Yawn. Did you know that most people, when reading the word yawn, will physically yawn. Did you just yawn? Maybe I should stop writing the word yawn.

But that is what East Jesus is doing right now. After a long summer slumber the beast is shaking off the dust and stretching out its’ muscles to awaken for the winter season. People are arriving by the car load and even more are making plans for a visit.

We started out the month of October with a visit from Aaron, Chelsea and Flip who immediately started in on making the music room not only musician friendly but with an eye for photography. Not that the people playing here are vain or anything but they certainly appreciate being shown in the proper lighting. Along with securing electrical wires out of the way of tripping feet they decided to bust out the rust and decorate the room in a new motif while restringing lights to accent the new design. Of course whenever doing a project at EJ several little smaller tasks cropped up along the way so most of the Halloween cobwebs got knocked down. Not to worry as the spiders here are industrious little bastards who got right back to work. So after 4 days to complete a project that they thought would take one night we had a brand, spanking new venue.

The next weekend Manda left San Diego and brought a truck load of plants to our meager garden. She started on the immense job of resoiling one of the outside raised garden boxes and the prepping the small garden in the music room. Tara and James decided to take some away time from the city and while exploring stumbled upon us. After hearing Tara talk about the care she used to get some of her plants to produce in the city we realized that the desert had provided for us once more and she and James pitched into the work of moving 2 cubic yards of humanure into the mix.

Granted there is a bit of physical work required to resuscitate the body of this endeavor but one thing we always hold onto is our spirit of welcome. Most of us have been travelers and we understand that sometimes all you want when you stop during a journey is to be able to sit and relax. We end most of our tours of the facility with a suggestion to wander about the place and see what you want or to sit and talk with us as we feel this is one of the best ways to make new friends. Invariably someone will ask us if it we can recommend a spot for them to camp for the night and we delight in being able to invite them to dinner and find a trailer where they can stretch out for a night’s rest. Whether they be a couple from Canada or 3 girls from Norway we always seem to be able to whip up another plate of food and convince them to take a nighttime dip in the hot springs. But when they arrive after the sun has started to set we get a bit testy so I’ll admit to having an attitude when I went out to investigate who was parking their van by the garden after we had finished with dinner. When I saw 2 women and a guy in a wheelchair forcing their way across the sand I started to change my mind. Not because of his handicap but because this guy had two women willing to push him into a dark, sandy desert at an unknown place with no hesitation. We like people like that! They were nice and apologized when I explained the situation but by then we had decided that Sue had been right to make that extra large pot of beef stew. J… (Dam I’m no good at remembering names) volunteered to be the test subject to see how accessible the place could be and agreed with my dream of carpeting the desert. His gang had been ready to sleep crowded into the van for the night and so enjoyed the option of a couple beds in Green Acres.

Headed into the week with a steady ebb and flow of tours and more travelers as the plants began to spring forth thin tendrils of green. With the closing of Joshua Tree National Park we saw people who now had to change their plans and seek new destinations. Ramia was from Nebraska and stayed for a couple days and left another art piece to represent her time here. Nathani was in from Berlin and got a recommendation from another East Jesuit to find us on her way north. Peter & Sarit were hitch hikers from Ireland who contacted us through the website and wanted to check out our off the grid system on their way to Mexico, and, and, well there was folks from England and Maine, from Brazil and Washington. With the next 3 weekends already booked and more people passing by it looks like we will be needing a large world map and a gross of pins to represent all the new friends were making.

That brings us to the actual beginning of the official winter season. We started the Day of the Dead party last year to invite our friends to come and see the opportunities and potential that EJ represents for so many people. The holiday respects that which has passed and celebrates the life to come. We had a great group of strangers come together over food, fire and fun and if you want to see more you can check this video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CanHMpA_fhQ ) because sometimes a video is worth a thousand words.

So what to do to top the results of last year, where we really didn’t coordinate anything and yet everything went according to plan? Couple of ideas we’re working on are; doing something with Scott A.s’ art bug. Ever since he rolled his Volkswagon Beetle on the way to the hot springs we’ve been removing pieces and this must stop. We will be entertaining any and all ideas of how to make this into something except for fire. We’ve already done that! Doing something with this Bjurt structure we have. It’s the metal frame for a yurt and so we think we should put it out front and stick, hang, affix, secure whatever we can in a large scale, various artists, assemblage piece. Last but not least, I will be relinquishing my hold on the bottle wall and allowing others to continue the work. So if mixing mortar and cementing bottles is something you always wanted to try, now’s your chance.

We still expect everyone to don some kind of costume and join us in parading over to the Range for live music on Saturday night. On Sunday Nov 3rd Leonard Knight will be celebrating his birthday with a visit to Salvation Mt so you’ll have the chance to meet the man behind the work. As always contributing artists have first chance at housing but we have plenty of room for camping. The gun range will be open so bring your own firearms and pumpkins. We still have an open pit so be on your best behavior and we look forward to seeing you whenever you visit this season.