Hello from the foothills of Mt. Hood.

Although I was raised by the seasonal cycles of Great Lakes, fireflies, snow and thunder storms, I started weaving myself into the Pacific Northwest over 25 years ago. Now I call this region’s rugged mountains, lush valleys and generous coastal bays home as well. Although I’ve always used the same pronouns, I just can’t shake that feeling of being a “we” or “they” after learning about the many microbes that make me the walking, eating, breathing, pooping “me” I am today. It is incredibly humbling and one of the reasons I love learning about the microscopic world around and within me.

These tiny wonders are also why I am committed to giving my body back to the soil when I die, in the most ecologically-friendly way possible. Compost me or bury me in a willow casket or shroud, and let the microbes do their best work transforming me into the plants, animals and wild places that have enriched and saved me over the years.

With all that said, what we choose for ourselves is a deeply personal choice and as a Death Educator I’m deeply respectful of where people are in their decision-making. I always try to remain curious and work to build understanding.

Interested in learning more about my End-of-Life and After Death Care offerings and education path? Head here. The photo below is of me working on my first willow casket at home in our studio.

I’m a dedicated gatherer, maker and educator, guided by the seasonal cycles of our Pacific Northwest home. While my making tends to revolve around willow, fiber and dye work from earth’s endless gifts, my educational endeavors have been rooted in death and dying. As someone who has spent half of my life teaching, designing and supervising programs for adults and kids in the outdoors, I’ve found the deepest satisfaction in facilitating a growing awareness of how life and death are intertwined in all that we do.

You’ll often find me alongside David,  attempting to grow and forage enough food to make a decent dent in the grocery bill. It takes a good deal of time growing, fermenting, canning, freezing and drying. We’re planning to put up a greenhouse in the next year or two as well to better extend the growing seasons.

David is a trained botanist and wildlife biologist who helped build the outdoor organization with whom we worked for over a decade. He woo’d me with homemade raspberry wine when we first met, but today elderberry wine takes up most of the shelf space. Over the years he’s added homemade, wild-infused miso, shoyu and tamari to his many ferments. Still seducing me with food and drink to this day.

You can find our homestead perched along a pre-colonial Native trade route between the tribes residing east and west of the Cascades. This route later became part of the Oregon Trail, and taken by folks with covered wagons in the late 1800s. Today, our eight acre homestead is visited regularly by strong winds from the Sandy River valley and buffered by forests ready to burn any year now. It’s a place on the edge of big change.

We experiment with different growing methods, always anchored in doing our best for the health of the land, pollinators and planet. That means we’re not tilling, but trying out no-dig or “less-dig”, water conservation and scaling up our composting. We’re doing what we can to build healthy soils and to encourage healthy habitat for birds and insects. One of my great loves is taking photos and videos of insects and other wildlife interacting in the gardens.

What we’re growing

We’ve been slowly transitioning 1.5 acres of blackberry and pasture into gardens, orchards, and pastured or browsing animal habitat. Six sloping acres in the back are covered in mixed conifer forest and wild habitat as well. We’re always pulling old barbed wire, bottles and the remnants of former homesteading from the duff back there.

Our focus has been on feeding ourselves and loved ones since we left our full-time work a few years ago, and are starting to expand to growing for others as well.

We can’t help ourselves. When we’re not foraging for wild stuff for food and craft, we’re thinking about growing it. We are rewarded with full bellies and colorful lifestyles, however the birds singing, insects buzzing and bats dropping out of the eaves at sun set are the rewards that really fill me up.

Our priorities have been:

  • Seed saving

  • Veggies

  • Fruiting shrubs

  • Fruit and nut trees

  • Native plants for pollinators, food and seed

  • Dye plants

  • Nettle for food and fiber

  • Mushroom cultivation

  • Medicinal plants

For 2024 & 25:

  • Flowers and other plants for wreath making

  • Basketry Willow (we’ve planted approximately 1500 by March 2025)