Botanical Sanctuaries

The Healing Wheel Sanctuary

The Healing Wheel Sanctuary
Lordville (Hancock) New York
Stewards: Katt and Larry Judd

     The first time I set foot on our property, I knew I had finally come home, and that all the years I had spent moving and traveling were over.  Something drew me in and rooted me even before I realized what a grip it had on my heart.  This same something had grabbed Larry several years before compelling him to stay and purchase land from the founding family of this tiny, quiet community, where he and some friends built our log home.  We’ve lived here together for the last twenty-eight years.

 Lordville was settled by the Lord family way back when the railroad was in its hey day and this now sleepy place was a bustling community revolving around the bluestone and logging trades.  Located just ten miles downriver from the village of Hancock, NY, where the East and West branches of the Delaware River converge to form what the locals call the Wedding of the Waters.  For decades rafts of hardwood logs floated through here and quarrymen with their pallets of bluestone drawn out of local quarries by oxen, waited to load their cargo at the local depot, where trains would transport the stone to points around the globe.  Now drift boats with fly fisherman float by, and the old quarries are overgrown with wild grapevines and hardwoods.  Endangered timber rattlesnakes call these places home, along with black bear, bobcat, fox, and all manner of wild life.  One day I watched a Canada Lynx stroll across the road not a mile from here. White tail deer wander through our yard daily (yes, they nibble on many things -but this is their home too), and the wild turkeys are never far behind.  The drumming of ruffed grouse vibrated the air in season, and bald eagles are a regular sight.  The railroad tracks separate us from the Delaware. On its banks on any given day, if you’re lucky, you might see otters at play.  We are nestled in a heavenly valley, far from the mainstream of people.  There are few full-time residents here.  If someone drives by we know if they are a resident -or lost. At one time this was an area populated by Native Americans.  Folks still find artifacts in the sand banks along the river.  I feel that the land is trying to restore itself to the time before the hustle and bustle, when our ancestors fished the river, and walked the land harvesting what our Mother made available to sustain us in every way.
     Before I “knew” even one thing about medicine and edible wild plants, I was rescuing bloodroot from under clear-cut brush dropped by the railroad and town workers clearing right of way, sure to smother these precious plants to death, replanting them on the land entrusted to us for this purpose.  The land and Mother have since guided me to keep learning about the plants, and about the bounty here for us if we stop to listen.  There are so many folks who just don’t know any better (like the road and RR workers) and need to be taught.
     Although Larry and I are complete opposites in many ways, he being raised in suburban Philly, I was raised not twenty-five miles from here, Larry is ever the quiet giant, and I am, well -not quiet, we have much common ground.  Our love for each other and this place where we have settled is just a start.  We are both musicians, and it is certain that the music has healing properties for every living thing here ~ and then some.  We also share Native American ancestry.  Larry’s great-grandmother was Blackfoot, and my grandmother was Cherokee.  In honor of our Native heritage we have constructed a Medicine Wheel on our property.  In it, amongst some native plants that just “appeared” (our theory is that the wee people placed them there) can be found echinacea, wild ginger, Joe Pye weed, hops, lavender, pyrethrum, feverfew, white sage, sweetgrass, arnica, horehound, anise, bloodroot, yucca, yarrow, boneset, and St. John’s wort to name some. 
     We grow as many veggies as we can manage, and have also learned to cultivate shiitake mushrooms.  Creator has also blessed us with wild mushrooms that grow in our small hardwood forest, where also hide lady slipper orchids, trillium, Solomon’s Seal, adder’s tongue, jewelweed, bee balm, ginseng, and someday soon goldenseal and black cohosh thanks to United Plant Savers plant and seed give-aways. We are still discovering new plants even after all these years.
     We both agree we live on sacred ground.  In the last several years we have survived
three major floods and a tornado ~YES, a tornado ~ unscathed.  Now is the time to share with others and teach those who are open, what the Earth has been teaching us, how all life is sacred.  That Creator has provided us, through Mother Earth, every thing we need.  I have yet to find an Ipod tree anywhere! Also thanks to UPS, we have received a presentation package and will soon decide on the “how” ~ power point or slides, and then start taking all of this to the schools and garden clubs, and whoever will listen.  Our main industries in this area are still bluestone quarrying and logging, and construction of new, second homes.  We need to teach the children who will take the information back home to the rest of their families and hopefully break the cycle of rip and tear.  We need to help folks realize what amazing treasures the land offers, and how, if we take the time now to save and preserve these gifts we have been given, then generations from now our families can still thrive in a good way.
     I have already been in touch with an after school program in Hancock, and a group of local Girl Scout leaders.  We will be working on plant identification this winter, and then come spring will be starting some “weed walks” here in Lordville. 
     We have begun our journey to light a spark in the hearts of all who pass this way, to honor the Earth our Mother, and give thanks to Creator for opening our eyes.  We welcome all who are like-minded, and interested in helping us rescue plants that need to be relocated and nurtured, and the curious who want to know what is going on here these days.  We are happy to share what we know and what we have been gifted with.  None of it belongs to us ~ we are just stewards.
     We are so grateful to have become part of the UPS Botanical Network, and so glad to know there are others out there who feel as we do. 
Love and light to you all, 
Katt Judd