...And it rained, and it rained, and it rained. Every day the huge storm off the coast blew at least a few hours’ light rain, and sometimes more. Thankfully, the parched ground soaked it up and there was rarely any standing water to breed mosquitoes, though they are starting to emerge. It also stopped the day before our Yoga Retreat, which lent itself to both good times and plenty of work getting done over the weekend.

The Yoga Retreat was a smashing success, with the Hostel crammed full and lots of students participating both in morning classes and an afternoon work party, in which we cleaned up and lit the labyrinth, worked in the garden, and freed up the T-trails. Thanks to Kate for leading a great weekend, and all the guests who came through. We got nothing but positive feedback about the weekend and plan to do it again in the Fall.

Southwood has joined us in the kitchen for a week, so there’s been righteous dub pumping and booties shaking all week long. Trey left us for some time to wander, and we are in the process of re-organizing the kitchen management to include more staff and guests in cooking every night, rather than one dedicated individual creating the meals night after night.

We also have witnessed the return of fireflies to the Forest, beginning to light up our late nights under the full moon which just passed.

May The Forest Be With You…

This week we’re finally slowing down at the Hostel, and have actually had some vacant beds during the week and weekend, giving the staff some much needed quiet time. It has been raining almost every day this week (it’s thundering right now) and the garden is still soaking it up. We’re producing tomatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers, squash, and beans – and of course more blueberries.

Due to only a few people having signed up, the sweatlodge for this Friday June 18th is cancelled. However, that evening we’ll be kicking off the first workshop of our Yoga Retreat, which is packed full of aspiring practitioners and looks to be an eventful weekend.

We said goodbye to six baby chicks and thirteen hens and roosters, including Eagle Chicken, a.k.a. Bret Michaels, to bring our total population down to around thirty. They are now living peacefully on a local farm. We’ve still got some adolescents, including a new rooster named Bruno, and two baby chicks named Tiny Dancer and Moe.

This week we also found a baby bluejay who’d fallen from the nest. He hung out on Molly’s shoulder for the afternoon while she worked in the garden, and ate plenty of food that we mixed up for him. She named him Elephant, and after a night of sleep tucked away inside, his parents came and found him out by the fire circle and started feeding him and coaxing him to fly away with them. Soon he was gone. Our banjo was abducted a few days ago, and then returned to us fixed up and restrung. Thanks Ash!

May The Forest Be With You…

This week we celebrated the Hostel in the Forest’s 33rd birthday on July 4th, complete with two chocolate cakes shaped like the domes and shingled with sliced almonds, fennel and rosemary. Lots of incredible people showed up and participated in the festivities with a garden party, dancing and drumming out at the lake, and the flag project – envisioning and drawing or painting a new flag for America which incorporated the growth and change we’d like to create as our country continues to evolve. Thanks to everyone who made such an amazing weekend possible: Emily and Dawn from Connecticut and Texas cooking dinner, Kara and Leanne from Asheville cooking dinner for two nights, Chuck and Marissa cooking dinner for yet another night, and Tau leading a Tai Chi workshop in the glass house. And of course to everyone else who threw down and helped us love up the hostel over the weekend.

We’ve also had some huge thunderstorms pass through with some deafening lightning strikes right in the forest – one right behind the pool! Everyone is safe and we’ve only found one tree that blew down so far, and the garden has been soaking up the steady supply of sky water. The pond is even up a bit from its extremely low level due to local drought. This weekend Trey will be leading an Ingredients Workshop – learn what additives like sodium nitrite really are and what effect they have on your body, as well as some basic nutrition awareness. We also will be beginning a series of Candlelight Nights, most likely around the full moon schedule, where we will lead a candle-making workshop and then encourage everyone to forego the use of electric light that evening and use candles they’ve made.

Lately we’ve had very few no-shows, and lots of calls confirming or sometimes cancelling reservations – thanks for your consideration and respect for the hostel.

May The Forest Be With You…

We’ve been getting a fair amount of rain lately, enough to make the garden happy but not enough to birth any new rounds of mosquitoes. It hasn’t slowed us down much, and this week we’ve got a new path behind the church composter, constructed out of stones we found by the side of the road, by Dave from Atlanta.

We also had several guests help repaint and mural the interior of the Dragon’s Lair. We were gifted with several packs of Grolsch beer by some other guests and are brewing up some blueberry mead in the bottles. The blueberry bushes are still producing like crazy, and blueberry cobbler has become a regular dessert at dinnertime.

The fourth of July is coming up this weekend, and guests are encouraged to bring some meat to barbeque. Clyde and John will be heading up the cooking team.

We’re looking forward to seeing y’all and having a good time celebrating the Hostel in the Forest’s 33rd birthday.

Thanks y’all, and May The Forest Be With You…

We had our sweatlodge this week Wednesday on the full moon, poured again by Papillon. Peaches has become our steadfast firetender, enduring the blazing sun and fire to hold space and serve those who are in the lodge. Thanks man, and thanks to all of you who have been bringing rocks for the lodge as well. Keep them coming, as we can only use each rock once – if you live near a river, pick up some two-fist-sized rocks from a dry spot up on the bank, and we can use them in our next lodge for healing and prayer. Thanks!

Friday we cut two extra window spaces in the kitchen walls, one in each wall on either side of the existing window over the sink. They are screened on the inside, and will hold a piece of glass from the old dome doors on the outside during the winter. They brought an incredibly cooling breeze through the kitchen, as well as extra light and forest greenery, a feeling of more space, and recurring smiles from those of us who live here. Murray wandered through, musing “Why haven’t we done this before?”

Saturday 7-year-old Eli from Jacksonville treated us to a Ninja show out on the old dome deck, and then that evening we had an impromptu all-ages dance party in the common room with laser lights and superloud 80s pop music, followed by a swim in the lake to cool off. The lake has been staying warm at night, the yellowflies have died off, and the mosquitoes are still scant – it’s an amazing time to be in the forest.

We’d like to extend the invitation to dance instructors to come down and trade us a dance workshop – salsa, swing, ballroom, tango, or any other couples’ style dance that’s a lot of fun – for a night in a treehouse. Also a reminder that we accept trades from massage therapists as well. Just call and ask for the manager to set it up.

Thanks y’all, and May The Forest Be With You…

This weekend in addition to a relaxed and intimate artist retreat, we had two unannounced performances at the Hostel. Friday night Kathy Meyers led a movement and embodiment ritual in the labyrinth at dusk by candlelight, with staffers Carlyn and April and work exchanger Molly. Saturday night, former manager Mikey Tietz led the staff, Tom, and Murray in about seven short comedy sketches, for the delight of guests and staff. Despite sputtered lines, missed cues and a minimum of rehearsal (if any at all), we all had a lot of fun.

We had some issues with wanting to host travelers and yet trying to keep space open for people to attend the retreat solely for that purpose, so it looks as if in the future we will try to keep beds open for both, and hopefully not have to turn anyone away unless we are bursting at the seams. There is a yoga retreat coming up the weekend of July 18th, details to be found on our events page. On the work side, we took the chainsaw to four dead trees that have been looming in the forest, including the fabled Widowmaker which hung over the dome for years but thankfully never fell. We took it down as well as one right next to the glass house, one by the chicken coop, and one over the pool. All went smoothly and now we can breathe a little easier when powerful winds blow through the Hostel.

This week we also brought out our new line of Hostel shirts, which we’ve begun buying at thrift stores (instead of sweatshops in China or India) and had silkscreened locally. There’s a huge assortment of t-shirts, halter tops, hoodies, jogging bras, thermals, and other cool gear, and they are flying off the racks, which we built right in the common room next to the office window. Everyone’s really excited about this development and we’ll continue to experiment with what types of clothing y’all want to buy. Workshirts? Jumpsuits? Vests? The possibilities are numerous.

That’s what we’re here for at the Hostel in the Forest, and that’s what we learn, work for, and teach: creative, dynamic change.

May The Forest Be With You…

This week at the Hostel we had a startling number of arrivals – of baby chicks! Apparently the chickens have been hiding eggs under the domes and out in the woods. First, earlier in the week, we discovered that we had nine cute little peepers hanging out with two different mamas, a Rhode Island Red, and a Milleflora. Some of them were picked off by predators, and we gave the rest to a guest and her daughter, along with one of the mamas. (Thanks Gracie.) Then over the weekend, another thirteen chicks appeared under the wing of our mama chicken Shadow! We’ve done some work to track down their secret nests to eliminate further surprises, but we’ve still got plenty of chicks to give away, along with some mama chickens. Come help yourself if you can provide a loving home and would like to invest in egg futures.

We have also seen some serious blueberry harvesting as the first round ripens on the bushes. We’re getting close to a gallon a day, and Trey and Peaches have been cooking up plenty of blueberry pie and blueberry cobbler. Some we’re stockpiling to make some Hostel blueberry wine – workshop announcement to come, as soon as we perfect the process.

Thanks to all who have been bringing us organic fair trade coffee and donating to the cause! We feel much better supporting these farmers and organizations, and appreciate your support as well. Keep it flowing and so will we. This weekend also saw a board of directors and staff meeting over Sunday brunch, to laugh, hang out, and discuss the possibility of a Hostel internet radio station. We’re looking into sharing our live kitchen mixes with you, as well as investigating podcasts and ways to broadcast the night sounds of the forest.

Thanks for all the love, support and dynamic energy y’all bring to the Hostel.

May The Forest Be With You…

This week at the Hostel we were blessed with a visit from a former manager, Mark Gribbon – his first time back at the Hostel since his tour of duty in 1988! Though so much of the infrastructure has changed, he said that the ethos was the exactly the same: good people spending time getting to know one another, especially on the front porch. He shared his old pictures with us, and it was true – one could hardly tell the difference between eras when the shots were of front porch hangouts.

Mark was manager when the pool was overhauled and rebuilt using rebar and cement blocks, so we got to view pictures of its construction and the ensuing mudfight. There was some debate as to the length of the warranty on the pool – he claimed 19 years and Murray and Tom claimed 21, but the matter was resolved over some wine and storytrading between the three alumni.

The staff cleaned the pool this week as well, getting all the way to the muck at the bottom and giving it a good scrubbing, then filling it with fresh clean water from the well. (Thanks Mark for your support with the process.) The timing is just right as the weather gets hotter and sweat becomes a natural part of the workday – we’ve had pool gatherings just about every afternoon since cleaning it. We also received donations of large plastic barrels, pvc pipe, and some lumber, and will start building a rainwater barrel system in the garden this week. Thanks guys! Our gardener Zak Stern the Chosen will be leaving us this week, and he has been working hard on creating a small urban garden, with displays on how you can create small effective garden areas for your home, including a potato barrel and squarefoot raised bed. More info to follow soon on the website.

This past week we’ve had a record number of no-shows and it has been extremely frustrating. PLEASE, if you can’t make it to the hostel, call us and cancel your reservation! Not only does it deny space to travelers who could be staying in your place, it also demoralizes the staff, and if your name is placed on our no-show list, you will not be welcome to stay at the Hostel again. Thank you for your consideration.

This week we were also honored to host a war veteran, who said at our circle of thanks that it was his first time out in nature in many years without carrying an M-16. He was thankful to be able to relax and to realize that he wants to radically change the way he lives, and we are thankful for his service and to witness the beginning of his rebirth.

Also, we are currently planning a Yoga Retreat Weekend for July 18th-19th 2008 ~ more details soon.

May The Forest Be With You…

This week at the hostel saw not one but two sweatlodges. The first was our regular full moon sweat, attended by mostly first-time participants – only two of our guests had been in a sweatlodge previously. Despite several challenges, such as initial overbooking, difficulty procuring rocks, and Tom having just returned from a vacation, everything came together that morning and there was much joy, celebration, and release in the lodge. Our manager Papillon poured water for his second time, and firetender Peaches went on a ninja mission to a quarry, getting us rocks the night before we were to sweat. Thank you to all who sweated, and if you are coming from an area that has non-porous, two-fist-sized rocks that have not lived in water recently, please bring us some for our next sweatlodge ceremony – we prefer to use new rocks for each lodge.

The following day the staff had a sweatlodge ceremony, poured by our garden tech Carlyn. It was a time for us to come together and renew our spirits after a long hard spring season, which is slowly winding down, and to say goodbye to Jonathan Fellis, our compost tech and big smiler. Thanks Junebug, and keep smiling out there.

This Memorial Day weekend was our last super-busy weekend, and we actually had a record number of last-minute cancellations, due to sickness, death of pets, and (we assume) rising gas prices. Of course the slots were filled as fast as they were vacated, as the weather here has been beautiful and we had many others calling to see about cancellations. Due to both the number of folks coming here to do some personal healing work and the arrival of a massage therapist to do work exchange for 3 days, we declared the weekend to be “Healing & Feeling” with extra hugs and foot massages encouraged. The glass house became a center for all kinds of healing work, including massage, reiki, yoga, and pilates. Thank you all who attended for helping us to wind down out of an intense busy season and move gently into the summer. This week also brought bountiful gifts from guests, including a gift card from Dan from Valdosta for the Hostel to use for things we need, and several pounds of venison burger from Jerry from Athens. Thanks y’all!

The yellowflies have arrived and are hungry for blood, but despite the heavy rains the last few days, the mosquitoes are notably absent. As the yellowfly season is short, lasting only a few weeks, it doesn’t seem like a bad trade-off so far.

This week the Hostel also made several advances in our mission to become ever more sustainable and conscious of our impact on the environment. Our first change is to stop ordering t-shirts made in other countries and instead to buy clothing at the local thrift stores. Not only does this stop giving money to questionable practices, it also emphasizes recycling and reusing, which is fundamental to our mission. Eventually we intend to silkscreen them ourselves, though for now we are having them printed locally. Also we are moving away from recycling plastic. Not only is it an energy-inefficient process, but plastics are melted down and then added to other hard plastics or petroleum products that eventually end up in a landfill anyway, unlike glass or newspaper, which can be recycled over and over again. So please be aware of the plastic containers (such as boxes of 24 tiny water bottles) you’re bringing to the Hostel when you do your shopping, as soon we will not accept them in our recycling bins or our trash. More information, including some links to research, will be included soon on our website as we institute these changes.

Lastly, our manager Papillon had a birthday on Monday, and Tom’s birthday is this week, so if you can’t be here to throw us in the pool, send us your best wishes.

Quote of the week: “I say it in my mind and then send it like a secret message.” Will Wallace, age 7, on how to effectively play single notes on the banjo.

May The Forest Be With You…

Things have been busy as ever here at the Hostel. One night around the campfire we had an open mic poetry, spoken word and song sharing where we all opened our hearts and ears to hear some good word. Another night we had a burning party around the lake campfire where we burned things, both physically and metaphorically, that needed to be let go of. For Cinco de Mayo we learned a little bit about what the holiday is, and celebrated with some homebrew we made ourselves here in the kitchen. Another night we had a Native American peace pipe circle ceremony, with a homemade peace pipe built in the traditional design and traditional Native American peace pipe herbs and some teaching about Native American traditions and religion. We’ve even had a couple old fashioned movie nights with a projector and a bed sheet and pillows and warm bodies. We’ve also been continuing our mini workshops with guitar lessons, and fermentation workshops, and the gardeners have set up an urban garden to teach how you can have your own garden no matter where you live.

We have welcomed onto staff Laeo from Asheville, who is the resident chicken shaman and handyman. We are happy to have him as part of the Hostel family. On a sad note though, our forest pixie Paige has left us to move on back home. Her absence is felt throughout the forest. And, dear Hostelites, it is with the heaviest of hearts that I announce my own time has come to leave the forest. For the past four months I have enjoyed our weekly one-way palavers, and I thank you for your time reading them. I wish to leave you with one final quote; one of my favorite quotes. “Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust – we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” (~Albert Einstein.) I hope for the honor to write you again sometime, but until then, you are always in my heart.

Love, Whitney

Until next time,

May The Forest Be With You…

The honeysuckle and jasmine all around the Hostel and in the Secret Garden are filling the air like magical elixirs and intoxicating us with their heaven-on-earth perfumes. Thanks to the constant dedication of our gardeners Zachary and Carlyn and all the help thrown down by the rest of the staff and guests, the garden has fully shaken off the sleep of winter and as new beds have been cleared and old beds upgraded, our summer crops are almost entirely planted now. Colorfully stained hands is the newest fashion trend around the Hostel thanks to the wild raspberries and blackberries that are springing up all over the place, and we are still patiently awaiting the ripening of our blueberries. I hope you all have been practicing your blueberry baking recipes. Speaking of recipes, if anyone knows any good chicken dishes, we still have some hens we need to let go of. Just joking! Seven of our chickens have been adopted by our neighbor Floyd who owns a petting zoo where they are being taken great care of and children and adults alike are enjoying them. If you are interested in owning a Hostel chicken, you can still email us or stop by.

Since Carlyn and Zachary have joined the Hostel team, we have been blessed to have yoga classes in the Glass House almost every morning as these two share their knowledge and practice with us. Jonathan has been exploring and teaching how to make didgeridoos and other instruments from natural materials. We are always finding new ways and means to enable, educate, and enlighten on all things environmental, cultural, and spiritual. ‘Everything important is already known, the only thing is to rediscover it,’ so said the mysteriously unknown Greek philosopher Anon. We are very interested in getting some grants written for the development of our infrastructure and our continuing development as and educational ecocenter. David and Natalie from Atlanta and Lauren from Tallahassee have given us some great advice so far. If you have any advice or skills in this area, we would love your help.

May The Forest Be With You…

This week, both the lake garden and the secret garden have received some good good lovin’, both of the human and the insect kind. While the bees have been busy making flowers, the beetles have been busy eating the cabbage. If anybody knows any advice they can offer that is an organic, earth-friendly and people friendly way to deal with this problem, we would love to listen.

Since the throes of spring break have finally ended and things are staring to slow down, the staff has been able to take more recreational time lately with the guests. On Wednesday night we took a field trip into Babylon for some bowling, where a new game was created, soon to be all the rage at an alley near you. With every round of the game, a new pose must be chosen, and every bowler must throw from that pose. While the yoga lotus pose and bowling through you legs from behind both work well, the yoga tree pose and spinning around 5 times before bowling we still need some practice on. Thursday night we had another garden party, this time with salad and bass freshly speared from the lake by Jonathon. Sunday night we had an evening concerto as Devon from Montreal played the violin on the screen porch, and the sounds echoed off into the woods to blend with music of the animals. Every night the sky is lighting up in a spectacular show with fireflies so thick against the black forest it’s hard to tell them from the stars against the black sky. The flickering of lights amongst the trees I like to imagine as Morse Code for the lesson taught by Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot First Nation in Canada, with his last words: “What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.” If life is so beautiful as such things, what fear should we have of the end…

Now for a note of business, we have a chicken situation on our hands. There are simply too many ladies for the roosters to look after, so we are going to have to relocate a few hens. If anyone is interested in owning a hostel chicken and already has a good home for them and promises that it’s not in the oven, then contact us and we can work something out.

Until next time,

May The Forest Be With You…

This week we welcome another two staffers into the Hostel family. Carlyn from Tallahassee has come to grace the garden with her presence. Trey, former kitchen manager / compost technician / forest dweller extraordinaire, has also found his way back into the forest from Tallahassee. That makes four staffers here now who have called Tallahassee home. Keep ‘em comin’ Tally!

The secret garden has been quite the hot spot these days. With four gardeners on staff now, plus all the other helping hands that have gone into that hallowed patch of earth, it is looking just as beautiful as ever. New beds are being cleared and planted, and the spring crops are blooming. Thursday night there was a garden party under the bright moonlight. What is a garden party? you may ask. Well, take one large bowl, some forks, some dressing, maybe throw a little salmon in there on the side, get pickin’ some lettuce, and that’s what you call a garden party. We invited the spirit of Ricky Nelson to come, but he already had other plans. “You see, ya can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself,” is what was on the RSVP. If this quote is over your head, go turn on the oldies station for a little while.

We had our full moon sweat lodge on Sunday this week. Everything went well, and the sweaters all came out of it hot and happy. We are blessed to have the facilities to perform this sacred tradition, and as always thanks to Tom for leading it and all the staff who put, literally, their blood, sweat and tears into the ceremony. Aho!

Until next time,

May The Forest Be With You…

We welcomed two new folks onto staff and work exchange here at the Hostel this week. Zak from Miami arrived Monday to come WWOOF in the garden, and Laeo from Asheville came back Saturday to help with grounds maintenance projects. The chickens are happy to have their shaman back, and we are all happy to see an old friend and welcome a new face. On a sadder note, Jennine, our beautiful kitchen manager and garden gnome is leaving us to venture on a great North American bike adventure. We wish her the best of luck and safe travels as she is meeting with MikeJoe for the ride. She went out with style and a bang, and we will all miss her.

This past Tuedsday we had an exceptional cause for celebration. James, a former staff member and lifelong friend to the Hostel (who did the stained glass for the compost toilet and made the stained glass guitar in the common room), and his beautiful fiancee Karina changed their titles to Mr. and Mrs. in the Glass House. They had a very small, intimate ceremony, but the love and the positive vibes surrounding the event were felt larger than life. At circle of thanks on Monday, between the families of the bride and groom and the rest of the guests at the Hostel, we had four languages spoken – English, French, German and Spanish! “Every time we remember to say “thank you”, we experience nothing less than heaven on earth.” I only wish I knew the author of this quote to properly give my gratitifude for the chance to share it with you.

As the swell of spring break guests is starting to slow, the rush of spring creatures is steadily climbing. All sorts of crawling, slithering, running, skipping, flying, swimming, dancing, calling, buzzing little beings have been popping up and performing all kinds of little antics around the Hostel, all to the entertainment and wonder of the guests and staff. Step outside, step back, and take a moment…Ahhhhh spring. Doesn’t that feel nice?

May The Forest Be With You…

This past weekend, we had our annual spiritual retreat. Friday evening after dinner we talked with Sky Schultz, or I should say Professor Oops, about the dark and light sides of our spiritual journeys on this cosmic floating planet. Then thanks to Rob Jacoby, we had a luminary lit labyrinth walk. Saturday morning we got up bright and early and did some yoga with Lucy Lynch from Ireland. Then we talked with Rob about love and the law of attraction, and did a breath of fire meditation that was out of this world. Afterwards, we hiked the T-trails with Tom and made our way back to his writing cabin for some tea and poetry. Saturday evening everyone got a chance to reflect and express on the day as Whitney led a Tibetan prayer flag making skillshare. Saturday night we had a bumpin’ dance party up in the common room, as DJ Rob pulled out the turntables and strobe lights and mixed up some jams.

We were all taught a lesson or two on break dancing by Max, age 8, who made sure to let us know that “Man, breakin’ it down is hard!” Sunday morning we began again with yoga with Lucy, and once we were warmed up we did some sacred dance with Shakti Rowan. The last workshop of the day was Practical Spirituality 101 with Jonna Rae, where we explored our own psychic capabilities. Eric from Savannah made a wonderful brunch for the group on both days.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and truly opened up to the experiences, and we all were left feeling a little bit lighter with the spirit of the forest. If you missed out on the fun, just remember, there’s always next year….

May The Forest Be With You…