Mountain Water is enjoying the greenest spring in memory. It’s miraculous to see how resilient the plant life is here. Just a few weeks ago the whole landscape was brown, and crunchy dry, much as it was for the past year. Surprise spring snows arrived followed by rain, gentle and steady, and then a procession of afternoon thunderstorms. Our well, which has been dry for over a year, came back last week, smiling as though it had just stepped out for a minute.
Photo: Corey Kohn
Joan continues with seed trials for the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance and, this year, Albert Lea Seed Company. There is right now a beautiful stand of Turkey Red wheat outside the studio windows. With the abundant spring moisture, we’re able to make progress in restoration plantings around the building. We’ve planted trees, currant bushes, native grasses, flowers, and prairie grasses like little bluestem, blue fescue, switchgrass, and galleta.
We have been hesitant to have too much going on at Mountain Water during the recent pestilence and its persistent uncertainty. Still, we have been cautiously hosting individuals and small groups for this ongoing experiment in reverent land use. In a week, two small cabins will arrive for private accommodations, something planned even before the pandemic and social distancing. They will be situated in a nearby oak grove a short walk from the main building. This will be a great enhancement to our hosting capability.
We’re currently devising guidelines about how to visit Mountain Water. The human scale is modest. The accommodations are slender. The place itself works its own magic. We continue to experiment with how to combine solitary contemplation, creativity, work, and social convivium. We’re open to any ideas for small programs of four to eight participants; some of these are in the works for later this summer.
Photo: Corey Kohn
Mountain Water is taking shape quite nicely and in its own way, despite the disruption of recent times. We’ve always thought of this place as a refuge, free from dogmas of all kinds, trustworthy in its ageless way of provoking undistracted freshness. We hope to see you here before too long.