Reflections from The Cabin in the Woods

Six months in the woods.  But not without internet and left-overs and square dancing and cats.  A lot has happened in my time at Circle Pines but I've barely had the time to think much on this.  The leaves are falling.  Some trees already completely bare.  Bright yellows, oranges, and reds littering the paths.  Bare crooked limbs still reaching for the sky. 
When I moved here in the spring with Case the wild flowers were just getting their start.  We met Jonathan who taught us the sounds of the birds in the spring.  We were fortunate to have him show us around the property and the area.  He told us of the different birds that migrated through and ones that stayed.  This was the first year that I realized that different seasons have different sounds.  That different birds have different seasons.  

In the spring we observed the woodcock mating display complete with climatic whorling sounds finished with the whoosh of their dash back to the grass.  There was also the deep, baritone sounds of the bull frogs from Stewart Lake.  Some nights we could hear them from the cabin.  When I first heard them I thought that their low drone croak was either someone driving a speedboat (when there was a bunch of them at it) or a kid playing the trombone.  There was also the high chirps of the spring peepers back in frog pond.  Not to mention the countless birds singing including a Scarlet Tanninger that we caught sing its song to a red electrical box.  

Throughout the summer there was the hammerings and the cries of the Pileated woodpecker.  One rainy day in the garden a Pileated landed not too far from me digging around for grub, I was amazed by its size and brightness of its red head.  The sandhill cranes often trumpeted in the morning near the cabin, I think they may have slept in the field near us.  Kevin saved a Flicker from the roof his beak was crooked and eye swollen shut.  We don't know what happened to him.  We took care of him until we could take him to a wildlife rehab place.  His name was Jeffry.  We also found a box turtle that we thought was injured.  The front part of the bottom of its shell was all folded up.  We thought we were going to have to do surgery but it turned out that box turtles are supposed to have a hinges so they can fully close the front part of their shell.  When Case and I were cleaning out Juniors cabins we saw a cicada killer wasp attack a pair of mating cicada's and inject them with something paralyzing.  We thought that she maybe was laying her eggs in their bodies so Case wanted to keep them to watch them hatch.  But after research we found that they actually only paralyze them then drag them back to their nest.  Regardless the cicada's never woke up.  The firefly display was spectacular this year, among several other glowy crawly insects and funji that helped light the path back to the cabin.  In the night there was also the whinnying and the whining of the coyotes and the who whos' and the screeches of the owls.  The screech of the screech owl I think may be one of the eeriest sounds I've encountered in the woods.

A new wave of sounds has come with Fall as the birds migrate back south.  The birds seem to come almost with the wind in chattery flocks.  sometimes I swear there are as many birds in a tree as there are leaves. I wish the trees had as many apples as leaves as well, but the frost got them in blossom in the spring.  The Sandhill cranes are migrating, I haven't heard them by the cabin for weeks.     Fall has been a sad time for the deer around here.  Several hundred deer (maybe in the thousands by now) have been contracting a virus through midge flies that cause them to bleed internally.  This makes them feel hot so they seek water, so there are several that made it to the lake.  I've been watching one decompose at the intersection of pudding stone and the bunny trail.  When I found here she had just died, I was really sad because she appeared to have been a nursing mother.  But it is what it is.

The People:
This is what initially drew me to Circle Pines.  Two very influential women on my life had suggested this place to me.  Joy Pryor would talk about it to me when we were organizing Really Really Free Markets together.  Then later in my life I worked for Creston Community Gardens through Creston Neighborhood Association.  My boss there was Deb Eid, her and I got along real well.  She would talk about how she could speak more "radically" in the office and openly.  So me and her got along very well.  One weekend last year she set me up to come out to CPC for a work bee weekend.  I was hesitant as I had school and no ride.  But she emailed Tom and he came up to Grand Rapids to pick me up.   I was really glad. I had a great weekend.  Tom and I talked about renewable energy and sustainability on the way down, then he took me for a walk through the woods to show me around.  We had a lot of fun talking about stuff and by the end of the weekend he asked if I might be interested in a gardening position in the spring.
I also remember my first weekend here, having a sense of comfort and feeling at home.  I remember talking to Kat for hours about people and the world and going out to milk goats with Ron.  I don't really remember who else was at cpc that weekend.  But through out time I kept seeing Derick and Isabella, Gary and Mara, Johnathan, Bob and Anna, Crystal Micheal and Jonah,  and tons of other people whom I've enjoyed spending some time with. 
More recently I've been getting to know the other people that live in the area.   This is largely because MiLAWD held meetings at circle pines until recently. They all have their strange and radical quirks which I find enjoyable.  They are organizing to take legal action against the state of Michigan for allowing Fracking on Public lands. 

Summer Camp:
Summer camp is some strange whirlwind that seemed like forever while it was here and now I feel like it blew by very fast.   So much happened in each day.  It's hard to capture. 
I learned a lot from the kids.

The Conflicted soul of Circle Pines:
CPC's current functioning is largely unsustainable which seems to be the history of this place.
Though it desires and teaches sustainable ideas it seems that itself is incapable of making itself
sustainable.  This is because of its financial requirements to stay afloat.  The financial stress, shifts the vision of some (actually most) of its functions.

There is more to be said in reflecting on my summer, but I shall add more another day.