Turn Your Face Towards the Sun

Photo by Chad Minnick

Our sunflowers are blooming! Many of them are taller than either of us and beaming their tremendous sunny yellowness. You can almost hear them shout "Summer!"

“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows follow behind you.”~ Maori Proverb

Process

This image speaks a lot about what we are learning here at North Star Hall. 

Those zinnias are growing in an old bucket, exactly where we found it when we moved in this spring. 

Where attention goes, energy flows and results show. An abandoned, rusted garbage-filled bucket is now home to an abundant bouquet of flowers. We made our choices, as a result fresh life is coursing into new places. 

If we don't water the zinnias, they die. Our ongoing attention is required. 

Someone else might have taken bucket and all and thrown it on the trash heap. For whatever reason, Chad and I decided to make it beautiful. A living "shabby and chic" experiment. 

We are already beginning to prepare for winter. This bucket teaming with blossoms will soon look like nothing more than an old dirty bucket again. A blank, fertile canvas. For several long, chilly months there will be no visible signs of life. What will we do with the bucket next year? 

Our garden is like that. Once crowded with weeds and thistles, it is beginning to come alive and be fruitful because we are putting our attention to it in the form of constant weeding, watering and fertilizing. 

The entire Grange experience has been one of choice, attention and flowing energy where we can, or at least where it makes sense at the moment. When we first looked at this place it was a cold, dusty gray rat and bat poop-filled musty old bucket of a building. We didn't know if the water or electricity would work. I obsessed for weeks if buying this place was the right thing to do. "What if it doesn't work? But it's a great price. It's a beautiful building rich with history. But what if it doesn't work out? What will we do? Should we go for it or should we walk away and save the trouble?"

I still feel somewhat obsessed over whether we should be doing this or not. I can't say it's been an easy process, or even always enjoyable. However, after months of attention the building is beginning to hum and vibrate with life. Everything feels warmer, more comfortable, more together. Right this second Chad is preparing one of our guest bedrooms for our first bed and breakfast guests. He invested several hours this morning getting hot and cold running water in two of our bathrooms! Every day sees new improvements. Our attention and choice to shine love on this land is beginning to pay off. Flow is occurring, we are enjoying more of the results we were looking for and worked hard to achieve. We have taken this fallow bucket of a building and are turning it into a thriving bouquet of Life. 

Thank you! 

Facing East

Our classroom, facing east:

We have a lot of work to do. We feel so lucky to have the space we do. I am excited to find some yoga partners! 

One of the images I posted this morning to our new Airbnb.com page: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3857454

Please feel free to share the Airbnb page on Facebook, or with anyone you consider to be any mix of bright, happy, creative, motivated and that you think would vibe with our North Star world. Thank you! 

Wild Turkeys

I wouldn't consider myself a great wildlife photographer. Aside from the gear, wildlife photographers enjoy a great deal more patience than I. Nonetheless, these first two snaps excite me because this turkey family was in our yard, pecking for food and chilling out near the cool spray of the sprinkler. The second reason these excite me is simply because I used my camera gear for a shoot this weekend and it was ready to go...the way camera gear should be! When I came around the corner of the building and saw this family, I snuck backwards into the house, grabbed my camera, switched to the telephoto lens really quick and ran back outside to be with the turkeys. So simple and satisfying! 

This also points to the mixed blessing of having the animals discover our yard as a lush place full of food. Now we are back to warding off the deer and rabbits. 

I thought I'd throw in a couple more turkey snaps from this last winter at the canyon. This flock had maybe 30 turkeys, all of whom launched themselves into the cabin at roughly the same time. It was quite dramatic. 

Random North Star Hall Update

The bugs love the huge barn light at the south end of the building, over the double doors. We have a 200w bulb that blazes the entire yard. I looked for the name of this large moth to no avail. If anyone knows the name or wants to look it up, I'd love to know. Being a tour guide and introducing folks to the area is much more enjoyable when I don't have to make stuff up. 

Another zinnia photo. Every zinnia I see lights me up. What darkens my flowery outlook is the obliterated zinnias that were growing perfectly at the classroom door. Every morning this week I've woken to find some malicious critter has snapped a new plant off at it's base. I seeded, nurtured and enjoyed watching these plants grow and bloom. Then blammo. Gone. Like they never happened. Thankfully the other zinnia's remain thus far untouched. Devoured bedding plants further encourages us to go with natural, locally occurring plants. I'd love to know more plants that are repugnant to deer and rabbits. 

This tomato came to us via the plants that Darren and Lisa dropped off earlier in the summer. How awesome is that?! Our first beefsteak tomato! This evening we used the basil they also gave us and made a delicious caprese salad drizzled with avocado oil and a sweet and thick balsamic glaze. A yummy vinegar glaze that incidentally, Darren recommended. Tasty treats gratis' Darren and Lisa! Thank you! 

We'd love some advice on the cracking tomato part. Did we simply leave it on the vine too long? 

Yum Caprese!

Last night we sliced our first squash, sliced and toasted with oil, a touch of that balsamic vinegar glaze and pink himalayan salt. We all know that organically grown garden fresh tomatoes taste better than store bought. We were delighted to discover that our garden squash tasted amazing! Full of flavor and nuance. Now we love squash! 

Brookstone Ionizer

Last fall our good friend Nina allowed us to use her Brookstone Ionizer at the cabin on extended loan. I notice it gets very mixed reviews on Amazon from a handful of reviewers. We love it! This ionizer carried out multiple scent-reducing jobs at the lake cabin very effectively. Since moving here to North Star Hall it's proven it's worth again. Our larger basement has water issues that leaves a hanging, damp, musty odor in the air. Left alone that dank air tends to waft it's unpleasantness upstairs to the rest of the hall, especially in bathrooms next to the theater room. When we leave the ionizer running in the basement there are no awkward smells anywhere! The results are clear. Up until the setting of "7" it runs near silently.

Contrary to the couple of Amazon reviews, we've been running this thing pretty much 24/7 for months now without issue. When the little amber light comes on at the bottom of the unit, I'll take it outside and rinse it off with a hose. I find it cleans rather quickly. I don't think I would risk putting it in the dishwasher. Although it's apparently designed for cleaning in a dishwasher, I suspect doing so would be hard on the plastic and wires.

We highly recommend this product! Treat it well and it'll clear your air for you for a long time.

Abundance

Mostly we intend to focus on perennials. But who can resist zinnia's? They are starting to bloom and they are beautiful. We'll keep the zinnia's around. For whatever reason, they feel era appropriate, like they belong here.

We enjoyed our first sit-down, candle-lit, home-cooked dinner with special guests last night in the classroom! Cloth napkins, parmesan grater, toasted bread topped with mozzarella and fresh picked basil and drizzled with a summery balsamic vinegar gaze accompanied our three cheese stuffed tortellini drenched in a roasted garlic tomato sauce. We served a simple salad picked from our garden. Before dinner we raised our glasses to our collective victories,  with a special nod to Chad's mother Lauretta for helping to make our meal even more enjoyable by providing tables, chairs, glasses and cutlery. Thank you Lauretta!

In many ways, last night represented many dreams coming true. We are blessed with wonderful support from family and friends across the world.

Thank you!

What Makes a Weed?

This is the head of a wavy leaf thistle I pulled out of the canyon last year and planted at the cabin. I find many of the naturally occurring plants in this part of the world to be very attractive. Why not make the most of them? 

When first transplanted, the thistle didn't do that great. I overwatered it, trying to give it an edge over it's thistle brethren left back in the canyon. Once I figured out these thistles really are a desert plant, preferring drought, I backed off watering and it seemed to slowly recover.

This year, our special thistle sprang forth! It's huge! In my opinion, it's also beautiful and definitely loaded with giant pink'ish flower heads bees and butterflies adore. I love the spiky dusty green color of the leaves.

Yep, It's a thistle. I've gotten teased and queried several times. Why are you planting weeds?! It's a weed! You planted a thistle...? Don't you know that's a weed? It's going to spread everywhere....

What makes this beautiful thistle a weed and other plants not a weed, exactly? Because it's now beautiful is it no longer a weed? Is it still just a beautiful weed? Or at some point does the quality of the experience tip the scale into a garden quality "plant"? I find the architecture, scale, size and color of this thistle PLANT to be stunning and interesting. Definitely in the top 5 of anything I've planted, ever. This thistle has singlehandedly created it's own bouquet of bees, butterflies, moths and small sunflowers which are protected from voracious deer within the boundaries of it's thorny self.

      

It's curious this epic piece of greenery could still be viewed as a weed and therefore undesirable. It hardly takes any water. It's local and adapted perfectly well to it's environment. If you live in Eastern Washington, I recommend this particular variation of thistle. It's a dramatic addition and more readily available than say, an ornamental artichoke. (Which are also beautiful, like Jurassic-sized thistles). 

In the world of "weed control" I'm collecting the seed pods before they bust open and make a mess for the neighbors. So relax.

With all that said...

These horrid scotch thistles are taking over our garden! And, guess what? I hate them! For all my high minded ideas about beautiful weed/plants, I feel cursed by these obnoxious, irrepressible little weeds. Payback for purposely planting that other thistle. These green demons erupt over night, and seem not to care when you grab them by the root and throw them in a heap. It's as though they crawl back to their original hole and root themselves back into place! Add water and they multiply like Gremlins. We could spend hours picking them. They aren't pretty. To date, I've been trying to kill them with my bare hands, gloves would help. They hurt my feet when I step on them. 

They are even more irritating because I am now aware "weed" only exists in the eye of the beholder. Given my heavenly and peaceful wavyleaf thistle experience, I know I am hating these scotch thistles by choice, which is further irritating. 

I must start carrying my regular camera around with me! I love this image of the bees on the head of our beautiful thistle blossom. When I whipped out the iPhone to snap a pic there were only two bees. At the moment I pushed the button a third bee photobombed us. Which brings me to...wow, the power of embracing process! An element of photography that often blows me away has to do with the process and timing of things. Synchronicity and Delightful Surprises. Plant thistle year one. Year two, thistle explodes with drama and color and right when you take a photo three bees collect to pose for one, unpredictable and precious moment that is forever captured. These beautiful, synchronistic and precious moments expand to the degree the images/moments shared.

Our coach, Caron, is fond of saying "Where focus goes, energy flows and results show". For example, focus on ugly and you get more ugly. Focus on beauty, and you get more beautiful. This concept of focus expanding results points to why I believe art can change the world. Three bees, one thistle, inquiry, process, being with, snap photo and now, untold numbers of people can reexamine, even if for a nanosecond, their automatic judgements about how life is supposed to work. Also they are free to contemplate and enjoy the pretty colors and the inherent wonder of nature. Focus on Beauty, Beauty expands.  

We would love to hear your xeriscaping successes and see your favorite images of ugly weeds. 

Bathroom Window

In what is the master bath, and what will become a beautiful, restful bathroom with a retreat, spa-like feel. 

Sand Flat School

So much going on! so much we could blog about!

We ordered a couple prints from the Lincoln County Museum (please like them on Facebook). This is an iPhone snap of a long horizontal print at the museum dated 1920. 

Yay! 

We *love* this stuff! 

We are still in the process of nailing down the specifics, but the paperwork says this building was erected in 1900. Ostensibly for the school...? 

I love knowing that this fellow shared our space a century ago. Later he became a charter member of the North Star Grange! 

Lang, Herbert R.,  Jan 3, 1974

"Services were held in CA last week for Herbert R. Lang, who died in Cambria Dec 24. Born in Keller in 1907, Lang later attended Sand Flat and Davenport schools when his parents, Frank and Caroline Lang, farmed north of Davenport. A charter member of North Star Grange, he later owned and operated the Gerome ferry, store and post office and then the Gifford ferry, which he built. Survivors include three daughters, 5 grandchildren and two sisters, Margaretta Adams, Davenport, and Frances Duckey, Mercer Island." (Dav. Times: 1-03-1974)

More info and details to come, consider this a teaser. The friendly folks at the museum are looking for more tidbits, old ads and what not generated from this building. It's very exciting! 

If YOU know anything about Sand Flat School or the North Star Grange, or anything else about this building, please contact us!