Five Good Years
May. 29th, 2008 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonI've not been on LJ much for a while, a combination of something scheduled just about every single night for a couple of weeks, an extremely busy several weeks at work (earnin' my salary, yup), and most every remaining spare moment going into a bunch of house and land projects in preparation for Feri Camp and other summertime happenings...
...but this past Monday night, after getting back from Solstice Revels rehearsal (speaking of which, I really adore Bobby McFerrin's version of the 23rd Psalm, lyrics pasted below), the adults in Casa Chaos got together and celebrated a special milestone -- 5 years in this place, on our land. Five years ago, on Memorial Day, a small flock of us crazy folk migrated up Nawth, supported by exactly the kind of damn good friends that do help you move (and even help you pack up 10 years in one house of much assorted stuff, load it into two big broken-down U-Hauls, help drive said U-Hauls for 14+ hours, then unpack it all at the other end).
In that time, more than anything else, we've built relationships -- good, strong, healthy, abiding relationships, the kind that hopefully last for life, if not longer. There have been a few missteps, and some disappointments, sure, but at the heart of it, I feel so incredibly blessed for every person who I am close to in my life, brilliant shining souls every one...and for coming home each day to a house surrounded by deep delicious beauty, full of more love and life and laughter and good creative mayhem than I ever thought possible.
Besides the relationships, I thought back, and we've built these things, too, for house and land:
renovated the horse barn into event and dorm space, adding composting toilets, wood plank floors, a wood stove, 20 bunks, ceiling lights, phone and all kinds of other comfy stuff
replaced the oil boiler for the main house with a wood-fired boiler and 955-gallon heat storage tank, taking us almost completely off fossil fuels for the house
found a tractor, backhoe, front-loader, log-splitter, PTO-powered snowblower, built a tractor barn to put it all in, and (re)learned how to use it all
put a hot tub in the greenhouse
put a standing-seam metal roof on the house, hopefully lasting for, well, longer than we do
ripped out several walls in the house, creating one big kitchen/dining-room space
ripped out most of the carpeting in the house, replacing it with oak flooring on the main floor and the stairs
put an addition on the front of the house, for office and guest space
replaced the carpeting in the master bath with radiant tile, and replaced all of the linoleum in the entry, kitchen and hall bath with tile
rebuilt the hall bath with tile and wood and copper and a big green glass sink
brought in 30 tons of boulders and rip-rap and created erosion barriers for the streams
...and a few hundred other projects, large and small
So it's been a busy five years, and I can't wait for more to come. Here's to recognizing and celebrating milestones!
What milestones, large and small, are you celebrating in your own life?
-------
23rd Psalm
adapted by Bobby McFerrin
lyrics:
The Lord is my shepherd, I have all I need.
She makes me lie down in green meadows, beside the still waters she will lead.
She restores my soul, she rights my wrongs,
She leads me in a path of good things and fills my heart with songs.
Even though I walk through a dark and weary land,
there is no other that can shake me.
She has said she won't forsake me. I am in her hand.
She sets a table before me in the presence of my foes.
She anoints my head with oil and my cup overflows.
Surely, surely, goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in her house forever, forever and ever.
Glory be to our Mother and Daughter and to the Holy of Holies.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
...but this past Monday night, after getting back from Solstice Revels rehearsal (speaking of which, I really adore Bobby McFerrin's version of the 23rd Psalm, lyrics pasted below), the adults in Casa Chaos got together and celebrated a special milestone -- 5 years in this place, on our land. Five years ago, on Memorial Day, a small flock of us crazy folk migrated up Nawth, supported by exactly the kind of damn good friends that do help you move (and even help you pack up 10 years in one house of much assorted stuff, load it into two big broken-down U-Hauls, help drive said U-Hauls for 14+ hours, then unpack it all at the other end).
In that time, more than anything else, we've built relationships -- good, strong, healthy, abiding relationships, the kind that hopefully last for life, if not longer. There have been a few missteps, and some disappointments, sure, but at the heart of it, I feel so incredibly blessed for every person who I am close to in my life, brilliant shining souls every one...and for coming home each day to a house surrounded by deep delicious beauty, full of more love and life and laughter and good creative mayhem than I ever thought possible.
Besides the relationships, I thought back, and we've built these things, too, for house and land:
renovated the horse barn into event and dorm space, adding composting toilets, wood plank floors, a wood stove, 20 bunks, ceiling lights, phone and all kinds of other comfy stuff
replaced the oil boiler for the main house with a wood-fired boiler and 955-gallon heat storage tank, taking us almost completely off fossil fuels for the house
found a tractor, backhoe, front-loader, log-splitter, PTO-powered snowblower, built a tractor barn to put it all in, and (re)learned how to use it all
put a hot tub in the greenhouse
put a standing-seam metal roof on the house, hopefully lasting for, well, longer than we do
ripped out several walls in the house, creating one big kitchen/dining-room space
ripped out most of the carpeting in the house, replacing it with oak flooring on the main floor and the stairs
put an addition on the front of the house, for office and guest space
replaced the carpeting in the master bath with radiant tile, and replaced all of the linoleum in the entry, kitchen and hall bath with tile
rebuilt the hall bath with tile and wood and copper and a big green glass sink
brought in 30 tons of boulders and rip-rap and created erosion barriers for the streams
...and a few hundred other projects, large and small
So it's been a busy five years, and I can't wait for more to come. Here's to recognizing and celebrating milestones!
What milestones, large and small, are you celebrating in your own life?
-------
23rd Psalm
adapted by Bobby McFerrin
lyrics:
The Lord is my shepherd, I have all I need.
She makes me lie down in green meadows, beside the still waters she will lead.
She restores my soul, she rights my wrongs,
She leads me in a path of good things and fills my heart with songs.
Even though I walk through a dark and weary land,
there is no other that can shake me.
She has said she won't forsake me. I am in her hand.
She sets a table before me in the presence of my foes.
She anoints my head with oil and my cup overflows.
Surely, surely, goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in her house forever, forever and ever.
Glory be to our Mother and Daughter and to the Holy of Holies.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-29 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-29 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-29 11:41 pm (UTC)1. *BUMMERS*
and
2. Are you *SURE*
3. If so, I need to tell Claudia ASAP, so she can move folks up on the wait list for camp while they still have time to get tickets and such...
no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 07:46 am (UTC)Can't get that much time off the Job...and money is tight. :(
no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 11:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-29 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-29 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 12:37 am (UTC)As to what delights me lately:
1. Celebrating my seventh wedding anniversary with Tantric_Chef last St. Patrick's Day.
2. Completing a short story
3. Getting ready to move into my home office in nine days
4. The summer
5. Gaian Mind
6. Moving to California in 3 years
no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 12:56 am (UTC)Swan
no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 01:24 am (UTC)I should d/l that song, see if I like it, too.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 01:28 am (UTC)Just celebrated my 9th wedding anniversary with Susie Q, we'll have been together 19 years this July. I still can't believe how lucky I am!
Received my Master Technician rating from Harley-Davidson today.
And it was just about 20 years ago right now that we first met in the steaming bowels of central PA.
Wetsu!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 12:31 pm (UTC)It is an amazing place and amazing beautiful souls you gathered around you, I am lucky to have experienced it, and to be coming again!
A few milestones here:
* Ben finished the Army! ( Taking a big full breath of relief here).
* Tamar is finishing High-school, and going in the army in a couple of month. (Not so bad for girls).
* I am spending 2 to 3 nights a week in my own place in Haifa feeling as happy as I could be. Learned to do lot's of things - like changing electric sockets, drilling, and what is it like to live in a city.
* one talk with A. about getting a divorce. He is in the denial stage, so another one must happen soon.
* My first magic class is happening next weekend in "Walk about Love" festival in Dessert Ashram in Israel.
* "Truemanity" has launched and first creation cell has started working. ( a different post on that).
* I am healing and out of my horrible misery - I open my heart!
See you real soon - got the ticket already!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 01:07 pm (UTC)My milestones lately:
no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 10:44 pm (UTC)Its been a joy getting to know you and the other shining souls, and its been an honor to be able to help you with a few of those projects.
Here's to many more years of joyous creative mayhem!
Blessed Be!
don
no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 02:25 am (UTC)