It's been raining! And, I think my ducks are gay!

A few days ago, as I was hanging clothes outside on my "solar clothes dryer," it suddenly struck me that something subtle had changed. The light, the air, the movement of the wind, everything was somehow different in the slightest way. It's the beginning of August. That faint smell of fall in the air, that can't be real, can it? But, I fear it is, as I wake to chillier morning and notice the sun doesn't come over the horizon now until 6:40 am. I believe Fall is on its way and maybe faster than we think. With climate change, how can we know anything for certain anymore in relation to our seasons and our weather?

It's been raining a lot. Thankfully our cisterns are full, almost to the point of overflowing. Good news, since Richard had the old truck towed into town to get checked out again. He put a new fuel pump on it. That did not solve the problem of it's frequent stalling. Hopefully it won't be anything expensive. Our cheap truck may not be such a good bargain after all. But, at least the mechanic has showed an interest and even offered to buy it. There is a way out.

With all of the rain, we decided to prioritize our water catchment systems, and began the Earthbag cistern out on our land this past Saturday. It was the first day of our "workshop." Ironically, there seems to be little interest in this desert community for learning how to build a cheap cistern. We were disappointed by the turnout. Maybe everyone is too busy building their own houses. Regardless, we continue on with our building.

Richard fills the last bag to finish the first two courses on cistern.

We actually got the foundation courses done on the cistern...the first two levels of bags which hold gravel. Then we painted mud slip on the bags to protect it from the sun.

Mud slip on bags.

When we went back Wednesday, yesterday, we were disappointed to see the rain had washed most of our mud slip off.

Mud slip washed off.

On the plus side, the buckets I stuck under the preliminary guttering on the shade structure were full to the brim and had even over flowed. Too bad that water wasn't going into a barrel or a finished cistern!

Bucket o' water.

So, yesterday, we worked on finishing the gutters on the shade structure and hooked up a couple of barrels to catch that precious water. We will need lots of water to plaster our cistern, and our pallet shed.

Rain barrels to catch rain runoff from shad structure.

Pallet shed...

We got it wrapped in paper and stucco netting. It is ready to plaster! Well, I think the roof is next, with an overhang to protect the walls from the rain.

Pallet shed, papered and netted, ready for mud plaster.

We hauled in another load of gravel to put on the floor of the cistern and decided to use the remainder for the floor of the pallet shed.

Gravel on floor of cistern...sloped to allow drainage to one side.

Gravel floor  in shade structure.

Our road fix held up well to the rains. We need a bit more base course and in a few more areas along the three miles to our property. Is it our responsibility? I guess it is if we want a road we don't get stuck in.

Roads. We went by our friend Susan's bus, on the other side of the hills from our Earthship, to pick up the feed bags we took her last summer. She has so many grain bags from a brewery in Santa Fe, she doesn't need our bags. But we can use all of the bags we can get.

We took the back way to Susan's, what I affectionately call the Renegade road. There were several questionable spots, where the mud crossed the entire roadway. I envisioned the car stuck again, and was afraid, but Richard plowed on through, trailer swinging on the back of our remarkable SUV that seems to go anywhere and tow just about anything. Not bad for a KIA.

After we made it out of that development, my nerves we frayed. There were lots of mud pits in lots of places. I am not a fan of the roads in Taos County. A four wheel drive vehicle is a must. Especially if you live on Four Wheel Drive Road. I guess getting stuck is fairly normal. I think we need a winch on at least one of our vehicles. That'd be handy on our truck...if we could get it to run consistently.

My two girls.

At home on our makeshift farm, it turns out both ducks are female. We are now getting two duck eggs every morning, and we have two ducks. So, unless one duck is laying two eggs a day, I think they must both be girls. I guess that mating behavior I witnessed last week...perhaps a gender identity crisis? Or maybe our girls have a particular fondness for each other. This wouldn't be new. One of our llama boys certainly loves his pasture mate and isn't afraid to express his love. I wonder, were they born this way? Is this naturally occurring behavior? Maybe I could take them all back up to Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs for some counseling. Do you think they counsel gay farm animals? Do you think they could "fix" them?

Just kidding, of course. I accept and love all of my animals, exactly as they are, and we give them the space to be who they need to be. With all of the nonsense floating around these days about Chick Fil A funding anti-gay hate groups, I couldn't resist. Yes, I'm boycotting Chick Fil A in support of all of my gay friends. Maybe I could take my gay farm animals to a protest at Chick Fil A, and all of the right wing nuts could explain to me how homosexuality doesn't occur naturally.

Seriously though, we should all avoid ALL fast food joints because the food is poison. We try not to eat fast food because we don't know what the "food" is. And, it makes people sick. Over the long term, the American diet, which is filled with high fat foods and fast, convenient foods, is killing Americans. It's that simple. Eat local (support local businesses and not the Corporatocracy) and eat organic. Chick Fil A doesn't fit in there anywhere.

Collecting seeds, organic feed, and time for Halloween

Bucket o' seeds

While Richard worked on moving the guinea/chicken house planter into a sunny location, I watered some plants and collected marigold seeds. I have enough seeds now to plant a field of marigolds.  It was a remarkably nice day. Very warm. The kids ran amok in the grass, playing on their little fort, screaming and yelling and being wild children. Nothing beats a warm Fall day.


We went into town for a minute to get chicken food from one of our local feed stores that now stocks organic feed. Hurray for organic feed!!! We ordered grains for the goats and llamas, food for the cats, for the dogs, and for the chickens. Unfortunately it is expensive, but I think if we can, we should buy it, sending the message to organic producers that we are interested and to all the rest that we aren't going to buy their poison laden feed for our animals any more.

The Cottonwood trees down by the river are turning gold. Against the backdrop of the mountains and the dark water flowing in the Arkansas river, it is a beautiful sight. The farmhouses all have pumpkins on their porches, kids are running through corn mazes, and the smell of woodsmoke fills the chilly evening air. The leaves are starting to collect on the ground and soon it will be time for us to cruise the neighborhoods, collecting bags of unwanted leaves from suburban yards to make into compost for our gardens.

Something about Fall makes me feel all warm and cozy, like finally coming home. I'm not sure how a season could make me feel so at peace or like I completely belong, but the Autumn does that to me, no matter where I am. All of a sudden, I want to make cookies and watch movies and snuggle with my kids. I get urges to run through leaves and take walks along the river, and sip hot cocoa in the company of a good friend while we share our dreams for the next year.

Tomorrow is Halloween. We are planning on taking the kids to a party one of the Canon City Co-op members is having, and then into town for merchant trick-or-treating. It'll be our first celebrated Halloween in this small farming community and I can't wait to see how it goes. We found costumes for the little ones at the Goodwill--a cow and an elephant--just their sizes, and quite a bargain for the quality. I love thrift stores.

Box o' cans

This week, Richard thought of using our tin cans, the ones we get canned food in, as planters for our vegetable starts next Spring. Great idea! Recycle and re-use.Sometimes we have an aha moment, when a brilliant idea seems to float into our heads, and then are astounded that so many people are already doing what we just thought of.

Last year we bought hundreds of plastic disposable cups, which we saved, of course, but many have just broken down from the sun and from age, I guess. The plastic seed starter "pots" are hard to work with,  fall apart over time, and are too expensive for this farmer. Tin cans will last until they rust, but the positive is that we will be recycling the cans, which we normally do anyway, taking them to the recycle bin in town, but when you can really re-use something that would otherwise be trash, it is a wonderful feeling indeed. I also think they will look adorable with little baby tomato and pepper plants in them.

I did look online to try to find out if the tin would be hazardous to the plants, but I can't find anything at all about tin cans (aluminum will leach) and many people use a variety of small and large cans, some with memorable labels, to make interesting container gardens. What a great idea. I am just so excited by this concept. I could paint the cans if I had a moment of creative inspiration, and some people even use the tin can planter idea as a craft project for kids. I wonder if my little ones would like to decorate some cans? Painting the cans will extend their lives against rust, but then you do have to be careful with the paint and/or sealers...what do they leach into the soil?


Happy Halloween everyone! May your Fall days be filled with inspiration and love, hot cocoa, or better yet, organic herbal tea, good company and good ideas for the coming months ahead.