“Dear Folks,

I’m starting this letter late Saturday afternoon, with the last, tragic act of Aida playing live from the Met on the radio…

Teaching, institute, community, farm. That’s the order in which we shall proceed here.

TEACHING. The course is environmental ethics… College students are so lively and curious, so cautiously idealistic, so ready to be ignited by any flame of truth. This week we discussed Leopold’s land ethic and Ishmael, a book that always turns them on. By the end of class, they were ready to foment a revolution on behalf of the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community.

I drive them nuts. They write heroically in their papers that we must preserve the biosphere for future generations and I scrawl: Why?

Usually somewhere about the middle of the term, they realize they haven’t any idea why—nor does anyone else, including the people they most strongly disagree with. That’s the point where we have the opportunity for real transformation!

Such fun!

SUSTAINABILITY INSTITUTE. I’m finally seeing that keeping the institute going, doing its job in the world and following up on all its opportunities is a huge job, that it’s my true and rightful job, and that I need a lot of help to pull it off. I’m seeing that my main concern has to be work with our staff on the substantive mission…I’m seeing how crucial our work is. Shyness and false modesty are dropping away from me; I’m fired up!

[COBB HILL] COMMUNITY. We can begin to glimpse what the community will look like, climbing up the hill. It looks like our dream of a close-clustered European village with every house slightly different, but nevertheless in harmony with the others. I have to blink when I walk out every morning and see it becoming real.

[CEDAR MOUNTAIN] FARM. The milk flow has gone up to 15 gallons a day… In the house we’re drinking the milk and turning it into all sorts of wonderful dairy products. Yum.

My chickens have noticed that the days are getting longer and are starting to lay again. It’s either the longer days or the daily servings of whey from the dairy.

…Bright sunny days, clear chill nights, no wind, occasional flurries of snow to keep everything clean and white. Good weather for the animals and the skiers and the construction crew.

…I think I’ll do the seed order…

Love,

Dana”