Yurt Life!
Settling Into Community
It’s been almost two weeks now since my move into the off grid community of Boulder Gardens. For the first week, I was sleeping in my RV, then in Artur’s truck during a retreat I was catering. Now the yurt-completing process has come along to the point that I can sleep, create, and dwell in there, also. I’m still settling in, unpacking, sorting, and evaluating which things of mine that I’ve brought here are actually supportive of a balanced existence with community and nature.
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It feels weird, a little unsettling, but also incredibly liberating not to have a kitchen in either of my two spaces. I have a little butane cassette stove that I use to heat up water for washing. For now my “sink” is an enamel casserole pot. The only “foods” I’m keeping in the yurt right now are cacao powder and lemons for my morning beverages. We have an abundance of rodents here and I want to do everything I can to keep them as uninterested in my home space as possible.
I’m eating really well here, and it’s been amazing being cooked for by other residents and visitors at least half the time! Our fridge is always full of good food. Due to the diligence and OCD tendencies of our “Benign Kitchen Overlord,” Will, the fridge, the pantry, counters and all of our cabinets are well organized and often sanitized.
I don’t have any electrical or cooling system set up yet, except for the fact that the dome cover for my yurt’s roof hasn’t arrived yet, so the roof currently has a 3’ wide hole in the middle of it, and with the door open there’s a good bit of air flow. I also have a 3’ wide trap door in the middle of my floor that I currently have open to allow even more air flow. It’s amazing how much just the natural breeze makes the space so much more livable. Every so often I pour a bit of water over my head and paint the drips over my body. Yesterday I wore a wet turban all afternoon.
Although at first I was sure I wanted to get set up ASAP with enough solar power for a mini-split, I realized that there’s a large part of me that would be sad not to experience getting to know my new existence in a way that’s more connected to the reality of the elemental world. I think a lot about Garth, the founder of Boulder Gardens, and how for many years he lived here with no solar power and hauled all his water, like I did in the canyon. and I already bought an inverter but I’m probably going to wait a while to get the rest of the things I’ll need for a temperature controlled space.
I’ve been writing a lot and also teaching some, lately, about “elemental medicine,” so that’s a big part of the hesitation. Even though I have plenty of past experience living without electrical cooling systems, running water, etc. I believe there’s something to be said for what we’re sharing/ teaching to be from a place of what is our current, embodied experience.
Also, there’s something to be said for writing/ creating from a place of our brain cells not feeling like they’re melting. And today, I have a voice client who may or may not show up for a session, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that my yurt is not climate controlled. So, we’ll see how it goes!
Perhaps I’ll be shifting my sessions from being focused on voice activation to being focused on “re-wilding” skills and elemental medicine. Time will tell!
I thought I’d share the inspiring story of the community’s founder, Garth Bowles, who died in 2023. In his own words, from the Boulder Gardens’ website:
“In my late thirties, I gave up all of my possessions. With only a bowl, a spoon, and a bed roll I went on a walk across America to experience spirit with a group called the Christ Family. I walked around the country for 4 ½ years. It proved I was forced to move on; homeless, spiritual pilgrims, were usually not welcome. From that experience, I wanted to create a place that ALL would be welcome. A place where people could come together, and share their ideas, their wisdom, and their Love, to help create a new world. When spirit maneuvered me to this land, I knew this was the place to create our dreams. I drew pictures, drafted plans, and sought to create the funds to bring the dream about. Soon after my mother & father purchased the land. My father set forth a plan that would take eighteen years for me to become its legal owner.
It was in the early eighties when I first moved on to the land. At first my main function was to wipe away and cleanse the land of past unconscious destruction and debris, and to change the vibratory level to a new height. The previous owners had never been here, so it was left to become a wild west. I spent 3 years just cleaning it up, removing heaps of broken glass, gun casings, rusted engine parts, and bullet blasted tv’s. To survive in this world and time I worked for the neighbors and the families in the area. My friend Victor gave me a teepee. Through the harsh desert winters and summers the canvas lasted for ten years. Then during a huge storm high winds finally shredded it to pieces and now it has a more durable shell. I’ve lived in it now for over 40 years. Well, I live outside mostly, except for when the weather is inclement. That’s when I go inside where it’s warm and cozy. For heat I use a wood burning stove.
For 14 years I hauled my own water. Eventually a well was dug, but that didn’t get the water out of the ground. Thousands more dollars and 6 more years of work were required to get the first water out of the hole. From that point, by hand mostly, I put in 3.5 miles of water line through the boulders to bring water to all the areas where I garden and gather. For almost 20 years I had only a candle, silence, and no electricity whatsoever.
Once the water was established I planted shade trees, and fruit trees, but was frustrated at every turn by ground squirrels, bugs, and quail, and I’ve had to replace these trees three different times. I created vegetable gardens, rock gardens, cascading ponds for fish, frogs, birds, and other critters. Then watering holes in the boulders, a wood-burning sauna, outdoor bathtubs, bird aviaries, garden houses, an indoor solar shower, an outdoor kitchen, many rock gardens, an amphitheater, and still there is more. I opened a mountain spring right out of the hill. All of it I did myself with the help of friends and those that came seeking spirit.”
Whenever we have a crew of visitors we always invoke Garth’s spirit and send him our gratitude for the vision, money, sweat (Garth was said to be almost superhuman in strength before he fell ill), and loving spirit that made what we get to enjoy here at Boulder Gardens possible. At the entrance of our sanctuary, there’s a welcome station where visitors can pick up the receiver of an old-school phone and listen to a recording of Garth’s welcome.
I love that half of the welcome message is a request for visitors to respect the plants here, and a reminder that some of them are many hundreds of years old. I love that we can still hear Garth’s voice.
I only met with Garth, myself, a few times before he died, and at the time I never imagined that I would ever live here, as it was pretty much all male residents back then, and the “vibratory level”, to me, felt very different than it does now. Now we are almost 50 percent women, and Robert, the new leader/ steward here, who is only 30, has done a remarkable job inspiring everyone to take care of the place, themselves, and each other. I’m looking forward to finding the best/ most effective/ most harmonious ways for me to give back to the community and figuring out my own work/ life balance as I continue to focus on current writing projects and find new ways to keep myself afloat financially.
I’m excited to explore the land, to get to know the plants, to learn more about the history of the wild foods that were once prepared here, to see if I can find out more about the Native people of this canyon, to learn about pottery with Artur, and for us to host some events here together soon!
Thanks for being a part of my journey!
<3 Elka
Welcome to your new community and home!
While reading this, I felt as if I was being warmly welcomed as a new resident of Boulder Gardens. I especially appreciate you sharing more about the founder, and how he saw, incubated and birthed the community. What a visionary.
An absolute delight to read!!!! Loved taking in every word. 🥰🌹