July brought us good weather. Many little jobs were accomplished and the garden thrived. At the end of the month, Jo Marie & I visited her family out West.

August brings travel for Santikaro, starting with a retreat at Cloud Mountain. A diverse, curious group made for lots of fun.

After a few days back at the ranch, I went with an old friend and two new friends for a week of backpacking on Isle Royale. The weather was great, berries ripe & for the picking, and companionship stimulating. Good healthy fun on America’s least visited National Park. (I’ll post some of the many photos — e.g. mouse & ducks & berries — when the dust settles.)

Next, I leave for a week in Vermont at the Center for Whole Communities. I teach meditation there each summer within their program of retreats for environmentalists.
Will also teach there in early September.

Roger has finished up most of the barn and Jo filled it with hay for the winter. The garden has given us some of its fruits with more plumping up on the vine & stem.

Best wishes & good practice to all.

My parents drove up from Chicago yesterday. Their young dog Daisy had an encounter with the horses that started playful, yet brought out the Herd Mother in Tara. That softened today with more familiarity. As usual, Jera is curious and good with strangers. It took Junebug a while longer to accept this little, furry, barking tail-wagging creature.

Today, Mom helped Jo with trimming hooves and other barn chores, while Dad & I pulled up old fence posts along the south end of LP’s east boundary . (Jo & Revati had taken down the barbwire last work weekend. Eventually, we’ll put in a new fence of safer material.) Some of the posts came right up with a few digs of the shovel and easy prying. Others took  30 minutes of digging, root chopping, heaving & hoeing, and sweating. We managed to get them all out before the rain started, and it’s satisfying to do good physical labor with one’s 73 year old father.

Roger, with some help from me, has finished the barn’s windows & doors. We started on the tack room Wednesday and will probably finish Friday. Another project approaching completion.

The garden thrives with almost daily rainfall.

Last night, a bit before dusk, the countryside around LP was beautiful, more beautiful than usual. I’d been doing little garden & other chores in the light rain that continued after the initial downpour — appreciated by garden & gardeners — so I was a bit wet. But very happy. The garden is looking good, the skies were gorgeous with shifting clouds, and a golden light permeated everything. The light highlighted the lushness of the green, after corn, soy, grasses, & trees had soaked up the rainwater. This is the way spectacular occurs in the Midwest.

I continue to learn how to practice “the next right thing” (AA) and “it’s finished everyday” (Ajahn Buddhadasa), as well as help others to stay in the present doing whatever needs to be done, whether dig, carry, hammer, saw, chat, rest, drink, laugh, look at the sky, pet horses, or whatever causes & conditions call for.

Tan Ajahn also observed, “enjoying ones work is happiness while working.” A truism? Common sense? Perhaps, but so many of us forget or are unable to practice this so simple secret of life. Work and practice need not be at odds. Much depends on our attitude to both and the Dhamma vision we carry. Is practice an escape from life, seeking peak experiences, bliss, meditative wonders, or special abilities? Or is practice the duty of the moment, which can encompass meditative absorption, insight, chanting, bowing, eating, making compost, hauling manure, and everything else that is worth doing.

Practice is letting go of whatever entraps us in ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ Practice is for everywhere and all times. Just like anyone can cook (Ratatouille), everyone can practice — right-here-now.

More rain fell overnight. Cloudy & humid today.

We’ve just completed a very pleasant work weekend. Some folks came early, starting Wednesday, with others arriving Friday and Saturday. There was lots of interesting conversation, walks through the valley, good food, friendship, not to mention hard, healthy work.

Another old barbwire fence was cleaned up, the garden fencing was extended until we ran out of fencing, the barn is looking beautiful, the second tent made habitable w/ preparations for a third, compost bin brought into action, and the garden spiffed up.

We’re pretty much ready for the experimental retreat this coming weekend. With the next work weekend July 12-13.

Many thanks to Roger, Austin, Doug, Mark, Erick, Revati, Trent, Chuck, Vanee, Terry, and Max.

Our 4th of July work weekend began early with Roger working on the barn finishings, Austin helping with garden fencing & planting onions, and Doug going with me to fetch wood from Amish friends. More folks are due tomorrow and on Saturday. May get rain on Sunday.

Roger has been doing a wonderful job making windows and doors for the barn. It’s almost shipshape. Garden is doing splendidly and the fence will be finished soon. We hope to have the tipi ready for next week’s experimental retreat.

Then we can get back to work, in earnest, on the multipurpose cabin. Cotton insulation is waiting to go in, then the walls can begin.

Images coming soon.

Threatened rains have passed without further damage near here, but other parts of Wisconsin have been hard hit. Same for northeast Iowa and other parts of the Midwest. In our county and those nearby, homes have been damaged and destroyed, farmland turned to mud, roads and bridges washed out, businesses messed up. Will take a lot of time, energy, and funds to clean up and rebuild.

Fortunately, our government isn’t as horrid as Burma’s, especially on the state and local level. Still, nobody is expecting much help from FEMA after what happened in New Orleans, and it would be nice if the country could stop wasting money destroying Iraq and elsewhere to rebuild infrastructure at home.

Please give some thought to those around the world who are facing hardship due to weather, war, unemployment, poverty, disease, addiction, divisive politics, and all the myriad causes. May our practice help to raise the boat of all humanity, and not just we who are privileged and affluent.

May all beings be free of suffering.

I’ve added some new images to the site.

One batch has activity from May.

And the garden shots have been expanded.

Our beautiful area was hit by bad flooding last August. The past weekend’s storms have brought even worse flooding this year with more rain to come.

More information is available at lacrossetribune.com and from Madison perspective madison.com.

As in this report from The Tomah Journal, Liberation Park escaped serious damage. The creek overflowed a bit, but there wasn’t enough upstream to the kind of harm that hit other places. I’ll take a walk today to check on downed trees.

Saturday began pleasantly with checking the horses, surveying where we’ll put new fencing, and setting up for battening the barn boards (siding). Steve drove over from the cranberry fields (past Tomah) to help. By late morning, tho, rain began lightly and gradually built up into a deluge. By the time Steve got back with gas for the generator, the downpour was so thick it was hard to see out the windshield. So we called it a day.

With occasional let ups, the rain continued the rest of the day, overnight, and for good chucks of Sunday. So instead of a work weekend we had a rest weekend, which wasn’t a bad idea for muscles still sore from carrying tipi poles on Thursday.

Monday looks pretty clear so far, so I’ll get to the battens today. Except for Jera’s runny nose, the horse survived, too.

Local farmers have probably taken a beating yet again. The wet spring has delayed planting. Hopefully there won’t be many flooded fields. It’s probably worse further south of us. It’s somewhat safer, I think, at the top of the watershed.

Still planning a work weekend the 14th & 15th.

The last couple days have been overcast with some T-storms. One of the joys of returning to the Midwest has been the clouds (”Midwestern mountains”) and the Thunderstorms. In addition to the water and power, they give me a chance to catch up on website and other office duties.

But I’ll be out working on the south fence. Jera has jumped it twice and that can’t become a habit. And old wires keep coming off, which creates real dangers. So Jo is making plans for a new fence, which we will share w/ the neighbors, and I’ll tidy things up a bit as prep. That means mucking about in the sedge meadow where lots of new flowers are blooming.

And some digging in the garden each day. Hauled old hay up from the barn and spread it over the grass where some new beds will be dug. Bought a bunch of seeds as Farm & Fleet. Hope to plant a little bit each day. Fresh veggies for people on work days, visits, and retreats.

Despite forecasts, no T-storms today. Maybe tomorrow.