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It was a spiritual community, they not only did daily saunas, there was also chanting meditating, power rings, and family fasts of one to three days. It was a very powerful experience. "I call Marble Mount my birthplace, the beginning of my consciousness".
Roger went for a walk, which turned into a vision quest. He walked 20 miles on a road into the forest. His destination was Ross Lake. Rumor had it that even the forest service was not maintaining the trails. It started to rain, he soaked his feet--made a lean-to with his poncho and made a fire, then hunkered down for 3 days.
"When I was in the wilderness I asked myself "what am I going to do with my life?" "What is going to make it last--and what is going to give it meaning?" I saw that the land was exploited, ripped off. I was working with my hands in the earth and wanted to stay connected to it. I wanted to stay off the tractor, get my shoes off, put my feet in the soil. So I decided to farm. It's not much of a living, but it's a pretty good life".
Roger likes the physical aspect, the fitness aspect of his work. "I enjoy designing daily and seasonal rhythms. It makes exercise obsolete." Food is his requisite for survival. His equation for life was learned from the Family of Man and has also been written of in other places such as the book Living the Good Life by Helen & Scott Nearing. To plan your day like this:
1/3 education, spirit, artistic pursuits
1/3 work for a living (food & shelter needs)
1/3 play, socialization, celebration
Roger decided that the best place to grow food was back in River Falls, Wisconsin where he grew up and already had a knowledge of the infrastructure and resources. He wouldn't have to start from scratch there. He also didn't want to farm in the northwestern United States because of the lack of rain in the summer. In northern Wisconsin it rarely goes more than 2 to 3 weeks without rain.
While still in Oregon, Roger met up with a friend who was a horticulture graduate. This friend was on his way to Green Parrot Goat Farm, a successful organic farm, where he was going to help them start a vegetable farm. Roger apprenticed with him at that farm. Roger and other people who were going back to the land felt cheated (because of all the abuse the land had encountered). "We felt we inherited a legacy of tree stumps and credit cards."
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