my experience at Wheaton Labs

Hello, all!

Maddie, here; I recently had the opportunity to tag along with my boyfriend, Davin, to spend some time out at Paul's! Davin has been following the happenings of Wheaton-ville for a long while now, has a treasure chest of accumulated permaculture knowledge, and spent his time doing useful things. I am new to permaculture, very curious, but know very little, so spent my time capturing what I could of this vibrant, warm community.

I have a pretty large supply of pictures, so I'll do this in a few installations.

In this set we see the entrance to Ant Village, with the beautiful sign Carol-Anne made. Davin took me around to meet some of the ants and look at their progress. Evan was kind enough to give me the grand tour of his future home and to acquaint me with the grand Sir Chops . I wish I was still there to see what this all looks like now!

the next few highlight both Evan's home and the overwhelming, consuming beauty of the surrounding environment.

views from the volcano (..I think). I walked up here everyday to read and enjoy the serenity.

toolshed and the sight of Curtis's plot.

Curtis, Davin, and another beautiful Carol-Anne sign.
Well folks-- I'm done spamming for now. More to follow.

So. not. spamming. (!) Love your photos. Thanks Madison!!

those are all BEAUTIFUL photos. Love them, thanks for posting Madison!

Thanks, Madison! I like all your pics. Don't be afraid to post more!

Thanks for taking the time Maddie, I love looking at pictures of different areas of the world. More is better if you have the time, pictures are never boring and there are never too many.

nice to have pic's to go along with some of those pod casts...good pic's thanks!

I absolutely LOVE these pictures! Thank you so much for posting them. I can't be there so it is a real pleasure to be there vicariously through your beautiful photos and captions. The signs are brilliant too! How delightful!

Loving the pics.

Great pics, Madison! Thank you

Hello, everyone! I cannot thank you enough for all of the positive feedback; you're too kind.

Here we have the famous teepee, in all of its cozy glory, and some beautiful wildflowers.

this post feat. wofati .8

why did I not take pictures of the growies covering the outside/ top of it? or of the beautiful view just yards away? I don't know..but hopefully you can imagine those things and admire the lovely sun-filled, airy interior pictured here

It's a surprisingly little known fact, but the woods of Ant Village are teeming with sexy shirtless men chopping down trees ala old school. Ladieeeesss?!

and then we see the beginning of a cozy community meal that Paul and Jocelyn hosted. Jocelyn is a PHENOMENAL cook. Everything she touches turns into deliciousness...starting with only the best organic ingredients and heaping on plenty of love helps, I'm sure.

In the last picture please try to look past the silly face Paul is making and admire the beautiful, colorful mounds of salad and curry adorning everyone's plate.

dinner, feat. Evan's newly arrived ducklings and several lovely people.

yay! you're a phenomenal photographer.

Dinner was lovely. Everyone chatted, relaxed, had a grand time.
Davin offered haircuts/ inflicted torture.

And this is all I've got!

I had no idea quite what to expect when I first arranged to tag-along with Davin on this adventure, and I'm still processing some of what I learned and was exposed to.
The people here are all so very kind, passionate, and intelligent, the land is so stunningly beautiful, and there are some really incredible things in the works. I am very excited to return (sometime!) and grateful for my opportunity to witness this project.

(thanks for reading/ viewing, y'all!)

Thanks, again, Madison for posting all these wonderful pics and comments! When you live 2500 miles away this is the next best thing to being there!

Ha! Evan looks pretty upset to be getting hid hair cut.

Fabulous, Madison.

Jesse Grimes wrote:Ha! Evan looks pretty upset to be getting hid hair cut.

It looks to me like davin is de-dreading his hair... which would probably be a less than ideal experience for anyone. Hahaha

I think Paul uses his big size as a trick to try and hide the fact that he is an elf! (Pssst, it isn't working big guy!)

Cassie Langstraat wrote:

Jesse Grimes wrote:Ha! Evan looks pretty upset to be getting hid hair cut.

It looks to me like davin is de-dreading his hair... which would probably be a less than ideal experience for anyone. Hahaha

you are exactly right, Cassie-- it was less of a 'cut' and much more of a 'yank' for poor Evan.. he was a trooper but shortly after this picture was taken it became apparent that this was a lost cause. Besides, the mountain man look is by no means a bad one!