Springtime in the Rockies
In spite of a couple of May snowstorms, its feeling very much like spring here on the mountain. The goats we milk 1x/week have had three sets of twins so far, and there is a baby yak that was rejected by the herd who lives next to the goats and loves to suck on human fingers in his pursuit of a meal.
Wildflowers are starting to bloom, hummingbirds are whizzing through the air, and the spring winds have been reliably relentless. I’ve been volunteering a few hours per week on the mountain farm, planting in the greenhouse and in the ground. Jeff constructed a small hoop house here on our land and he’s been planting pots of full of veggies and flowers.
I had a successful and fun tour of NM and Colorado with my friend Matt Meighan last month. I met lots of kind folks and saw some beautiful landscapes. We’ve had a couple of pickin’ party potlucks at our place, and music has been a central theme lately. Jeff built a washtub bass, and he also acquired an upright bass and a mountain dulcimer, and finally got the old banjo all put back together. We’ve been working out a few songs and he’s pretty much a natural on bass. Which is a good thing because bass players are a little hard to come by around here.
The biggest news is that we’ve started living in the house. Its still under construction, and probably will be for a couple more seasons, but we have a nice temporary kitchen set-up and its so nice to have all this room. Even though the house is only about 560 sq. ft. living space (400 sf footprint), it seems like a mansion compared to the trailer. Jeff is working on finishing the framing and straw downstairs, and then I’ll have plenty to do for the next weeks and months ahead getting it all mudded.
In a couple of weeks, Jeff will be participating in a permaculture workshop at the Lama Foundation, which is a really great opportunity. We’ve been enjoying getting to know the people who live there and have been volunteer cooks about 1x/month for them. We were recently featured in a blog on off-grid living for Mother Earth News magazine, and they also used a photo of Jeff taking a bath in the outdoor tub for a column about DIY creative reuse of cast iron tubs.
Cassien’s Finch and a Black headed Grosbeak ..
