June 1, 2009

As usual, way behind on this blog, about two weeks right now. There has been so much to do since we got back, that the blog got delayed.

This is our first attempt at posting to the blog from the slow dial up internet connection in our yurt. If posting pictures doesn't work, it will have to wait until a rainy day trip to the library (too much to do around here when it's sunny).

We spent a few days moving into the yurt from Grand Junction. Getting back home felt unreal. It's not only peaceful, private and beautiful here, but there is so much that we want to do. We feel energized and full of vision here on our land.

Before we got too caught up in our own agenda, we wanted to visit Linc's mother and sister in Flagstaff, AZ, and while there, we took a Greyhound over to Fremont, CA to visit two of Jeanne's sisters, and to buy a waste veggie oil powered 1985 VW Jetta diesel in an attempt to lower our footprint, transportation-wise. The car made it all the way back to the off-ramp in Flagstaff before engine trouble began, which we thought was amazingly synchronistic. Our cars tend to always break down within a few miles of a friend's home, so we were happy to see that this new one already had found it's place in the family. We put the car on a dolly to tow it back up to yurtville behind the old Toyota pickup, and ordered a diesel engine compression test gauge so that we could begin diagnosing the malfunction.

The first photo is of the Jetta, at home on our land. What the heck is the name of the car in that TV Show "Night Rider"? Well, this one looks like a German made version of it, black paint, black wheels, darkened windows. No machine guns on this one though...

The second is taken from part way up the climb of Mt. Elden, on the southeastern side of the San Francisco Peaks, overlooking eastern Flagstaff. There's a good-spirit feel about Mt. Elden when you're up a ways on the side of it. I understand that the San Francisco Peaks are one of the four sacred mountain corners (the southwest, in this case) of the Navajo homeland. We climb there a lot when we're visiting, both for the exercise and for the feeling that results from being on the mountain. I think that in native traditions, the southwest direction is when you look back on what has been done, give thanks, and celebrate. Linc's mother is in assisted living in Flagstaff, so in some ways that southwest direction feels right in association with her stage in life.