Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

Yesterday was an apple picking day. We've got a few people coming to the house for the weekend to take part in a yoga retreat and the person who runs it asked that we have fruit available. The most abundant fruit we have right now are apples. We drove the truck over to the Big White House, where the apple trees grow, and spent a few hours picking apples. Alex hopped on top of the truck while Jos collected the ones that fell to the ground. I climbed into a few of the trees to reach some of the higher apples. Finally a reason to climb on the job. I've been missing that.



After we had picked an insane amount of apples, we hung around on the grass. Max and Sarah began to do some two-person yoga, which prompted Alex to start throwing apples at them from the top of the truck.



This then turned into an apple fight and I can not be blamed for the crack in the windshield of the truck because Alex started the whole thing. Just kidding.



I ate so many apples I got a stomach ache. WELL WORTH IT!

A few days before this apple escapade, Oliver asked Alex to build a sweat lodge for a little party that was planned. No one had ever built one before, but Alex had spent some time in one, so he was put in charge. It actually worked really well. A fire pit was made outside of the sweat lodge and we spent all day heating rocks in the fire and by the time we climbed in there, just having the rock in the lodge made it warm. I highly recommend that anyone with the space, should hurry up and make themselves a sweat lodge. It was the perfect way to end a busy few days. Oliver has been feeling rather stressed so I know it was nice for him to relax. Theo attempted to lead a Vision Quest, but that idea didn't really take off. I think we were all just happy to sit quietly and enjoy the heat.

We spent at least two hours in there. When I finally got out I felt so refreshed and clean. Oliver, Sarah, and Max jumped into the creek and then rushed back into the sweat lodge, which sounded like a great idea while we were in there talking about it, but quickly turned into a terrible idea as soon as I crawled out. The evening air was cold enough I think. It would probably have been the perfect time to take a quick shower with my skin being so open and amazing, but I pretty much just went inside and fell asleep. Mer.

The whole thing kind of reminded me of one of those typical College of Santa Fe gatherings, where some people couldn't wait to take off their clothes, and others were more inclined to stay fully clothed, while several people were somewhere in between, but the whole thing never became an issue. Those kinds of things are always the most comfortable. It kind of gives you an idea of the mix of people here. Maybe we're all idealists who want to grow organic food and sell it locally, but the idea of pushing everyone into the "Dirty Hippie" category really doesn't work. I'd like to really push this point towards my friends in New York.