Up In Smoke

Already I have opened a Christmas Gift this morning!  My niece wanted to share this whole thing with me so I opened the gift for her while she was still a-bed.
It's a censer - for burning sage incense. I will bless the ground where the Temple is to be constructed for the first time on Christmas Morning.  It will be blessed many more times before I recommence to Temple constructing in the Spring.  I will do this for two reasons:  1) so that the energy for the Temple stays strong in my heart and b) so that the energy of the Temple area stays sacred and strong.
Anyway here is a picture of it - it's brass and it's heavy and my niece said she had a wonderful conversation about the Temple with the little old man from the West Indies or thereabouts.
I am very excited about using it for the first time tomorrow.  It will also be perfect for sanctifying and blessing any homes that I bless in Spring.  (Can't do it in my own house though on account of I'm sure my parrot would not find anything sacred about it sage incense smoke).

And you can bet that I'm going to add all kinds of yarns and bells and beads to it eventually and I'm going to let it form a wonderful patina of soot and wax and smoke (might take a few years).  But yeah....it'll get all grunged up yet.

Some things are just too big

Like tree roots!  I really really do not want to use large earth moving machines and such for this project, but I am just not capable of pulling up tree roots and large roots rotting under the stone floor and foundations  - not good for the stability factor.  I'm truly hoping to get most of the Temple done with shear woman power (and probably some man power).


I did the best I knew though - previous to making this spot the 'official spot' I asked permission from these tree elementals and the Oak tree.  None of these trees were healthy and the energies of these tree elementals agreed to be moved to various other treed areas of my yard.  Admittedly, I am just learning to use my intuition in this way, but as far as I could tell the tree energies were pleased to help with this project.


Eventually I hope to plant evergreens behind the Temple and at that time I will ask these elementals if they wish to return to this area to help with the new trees.


After cleaning up this mess I will have to remove the ratty shed as well.  That is a beautiful Old Oak and it will look so wonderful as it leans it's protective branches over top of the Temple.


And I've added a few more loads of field stones to my ever growing pile here in the yard - I'm very pleased with it's progress.  Even if I don't get any of the foundation dug I will be happy cause of the amount of field stones.

More field stones

My brother found a fabulous pile of perfectly sized stones.  I asked the farmer for permission (granted) and have since been to the pile 3 times with Pappy's 3/4 truck.  Each time I have tossed rocks into the truck box for 45 mins.  This does not fill the box but it seems like a good amount of time for my wrists.  When I get home it takes about 1/2 an hour to unload.  All together one rock trip like this takes about 1 1/2 hrs.  A good amount of exercise I think.  And WoW does time ever fly when I'm tossing stones!

 
Notice the lovely Tall Leaning Pine tree that stands over the pile of rocks.  This is the only tree in the entire field - it's a big field.

Heard something about a Temple

Last fall, 2010 It occurred to me that I had to build a stone temple.  I decided it would be a Temple dedicated to Nature, hence the name:

FOX NATURE TEMPLE

Well that was only about a month before the snow was to start flying so the best I could do at that point was work on a design - which is what I've been doing all winter of 2010-2011.  Spring came and along with it rain, rain, rain, and rain and cold - summer started very late.

It's September 2011 already and I still haven't got the spade in the ground yet.  I am still so hoping that a major portion of the foundation trench will be dug before winter sets in.  I never really got a proper garden going either this summer (one of my goals) but I did manage some things:

Got the screen house done (local contractor actually)

Got the garage cleaned out, fixed up and painted.

Got through two weddings.

Blessed and cleared a new home.

Helped the family bring in three humungo loads of winter firewood.  We'll be good for at least two years now.  AND AND AND

My neighbour across the river brought be 3 mini buckets (he has a wee little mini front-end loader tractor thing) of field stones.  Then I went and brought about 5 loads (little utility trailer pulled behind my lawn mower) of stones from his field.  So that was the very beginning of my pile of stones.  One day my brother mentioned seeing a huge pile of stones in a farmer's field not far from here so I got permission from the farmer to take those stones.  I went with a 3/4 ton truck to collect stones for 45 minutes.  This gave me about 1/3 of the truck box full.  When all these stones are together on my yard - it still doesn't look impressive - but I will get more stones on the yard before winter and anyway it's a good beginning.

My second accomplishment was to decide the exact location.  All winter I was thinking of the temple going up in the back 40 under the young trees (all under 12 years) of my new growth forest.  But I finally decided that was too far from the house.  Then I couldn't decide where I wanted it.  I had thought about putting it under my 100 yr old Oak (I'm guessing), but that would mean demolishing a shabby shack, wiping out a few scraggly tiny-leafed elm trees and moving a compost pile - so I tried to think of other areas.  

Then one day I was talking to Pappy about chimney's and stone floors when he asked where exactly I was planting this temple.  I told him that I couldn't decide and that's one reason I hadn't actually started digging yet.  His first suggestion was: "Why not put it under the watchful, embracing arms of  the Wise Old Oak?"  I figured I couldn't argue with a Wise Old Man talking about a Wise Old Oak - now my goal is to get that area of ground cleared before the next new moon - should be a perfect time to start construction!

It would really be perfect if I could decide on a stone and chisel something pertinent on it and lay the corner stone.  We'll see about that though.

From the time of hauling firewood I managed to snag 10 - 8 foot Red Pine logs - these will become the 8 columns and 2 half columns down the nave thus creating the two side aisles.

And, my sister and her hubby (who are renovating a large house) had just decided to get rid of their 3 Selkirk chimneys - I've snagged one of those so that I'll have a nice safe chimney for the temple fireplace.  It will be hidden with field stone of course - but I like the safety and efficiency factors.

The design up above is the 2nd version.  I didn't really want it to be 'T' shaped - it just kinda worked out that way.  This way I get my  aisles with light streaming into it from the side windows and a long(ish) nave and I get the extra room for the Library and the Sacristy in the arms of the 'T'.

listening

i head this:


sometimes i make art with the peeps on PDA, but

i've chosen to go into listening mode at this time. well, i'm blogging now, but generally as i go about my day and i have time to pause ever so slightly i will try to listen. i want to hear things that i don't usually hear. in order to hear things i don't usually hear i must learn to listen in a way that I don't usually listen.

there's all kinds of stuff/life to listen to aside from the usual loud, annoying, noises and endless babble of radios, tv's, traffic, and a particularly happy parrot. that's as specific as i want to get at this time.

i will go now and listen and when i have something of note to report, or just feel the need to comment on my progress i will report in.

in the meantime here is a picture for you to look at:

it's a chimney that stands alone in a big field. the house burned down around it some years ago and the farmer that bought the property from the former owner was wise enough to leave it standing.

i think he knew that the chimney wanted to say something. so everyone here in this little town is being forced to listen to it (even if they don't know it). i try from time to time to hear what it has to say. haven't heard anything yet, well not consciously i haven't. well....i heard the call to take the photograph.

listening

i've chosen to go into listening mode at this time. well, i'm blogging now, but generally as i go about my day and i have time to pause ever so slightly i will try to listen. i want to hear things that i don't usually hear. in order to hear things i don't usually hear i must learn to listen in a way that I don't usually listen.

there's all kinds of stuff/life to listen to aside from the usual loud, annoying, noises and endless babble of radios, tv's, traffic, and a particularly happy parrot. that's as specific as i want to get at this time.

i will go now and listen and when i have something of note to report, or just feel the need to comment on my progress i will report in.

in the meantime here is a picture for you to look at:

it's a chimney that stands alone in a big field. the house burned down around it some years ago and the farmer that bought the property from the former owner was wise enough to leave it standing.

i think he knew that the chimney wanted to say something. so everyone here in this little town is being forced to listen to it (even if they don't know it). i try from time to time to hear what it has to say. haven't heard anything yet, well not consciously i haven't. well....i heard this:

hgtht

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