Image update for May 2020

Top of SkyScape tower

The bird room in SkyScape

Rainbow Cafe

Rainbow Cafe under construction

The Airstream

Ground floor of SkyScape

Dorm rooms in the barn - under construction

Shambhala - meditation space

Magic Garden - under construction

Daz'l at the window - Rainbow Cafe

Magic Garden

Magic Garden

Started work this week on completing the Magic Garden, an annex to the organic garden, devoted to the pleasures of the senses. Climbing grape vines, scented roses, a fig tree, all-around bamboo fence, three mega-raised beds with herbs, a spring-fed cold tub (ex hot tub), two splash fountains, and a shady corner nook for wine and wonder. We cut more bamboo from 'Japan' to make the gates, and dragged it back on the ATV. And collected lots of dead but standing cedar trees from the woods - still sound with hard red cores - for the main structure. For the Garden of Epicurus just add conversation. [photos to come]

Prayer Flags from Bhutan

I brought the cloth back from Bhutan, and installed
this group of flags on a breezy spot near the tower.

Adios my friends

Goodbye goats, goodbye Ruffles.

I inherited Ruffles from neighbor Estel Reed when she went into a nursing home. Ruffles joined Zip in looking after my goats. Nine months ago, all 13 of them disappeared without trace after being terrorized by some sort of Big Cat (aka likely mountain lion). Ruffles and Zip began their unemployed life living on my porch, and barking at whatever at night. Last week Ruffles disappeared. I alerted neighbors and searched far and wide. Gone. She was a sweet dog, in mourning for her mistress and her goats. A little lost.

Spring Fever

Spring Fever at Yellow Bird

With new wwoofers, Marie from Switzerland, and Wonder,
ancient sites of chaos and neglect are being swept away. A new broom.

1. Marie and I fixed up the Airstream to make it habitable for Wonder, and brought this splendid space back online.





2. Marie and I dredged feet of silt out the spring cistern - the best water I have ever tasted - and reconnected the water supply (5 gals a minute) to the garden.



3. We reopened overgrown trails, and are preparing marker posts.
4. Daz'l made the staircase in the Rainbow Cafe, and is finishing the ground floor of SkyScape: Meeting the Birds Halfway (the Tower), which is turning out to be everything I had hoped, with a secret room, a reading space devoted to bird books, and the top look-out level, with 360 deg views.

 

5. Leopard and I spent a long time working on the Rainbow Cafe's window wall.



6. We have all been working on the garden, weeding dreadfully overgrown beds, sowing seeds, repairing the raised beds, and covering the greenhouse with a monster plastic sheet. (Thanks Maxzine.)



Wednesday Magic a constant companion, digging up seeds, protecting the strawberries.

Volunteer at Yellow Bird

Volunteer at Yellow Bird to help us prepare to offer Shinrin Yoku experiences. Forest healing. We provide food, accommodation, training, reading material and the opportunity to shape a beautiful 175 acre estate set in the Tennessee countryside into a place for natural healing. Yellow Bird is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Email David at yourdruid@yahoo.com.

Note: at this Covid-19 time, volunteering is limited to socially distancing day visitors. Special skills needed: carpentry (rustic benches, mending wooden sculpture)), gardening (weeding), ATV mechanic, electrical work, trail blazing.

Yellow Bird: a History

When people ask me how long I have been here I aways exaggerate -- on the short side. I guess I cannot admit that I have done so little in all that time. And in truth, I have a terrible memory for dates etc. So I have started a chronology starting when I bought the original farm in 2002 from Joe Davenport) and the house in 2008. When I fill in all the gaps, it turns out that I have actually done a lot, especially on the building, landscaping front. That will be the subject of a separate blog. But I imagined creating more of a shifting community which hasn't yet happened. I'm hoping to pair up with Bashi at Mountain Path Healing Arts Studio to offer weekend spiritual retreats for small groups.