tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37051373867125846032023-11-15T09:07:06.352-05:00Avalon Journal of L/L ResearchAvalon is a farm in Trimble County, Kentucky which Jim McCarty and I own. It is a 93-acre valley with foothills all around it, making it a psychic collector.
In these entries I'd like to record my further visits to Avalon and, hopefully, Jim's and my eventual move there.
If you are interested in this effort, here is where to check for new information!Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-42348898673590511132009-01-11T17:54:00.003-05:002009-01-13T12:46:26.343-05:00Blog Transfer Announcement, January 11, 2009As of January 1, 2009, the Avalon Journal of L/L Research will no longer be published to blogger.com. Soon it will be available only at www.bring4th.org, the spiritual community and activism site of L/L Research. To view my Avalon Journal blog entries from now on, please go to http://www.bring4th.org/blogs/. The Camelot Journal has also been moved to Bring4th.org and can be read at http://www.bring4th.org/members.php?uid=72&catid=all.<br /><br />To view the archives of these Journals, please go to http://llresearch.org/carla_niche.aspx. <br /><br />I thank the blogger.com site for hosting my blogs for the last three years and more! It has been commodious and comfortable here. However it is a great joy to see www.bring4th.org launched at last, and I encourage you to hop on over and check out the site. <br /><br />To check out our archive site, go to www.llresearch.org. There you can find the Law of One sessions, a dozen books or more, over 1500 channeling transcripts and other goodies.<br /><br />L/L xxx -<br /><br />Carla L. Rueckert-McCarty<br />L/L ResearchCarla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-13163566699108744542008-08-12T10:37:00.002-04:002008-08-12T10:47:36.051-04:002008-08-11I drove up to Avalon Farm today in order to spot Mel while she continues to work on a steep and narrow portion of the access road with the tall, top-heavy tractor. She is concerned that the tractor will tip into the ravine while she is working on the high crown of the road, smoothing it down so the road bed is flat. So I am her 911 call, ready to sound the alarm if her fears are realized.<br /><br />This is my second day on Avalon doing this job. It is such a delight to be able to help just a tiny bit with taming wild Avalon without breaking her spirit or ruining her untouched, organic wholeness. Mel got 40 feet out of the 100 feet in this section of steep road leveled last week, and today she made another 40 feet of progress. Now she has only 20 feet to go, and one more of my trips up there will see the job safely done. She has a good deal more work to do on the road to level it throughout its half-mile of descent into the valley of Avalon, but the grade for the rest of the road is not so steep and the road is wider. So she can work on her own.<br /><br />We do have a protocol whenever she is working with big tools. She calls before she starts the job, letting us know what tools she is using and where. Then at the end of her working day she calls in to report that all is well. That way we have a fail-safe in place. If we don’t hear from her, we drive up and investigate. So far, this protocol has worked perfectly.<br /><br />It has turned much dryer since last week. The roadside flowers look dusty and some of the grasses are brown. The crops are further along by far, the apple trees bearing, the tobacco past its bloom and starting to fire up, the corn in tassel and the soybeans coming along well. <br /><br />I love the look of the tobacco at all its stages of growth. It has a lovely leaf and habit and the blossoms are beautiful. It is too bad that the plant, when used for smoking, is so toxic. The Native Americans think of it as a sacred plant and use it in rituals. Certainly in that usage it is not so toxic, and it feels magical to me as a plant. It carries a lot of power. I never have smoked, so this is not a justification! I just like the plant.<br /><br />When we were shopping for my bathroom rugs last week, Mel found the perfect welcome mat for inside the front door of Sugar Shack and when I stopped in to meet the new kitty, Mr. J, I could see that it was absolutely perfect! Under Mel’s constant loving attention, the inside of the cabin is beginning to look like a regular home. Her carpentry has created new doors for front and back which close well and lock, and she has painted them red. The inside walls are light yellow. She has begun two storage closets so that she has room to hang her good clothes and to store her things, and they are going to look super when she gets them done. We need some things: a tough bedspread for her bed, a table and chairs that fit in her space, a proper desk and filing cabinet and a better tool shed. She also wants to get new porch furniture, a recliner and a few rockers or porch chairs. But she is content to find these pieces as they come to her for the right price. <br /><br />This cabin has always been a shack, and no amount of fixing it up will suffice to repair it. But Mel has made it livable and safe for the next five years or so while she builds her own homestead further down the meadow. Then her plan is to deconstruct Sugar Shack after carefully measuring everything and drawing up plans, and then rebuilding it just as it was before on the same site. That way, even if Mick and I cannot afford to build our dream house on Avalon, we will have a little cabin to retire to someday.<br /><br />I did not see the chicks today because they were inside the coop instead of pecking around outside. Mel asked me not to go to the coop because the chiggers are so bad in that part of the meadow. But she says that they are doing well, rapidly growing to adulthood. The hens are not laying well, though. Perhaps it is the season.<br /><br />The new cat, Mr. J, is a delightful little being. Unlike Mel’s previous cat, Raffles, who disappeared some months ago, the Jay Man is a domesticated cat who loves laps and sleeps at the bottom of Mel’s bed at night rather than catting around outdoors. He is a pretty animal, a smoke-gray American short-haired domestic cat with yellow eyes. And he’s chatty. He will be good company for Melissa. She is presently pondering what the J stands for! I suggested Jesse and Junie, after an old farmer Mick knew when he lived on his land on Joner Creek, but Mel is thinking Jaguar! Mr. Jaguar has a nice ring to it!<br /><br />A visit to the outhouse revealed that Mel has spread wood chips all along the path from Sugar Shack to it. It’s such a pleasure to walk along the leveled, cleared, clean path! When I think of what she had to do to achieve that, I stand in amazement. The ground was all chopped up from when the crew built the utility shed some years ago. It was studded with stones and the ground was clay and hard as a rock. She had to use a pick-ax to bust the sod and she got so many rocks out of the area that she was able to build a cunning little flower bed using them. In so many ways, Avalon is sweetening and becoming more user-friendly thanks to Melissa's tender loving care.<br /><br />After Mel finished her tractor work, I closed my book and we visited the outhouse and Mr. Jay. Then we treated ourselves to a burger at Shipley’s, across the Ohio River in Madison, Indiana, about seven miles upriver from Avalon. It is a lovely drive down into the town and Madison itself is quite charming, the main streets spruced up for tourists. Madison is a tourist destination all year round, but especially during the Madison Regatta. It has many Victorian homes that have been preserved and the architecture of the town is classic river-town brick, also well preserved in many cases. <br /><br />We used the time as a planning meeting, both for Avalon issues and for the upcoming Homecoming. Shipley’s is a funky, dark, atmospheric old place, narrow and long, with an old-fashioned wooden bar stretching halfway back into the space and antique copper tiling for the ceiling. I had a great time there!<br /><br />I realized after I dropped Mel off at Avalon and was heading back to Camelot that I had forgotten to sing to Avalon. Gads! How could I have forgotten? I will remember next time for sure.Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-49354132200683245402008-08-02T12:41:00.002-04:002008-08-02T12:47:55.923-04:002008-08-01I drove up to Avalon today amidst a wealth of lovely wildflowers along the fields and roadsides: the mustard yellow of goldenrod, the delicate white of Queen Ann’s Lace and the rich indigo of chicory. The summer is in full spate, with a sauna-like heat and an ever-changing array of fluffy, drifting swathes of clouds. A recent rain had made the ground just right for working with our big tractor, a tall 1975 Massey-Ferguson beast we call M.F. <br /><br />Mel is not overly concerned that she will make an error on the machine. She is now well used to it and handles it as well as Mick, if not better. However she wanted to work on the steepest part of the access road today, smoothing the crown of the road down to the level of the ruts and then driving over the flat road with the big wheels to settle the roadbed. She wanted to have me on hand on the off—chance that the top-heavy machine, perched on the crown of the road, might tilt over into the abyss. I was her “911” call on the hoof. <br /><br />I brought up some reading from my Great Office Clean-Up, Papa’s journals for the last six months, which I have barely cracked. However I also brought up a fascinating novel by Catherine Coulter, one of her FBI novels, and was lost to the world, tracking down a psychopath in a business suit and well guarded with power and influence. Nya-ha-ha! The villain was well and truly caught at last!<br /><br />In the midst of her work, Mel stopped for lunch and brought us both back a box of chicken and fixings from the little convenience store that lives with the Marathon gas station at the top of our hill. The food was delicious and we planned as we ate, chewing through the final decision to buy 4 of the size 16 rims and 4 size 16 tires for Moonshine, our new Dodge Ram, thanks to a generous contribution by Bob R. Mel had found an amazing bargain – 4 rims for $35 each and 4 wheels for $25 each, both used but quite serviceable. Mel called me later in the day to let me know that the truck handles much, much better now that it has the right paws! I was so glad to hear that!<br /><br />Melissa has outdone herself in industry and improvement of the site since I was last here. Now the floor of Sugar Shack is varnished all one color, a deep mahogany, while the walls are the pale yellow of the first narcissus of the spring. The place is far brighter! And the ceilings, which used to be an odd combination of silver and bare wood, are now white. This has cleaned the cabin up tremendously and lightened and brightened the feel of the place. <br /><br />Mind you, there is still a roof to replace, if we want the cabin to be dry. There are still shelves to custom-build into the snug spaces with which Melissa has to work, in order to bring order to her storage. But she has carried to the Trimble county dump and discarded the disintegrating furniture from which she kept getting splinters or stabbing herself with joining brads. She had repaired the pieces again and again, but they were on Avalon in the first place because we had discarded them. So now all the junk is gone! <br /><br />We need a recliner and a table and chairs badly, and Mel could really use some office furniture – a desk, a desk chair and file storage – but she is a thrifty woman and would rather live with less furniture for a while than go buy things retail which she feels she will run into naturally as she visits yard sales in the area.<br /><br />The drive up and back book-ended a perfectly lovely day on Avalon. Her sweet spirit soughed gently through the full-green trees. I sang her a song or two, and enjoyed the enlivening energy I always feel there. I have been told that Avalon is a psychic scoop, being a long valley completely surrounded by knobs, so that whatever you bring to Avalon is intensified. I must bring a happy soul to her, because I always feel tremendous joy and relaxation there.<br /><br />Mel talked some about how she is moving so slowly, and feels that she is not getting all the things done she wanted to do this summer. However I know that like most service-to-others-oriented people, she just sets her expectations too high to match. In point of fact, she has done an amazing amount of work there, and it shows!<br /><br />This was the first time I was here since we lost Russell Crow, our rooster, and two of the Golden Comet hens. The chicks Mel picked up in Cincinnati on her way back from Bob R’s place in Toledo with the Ram are now about half-grown and were happily pecking away at their food in their coop on the porch. They will soon be old enough to introduce to Dusty Rose and Goldie, our remaining two hens, in the big coop. <br /><br />I did not wander far on Avalon because Mel said that the fields were swarming with chiggers, very nasty little biting insects to which I am allergic. However on a trip to the outhouse over Mel’s nicely mulched path, I could see that the bottom land by the creek was all mown, and Avalon was in good order. All of that reflects a tremendous output of work. And Mel is keeping up with it despite a recent rash of equipment failures. Our DR brush mower, the tractor, the small mower and the truck have all needed repairs in the last month. Go Mel!<br /><br />She is now looking forward to welcoming Gary and his guests tomorrow. His sister and her boyfriend, his friend Jessica and her boyfriend and Valerie will join him there for an afternoon at the farm. I hope Melissa puts them to use! The guests were in town for the Dave Matthews band concert which occurred this evening. <br /><br />And then she will ready Avalon for those who wish to visit on Labor Day, after our Homecoming 2008 closes the previous evening.<br /><br />We need water on Avalon pretty badly, and so Mel’s next priority will be to arrange for a well to be drilled. Her mushroom logs are very dry and she currently has no way except rain dances to get water to them. She fears that she may lose the whole crop because of the aridity. Fortunately our friend, Shane, of the Law of One Community, will be able to help her with fresh starts, once we do have the well.Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-17098162098606770552008-04-20T17:11:00.000-04:002008-04-20T17:12:15.687-04:002008-04-19Jim needed to take a load of storm debris up to Avalon and I had promised Avalon, the last time we were there, that I would come back and sing for her, so we set out after lunch on this unpromising, gray and chilly day, the temperature in the 50s F and the sky stormy. It is the very peak of spring! None of the bulbs has blown yet, so color is added upon color, tulips to daffodils, everywhere. Wildflowers abound, aconite, snowdrops and violets rampant in our yard and along meadows and roadsides. Most trees are blushing light green with the first hint of leaf-buds and all of the fruit trees are either in bloom or, in the case of peach trees, blushing pale pink with the first days of opening the buds. The lilac is coming out now and the forsythia still holds sway along the wayside.<br /><br />We went up on the Marathon and Methodists route, a country route, staying off the expressways. At each of the first four turns, there is a Marathon gas station. At the final turn, there is a Methodist church. It was the perfect route for gazing at the glory of springtime. Occasionally the thrill of eating so much eye candy would overcome me and I’d start thanking the Lord out loud. Joy poured through me.<br /><br />Melissa had the tractor on the road with the grading box behind it when we got there. She had said she hoped very much to be able to do some road work today, since this is the longest dry spell we have had. I was so glad to see she had succeeded! I felt badly at her having to stop to let us by, but she said not to worry. She had come to a good stopping place and would start right there tomorrow, if the road was still dry enough to work. <br /><br />I cannot tell you how happy I felt to see our equipment in use! It has long sat idle and in fact Melissa has been working on just getting our tractor back to working order for a couple of months. A flat tire and a bad solenoid have been replaced, as well as the battery. Attachments and parts have been acquired. And research goes into all of this, as Mel learns the tractor and how it works.<br /><br />The grading box does a great job! We could see the vast improvement where she had been working. And she has done much more than ride the tractor back and forth. Jim’s system of dams and ditches has been restored, which is many hours of work to do, with much digging and heavy lifting. <br /><br />Mel is little but strong and tough, used to construction work and experienced at working with tools. She is just learning this tractor, though. She seemed quite competent to me, but she herself feels it will take much more practice before she feels fully confident.<br /><br />She had prepared some torn greens, raw fruit, raw vegetables and croutons as a treat for us to feed to the chickens, who at first fled, seeing us invade their hen run. But gradually, Melissa coaxed them out with her, “Allez, allez,” and they came close enough to espy the goodies. Then they were ready to come closer and we sat with the five hens and rooster for about a half hour, just talking about Avalon Farm business. It is the closest we have gotten to our new babies.<br /><br />Mel has inspected the mushroom plugs which Shane brought down from Canada last week and says that they are all just fine; some of them ready to inoculate into the prepared logs while others are not quite ready. This is our first try at a crop we know Avalon can grow and that’s exciting. <br /><br />Vara planted a kitchen garden several summers back, but we knew ahead of time that until we dig a good well at Avalon, the draught season is too severe for the plantings to survive, while in rainy weather, the garden plot is situated in a dip in the meadow where it routinely floods. Vee moved heaven and earth and spent most of her time that summer carrying water from the creek to the plants and did harvest a bunch of cucumbers and zucchini, which are both extremely hardy crops. <br /><br />Melissa is now working on the kitchen garden plot, rebuilding the area by adding dirt when she gets it from her road work as well as – literally – tons of compost. Her intention is to keep doing so until there is no longer a drainage problem. She has also finished fencing it. When the last volunteer left in 2005, there were two sides of the fence erected. She finished the job. A fence is absolutely necessary as we have deer and other critters who like young plants. <br /><br />However she has no plans to grow such a garden this year, which I feel is very wise. She is swamped in construction. She would like to build a pole barn for our equipment. She also wants to build a fence around our pasture so that we can keep alpacas and llamas. In addition to all that, she is far from finished with her plan for improving our access road, which is half a mile long and still in need of lots of TLC.<br /><br />Everywhere I look, I see Melissa’s loving care reflected. Like many service-to-others-oriented people, Mel is very self-deprecating. But her hard labor shows everywhere! Our peach tree is saved – it was listing heavily and dying – and bearing bloom! A pretty new flower bed has been made from a pile of stones left in the meadow by former volunteers. Paw-paw trees just were planted as well as lots of black locust starts which she got from a forestry program which gives away certain species of trees to farmers in the attempt to put good trees in. <br /><br />Cedar trees that are not native to this region but were imported have gone wild around here. The idea is to take out the intruders and replant the Kentucky native species. The state and county agents have been to visit and one of these agents has marked many trees for removing in order to clear the canopy and make room for our Kentucky native trees. <br /><br />All in all, Mel is a wise woman not to try to garden on top of the mushroom farming, road work, tree work, pole-barn building and fence construction!<br /><br />After we had sat long enough with Russell Crow, Dusty Rose and the four Golden Comets to start getting chilled, we left the chicken run. Mick and Melissa loaded the trailer, now empty of the limb-load, with the creek rocks which Mel has collected during the last week or so. Jim needs them to build a wall for a Jim’s Lawn Service customer. <br /><br />And I got out my hymnal and sang until they were finished. It feels good to sing to Avalon, who really appreciates it. And it feels good to be resting in the heavenly vibrations of sacred song, just on my own account. It felt very healing.<br /><br />We had another lovely ride home, staying on another country road, US 42, all the way in to Louisville. Avalon feels full of promise, and certainly full of love and devotion.Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-11253351585516366572008-02-13T06:36:00.000-05:002008-02-13T06:37:11.282-05:002008-02-11On a beautiful day, I took Tom C and Neil C to visit Avalon Farm. The late winter weather had paled the roadside grasses to dun and the leafless trees stood with dignity and beauty, touching bare fingers to a cloudless sky.<br /><br />Melissa was working on the access road when we got there, sawing away at a culvert which she hoped to place before dark today. It was so good to see her bright and shining face and her impish grin! She graciously broke away from her work long enough to walk Tom and Neil around, showing them our chickens and rooster, the beautiful chicken house and run she has built, and all the features which they could reach. They could not cross Locust Creek today to see the other part of Avalon which lies on its far side, as recent generous rains have raised it above our walk-across stones.<br /><br />While they walked about I sang to Avalon, having brought my hymnal. She always asks for my singing, bless her! <br /><br />Both men felt the magic of our farm! We talked on the way home about our hopes of bio-dynamic farming there, expressing in our lives the principles of the Law of One. This is a precious dream, and we move towards its manifestation with no hurry and no worries, just our intention, firmly set, and our will and faith.Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-78117653293792809712008-01-13T17:21:00.000-05:002008-01-13T17:27:21.511-05:002008--01-12Going up to Avalon is always a joy! And it was a gorgeous day, just cool enough for a light jacket, with a few clouds to set off the blue sky and pretty sunshine to turn the roadside grasses to bronze and gold. Jim had some limbs to drop off along the access road at places where he and Melissa are working to keep the roadway from eroding. I was feeling distinctly under the weather and the ride was just the thing to lift my spirits.<br /><br />Avalon's half-mile of steep access road is very picturesque, being carved out of the side of a ravine. In wet weather such as we have had for the last week, linns – little wet-weather waterfalls - spring out from the rock facing the road, across the chasm at the bottom of which flows the feeder creek, a tributary to Locust Creek, the big creek that runs through Avalon’s bottomland and, eventually, in to the Ohio River. <br /><br />We found Mel hard at work at the side of the access road and she and Mick took all the limbs and other yard debris from a half dozen of his customers and dropped it at the spot where there is the worst erosion.<br /><br />She took a break to introduce me to all the animals – Raffles, our kitten, rapidly growing into a full-sized tabby mouser, Vinnie, our newly castrated steer, our rooster, Russell Crow, and our five chickens, a girl band called Dusty Rose and the Golden Comets. The chickens were glad to see Melissa, who gave them a treat. What a great chicken house we have! Kudos to Mel, who built the whole thing, plus a large run, from scratch and without help. I collected a couple of eggs from her special hinged doors and we tried to coax Vinnie to come near and say howdy, but he was wary.<br /><br />The farm has a very tidy, loved feeling to it, thanks to Melissa’s constant care and affection and everything looked just grand. She had done quite a bit of limbing on the small cedars which Mick felled some time ago and is starting to accumulate poles to use in building her next three projects, a lean-to for Vinnie, who has outgrown the first one she made him, a lean-to for our equipment and a cabin for herself. Everything has a glow! She has made the place shine. The devas are definitely happy at Avalon Farm.<br /><br />We looked at well sites. I encouraged Mel to have the dowser look for the best spot close to her future homestead and plan to dig there. It will be expensive, but <em>well </em>worth it (LOL) if we can then irrigate crops and have gray water, at least, for Melissa.<br /><br />All too soon we said farewell to sweet Avalon and drove home through the first rays of sunset, as I swung my sunshade from the front window to the side window again and again. The road home curves south, then east, and so the sun plays tag with us. <br /><br />Halfway home I realized I had forgotten to sing for Avalon. She always loves to be serenaded. I shall do it next time for sure!Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-34986083367214736732007-09-24T11:32:00.000-04:002007-09-24T11:37:45.443-04:002007-09-03The day after Homecoming, Bob R took me to a delicious and outstanding lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s, home of my favorite “triple prime” burger, plus a starter of wonderful crab cakes. With my tummy in seventh heaven, I joined him for a ride up to Avalon.<br /><br />The first of the leaves were turning, which is quite early for our area, but I believe this extended draught has caused a good deal of early leaf-fall and, sadly, some deaths where trees have not been watered. We saw many brown-leaved trees along the roads going up. The crops seemed to be through early, and to bear a smaller yield, also because of the draught, I imagine. <br /><br />Lorena L and her darling infant daughter had been there before us, Melissa told us when we drove down the access road to meet her. Even where the shade is deepest, we could see the distressed condition of the flora. Even the weeds were wilting. The creek’s feeder and the creek itself were bone-dry.<br /><br />Melissa has been working every day on the chicken coop, which runs along Locust Creek, but far enough away that the chickens do not pollute the creek water with their droppings. It is almost finished, now! It is a tremendous achievement, which Mel has done solo and without blueprints, as none of the ones she saw were right for Avalon. So she has done all the figuring herself.<br /><br />In addition, the thrifty woman that she is, Melissa has scavenged construction materials from the ruins of an ancient house on Avalon which now lies in a heap. So, many of the boards in the coop are century-old yellow poplar. This makes the building so much more interesting to me, as it is a piece of living history, preserving more than a bit of Avalon’s past. She says she will build the run next, fencing it all around and overhead as well to protect the hens from predators, which are in abundance on Avalon. We have flocks of buzzards that roost around the old ruins. She has not roofed the coop permanently yet, being undecided about materials. It is temporarily covered securely, however.<br /><br />She reported that, all things continuing on schedule with the construction, she would be ready to receive the chickens next weekend! I am so excited! It is our very first step towards bio-dynamic farming.<br /><br />It was sweltering hot, about 100 F, but Mel was working away! Her chain saw's rough song accompanied Bob’s walk, with his camera, over Melissa’s shorter path. Meanwhile I was glad to rest back in the comfortable nest Mel has created for me on the back porch, sing a song to Avalon, read a book to its end, do a double-crostic puzzle and nap.<br /><br />Just when Mel decided to take a break from her labors, Bob obligingly returned from his walking tour. He broke out some ice cream, which he had in his car cooler, and a fresh watermelon and Bob and Melissa had a small feast! I was too full to eat again, but did drink at least a half-gallon of water. <br /><br />As we were conversing, the telephone rang and it was Mick, wondering where I was! That’s the country for you. I thought it was about two hours earlier than it really was! So we gathered up our things and sailed back to Louisville in Bob’s sporty Subaru.<br /><br />Bob put his photos on our computer before he left, so we could include a few shots in this log entry, and took off to Michigan and his home at dusk, armed with a sandwich and a couple of bananas from our kitchen.Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-84336626350899276302007-08-06T06:51:00.000-04:002007-08-06T07:00:41.060-04:002007-08-04Mick and I went up to Avalon for a picnic this afternoon. Carmen had helped me make some picnic goodies and others also contributed food and drink. We had a feast indeed! It was a thoroughly enjoyable time of resting in the sweetly powerful ambiance of Avalon Farm. Seven besides Mick and I shared the time and conversation – Melissa herself, Avalon’s resident caretaker, Carmen, Steve F, Gary B and his girlfriend, Valerie, her seven-year-old daughter, Ocean and their young neighbor, Ocean’s friend Brennan. A very good time was had by all.<br /><br />Jim and I walked through Sugar Shack in awe! The last time I was there the rooms smelled musty. There were unidentified plastic bags of things and heaps of this and that throughout the cabin that needed investigation. Mick had spent some off-season winter time hauling away trailer loads of trash, so the worst of the mess left by departing volunteers was gone. But much remained to identify and dispose of.<br /><br />Patiently and determinedly, Melissa had gone through every bag and pile. We sent two packets of things to Bruce P, one each to Vara L and Parnell S. We had to toss the bulk of the things left behind, as the cabin becomes infested with field mice whenever it is unoccupied for long, and the mice had made the garments and other items useless by making nests in them. <br /><br />Then Melissa had cleaned and cleaned until the place smelled normal again. And how she is able to do this in wilderness conditions is something at which I marvel! However, she has done it. She also has arranged the cabin’s rooms, after making temporary repairs to the floor in the back room so we can use that room again. Now there is a place for tools, one for parts like nuts and bolts, a kitchen area with a clean fridge, and an office area with files and desk, all orderly and organized. The living/bedroom, usually called the Stove Room as the wood-burning stove that makes the cabin habitable in cold weather is there, now has a bed set up for any time I should wish to sleep overnight there. Melissa made the wooden frame that inclines the head of the bed herself. All is tidy and sweet-smelling, it is an incredible accomplishment!<br /><br />Outside, her work is everywhere. The meadow had a pile of rocks in it, which Mel has now dismantled and replaced in the walls of the fire pit. All the dooryard grass is neatly trimmed. She has rescued our one peach tree and you can see the new growth. She has built an outhouse – the volunteers tore down the old one – which works beautifully, and she used good poplar from the ruins of another house which is on our property, so it looks rustic and folksy as well as functional; altogether charming. <br /><br />And she has re-created her old nature trails. She had made two: a ninety-minute trail and a twenty-minute trail. I have not looked closely at the map she gave us yet, but I believe she has added more trails now. All the trails are trimmed and covered with home-made mulch which she chipped and shredded using the balky machine which she has available there. <br /><br />And now she’s talking chickens! And the possibility of growing ginseng! <br /><br />The situation with power availability is clearing. We cannot get water at Avalon at all. That’s a no-go. We shall either dig a well or buy a big cistern. I suggested that we place rain barrels around where they would collect water from the Sugar Shack and the Ute's roofs. We may do that soon.<br /><br />And we cannot get electricity until we have a building permit. Since we will not have one of those until an unknown period of time passes, where we are able to save enough to afford to build the passive solar house whose plans we now possess, that means that we continue with the solar power we do have.<br /><br />The volunteers who replaced Melissa in late 2003 did many good things there. They built the Ute, a shed which houses the solar panel’s batteries. They repaired and strengthened the shack, renewed the wood stove, completely redid the smokestack for the stove and screened in the back porch. As well, they wired the cabin to use the solar power and Vara covered all the walls with insulating material, as previously the structure was a sieve, with nothing but the shrinking, century-old boards of the outer walls between the occupants and the winter winds. Melissa intends to continue Vara’s good work there by finishing that job, covering the inner walls' construction materials with dry wall.<br /><br />On the access road, Mel has worked to even the road and stop its washing, which had begun as soon as we dumped new gravel there last winter. The road is doing very well, probably the best I have ever seen it.<br /><br />Mick and I were just thrilled with the progress. Looking a year ahead, I can definitely see the growing possibility of using the location for a retreat during our Channeling Intensives, as I have hoped we could.<br /><br />The last time I actually explored Avalon’s buildings to assess their condition, before Bruce left, well over a year ago now, I was somewhat dismayed at the ramshackle condition of everything, inside and outside. However on the way home that early spring day, a tornado passed very near. My car-mate and I had ducked into a coffee shop to escape the worst of the storm and when we got back on the road home, we saw not one but two double rainbows. I took that as a sign that Avalon’s promise still held true; that Jim’s and my dream for these acres, of developing a spiritual center there as well as an organic, bio-dynamic farm, was still on the metaphysical table.<br /><br />This time, as Mick and I drove home, we received – and this is a miracle, since we are deeply draughty here – a soaking, wonderful, deep rain lasting at least a half-hour. The Creator once agin encourages Jim and me to believe in our dream and to move forward with it in gentle, natural ways. Melissa makes this far more possible, with her solid and persistent labors. I am so happy that the Board of L/L Research has funded her position. She will be able to abide there for the next year, continuing her good work.<br /><br />I sat in the shadow of Sugar Shack, the picnic table groaning with food and fiesta in the air as we enjoyed each other and the day, looking at the washes of Queen Ann’s Lace in the meadow and the stark beauty of the teasels along the fence line, reflecting on how very much has happened there since we welcomed our batch of volunteers in 2003. Each volunteer contributed what they could. Each, I think, received as much truth there as they could abide. And each moved on without acrimony, for the most part, and remaining good friends with us. <br /><br />The cream of the crop remains: Carmen and Romi have made homes in Louisville for themselves but constantly come to Camelot and Avalon to volunteer their time. Gary has remained with us in the house and we three – Mick, Gary and I – have found a seamless and seemingly effortless way to be a household together and get all the needed chores done without any trouble or friction. And now Melissa has returned to take up her original job on Avalon. <br /><br />And we love each other, so the vibrations in both Camelot and Avalon are splendid. It has been a fascinating time, and Jim and I have learned much. We are also glad indeed that the community has matured to this point. We have fallen upon happy days here.<br /><br />Much – in fact most – remains to be done if we are to move there. However, this is a wonderful start! Kudos to Melissa! And thanks be to God.Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-80608277166593254312007-06-04T06:56:00.000-04:002007-06-04T06:58:06.732-04:002007-06-02I accompanied Mick to Avalon today, a delightful holiday for me from the workaday world. It is so good to see all the foliage along our route in good health again. Only the Bradford pears have been seriously damaged, of all the trees. They received some kind of bacteriological blight which affected places where the freeze had caused ulcerations in the bark.<br /><br />The country comes to new life this time of year. There were brand new tobacco sets out wherever we looked, and one amazingly large field of tomato sets. Now there’s one ambitious farmer! Soy beans and peppers were also being planted and the apple and peach trees were in much fuller and healthier shape than a month ago when I was up this way.<br /><br />By golly, the largest barn I have ever seen was still standing. Ever since we bought Avalon Farm nearly twenty years ago, we’ve been expecting it to collapse. It is no longer used, as the farm has been sold off for houses, the new crop of exurbia. It is entirely overgrown with various vines. It leans. It totters. But amazingly, it’s still standing! When we pass that barn, we’re almost at Avalon.<br /><br />The wild flowers were gone from the steep banks of the ravine along the access road. Everything has greened out now and all the small weeds are growing happily away in the permanent shade of that access road. In the dooryard, the iris was in bloom, and the clematis climbing the back porch of Sugar Shack was in glorious blossom up to the roof. Two of the volunteers had refreshed the paint on the signs for Avalon and Sugar Shack, and they looked fine indeed. It is such a blessing to be here.<br /><br />I sang to Avalon and then did some work, hunting quotes for my next UPI article on Dana Redfield, while Mick repaired the fire pit and did some road work, as well as placing large bundles of branches along weak spots in the ravine bank which edges the access road, trying to head off more erosion.<br /><br />And then we came home amidst a very much needed rain! I could almost hear the earth drinking up the much-needed water.Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3705137386712584603.post-71204068447422793142007-05-02T12:03:00.000-04:002007-05-02T15:33:56.238-04:002007-05-02This entry is a true catch-up entry, spanning several visits I made to Avalon’s sweet acres, only two of which I shall describe in detail.<br /><br />Firstly, though, I would like to offer some thoughts on the transition from November of 2005, when Hotaru (Vara) made her last entries in the Avalon Journal, until now, in May of 2007..<br /><br />There was a dwindling of the volunteers at Avalon through the summer and fall of 2005. All the people left for their own, personal reasons. All left on good terms with us. But each did leave, until only Hotaru/Vara and Bear/Bruce were left on the farm. Hotaru decided to move into town and stayed with us briefly at Camelot before moving to another old farm near Shelbyville, Kentucky where she stayed until just this last month, when she departed for Georgia.<br /><br />That left Bruce all on his own at the farm as of November. Bruce was in poor health. Jim and I decided to close the construction portion of the Avalon project. There was no crew to do Bruce’s bidding and without a crew, he could not function. Also we reckoned with the actual cost of feeding and paying the expenses for all the volunteers and discovered that we could not sustain the effort. We never could recruit donations from the public at large for this project and so the expenses had fallen on Jim and me entirely.<br /><br />We offered Bruce the opportunity to stay on Avalon and begin working with the land bio-dynamically. However this prospect did not intrigue Bruce. He was not fond of living so roughly or of farming. He felt that he was better at construction than farming. At the time there were people out west whom he felt he could help more with his construction know-how than he could help L/L Research. So we shipped his back hoe and his chattels back to his ranch and Avalon was peacefully empty of living souls once more.<br /><br />Just before Bruce left – I cannot find the exact date, but I believe it was sometime in January or early February of 2005 – I took a journey to Avalon, bringing with me Dr. Steven Johnson, an osteopath, alternative healer and bio-dynamic farming fan. He wished to see the land, as he had some friends who were looking for good bio-dynamic land in this area. He thought perhaps they and L/L Research could collaborate.<br /><br />Johnson did not feel, upon viewing the property, that Avalon was a candidate for his friends' projects, which involved farming in the meadow area, our only cleared acreage. It both floods in wet weather and is draughty for several months at summer’s end each year. This removed our land from his consideration.<br /><br />However he loved the place. He described it as a psychic collector. Whatever one brought to Avalon would intensify until one had to face it. This explained at least in part why so many volunteers had found it a challenging experience to live there! It was a real hothouse for transformation and if one was not ready to change, one needed to leave!<br /><br />For Jim and me, however, this feature has always been a real plus. We experience Avalon as a place which loves us and can’t wait to see us. Perhaps after working with spiritual processes for decades, we are more willing to change under Avalon’s influence. For whatever reason, we have always experienced the farm as a wonderfully empowering place.<br /><br />I was heartbroken to see the scars which had been left on our land by unfinished projects. The meadow was full of all sorts of metal debris; nails, bolts, pieces of metal and other building materials were apparently left where they had fallen. A failed effort to plow the meadow had ruptured the land with several huge furrows, far too wide for planting – more like ditches. These had been left as they were. Construction materials were placed here and there along the meadow as if planning for projects to come. When the projects were abandoned, the materials remained.<br /><br />Two sides of a fence had been put up, presumably for a garden. The project lay abandoned. Our ancient well had been filled in with dirt.<br /><br />Trees and bushes had been torn down because of their “negative energy” and left to rot where they lay. At this point Bruce was unable to work. So things of nature on Avalon were in a royal mess.<br /><br />However, much work had been done to improve Sugar Shack. There were many jacks under the floor firming up the building, which is at least 150 years old, and looks it! Vara and Parnell had lovingly restored the old one-eye cook-stove. Vara had insulated the rooms in use in the Shack and she and Bruce had screened in the back porch. The tin roof was re-painted, a hard job done well by the crew.<br /><br />And since we had solar power to the utility shed and Sugar Shack thanks to Bruce and the crew’s building efforts, there was minimal “civilized” comfort possible in the valley now. All of this was a blessing and Jim and I greatly appreciated the improvements.<br /><br />An unfortunate decision had been made to take down Jim’s system of ditches and drains on the access road in favor of a system of culverts and pipes. This new system did not work, and the road was perilously close to dropping down into the ravine made by a feeder creek into the Locust Creek which bisects our meadow. Both on the access road and in the meadow, the big back hoe had been too much of a good thing, and the whole area was muddy as the big machine churned up pasture and road as it went.<br /><br />I got back on the road with Steve J, my head whirling with the mostly bad news of Avalon’s situation! I had had no idea how chaotic and toxic things had gotten on Avalon. Yet at the same time I felt, as I have felt from the first time we saw Avalon together in 1985, that this land is sacred, beautiful and special.<br /><br />Steve suggested that we look into growing wild herbs at the edges of the woods as opposed to doing traditional farming. We had no water on the land and no system of irrigation which could draw off the creek’s flow, so normal farming was out for us down there.<br /><br />Steve and I had an interesting conversation on these points, and we were absorbed in it, only slowly becoming aware, as we drove along, that something serious was happening with the weather. It grew very bad indeed. We had driven over the bridge into Madison, Indiana, as Dr. J wanted to check out the downtown area there for his bio-dynamic researcher friends. The sky got so black and the winds whipped up so much that we parked and went into a coffee shop there to wait out the storm.<br /><br />We found out later that several full-blown tornados had ripped through the area. It was a very good thing we were off-road for that short period of time! Steve and I had a nice cuppa and suddenly the world was smiling again, the storm having washed the weather clean and calm. So we got back on the road to come home.<br /><br />About ten miles into the fifty-mile trip, we saw an amazingly complete double rainbow. All the colors were there, and there twice. It was just breath-taking! We parked for a while and just took it all in. After a few minutes, it began to fade and we took up our journey again, only to find another, equally spectacular double rainbow across our path. Again, we pulled over and communed with its beauty. This one lasted for almost half an hour.<br /><br />Rainbows are traditionally signs of good news, promises for the future, and I believe that our rainbows were Avalon’s promise: it was still good land; community there was still a good idea; all was well.<br /><br />A year has passed since those rainbows graced my eyes. Thanks to grants from generous donors, I have been able to spend this last year working on creative projects here at Camelot. I have not returned to Avalon except once or twice until this last Sunday. Jim has been going up on weekends and working to clear the debris left by our volunteers. All the metal and construction material is now picked up, so he can mow the meadow again. Fescue, a wonderfully aggressive grass, has re-covered almost all of the muddy places in the meadow that the big back-hoe had torn up. Jim took three truck-loads of debris from inside Sugar Shack and the utility shed and from the dooryard area and spruced things up tremendously. Jim continued to clean up during this visit last Sunday while I settled myself by the creek and just enjoyed the beauty.<br /><br />In this past year, we have refined our own plans for moving to Avalon. We have retained a passive solar architect, Gary Watrous, and he has created for us plans for a house for us and the L/L Research work. We cannot at this time afford to build that house, so our plan now is to save and look forward to the day when we can make that move.<br /><br />There is a Library in that house-to-be! How sweet it will be to have allof our books in one room! And what a beautiful space that will be for L/L Gatherings! We have much to envision and imagine into manifestation!<br /><br />Jim intends to go up to Avalon on weekends all this summer and work more on the road, which is again washing in spite of our pouring a large amount of new gravel on the road. He recently poured concrete on the worst of the washed areas, an emergency save that worked. Under Jim’s tender care, I know Avalon will soon be completely recovered from our volunteers’ involuntary damage.<br /><br />I have no ill will for any of the volunteers, all of whom were doing their absolute best at all times. The experiment of having people on Avalon without our being there to oversee and direct the work taught me a tremendous amount and I count it all as an experience well worth the gaining. I am just thankful that everyone’s patterns, which brought them to us with such high hopes, worked out so that all beings left us with their hearts and our hearts in good harmony and our mutual affections remaining bright and clear. These are the real treasures to store away in memory.<br /><br />The future beckons. I would love to do channeling intensives on Avalon next year. By then, the place might be ready. We shall see! Meanwhile the land waits, singing its song of wildflowers and wind, running creek and limestone bedrock not too far beneath the soil. Fair indeed are Avalon’s hills and valley! I look forward to the ever-unfolding story of Avalon.Carla L. Rueckert-McCartyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11400564650723855696noreply@blogger.com0