TRAVELING INTERMISSION

During our 14 years of “on the road”/travel trailer living, we did have an “intermission” of 2 years and even lived in a real house for a while!!

We met Hawk, a Native American flute maker and musician, at one of the Pow Wows we had set up at. 

We immediately hit it off and he invited us to come stay with he and his family at his acreage on the coast of Maine. In exchange for our travel trailer’s parking space we helped clear trails through the woods, stacked firewood and assisted with the frequent “gatherings” they had there where there were talking circles, sweat lodges, and other ceremonies.

Since Sky and I are active people we soon needed something else to do.  We hired ourselves out to clear brush and make trials for other people and I found a weekend job cleaning seaside rental cabins. 

This led to our house sitting position when the elderly mother of the owner died and caretakers were needed for the elderly cat.  A real house!!!!

What a pleasant shock that was!!   Unfortunately, it only lasted a few months as the cat soon died and the owners then wanted us out and it was winter!  It was too cold in Maine to spend it in our trailer so we went in search of a rental and found a very cute place right on the ocean where we spent a cozy winter, taking our daily walks on the rocky shore.

We decided that we would like to stay permanently in Sullivan so we bought a piece of land that abutted Hawk’s place.  Since there was no right of way to it, we had to approach a property owner that could give us a right of way.  This owner was a sweetheart and in addition to selling us a right of way she would also sell us a piece of her acreage.  In anticipation of all this going through we bought a 20 ft diameter yurt which we were able to erect on the land we intended to buy. 

In order to get to the yurt we had to walk about a quarter of a mile along a wood’s path that originated from Hawk’s place.   All of the yurt’s materials plus the building materials for the platform AND the wood stove, had to be hand carried in.  Thankfully, our friends and neighbors helped bring it all in one piece of lumber at a time, and also helped us set up the yurt.  We got the whole thing erected just as the first snow flakes of the season were falling.

We then spent all of our free time cutting, splitting and stacking wood in readiness for winter.  The yurt was positioned not far from a small stream so we could haul water in buckets for our washing needs.  We brought in our drinking water in bottles.  For refrigeration we dug a hole in the ground where we put a cooler to store our food.  Another cooler was kept inside the yurt where we kept food that we DIDN”T want to freeze as although yurt’s heat up very fast, they also cool down just as fast and if we were away for a day, things would freeze. Of course this cooling down fast issue that one of us had to put wood in the stove at least once a night in order to keep us warm and cozy.

So, we had the creek for water, the coolers for refrigeration and non-refrigeration, a stove for heat, headlamps for light and of course an outhouse for bathroom duties. 

We LOVED living there, hearing the outdoors as if we were outside but warm and cozy inside as the snow fell.We slept on a futon couch, carpeted the floor, had a camping stove for cooking and a great big easy chair for comfort.

We did have one scary incident though!  One night we heard a man drunkenly yelling and shooting a gun!  With only canvas walls between us and bullets, we lay on the floor as his rantings got closer and closer.  Finally, we heard his wife and son yelling for him and the shooting stopped.  After that though, we were just a little on edge at night!!

Life in Sullivan was great! 

We had lots of good friends, we were part of a very interesting meditation group, we had a metaphysical group that met often, we took night classes in art, sculpting and more at the local school, I had a job teaching adults that wanted to get their GEDs and I attended a weekly meeting at Marjorie Spock’s house where followers of Rudolf Steiner would gather to read his books and discuss them.  Marjorie was the sister of the famous “baby doctor”, Benjamin Spock and also the last living person to have studied in person with Rudolf Steiner.  A fascinating woman, in her late 90s, still working on her biodynamic farm, still translating Steiner texts from German to English and still teaching Eurythmy to students that came to her from all over the world.  Marjorie became a good friend that I would often visit and we kept in touch until her death at 103.

Unfortunately, after living in the yurt for a year and trying to get land issues settled, everything fell through, so we decided to sell the land we had bought and move on.  We dismantled the yurt, stored it in our friend’s barn, packed up the trailer, said good-bye to our friends and once more hit the road.

Until next time…..be wild and explore alternative living choices!!!