The stable

On my second day I helped dig up more potatoes, thinned and weeded some carrots, and learned how to feed and rotate the turkeys and do the same with the chickens, collecting eggs in the process.

This place is so beautiful! Full of peace and good energy. I feel wonderful just being here and life just makes more sense, life is good. It couldn't be more picturesque and with more authenticity and character. Jim and Christina have been homesteading here and on nearby Shaw Island for decades and represent American self sufficiency and traditional farm life to a T. They know how to do it all. Growing food, milking cows, mowing hay, raising puppies, butchering, fencing, feeding, fixing, mending, selling...truly living self sufficient, which to me represents the ultimate freedom.

Among other things they raise big pretty draft horses and supplement their farming with a carriage business for occasions and haying fields by horse and cart. There are three, Rosy, Jewel, and Finn. Rosy is the biggest (1600lbs), a tawny golden handsome animal and Finn is the young upstart troublemaker. His mother died shortly after giving birth to him and he never learnt how to properly behave so he requires a lot of patience. A curious trickster and I am learning they all have their own personalities. Including the folk I share this place with too. Jim and Christina live over in the house. Nearby the barn is a small home for Tim our eclectic spirited farm manager and his wife and son. Vince, Tim's dad came out in January and just decided to stay he liked it so much and lives out beside the house in a small RV. Then there are two interns, Pritya and Maggie and myself. All good people and good energy everywhere. I really like it here.

I snapped this shot of Finn framed in ghostly silhouette walking through the stables in the late afternoon...