Gettin' on the gray and pinin' away for a real farm

Here's an Earthbag update:  

We decided to go with the base coat of stucco (gray coat) to cover our bags and protect them from the UV rays. Since we will eventually stucco the outside to match our house color , we decided that rather than mix up local mud, which might or might not stick, we'd just do it the lazy store bought way. Actually stucco gray coat is really cheap.


Today, the weather was warm and sunny, and hopefully the coat we put on will dry before we reach the overnight predicted low of 28 F.
 
This time I got to help a little, painting on the thin coat, but Richard finished up the outside while I managed the children, laundry and phone calls from farm hunting.

I still ended up with stucco in my hair, covering my cowboy boots and splattered across my face. For a minute there, I felt like I was back in the creative mode, painting (anything will do) and getting dirty was part of the joy. Can't wait to play with the thicker stucco...just like getting my hands in clay again. 

One of the neighbors stopped by to ask about llama poop for his garden, and he and Richard chatted over the fence for a while. I'm guessing he's not one of the complainers, and in fact he's building a mulch/compost pile and building garden beds to plant in. Good for him! We are bringing down the neighborhood. Power to the backyard farmers!!

And the news on relocating the farm: our bank won't give us a loan. I guess in this day and age you can't own one house and buy another. No more contingencies. I've had several suggestions about selling our house and renting for a few months. Really? Do you think someone would rent to a family with two llamas, five goats, two guineas, 30 chickens, two dogs, four cats, two parakeets and a parrot? What would the pet deposit look like on that?

But, I called another guy...who just might be one of the nicest men I've talked to on the phone, and he's given me hope. If we could wipe out some erroneous info on our credit report we might have room to wiggle. So that's the next plan, otherwise we are looking at owner carry situations and they usually want too much down, although I'm not ruling that out. I've posted ads on Craigslist, looking for a farm. Hey, if you're a fan and have a farm in Penrose you want to sell and would carry the loan for a year or two, (until we sell this house and get another mortgage), please call me up!

In any case, life goes on here on the farm. The chicken class is still on for Sunday and we still have space open. We are about to order a mess of day old chicks...layers and broilers, and maybe even a turkey or two.
(Oh man, that's going to raise that rental deposit.)

Yesterday we went and picked up a load of manure and some sapling fruit trees from different farms in Penrose and I had more great conversations with a local farmer. They raise goats, have a couple of llama/alpaca cross girls, a great old orchard, and bees for honey that they bottle and sell.  Wonderful. The things that are possible.

I noticed in Penrose, most people have animals and the resulting manure pile, composting away somewhere, and in some cases, in their front yards, which is part of the working farm, and not some sprinkler system feeding sod surrounded by decorative rocks and gravel. I have to say I prefer the farm look, where real things are happening, and think we'd definitely fit better in a farming community that understands the projects being worked on and the value of that animal poop in the gardens.

Getting ready for the Blitz!

We are working like mad, trying to get ready for this weekend when people from all over will descend upon our little farm to build a barn.

Last four cabinet doors painted and drying

I've been cleaning the house, while trying to get the cabinets finished. As the doors go up, some more clutter gets put away and things begin to get organized. It seems like everything we need to do to get ready will never get done.


Where will everyone park? We are trying to clear some space and make a parking area, and one of our neighbors (one who likes us) offered to park cars in his field, if the ground is dry.

Finished doors, finished cabinets

The cabinets look nice, I think, for recycled cabinets.

Re-used broken bricks

Also have some recycled bricks to deal with, so I thought we could use the broken ones to make water wells for some of our trees. I think they look nice too, although our neighbors might disagree. The hillside is eroding so badly on the east side of our property, we need to hold the soil there long enough to plant some ground covers. I don't suppose our neighbors would understand anything about that.

This is trash

I did however find something else over on this side of the property: trash! and it isn't mine...could it be one of the neighbors is a litterbug?

And we have been taking care of pallets by putting up more pallet fence. They gotta love that!

Tires hidden under mulch

The tires by the driveway, that will eventually be a low retaining wall next to the berm there, were covered with some of the enormous pile of wood mulch, taking care of two eyesores in one shot...maybe. Is it better? Who knows.

Planting the fort

Richard built a frame around the kids play fort in the yard to keep it from blowing over again. The horrendous wind keeps tipping this big toy over, and the slide has been ripped off, unfortunately. This is kind of cool because once the kids outgrow the fort, we can put a roof on this, put a bench or swing under it, and enjoy the view of Pikes Peak in the distance.

I suppose this looks "weird" too.

I've been thinking of running away...to NM or to Penrose, a farming friendly community. Colorado is a right to farm state. Do the covenants prevent us from having that right? Can they do that?

Richard went to the Town Hall to pick up a permit application and find out what the news is. We don't need the permit, and the clerk there was excited about our Earthbag barn, but he did say a few years back a man tried to build an addition out of tire bales and was struck down. The town wouldn't approve it. Can't build out of tires...he said. We were thinking of building a greenhouse out of tires, but Earthbags are much easier.

There were no complaints that came by him, he said, but we may have too many goats, according to county rules. Four hoofed animals is what we are allowed. The llamas have toes, and so do the goats, but all are considered hoofed. One animal per half acre. Who goes? My vote is for the bully goat girls, but that would still leave one too many. Would they notice? Probably.

Maybe we should start a community garden in our tiny town. The town clerk said they were trying to come up with ways to bring the community together. Maybe if we contributed to a good, green cause, people would see that we are not bringing mayhem to the land and call off their witch hunt.

In the meantime, we are looking for a friendly neighbor to house a couple of goats...

Found a piece of vacant property in Penrose. We could move the goats out there, put  up hoop houses, and farm to our hearts content, while trying to convince the county to let us build an earth house...Earthbags probably. The realtor has yet to call me back. I wonder what it takes to purchase land? Where do you get financing? How much do you have to put down? How does that work?


There's some cheap land down near Taos, sort of. Could we go back there? We could collect rainwater in NM. That's something. And NM is green builder friendly. Taos is a mecca for artistic and creative, eccentric and sustainable types of folks. I miss it. One of our guests this weekend is coming form Taos. She's planning on building an Earthbag house out in the wilds of Taos county and has started a blog Home Sweet Hive which will chronicle her story as she builds. Can't wait to read about the progress. Can't wait to meet her this weekend. Welcome Susan and family!

In fact, welcome to everyone who is coming to our little farm this weekend. Can't wait to meet everyone. It'll be great fun!