This is what inter-agency collaboration looks like:

Locks locked to locks...this is how the Forest Service, the BLM, the National Park Service, private land owners who have "in holdings"only accessible by this road and others? are able to access the restricted road to this magical place.

I had a fantastic weekend of work at the Duncan Cabin, just north of Great Sand Dunes National Park.  HistoriCorps in partnership with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado in partnership with the BLM, the SLVPLC, the National Park Service, the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, and let's throw in AmeriCorps and Adams State College ... worked on restoration of this historic cabin.

I so felt like a country girl, making a corral of all things, at this place.

Kevin Rockey, of Western Mountain Youth Services, after a long day of corral building

I <3 Historic Preservation

Forest Service Archaeologist, Angie Krall, gave the volunteers a history lesson about John Duncan and his cabin.  I loved the integration of history, archaeology, geology, and construction principles in this project.  We even identified and sampled edible plants!  And we started each day with yoga stretches and "waterfall" hydration games, so I don't feel too physically sore from my workation.

 
We discussed multiple perspectives of "land owners" of this place: the Luis Maria Baca land grant from 1600s Spain, the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which apparently invalidated the land grant's right to claim (because it was in Spanish?), John Duncan's (the cabin builder) claim for the mining rights (he found some gold nuggets in the nearby hills), his "sale" of nearby plots of land (which didn't really give the buyers the right to ownership), the US Supreme Court decision to award ownership to the San Luis Valley Cattle Company, rather than the people who thought they owned the cabins and land on which they built them. The US Marshalls forcibly evicted those people in the early 1900s by blowing up their cabins. John Duncan's cabin is the only one that remains.

Angie Krall also explained this place's location on the Spanish Trail, from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, and the native peoples who inhabited this place for the past 11,000 years. 

Since the place had been in private hands for the last several decades, there are lots of bits of glass, even shoe leather from the cobbler.  At one point the town of Duncan may have had 3000 residents, a stage coach line, and maybe even a telegraph link.  Now it is a ghost town, with one lovely preserved cabin.

I'm hoping Jonas Landes, the HistoriCorps program manager, will develop summer internships for college students for next summer.  Through partnerships with the multiple agencies, HistoriCorps was able to provide meals (organic!  local!) and even local BEER to appropriately aged volunteers.  We also had a safe place to camp. (note: there was a strange vehicle (white truck, no agency logo) that came on the site between 3:30 and 5 am on Sunday, without its lights on...)

When the cabin is finished, anyone can make a reservation at this fantastic place through Recreation.gov  for about $30-60/night and enjoy lovely views like this:

Great Sand Dunes National Park, from the north

I have a lot of thoughts on my mind but no time to think them.

I have constant streams of information coming at me.  I follow 115 people on Twitter, about 300 Facebook friends and all their reposts, and four email accounts.  Several meetings per week for work, plus meetings with non-profits and community groups. I even try to read daily as well.  Unfortunately, I seem to have a lot of thoughts on my mind but apparently no time to think them.

This week's post is about making time to think and a few ways I have identified how to do just that.

Reflection time

One of the things I do is to coordinate the AmeriCorps service learning program at Adams State College.  An important principle of AmeriCorps' service model is Reflection; in fact, up to 20% of a member's term of service (60 hours of a 300 hour service project, for example) can be based on thinking about what one's service means, how it fits into one's life goals, how one feels about the service.

I've also read the first few chapters of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way (I know, I should really finish it...) and am attached to the technique of Morning Pages. I schedule an hour every morning Monday-Friday from 8-9 am for writing during my office hour, and on Sundays I write a larger weekly summary.  In the week between Christmas and New Year, I read the journal(s) of the year and write a year summary.


Outoftimeness

There are some events in life that create "outoftimeness:" death, birth, real crisis. Real drama rather than synthetic drama.  A few months ago, my ex husband's father died of a heart attack. Within hours, all of the family members were together, including surprisingly, me.  Work would wait. There were no other obligations other than to be together, for each other.

Unstructured time

I'm getting better at building unstructured time into my life. Unstructured time is agenda-less time. Tuesday of last week, my dear friend Jamie and I planned an adventure that would probably involve hot springs and would definitely involve good food, a road trip, and lots of time to talk and be.

Vacation, change of venue, change of surroundings

Unstructured time can sometimes be a part of vacation time, when we're free to explore opportunities we normally cannot because we're always on our way somewhere.  Some times I overplan my vacation time, but some times I get it just right, and I get to meet new people and actually have time to sit and talk for hours, hear new stories, see new places.

Altered consciousness through sleep deprivation, alcohol, and/or other substances

Staying up late to get into that almost dream state, where reality is fuzzy around the edges, or where I cannot remember if it really happened or I dreamt it--that is awesomeness.  Synthesis of ideas occurs.

Driving/road tripping

Road hypnosis... with music or not, with another person or not, is a great way to hear my inner voice.

Ecstasy/pleasure

Physical pleasures, eating fantastic food or otherwise, are a way to stimulate the senses and directly get one's attention.  See also outoftimeness. It can be as simple as applying your favorite lip balm and closing your eyes for a moment during a busy day to savor a memory.

Sabbatical

The seventh year... please see this Ted.com video titled "Stefan Sagmeister: 7 rules for making more happiness."