'Aha Update: Like Spider (Stringing a copper web)

"As we enter the White Picket Gate, we must shift our allegiances from fear to curiosity, from attachment to letting go, from control to trust, and from entitlement to humility." 

- The Second Half of Life, Angeles Arrien

We have been on the Prairie Front for one week. In twenty-four hours the winds shift often; the weather patterns are more dramatic because a full sky and its reciprocal 'aina land below it is perceivable. Wide vistas, open space. From the vardo we kilo observe, and record, what we see and experience; that's part of the excitement of this move. Applying our practices we are kept childlike in our approaches to the challenges.

When we started the Front Porch 'Aha in July there was a dream wanting to be made real. The hope was to go back to Hawaii before another winter season began; we gave it our all for five months and shared the dream and the process with you. What a process. The possibility that we do go back is being tempered with reality. Maybe we need to allow more time? Maybe the goal needs to be adapted?

Instead of a warmer winter in the tropics, we are making use of our spider senses. Literally pulling strong lengths of copper passed to Pete from a very special friend, Loretta, who got the copper coil from her father, to create a web for warming up the South Whidbey Tilth kitchen.

Pete worked the high ground and I stood below him for several hours yesterday afternoon. In between the stringing of copper, documenting the project and imagining how to reuse the lengths of cloth and old cotton pique shower curtains I chopped and filled the big soup pot with broccoli, celery, carrots, mushrooms and mushroom broth and wild rice (thank you Margaret!); seasoned three chicken thighs with Italian seasoning, and added a hand's length sprig of fresh rosemary for dinner. As soup simmer outside, we played spider!

Moving INTO the kitchen was a major bit of progress after a week of cooking outside during the strong south wind and rain storms. We were able to ferret out the lingering smell that stopped us from believing we could occupy the kitchen: it was coming from the drains; accumulated buildup leaving an 'essential oil' smell that we worked clear by filling the sinks with water, baking soda and distilled white vinegar in many repeated 'flushes.'

Being inside the kitchen with spider senses activated, the years and experience of creating the original Safety Pin Cafe aka the Quonset were being triggered. In a good way. Since we built Vardo for Two, we have made many adjustments with the help of our animal senses and our imaginations.

April, 2008 Our first landing spot in Tahuya, WA ... first outdoor kitchen setup

A birthday in The Quonset one year in the woods of Langley
(the Quonset is the real-life inspiration for the medicine story The Safety Pin Cafe)

As I write from the vardo, I know that it's possible I will lose the internet connection here and make the best of the time that things do connect. Pete is down in the kitchen making adjustments to how we can proceed or amend our plan to insulate the ceiling and attend to the smells that might harm.

We run into neighbors and friends while we are out and about on shopping errands and they ask: "Are you all moved in? Saw you parked up the road. Gonna stay there? Let me know when you go to Hawaii ... want your truck." (some know we have moved onto the Prairie); others say, "I'm glad to see you. Thought you might have moved?" We say we have been trying, but haven't. They wish us well and say they're glad we're still here and are we open to invitations for tea?

The short video catches Pete stuffing the web with our many times used cotton pique shower curtains into a billow of a lowered ceiling. We aren't sure the cotton sails will stay, but, we love the feel of the spider web tent. We'll check with our Prairie Peeps about the tent... and keep you posted.

xoxo Mokihana and Pete