Glad to Be

Happy Holidays from Oxford!

ddadams — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:56:42 +0000

A couple of pictures from our Christmas dinner at Doug’s house. The apple pie and green bean casserole we made was definitely edible, but our chocolate chip cookies had some tough competition.

Om

abd — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:23:42 +0000

Following our natural birth, we’ve increasingly become advocates for this method of birthing and supportive of the midwives struggling to give birth back to women. Below is the site Alison has created to share information that she finds and to provide resources for those hoping to learn more about their natural birth options.

www.organicmothers.net

Frozen in Time

ddadams — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:45:25 +0000

First photo shoot …

Giving Thanks

abd — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:31:50 +0000

We drove North for Thanksgiving rather than flying primarily because we prefer road trips to planes, but it also worked out to be far less expensive (approx. $250 for gas round trip) and a few nights in hotels along the way. We didn’t get any snow as hoped for, our chances being slim in Oxford for any flurries this Winter, but had a great time and got to catch up with family and friends. Was really nice to see everyone but the speed which time passes can be easily noted in the changes the children go through when you don’t see them on a regular basis; growing up so fast, as we are finding out ourselves. Our intended first stop was Asheville, NC to stay with a cousin, but after getting on the road later than we had hoped we bypassed NC and continued on until both drivers were fading … which ended up being a Hampton Inn in Lexington, VA – a solid 12 hour drive. We woke up slowly the next morning to a breakfast of bagels and black tea before setting off for Jeff Doyle’s house in Ridgefield, CT. Passing Washington, DC and NYC along the way, we got to Ridgefield seven hours later as Jeff was getting off of work and, after an emergency stop on the side of the highway, arrived with time for a quick dinner, some poetry and pictures before bed. It was only a few more hours to Adams and good to be back in the Berkshires.

View Larger Map

The return trip was far less enjoyable then the drive up. Just below the Mason-Dixon line, I began to show symptoms of the flu and a few hours later it was an unplanned stop in Roanoke to try and recover. Not as far as we had intended to drive, but a solid ten hours. Not feeling much better in the morning but far less in my stomach, we drove about six hours to Nashville, TN where, after a short nap in the Doubletree downtown, we drove just down the street to catch Trevor Hall for a $10 show – Sophia’s first live concert out of the womb (click HERE to read about her first concert while still in the womb). He put on a great show as always and we left feeling a little better and inspired. The Pancake Pantry across from Vanderbilt was calling our name in the morning and I was able to eat a meal for the first time in a couple of days. Some poking around and then back on the road for the final four hours home.

Altogether, we drove roughly 2700 miles and covered twelve states. Not a bad drive at all. Sophia was probably the best passenger out of the three of us, sleeping most of the time and not complaining a bit about being strapped into her car-seat all day.

Cosmic Education

ddadams — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:24:40 +0000

As we’re settling into Oxford, I’ve taken a few part-time jobs to pay the bills while looking for something better. One of those is serving as an “outdoor guide” at a new Montessori school. I’m told this is currently the only officially recognized Montessori school in Mississippi and, in its seminal year, will be expanding beyond its current offerings next school year. Right now, there are just under ten children in a one-room artist studio converted into schoolhouse. Coincidentally, it is little and red. Located in Taylor, a country community just south of Oxford in the Plein Air development, its been embraced by many parents and has generated much interest in the proposed expansion. Has been quite a shift from teaching high school seniors at a low-income public school to guiding toddlers in a private school most Mississippians could never afford. I started out as a volunteer, which quickly became a paid “outdoor guide” position for a few days each week and now, starting in January, will be a five day per week assistant teacher position.

If you are unfamiliar with the teachings of Maria Montessori and the school’s that attempt to follow her proscribed practices, you can read about it here. Below are a couple of pictures of us digging a walkway last week in the front of the school.

Coffee Shop Baby

abd — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:21:14 +0000

Sitting in High Point coffee shop and, admiring Sophia, an elderly man peers over his cup and says to me in a thick Irish accent;

“I’m almost 75 years old and I only can wonder what the world will be like when she’s my age.”

The Sodbusters

abd — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:02:30 +0000

The “farm-to-be” that we are living on, Yocona Bottoms Farm, is located in Yocona which is 8 miles South of Oxford and the University of Mississippi and is classified as a rural community within Lafayette County.

The 19.8 acres of land was purchased by Doug in October, 2007. The land includes 12+ acres of alluvial soil on the Yocona River floodplain and 7 acres of grass pasture on the slope of the valley. It gently slopes North back away from the house and the road into the Bottoms, where water collects around a few marshy fields, a small stream and an old cattle-pond. Just beyond the property line, the Yocona River winds along hunting camps and cotton fields. South, the land rises steadily to climb over a heavily-forested ridge into Water Valley. Plans for the land include building a “green” home, guest houses, a space for community gathering, and community organic agriculture. In addition, we hope to repair and restore a small section of the nearly destroyed natural ecology of the Yocona River Bottoms.

View from the Bottoms

According to the University of Mississippi’s Faulkner Glossary, Yocona (pronounced “YOK ´ nuh“) is the name of both an actual river and the community nearby. The word is an apparent abbreviated form of the Chickasaw term Yoknapatawpha (pronounced “Yok ´nuh puh TAW ´fuh“). The name “Yoknapatawpha” is apparently derived from two Chickasaw words: Yoconaand petopha, meaning “split land” and is the the setting for most of William Faulkner’s novels and short stories and patterned upon Faulkner’s actual home in Lafayette County, Mississippi. Some early maps of the area referred to the river as the Yockney-Patafa, a transliteration of the river’s native name. According to Faulkner, Yoknapatawpha means “water flowing slow through the flatland.” Arthur F. Kinney, however, postulates an additional possibility for the origin and meaning of the name. In Go Down Moses: The Miscegenation of Time, he suggests Faulkner might have consulted a 1915 Dictionary of the Choctaw Language in which the word is broken down as follows:

ik patafo, a., unplowed.
patafa, pp., split open; plowed, furrowed; tilled.
yakni, n., the earth; …soil; ground; nation; …district….
yakni patafa, pp., furrowed land; fallowed land.

Hence, Kinney suggests, the literal meaning of “Yoknapatawpha” in Choctaw would by “plowed or cultivated land or district” (21-22).

See The Farm page for a more detailed description of Yocona Bottoms Farm.

Below is a brief pictorial tour of Yocona Bottoms Farm courtesy of Alison and Sophia, followed by a few short video clips . . .

Alison and Sophia take a look around the site that will soon be our garden

A view of the stream and path down to the Bottoms

Homestead and garden boxes

Dia de los Muertos

abd — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:31:24 +0000

Mom and Dad didn’t dress up and we dropped the ball with getting Sophia a costume for her first Halloween, but a cold night with the wind whistling outside and The Exorcist playing inside helped us to feel festive. Also, we made sure to carve a pumpkin earlier in the afternoon with Doug and bake the seeds.

Happy Halloween!

Migrating North

ddadams — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:23:01 +0000

We made the move in one busy weekend, but it’s definitely for the best. Thanks to our friends who helped us pack up and drive to Oxford. There are definitely some people and places we’ll miss, but those that matter won’t mind us moving and those that mind don’t really matter. Time and space are relative, and love has no limits. We hope you will understand. The more places you live and then leave, the more homes you have to return to. We’ve already extended plenty of invitations to Yocona Bottoms and hope that they are eagerly accepted. We can’t promise much, other than tight but cozy quarters, warm cups of coffee in the morning and cold mugs of Southern Pecan in the afternoon, good food fresh from the garden, a vibrant local music scene and plenty of work on the land if you want it.

We’re calling it ‘the loft’, but it’s a really nice (albeit small) space above a two-car garage where we’re now living. At the top of a staircase is one living/bedroom, around the corner is a walk-in closet, a kitchen and a bathroom with an old salvaged tub deep enough to sink into and disappear after a long day. There is a deck off of the kitchen overlooking Doug’s garden (soon-to-be greenhouse). Still don’t know how we managed to fit all of the books. Here are a few pictures Alison took of our new place …

The paintings you see on the wall are all done by an artist from New Mexico named Bill Rane, some of them priceless originals and all of them incredibly beautiful.

One reason for the blog name change is that Marley found a new home with a woman who worked with our vet in Mobile, since two dogs would be too much for us to take along to Oxford (so now only one mutt and a miracle). We miss her incredibly. Dylan is having some issues fitting in with his new pack (a rotund Yorkshire terrier and a giant, playful Airedale) and isn’t quite sure what to make of the coyotes calling at night, but hopefully he’ll adjust as we do with time and for the finally plenty of open space to run.

Waiting for the Seventh Day …

ddadams — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:21:31 +0000

These pictures have been a long time coming, but we’ve been busy relocating to Oxford, MS and getting settled in. Below are just a few we’ve taken. Lots of sleeping, mixed occasionally with food either coming in one end or going out the other. She’s been a blessing and, naturally, we think she’s the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen.

The following are from Sophia’s first month of life with us …