So, the biggest thing that happened over the past year, in my
immediate life since I was last actively writing this blog, is that the wife
and I are formally ‘retired’. That is, we’ve chosen voluntary unemployment, and
relying on our pensions and savings. A little family money from my prudent
parents has helped, and we’re doing OK. One might think that being ‘at leisure’
would have increased my output… but…
The
second-biggest thing is the birth of my first Grandchild! This won’t have much
bearing on blog content, but it is already changing my schedule. On to a new
phase of life.
See, I moved
this blog to the Patheos platform about 2 years ago. Something about that
blocked me up bad, and I posted nearly nothing there in a year, then moved back
to this platform… where I posted a few things, then nothing for nearly a year.
Admittedly, Facebook is competition for this format, but I find I like being
able to archive the micro-essays that have tended to vanish into the FB stream.
Throughout I have used the articles here in FB discussion, and traffic here has
never slowed to zero…
But why should you care about any of that…
Any
long-time readers left will know that I (we… Liafal and I) have been building
out our small (17 acre) farm as a temple and facility for our Pagan Church.
(Stone Creed Grove ADF – nearing its 30th year). Over the past year
that project has reached its basic completion. We’ve built all the big roofs we
mean to build, and now we’ll slowly improve off-grid power and water, etc, as
we can spend a little budget. Little budget is the fact, now; big,
capital-improvement budget is done spent.
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| A pretty good map of the Whole Place |
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| The Little House next door. |
The past
year has mainly been focused on renovating the small house next-door. When the
owner, L’s old friend, passed she left the house and tiny yard to us, along
with some debt and a big project. Here on the flat wetlands on the Lake Erie
shore, things are generically wet. Little cottages like this will simply sink
into the soil if not tended, and that’s what was happening. We tore up 60% of
the floors, poured concrete where needed, dug new drainage and put in pumps…
one of those jobs where one task requires two others. We finished just as
winter approached, and now have a snug small house, with numerous guest-beds
and a real bath and kitchen, for small gatherings and hospitality. I do think
that marks the final phase of our Tredara build-out, which we began as long as…
6 years ago with the new barn.
That said, we have plans for infrastructure,
artistic and ritual improvements. Older ritual sites on our back corner need to
be preserved and improved, including the relatively unknown Original Circle in
the woods. We also have plans to add as many as three new shrines. We’ll
install an earth Mother shrine immediately next to our barn’s common-room and
indoor hearth; watch this space for news on that artistic commission; also we’ll
install a Herm at the ‘Lower Crossroad’ in the middle of our bit of woods. With
those in place we can fulfill my notion of ‘ritual by procession’ – starting at
the social hearth with the Earth Mother, and making our way along the pathway,
past the Gatekeeper, to our Kindred shrines and finally to the Fire of the Gods
in the Nemeton. Everyone loves a parade!
My occult work has been
sluggish as well, in terms of anything creative. Breaking weather and a chance
to get out to the shrines more should help that. I have completed a couple of
publishing efforts that I’ll be touting here soon.
So, on we go to a more
colorful season, and more to report. For those who are former readers, thanks
for reading again. To new readers, welcome – I’ll try to have to interesting
stuff, and in the meantime there’s 8 years of nack-articles in the headings
over on the right.
Spring Blessings!
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