September New Moon

I awoke to a bearded man knocking on the truck window just before dawn. “Are you okay?” he asked “We got stuck here.” and so he helped push us out and led me back to Hwy 95. Kalani and I got home and everyone was still sleeping so I collected some local produce, goat cheese, eggs, homemade bread, butter, a cast iron pan, and some bowls and headed up the hill to make a campfire tipi breakfast. It was so good, such a delightful experience to have a family mealtime in our new home.

We spent the day at a leisurely pace, honoring the September New Moon. Did some morning yoga, washed a few clothes in the washtub, gathered sticks, brought up a wheelbarrow with food jars, our orange metal shit bucket, and other various items. We have adopted a norm to not bring any plastic or trash up here to the primitive tipi life. Makes us think deeply about what we surround ourselves with.

This morning we realized our sleeping space gets really cold because it is downslope from the fire, so we moved our bed upslope and tada! Now wa are much more coze. We restaked our tipi today ith rope tied onto the loops so it can be pulled out tighter. I’m so excited to spend my second night in the tipi!!

Altars and An Unplanned Night

Our first night in the Tipi was totally amazing! A feeling of closeness with the earth, freedom from modern ties of all sorts, a clarity and joy I can’t compare. Our night was a little bit chilly even though we had a fire going in our firepit. Only a slight nippy feeling, but curling up with my two honies made it cozy and nice. We certainly have a lot of preparing to do before the winter comes our way and temperatures dip below zero. We’re sleeping on the bare ground, the earth in close contact to our bodies. It’s a great way to transition into our new life here.

Today we started carrying more of our meaningful belongings up here. It’s really great to consider what we truly need and only surround ourselves with those necessities of hapy, cozy, heartful, and soulful life. Our altar space is expanding indoors and our perfect altar rock outside. I also collected lots of sticks from around the tipi and Carlos sawed up larger pieces of wood so we started a nice pile for our fires.

I decided to go to an Ozark Sister Circle group to share some sisterly love because I had it in my head for days that I needed that refuge. When it came time to go I suddenly felt an urge to stay here but I had already talked myself into going so off I drove into the dark of night. My terrible night vision got me lost on these county roads so Kalani and I ended up getting stuck in the sand trying to turn around! We set up camp in our trust truck Buckwheat, definitely nothing like sleeping in our tipi, but it was a powerful time of self reflection. Releasing fears, casting a circle, feeling gratitude, and love filling my heart.

Our Rebirth – the Tipi Stands

I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the perceived extravagances of civilization and even the people here at Oran Mor Community where I live. There is a yearning in my soul to live in harmonious balance with Mother Nature by dedicating myself to a radical simplicity inspired by native tribes. Today we erect the tipi!

First we chose our site, perfectly located in a grove of deciduous trees with a forested slope of Red Cedars to the north protecting us from winds and our door facing the southeast so the rising sun can shine in to greet us Good Morning. We got our hoe, sickle, loppers, and a hand saw and set to work clearing the land just big enough for our 16 foot tipi. All the underbrush will be put to use either in wattle projects or burned in our fire for cooking and celebrating. Finally we unfolded our brand new tipi canvas and started bringing over the tipi poles from our work station. We laid out our tripod poles and tied them together with natural rope using a clove hitch and then we got to stand her up! Watching the tripod raise up into the skies, into this freestanding beauty, filled me with sheer delight. Then we began laying in the rest of the poles. The circles and circles of circles! The sisal rope winding around the poles again and again, jumping and whipping through the wind, tightening the poles that will hold our home in place. Standing tall amongst the trees, our poles who once lived and grew in the same forest we dwell in now live on as tipi shelter for our family on the hill.

Tipi Pole Work Party

We are building a tipi!! Here at Oran Mor Community, where we live, work and play,  sustainability and simplicity are at our core. Currently we are living in a communal housing space that we call “the Catbox” and we love it. Sharing a house with others is a beautiful experience and we absolutely love our housemates, but our plan is to expand our community up-slope into a place we call La Lomah – Land of Milk and Honey. It’s a very exciting journey and this tipi will be our first living unit so we can begin progressing with our dream.

We ordered the canvas for our tipi online at Nomadics Tipi. It is an all-season marine-treated cotton canvas that hopefully will keep us warm and dry all through the winter with the help of our new bio-char stove that we built over the weekend. We decided to buy a pre-fab tipi cover, because sewing a tipi cover out of something like animal skin is a momentous task to take on. The poles for the tipi came from our rich, green forest of Red Cedars and to harvest these poles, we invited all of our neighbors over for a work PARTY!!