Last week, on Thursday, when I was up to my ears with an enormous shipping manifest that took me twelve hours to package and ship, I was struck with fatigue in the afternoon. I put on a warm coat and a toque and I walked out to the hayfield. I sat on the ground. Across the expanse I saw Coulee and Hawk lift their heads and watch me. A cat joined me there, then a second cat, then Ernest. We sat in a pile of warm bodies and then I lay down on my side on the sweet smelling earth, listened to the wind move at 35mph through the trees — roaring like the ocean against a coastal cliff — and I rested. I fell asleep ! and woke up to the feeling of Hawk’s lips on my ear. I don’t know how long I slept for, perhaps only for a few winks, maybe for an hour, but being in complete bodily relaxation, in the sun, out of the wind, on the warm and living earth restored me enough that I gently knocked all the cats and dogs off my body, stood up, and strode with purpose back to the studio to finish my work.
Stepping outside to take a rest is something I am practicing more than ever. When I feel drained I chug a huge mason jar of water and then I step out the front door to pick up a sun charge and an earth charge. It’s such a clean, effortless, substance free way to power up my system and it seems to relieve me of negative thought cycles while crackling my bones in their sockets. Most importantly, this ancient remedy is free to all for all humans inhabit the same earth beneath the same miraculous sun. How lucky are we?
The horses are growing sleek and shiny here as the nut rows keep blooming and the orchard swirls into color. The only thing I can think to complain about lately is the wind. It has been so heavy handed, raging regularly between 30mph and 70mph. I feel my soul has been eroded to a small, lackluster nub. I think this has been a windier than usual springtime on the steppe.
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We suffered some heartbreak here recently. We tried to buy the acreage next-door after the Californian who paid too much for it a few years ago gave up his homesteading dream and threw in the towel. A for sale sign, in some cases, admits defeat. If that sounds condescending, it’s not, it’s just the truth. We put in a high offer based on a few other local property prices and it was rejected. As it happens, the place sold for a price that is 200% over the legitimate market value which is happening all over this river valley right now. People are simply slapping arbitrary prices on their properties and selling their properties as bidding wars ensue.
I know this phenomenon of gentrification is happening in rural communities all over the West right now as America reshuffles itself, but it’s heartbreaking to watch. It’s heartbreaking to watch native Idahoans who grew up here and WANT to live here, farm here, ranch here…be locked out of the land and housing market by people who can pay whatever they want for property. It’s agonizing to witness.
It can be difficult to find a sacred little place that you genuinely love, that is beautiful and quiet and clean…and then to watch the rest of the world discover it and carve it up and slowly destroy it. My heart feels broken a little more, every day, for the beautiful place, for the beautiful state we call home. Poor Idaho. She used to be lovely, now she’s something else.
This is starting to sound self pitying and I hate that, I don’t view myself as a victim, I’m just expressing something that is lodged in my throat right now. I hate this. I hate what is going on here. I hate the volume of Californian refugees moving into this state, but I can understand why they are leaving California. I am simultaneously feeling compassion and contempt. I asked Robbie a few days ago, “Will this state fill up and will people stop coming here? It seems overfull already. I’ve seen the way these new people trash everything they touch, build massive houses (monuments to themselves), drive over the wildflowers, act with such extreme entitlement. I don’t like them. Is Idaho full? I hope Idaho is full.”
Robert was silent, which caused me to be silent, too.
This said, this expressed, we are deeply grateful we bought our farm when we did, that we secured a space for ourselves that serves to sustain our small family and that we can contribute to our community with our hay and garlic crop while growing, raising, hunting and foraging most of our food. I do not know what is to become of Idaho but we are still so thankful to call this place home.
In the meanwhile, we have this earth, this sun, these horses and we are well.