasant. In the State Street area, which we are parked near, the streets are full of musicians, street performers and travlers.

In the day we park for free, along with various other free spirited nomads in a day parking area right on the beach !! We can stay in this spot pretty much all day until 2am, then we must find a place for the night, until 5am...then it's back to the beach parking. I would much rather be in a forest or some other remote location, but work brings us into the city for now. As far as city living goes though, it is nice being right on the beach. State street, where we are working, is only a few blocks away, and we can ride on our bikes to it.

There is even free fire wood for our wood stove! The beach where we are parked is covered with bone dry pieces of beautiful, sun bleached driftwoods, perfect for the stove. Before we leave I plan on filling our wood box full of it, and keeping some as new percehs for the birds, as well as decoration. While I am at it, I will get a trash bag and clean up some of the garbage lying about...a nice way to give back.

Life is good here in Santa Barbara California !

Lately, we have been receiving a large number of both public as well as private emails stateing how wonderful our lives seem and how unhappy some say they are with their own lives and liveing situations, and how lucky we are.

I am concerened that people may be getting the wrong idea. Although our lives may seem idylic and even a bit romantic to some, the reality is that it is not always so. We have our own unique dramas, challenges, issues and karma to work through, just like everyone else. The unpredictablity of our income is a BIG one. Ocasionaly we have had to borrow money and/or rely on the kindness of others during a down time financially. However, when we are in a position to help others we try to do so, the best we can, thereby passing the good energy on. I know, it sounds very idealistic. However, it should be quite obvious by now that Moss and I are both prone to idealism.

To be honest though, I sometimes really enjoy the unpredictability of it all.I seem to thrive on it in fact.

You see, although it doesnt seem so, life is really lived momment by momment. Everything changes and nothing is permanent. People, situations, everything, is in a constant state of flux. When a person realizes this, there is a tendecy to feel, at first, despair and sense of pointlessness to it all. This can cause some to give it all up, live in a cave and become a renunciate, hindu sadhu, budhist or christian monk, hari krisha disciple...most spiritual paths have their equivalent.

Others however, like myself, chose simply to make a mental note of all this and try to enjoy life, yet remain unatcahed and ever aware of the transient nature of it all. I try to experience every secound as magikal and wonderous as the next ( you remember that feeling as a child, dont you ? ).

It certainly doesnt always work out that way, as I am particularly prone to moodiness and momments of extreme drama, but then, I just wait for the next momment, and all is good and brand new again....

2006-03-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

Moss and Gaia on the beach in Isla Vista.

2006-03-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

The view from inside a cave, on the beach..

2006-03-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

A rainbow after the storm ....

2006-03-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

Moss snaped this pic of me engrosed in dulcimer practice. Many people have been asking "what is that "thing" on my head, and why do I always wear it ?" To answer the question, I am attempting to grow my dreadlocks back after cutting them off a few years ago. The bandana, or a hat, is used to help the hair matt and lock together. I really do prefer to keep my hair very short..but I am finding the cost and maintenence involved in maintaining short hair to be quite annoying. Especially when compared to the many years( all of my adult life)of haveing dreads, which require virtually no maintenence to deal with..besides a vigorous shampooing once a week..

2006-03-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

Moss gathers wood from the beach for our woodstove...

2006-03-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

We met a very nice fellow with two young boys that live and travel full time in this gorgeous bus. Moss and I have been thinking real hard about adding a small secound story as well..though we are not real shure weather we would do a vw top (certainly the easiest mathod) or a wooden or metal roof raise..

2006-03-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

My newest creation..

Keep On Truckin Mama.....

2006-03-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

Here we are in the parking lot of a shopping center in Isla Vista C.A . Isla Vista is a small college (UCSB) town very close to Santa Barbara. This whole area seems to be an oasis of kindness and unabashed liberalism in the heart of a very conservative southern california.

We are working a few really, really excellent initiatives this year that we are SO excited about. I mean,these are the kind of initiatives that we are just more than happy to work on and be a part of under any circumstances.

In previous years this has not been the case. The initiatives wanting to get on the ballot have been ones that we would not want ever want to see on the ballot, hence and we did not work them. Whenthis happens we have to rely on other ways to earn a wage.... artwork, CD sales, odd jobs, bartering, luck,..

The first initiative is for Alternative Energy . This would encourage the research/development of alternative fuels in c, essentialy setting up an infrastructure for the industry. In addition, it gives grants /incentives for businesses and individuals to use energy efficient fuels and technology.It does this by putting a tax on oil production and using that to fund the programs. This initiative is just out within the past week or so, though I am shure you will soon be hearing a lot more about it. Hopefully it will be the beginning of similar initiatives all over the U.S, and the start of an alternative fuel industry in this country. If our federal govt refuses to take these issues seriously, then the states must take up the slack. Here is a link to more details about it,

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/13782289.htm

The secound initiative, we are equally as excited about, is a clean water initiative that also goes for conservation, habitat restoration, nature education, establishing greenway coridors between existing parks, it also helps with sustainable community developement by promting "infill" in cities..and so much more. Here is a link with more details,

http://ca.audubon.org/2006_Bond_Funding.htm

Basically, what we do is park for the day in the parking lots of various stores around town. We work the initiatives during the day from about 8 to 6. Because we do not work for anyone, and are considered "independant contractors" we get to chose our own hours. In the evenings we camp by the beach. So far, folks have been very receptive to the issues and the authoriites quite nice. That hasn't always been the case though...

Recently, we were in the town of Valencia and people were just so nasty. The Target called the cops twice within two months. This is something we have to deal with every season though, at least three or four times. You see most people, including the officers, do not realize that our right to gather signatures is a matter of free speech, protected by various state constitutions. The law allows us to stand outside the door of any store open to the public, on their property, set up a table, and ask for signatures on proposed state initiatives.

The intresting thing is that, we do not need their permission. This very often causes problems as the stores generally do not want us there. Further, the managers of the stores (usually a Wallmart, Target or other large chain) are ill informed in regaurds to the law. They try everything, lies, intimidation, to get us to leave. In many cases it seems they actually know what the law is but are purposefully told from higher ups to deny it, in hopes that we will be intimidated.

We have always stood our ground though, calmly explaining that we are allowed by law to be there (citing various court cases and codes) and that we will be nice and be certain to not block the doorway. Ocasionaly they will have been through it before with other petitioners, realize that we have called their bluff, and leave us be.Too often though it culminates in the manager calling the cops, and then we have to go through this little dance with managers, cops and sometimes the city attorney.

This can go one of two ways....

If we are lucky, about 75% of the time, the officers are familar with this obscure law, and will inform the managers that we are well with in our rights.The difficulty arises when the officers are either unfamilar with the law, do not believe us, or are too obstinate to look into into it further. They try everything, essentially a more agressive version of what the store managers do, to get us to leave. Often they form what Moss and I have come to term the "huddle", a gathering of several store managers and two or three cops, brainstorming every conceivable way to bust us.

They threaten repeatedly to arrest us, they insult, lie and intimidate us....all the special techniques reserved for use on thieves, rapists, murderes and other criminals. The only difference is, we are none of those things and the law really is on our side in this case.

Eventually the officer wonders why it is they have failed to shake our confidence and why we are so willing to go to jail over the issue. At this point the coyly call the city attorney, are told that we are within the law, and we are inevitably unhandcuffed to continue our work. The funniest thing is watching the smug look on the astonished managers face disapear as they are told we have every right to be there.

Only a few times have we been actually placed in the back of the car in handcuffs, and never have we been officially "read our rights". Others have however and hefty lawsuits were settled against both Walmart and Target for obstructing free speech. If someone ever makes the mistake of actually fully arresting us, we have the names and numbers of lawyers experienced in this area ready to go.

We do try to avoid this at all costs however..

We should be done petitioning in May or June and hopefully will have made enough, combined with our other endevours (Moss's c.d sales and my wool sculptures) to get us through the rest of the year. We may even have enough to finish the water sytem ! Then we can focus the remainder of the year on our art and music.

Yesterday, after getting our computer back from the repair shop, we signed up for Verizons National Access, wireless internet program. We now are able to access the internet inside the bus as we travel !! Previously we relied only on our wifi card and the ocasional free hot spot to get on the net. Now we just insert this little card into a slot on the side of the computer, pay verizon 60 bucks a month, and we can get on the net for unlimted amounts of time at broadband speeds, wherever the signal can be reached !

We were also able to finally find a good bike rack for our bikes and a welder to weld it on the front of the bus for us. We are thrilled to have found him, as we have been looking quite awhile now for someone to weld us some storage bays under the bus, extend our battery box, make a new veggie oil tank and weld some racks on top.

All in good time though...

2006-03-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

The officers and a few Target managers form what we call the "huddle"..or "what can we possibly do to bust them", brainstorming session.

2006-03-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

Moss gathering signatures outside the K Mart..

2006-03-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

The bus with bikes and new bike rack welded to front bumper...

A quick Note...

2006-02-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say that Moss and I will be without a computer for the next ten days or so as it will be in the shop for repairs. So I apologize in advance for any unanswered emails.

Also, we have added a new section, by request from some readers. It is "About Us" on the left pannel and provides a more detailed profile of Moss and I, pictures of our tipi and yurt homes and profiles and pictures of our whole flock as well as Gaia, our dog of thirteen years.

We will take lots of photos and have many stories to tell at next update..

2006-02-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

Namaste....two hands pressed together and held near the heart with the head gently bowed...namaste. A traditional gesture in the east upon ariving and departing. The hands, held in unison signify the oneness of a dual cosmos. The bringing together of spirit and matter, the self meeting the self.

Brick by Brick....

2006-02-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

This week Moss and I spent some time visiting with good friends of ours in the area, and then house sitting for them while they vacationed in Hawaii. Jackie is a long time fellow bird lover and rehabber and it was a joy to house sit and take care of her many wonderful animal friends.

While there we also did much work on the bus as we were able to plug in our power saws and sanders. Moss started to build the partition for the bedroom area, built a storage box at the base of the bed and one on the far side of the bench in the livieng room. In addition to that we began work on the work table in the back and finished the faceing on some cabinets. I removed the top lights from the front of the bus and bondo'ed in the holes then painted over it, as well as doing some sanding and finishing work inside.

Monday we head to Valenica C.A to earn some money and work on a few initiatives. We will stay there in the area for a few weeks working and parking the bus at various spots around town dureing the night. Last we week we were able to finally purchase our two Trek ( Gary Fisher) seven speed mountain bikes ! This will make it so much easier to get around. Next week we will have enough to buy our bike racks for the front of the bus.

The following are some photos of the work we got done this week....

2006-02-18T13:35:00.000-08:00

A view towards the now partially finished back, still needing be sanded/finished.