Recognize

“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.” 

― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Lists

Dave

Fall

Red

Onward!

 

“To burn always with this hard gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life.”

― Walter Pater, The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry 

Transformation

Where is it headed? We don't know but we're excited to find out

Enjoying the floor. Finally able to walk on it!

some close ups..

Painting on small boards here and there. It's refreshing.

Magic

“When magic through nerves and reason passes,
Imagination, force, and passion will thunder.
The portrait of the world is changed.”
― Dejan Stojanovic

A large amount of polyurethane for the kitchen floor

After sanding and applying a coat of semi-transparent white stain (deluded by 50% with paint thinner) we sanded selectively for about 6-7 rounds. With this technique we were able to bring out the beautiful grain, while keeping the white in select areas. The result thus far is a glowing and vibrant under footing! 

The Lovely Grain.

Morning shoe repair

The Lovely Pedro

Here comes the polyurethane!

The Infamous at his first debut as a sculptor.

The work. Beautiful setting! Thank you Holly for organizing!

Country mornings. Little bugs in the yard :)

Warmth

"Filled with rapture, his soul yearned for freedom, space, vastness. Over him the heavenly dome, full of quiet, shining stars, hung boundlessly. From the zenith to the horizon the still-dim Milky Way stretched its double strand. Night, fresh and quiet, almost unstirring, enveloped the earth. The white towers and golden domes of the church gleamed in the sapphire sky. The luxuriant autumn asleep till morning. The silence of the earth seemed to merge with the silence of the heavens and the mystery of the earth touched the mystery of the stars."
  -Dostoyevsky

This week is a potent mixture of work and play! Now that it's nearing Fall and the kitchen is moving along, it's time to develop the first recipes for our soon to open micro bakery. The leaves are turning, reminding me how beautiful Fall is here in southern Ohio. There is a fuzzy warmth about coming home to the homestead after a long, slow country drive. Each time I come home it has become tradition to turn off the engine, sit, listen, feel. Appreciate, give thanks, feel free. The homestead carries a rare and sweet familiarity. It attracts and contains delightfully interesting and loving people. There is laughter here. We listen and share here. We boldly speak here. Art flows here. Meals are shared here. Healing lives is here. After all of my roaming and restlessness, there is a new peace coming on. An enduring warmth. 

Doing my research for The Cliffside Cafe'!

I do enjoy the red light in the barn at night.

A trip to the scrap yard to search for supplies for my student's public art project!

Preparing to lay down the floors!

Oh the joy the motorcycle brings!

Space to Create, Breathe

“For years to come the debris of a convulsed world will beset our steps. It will require a purpose stronger than any man and worthy of all men to calm and inspirit us. A sane society whose riches are happy children, men and women, beautiful with peace and creative activity, is not going to be ordained for us. We must make it ourselves.” 

- Helen Keller, The Open Door 
 

 

First of many photo shoots in the barn!

The infamous Crackers

Willy Nilly

Lists for days

We love our She She!

Nature

Air

Greenery

It's been a long time..shouldn't have left you...

I want you to understand that your first duty is to humanity. I want others to look at us and see that we care not just about ourselves but about others.”

― Madam C.J. Walker

Aloha everyone!!!! Although sometimes quiet, Avid Mutiny is always pushing forward. The past few weeks have been a positively exhausting obstacle course. Better yet let me compare this instead to birth or a seed that the earth nurtures into a bloom.

As I update you this evening I am eating a glazed doughnut and listening to the sounds of crickets and cicadas. We have all been enjoying wine as well. And last but never least, music. So, it is in this pleasantly sedated state that I will share with you the happenings of late.

The new kitchen windows are in. The drywall is up. We are ready to paint. After that, we are going to lay down a plywood floor and seal it (Polar Blue stain). Then we build the kitchen counter tops! After that we install the sink then in move the stove and refrigerator . So, in short, progress!

Additionally, the scraps from our kitchen construction as well as other wood we salvaged from The Little Art Theater (freshly renovated independent small time movie house in Yellow Springs, OH ) to fuel a new avenue of creation. From the wreckage came reclaimed wood sculptures! A new favorite form of productivity round these parts! This weekend was the Clifton Music and Arts Festival so we opened the doors to our studio space in the barn, placed a few of our things at the festival and met very nice people. Even further, we have been asked to create a pelican in wood sculpture form (another good reason to play with the nail gun).

All good things of recent have reaffirmed my connection with community. I share this homestead with my two daughters, two friends and two dogs and a rat (beautiful little Lola). Through all of these channels come new experiences and opportunities. Life wants to pry us open so we can shine our light. For instance, someone's friend may drive up the way to say Aloha. They may be here for one of us but end up visiting all of us. We often gather and talk story at random. The dogs greet every visitor with vigor. Today we were given a truckfull of wood to build with, a handmade chair with a Blue Heron stitched on it, a kiln, books (on baking, gardening, wine and cider), and gourds. Not included in that list of things are intangible gains vital to being sustainable and happy: kindness, support, encouragement, and community!

As we prepare for Fall and the inevitable Winter it is most comforting to know we all have each other and live in a place that feeds the soul!

Blessings and Aloha!

Fuel for Fire

“the way to create art is to burn and destroy
ordinary concepts and to substitute them
with new truths that run down from the top of the head
and out of the heart”

  - Charles Bukowski

The inside, which I would prefer to paneling any day. We are keeping some of the old wood exposed for the dining area.

The last of the wall between what will be the bathroom and kitchen. New fresh walls coming soon with some interesting design qualities! More soon.

Goodbye wall

Dave sawing away the wall

The renovation is providing us an ample supply of wood for our evening flames

Invaluable Freedom

“Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in every thing. It was very present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.”

― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

It has been a very full couple of weeks! There have been developments of monumental proportions! 

Through conversations of sustainability and self reliance we have all come to the conclusion that it would be best to open a Cafe'/Bakery at the end of our driveway. So, with this in mind, we have decided to focus our attention on renovating the kitchen. This will be an intensive endeavor with a somewhat firm deadline as we would like to be up and running in a month and a half. Between tearing out our walls, handling electric and gas lines, replacing hardware for the water pump, brainstorming about recipes, ingredients, aesthetics, mobile micro cafe' design, and building from scratch our micro cafe- we have our work ahead of us. Having the freedom to make these changes and improvements in our lives is invaluable. Once again, I stand amazed. Ashay, Shalom, *Bless*, Gratitude

 

A short stroll from the homestead. This will never get old to me.

 

Looking out from the barn has become a new favorite

 

Another beauty from the Gorge

The gritty truth. Today we got to see whats behind the paneling

Goodbye old kitchen!

This beautiful moth appeared and stayed for a bit.

Layer of the past found during the kitchen renovation