Green Woods

July 2
Philo, CA

This week was spent at Greenwood Millworks nestled away in the mountains and forests. David and Michael, a father & son team have been my hosts. They raise a few goats, lambs, chickens, as well as a garden. My quarters was a screen tent in a little clearing. Mosquitoes are a bit pesky in this area. My massage table, which has been riding around in my back seat taking up space, was finally put to good use, serving as my bed for the week. I did, however, retreat to my own tent a couple of nights as the temps. dropped in the low 50's with a cool wind. I did varied things including repairing gates, and composting the garden. One afternoon we did some sustainable logging, thinning out a stand of small redwoods, firs, and tan oaks, and trimming and cutting them to length to be milled at a later date. We also spent a couple of days butchering two of their most troublesome goats. We had some visitors as we went about our tasks, hoards of yellow-jackets, who seemingly have quite an attraction for goat carcasses. Michael used a fly swatter to keep them at bay. I was peaceful toward their kind, commenting that I had never been stung by a yellow-jacket ( and therefore jinxing myself ) for on the second day a rogue yellow-jacket stung the pinky finger of my non knife-bearing hand. It must have sensed my peacefulness to it's species, injecting only a small amount of venom, and after a couple minutes of very minor stinging all was fine. Michael, however, used the incident to exact vengeance upon them for me, wielding the fly swatter with renewed vigor, and took quite a toll on their numbers. I choose the higher road and remained a pacifist - it's all about karma you know. I also took a walk through nearby Hendy Woods State Park viewing some old-growth redwoods, some 6-7 ft. in diameter.