Continued from here.

We went on a trip to Cleveland in September, just when the first cold and misty weather-change hit the Catskills. The deer, worried winter was coming early, and glad to find my garden unattended with the open invitation of a fence that only went half way ’round, quickly gorged themselves on my veggies and herbs.

It was terribly depressing to see all that hard work trampled and eaten. This area of the Catskills is over-run by deer because wolves and mountain lions are now quite rare in the area. There are packs of coyotes that roam the hillsides that take out a few deer, but not enough to make much of a dent on their population.

This year and a half we spent in the Catskills, surviving with minimum funds and supported only by family and friends really helped to reconnect us with the natural world. In some ways it was very stressful. I have always been very self-sufficient, but with poor health and no insurance we had to rely completely on friends, family and nature.

Once I let go of embodying the expectation that I be tough as nails and drag myself up by my boot-straps, the good ole-fashioned systems of inter-connection and symbiosis, re-wove themselves through my system, providing an invisible but resilient support net, which in the long term has encouraged my roots to grow deep and far.