Where I live is my co-author. As I, one of its current stewards, understand it, this land is Santiam Kalapuya territory. By the mid-1800s, white American colonizers had arrived, divested those already living here of the land, and established settlements. Visit Dr. David G. Lewis’ blog, NDN History Research: Indigenous, Public and Critical Essays, for more; and support his work via PayPal!
Up until World War II, there was a lot of logging in the area. I mean, there still is a logging around here but as in many small communities in the Pacific Northwest, not like there used to be. Lacomb used to be bigger than Lebanon! If you're from around here, that's rather astonishing.
This photo from the Oregon Historical Society is of the Crabtree Basin in 1944. Old timers who live around here say that, in those days, this land had a dairy and an orchard on it, producing food for the nearby logging camps. When my family arrived, the trees said it had been 60-odd years since loggers last came through. (We’ve since cleared a few acres of maple and fir as part of an oak savanna restoration project.)
It sounds like that old homestead burnt down in a house fire some 40 years ago. When we were deciding where to situate a well and build a house, without knowing it, we ended up just a few yards away from that old home site. Someone’s pink roses still bloom in May, near what would have been her front gate, I imagine.
My family met the land in May of 2017 when we were looking for a permanent home for our emerging permaculture farm, DoLittle Pastures. As we were walking by, looking at this 80-acre property that was for sale, a fox appeared at the edge of the meadow. It sat motionless for a surprisingly long time, and then disappeared into the forest! The fox takes swift action to achieve its goal. It utilizes resources seen and unseen. Some say a fox can guide you to the faerie realm. Also in this meadow, a hawthorn in bloom reached out and took my hand. Some say the hawthorn is home to the Faerie Queen. It is a symbol of protection, heart and home, and has been a messenger to me for years. I had long held a vision that one day I would make a home where a forest and a meadow meet, and that there was going to be a river nearby.
My partner and I had a shared vision of creating not just a home and a farm, but rather a safe and inspiring naturist community space that would be in right-relationship with the earth. Like a fox, we reached out for resources seen and unseen to achieve this goal. It seemed impossible, thank you, capitalism. But with the help and prayers of family and friends, we - two adults and three kids - moved onto the land in the fall of 2017, into a walled tent with a wood stove. For real. It was one of those experiences that I’m so glad to have had. Note that last sentence is in past tense. Yes, it was cold and wet and dark, and I never want to eat a can of chili heated over a camp stove ever again, but what sweet memories we made in that tent. Birthday parties and first steps. And the time the cat brought a mouse in and we couldn’t get it out because we were already outside so where do you put a mouse when you’re already outside?!
We actually hadn’t planned to live in a tent, we were modifying a shipping container to be a sort of tiny house but one of our new neighbors stopped by to introduce himself. He came back the next day with a friend and the tent. That's the sort of place this is, where neighbors help neighbors.
The personal vision that anchors me here is for women to heal the land, and for the land to heal women. Some friends and I host a monthly skill share potluck for women and kids, and call ourselves “Wild Women” because we gather here to reconnect to our deeper nature; to join with other women who want to grow deeper and wider with nature and each other. Living on the land has awakened my Wild Woman. Wherever you sit as you read this, hear the land beneath you calling to your inner Wild Woman; the one within you who trusts her instincts and lives powerfully, in relationship with earth. Bring her forward, please! We need her.
Within every woman there lives a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity and ageless knowing. She is the Wild Woman, who represents the instinctual nature of women. But she is an endangered species.
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Author of Women Who Run With the Wolves
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