The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

The farm is quiet. We'd found new homes for the rabbits, and new homes for the chickens. The same people bought both sets of livestock. When they came to help us catch the chickens, we got most of them, but one hen decided she was going to hide in the blackberry brambles. So, they left that one with us. After they left, the hen started walking around, and calling for the rest of the flock. It made me sad to listen to it. I actually stopped my cleaning and packing and chores to write a short poem. We sold the chickens today, 18 barnyard hens and a rooster  captured in a frenzied rodeo Of fishing nets and copious swearing. We miscounted. In the fading light of a summer day Over wind blowing through trees Blighted by drought, and the scrubbing My wife is giving a set of shelves I hear forlorn clucking  And the dejected scratching of one hen Left behind when the reckoning came. She enters a coop devoid of companions  No squawk or squabble, no feathered furor, Only the wind in...

Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place . -Thufir Hawat Our first Garage sale is accomplished. I hope there will never be another.  It's a heck of a process, selling and haggling and interacting with many people. I think it went swimmingly, but I don't want to do it again.  We sold a huge number of items that we've held onto for one reason or another. However, when we arrive in Virginia, the first thing we're doing once we recover from the Journey is having some sort of moving sale.  We met all our neighbors during the sale we had before leaving, people we'd lived around for 6 years, but never met for one reason or another.  We've sold our whole rabbitry, and have a possible buyer for the chickens. The goats have new homes, but the horses, sheep, and llamas will be coming with us. Monday was the day for the photographer to take pictures for the real estate listing. The whole day was a whirlwind of cleaning and hiding everything we hadn't b...

Today is Paddy and I's fourth wedding anniversary. We were married in the back yard of our Oregon property. The lead up to the wedding was very busy: trying to get the venue ready, trying to finish last minute fixes, cleaning, arrangements.  At some point, the time ran out to get things done, and there was a relaxation as we realized that, whatever wasn't finished, wasn't going to get finished, and didn't matter. We had family, friends, food, an officiant, a bride, a groom. The beauty of the day was exceptional, and we had animals and children running, a beautiful ceremony, and an excellent party. This year, we're in the midst of preparing to move across the country. We'll be leaving the venue behind, for other people to make memories. Today it hits hard, the fact of that move. So much has happened here, and while the memories will remain, the physical reminders will be left behind. There is much to do, but much like the wedding, whatever doesn't get finishe...

Many of you will have heard, but this will be the official record that we are planning on moving to Virginia sometime this fall.  As I know details, I'll publish them here, but here's what I know so far. Paddy, Bridget our daughter, and I are into farming, and we have 5 acres of steep clay in Oregon. We've been looking for more, flatter land in Oregon, but it's way, WAY outside our price range.  Since the Oregon market is such a seller's market at the moment, we thought we could sell and get a good property elsewhere. So we started casting further afield. We came across a property in Clarksville, VA that was in our price range, and started talking to the community. They embraced Paddy very quickly, and we made an offer on the property. However, our process was just starting, and theirs was advanced, and we missed out on that one.   After that, we took a step back, thought we'd get our ducks in a row, and try again next year sometime.  Then the sister of the owne...

A reader asks:  What is Abraxas? He always asks the best questions. My first encounter with Abraxas was in Jung's Seven Sermons to the dead. God and devil are distinguished by the qualities fullness and emptiness, generation and destruction.  Effectiveness  is common to both. Effectiveness joineth them. Effectiveness, therefore, standeth above both; is a god above god, since in its effect it uniteth fullness and emptiness. This is a god whom ye knew not, for mankind forgot it. We name it by its name  Abraxas . It is more indefinite still than god and devil. That god may be distinguished from it, we name god  Helios  or Sun. Abraxas is effect. Nothing standeth opposed to it but the ineffective; hence its effective nature freely unfoldeth itself. The ineffective is not, therefore resisteth not. Abraxas standeth above the sun and above the devil. It is improbable probability, unreal reality. Had the pleroma a being, Abraxas would be its manifestation. It is th...