A week of games, laughter, drums, didgeridoo’s, intimate bon fires, familiar faces, and new faces has come and gone. The wheel continues its slow turning and the wind whispers of its creaking. We have been blessed with wonderful guests and top notch weather. An unexpected storm a few nights ago was the only rain we had all week. Its chilly fingers tingled the skin and encourged the heart to do a jig of exstatic joy. The lake is still bountifully filled from the amount of rain we had over the summer and the temperature, although a tiny bit colder, is still plenty fine for swimming.

The forest welcomed back home Chuck and Heather as its kitchen managers this past week. It is great to see them safe and sound after their touring through the summer. Its going to be a treat to have them cooking up scrumcous meals for everyone.

Yesterday two of the staff headed over to Tom’s house to do some seine netting. A seine is a long horizantal net that hangs down about five or six feet vertically into the water. One person on each end of the net, walks it through the water, then eventually they’ll drag the net up ontu shore in hopes of catching a good amount of fish. That is just what happened. 33 fish total were caught in just two drags and brought back to the hostel later in the day for a southern fish fry accompanied by sides of hush puppies, cole slaw, grits, and banana bread for dessert. O blessed southern cooking! Tom can be ellusive with his secret recipes, the key is to put on some Miles Davis and offer him a cold one.

Blessing to all, don’t forget to follow your bliss,

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff