Field Trip to the western Seirra foot hills

 Road Trip to pottery land-

Mr. Danny Vitali and i recently took a trip to a part of california i fell in love with- the western Seirra Foot hills, near Angels Camp/Jackson/San Andreas. we went to visit a friend Maya who i took RDNA with last year,  and her sculptures she has been working on. Maya has been staying with an awesome guy, Kern. these photos are of his pottery studio, homestead and property. it is beautiful country there, really cool community, beautiful sugar pine, ponderosa, manzenita and rolling golden foot hills out near gold country. his gardens are beautiful, and danny and i work traded and did a little other work for Kern while hanging with his awesome community he is building. some what of a renaissance man, he has built his mother a rad rammed earth house, a sauna, a beautiful pottery studio with solar hot water heat, a house, and a really rad seed bank that he shares with his community. land is available and cheap. Maya has been looking around and tempting me with prospects. 

My ideal scene would be to find some land up there, spend my time here at RDI on the coast for a few years while i visit and slowly improve the land over time turning it into a permie heaven. it was a area of California i had not even imagined to exist, and cant wait to go back and visit. Kern is wanting to install a food forest/orchard this coming winter so if i am not doing that here at RDI and have a moment, i will try and visit again. i was hooked. 

Pottery studio

Maya and her nail sculpture

Kerns Kiln

the gardens

More Gardens

A small shed/greenhouse space off Kerns awesome Terrace garden.

Kerns Pottery studio with solar hot water panels

the amazing farm next door to Kerns place

the house, moving the drum set to prepare for a party

in other news, just a few weeks ago Olivia and i took a walk up the wish creek watershed here on the land and took a magical mystery tour through the two head waters. it was fern covered, oaked and bay tree heaven. here are some photos of the upper water shed here at RDI, as well as the top ridge that we made it up to looking west towards the ocean. Enjoy!

up in the thick of it

beautiful bay

fern gully

looking down the west ridge towards the beach

looking down the valley, this is commonweal- the trees are hiding the property! way off on the horizon is just south of SF city.

The Quail

Mr. California Quail

Mr. Quail- how protective you are of your sisters and brothers, your brood, and your family. thanks for letting me know where the foxes are, where you are, and your all around beautiful song. hope you enjoy the scraps we feed the chickens, and the wonderful plants i sometimes forget to net in the garden. your very welcome!

Cosmic intentions

Osprey nest pin hole camera 120mm format

 Where do your intentions go and what are they? 

we swim through life, through calm waters, white water, small eddies, currents, and tides. we encounter every manner of what life has to offer in our big swim. we may not know this at the start, but our journey up the stream of life is long and our intentions can be great, timid, and treacherous. 

over the last year intentions and what we bring to the forefront of our thought and life has been a big question for me through and after the 9 month regenerative design course. 

what i leave for this post is short and simple:

                           What lights you up in life?

                                 What do you want to leave behind?

                                         who do you want to be remembered as/for?

these two images were taken and dug up from the archives- overlooked for lack of luster, dug out of the stacks because of their lure over my eyes now; but hardly looked through directly after the roll was shot. overlooked because of the stream of images they were gathered with, proved stronger. these two were not intentional in the moment... or maybe on the sub-conscience level they were. but they are beautiful none the less. they were happy intentions made without thought. maybe i knew they were beautiful, but they were not my focus for the roll that i was shooting. just a testament to how intentions can be great in the moment without realizations, positive through and through. 

let your intentions forever be positive, and the path you may want in life that you want to walk may present its self easier then you think. 

let go, and remember my favorite saying- 

                       No attachments.

looking to the cosmos.

Apple Pressing

Apple Pressing Party

 Its October here in Bolinas Ca, and we have had the last 5 days of awesome, hot, sunny and beautiful October summer- and its no different this beautiful morning. that means that the apples are ready, plump and beginning to fall off the trees. and we have a lot of them! Jonas went around yesterday and harvested 20 or so milk crates full of apples, almost 5 varieties. we pulled the press out, washed it, clamped it and re-enforced its old and rickety body, and started grinding away!

Cider being stored

 From around 6 crates, we harvested about 6 gallons. not bad. each crate i believe is a  less then a bushel. so our apples are not as juicy as they could. a bushel usually yields around 3 gallons.  we very well could be around a 1.5 give or take per milk crate.

 Olivia and Kian grinding away

 we still have the whole west side of the property to harvest apples from, as well as many more up in the east orchard! hopefully we make some awesome hard cider, apple cider vinegar, apple sauce, apple butter, dehydrated apples... we will be doing a lot  with all these apples! maybe its time to call the Marin Glean Team and come take some away. time will tell. better get grinding on some apples before it gets too hot!

Johnny and Apollo help Jonas drink and press the juice!

the orchard back in Putnam county NY.

  It takes me back east to upstate New York in Putnam county to some family land we used to have an annual apple pressing party. all the friends, family, and neighbors would come out, bring home made soup and bread, and press all day drinking cider, playing music, and eating good food. here are some past photos of those times past. Enjoy.

press and grind!

filling the grinder

Grand Apple Master Tony and grand daughter

making hot spiced cider to drink while working

the crowds thicken

A walk to the roaring tempist, and giving thanks

RCA beach looking to Palomarin headlands

all together now!

Danny and Apollo meet the ocean with gusto

 The great pacific

The Ocean was roaring yesterday on a walk to the beach. everyone came along from the farm- including Johnny and Apollo, two brothers who i take every Tuesday afternoon for some nature connection and play time with all their uncles and aunties. we walked to RCA beach, where the waves were crashing into a great white sea foam along its driftwood covered shoreline.

there was bullwhip kelp, as seen above, with Andrew practicing his Indiana Jones moves. Danny had fun too.

Jelly admiration

 A Jelly washed ashore, and all took part in letting the coming tide take it back to its home in the sea.

helping the Jelly back to the sea.

Shore Shrine

 and of course, if i have anything to do with it, we went ahead with a shore shrine, made from all minds together with no plan. just let it come together and be! the tide line from the last few days was right up to the cliffs so it most likely is no longer standing as of last night. I remember long afternoons in the fall, both as a young blood and not long ago, on the south fork of Long Island on the beach scouring for shells, building sand castles, and making up adventures along the high seas about the far off sailors of its waters. Thanks Pacific for letting us all, and especially Johnny and Apollo, have that afternoon again.

Shore Shrine

Admiration for our Shore Shrine

from another angle

Lounging in the fields on the way to the beach.

The Universe is not Personal::No Attachments

field of gold- wheat at 30 seconds, pin hole camera 120mm

The universe is not personal-

Or so we hope.  This has been a big theme in life over the last few months. what does the universe have in store for us that we cannot infinitely dream? how does it move around us and set us on these paths we could not yet predict?

for some of us humans these paths fall into our laps- they are chosen, fabricated, morphed, molded, kneaded, and sometimes simply form by happenstance. but the universe is not personal. it moves and sways, for eons to come, as well as eons past. it moves around our little blue planet with almost no care to what or who we are, silently, yet chaotically violent in its nature. it is peaceful too. 

but why is this important? because for all our short stints on this tiny blue dot in the vast order of the universal realm we have one very important thing to remember- the universe is also very unforgiving. galaxies collide in a whirlwind of gas, suns, and solar systems without a single star being destroyed. whole stars them selves are dying and being birthed in "star nurseries" and far off galaxies. at  any given point our whole existence can be swept under the galactic rug with one gravitational swoop of an asteroid, or a simple solar storm that could fry the very ozone or life from our planet. 

so wait... again why is this important? because. it is. it is because we only have one small life to live and one very very important piece of galactic treasure- earth. and the minute we stop being the objectifying observer that separates them selves from the very intrinsic bond we have with nature and the universe, then in that very moment, can we see how precious and important our very contained and fragile little home is.

So no Attachments. let go, fully embrace your existence, and recognize that you only get one chance to live, and leave life and its home (planet, ecology, etc) better then you found it. because in the end what matters is what you leave behind for others to enjoy, have a chance to live as well, and as free as all of us.  let go and let in the universe and see our selves as all the future past generations. then maybe we can live in harmony with the very ecology of the universe.

september happenings and design course

Just a little preview of what has been moving on the farm and in west Marin over the last few weeks. we had a 64 student Permaculture Design Course come through for a two week intensive. got to travel to the heirloom seed expo in Santa Rosa. it was also the start of the 9 month RDNA program that is kicked off with the two week intensive so it was great having all my favorite second year cultural mentors around. they were a big help with the on site needs through the intensive! thank you! enjoy the photos, more detail to come on specific events. also is a home made wild crafted bench that i put together. good stuff

many hands make light work in our water lab to see how water moves on the land

Zac and Brock Dolman hanging with some nasturtium flowers

fires to be tended

the barn workers circa 1976??

wild crafted/recycled love seat, along a brush berm for the villa area

hanging in petaluma at Tara Firma farms

paella party

whale bones and hyde

passion show night

heirloom seed expo wool processing demo

heirloom seed expo 2012

heirloom seed expo 2012

heirloom seed expo 2012

heirloom seed expo 2012

heirloom seed expo 2012

heirloom seed expo 2012

heirloom seed expo 2012

heirloom seed expo 2012

heirloom seed expo 2012

heirloom seed expo 2012