Life at Penn Forest

It’s spring and all the world’s a flutter! So many happy birds flitting about, the spring beauties are in abundance in the woods — I saw some violets in the meadow and a couple of mayapples starting to poke their heads out of the earth — and the trees are all budding! And there’s more excitement to come as the season progresses. This is one of my favorite times of the year at Penn Forest. I even love all the rain!

In this newsletter, you’ll learn about some great upcoming events – there are quite a few and we hope to see you at some of them! You’ll also learn about some exciting news at the farm, Laura’s Corner shares a poem on trees, and enjoy reading Thom’s Corner.

Happy Winter! I hope you are finding some stillness and rest in these slower times of winter. We’ve been busy for this time of year which has gotten us out in the cold and snow, and it’s been quite cathartic to work in. The atmosphere of a winter day is much more serene and contemplative than in the other seasons.

In this newsletter, you’ll read about our winter solstice event, our upcoming picnic, and our new bench policy. You’ll also read about the farm update, our experience playing with clay, and two nature phenomena in Laura’s Corner. If you’ve missed Maria’s Corner in the last couple of newsletters, you are in for a treat. Our new grounds manager, Thom, will be writing an article for the newsletters beginning with this one and it is a beautiful article about wintertime in our forest.

I hope you are enjoying this cooler, colorful time of year. We’ve been keeping busy at Penn Forest, and the cooler weather is a welcome change for working outside—much more so than those 90-degree days we experienced this summer! If you’re looking for a place to explore, come visit Penn Forest. It’s a beautiful time of year here, and the flower-picking garden will be put to bed soon, so get some flowers while you still can!

In this newsletter, you’ll learn about some upcoming events, including a volunteer day for the flower-picking garden, a nature walk and talk, forest bathing, and, of course, our annual Winter Solstice celebration. You’ll also find some beloved recipes just in time for baking season, along with thoughtful writings about trees in Laura’s Corner.

I hope you all enjoyed your spring, and that summer is treating you nicely. We’ve had quite the end to our spring with a really big, bittersweet, and yet exciting change with Maria leaving and the subsequent hiring of new folks. We’ve welcomed the new folks with a hectic month and a half, and they are still excited to be here! You’ll read a bit about both things in this newsletter.

Also, in the newsletter, you will read about the picnic, some great upcoming events, a bit about Nancy’s trip to Australia and New Zealand and how the green burial world is there, and hear a fun little ditty in Laura’s Sharing Corner!

I hope everyone is enjoying spring so far.  Ours is shaping up to be quite busy; as you’ll notice in this newsletter, there are a lot of great events coming up.  The trees are budding, early spring flowers are coming up on the land, and the flower seedlings have been started for the picking garden.  We hope to see you at some of the events or just to come out and enjoy the beauty that is springtime at Penn Forest.  
 
In this newsletter, aside from all of the wonderful upcoming events, you’ll also meet our new grounds maintenance technician and flower gardener, read two poems in Laura’s corner, and learn about Nokboxes in Maria’s corner.  

Happy winter! As I sit here writing this, it’s beautifully snowy and very very cold! Things have been calm around the cemetery lately and it’s feeling very tranquil right now. What a special place!

In this newsletter, you’ll read about some of our recent events including the Winter Solstice Celebration, news on the farm — which is quite exciting, if you like creatures of the cute variety — Penn Forest merchandise sale, a neat little piece in Laura’s Corner on how wood frogs survive winter, and some winter musings in Maria’s Corner.

Happy Fall! Such a beautiful time of year, especially at Penn Forest. Come hike the trails, walk the burial grounds, visit the meditation hut, and pick some flowers.

In this newsletter you’ll learn about some upcoming events, read about Pete’s marker install, meet our new volunteer, and learn some interesting info about the spotted lantern fly in Maria’s Corner.

I hope you all are enjoying summer so far! It’s beautifully green and lush at the cemetery right now. The native meadow is growing nicely, and the flower picking garden has recently burst with blooms. If you are visiting the cemetery, please stop by the picking garden to pick some flowers for burials, lay on graves, or take them home if you like!

In this newsletter, you’ll learn about upcoming events, a farm update, Laura and Maria’s TV appearance, and meet some of our Penn Forest folks.  

Happy Spring! I hope you are all enjoying yours so far. We certainly are, and we’re looking forward to spending some more time outdoors. The trees are budding, and some early spring flowers are popping up.

In this newsletter, you’ll learn about our upcoming events that we hope you can attend. You’ll meet our new gardener and a Penn Forest family member, and find out how you can listen to Laura and Maria on a local podcast. You’ll also learn about the meditation hut’s beginnings and our upcoming price increases.

I hope everyone had a great end to 2022 and that your 2023 is off to a good start. So far, ours has been quite nice, if not a bit weird weather-wise. It’s a beautifully bright and sunny day as I sit here writing the newsletter.

In this newsletter, you’ll read about our winter solstice celebration, learn about our office move, meet a Penn Forest family member, learn about another Green Burial Council presentation, see cute farm pictures, read a new little corner by me, and read Maria’s corner about mushroom suits.

Happy Fall! And what a beautiful fall it’s been. The foliage this year is just amazing! I hope everyone is enjoying their fall so far and having some great outdoor time. If you need more, come visit Penn Forest. The hiking trail is beautiful right now, and there are still flowers in the picking garden begging to be taken home before they are gone until next spring.

In this newsletter, you’ll get information on upcoming events, such as, how you can visit Maria and Laura as they are tabling at the Carnegie Museum’s After Dark Haunted Museum, you’ll get to see the lovely Maria modeling some of our merchandise, you’ll learn about what’s going on at the farm, and you will learn the origins of Halloween traditions.

We’ve been busy working in the gardens, tending to trees, installing markers, and taking people on tours. The native wildflowers and grasses meadow is in full bloom and full of insects. It looks amazing! Come check it out.

In this newsletter, you’ll learn about the Summer Solstice event, learn about a presentation we are doing for the Green Burial Council Conference this fall, meet our summer interns, get an update on the farm animals, meet a member of the Penn Forest Family, and more!

Happy Spring! The daffodils and spring beauties are blooming, and the May apples will be right around the corner. It’s been a pretty wet spring, so we are a bit late to get started on grave cleaning and marker installations but are ready to go as soon as the weather decides to cooperate.

In this newsletter, you’ll learn about our upcoming Summer Solstice Festival, Nature Walk and Talks, the restoration of an old house on the property, the newest babies at the barn, and more!

We had a sad start to 2022 with the unexpected death of Pete, one of the cofounders of Penn Forest, its first manager, and an essential force in the Pittsburgh green burial movement. This newsletter includes words from Nancy about Pete’s death, a link to his obituary, and information on how to donate to the Remembrance Garden in Pete’s memory.

In this newsletter, you’ll meet our new interns, learn about our winter solstice event, as well as the upcoming summer solstice gathering, the latest farm new, and more!

Happy Fall! We’ve been busy bees all summer, and it is continuing into the fall as we get ready for the colder months. The leaves will begin changing soon, and it’s a really lovely time to visit!

In this newsletter, you can watch a pitch video that we worked hard on this summer, learn about upcoming events and presentations, see what’s new at the farm, learn about a memorialization project that you can participate in, meet Helen, and read Maria’s corner which teaches about the changing of the leaves. Grab your pumpkin pie spiced latte and enjoy!

It’s summer! Everything is green, and the native meadow is beginning to bloom – come admire it! Summer continues to be busy for us. We are working on planting trees, leveling graves, installing markers, taking people on tours, and having burials. 

In this newsletter, you’ll hear about our Summer Solstice Festival, some farm updates, we’ll introduce our new volunteer and summer intern, and you’ll get to read a lovely article on tea in Maria’s corner. Grab a cup of tea or coffee, and happy reading!

Spring has arrived at Penn Forest! We’ve had lovely weather recently which has made working outside wonderful! We are busy getting gardens ready, leveling graves, installing markers, picking up sticks, and enjoying this beautiful time of year!

In this newsletter, you will find information about the upcoming Summer Solstice Celebration, some tabling events, news from the farm, how the flower picking garden is doing, and what the soil was doing over the winter.

We hope that you are all doing well and staying healthy through this COVID-19 winter. We are staying warm and enjoying the little snowfalls that make the grounds look like a painting.

In this newsletter you will find a recap from our Winter Solstice event, as well as news for the upcoming Summer Solstice event in June, a link to the exciting release of the Squirrel Hillbillies green burial song, news from the farm, as well as some interesting information about how dirt helps people be happy.

We hope this newsletter finds you well and able to get out and enjoy nature. This time of year, the grounds light up with color as the leaves turn from green to yellows, oranges, and reds. In this newsletter, you can sign up to join us for the Winter Solstice celebration in December, learn about our new sheep, meet our new part-time employee, and much more! 

I am proud to work with such dedicated and committed people – Nancy, Laura, Maria, Annette, Mary Pat, and all our many volunteers. And I’m glad we can be here for our customers when they need us.

We are starting to adjust to our new standard of operation since the Covid-19 pandemic began. In this newsletter, you can find how we’ve been staying busy by expanding our gardens, adding kids to our herd of goats, adding social distancing spaces, and more! We hope you enjoy some of the beautiful photos of the property taken by Nancy and Maria. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us here at Penn Forest.

With the coronavirus situation changing daily, we have been struggling to put this newsletter together to provide accurate and up-to-date information for you. We’re only providing recent news and information here; for more timely information, check our Facebook page. 

Like us, I am sure many of you are worried about the possibility of sickness or death for you, your family members or friends, and the future of our country. And many of you are fearful about what things will be like after the pandemic is over. We want to help however we can with your concerns, so please don’t hesitate to call us with your questions.

We’ve had a wonderful autumn at Penn Forest. The foliage of the trees was full of vivid fall colors, and now as autumn shifts to winter we prepare for the colder months. In this newsletter, you can read about the colorful send-off of one of our local Pittsburgh artists and musicians, and how we’ve been helping to expand the knowledge of green burial – including a visit from two Dutch sailors. 

We had a beautiful summer here. Kathy’s wildflower meadow was in full bloom, and the local wildlife flourished. In this newsletter read about how one family found healing through natural burial, how we get ready for winter at the farm, as well as how we handle winter burials. We are highlighting recent events and promoting upcoming events. These include: Forest Bathing and QiGong on November 2nd, a coffin building workshop in later early November, and a Winter Solstice Celebration on December 21st.

This is a busy newsletter. There are articles on our new mapping options, our flower picking garden, photos from the picnic, Yoga with Goats, the sheep, and Kathy’s Native Wildflower Meadow. There are several upcoming events: a green burial presentation September 12, a birds and bees walk and talk October 5, and our memorial tree-planting October 19. On September 28-29 from 10-5, we will be tabling at The Mind Body Spirit Healing Expo at The Monroeville Mall Convention Center. We will have the labyrinth there to walk. If you would like to learn how to facilitate the use of the labyrinth, we are offering a training at Penn Forest on Saturday, September 7. I hope you can attend some of these events.

If you’ve been thinking about visiting Penn Forest, this spring and summer we’re offering two popular events that should have you planning a trip here. We will also be out and about making public presentations. And if you don’t follow us on Facebook, this newsletter offers a list of recent Facebook posts including photos and videos of recent arrivals at Returning Home Farm. Enjoy!

We’ve recently removed so many dead ash trees from our property that we’ve need to have two memorial tree-planting events this year to start replacing them. The date for the first one is below along with the annual picnic date. Please think about including these events on your 2019 calendar. 
Meanwhile, our best wishes to you and your family for a healthy, happy and prosperous new year. 

With winter on the way, we’ve begun to shift our focus more to indoor activities. We’ve been invited to make several presentations and workshops in recent weeks. Check out our Facebook page to keep up with our schedule for future events.

Summer is such a beautiful season at Penn Forest. Everything is especially lush because of all the rain we’ve had. If you’ve been thinking of visiting us, now is the perfect time.

Penn Forest is a labor of love for all of us: Nancy, Laura, MaryPat, Dave, me and a host of others, mostly volunteers. At no time is this more evident than when we prepare for our annual picnic. Usually more than 100 people show up for good time fun and to celebrate what we’ve accomplished: another year of serving the local and national community by providing environmentally friendly burial.

We are tired of the cold weather, but we feel spring is on the way. In this newsletter, we’re looking forward to spring and summer events: our eighth annual picnic, setting up a remembrance garden and yoga with goats. We’re also celebrating the completion of the first phase of the Park House restoration by thinking about its history since 1862. Nancy and I just moved into the house; the cemetery office will remain down the street at 227 Kansas, where it’s been for the last four years.

Thanks to the availability of a new GPS system, we now have the capability to find the exact location of any point on the Penn Forest property with surveyor accuracy (within a half-inch). We’re using this system to determine the exact latitude and longitude of our new Treemation service for instance, but we can use it to map anything on our property—trees, benches, buildings, gardens—anything! So, we can quickly expand any of our existing burial areas and precisely locate the new graves on our maps without having to hire a surveyor. Penn Forest is going high-tech!

It’s still summer, but it’s time to plan for our annual memorial tree-planting event on October 14th. We hope you can participate. 
On June 24th, we held our seventh annual Penn Forest picnic. Over 100 people attended this year. We had bluegrass music, property tours, grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and veggie burgers and a great collection of potluck offerings. We dedicated our new memorial scattering garden. We had entertaining goat races. And unbelievably, for seven years in a row we managed to avoid rain on picnic day.

There are many reasons to visit us this spring. We are so pleased with how our enhanced Penn Forest landscaping is shaping up. We’ve included some photos in this newsletter, but come out and see for yourself after the wildflowers bloom. With the addition of Bitter Ends Garden, Returning Home Farm is now a part of the Pittsburgh area farm-to-table movement. And for those of you interested in yoga, sign up for our “Yoga with Goats” classes.

Please welcome John Davis, our new assistant manager. He’ll be covering a lot of things for us now and in the future.
We’re excited to report the Park House renovations are moving along, so come check them out.
Make sure you get our seventh annual picnic date, Saturday, June 24th, on your calendar.
We are looking ahead to spring, having yoga classes with goats and offering pet burial to our lot owners. Remember too, lot price increases are coming March 1st.
We’re seeking your input on the funeral rituals that you’d like to have for your family interments.
Check out the upcoming events you might be interested in. We’d love to have you join us.
Please let me know if you have ideas or questions.
Happy New Year!

Summer is a busy time at Penn Forest and Returning Home Farm. It’s a great time to visit us.
We were so sad to say goodbye to our dear friend, Roger Westman. Read about his lifelong commitment to the environment and his love of Penn Forest.
Upcoming events: Saturday, August 20th, Death Café at Penn Forest; Saturday, September 17th, Tree ID Walk; Saturday, October 1st, annual memorial tree planting; and the fall series, “Approaching the Unapproachable: Finding Peace in Preparedness”.
Other news in this issue: We had a great picnic in June; the Steel City Grazers left their mark on our brush; the meadow gets seeded; aquaponics is coming to Penn Forest; and more blacksmith training. Check it out.

This issue of Life at Penn Forest is largely about sustainability. There’s a new video from Chatham University about our sustainability work, there’s an announcement about our June picnic with sustainability workshops, our meadow restoration project is moving ahead, we’ll soon be planting sally gardens, and our blacksmithing classes will begin in May. Spring brings a lot of life to Penn Forest.

Pictures! We’ve got pictures!
So much has happened so fast on our Returning Home Farm property that the only way for you to understand what’s new here is through photography. So, in this “Life at Penn Forest” issue we have pictures of the barn, of the chicken coop, of the education shed and of the animals (new and old), which include goats, chickens, ducks, bunnies and an English Shepherd puppy named Sophie. The only thing that’s missing from this menagerie is a needed guard animal for the goats (probably a donkey), and then we can start clearing the cemetery of brush this spring, summer and fall.
This was not the planned schedule. We were thinking we’d build a goat shed and coop now and the barn next year. But through a lucky combination of available construction skills and favorable karma, it’s all done now, a year ahead of schedule. Wow! We’re still taking it all in.
Pictures are good, but a better way to see everything is by visiting us. No need to schedule much in advance, just give me a call to make sure I’m here; then come on out.
And, as they used to say on those late night Veg-O-Matic commercials, “But, wait, there’s more!” Penn Forest won a Sprout Fund grant last month; we had a memorial tree planting in November; Tim Means plans to build a memorial stone wall in our cremated remains scattering area this spring; we’ll be offering classes in blacksmithing; and there’s another Death Café happening next month.

We started out to establish a green cemetery in Pittsburgh so we and other Pittsburghers would have this option locally instead of needing to travel to green cemeteries hours away in other states. We’ve expanded our mission to become a model for sustainable living too by adding hiking trails, bees, forest restoration, meadow restoration, and both educational and community-building events.
Soon we will be getting goats for clearing brush instead of using gas-powered equipment or herbicides. Additional plans include gardens and local food production and aquaculture. Our new Returning Home Farm site will also include chickens for eggs and an education shed where we can offer sustainable living classes, starting with blacksmithing.
You may be asking, “What does Returning Home Farm have to do with running a natural burial park?” We now have thirty-five acres of land, and we only use a little over two acres for burial, so we want to make the rest of the land available for community enjoyment and learning. In other words, we want Penn Forest to be a place for the dead and a place for the living. I hope this idea resonates with you as it does with us. Please enjoy this issue of ‘Life at Penn Forest’ and send us your ideas for other things we might do to encourage sustainable living, and dying, here and elsewhere.