Wilder Tribe

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Kids, Cars, Kipuka and Stars

Kite and beth romp behind our new biodiesel Blueberry mobile at a visit to Waldo Lake

We are well into our "Exploring" phase of membership here at Lost Valley, our review is up in January. Both of us have jumped in with both feet and are learning how to foster our self care along with our community Zest and Zeal! Marty is neck deep (sometimes deeper) in maintenance, OC skills (organizational capacity­like database stuff) and getting the DELVE program going. DELVE stands for Diversified Experiential Lost Valley Education. Right now, it's a morning program for the children that live here. Currently we have two 3 year olds, two 5 year olds and a 6 year old. We also have two 9 year olds who help sometimes and a 7 year old autistic child who is sometimes integrated into the program with help. The program guides the children to learn by Doing and our co-ordinator, Genevieve has developed themes for the week. So far we've studied insects, building and herbs. beth is coming in daily for a short Spanish lesson.

I have been busy with community activities and with our personal growth workshop the Heart of Now. I'm involved with Kipuka, which is Heart of Now's teacher/advanced assistant/teacher training group. We hold an energetic container for the course and meet weekly focusing on business aspects of Heart of now and personal aspects of our lives. At the next workshop, i'll make my debut as a teacher. Yay! Fun! Scary! O, the best kind.

Mariner has finally decided LV is a great place. He still wishes he had more time with me, but he no longer pines for Berkeley. Kite is so busy running around with his friends, I some days don't see him even in the evening. I miss him sometimes. He's loving the varied social stimulation.

We got the trampoline up (finally!) and Mariner got a sand box. Yay! It only took a year! Seriously though, LV's process is slow, but thorough. Once something is agreed on it's a joy to watch it come together. I just adore consensus.

We got a bio-diesel station wagon! Her name is the Blueberry mobile and she seats 7 (with two seat rear facing that is ok for small people). It's an '82 Mercedes Benz...can you believe the Wilder's owning a Mercedes Benz? It's great to own a bio-diesel finally and we are in process of selling the van. We are also getting a bio-diesel processor going here at LV. I don't think bio-diesel really changes the underlying problem: when we run out of easy-to-get dino fuel we won't have easy access to oil for the bio-diesel, either, but it feels good to be making an interim step that support Mother Earth. I have thought about how we can give up the car altogether, but i'm not quite ready for that, yet.

The kids ming san and i have been sleeping in the meadow, learning to recognize constellations: oh, how i love Cygnus flying up the milky way! It reminds us of the miracle of our birth and how Vast the universe is.

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Love, the Wilders