Empty Mountain

05/29/2026

These little ones just started coming up at EM. They're one of my favorites: cat's ear, AKA mariposa Lily.

05/27/2026

Save the date and plan to join us for our next day of mindfulness here at Empty Mountain on Sunday June 14 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm. We hope to see you!

A short day of mindfulness practice & community in the lovely woods at Empty Mountain

05/25/2026

New video upload:

Recorded on May 22, 2026

05/24/2026

New blog post:

We’re currently taking a forest stewardship class offered by the Montana State University forestry extension office. It’s a 3-part class series they’ve been offering for a number of years, typically once a year in a few different locations. We tried to get in last year but I didn’t register ...

05/24/2026

Since Mike and I are greenhorns at owning property and we want to be good caretakers of the land, we decided to take a forest stewardship workshop offered by the MSU forestry extension office. We tried to get into it last year but it filled up before we registered. But this year we got in.

We had a few hours worth of videos to watch and paperwork to read and fill out before our first two classes, which were back to back this past week. Our third and final class is this coming week on Friday. And we have more homework to get done ahead of time, in the form of doing detailed assessments of small plots around our property, with tools and education they provided. We did one plot yesterday and it took us over 2 hours, but once we get the hang of it it will likely take us less time. We are asked to do at least 3 plots before the next class.

As part of the plot assessments, we were instructed and given tools to borrow to take core samples of a few select trees on each plot in order to determine their age. We were assured this doesn't harm the tree, as pretty much everyone in the class was concerned about, but gosh it felt like a strange and unkind thing to do. But we trusted our knowledgeable instructors and did the core samples. And they are really cool. In the one pic shown, I am holding up a core sample from a ponderosa pine around 109 years old.

05/19/2026

New video upload:

Recorded on May 16, 2026

05/18/2026

New blog post:

I like this word a lot. Recalibration. Often it refers to a machine or a device of some kind, but I like to dance wider with it. To me it speaks to the human process it takes to go from one thing to the next. The time and space needed to adjust to something new taking place and reestablish balance

05/18/2026

One gorilla cart at a time fills an open lean to shed. We managed to get 1.5 cords of wood stacked three rows deep.

05/18/2026

We hope you can join us for our next day of mindfulness on June 14 from 10-1

A short day of mindfulness practice & community in the lovely woods at Empty Mountain

05/11/2026

New video upload:

Recorded on May 6, 2026.