Hello from the foothills of Mt. Hood.
It’s late October and crickets are still singing and the days are getting shorter. Deer have informed us of weak spots in the fenceline. What are they browsing? Pussy willows, chard and strawberries seem to be their favorites.
Welcome back rain!
About June
I’m a dedicated maker, grower, and educator guided by how seasonal rhythms and cycles intertwine with our own. Crafting in this way draws me deeper into places where I live, eat and wander, allowing me to experience the joy of being rooted in the places I love, while exploring the ever-shifting nuances of fiber, texture, flavor and color emerging from the land.
My professional life as a trained educator has revolved around teaching, designing and supervising programs for adults and kids in the outdoors, grounded in ecological place-based relationships, and homesteading craft. Death has also been an inseparable part of my teaching and learning since 2005 and you can learn more about that relationship here. Since 2020, I’ve been dedicating more attention to how we face grief, death and dying in a quickly shifting world, not only as individuals and families, but as a society grappling with climate challenges, political upheaval, and economic hardship.
The photo is of me working on my first willow casket at home in our studio. This is one of the ways I’ve been able to weave my fiber craft into my death and dying work.
About David
David is a trained botanist and wildlife biologist who helped build the outdoor organization with whom we worked for over a decade.
We started collaborating in 2007, after investing in a small CSA farm in Columbia County, Oregon. Our three-year farm adventure ended, however, when we decided to move east to our current home on the mountain. We then turned our creative and practical attention to helping grow a small, scrappy outdoor education organization into a large and thriving one. A very full decade of collaborations there led to relationships and skills we’re still appreciating today, although we left the organization in 2019. This shift in attention has allowed David to explore new projects that include less screen time and meetings, and more time with plants and wild places.
