Family Gatherings

Geni Lorraine Leon 

Lorraine Kayla Leon Geni 

Grandma Lorraine and Kayla

“Screw and Nail Sorters” and White Buckets.

Leon was working on his work shop, preparing the floor for the cement. 

He has many white buckets filled with things that needed to be sorted.

Lorraine and Kseniya

Randal 

For a few days Randal and I worked a couple of hours in our new tittle of “Screw and Nail Sorters”. We worked in the warm sun and in the completed building.

Kseniya, a young lady who lives on the farm, also assists with many tasks Leon assigns to her.

I learned that different sizes was not the way to sort the screws but what function each one has. Now I know what a dry-wall screw looks like.

A Savannah Maintenance Project

In early December it was 19ºC. It felt like a spring day when we drove to Full Circle Family Farm from our camp site in East Asheville KOA, Swannanoa near Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Whenever we go to the farm we offer to help out in some way. Leon gave Randal and I the job of racking leaves off the newly planted grass in the field near the chicken yard. 

Leon called it his “Savannah”

A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses. The oak savanna is a common type of savanna in the Northern Hemisphere. Some classification systems also recognize a grassland savanna from which trees are absent. This article deals only with savanna under the common definition of a grassy woodland with a significant woody plant component.

It is often believed that savannas feature widely spaced, scattered trees. However, in many savannas, tree densities are higher and trees are more regularly spaced than in forest. Savannas are also characterized by seasonal water availability, with the majority of rainfall confined to one season. Savannas are associated with several types of biomes. Savannas are frequently in a transitional zone between forest and desert or grassland. Savanna covers approximately 20% of the Earth's land area.

Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as contiguous areas with similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals and soil organism and and are often referred to as ecosystems.

Randal and I racked a large portion of the field and throw the leaves into the chicken yard. They were happy and began to scratch an spreading them around. 

Crafty Wednesdays.

Every Wednesday a craft day is held. Groups of interested people who live in the Earthaven Eco Village area meet at homes to enjoy the camaraderie and sharing crafty ideas. I attended a couple of them with Geni and Kayla.

In November one was held at Rainbow's home, a 20 minute walk along Rosy Branch River in Rosy Branch part of Earthaven.

When Prince Otter, Bethany, Geni and I arrived Kayla and her friend, Katie, were already there. Kayla walked over the mountain and Katie lives nearby.

Rainbow has a earthy-home on a hill over looking the river in the valley below. She is very artistic and the house filled with her creations as well as signs posted with heart-warming sayings hanging on the tress along the pathway. She is Danish was has been living in Rosy Branch for some years now with her Jewish husband.

Everyone was offered tea and snacks and then settled in with their crafts. I did some colouring on Geni's bee-labels for her honey jars. Kayla was decorating hair clips, Katie was crocheting, Bethany doing art work and Rainbow decorating sweaters with contrasting yarn pieces. Later Lisa dropped by to join the group. She worked on a wool blanket, mending it. Prince Otter visited while others were busy. 

In early January Geni held a Crafty Wednesday. She was surprised to see number of adults and children arrive, men and women. The house was packed. It stated at 1:00 pm and lasted until 3:30 pm.

Crafty Wednesday is a good venue to gossip, get ideas, tell stories, snack and laugh. 

Every one had a project, knitting, crocheting, beading cutting out colourful pictures or writing. 

November Farm Help

              November work on Full Circle Family Farm

                                               Garlic planting

                                                Washing sweet potato

                                              Keeping the vegetables from freezing.

Taking produce to market

Full Circle Mindfulness Center

There is a quiet place in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina
From I-40 near Black Mountain take NC-9 South on a narrow mountain road to the intersection of Old Fort Road.
This connects to Camp Elliot Road and then to Full Circle Trail.

Here the Full Circle Mindfulness Center is situated.
 Daily meditation practices is offered by Leon and Geni.
 As well as weekly introduction to Walking and Sitting Meditation with chanting.

Finch Ontario

Randal and I made a two day truck tours with a destination of Finch, Ontario where my mother was born.

    Prior to going I contacted my cousin, Jim Rutley, for information. He sent me pictures of the Rutley houses and information about the remaining Rutley family still living in the area.

  Randal entered this information on to his GPS and we were off.   From Milton Heights Campground, near Hamilton, we headed out on the 401 towards Cornwall driving through history-packed country.

      Through Upper Canada and on the Loyalist Parkway

Highway 33, also known as the Loyalist Parkway, follows a pioneer colonial route on which the first segments were built two hundred years prior. The route connects several historical settlement sites in Prince Edward County, continuing east through Bath to what is now Kingston.

Upper Canada existed from December 26, 1791 to February 10, 1841 and generally comprised present-day  Southern Ontario. The prefix "upper" in its name reflects its geographic position higher up the river basin or closer to the headwaters of the Saint Lawrence River than that of Lower Canada or present-day  Quebec to the northeast.

My Grandfather John Duncan Rutley wrote:

I stayed at home and worked on the farm with my father and brothers for three years. My father gave me a hundred acre farm near Finch. I began to think seriously of settling down and began courting a girl I’d known most of my life. Mary Ellen (Minnie) Duvall, daughter of Edgar Duvall at Newington. She was a pretty, slender brunette who was teaching in the Hanes school. My brother Hughie, who was also courting took turns with me using the horse and buggy and the bicycle. Minnie and I got married on January 9, 1901 in her father’s home.

We went to live in the new house my father had helped me build. It was of brick and had a verandah on the East and South sides. A railway track ran behind the barn and when the children were old enough it seemed to draw them like a magnet. Our first child, Laura Hughenna was born on our first wedding anniversary, January 9,1902. John Irwin Alexander was born on December 17, 1903 and on November 13, 1905 another daughter, Mary Donalda arrived.

    

     I am thankful for having been in that part of Ontario and seeing the fall colours, farms, cornfields and history.