August 24

It is the main artist set-up day for the weekend's Lo-Fi Arts Festival.  A few dozen artists will be here installing artwork and installations throughout the 300+ acres of Smoke Farm.  I have just a few minor things to do having installed my work earlier in the week.  I walk out to the Grave of Vitus Bering and build a bench of split cedar fence posts that I have found lying in the forest.  I set up my desk for my Guide Service to Wilder Smoke Farm.  Then I have little to do.  I can't deny that seeing all the people here is a bit uncomfortable for me.  Watching them, I know that they have a different relationship to this land than I do.  It's not that one is better than the other, it is just different.

So, I have time to do something I have not done in too long.  I have time to explore the forest one more time.  This is what my Smoke Farm year has been.  Wandering with purpose.  Thinking about what I have found.  I pack my gear and head up the creek.  When I turn more north I plow through the densest of brush for 50 yards.  I have forgotten how tough this spot is and wonder about my plans to guide people through here.  But, the forest opens up soon enough.  I find the big logging pulley and soon enough I find the broken bottle that lies under a fern.  I've been here before and it amuses me that I can re-find such insignificant objects in the darkness of a rugged cedar forest.  I hit the diagonal road not too far uphill from the squatter's cabin, which I continue on to.  There is always a distant creative feel to the cabin and whether that feeling comes out of me, or goes into me from the site, it makes no difference.  It is just so.

Tomorrow, I might lead someone here.  They will earn the visit.  They will remember the better parts of the work.