Permatours was having an event in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. It was located at the Forest Medicine Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization that “provides a place for healing and retreat from the chaos of modern life with pure mountain air, water and sacred medicine ways of ancient traditions.”
We were supposed to be building a tiny house, and a few Permamatourers had been there earlier and gotten it started. When I arrived I met the homeowner, Mayer. Joy was already there and our first mission was to go collect the supplies we needed. We needed to pick up a rented jackhammer, which was two hours away, along with some other supplies. We took Joy’s van. The next day we woke up early and Mayer made oatmeal while I made eggs. We all ate breakfast together before getting to work. We started out with raking the ground and making sure everything was level. Davey, a man who was helping with the project, used strings he attached to poles we had placed at every corner to make sure it was all squared off and level. While he worked on that, I measured and cut boards that would be used for the base of the house. I got to use a sliding compound miter saw for the first time to cut the long beams. We worked all day; construction jobs take a lot more time than I had anticipated.
Eventually another girl who was there named Gabbie and I went into the house to cook everyone dinner while they continued to work. We made rice, pasta, and two different toppings for each. Neither of our cooking skills are great since we are both learning, but we managed to pull together a good meal. We all sat and ate together after the sunset. The next morning for breakfast, I made pancakes from scratch with Mayer’s help before we set out to work for the day. For the house’s foundation system we were going to be using diamond piers. Diamond piers have a concrete head which is used as a driving guide for four metal beams that go deep into the ground to keep everything in place. Most of the piers had been set placed the day before. So today we were using the jackhammer to get the metal beams through the diamond piers. It was also my first time using a jackhammer. It felt like it was heavier than I was and shook my whole body while I used it. Once all the diamond piers were in place, Gabbie and I cut more boards as the guys made sure everything was still level. We were able to get the support beams in place and nailed in.
Joy went in and started making dinner and I eventually went in to help. Mayer had given us a mushroom he had found called chicken of the woods, and we used it in our meal. We all sat and ate together. We talked about the state that the world is in right now and how it’s negatively being affected by Covid. One of the men there named Toby talked about how he thought it was going to get far worse before it got better, and how we should make sure we can sustain ourselves off the land in case things got really bad. To lighten your mood after dinner, Mayer made us all jello out of grape juice. It was delicious! We all hung out and chatted before going to bed. As I got to my tent that night, there were two salamanders on each side of the entrance zipper. I looked up the symbolism of salamanders. It spoke of rebirth, transformation and emotional intelligence. It did also say that it was a sign of needing balance. I thanked the universe for my sign; I could feel that I was going through a huge time of emotional change. As I fell asleep I went over all the things in my head that I needed to balance out in my life.
The next morning Mayer guided us through a meditation to relax our minds and start the day right before we went out to get back to work on the house. We began work with getting the base of the floor and everything in place. The floor bases were set off to the side. It took all of us to lift them up and put them into place. Unfortunately all the pieces didn’t fit together as they should have, so we had to take off some of the wooden pieces and cut new ones. Eventually we got everything where it was supposed to be and used a nail gun to put everything into place.
Unfortunately this was the last day that Permatours was going to be there to help. We had hoped to get further than we had, but still got a lot done, especially with the setback we had. Luckily there were other people who were staying behind to help finish up the guest house. Joy and I left, heading to her place for the night in Exeter, New Hampshire. Once I got there I was able to take a nice long bath. Two other friends of Joy’s, Paige and Chris, also showed up to stay. It was late when they arrived so we all hung out for a short bit while drinking tea before we were off to bed. I woke up early the next morning, planning to head to the next Permatour event in Maine, but the day got away from me. Joy let me use her washer so I was able to get laundry done. We also went out on a little nature walk in the woods behind her place. Once we got back to the house Chris was preparing dinner for us all. Being able to be inside while being warm and dry had made the entire day slip by. I decided I would stay one more night. Paige and I talked about our lives while Chris cooked. We talked about where we each were in our lives and how we had gotten there, and where we were going next, which was a big question mark for both of us. We each are just taking it day by day to see where we eventually end up. We ate our delicious dinner of a mixed veggie dish with a salad on the side. We all sat together trying to figure out what to do with our night, maybe an art night or a board game, but we settled on a movie night. First though we had to start out the night with some dancing. We put on some music and all danced in the kitchen. Paige poured us all some wine. We eventually stopped the music but continued to dance around. We used our bodies and drums to make our own music. We jumped around and flailed while making silly noises.
In the living room we took all the cushions off the couch. We used them and blankets to make a big comfortable bed on the floor. We watched a show called The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. We watched the first few episodes. It was a very good show from what I saw and I would highly recommend watching it. The next morning we all woke up early. We got the house tidied up and cleaned. Then I was off to my next stop, which was helping to finish building a dome in Westport Island, Maine.
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