Floating and Anchoring

My family and I are currently caretaking a house in Portland.  We have been here for over three months and have no certain departure date set.  I kind of feel like I'm dipping my toes in the waters of city life, the rest of my body resisting the heavy current, but week by week I'm getting deeper.  The kids are participating in the local Boys and Girls Club, a slightly frightening thing for me.  They are befriending "regular" kids, experiencing summer camps, organized sports, and herd behaviors.  I think it is a good thing for them, but see certain behaviors popping up.  They are super well-behaved out of the house, but once home, attitudes are shifting and I'm seeing more restlessness in them.  Whitman is the one who sometimes states the uniqueness of his life, until now, is a mark against him.  It just takes a moment of group reflection on how lucky he is to of had the experiences of growing up in a anarchist collective house, toured with a gypsy punk band, lived in a tipi community, and most of all have had two parents that love him and care what he does to and puts in his body.  It has been exciting to see the kids weave their way through and process this new world of mainstream social norms, gender roles and Portland culture. Home-schooled families are typically more affluent and exist within a homogenous culture.  We live in a lower income neighborhood, with many different ethnicities and cultures.  Our house has become the flocking ground of the neighborhood kids.  They are curious about our bus, why the kids don't go to school and wide eyed about the amount of instruments hanging on our walls.  This is a new experience and I'm working on listening to the faint wisdoms floating about.
Displacement has been a repeated topic of conversation for our family over the last three years.  We have moved often, experiencing many bio-regions and meeting many people.  Every home that we have created from the ground up has added a depth to my life. I have learned many different ways to live.  I feel confident that we can exist and thrive in most situations, however, I have a desire to find a home, in the mountains where I can let go and not worry about being displaced.  Land ownership, private property, privilege... all these power dynamics leave most human relationships in a pile of knots. It is still unclear to me how I can move forward.  I'm in a bit of purgatory.

Waking to a dream
of mountain home
Words overgrown
and only know by me

Remember this moment
Remember to breathe
Remember this moment
Remember me. 


It has been two weeks since I wrote the above...
I went to a plant meditation last night, working with Madrone, and it became clear to me that moving forward always means having strong roots, shedding the ideas of how you think you should live and letting yourself be vulnerable.  I am feeling less swept away and a little more anchored in myself.

Our new dog Shanty!!!!

more glimpses

 

Since October...

We moved out to our friends land, near Selma, OR, and have this to look at everyday.

The last morning we had in our tipi before moving into our bus.

making a willow bender sweat lodge

Illinois River about 10 miles from our home.

Bus trip to Olympia and Portland for Yule.

Washington Park Archery Range in Portland with bowyer friends!

taking "old knobby" out for a bit

Fair learned how to make leaf roses

Cascadian Yule celebration in Olypmia at Millersylvania State Park

Whitman found a double bolete!

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Whitman took over my machine for patch-making.

Meet a lot of fellow artists and crafters at the Cave Junction Holiday Artisians Faire

Bow of the Month!

Our daughter, Fair, won bow of the month in Primitive Archer Magazine!!!  Michael guided her in making the bow earlier this year while visiting family in Missouri.  We are really proud of her and hope she continues working on her second bow, from an osage orange stave gifted to her when we were at OJAM.

Glimpses

Our favorite twins of the Upper Rogue Farm.

Michael mentoring friends on making bows

Fair and her poetry

Michael found the ever elusive bagpiper to make music with

Moonrise with my fancy new camera

The music of Sangre de Muerdago by candlelight.

Fair Ophelia Designs at Leaf and Dragon

Tipi pitching in Chiloquin

The first time I have cheated and used a ladder for lacing pins...

Success!

Swifts in Portland

Bow drill firemaking with homeschoolers

The trick to bow drills is to be barefoot.

The best play structures are of nature.

St. John's Wort

The first thing to stand out to me about St. John’s Wort was its name, a bit odd, but I found out “wort” is simply Old English for “plant”.  There are many folklores surrounding this herb.  The most common one, of the Western world, is of how the blood-red oil from its bruised petals is in honor of John the Baptist.  One of my favorites is from Brittany where the picking of the herb is symbolic of the dismembering of the God, the Summer Lord. When one gives the plant as medicine to the sick, you are re-membering the God:  putting his scattered pieces back together.  Many feel the scent alone repels evil spirits, causing them to fly away.  It is also a charm to be hung above one’s door to protect from demons and unwanted mischief makers, especially on Midsummer’s Day.  It is usually ready to be picked from Summer Solstice through August, depending on elevation.  This plant, at one time, could be found very easily, but due to its classification as a “noxious weed”, it is becoming harder to find.  In our area it is referred to as “Klamath Weed,” with very little respect showed for its powerful healing abilities.  I find it in hidden pockets throughout the mountains here, often close to creeks at the animal trail cross paths or in the middle of overgrown roads.  I reserve patches found along the roadside for dyeing, while off-road growth for medicine.   

My first experience with this plant was from a fellow mother at Tipi Village, who used it regularly to heal herself and others.  She brought our family a jar of oil she made and there began our relationship with this amazing plant.  We use it for cuts, scrapes and burns from the fire, watching its quick work.  I was introduced to many healing plants, while at Tipi Village, and have noticed a unique connection to St. John’s Wort.  I began making the crimson St. John’s Wort Oil myself, by solar infusion with olive oil, and eventually turning it into salve, with the addition of beeswax.  In our family’s travels over the last year, I have shared this healing salve and oil with people all over the country… giving it away more than selling it!  Giving medicine, as a gift, feels best to me.

The dye from St. John’s Wort will give many colors depending on whether one is or is not using alum, as a mordant, and the re-use of the same dye bath.   I have tried dyeing with this plant a few times and only once successfully extracted a brilliant maroon.  I believe I will figure it out next year.  Natural dyeing is one experiment after another and since I am self- taught it takes a bit longer to produce consistent results.

Calendula Oil and St. John's Wort Oil 3 weeks in the sun.

Just picked buds and blossoms.

Here are a few books I regularly use as reference when researching plants:

Dewey, Laurel.  The Humorous Herbalist.  1996.

Grieve, Mrs. M.  A Modern Herbal. Vol. I and II,  1931.

Hopman,  Ellen Evert.  A Druid’s Herbal.  1995.

Moore, Michael.  Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West.  1993.

Pond, Barbara,  A Sampler of Wayside Herbs.  1974.

I also have started listening to herbalist Susan Weed’s podcast, free through iTunes.  She has a long history of practicing plant medicine and I have learned a lot from the few podcast I have listened to so far.

I hope to write about the other plants I have worked with, including:  elder, nettle, yarrow, and usnea.

8.18.2014

It has been quite some time since my last post and, as always, life is keeping my family busy.  We currently are ranch-sitting for a friend, which puts us in a bit of an uncomfortable living situation…in house and not in our tipi. With a fire ban and county regulations, tipi living is not an option at this current location. Our bodies have gotten soft and the spring in my step is fading.  It is hard living somewhere where everything is at an arm’s reach and my body is not being fully used.  I look forward to the days when we return to the woods, chopping firewood and cooking over our hearth and bending ourselves in the dance with nature. I feel a disconnect, but know that my commitment is almost fulfilled and we will be out of here come Fall.

There are newly formed relationships and untended old ones swirling around me.  Our family said farewell to living in Tipi Village and in the wake there is a pile of knots sitting, waiting to be picked through… We meet a family, new to Ashland, who recently opened a store The Leaf and Dragon.  They sell all things eco, faerie, pirate, fantasy, Viking and folklore related and I am consigning my creations with them.

I dug out all of my slips, lace and linens,  collected over the last few years, dyeing  them and turning them into fancy clothing.  Bodices, wrap skirts, slip dresses, waistcoats, pixie caps and lots of other accessories.  I am hoping to run through all of my supplies because refilling them is always an adventure.  Thrift stores and antique malls call to me throughout our travels…

Here are the things I have been making and a glimpse into our summer so far.

  

 

More to come!!