It has been nearly an entire moon cycle since I last wrote.
Our adventures continue. We are still in California, USA. For the past 2 ½
weeks me and the kids have been staying with our friend, Ryan, in Capitola, CA.
Ryan was the catalyst for James and I meeting. We were both friends with Ryan,
and eventually started hanging out just the two of us together, and then well,
ya know, babies and marriage and that stuff.
Ryan has a dog named Harmen, who was one of Pia’s best dog pals when she
was a puppy and we all lived in Prescott at the same time. They had lots of
slumber parties the past few weeks, Pia mostly ditching us to sleep on Ryan’s
awesome sheepskin at the base of his bed with Harmen. River spent most nights
cuddled up at my feet on a bed from the van on the floor, and the kids slept in
a queen size air mattress. We all fit into Ryan’s massage room, which he let us
occupy while James was in the desert. I
rented a car for our stay, as James had our wheels that he camped in while at
his workshop. 
So on to James’s workshop. Please visit www.calearth.org for more information about the place and
people he was working with. His workshop was a combination of learning how to
build “superadobe” or earth bag domes, interwoven with a permaculture
course. The workshop was just shy of 2
weeks, and I know he learned a ton! He is spilling over with enthusiasm about
both permaculture and earth bag building. We have grand visions of buying a
piece of land near/in the mountains near to the coast and building our
permaculture, superadobe inspired retreat and home. These are dreams we
visioned and wrote down in the cold depths of one Maine winter a couple of
years ago- and we are so close to actually making it happen- wow! The power of
intention, the law of attraction, I don’t know what it is, but it IS and I am
loving it all!
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| Steam Engine thru the Redwoods |
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| Giant Redwood exploration with Faye |
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| Beachin it with Mary! |
Ryan’s house is in a
great location- we were within walking distance to a great playground/community
park and also very close to the beach, and right around the corner from Whole
Foods, an art supply store, and a sewing center! We ended up with lots of
sewing projects that we completed by the end of the week. Sorrel made a
necklace for Ryan, and one for James. He also made a mouse finger puppet. Parula
made a handbag with a Llama on it, and a tooth pillow for when she begins to
lose teeth. She also made Sorrel a star from start to finish (cutting, pinning
and sewing it all herself!) I made Ryan a potholder because he did not have one
in his house! We were very productive, and it seemed like a necessary project
to keep everyone’s minds engaged with creativity. Now I have a little craft bag
started in the van…the things we can make!
The skies. The cloudscapes that were constantly shifting
over Ryan’s house were so phenomenal. There were several mornings that it was
raining, or very grey and foggy. Inevitably by about noon , the sun was out and
there were amazing sights to be had in the sky overhead. There are certainly
some amazing weather happenings and cloud patterns that are more prevelant
along the Pacific coast that don’t appear so much on the Atlantic coast….
Ryan had a lovely fall party with a live jazz band playing
in his carport on Sunday. James returned later that evening, after the band finished
playing, and the kids were ecstatic to see him. We had a day of reconnecting
and enjoying each other with an oil change for the van on Monday, and we spent
the last day and a half packing up the van and then cleaning Ryan’s house. We
are currently camping at a KOA just outside of Fresno, CA. We are heading to
CalEarth in Hesperia, CA. Since we are going to be building structures of the
same lineage of what they have there, I want to experience them! I am told that
it is a giant play scape for kids- should be fun times for them to run around
tomorrow, and James also left his favorite sweater there… but not the main
reason we are going. Going to CalEarth is actually not out of our way at all-
we will probably miss most of the SoCal congenstion by going mostly through the
desert. Our plan is to enter Mexico via Tecate probably on Friday. Then on the
Ensenada and south! I will try to post on the blog before we arrive, but if for
some reason that doesn’t happen then hopefully soon after we arrive, and I will
have a whole report of the last leg of our giant roadtrip. We have about 1,000+
miles to travel until we reach the final destination. Funny I was just looking
at pictures on my computer and came across a photo that was taken of Parula and
Sorrel playing in full snow suite winter attire IN THE SNOW on October 30 last
year in Belfast, Maine. Glad that’s not my situation right now- a snowy winter
person I am NOT! Onward to the tropics!
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| Belfast, Maine, October 30,2011 |
