welcome to the hilltop house

as hopefully a lot of you already know, dave and i will be changing our residence to the rainbow farm, which is right next door to the farm we've been living on. our friends, lexi and rob, have extended an invitation for us to caretake the cabin they are living in, as they are seldom there. we'll be living there fulltime, taking care of the cabin and land around it and they'll come to stay every now and then.

our cabin is called the hilltop house. its a magical place that is enchanted by the wood surrounding it. there's no electricity, but there's running water and we're working on hot water. the yard needs loads of work, but we're really excited to be doing it. we've already planted catnip in front of the porch and begun the peace garden:


this will be a perennial herb garden with sage, lavender, oregano, thyme, and lupine. we'll be adding a brick pathway in the shape of a peace sign!

here's our outhouse


it needs some fixing up, but you get the idea.

here's our washtub fuchsias



boyd


and an awesome cabbage



oddly enough, percy has already moved in. he followed us over there one day and came back to the yurt a couple times, but now takes up his permanent residence at the hilltop house. there's another cat that lives there and they seem to get along.

there's an apple tree laden with big fat granny smiths and two undetermined plum trees. berries are ripening all over the place! you can go anywhere on the farm and pick wild fresh dew berries, black cap raspberries, and thimble berries. the blackberries and huckleberries with be coming on soon!

go to our web albums http://picasaweb.google.com/pennymj for more pictures of the cabin, wildflowers, zucchinis and loads more cool stuff.

peace and love,

penny and dave

meet the neighbors

as many of you know, we live nextdoor to an intentional co-op community called the rainbow farm.

There are several cabins on the farm:

main house

main house is intended to be the central hub of the community. the caretaker, eugene, lives there with his partner dani, dani's daughter millie, and their son journey. this is where potlucks happen and where people meet up on hot days to head down to the river. there are solar panels on the roof that provide over half the power for the cabin.

the schoolbus house

the house was actually built around a schoolbus, and the origional frame is still sticking out. in the photo you can see it on the left, above millie's head, with plants sitting atop it. this house is completely powered by solar. angel and justin live there with their children savannah and zia, two chickens, a rooster, a llama and olive the dog.

the hilltop house

we think this is the prettiest house. its the house most set back into the woods (and up the hill) and surrounded by trees. it has a beautiful stained glass window that was made by a woman named joy who lived there many years ago, a kitchen floor with pictures of slugs, suns and moons, and a battery-opereated wall clock that makes a different bird song every hour. our good friend lexie (dani's sister) lives there, but spends most of her time in Eugene. living in town makes her commute to a farm in junction city significantly shorter.

the dome and the yurt (not our yurt)

the dome (sorry, no pictures yet) is lived in by a guy named mark that we haven't met yet. he works in town, and hasn't visited the farm since we've been here. its an incredible cabin, with a geodesic dome built on the side. bill and raymond live in the yurt on the corner of the field in which eugene grows organic timothy hay. bill has lived on the farm for two many years to count and raymond has been there with him for several years now.

jacob, tera, millie and dani

jacob and millie


dave leaning against a drum made by eugene at main house

millie and me

olive the dog

we showed our photo albums to the neighbors so that they could meet our family, and now you, our family, has met our neighbors. hopefully visits out here in the future will enable some of you to meet them in person!!!

we love and miss everyone more than words could ever say....

be well,

penny and dave