Here is a tiny poem about silence in the wildeness:
Only the footfalls of a chipmunk and me are audible in August;
mine compress the supple pine returning to earth and hers are tenacious.
We are here to ask why we are here.
The summer was our first “open for business” summer and the pandemic brought more people outdoors. It was amazing how far people would drive to be here – about 60 in all, many from all over Texas and even one from California. It was such a peaceful time and maybe the first time in my life I paid attention to the moonrise during the whole summer, giving me an awareness of cycles of time that I hadn’t had before.
We had two staff at different times. Sky and Erin are seen here extending a deck and prepping for paining the cafe.
We improved all the existing trails and built a couple more – the main focus of the summer work. One of the overlooks at the cliffs got renamed “Pretty Good Point” after trying out a bunch of other names, and a new trail goes to “Brownie Point”, both scary and awe-inspiring places.
Next summer when it’s safer, we hope for more rentals of the whole house for retreats. The jobs of marketing or fundraising for the second building are dormant and waiting for the right person to come along with those skills.
In service,
Star Ford, Program Manager