Last year, or was it two years ago, about this time, two former staffers suggested that “their” cabin, Mossy Rock, sure could use a wider deck…. one with steps down to their closest bathroom, Underhill. Since I truly love decks, it wasn’t hard to say, “Sure… go for it! You design and build it, I’ll get the materials.”
They came up for a long weekend in October, along with another couple, prepared to get the cement piers placed… which they did, after removing the narrow older sturdily attached redwood deck.
Then, at the very end of February, the day after our intensive day of making 230 loaves of bread for a fundraiser in town…. the day OF making 100 loaves for another fundraiser…..Leap Weekend…. Brian, Marion, Stefon and Alia arrived in the evening with every kind of building tool imaginable neatly arranged in two pickups along with kids, ready to create! Kashaya had gone to the redwood mill that morning, and returned with gorgeous planed 2 x 6 decking…. every piece 18 feet long. Wow!
An adventure, for sure. Another former staffer, David, came up on Saturday to assist, along with one of the principals from our Willits schools, and fellow soprano in our choir, Julie. Everything was framed by the time it got dark.
Sunday, Stefon was down with something (not respiratory, so NOT Corvid-19) David and Julie were gone…. which left three strong women, along with Brian, to take on the the laying out, and screwing down, of the deck. And boy, did we do a magnificent job! I learned a lot…. (I don’t just want, I need an impact driver….) and figured that next year, during one of our ArtStays, we’re going to offer a workshop with a finished deck as our goal. Beautiful, creative, empowering! Witness Brian cutting a 12 inch slab of wood to outline Mossy Rock.
We help with the Willits Education Foundation’s Drive-through Tri-Tip Dinner fundraiser each February, by making a one pound+ loaf of bread to go with their barbecued tri-tip, cowboy beans, green salad and cookies (They sell 200 plus dinners, for $60/apiece), which nets them a goodly sum for additions to each classroom according to the teacher’s wishes. Thankfully, Kashaya helps me shape… and friends from town come to package (and share lunch and gossip….). Now, if only I can get a couple of people here the day after, to clean up and wash baking sheets!
The 29th was also the fundraiser for Willits Daily Bread, Sip Some Soup! To see the write-up in the local paper, Willits Weekly: http://willitsweekly.com/documents/WillitsWeekly_03052020_A&BPages.pdf
We make a bunch of bread for consuming, as well as for sale….. and our friend Sean, takes two vacation days away from his job, to come up to Emandal, to mix and and then bake his sourdough in our wood-fired oven. Realistically, if he would bake 2 or 3 times as much as he does, we could sell it all, it’s that delicious!
Twenty-one soups, just about the maximum number we can take, were entered this year…one by the Emandal Chorale. We tried to grab them with words, first…. “Sunshine Soup-A radiant amalgam of bright orange and yellow vegetables cheerfully blended with dazzling flavors of onion and ginger. The broth beams out brilliance illuminated with just the right amount of luminous coconut milk, perfectly paired with some glistening Meyer lemon juice and a hint of blazing hot pickled red pepper sauce. All organic. All vegan. Non-gluten. Scintillatingly aglow with first-place possibilities.” Alas, we served all three gallons…. received numerous accolades…. but didn’t manage to place. But next year…..
We’re still waiting for rain…. there’s been some moisture…. but not nearly enough. Who knows, maybe we’ll be inundated in April! Even so, spring is springing! Last year at this time, we were unable to make it into the garden to get anything planted…. but this year, we already have broccoli, carrots, beets, kale, dill, AND potatoes in! Amazing! Peas will go in this week, and next week, we should be planting onions. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant… all doing just splendidly in the greenhouse. 
And below, our three different quince bushes. Salmon, orange, and nearly red. Gorgeous!
