jay | Lost Valley

Work was stressful. Home was stressful. I was getting three hours of sleep per night... so when I had a chance to go visit

woodsbunny and help her with some of her move-in chores this week, I jumped. Besides, I'd promised her a couple of years ago that I'd eventually spend a weekend there... and I generally follow through on my promises. Cheap airfares dictated a Thursday - Saturday stay, so off I went at Thursday dawn.

patgreene was supportive (thanks, love!).

The airfare also required me to fly into Portland, two hours' drive north of Dexter, Oregon. Barbara was willing to drive up to meet me there... so we decided to have lunch and then drive old US 30 into the Columbia River Gorge... beautiful 80-foot massive basalt layers exposed in the river-carved plateaus. And some pretty waterfalls, too. Here's a photo of us, with the gorge as a backdrop...

Heading back south, we ran errands and then arrived at the intentional community where Barbara lives, called Lost Valley, in time for dinner. They specialize in permaculture, strive towards increased self-sufficiency, and all common meals are organic vegetarian. I need protein, myself, but I coped for a couple of days. Lots of rice... a circle with held-hands before meals or meetings, until someone proposes a song.

woodsbunny lives in a 400 sqft rustic cabin, similar to those of most of the residents... here's a view of it from behind:

Lunch and dinner are communal-but-optional. Showers and restrooms are in a separate building, not in the cabins. Barbara has water to her cabin, so she installed a small kitchen in one end. We both fell asleep early, around 10:30pm.

On Friday, we got up at 7:30, in time to join the communal clean-up (every Friday am, before weekend workshop guests arrive). I helped move chairs and tables, moved dishes and plates, and helped install sliders on cabinets. Then covered an 11:00am telecon back to NASA. After lunch I cut lumber for bookshelves, fixed cabinet drawers and installed a wall mirror. Then Barbara and I took a short hike around the place...in one area, residents are building round tent-like yurts instead of cabins, as shown to her left:

After finishing the installation of her bookshelves, we decided to go out for dinner and rented "Sweet Home Alabama" to watch afterwards. Then to bed for another 10 hours, leaving this morning at 9:45am to catch my 1:15pm flight back to SF.

It was a refreshing break... the countryside, Milky Way at night, the forest floor... momentary distance from the largest sources of stress in my life... all of those features were good. Even JL stopped trying to call me (although that may have been courtesy of the hurricane).