Without further ado, here's what we got up to in the year 2024.

We lived at Elkenmist

We lived in a cottage at Elmenkist, a community farm on 120 acres of forest and pasture, bordering thousands more acres of state forestland.

We celebrated Arthur's first birthday

Arthur took his first steps, splashed in puddles and mud, picked berries, said his first words, and charmed hundreds of strangers with his sweet smile. We are so proud of our little man. He is loving, active, and cheerful!

We ate well

This year we lived off of the land, harvesting vegetables, fruits and berries, beef, lamb, chicken, rabbit. We slaughtered our first animals: Calvin dispatched a lamb, and as a group we processed over 20 roosters which raised from chicks. Eileen caught a beautiful salmon. From the neighbors we co-purchased an entire cow, learning the rhythms of eating nose-to-tail from a full deep freezer. Eileen harvested gallons and gallons of berries from domestic and wild bushes. With our landmates we foraged nearly 100 lbs of mushrooms (lobster, chanterelle, reishi, chicken of the woods, etc).

We crafted

Calvin built a timber frame chicken coop, a raven shrine, furniture, and shelves for the cottage. Eileen washed, spun, and wove raw wool into a piece of fabric; along with knitting a sweater for Arthur.

We stayed connected

In September, we went to the Network Society Camp, a gathering of folks interested in the emerging culture called a "Network State," which has a hotly contested meaning. To us, Network Societies are emerging as the result of the shift in communications technology towards digital mediums. We were also lucky enough to participate in Cascade camp and Microsoldarity Summer Camp. We traveled, visiting friends and family across the state and country.

We wrote

Calvin published an essay on sharing land with ravens, and an essay on the user expereience of LLMs. Eileen published one more post for her Substack and then fell off the writer's wagon in favor of thinking a lot. She hopes to climb back onto the wagon soon.

We look forward to 2025

2025 will bring big change as we embark upon an epic road trip spending time in SF, LA, Austin and NYC. We hope to see you along the way.

Merry Christmas from the Jubilees