It’s been a long time since I have written. I have really gotten caught up in my life for a long time now, and even forgot how to log onto this blogg for awhile. (Thanks Chris for always helping me out in this department!)
I moved to beautiful Montana a little over a year ago. I wasn’t planning to move to this part of Montana at all, it was like it chose me!

 I had been camping on the West Rosebud under the Beartooth Mountains, I was only going to stay for a few days and then head north to Flat Head Lake,White Fish and Glacier National Park. It was a really rainy and cold Memorial Weekend and there were wierd men stalking me in my campsite, hiding ( or thought they were) in the bushes behind me.  My camper is a Halmark pop Camper that fits up on the bed of my truck. When I went to take down my camp and leave, my crank that makes the camper go up and down broke for the tenth time!!

 By now I had been living out of my camper with my two dogs for almost a year, staying in different friends driveways or way up at 9,500 ft. in the Colorado Rockies or the Beartooths. Some of my family were starting to worry about my sanity. Well, I was just over it and just needed a place to land even if it was for a month. Then I remembered that I had seen a place on the river for rent, so I borrowed a dirt bike and road it illegally down the Nye Hwy. just a few miles to see if it was still available. I was in luck and I rented it on the spot!

Back in the Saddle again!

 It was a private paradise and it was affordable. I had two and a half acres down a long tree’d lane all to myself to have my own “Heaven on Earth”. With the East Rosebud on both sides of me and even running under the ground a few feet below. It was like floating on an island, but not going anywhere. Choke Cherry bushes, Diamond Willow, Ancient Cotton Woods even an old homestead that had been built in the 1890′s, right after they moved the “Crow” Absaroka Indians  (Children of the long beak bird) off their sacred lands here. There were all kinds of different birds from Hawks and Eagles to chic-dee’s and bright little yellow ones that I can’t recall the name. I fed them all, accidentally including the wild turkeys that made such a mess, to the pheasant’s and even the deer ate out of the feeder, licking up every last seed!
I have had many amazing and wonderful experiences here, and also  several not so fun small town experiences. People would always ask me “How did you get here?” “Why are you here?” They are always surprised to see me for some reason.

 I always make good friends really easily when I come to this state.  As a seeker, I have been so fortunate to also meet a Crow Elder, who has been training me in the “Old Ways”. Mainly teaching me how to build and lead Sweat Lodges. I met him a little over one year ago, his name is John Frost and he carries the medicine of the Humming Bird, When I met him he seemed so familiar to me, he has been a teacher and a father to me.

John

I had been doing sweats at someone else’s camp when I met him and was fortunate enough to have him help me build one here. He took me where most white people don’t get to go, into the Sacred Prior Mountains we went, into  South Central Montana to get the red willows that we needed to build the lodge.  We had to build the sweat and also conduct a sweat lodge on  the same day, and it was a wet, cold and rainy one.  We had to make sure that the door faced east, build a safe fire pit, dig a hole for the rocks and to make sure that we gathered the right sweat rocks.

I am so honored and greatful for this experience and knowledge, for it  has been very healing and strengthening.

At the end of each sweat we are told to go out into our worlds and be fearless, because we are “Bullet Proof” now. Never have I felt more this way, as I have left my old self behind. I now have been given the medicine of the sweat tipi. John says someday I will be an old lady out  pouring sweats for the yuppies in California.

Sacred Crow Lands

Durning this time, I also had the amazing experience to raise four beautiful mallard hens, from just a few weeks old until they got old enough to fly South. Many people asked if I was going to clip their wings so that they wouldn’t fly away?  I told them I could have never taken that from them, that I wanted them to go be wild, living a natural life,and hopefully I would see them again someday!

 I never knew what amazing little creatures they are. They were so curious and always wanted to be near me.  I could whistle and they would come to me, if they thought they heard my voice they would tip there heads and listen and then go waddling that way. They loved herding the dogs around the yard and acting like they were the tuff little bosses. I found out that they were naturally afraid of the water and I had to throw dried worms out into the center of there woman made pond to lear them out so that they would learn to swim. Then they found out that they could fly, after several crash landings watching them roll off and into the bushes,  ha, ha….oh they kept me laughing and smiling. They also learned that if they followed me into the garden that if I was weeding and digging around I stirred up all the worms and bugs for them. Sometimes one of them would grab onto a really long fat night crawler and just go running with that worm streaming behind it with all her sisters chasing after that dangling worm!  Ha, Haaa, ha! Talk about funny duck walking going on! I got to watch them grow and develop their confidence in who they were and what they were capable of. It was such a fast version of what it takes us many years to do, they do all this in one season!  They they find a mate and fly from home and they are grown. 

Learning to swim!

I rewatched the Disney movie durning this experience called “Fly Away Home”. I cryed the whole way through it, because I could so relate to the little girl that raised all these Canadian Geese and then, had to help them go south. I highly recommend this film. It is still good and made in the 80′s.

While I was away in the Black Hills, and John was watching my camp for me, feeding the dogs, ducks, birds and plants. Reading his newspaper in the morning, drinking his coffee and sitting inside his van with the driver door open and one leg out. He said when he arrived there was a Mallard drake ( male duck for those that didn’t know)  in the yard with my girls. He said after that, there was only three girls left and that she either eloped or she went awall!

Yellowstone ride through the buffalo with Dad

Eventually they all did that. I didn’t get to say goodbye, as by the time I got home  from my three week trip south,they had gotten tired of waiting for my return and instinct was calling them South.  Oh…. how I miss them, and how I love them. I will always have ducks around after that experience, nature is so amazing and so fueling. I am so blessed to have had this experience..

One of the highlights of my summer was to go on a horseback ride with my dad and his friends. They call themselves “The Over the Hill Gang”.  Of course my horse hadn’t been riden in a while and was called “Red Rocket!” I have never been so saddle sore and blistered. I was definately walking like a cowgirl the next day. What a great day, even one of the riders got chased by a mad buffalo that had got startled from it’s mid morning nap! Another horse got stuck clear up to the top of her legs in mud in a bogg. Really scarry, just like quick sand….. these are the shorted versions of the story. I’ll tell the longer version later.

Before I move from my sanctuary here, ( Sadly, but it is time).I have to pour three more sweats, in order for me to receive Johns sweat Tipi medicine, so that I am fully qualified to pour these for others. Last winter when John was gone to warmer climates. he had me pouring sweats all winter without him, he said the only thing I could do wrong was not to do have these gathering with other like minded souls. There were even times when it was -25 below and it was amazing how hot it still was inside the sweat. Having this practice is healing on every level. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally and even for our Astrol body. You hear, see and feel and intuit better as you have been cleaned out of all the toxins that build up and plug us up and we are rejuvinated again!!
I am having to leave my little piece of heaven here and search for my next haven. I will really miss my conversations under the big pine tree with the chic-dee’s with my adopted native father. With my two dogs laying at our feet.

Luna Love

I have looked and looked for a place within two hours of here and have not found a thing. I was looking for another spot that John and I could build another sweat where he could still come and tell me all his stories and spend time together gathering the like minded souls that wanted to elevate themselves by having a good sweat with us. It seems to me it is time to be nomadic again and time to explore new places… maybe Oregon. I here good things about that state and want to go and find out for myself. So if your reading this and have any imput about places to go and people to meet please drop me an email. I will be traveling with my two loyal and furry friends and turning into Turtle Woman again with my camper on the back of my truck, following my bliss, the creator, and the syncronisity’s that lead my way

Aho, Matadia, Aho!

Many things are going on for all of us these days. Mostly transitions and constant change.  Things are moving so fast right now to bring us to the places that we are to go and to the experiences that we need in order to make the most of this life, to grow. We are having to face all our fears. The things that no longer serve us are falling away, and it is time for us to have the courage to let those things go in order to bring us to brighter places. We need the freedom to be able to dance to our own drummer and no one elses. I know that we are living in amazing times, and I feel honored and privelaged to live on the planet at this time. Not that they are easy times, but very significate times to ourselves, the human race, the animals, and the planet. The most important thing is that we stay positive and as happy as we can be in each and every moment, creating our future with our words, thoughts and actions.

For the last seven months I have been without a home base. All my things are in storage, except my materials and paint to create. I am like turtle woman, simple with my home on my back. Free to be spontaneous and to follow the magic that is always there. Following the sycronicities that are on my path before me. I am having to walk my talk and trust that I will be provided for wherever my heart takes me. Along the way I have met amazing people and had powerful experiences that I would never have if  I was in my normal comfort zone of a home way up in the mountains, remote, private and safe! I have had a first hand look and experience of how things are going for most of us. From the ones that are loosing there homes to the ones that have lost them and are camping in tents along the river in Colorado Springs. These people are not only without their homes, but now being ticket by the city for camping.

These times bring us together or tear us apart, and it is all ok, it is all taking us to the places that we as individuals and as a country and a world need to go. Try to relax and flow with the stream. Remember to breath and to breath deeply!  As I say these words to you, I am saying them to myself constantly. Picture what you want and how you want your life to be. Write it down, bringing it from the unseen to the seen. 

I am back in Colorado for the moment, it’s hard to make many plans right now, as I am in the moment moving with each moment. I have many friends and family here, but as I move around I am expanding my horizons, my mind and my friends and family I am finding are everywhere!!

With much Love from my heart to all of you……Lori

"Loving the simple life"