Last Blog Post For A Little While

Whelp, I reckon it stands to reason that since fall came early this year, winter may want to make an early showing as well. After a string of stellar fall days a couple of weeks ago, we then segwayed right into winter, with snow and temps in the teens. We saw it coming and did some prep, but we weren’t all the way ready, logistically, physically or mentally. As I say often (mostly as a supportive anthem to myself so I don’t get too frustrated by the learning curve we’re on): we’re new at this whole living off-grid without running water in the woods thing. 

All of our jugs of drinking water, along with two buckets of water for washing, now live inside with us so they don’t freeze, and we’ve set up a temporary situation for washing dishes indoors, since we haven’t yet installed a sink. We moved our wood pile under the cover of the porch and have been prepping more wood for the woodstove. We managed to get a few things tarped that needed covering up, but a few of the tasks we need to do in preparation to head south have been made a good deal harder with the presence of snow. It’s November 2 as I am typing this post and our forecast calls for a few days of rain. It rained much of this morning. A mixed blessing. The temps have risen to the 30’s (yes, risen to the 30’s), so the rain is having the effect of melting some of the snow off, but it’s also creating minor havoc in some other areas. 

It’s been good for us to get a little bit of winter weather practice out here before we head south for a few months. It gives us a better sense of what we’ll need to do in order to winter over here, which we have intentions of getting back to doing in the future. Up until the start of the pandemic, we were wintering over here in western Montana every year. But things change and we are grateful to be splitting our time right now between our home here in Montana and our spiritual home at Deer Park Monastery (DP) in southern CA. 

This is likely to be our last blog post for a little while. Probably until we get back in March. It’s always a bittersweet symphony of emotions for me in getting ready to depart for the winter. As a writer & poet, I have an affection for winter in the north country mountains. It’s fertile ground for me to enter deeper into the land of writing. It’s something I miss when we venture south. I also miss my friends and attending my home sangha Be Here Now every Monday night. I will also miss the woods and stillness and quiet that surround us here at EM. I also look forward to the concentrated practice time, community of intentional practitioners, and outdoor liveability factors that prevail at DP. 

We’ll soon be on our way out. Our son Jaden has generously offered to take our cat Larch for the winter, and that was the last big hurdle for us to figure out before heading out. Thank you Jaden! Stay tuned next spring, when we’ll look to resume blog posts, video uploads, and hosting events & retreats here at EM. 

With love & care, 

Nicole & Mike