WolfDance is 40 rugged acres high and secluded in the Okanogan Highlands,
about 20 miles from BC, Canada. Views for miles. Land that goes from 2700ft. to over 3000 in a fall of shale. Bitterbrush
chapparal that's as fine as we saw in one of the local plant sanctuaries. Some are 8 or 10 feet tall. Wow. Beauty. Some sage
the same size but not much. Lots of amazing, elusive, chameleonlike douglas firs, less ponderosas. So many plants it'd take
a page or two to list them, and that's not counting the variety of birds either. And when it comes to insects. Sheesh. Must
be several dozen kinds that call this piece of land their home. Plus a lovely pond that goes from pond to wetland to mudhole
pretty much every year. The Okanogan is dryland after all. So many creatures come to water when it’s there. Not just
cows - but bear, deer, cougar, coyote and zillions of insects of all kinds. So many lives interdependent on the land.
Quite a menagerie, especially when you add in the humans...
This is what we found when we first walked on the Land back in April
of 1984. We were full of life and spirit and the concepts of community, sanctuary and retreat – a safe haven for all
the creatures living there, as well as a place for those who do such hard work in our cities, working for a better world.
We started out living in our VW bus, graduated to an 8X10 tent and finally to a tipi by late summer. By Hallowe'en the
temperatures had dropped to well below freezing and the day we started building our first cabin it was 14degress and snowing.
Wow. We collected all the scrapwood friends had been gathering for us and began skinning likely looking poles left over from
the logging slash a few years before. By December 13th we moved into our first cabin – one which is still
standing and so distinctive everyone who comes remarks on it.
This is just a brief glance of
the first year‘s chapter, and only part of it even. We’ll be continuing this narrative here and there as
we build this site. We hope you’ll come back and investigate it more as time goes on and please do write us if anything
of this interests you – for chatting, discussing the best ways to do certain things. Life is complex at WolfDance and
it’s not just the physical environment, it’s the people too. It’s in a valley with a great alternative community
which we naturally plugged right into. We haven’t lived full time at the land in some time, but we still consider it
Home. More later…
