And a red clay halo for my head

Life at Salamander Springs has been so wonderful – I can’t stop smiling as I think of it. We’ve been staying with the aforementioned residents – Debbie, Eyal and Daniel. On top of that we arrived at the same time as Dot and Daphna, two of Eyals friends from Israel. When we left for Thanksgiving to join Cait’s family in Chattanooga, we came home on Sunday to another WWOOFer, Hank. And then yesterday, two more WWOOFers arrived – Shannon and Anders, who spent six months last year traveling in South America!!

Last night we cooked up a turkey stew (thanks so graciously to Auntie Liz who donated her amazing, delicious turkey carcass to us) with a mirepoix and all of the veggies we could gather – sweet potatoes, idahos, butternut squash, cabbage and S&A made a scrumptious cornbread over the fire… all of us sitting around the campfire was such a beautiful sight to behold, it still makes me all warm and fuzzy inside (kind of like when two of the dogs, lilah and bingo were snuggling together, squeal!!).

I can’t stress how peaceful and wonderful this little liberal island in the midst of Georgia’s sea of red is - especially as you traipse along the trails in the forest to the spring where you dip a golden ladle into the fresh water and sip to your heart’s content. The conversation around the campfire drifts from one topic to the next, but just about always questions why the world is the way it is, how it got there, and how in the world we can make sense of America and all of her flaws. And let us not forget daily adjectives, where we throw out ten dollar words (think assiduous, magnanimous, acrimonious) and define them, either from deep in our memory or with help from the “shitty dictionary” that’s kept in the kitchen.

The love of literacy abounds here, with references to great books peppering every conversation. If you haven’t read something, Debbie always replies with, “Oh, it’s in the library, you should check it out!” And when she says library, she means the trailer not too far from the communal kitchen which houses many of the volunteers as well as books everywhere the eye can see!

It’s an excellent example of alternative living and I’m so grateful for the time that Caitlin and I have been able to spend here, filled with the laughter and joy that comes with being surrounded by genuinely happy, compassionate, magnanimous individuals.

Like usual, it’s ever onward and tomorrow we are heading out to Savannah, where we will be camping a little south of the city in Fort McAllister state park! Then we’ll have a couple of days on Cumberland Island in the National Park (thank you National Parks Pass!) before heading down to Florida for a two and a half week farming and sight-seeing pre-holiday spree.

“Oh the girls all dance with the boys from the city, and they don’t care to dance with me… it aint my fault that the fields are muddy, and the red clay stains my feet! And it’s under my nails, and it’s under my collar, and it shows on Sunday clothes… I do my best with the soap and the water, but the damned old dirt won’t go…..” Gillian Welch, sure to make an appearance around the campfire this evening!

Tell me, what else should I have done?

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"- Mary Oliver

After visiting Atlanta for almost a week, we drove southeast to the small town of Milledgeville, GA (home of Flannery O’Connor!) and have been staying on a beautiful homestead with a wonderful host. Debbie and her one-time WWOOFer/now neighbor Eyal have made us so welcome on their beautiful slice of heaven, we are yet again finding it difficult to leave. Salamander Springs is the essence of simple living. There is no running water in the traditional sense, but throughout the property are three different springs from which to collect drinking water and solar showers for washing. Rainwater is collected for dishes and there’s a solar-pump to bring it to the outdoor communal kitchen. You pee anywhere (and poo!) but if you want there is a latrine to use for the latter. There’s a huge garden that provides delicious fresh food, and Debbie ensures that the kitchen is always stocked as her number one worry and concern is providing food for all of the people who pass through to lend a hand.

The warmth and care that exuberates from both Debbie, Eyal and Daniel (another WWOOFer who has a more permanent place at the farm) and the passion that they have for every tree, plant, bug, creature on their land (except the goddamn fireants!) is absolutely contagious. Cooking over the fire every night and sharing meals with the friends gathered is a beautiful experience in itself.

And it calls into question so much of how I live my life, how I will choose to live my life after this trip is through. Debbie follows a lot of permaculture practices, but as with all methods, it’s necessary to cull what you believe are the best practices and makes most sense for you. One thing I appreciate so much about farming and gardening is that, well, it just makes sense. There’s a lot to learn, of course – which plants can survive Georgia heat, what plants will put nutrients back into the ground, what plants are perennials. But once you begin to learn a little, the floodgates open and you can file it all away because it makes sense and can be managed.

While staying at places like Salamander Springs, you can begin to call into question things you think are necessary. Debbie has a couple of solar panels and some batteries that allow us to have an extension cord in the kitchen for charging things, having a light, and playing a CD boombox. But other than that, there’s no refrigerator, no dishwasher, no cuisanart food processor (something I've desired for a long while!). All trash has to be hauled off the farm so it makes sense not to create any. We’re in the middle of the forest, so using dead trees for firewood can keep you warm all winter and provide a stovetop to cook meals.

Sitting around one night, Debbie was waxing poetic about how at a permaculture workshop people were lamenting their return to the “real world” and the host flat out told them that this is the “real world.” We’re really growing real food, really creating livable shelters, creating livable communities. What’s so real about the consumer-driven, unsustainable waste land that is created in every suburb, in every American town?

And so maybe that’s how we should think of this trip. Not as putting off the “real world,” but creating and living in a real world. There are people across America that are opting to live in this alternate world that is more real than anything you encounter in the mainstream media. And honestly, people will look at you and ask why you’re being so extreme… but there’s nothing extreme about it! If you have to pee, why would you not go behind a tree and pee?If you have to cook, why would you not build a fire and cook? It is not extreme, it's simple.

So again, as Mary Oliver asks, What will you do with your one wild and precious life?

Rebel girl, you are the queen of my world...

Dangerous Life

I quit med school when I found out the stiff they gave me
had Book Nine of Paradise Lost and the lyrics
to "Louie, Louie" tattooed on the inside of her thigh.

That morning as the wind was mowing
little ladies on the street below, I touched a Bunsen burner
to the Girlscout sash whose badges were the measure of my worth:

Careers ...
Cookery, Seamstress ...
and Baby Maker ... all gone up in smoke.

But I kept the merit badge marked Dangerous Life,
for which, if you remember, the girls were taken to the woods
and taught the mechanics of fire,

around which they had us dance with pointed sticks
lashed into crucifixes that we'd wrapped with yarn and wore
on lanyards round our necks, calling them "The Eyes of God."

Now my mother calls the payphone outside my walk-up, raving
about what people think of a woman: thirty, unsettled,
living on foodstamps, coin-op laundromats, & public clinics.

Some nights I take my lanyards from their shoebox, practice baying
those old campsongs to the moon. And remember how they told us
that a smart girl could find her way out of anywhere, alive.

- Lucia Maria Perillo

From Awhimaway and it's wonders, to Nashville, to Chattanooga, to Atlanta... the days keep flying by. Right now I'm reveling in my day spent at the Botanical Gardens (thank you Simmer for the recommendation!) and still processing our day spent at the Dr. Martin Luther King National Park. We've seen Iron and Wine and are about to go listen to Horse Feathers and I am absolutely filled with satisfaction and excitement.

It's funny, how I find myself laying in Caitlin's grandmother's bed (she's had it since she was 16!) and wishing nothing more than to spend all my days lying there, out of nerves or exhaustion or simply overwhelmed by the task we've undertaken. Then only four days later, to be couchsurfing in Atlanta and taking in all of the sites and to be all wound up by the energy created from traveling and learning.

We're kind of lagging in terms of our next bout of planning, but it keeps coming together and it's becoming easier to let go of some of that ridiculous worry I carry around with me!

Here's to the Dangerous Life!

and if there's any love in me, don't let it grow

As we were helping Krista plant garlic this morning, we were agreeing how quintessentially fall planting garlic is. There's something about marking the seasons by the tasks in a garden. As the days get more crisp you find yourself composting tomato plants while harvesting as many green ones as you can find, putting in cover crops and covering your fall greens at night. It's a soothing rhythm... if something doesn't work, there's always next year.

I'm always amazed by how fast time flies when we come to a place that we just love. We've been mostly helping Krista (and Simmer, though she's been away and we've only just met her!) with their fall garden tasks and winter preparations. It's very relaxing here, compounded by the fact that I haven't been feeling well so have been taking it pretty easy and also cooking a lot of warm, comforting foods.

Making a living off of the land is difficult - I mentioned the troubles Prodigal Farms had with regulatory agencies in North Carolina. Here at Little Short Mountain, they've been aggressively campaigning to get a referendum passed to allow distilleries in their county. Luckily, on Tuesday, all of their hard work paid off! It was wonderful to be here after such a joyous victory. However, it's important to remember that the underdogs don't always win and that we still need to find ways to make starting businesses easier for those trying to undertake them.

I do have to say, deciding to postpone graduate school for a year has taken such a weight off of my shoulders. Having a precise end date to this trip was making it difficult to enjoy where I was, without worrying about getting to the next place to see it all as fast as possible before the year was over! I truly feel that letting this journey just take its course without imposing arbitrary deadlines on it will work out for the better in the end... in fact, it already is.


look at that wood-splitting action!!

i keep a close watch on this heart of mine

The ladies, ready and waiting to be walked up to the milking parlour in the morning.

Our time at Prodigal Farms seems so long ago, but really only ended just last Wednesday! Each day was filled with the brim with things to do, things to learn. Caitlin and I, after a few missteps, became an excellent milking team and loved every minute that we were able to spend with the goats.

Our hosts, Kat and Dave, have only been a certified dairy for 6 weeks, and really have only been goat farmers for less than two years. Kat was a high powered attorney in New York for fifteen years and Dave a high-end contractor with his own business - they took all of that drive and dedication that made them so successful in their first careers, and are unloading full-steam into the development of Prodigal Farms. It is a sight to behold!

Not only have they fought Homeland Security, but have also fought tooth and nail against the North Carolina bureaucracy that has made each step in their attempt to create and open the dairy a difficult and tiresome process. It shouldn't be as hard as it was for them to open and run a farm, especially if you're going above and beyond standard requirements in your desire to be excellent stewards of the land.

So after numerous delicious meals, learning how to: milk, pasteurize, make cheese, make cheesecakes (to die for, seriously, if you're in the triangle area on a Saturday morning, go to the Midtown Farmers Market in Raleigh and by yourself one of these cheesecakes... mmmmmmmm), clean and sanitize a dairy kitchen, set up and maintain electric fencing, make fried green tomatoes (yum x 20) and ultimately, develop relationships with your goats.... we left Prodigal Farms on a Wednesday afternoon to head to Asheville, NC and couchsurf for a few days to both see the area that we had heard so much about, and to study for the GREs, which, at that time I thought I was going to take.

Long story short: I saw Asheville, I fell in love with Asheville and Ashevillians, and I'm pretty sure my heart is scattered in little tiny pieces all over that magical town.


Tim, Linda, Me and Cait!

Between our wonderful, kind, generous and beautiful host Linda and her boyfriend Tim; Dustin - the guy we met at a coffee shop who then took us to a friends house and then up on a hike to what we thought was a mountain vista (but was really a cell phone peak!); Rich and Greg, the brothers that we helped plant 20,000 trees in two days on their family land (and who will one day have their own Biltmore on that land!); and Alex, a queer musician we met while planting trees who shared a meal with us and her partner and made us feel completely at home and welcome in this wonderful city..... between all of these people, and the countless others that even just smiled at us as we shook our booties at the drum circle in the center of town on Friday night.... these glorious people made us feel so warm and gooey inside I think our innards turned to fondue.

Asheville just mesmerized us... and have I mentioned the food? Or the art absolutely everywhere? Or the number of successful local businesses that seem to just be thriving? And how about those freaking mountains!!! Everything about it, I just loved! Plus, Caitlin and I could hold hands! In the South! and it was great.

It was hard leaving... but onward we must go. We are currently at Little Short Mountain Farm in Liberty, TN. Attending potlucks and weeding brambles and reveling at being in a queer community again! I've just made French Onion Soup and I have to say that Kaitlin's at San Ysidro Farms was better... I'll have to get a hold of her to pass her recipe on so I can share her warmth with others!


Missing everyone who's come before and looking forward to all that's ahead!!