Happy holidays to you and yours.

December was a wonderful time for the hostel as we stoked the wood stoves and gathered around the fire pit sharing stories and ideas for a more harmonious existence. The pace has shifted to more introspection and personal development. Staff members have begun exploring instruments such as the banjo and the more exotic didgeridoo. The fall colors are finally here in the forest and our raking is more of a meditation as the forest is always resetting our canvas of walkways.

Our first event for December was a primitive skills workshop taught by Heather and Colbert who live completely off the grid in the swamps of Georgia near Moldova. The classes were wide ranging from improvisational clothing modification for sudden weather shifts, fire making, and all of the interesting uses for local fauna and flora. Colbert taught us that learning primitive skills are a priceless investment in our selves and keep us connected to the basics that sustain human existence. Colbert’s teachings are reflected in our bright low smoke fires outside and the abundant pine sap we use as antiseptic bandages for minor cuts.

The forest brought together many fresh and familiar faces to bring in this holiday season. The heart and soul kitchen was in constant motion as we had a selection of baked goods flowing out to happy guests all day. We had a wonderful ceremony in the glass house where we explored the true meaning of Christmas and its healing energies. We passed around an herbal tea of yarrow and local herbs whilst setting the intention for the coming new year. This was followed by singing, drumming, and periodically sharing revelations. We found the Christmas spirit in the simple bliss of being.

We are all very excited about the coming New Year in what is sure to be lively celebration on the days leading up to 2012!

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

Transition has been the theme du jour here in the forest, fitting for the backdrop of autumnal metamorphosis that October has brought about. Last week, hostel family, staff and managers old and new gathered to bid a heartfelt farewell to outgoing manager, Jay Belo, along with already-missed staff members Carlyn and Aleisha. Though they have moved on to graze greener pastures, their many contributions to the hostel will be felt with deep gratitude by future forest-dwellers for years to come. With the raised garden bed project oh-so-near completion, an idyllic garden dinner party was a most fitting way to toast the product of the love, sweat and tears that went into transforming that fertile space. In true hostel fashion, a steady influx of diverse guests who are commonly open to deepening their connection with nature have been gracing the hostel with their unique perspectives and stimulating conversations. Busy weekends have welcomed some fantastic groups like Karen and Ian’s Aum Tala yogis and Eckerd College’s service retreat participants – both of which shared their amazing, spirited energy that can still be felt lingering in the forest. More intimate week days and nights have allowed new staff and management to establish cohesion and a push of productivity in anticipation of winter hibernation. Cool nights have been a consistent reminder of the even chillier days to come, but hearty dinners and stove fires will surely continue to keep hungry bellies satisfied and weary feet warmed.

Oh, by the way, back popular by demmand Feature Chicken

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

After months of temperatures in the high 90s, fall has finally descended on the Forest. Cooler nights and pleasant days have inspired fresh energy to complete projects. The garden overhaul is nearly half complete; by the end of the week there will be 736 square ft of raised beds installed and the pathways between them laid with sawdust, hay, and hardwood mulch. Earlier this week the first seeds for the fall were planted, and we are all looking forward to the late fall and winter crops and no longer wading through knee-deep grass to reach them.

In the mean time, the rain visits us every few days, and we are keeping full of shiitake mushrooms harvested from logs made at the mushroom inoculation workshop this past spring. Homegrown shiitakes carry a superior flavor and texture. Thanks to the hard work of the workshop participants, and Carch’s careful love and maintenance over the summer, we can now look forward to several years of mushroom harvests.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

The first signs of autumn have settled into the forest—cleansing rains and a crisper air. The coolness is especially welcome as we commence the building of our raised beds in the garden. The bed frames are a beautiful rough cypress which allow a more sustainable structure to grow delicious veggies. No doubt our fall garden will be most delightful this year. Freddy is also continuing his steady progress on the shelves and benches in the new dome, and as the boards tell him where they’d like to rest, book matched stacks of pine from our forest line her walls .

Labor day weekend brought great energy and wonderful food to the forest with our acro-yoga fund raiser. Lovely Lila lead us in combining the flying elegance of acrobatics and the fluid strength of yoga as we enjoyed Jonas’ crafted vegan meals in between sessions.

Day by day we’re feeling the shift in the seasons, awaiting the falling of the leaves and the beauty of each day among the trees.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

As the dog days of summer wear on, we at the Hostel have been perfecting the art of sitting very very still. This week, guests have led us in two meditation sessions, helping everyone to relax and cope with the heat. The screen porch is still a favorite hangout, attracting crafters, readers, and contemplaters of navels. In their quest to continuously find new and innovative ways to reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose, and move as little as humanly possible, Aleisha and Carlyn have taken paper recycling to a whole new level. Aleisha has been creating treasure boxes from hardcover books discarded from libraries, and coiling some of the paper into beads for jewelry. Carlyn has made paper from drier lint and combined that with old cereal boxes and pages carved out of Aleisha’s books to make new postcards for the Hostel.

Of course, there are some advantages to the heat. Hostel staff made their first field trip of the year to the beach (for some of us, the first in several years). The beach at St. Simon’s island, just around the corner from the hostel, was exactly the prescription needed to recharge and refresh everyone. The beach was lovely and the water the perfect temperature for hours of gentle lazing. The afternoon was topped off with ice cream and pizza (ice cream first, of course); a quintessential summer experience.

We’ve all vowed to visit the beach as often as possible before the inevitable progression of summer into fall. In the meantime, we are working on planning the fall garden and designing new raised beds to replace the ones that have rotted away. We are also now measuring the completion of the new dome in terms of weeks instead of months, and looking forward to spending cool fall evenings watching documentaries there.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

The slowness of the August heat has brought about a creative mood among the staff and guests here at the Hostel. We bibliophiles set up shop for the weekend with the Celebrating Words Workshop and made some paper with A-Lou. As it turns out, the process of creating a single sheet takes a great degree of skill and time. All the more satisfying to pull the perfect piece of almost-paper and press a flower on top before drying. We all have a newfound appreciation for each leaf, and particularly for the unique art of paper-making. Our creative writing workshop was likewise sublime and lulled us into the musical poetry of reading aloud. Walking by the new dome, the cedar musk of our soon-to-be bookshelves wafts in the air. Freddy is busy measuring, drawing, and making preparations for the final stages of the library.

The Children’s Retreat got us all feeling like kids again. The little ones were fascinated by the chickens, the lake, the magic of being under the trees. The weekend was filled with lots of art projects emphasizing the use of found, recycled, or natural materials. Jay even made his famous vegan mac & cheese, which was a big hit (mainly with me).

This week, we’ve been sharing skills and taking names. Donald taught us the fundamentals of Craniosacral therapy and gave us an opportunity to engage in practice of Chi Gong. To say we’re learning plenty is a bit of an understatement. The forest has been host to many engaging and expanding discussions of physiology, medicine, and the body-mind connection as of late. South Georgia heat in August may not be ideal for bonfires and the sweat lodge, but it has allowed for a spark of creativity and mental exercise. The screen porch has been the ideal place for hours of daytime crafting as it lets in the occasional breeze and provides armor against mosquitoes. The chess board rarely sees an hour without use and someone always seems to be reading in one of the rocking chairs. Every day we awake as students of the forest.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

It’s wonderful to think of, that the Hostel in the Forest has another year of love, laughter, and nurturing growth under her belt. Her light is shining bright, casting a glow on all who stay here. What we find most inspiring is to look back, and recognize that in all his wisdom, thirty-six years ago Tom planted a seed here, an idea, a dream. But Tom alone is neither the sun, nor the rain, nor the soil. Each one of us who find this place, believe in her, feel her, love her, together we are each ray of sunlight, each drop of rain that nurtures that seed, helping her to peak her head out from the soil, spread out her leaves and burst into the flower she is, and will continue to be for years to come.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

On Sunday, June 19th, just past midnight in true hostel fashion, the installation of our windows in what will be the new library began. Three guests, along with myself and Freddy, in our excitement stayed up all night and intimately raised and bolted in the corners, then set each window into place. The last one went in just after the sun came up, as surprised guests and staff began heading to the kitchen for breakfast. They are breathtakingly beautiful in their simplicity, and thanks to Freddy’s vision will continue to protect our library and teaching space for decades to come, and provide inspiration to all who meander up our driveway.

Also this past week, Frank put the final touches on the new bathhouse, gifting us with a wonderful new space to bathe without the company of others walking to the lake. The last ten days or so have been insanely productive, as staff and guests have truly been feeding off each others energy. The garden was given an immense amount of love, and is providing us with greens, tomatoes, and mountains of squash for our dinners each night.

Some exciting news to share with you all, on Friday we switched over all our refrigeration, and our new set up will reduce our refrigerator’s electrical consumption by 80%! Details here. Also, our Hostel Tree House Blend Coffee, in all her glory has been providing all who come here with rich, delicious fair trade coffee throughout the day, and bags are heading home with them at an outstanding rate.

But wait, there’s more. Here in the forest, we’re provided such an opportunity to share, learn, and grow both with and from one another. In order to nurture that growth, and to enhance the educational focus that is the day to day at the hostel, we’ve added a skill share board in the living room, with the hopes that our guests will offer their knowledge, skills, and interests with others here, and to ensure we continue to provide a space to teach each other, for everyone’s benefit, and expand outward always.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

In the day to day here at the Hostel, we’re provided an opportunity to maintain a space for our guests to breathe slowly, focus, clear their minds, and find inner harmony. “More love, every day”, we often find ourselves reciting. Over the past few weeks, however, we’ve adopted a new mantra, “More pizza every day!”. And with the loving hands and creative minds of Karin and Ry Ry in our kitchen, their passion has culminated into a sheer explosion of some of the most breathtakingly flavorful and visually inspiring dinners, snacks, breads and, of course, pizzas, we’ve had the pleasure of nurturing ourselves with. So then, allow me to share with you just a mere fraction of their creations… (Drum roll, please).... Raw Cacao strawberry cookies, peanut butter banana coffee smoothies, chilled cucumber garlic mint soup, sun dried tomato cashew cream pasta, loaves of pesto kalamata olive stuffed breads, brown rice black bean burgers, mango coconut rice, countless salsa frescas, whole wheat carrot banana blueberry muffins, gluten free vegan cheesecake brownies, hand rolled tamales with chimichuri, raw vegan ice cream sandwiches, and homemade vegan parmesan basil cheese!! Ohhh momma, the eatin’s good.

The forest, as always, is bustling, and the energy is pouring itself throughout the forest. The bath house by the lake is coming along, and Frank recently adorned the doorway with a multi-layered sunburst constructed from re-purposed lumber from the new dome, and wood rediscovered behind the hidey hole. The garden is bursting with sunshine love, and Laeo recently visited us and lead a monstrous undertaking of freeing our blueberry patch from the tight grasp of vines and overgrowth. Twelve mallard ducklings have also joined us, and needless to say they couldn’t be cuter. Also, this past week the hostel held a massage therapy benefit as well as a yoga fundraiser, both of which brought in some truly wonderful guests, and allowed us to make a loving donation to our land trust.

In the upcoming week, visit with us again for an update on our gardens, as well as some exciting news about our soon to be updated refrigeration systems.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

Acroyoga on the front porch. Bounty of grapefruits thanks to Conrad and Chris from the Pirate Haus in St. Augustine. Carrots, carrots, carrots, and…. care its? Dust-be-gone from the screen porch. Ethnobotany Extravaganza with Mycol Stevens. Fancy Firespinning Fridays!!!! Garden bursting at the seams with greens, chard, beets, snow and snap peas. Hammers harmonizing with woodpeckers. Intoxicating scents of honeysuckle and jasmine throughout the forest. James from Maine dropped in and did some much needed repairs to the decking around the glass house. K for kiss the cooks. Love, so much, and more each day. Mountains of freshly screen printed wraps, shirts, and dresses. New grape arbor in the garden. Outdoor kitchen festivities, providing us with cakes, honey roasted nuts, stuffed breads, and tasty tasties. Pools clean and green! Quirks and quasars still circling the celestial realms. Ravenous late night ice cream parties. Spontaneous kitchen percussion projects. Tango lessons from Carlyn. Unicorns reflecting moonlight off their horns, illuminating the forest. Vermacompost fertilizing the tomatoes. Waters warming in the lake. Xceeding abundance in every aspect. You are beautiful. Zen hammock time.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

My name is Ryan Ian and I am from Here. Today I am grateful for the dream we all share that has materialized into this place.

The past month has been full of activity. We’ve had a wilderness survival skills workshop that was well attended and even more well received. In it we learned not just some basic techniques to keep ourselves comfortable in the woods, but more importantly, that with the right knowledge we can walk the Earth as if it were our own backyard. Thanks to Colbert and Heather for imparting such a life changing conception of our modern relationship with the world around us.

We’ve also had a Living Medicine workshop that brought a wide range of participants to focus on the holistic aspects of plants and their relationship to our health. The information shared by Fox and Sarah Ann was transformational. The recognition that our health is squarely in our hands and that nature holds every remedy we may ever need is invaluable.

About 20-30 shitake mushroom logs are set up on the path to the garden thanks to the efforts of some helpful guests during our day long mushroom inoculation workshop. With proper care we should be harvesting hundreds of yummy shitake mushrooms in about 10-12 months. Once in full fruit these logs can continue to produce for at least three years.

The cob oven recently received some love from a trio of ladies from Asheville. They built a door, fired it up and along with some magic from the Soul Kitchen produced some of the finest bread and pizza that has ever graced my taste buds. We would also like to thank them for their amazing a capella skills and the candle lit performance from the dock in the middle of the lake.

More projects have been moving along each day and the place is looking cleaner and more organized than it has in years. We now have a fully transformed shed with the attached slogan, “Keep the Hidey Hole a Tidey Hole.” The bike barn is up and running with a plethora of bikes available for riding our paths and trails. Our screen printing operations have come back into full swing and a new gift shop has opened up in the dome with all sorts of goodies for guests to take home to remember their Hostel experience. The new dome is moving along as well. We now have five finely crafted window sashes to close the top and 730 square feet of beautiful heart pine reclaimed from a 19th century tobacco barn to lay the floor. A huge thanks goes out to Jim and Robbin Williams at Unique Building Supplies for their generosity in helping us realize this vision.

The gardens also deserve a mention as so much hard work has gone into creating such inviting spaces there. Vegetables are growing faster than we can eat them. The herb garden is fully planted and the flower garden seems as if it were about to explode with life. We even repurposed another old canoe to plant some fast growing mint out by the lake. A new grape arbor was also completed that should be dropping grapes on our heads by next year.

And now for some nostalgia…..

I have been living in this forest for many months now and feel blessed for the opportunity. I have said from the beginning that every minute I spend here is an investment into the future that I want to see in the world. This place has taught me and many others how to live sustainably. Not just in my every day connection to my environment, but also the connections I have with my community and my self. The relationships that one can build here are life long and the lessons life altering. I am leaving now because the Hostel is not a permanent home, but rather a lighthouse that beacons all travelers on the path and guides them to the revolution of self-reliance and loving interaction that has been developing in this country for many years. I was blessed to be a keeper of the flame for a short time, but now I must go and share this intention with others and carry this light out into the world. I want to sincerely thank everyone who has played a role in my stay here especially the Hostel Board and the friends that lived here during this time. I also want to thank every guest that comes and continues to come because without your bright eyes and willing efforts this place would not be fulfilled. Thank you, I love you, I am another you.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

So Spring is in the air people, get outside. The energy that has begun to permeate the forest is tangible. The days are getting longer and the sun higher. Blooms of flowers are bursting all around. Inspiring visitors have been traveling through in greater frequency. The lake has even warmed a little.

Our gardening activities have begun to shift towards the new season as well. Many of the beds have been upturned and replanted with scarlett runner and pole beans, rutabaga and potatoes. Our worm compost has started to squirm with the addition of a couple thousand red wigglers. Plus, Scotty Karas from Asheville, NC has decided to share his gardening skills with us for a solid month to help make the transition. Between he and Lauren, we will have food in abundance come April. Thanks also go out to Mikey at SowTrue Seeds for their recent donation.

Freddy Alexander has also come on board to help transform the shower by the lake into a private bathhouse. We also took advantage of the opportunity of a huge long leaf pine falling on the boardwalk to reroute it a little. The tree was sent to the sawmill to be cut into boards to make bookshelves in the new dome.

Another plus of the weather beginning to warm is yoga in the glasshouse. Thanks to our other newest staff member, Bela Watson, we have been enjoying daily yoga classes.

The new dome has also enjoyed some progress. The exterior has been completed, the lights are fully finished and the doors are freshly oiled, windowed and screened. Every step we take towards getting this building finished feels like a step into a future full of potential.

We recently had a visit from the Topsy-Turvy School Bus Tour. This thing was tremendous. You can see how it was made here. The bus was crazy, but the tour and the people were genuine and very informative. Thank you to those folks for carrying the message of sustainability and positivity everywhere they go.

The kitchen, as usual, has stayed very active and has been utilizing the abundant amounts of arugula from the garden to make the nicest salads, soups and pestos around. We’ve decided to start making yogurt too. The musical experiences at the hostel are always surprising and the drum circle/tribal chorus we had in the kitchen recently was no different. Just awesome.

Well thanks for tuning in everyone. Keep up the good work and keep an eye on our website for upcoming workshops. They are going to be educational, transformational and most importantly, fun!

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

This is sure a slow time of year around here. We have had few guests, but it has not diminished our level of activity. We are quite enjoying the champagne weather that has graced us over the past week as well.

One of the highlights of our recent activity includes great progress on the new dome. As of today we have a fully functioning 12 volt LED lighting system that uses less energy than one incandescent light bulb. Not to mention that these lights are designed to last for 50,000 hours. That’s almost six years if we never turned the lights off. Thanks to Mr. Dennis Carter our beloved carpenter from Deer Isle, ME the exterior of the dome is nearly complete. Several hundred shingles have already been installed and the gap is closing quickly. He has also put together two sturdy and attractive doors that should be installed within the next few days.

We would also like to send a great thank you to Mr. Jan Harm ter Brugge from Amsterdam. His spoon carving workshop which spanned over two days just blew everyone away. We all enjoyed carving so much that everyone had made a spoon within hours. After it was all said and done we all bought the tools and carved everyday for more than a week making everything from spoons to forks, knives, bowls and even small sculptures. Wood chips were everywhere! Jan’s love for working with wood and teaching was a great addition to the Hostel and we look forward to when he will return.

We would like to welcome our newest handy man Albert Palmer. He showed up last week and has been a great help so far. Also the garden has been so productive that our salad bowl has been overflowing every night for more than a month. We are currently looking for an experienced gardener to help us transition from the winter to the spring. This is time sensitive and would require a full seasons commitment. So if you have extensive experience growing food organically and are interested in sharing that knowledge with a host of eager learners while living in an ideal setting, please fill out an application and come see us.

February is just around the corner and it is a month of love. So don’t hesitate to give us a call and make a reservation to come share love at a place that blossoms with abundant love everyday. And if February doesn’t work for you keep an eye on our website for workshops to be held in March when the weather really starts to pick up and swimming is an option again. With that said, I am off to plan tomorrows kayak trip on St. Simon’s Island.

And finally, the Hostel is selling the old wood stove out of the Library. Its quite a collectors item and in good condition. We are asking $300 o.b.o. and the buyer would have to collect it. So for a true piece of Hostel history in your home, nothing could be finer. Please give us a call for more information.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

Happy New Year everyone! Our holidays here at the Hostel have been splendid. Over the past few weeks we have all been traveling and visiting friends and family. Taylor Kimball has left us toward his next adventure. We are grateful for all that he helped us with.

With all of the moving and shaking that has been happening and the cold weather, not much change has happened since the last update. Although, I would like to give a mention to the group of people that arrived here for New Year’s Eve. We were blessed by an outpouring of love from several former managers and staff. During their stay much was accomplished and many good moments were shared. A notable mention is the effort put out in felling, limbing, sectioning and carrying out to the sawmill a 92 year old long-leaf pine tree that fell next to our Lake shower. If all goes as planned, the resulting boards will be used to build the bookshelves in the new library.

We are looking forward to all that 2011 has to hold. Please keep an eye on our website for upcoming workshops and events.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff

The past week seemed longer than usual, but I’m sure that is related to how much time we have been spending inside. We recently had several nights in a row of below freezing temperatures and the warmth of the dome has been our best friend. We are excited to add that this warmth is now being provided by a brand new high-efficiency Buck Stove. Murray came by over the weekend and we installed a new chimney and got the thing running. All I can say is that it just couldn’t be anymore perfect for the space that it fills.

To reiterate how cold it really was, we dripped all of the faucets each night and they froze anyway. There was ice on the ground surrounding each faucet we dripped. Icicles formed in many places and the pond was completely frozen over. This cold weather is invigorating and just speaking for myself, I love it.

Productivity has not slowed and the Hostel is coming forward each day. We were blessed recently by a visit from a stellar trio of guys that brought a lot of effort to bear to some on-going projects, Frank & Jay Belo and Michael Carchietta. With their help, the chicken coop project has come to a close, a thorough clean-up of stray building materials has been undertaken and the windows have been installed in the new dome.

Lastly, we would like to send our love out to Marie Dussably. She has lived with us here for the past three months and has departed today on her way back to France. Her efforts here were tremendous and her inspiration tangible. One of her last projects involved taking a poll of guest satisfaction at the hostel over a period of time. We are happy to report that 100% of visitors claim to have had above average satisfaction with their days spent here. If we were into statistics I believe this number would correlate to the highest level of achievement you can reach for a goal! We are more than overwhelmed and blessed.

May the Forest Be With You

The Hostel Staff