Fencing, shade, gardens and Nature

Catching up. Gardens getting planted, more sage being cleared and lots more to do.

shade in the sage

The past two weeks out on our new land have been about clearing more sage and trying to get ready to put up the fence on the west border. I'm getting accustomed to wielding the heavy axe. It didn't take long for us to realize how incredibly hot it is out there in the unforgiving sun, so we have decided to make a shade structure one of our priorities, although the umbrella works in a pinch. It blows away on occasion and looks like a rainbow kite skimming across the sage. Richard has devised a great way to tie it down, weighted with the post pounders and tied to a sage bush.

cleared for shade structure

After we put up our shade structure, we can build a cistern to catch the water off the roof! In this desert place, any water we can get and store is a wonderful thing, so every single structure we build will have a water catchment system of some variety.

northwest corner h-brace

Richard finished the corner H-brace on the northwest side of the property and finally we even got the fence posts up. Next is the unrolling and hanging of the fence. Great fun to come.

strawbale compost bin

Our compost bin is growing quickly and with a neighbor's added horse and goat poop, by the time we finally move out there, we should have the beginning of some kind of useable compost.





We found and bought a generator online (free delivery) to give us power to work. Bonus: now we can use the generator to boost the batteries at our off grid rental house when the cloudy days build up.We are thinking of holding off on installing our wind generator and just putting it up on the new land.

prickly pear

not a rattler....bull snake maybe

Even though we only get out to the land once a week, our work is fulfilling and we seem to accomplish a lot in a short time, considering. This last week I was rewarded with a little bit of nature on the way home...a pretty cactus in bloom and a snake crossing the road.

Little ones plant potatoes

And at home, at the other end of the valley, we have been getting the gardens in. Richard and the kids planted potatoes, and this week we hope to get our tomatoes out...sooner rather than later.

nest with baby peeking out

There is also some wildlife around the homestead...this morning a huge raven woke us. He was on the roof and we thought for sure some kind of four-legged creature was running across the Earthship roof. And, the nest of baby birds above one of the outside lights has been taking flight. They leave early in the mornings and return at dusk. There were five at first, but now I only see three babies, when I see them. I hope they are out there finding their freedom and didn't become prey for some critters.

Cicada

Also the Cicadas are singing, crazy loud, and scary thing, they sound like the rattle snake I saw on an early morning walk with Honey. Or the snake sounded like them. Who knows. I don't walk the tracks through the sage anymore. I stick to the wide gravel road that gives me room to see and avoid any snakes!

So this next week is about fencing and shade out on the land and planting tomatoes and peppers here at home. Still so much to do in so many places.

We are so thankful for the work share of produce Richard gets every week form Cerro Vista Farm, seeing how our gardens are slow going in, and much smaller than we had hoped they would be.

We anticipate the space we will have to put in greenhouses and huge gardens at our new place, and look forward to the days when we can hold classes on homesteading on our own land.

Clearing sage on the new land

Hard weekend.

We closed on our land last week and began to work as soon as we could get down there. The new home site is about twenty miles from where we are now. Work thus far involves clearing sage...lots and lots of sage. A few hours for two days and we managed to get a compost bin built (for cleared sage of course), the road to the compost bin cleared, H-braces up for the front gate, and 230  feet by 4 ft wide (920 sq feet of sage!) on the west boundary cleared for fence.

This is a ten acre parcel and we plan on putting a perimeter fence around it to keep kids and critters in. It's still a little too close to the Gorge for my comfort. I have horrible thoughts of running llamas and running children...with a 1000 foot drop in the middle of the sage. I need my fence. And there are still thousands of acres of unfenced sage land as far as the eye can see. I've been having an internal conflict/dialogue about fencing the natural land, but in the end, the security of a fence won. It only takes one mishap, and I won't take the chance. We try to talk to the kids about the importance of not going to the gorge without Mom or Dad, but with the autism thing going on, can my daughter really get it? And the llamas, well, they just look at me and lay their ears back, hawking up some nasty smelling loogies to launch. "Gorge...what gorge? Don't you be telling me about no stinkin' gorge!"

Yeah, I'm a big fan of  fence. I'll clear the sage by hand and do what it takes to keep the critters safe.

230 feet of cleared sage

compost bin o' sage

Still, even with the sunburns and sore muscles, it feels soooo good to be working on our own land. My  four year old son calls it "Our Place." Who knows, maybe it'll stick and a name change is in order for the farm.

Richard making an H-brace

And the views out there...can't be beat!

Even the dinosaurs are hard at work moving dirt for their house.

More good news...manifested a whole lot of bags for our first Earthbag project. And some pallets too. Wonder what we could do with a bunch of pallets? Thinking some kind of composting toilet inclosure/ shed.

We plan on heading out to our land every Sunday to work hard on getting fence up and sage cleared for our first building project. Right now, I think it's space to park some vehicles. I'm looking for a bus...yeah, an old retrofitted school bus we can use as a home base to get out of the sun, have a kitchen and maybe live in (when I talk Ricardo into it of course). If we didn't have to pay rent, think of the resources that could go into building!

Our first idea after the fence, or while fence project is ongoing, is to put up a shaded picnic area, which will sit next to a 20 x 40 ft building we can uses as a classroom for our sustainability school. This will involve a cistern to catch rainwater too, so our first class will be born soon. After we clear more sage!

Tired, but recovering. It is well worth it. Knowing it is ours (almost...still have that pesky owner carry loan to pay off on the land) and it is clean (no fracking anywhere nearby) and the air is pure...that is beyond priceless! It is a miraculous manifestation of positive intentions and heartfelt meditations.

Chicks, Prairie dogs, Earth Day and Earthbags

Chicks in "brooder"

This past week we received 27 baby chicks in the mail from McMurray Hatchery. Some assortment of Jersey Giants, Cuckoo Marans and a surprise chick. My little surprise chick is yellow with feathered feet. I'm excited to see what it turns into.

It is rather challenging keeping the chicks at the right temperature (95 degrees F) when we don't have much electricity to spare. We can't really afford the energy pull of a 100 watt bulb on our batteries, so we opted for a 40 watt bulb, and keeping the chicks in the well insulated but unused chest freezer over night. During the day, anywhere near the front, south facing, slanted windows provides more than enough heat, in fact, too much and I have to move the chicks around to maintain the temperature at 95F. So far so good. We are on day three and haven't lost any of the little ones.

Freezer brooder, always propped open for air.

Richard has been doing chicken classes for interested folks looking to start their own backyard flocks. It has been going pretty well in our new community. There seem to be plenty of people interested in living sustainably.

Moved the ducks out, sort of...they get to spend the days in the chicken tractor inside the chicken pen, and come in at night. They are almost all feathered out, but the nights are still pretty cold, so we bring them in at night and they sleep in their rubber brooder.

Baby ducks out in the fresh air.

We also hauled our first load of water (1000 gallons) from the community well with our pretty new rainbow truck. That worked well. One of the cisterns here at our house is not pumping into the house, so Richard hooked up a pump he found in our utility room and spent a whole day transferring water from the non-working cistern to the working cistern on the other end of the house. The pump really taxed our electricity storage, and now with the new chicks, the power has been fluctuating on the low side. I'm back to candles and camp lanterns at night.  But, good news...we got our wind turbine and are ordering the rest of the parts so we can get it put up and running. That should help with the power. It seems the wind blows here nearly everyday. Richard used to hate the wind, but now he just thinks of the potential power it can provide.

I attended a couple of Thrive Taos meetings in town, which show a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it is rather difficult to attend because Richard works, I have both of the wild ones in tow, and now, they are closing the bridge to town over night for the next month, which leaves us stranded in town or taking one of the two other bridges which are miles out of the way and particularly unsettling for me with the switchbacks and short altitude climb. I won't do it. Scares me...anxiety attacks don't work on mountain roads. So, I'm most likely not going to attend the Thrive meetings for a while, although maybe we can be involved in other ways.

Discovered the Taos Food Co-op through Thrive, and we ordered a bunch of bulk items from Golden Organics. They have all of the flours we need for the kids' gluten-free diets. Wonderful!

Prairie dog burrow in field to south of house.

Richard has been volunteering at Cerro Vista Farm up in Cerro on one of his days off. He just felt the need to farm. In return for his work, he gets a "work share" of produce, which will help us out with clean, organic, locally grown food, since our ability to garden is limited here due to water and space. And, it turns out prairie dogs! It seems there was a reason we found chicken wired buried under the last residents' compost piles. There is a sizable prairie dog colony out in the field beyond our fence. And they have been burrowing into the yard in search of green grass, which there is, although we have not watered what looks to be the former owners' attempt at a "lawn."

Prairie dog burrow in new raised planter.

So now, Richard is putting chicken wire under the planter beds and we have to dig up the three we already put in to line them with chicken wire too.

What do prairie dogs teach us? About community...how about that. In our sustainable, off-grid community, the covenants do not allow for extermination of any of the natural critters, which is great, and I'm trying to find some natural prairie dog deterrents (haven't found any yet). Funny we found a crap load of mouse traps beyond the fence when we moved the llamas out there. Were they trying to deter the little prairie dogs or exterminate the field mice? Maybe it was a vendetta against the huge pack rat that lives under the wood pile.

Baby goats and little kids at Lettuce Grow Farm

For Earth Day (our new Xmas) we took the kids to a cute little farm in town that is focused on Permaculture and building community. Check out Lettuce Grow Farm in El Prado, NM. They played with the baby goats, baby ducks, planted seeds in eggshells, and picked dandelions for the ladybug farm.  We also took them to Twirl, a lovely local toy store with playground and found them an adorable board game focused on gardening. We went by the Fiber Art show in town and had a full day of fun things to celebrate our Mother Earth. I'd like to turn Earth Day into a big holiday in our house, maybe plant more trees and flowers around the house...when we build our own. Give the kids a meaningful holiday to replace the consumerist American holidays we are no longer celebrating (Easter, Halloween, Christmas...anything that requires spending money on things we don't need or want.).

Lettuce, radishes, strawberries.

Our garden is pretty tiny this year with a few raised beds outside and our Earthboxes inside. I don't think we'll have any problem using the share from Cerro Vista Farm.

Up next: more chicken classes, in partnership with Thrive Taos, and on the near horizon, another Earthbag building event! This time we are going to build an Earthbag water catchment cistern. We just have to decide when and where, and collect enough polypropylene bags to get it done. If we close on our land in the next week, maybe we'll do it there. Or maybe at one of the Thrive member's homes. It seems we all need a little extra water here in the arid Southwest, and if we could all build cheap, and easy cisterns, wouldn't that be a great thing!

Thrive, the movie

I just watched Thrive online at their website...for free. People have been offering screenings here and there, but usually  I can't go and for some amount of money I don't have. Here it is for free. Watch it and pass it on. I really think there's something to this. It's along the lines of what I've always thought anyway. If you've seen it, pass it on anyway and let everyone know they can watch it for free.

Thrive

Wake up world!!!!

Occupy the planet! Occupy your own sense of responsibility.

I've been hiding out here in my desert house, enjoying the sun and the sage, pretending that if I stopped participating in Western culture, maybe it would all change. Ha. I think it's time to get involved again and maybe put the Facebook page back up. How is the Occupation in Canon City going?

Weird energy things have been going on in my little world, which opens my eyes to the possibilities of even bigger energy things...solutions, whether that be for power or for healing, love/energy is the answer, we just have to connect to the Source and to each other.

And, still, stop participating in the Corporatocracy in any way you can! Move to your own land and go off grid. It's not as hard as you think.

Share the knowledge. Share the energy. Share organic food. Share the passion for change. Share the love. We can make a difference if we all work together.

Peace.

New Mexico Adventure

News and more news...

We have been crazy busy this past month and with our tax refund, have been able to get some things done, including adding two new (used) solar panels to the existing array. The guys at Paradise Power figured out how we could do it and not add another inverter. So, Richard added onto the frame and hooked it up.

The new panels were a bit larger than the old ones on this array.

We put a deposit down on a wind turbine/generator (home windmill) and surprise, it's already arrived at Paradise Power...we were expecting it in about four weeks.

It has been crazy windy out here for the past few weeks and a turbine would come in handy to boost our power that much more, especially on those cloudy days.

Raised planters in southwest corner of yard.

Also started seeds for the outdoor gardens, and decided to convert our indoor planters into herb gardens. In pots. We are still not sure what is going on underneath the gravel and brick in the planters and since we are renters, it's best not to go digging around too much. Richard built some great raised planter beds out in the yard and we have been transferring dirt from the planters in front of the sloped windows outside to the planters. The E-ship guys told us the dirt was too high and sloped toward the glass when it should slope away from the house, so we are correcting that issue and re-using the dirt for our garden beds.

Herb garden in the kitchen windows.

Work truck

We had our first load of water brought in last week too. One of our cisterns is full, but we can't seem to get the water out of it, so we decided to fill up the two working cisterns on the other end of the house. We are entitled to 2000 gallons of water per month from the community well.. There hasn't been much rain or snow lately so we thought we should learn how to get water before we really get desparate. In addition to the community well,  there is a community water hauling trailer, but you have to have a truck or big enough vehicle to tow the trailer. Some of the other residents can do this for you and we were happy to pay $50 for delivery of 1000 gallons of water, rather than ruin our one vehicle. But, then we decided to invest in a truck...a typical Taos work truck, and she's a beauty...a bargain at $650. I think she's kind of cute and when I look out the window and see that old truck, I just smile and think New Mexico. Fits right in with old "Lucky" the ugly horse trailer we've had for a couple of years now.

I was debating buying an old Mercedes we could convert to veggie diesel, but when the water issue came up, the truck seemed the better choice. I'm still keeping my eyes open for a little fuel efficient commuter car though.

Wells Fargo repossessed the truck we had. I'm surprised they found us. But they did. We decided we couldn't really afford that big old diesel truck anymore and could use that money for...rent! They are still trying to get $8K out of us. Good luck. Bail us out oh great American government? I don't think so, but wouldn't that be nice. They could pay my student loan too.

rain barrels

We headed down to Santa Fe to stock up on some bulk items at the health food stores, picked up some barrels from the Coca-cola distributor for water catchment, and I even found two Pekin ducklings at a feed store in Espanola.

It seems Spring makes me yearn for babies.

A Cuckoo Maran, Charlie, and an Americauna.

We got rid of most of our chickens. Sold them on CL. Producing hens are popular when chicks are for sale.We had someone come all the way up from Albequerque for hens. It didn't seem cost effective for us to keep feeding fifty chickens when we can't find egg customers around here. Plus the weird neighbor complaints about chicken noise and what not. I even found Gideon my yearling Roo a home. We kept old Charlie and 11 hens. It has taken a while, but the girls are finally laying again...I got 8 eggs yesterday.

Richard still wants to raise turkeys, but I'm not sure where we'd put them after processing, without a working freezer. We need more power! And an efficient freezer. One of the many things, in addition to a Laptop computer, that we are shopping around for.

We are also selling most of our electrical appliances on CL...fridge (gone), dehydrator, alarm clocks, heaters, crock pot, phones, etc. Even when we build our own house, there will be little need for the plug in appliances we have become accustomed to. We don't need them. We've been doing great out here without all the gadgets, and hardly any power, compared to people tied to the energy grid. Simplify! Do we really need all these extras? Not so much. But, maybe someone else thinks they do and will buy our old stuff.

We are expecting a shipment of chicks at the end of the month. Jersey Giants and more Cuckoo Marans, which seem to be very popular around here. They have gorgeous dark brown eggs. I love them. We will keep some and sell the rest, hoping we get a roo in our straight run selection so we can raise them. They are a heritage breed. I'm sure the neighbors (?) will be pleased with more roosters crowing in the wide open desert spaces.

Honey Bear behind the straw bale insulated chicken coop.

Honey is doing so much better out here, but the wind seems to upset her a bit. When the wind blows, she hangs out inside, wandering back and forth along the length of the house, barking at phantom noises.

Yes, that is a toilet...comes with the land purchase.

And the best news...we found some land! 10 acres out on the southern edge of the valley/plateau/mesa. The owner is willing to carry it for 5 years, although I think we can pay it off much sooner. It has a clear title and we are even having a title company do the closing, with title insurance and everything. That's a big deal here in this area. It's a great place with soft, red dirt and so much fragrant sage. I long to run barefoot among the sagebrush, connecting to the soft earth. It even has a hillside dug out, where the previous owner was going to build his house. He's now in the Alaskan bush somewhere. (Taos has the most interesting people connected to it!) Hopefully by the end of the month the deal will be done and we can begin to build our house! We will be collecting earth bags again and may utilize some cob, some can walls, maybe some tires, but most certainly south-facing passive solar!

It is all coming together now. It feels right and I'm back on the path! Started writing again and even did a watercolor of the view out the south windows.

Welcome home to the sage! The New Mexican adventure has begun.

What just happened?

So that was weird.

Now we are in an Earthship out in the middle of the sage, soaking up the sun...those healing rays. Let's just say the last few months were a test of the mountain, and let's agree that if we look at it from a spiritual perspective, it was one major lesson in creation and psychic vampirism (more on that later).

So, now, the chickens and the llamas and the dogs and the kids all have a place to run and romp and be who they are. We are indeed lucky to have found this place...or to have this place find us. The owner of this magnificent house lives in Australia and has agreed to rent it to us at a price we can afford. Remarkable. Thanks A.

And, when we were moving in, some guys from Earthship Biotecture were out working on the windows...replacing some rotted trim boards and replacing the flashing. Very nice and helpful guys who understand my love of the Earthship. Now...this is more like it, I have to say, and these are more like-minded people, and everything is going to be just fine now.

Earthship kitchen

The sage is grounding. The house is grounding with mud floors and earth plastered walls. I sit in my big old arm chair facing the windows and watch the sky. A lot. I watch the clouds come and go. I wait for the sun in the morning and wait for the darkness in the evening. This is the most wonderful and beautiful place.

Living room mud floor with rock left in...very grounding.

The house is heated by the sun. There is one wood stove in the living room and we have used it several times, especially when the snow storms move in. The day time temperatures get up to about 85 F in the house and down to around 60F at night. It is a perpetual summer place. It took about a week to acclimatize, but now, we are all adapted. It is like those hot summer days and cool summer nights and I swear I feel like I'm camping again, or living in my tent (archaeology field school, summer 2000). I take showers in the sunshine...in the south facing bathroom with windows looking out at the sage and the mountains in the background. We had to buy a stock water dish for the kids to take a bath...there is no bathtub in this water conscious house.

Little boy in the bath.

The house sits on 20 acres in a sustainable community (although I think the residents might have some differing opinions about the definition of sustainable). The house relies completely on solar energy for power, and although the system was recently updated and probably adequate for commuters, we have lost power twice, during two periods of cloudy days. Richard's work computer is an energy hog, but we are lucky he gets to work from home. So we sacrifice. I don't use any electricity at night when he's working. We light the house by candles and battery run camp lanterns. We hardly ever watched TV anyway, so that was easy to abandon. All of the electrical appliances are a no-no, unless we really need that Kitchen Aid, which we can run in the middle of  the day with full sun shining. Mostly, we enjoy the natural beauty and try to get by. The stove and hot water are on propane...there's a tank behind the house. And we are lucky to have a septic system in our off-grid house.

Solar panels behind E-ship

We are learning. And, we are searching for our own piece of affordable land to build our own off-grid house. I'm still having trouble trying to find a place big enough to have the animals and keep nosy neighbors minding their own business. What is with people? Bored? There was a rumor our chickens were too loud...the nearest house is what 20, 30 acres away? Whatever. Release and move on.

Coop with E-ship in background

Richard built a passive solar coop for the chickens. We are trying to downsize our flock as there doesn't seem to be the interest in eggs here that there was in our small community in Colorado.

There is a little snake that lives above the front door. It turns out there are at least two...I saw them yesterday...two little heads poking out, they just hang out and watch and smell with their little red tongues. I think they are bull snakes or maybe garter snakes. I can't ever really see enough to tell for sure. They are pretty small. The snake represents healing and transformation. We are okay with them living up there. They are the guardians of this house...here before we came.

There are also two ravens that hang out in the south meadow. Magic and creation. It is all good here.

Now, we conserve energy like crazy. We came in with our freezer (unplugged after first power outage) and our big fridge (unplugged after second power outage) and now we use the little two compressor energy Vestfrost fridge that was here. It isn't big enough, but we are learning. We keep a lot of food in the pantry...potatoes, apples, tomatoes, jars of pickles, and our jars of flours around the corner from the kitchen (it gets too hot), and our bread in a drawer under the cabinets. Richard goes out and manually moves the solar panels with the sun every few hours to get the maximum input. And we are researching and talking with our landlord about more solar panels and possible a wind turbine. If he's not up to it, but lets us install them, we can always take them with us when we move to our own piece of land and build our own off-grid house.

We also conserve water like mad. The house is on two cisterns from water catchment off the roof. We have reduced our showers and baths down to about twice a week.

Perpetual camping. We are tuning to the rhythms of the house and the rhythms of nature, as Michael Reynolds, the designer of Earthships (and yes, he designed, but did not build, this house we are in) intended. These are houses for "direct living" as he explains in his A Comimg of Wizards book (very good, spiritual book, by-the-way) and an opportunity for people to live simpler, get closer to nature and evolve into the spiritual beings we are. Wonderful.

I am in love with this house and the landscape surrounding it. And now, we are living more responsibly, being the change, and reducing our carbon footprint by remarkable amounts. So glad to be here and thankful every single day!

Moving back to Toas...the Universe is talking to me

My own silence weighs on me with the burden of a necessary self-examination. Trust your intuition, even if it appears there are no options. When your body and emotions are telling you something is not right, when your kids are acting crazier than normal, and your dog/puppy has turned into a psychotic attack dog, when your house plants are suddenly all sick and dying, and the recently (past two and a half years) quiet parrot has started screaming like a banshee again, when you're afraid to go outside and feel like a prisoner in a strange house, maybe it's time to listen to what the Universe is saying.

We moved the farm to New Mexico over the past two months. We are just outside of Taos in a place that is not unfamiliar, but strange with the taint of money. Is all of Taos like this? I just don't remember. Maybe I didn't care.

Tipped trailer, surprisingly not damaged...except the hitch.

On the move, I wrecked the trailer on La Veta Pass...flipped it on its side on a patch of ice...thought I was going to flip the car too, but managed not to. And as we came to a stop facing the wrong direction on the wrong side of the road, facing the guard rail a few feet away, my adrenaline shooting through my veins, it did not occur to me how close to death I had brought my children and myself, but how that damn pass seemed to have it in for me. It was on the other side, heading up from Taos that I hit a deer some years ago and trashed the front end of my Xterra to the tune of five grand. Lucky for me no one was hurt in either of my La Veta Pass adventures, but I sure have a hard time driving through there now without a full blown panic attack coming on.

E-ship shell, sage and Taos Mountain

But now we have landed in northern NM and the weekend we had to build a chicken coop was one of the coldest all year. The arrangement we have now puts the llamas and chickens some miles away at another property until we can build them fences and shelters here near the house we are renting. They are in the shell of a burned out Earthship on the north side of Taos, but you can't see them from anywhere, unless you are really looking for them.

Passive solar chicken coop in Earthship shell

We managed to get the coop built and everyone arranged, but it still took several lights for warmth and a few weeks for our hens to start laying normally again. I guess they are traumatized too. We did lose a few to coyotes, I'm guessing. All we found was a mess of feathers that might have once belonged to one of the four missing hens. Now, the chickens are guarded by llamas who are enclosed with electric wire.

Nothing is ideal, but we are getting by. We have found a few egg customers already and Richard touched base with some old co-workers at the Corps.

Taos is Taos...so much the same but with more people now. There are places built up here too, just like in the big cities. There are kiddie car shopping carts here too, but some of these have their own bumper stickers, reminding the young drivers to treat everyone with kindness. There is an Occupy Movement here too, but I have not met anyone or gotten involved yet. It seems I'm too caught up in the drama of my own life. I was reading Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the United States... and got way too angry with the founding peoples of America to continue, convinced that we are now in some strange tenant farmer situation, and I'm angry and disappointed at the elitist, judgmental folks who run the world. (Yes, I have been examining my anger issues and trying to release my need to draw these situations into my life.) It would seem that 1% of the white and powerful, the rich and corrupt, have been doing bad in this country since it's very beginning.

I am driven more than ever now to find a community of like-minded folks who want to be the positive change this planet needs to survive the coming downfall of the powerful American reign. I think a lot of the west gorge area and the mesa where people seem to make their own rules. I long to meet and talk with some of these open minded folks to see how their community differs so vastly from the mainstream world where resources are hoarded and people are exploited to gain more.

We are still searching for our piece of land to build our little sustainable farm, and I'm afraid that the place we are now is not really doable for more than the very short term. It is an emotional minefield of some variety, and the energy is wrong. I'd love to have some peace and not have to worry about my dogs and where Richard left something, and how the llamas and chickens are so far away.

Since we moved into this house, I have been dreaming of Paris. Weird. At night I dream of moving to France...packing, getting on a plane, making all of the arrangements. Can't figure it out. When we lived in Portland, Oregon for a total of four miserable months, I dreamed of Africa. I never did figure that out either, but I'm guessing it has something to do with being in an unhappy situation and looking for a way out.

I certainly don't want to offend anyone, and hope I don't, but when the kids, the dogs, the bird, the houseplants and my dreams are all telling me that something is not right, shouldn't I do something about it?

Maybe the Mountain is testing me again. But you know what...I won't be chased off this time. It doesn't even matter. I won't go back to a house that is on the verge of falling into an old mine shaft because of earth tremors caused by fracking. No way.

I made it back to my beloved NM and I'm not leaving. Stay tuned though. We may end up out in the sage sooner rather than later.

This is my new kitchen view.

An Arroyo Seco sunset through trees...another view  from the house.

Nothing beats a New Mexican sunset when the sky is on fire and the day goes out like a fresh painting. I have come home to the land of art, where every scene is a magnificent creation by the Master Artist.

Just a few wells in the neighborhood...should generate some revenue for the county.

Since last April, we have been surprised to share our pristine mountain views with the big oil companies, who seem to be moving in post haste, taking advantage of that every 40 acre rule. Say hello to our new neighbors!

This first well is the second to come to our neighborhood--added about a month or so ago. We can see this one from our house, but at least we can't see the evaporation pit.

Oil Well #2 -- second well in the neighborhood

The second well in the photo below was the first one that came to our quaint little town last April. Big producer...or so I hear. 100 barrels a day. Is that why they added another pump? And still the drill is there...or maybe that's the pipe machine.

First well in the hood, but second in distance from our house. That fence contains the evaporation pit.

Oil Well #1. Still drilling. Going another direction maybe?

And the newest drill in our rural atmosphere....

Oil well #3...they look big and scary when they are actually drilling.

Oil Well #3 --pumping in that water (or...)..helps with that "horizontal" drilling

Big and scary. Drills with little red lights on top, flashing in the night so the planes won't hit them. Kind of ruins the view of the bright stars and the Milky Way.

Took these photos on our way up to the Springs for my daughter's first Occupational Therapy session. It went well. Even got to spend time with the angry teenage girl (my second oldest) who doesn't seem so angry now that she's discovered the calming effects of a little herb we'd all like to legalize. My oldest though, who lives in Texas, is pro-cop, anti MMJ, and anti-Occupy. Makes a mama proud.

Noticed some other odd activity in the hood: bobcat taking out trees up the road toward the national forest land. More fencing going in. Unused roads look like they are seeing some traffic. My guess? I think we've got two or three more oil wells coming in.  And it just F*** 'in pisses me off! There was no disclosure about this crap when we bought this house! Fracked up, man!

On the positive side (Is there one?) I did get a few responses to my CL ad looking for a rental in the Land of Enchantment. And one was another Earthship. Go figure. I guess people who build/live in E-ships are just my kind of people. It sounds perfect! A place of opportunity and healing...a divine structure to reside in while we search for our new permanent place. The best thing is we get to head down there to check out some of these rentals. Nothing beats a road trip to New Mexico. Except staying maybe.

Negatives: need to find homes for some of the critters...maybe. Guineas, cats, some chickens. Need to move before Wells Fargo repossesses the truck, and our house falls into one of the old coal mine shafts (fracking DOES NOT cause earthquakes or tremors. Oh, wait, it does.) Need to move before they begin on the new coal mine to open between our house and the good old Uranium, Superfund Site, Cotter Mill (which is trying to get a license extension, in case they decide to re-open perhaps).

This place is just getting way too toxic for the likes of humans. It is time to bail on the Prison town and begin again in a place that fights the Big Corporate Oil/Gas/hazardous materials energy companies like their lives depend on it...because, they do.

Good luck little Chuck!

I gave away my baby rooster today, to a nice woman who I think will appreciate the bond between a gal and her roo. One of Charlie's sons (looks just like his dad) has gone on to rule his own roost and take care of his own harem of laying hens. Good luck little Chuck!

And, it turns out the other chick I hatched from an egg is also a rooster...Chuck's brother, a Barred Rock,  Black Star Cross. Kind of funny looking, but he's coming into some pretty tail feathers now and some have a hint of green. Interesting boy. Not crowing yet. A late bloomer? I think I will call him Gideon, from a dream I had some weeks ago of a baby with the same name. Didn't understand the relevance of the name in the dream, but it seems fitting for my lonely little orphaned rooster who is just nineteen weeks old.

I have been so caught up in the Occupy revolution, I have not been writing or doing much of anything really.

Took the kids to the city for their autism screenings. Turns out my son is fine, perfectly normal...well, his role  model, his older sister, has taught him a thing or two, which might be questionable, but otherwise, it's all good.

My little girl, however, is another story. That's how the doctor told us. Another story. Diagnosed PDD-NOS, which in autism lingo means not full blown autistic, but on the spectrum. Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Non Specified. She has many autistic traits, but she also speaks and can communicate, even if it is a little off. So there we have it. They'd like my daughter to undergo therapy once a week. Speech, occupational, behavioral...learn how to be social, in a normal way. What does that mean? I'm not even social in a normal way. Although, I have to admit it has been an issue for me in my own life. Maybe my daughter can learn how to talk to people and stand to be in the same room with more than say five individuals. If not, hey, I will understand.

Still got New Mexico on the mind. In a bad, bad way. Or good. I search through Craigslist daily, trying to find a place we could rent with all of our critters. But I also have been trying to find homes for some of them. Anyone want a nice, male, neutered indoor cat? It turns out my son may be allergic to all of the animals anyway. His next blood test will tell us.

The oil drilling in our neighborhood continues. There are now three within a mile of our house. Fracking? Yep. Heard it from several people now. But "there's nothing to worry about,"and "it's not that bad," and "maybe the town will use the revenue to fix the roads," or "a little fracking is not as bad as a lot of fracking." Right?

Wait...what?

"Oil fracking is not as bad as gas fracking." and "give it some time and they will go away."

How long? Long enough to grow a tumor out of the side of my head? Or maybe when our water smells like fuel? Or maybe when the ground starts to shake and our house actually falls into one of the old abandoned coal mine shafts 300 feet underneath of us? How long? Maybe when they put a drill in the empty lot next to us? There's one in the next town over...sits smack in the middle of four houses. I'd say those lucky families are less than 300 feet away from that nightmare. Evaporation pits. Sure, they are using chemicals. "Not that bad"...how do we know if they won't tell us what chemicals?

Abandon ship! Abandon ship!

I think it's time to move on now to a community that doesn't favor profit over human health.

Not in my back yard, damn it!

And since NM still calls to my spirit, I think it's time to listen and find another place. They have autism therapists down in Santa Fe. I checked. Even a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doctor. And the home school laws in NM are a bit more lax than in Colorado. Plus, you can collect and harvest rainwater. It's not against the law. Imagine that! And, as everyone knows, the Land of Enchantment is home to the most interesting people one could ever hope to meet. As one of my old lovers once told me...I'd fit right in. And as my family and friends always ask...who'd want to live in New Mexico? Exactly! Too many people here know me now.

I'm going to die in New Mexico, I promise. It'd be nice if I could do a little living in the land Georgia O'Keeffe came to love. The land recorded by Ansel Adams and written about by Tony Hillerman. It is an artist's paradise...a land where the muse runs free with wild and crazy abandon, dancing with the wind under skies ablaze with glorious, smoldering  sunsets. 

It is home. Even if I don't live there yet. I will get back to the land where my spirit sings in harmony with the energy vibrations of the mesas and mountains and the beautiful sage. I'm coming New Mexico, I'm coming!

Taos Time

Got Taos on the mind, like some old lover that won't let me forget, singing some desert serenade, urging me to fall in love again.

On May 13 of 2002, I sat in my pretty, little, black Neon, smoking a cigarette, staring out into the weirdness that is Taos, and wrote this short poem. My 2000 Neon was my writing studio, my personal space, my little Frogger, hopping across roads to deliver pizzas (until R drove it over a hill and put a hole in the floorboard...it still ran, but it was tainted by a man's harsh handling, scarred by a unconsciousness that didn't understand that by loaning my little car, I was entrusting him with a piece of me.)

                                                 

Taos

Wildlife in the yard—

A black and white magpie,

Three red-breasted sparrows,

And a big wolf dog

Wandering by.

Wildness in mountain time 

Where nothing is quite right.

Peculiar smallness-

A place where free spirits still walk

Half-dressed down the street.

Magpies walk,

Wolf dogs talk

And music from the heart

Resonates with the sunshine

In time to the wind chimes

That hum with the breeze.

-K.A.Bennett 2002

Taos was my muse, as it seems to be with so many people, and although I lived a lonely life there, my creativity blossomed in words and in paint, in photographs and in ideas, and maybe that was the gift the Mountain gave to me. As I read of Taos now, and see photographs of latilla fences and old adobes, I think of how much I miss her, that old town that I drove around delivering pizzas into the night, dodging dogs chasing me and biting at the tires of my car, trying to decipher houses without addresses and streets without signs (they have those now!). What an adventure the Taos days were, and had R been the person then that he has become today, perhaps we could have stayed and the Mountain would not have laughed us out of her shadow.

Maybe it isn't too late. Or maybe it is. Is there an adobe in my future yet? 

I miss the sage like I could never imagine. Lately it consumes me...my longing for the open sky and the scraggly sagebrush that is my soul mate. The closed minds that surround me in this right wing town beg me to recall a different time, and a different mind, a younger me, someone free, not bound and constrained by the conformity all around, and by the system I live in. I want to be free again. I hear the desert calling again. It is almost time to go back home again. The sage is singing and the wind whispers my name.

Time to Wake Up!

We have this little chicken....a rooster actually. He's one of the two hatch-lings I let our broody hen hatch a couple of months ago. In the last couple of days he's started this pathetic, scratchy crowing, like an adolescent rooster who's voice breaks in all the wrong places. I heard him the first time today, and thought, what is that...a chicken with an egg stuck? When I realized the little guy had found his voice, I smiled, and thought about our fledgling Occupy movement that is just starting to find its own unified voice. Like that little rooster, the Occupy movement is young and full of energy, and sometimes our voice breaks as we all try to air our grievances with the corrupt corporations that run our politicians and our country. But I have no doubt, that like that young rooster that lives up the hill in my llama barn, the Occupy movement will find its unified voice and grow strong, singing out across the nation and around the world. "Cock-a-doodle-doo." "It's time to wake up!"

Last week Richard and I took our kids and headed down to the first Occupy Pueblo demonstration. What a life changing event! I reunited with an old friend, made some new friends and watched as people joined together in a courageous attempt to stand up for themselves against the corporate system of greed that has taken so much of our power away as a people, and as individual human beings...the evil, brainwashing, soul-stealing 1% that would keep us all in our sheeple skin, unquestioning, punching time clocks, making profits for them as they sit in their ivory towers and comfortable lives, turning a blind eye to the people they step on in their endless greed. Can it be that we as a nation have finally woken up? And not just to the greed that runs rampant in Wall Street and our political system, but maybe some of us have begun to wake up spiritually from the slumber our spirits have been in since the consumerist ideology has told us we can only be good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, wealthy enough if we go out there and support the capitalist system. More, more more.

Our entire society is based upon a failing system. Peak oil has passed, wall street has crashed and the big banks got bailed out. A few young people...college students...in New York City decided to band together and say enough is enough. College students can't pay their student loans (heck, I'm middle aged, a late in life graduate, and I can't pay mine), houses are getting foreclosed on at an alarming rate, jobs are being eliminated, and our hardworking Americans are being thrust out into the streets, creating a huge, HUGE, population of homeless people that includes veterans, and families with young children. The unemployment rate is absurd. No one can live on minimum wage, if they are lucky enough to have a job, and the banks are pounding on our doors: "Give us more money!" The big corporations who got bailed out won't give us a break. They got to write off their debts, why can't we?

So, Occupy Wall Street was born on September 17, 2011 in a park in NYC, across the street from Wall Street...a peaceful protest of individuals gathered together to voice their unhappiness and frustration with the Coporatocracy that has been running this country, been running the world with their unjust wars, their environmental degradation, their corrupt healthcare system and unhealthy agricultural system.

Finally! Here it is then, the wake up call for the American people. The American Dream is over folks. Even if you can get a decent paying job with fairly good health insurance, it can only last so long. And sure, some of us might be able to get by until our last days, when we hand our planet over to a younger generation who is asking, "what do I do with this mess?" But I think it has become our responsibility to stand up and fight the fight with those brave souls who began this, dare I say, Revolution?

When Richard and I fled the city, we were looking for a better place where we could raise our own food and raise our children in a cleaner, safer place while the world fell apart. Isn't it ironic then that my kids and even myself are not healthy, but suffer from unknown symptoms, even though we eat an organic, locally grown, no red meat, little dairy diet? What is going on?

Yesterday we attended the first Occupy Canon City demonstration, where a couple of dozen brave souls stood together on a corner in front of the Wells Fargo to show our solidarity with our brothers and sisters across the nation and around the world in the Occupy movement, and to support the Occupy Wall Street Occupiers, where this Revolution began.

It's a scary thing to put yourself out there and stand up for your rights and the rights of an American people, most of whom are still asleep at the wheel, driving to their dead end jobs for very little pay, and going home to a house they can't afford or a house that's value has dropped so significantly in the past two years--what is called "upside down." We had one of those babies in the Springs, a beautiful 100 year old Victorian, we had to offer in a short sale, because the interest only payment was too high as Richard's pay continued to be cut every year so the "corporation" could see more profits. Everything we put into it over seven years...new windows, landscaping, remodeled bathrooms...all lost. We were lucky to walk away without a bill.

It has been our dream and our goal to live sustainably on a piece of land and cut our ties to the consumerist culture that has hoodwinked so many people into lives of slavery to the system. So, certainly when this movement began, we were supporters from the get go and will hang in there until drastic change comes about in the American political system and the Corporatocracy is disbanded and eliminated. Richard and I have always been about building local community, and it is in the days, weeks and months ahead that that community will become so important as we help each other to survive the coming chaos.

Yes, I think this is the beginning of what all of the great spiritual masters would call the Global Awakening" and it ain't gonna be pretty folks. It is also the collapse of an American, no, WORLD culture of consumerism, which was on its way after we reached peak oil. We can stand in our towns and Occupy and band together to stand up against the 1%, which is phenomenal, but we really, really need to think about what our future as America looks like. We need to rebuild our communities and learn from the Occupation on Wall Street. In one month they have formed a egalitarian, working society in their park, a community where every individual is valued for what he or she brings to the table. Remarkable and wonderful. I am in awe of the way things are working out.

And of course the Corporatocracy will fight it. And mainstream America will fight it too for a while. People are scared. What do we do next? What happens when it all falls apart? Where do we go when our jobs no longer exist and the shopping malls have been shut down? That's where community comes in. Find it. Build it. It will save your life.

Last night when we got home from our Occupation, followed by a dog training class for my girl Honey, who was very well behaved at the protest, there was the most horrendous noise in the neighborhood. Metal on metal, squealing. They are drilling another well in the oil drill across the ravine. There is already a pump in, next to the evaporation pond. I suspect this new hole is for dumping the chemicals to extract that hard to reach oil that hides between layers of shale and rock. I'm pretty sure they are fracking less than a mile from my house.

I'm crying now, as I think of how we moved here to give our kids a chance...a future. And now we are stuck with a house we can't sell...it is just worth what we paid for it two years ago...dropped in equity 50K. Before we joined the Occupation, we were making a list of pros and cons about abandoning this place, this house, this property we have built barns on and put gardens in, and running to a clean piece of land we could buy outright with our next tax refund. Sure, we'd have to start over, and maybe live in a tent or a camp trailer for a few years, but maybe my head would stop hurting and my kids' autistic symptoms would go away.

Yeah, I'm ready for a Revolution! I will stand and fight this fight as I can, for my children, for my neighbors, for the planet. It is time to start over. Abolish the corrupt systems and begin again. Clean slate.

Cock-a-doodle-doo! Wake up!!!

Revolution underway?

Big Ugly...about 3 1/2" long.

I was going to write about all of the critters I have encountered since we've been here at our little farmstead...like the tarantula stuck in the tire, going round and round (note: I put a large rock in the tire so he could crawl out), or the fat toad I caught one night on my way to put the chickens to bed, or the cows that ran rampant through the neighborhood one spring morning, or the wild donkey herd that came last summer, but that will have to wait because big things are afoot in our nation that I can't help but comment on.

Occupy Wall Street began as a movement to let Corporate America know that the other 99% of America is fed up with the 1% who holds the wealth and power in this country. I think the protestors have been in place for two weeks now (correction: since Sept 17) and holding strong in NYC. Good for them! And to show solidarity and support, other cities across the nation have joined in, creating an "Occupy" movement around the country. I am so proud!

Could it finally be happening? The moment I've been waiting for...the new American Revolution underway, as citizens of our sad country become fed up enough with the powers in control (that 1%) and join together (that other 99%) to make a difference?

It began when I saw a brief mention on the local news of the Occupy movement coming to Colorado Springs, soon to be followed by another movement starting in Pueblo. There was enough interest, at least in my own household, to find out more, and to find out how we could be a part of the growing revolution, and on the heels of our own 350.org protest walk Sept 24, we are ready! I think activism feeds more activism...or maybe I've just been tired for so long of all of the stupid crap happening in our great nation, I am eager to join in wherever I can. Too bad I didn't have the foresight to start this thing (or the power and ability), but it turns out one of my dear old best friends from years ago does, and she and others are rallying the masses for a protest march in Pueblo on Friday. I am so thrilled!

But herein the questions arise. What are we marching for? What are we trying to gain from this? Will there be trouble? Should I worry about taking my kids (If I don't, I can't participate). Could I get arrested? How could I pay bail? What would happen to the kids? Should Richard call in sick to be a part of it? Will anyone else from our community be there? Should we start an "Occupy Canon City" movement? Where would we protest? The one Wells Fargo in town? My head is full of What ifs and What fors, along with my usual  anxiety or dizziness issues, and it is not pretty.

Logistics aside, I think I have to try to go because this is what I have been waiting for for so long...enough people on board to make a difference. We are trying to gain the upper hand. 100 monkeys. Throw it over into a snowballing, growing majority of fed up Americans who really want to change the control of our nation, who want to take back the democracy so that we the people can make the important decisions about our nation, instead of that 1% of white, rich, power hungry men who are hell bent on destroying the world we live in for their own profit. This is what it is all about! The lack of jobs, the environmental degradation, the sickness of our people because of Agribusiness and big Pharma. The circular nature of it all...keep them sick and poor and charge them more...so we, the Corporatocracy can maintain control of the world (ha ha ha ha haaaa... evil villain laugh).

I don't remember them asking me if I wanted a new oil drill less than a mile away from my farmstead. (Are they horizontally drilling???? That means fracking people!) And now they are putting in another across the road. What the Hell???? Because Corporate America has enticed the landowners with a small lease profit for the right to drill? Told them what? Like the rest of the country...we need that oil so our country can function...so we don't have to rely on oil from other countries (does that mean the wars will end?).
It is all BS. And when my household water starts to smell like diesal fuel (like down there in Walsonburg) I will still have no recourse in the face of BIG OIL, because I am nobody and my children are nothing and my head doesn't hurt constantly from the weird crap coming from the "evaporation" ponds across the ravine.

Yeah, I'm tired. I'm tired of arguing with my family about why they should recycle. Tired of defending myself over my children's gluten free, casein free, additive, preservative, colorant, corn free organic and local diet. (yeah they are kids and I'm sure almost every kid nowadays exhibits autistic behaviors, but if I can help them stop constantly twirling or jumping off the kitchen table, or running into traffic, or stuttering or tantrumming ten times a day by changing their diet, them I'm damn sure going to try!)

I'm tired of mainstream America being so closed minded that they cannot even see what this Corporatocracy has done to us as a nation, as a world and as the human race. That 1% is insulated from the environmental toxins (wish I could afford to move to a clean place and have a real organic farm). They are insulated from the price of food rising constantly...especially clean, organic food. They can afford gas for their fancy cars, insurance for their families, and I'm sure they don't have student loan debt that follows them everywhere they go (mine keeps going up...ten years and still climbing). At the same time, they can close their eyes to the toxins in the water (its not their water) and to the climate changes that are becoming more catastrophic (they live in better houses and can afford to evacuate if the need arises) because they will be long dead and gone when the Earth is no longer habitable. But what about my kids? My three and four year olds who may very well see the end of humanity (Human extinction) because of corporate greed? Is that acceptable? Is the rise in health issues related to environmental toxicity and food contamination acceptable? Is the fact that we are trapped into house payments and car payments and can't abandon the crappy, capitalistic lifestyle acceptable?

No, no, no and more nos. None of it is acceptable. I'd like my voice to be heard when I tell people that our world is not safe. That our continued search and reliance on fossil fuels is going to kill us all. That my children deserve the right to life and a future without breathing masks. I've given up on paying off my student loans, reliable health insurance, or ever finding a job that will pay enough to support my family, but I have not given up on saving the planet and creating some sort of future based on clean energy, clean food and egalitarian principles for my kids!

Every protest counts! And if you can extrapolate yourself from the capitalistic world and live sustainably that is truly divine and a goal worth following. That is my goal. Bail out on corporate America and refuse to participate. Our family belongs to a local bank. We grow a lot of our own food. We shop at thrift stores and make a lot of gifts instead of buying as much as we can. We only drive we we have to and make every trip multi-functional.We are trying to build community in our small town through the Co-op and neighborhood farms, and teaching sustainability. We use reuseable grocery bags.We recycle, even though we have to save up our recyclables for months to take up to Colorado Springs when we go that way.

I am boycotting Christmas 2011...at least the corporate, capitalistic Xmas we are all so accustomed to. Try regifting, or shopping locally, or spending time with friends and family, instead of shopping for more useless crap that makes the corporate world go round and lines their pockets and gives them even more power. Pull your money out of Corporate banks and watch the system fall. If we all stopped paying our mortgage, what would they do? Is the police force, the military big enough to take on the 99% of the nation that is tired of being puppets to the Corporatocracy? Are the police officers and soldiers not people like the rest of us? Wake up America!!!!

Wake up America and let us be heard! It is time for that revolution! Occupy Pueblo! Occupy Colorado Springs! Occupy Wall Street!

And Boycott Christmas 2011!!!