Chilao School

If you've been to Moto Yoga chances are pretty good you've meet acupuncturist David Lee. Now we are partnering to bring art to his patients, and an opportunity for artists to show their works at his Thousand Oaks office. https://patch.com//art-healing-space-seeks-works-wellness-

The first daffodils of the season burst into bloom, and I offer some confessions. Dutch Master Daffodils are not native to the Angeles, but they are historic. One of the modern era (1950-1980) families in Chilao planted them around the USFS houses and in a few other strategic residential and commercial locations. The drought that followed the Station fire almost finished them off completely, but we seem to be enjoying a little bit of a resurgence now. In other wonderful b...lossomings, big thanks to Tanner Alan Giao and Steve Ingram for their recent work on the property; Turin Atol for overseeing the electrical permit on the school (the permit still is not finalized, but it is doggone close); and Bryan Montgomery for volunteering to mentor riders at our April 25 Highway 2 track day. I am humbled...really humbled, by the calibre of humans in my life. See more

A walk on the Visitor Center side of Chilao yesterday. The USFS fire crews are working diligently to keep the places we love, and that surround recreation areas, as fire safe as possible. It's a near-impossible task along the transition zone of conifer and chaparral, front country and high country, because the vegetation mix includes everything...even riparaian habitat. On a great note for Chilao School, brush piles got made in the fire break, our SBA loan documents are en route back to the SBA, and we passed our electrical inspection at the school. I don't have the permit and inspection in my hands yet so I am still a bit apprehensive, but, we should be able to have the power turned back on soon.

2.15.21 Things move slowly at the school. We're trying to get small brush piles that can be burned made in the fire break. Small piles in a clear area and not under power lines. Seems pretty simple, but getting it done is like the impossible dream. The sky tonight was remarkably dynamic. Nothing slow about its ever-changing beauty.

Moonlight on snow. There are no words to describe it. So grateful to be here.

Cloud magic in Chilao 1.21.21

The moon setting just below Vetter Outlook 1.15.21

It takes a village to maintain this place. David Johnson is finishing the very last of the fire retardant paint on the house today. 2021 projects will include painting the house back to its forest-friendly color, restoring electricity to the school, and focusing on brush reduction and flood resistance around the structures. All of which comes to a stand-still from time to time to play with dogs. Pictured here is Koda, the badly broken rescue, and Jackson, David's companion.

It's spring again, and we've had some very colorful sunrises and sunsets...perhaps not made entirely of what I like to call real clouds, but every now and then I cannot resist a picture. We haven't created our 2021 Moto Yoga schedule yet...there's a weariness with all this uncertainty that everyone seems to be feeling. We hope you are navigating, staying afloat, maybe even thriving as 2021 unfolds.

Image - December 28, 2020 The snow is mostly gone now at this elevation, fluffy white bits clinging to the shade and the ravines and the north facing slopes. I was probably not alone in the unrealistic wish that 2021 would be markedly different from its first day forward. While each of our realities differs, there was a great common loss in the Native American community yesterday when two amazing, beloved brothers in the prime of their lives passed away in a car accident. T...he dozens of tributes to them - from those who can muster the presence to speak, pray or write - clearly shows that the community is in shock and mourning. And yet what I am most struck by is a spiritual commonality. In the chaos of this life-death-life cycle I learn the beauty of faith. The huge loss of these young men has a universal resonance in the community. Their friends young and old share stories and pictures, beautiful memories - and then send them on their journey home to Creator, bidding them well until they meet again. There is an acceptance of that which cannot be controlled or undone, and that acceptance may seem simplistic, yet there is comfort in it, and humility, and a shared loss and grief; a unity that binds us together even though we may call the Creator by a different name, sing different songs, pray in a different language, use different ceremonies. A unity that connects us to realms that are completely beyond our understanding and yet, that we are each an integral and interactive part of. Then I talk to someone who is entirely without a sense of the spiritual; they intellectualize that ultimately life is cruel and pointless and without reason, a long string of meaningless suffering, and then the nothingness of death. On some level I understand that we choose what our life experience is; and I assure you, a profound connection to a power greater than yourself is a far better way of life than relying on your isolated intellect to rationalize the meaning of everything. Open yourself to the possibility that everything you can see, touch, hear, feel and prove to be real is just a very small portion of what is. Connect. Connect and love and suffer loss and embrace even the awkward moments. Connect to the universe. Interact with it. Curve your space-time into beautiful shapes. <3

November 2, 2020 Last light on Chilao Creek The creek itself is dry, but the memories of it so full and refreshing linger on. We had a wonderful winter and a beautiful spring, even as the world got more and more crazy. I must get away from the computer, from tasks, from all the human things, and get back to this - the bigger, universally connected real life, the soul voyage, the voice of the trees.

Moon set 11.1.20

If all goes to plan, we'll be using a fellow forest enthusiast and local painting contractor to get back to work on the fire safe work at Chilao School. The house needs to go back to its chaparral color, and we have not even started the fire retardant paint on the school. https://www.facebook.com/Alex-M-PaintingHome-Improvements-1079195545574723/

What the Bobcat fire looked like from Chilao School as it marched across Highway 2, September 2020. It's easy to forget, as things get back to "normal" that there were no gaurantees we would have anything at all to come back to. Thank you firefighters, one and all.

We had a quiet little unofficial Moto Yoga,. among friends, with dogs.

A group still lots of room, B group about half full, C group lots of room.

10.24.20 Mile 48, Angeles Crest Highway

10.22.20 It begins.

October 20, 2020 Koda saw them first, on the road that runs past the school property. We had a bit of a stand-off, the domestic dogs from behind a fence, the coyotes - two of them - not as impressed as I would have liked. I followed them without the dogs down the the campgrund in the Suburban.

Just about five miles from Chilao School as the raven flies is Mount Pacifico. It burned in the Station fire, with many but not all stands of trees succumbing to flames. The Bobcat fire ran north, then west, then south, but it did not return to Pacifico.

If the leaf contemplates its life, then perhaps by autumn it is tired, probably ready for its transformation into the next stage of life.

We've got so many ponies at Chilao School, we've made them their own page. These are just the models I was able to get in an album tonight. We'll be adding more real soon.

The Bobcat fire walked around. Where it over-burned the Station fire the temperature seems to vary a lot. When it got into deadfall trees from the Station fire, it burned them up. There the fire lingered. This image of the steps (miles 38.50-43 Angeles Crest Highway) illustrates the way it went some places and not others. What you can't see is how much work is going on here, from monitoring still-active fire below Mt. Wilson to cleaning out drainages and using helicopters to assist with power line restoration.