Fracking in the Valley, haboobs and the nomadic life

Yeah, it sure feels like spring. Warm days in the 50's F. I'm loving it. I think maybe the big Elm tree outside is budding. That can't be right, can it? I'm okay with shorter winters for sure.

We had an interest in a cute farmhouse over near Monte Vista, Colorado. It has 40 acres and is near the mountains on the west side of the valley. Pretty place. Only about ten minutes outside of the cute town of Monte Vista too. And then we got the local paper delivered to our mailbox, just like every week. This week they had a section talking about government projects and what not. Last time it was about education, and the time before about farming. Anyway, it turns out the county government (Rio Grande County) is allowing another drilling exploration in the area. Fracking. Just on the other side of the hills from that cute farmhouse. Too bad people are crazy for fossil fuels. Scratch that one off the list. And then, in the same paper, a couple of pages over was a story about the water crisis in the Valley. Well...stop fracking. Do people realize how much water it takes to frack????

So, back to it then. There are a couple of places over near Manzanola, Colorado that we are considering. They had some weird dust storms...haboobs this past winter, which is disturbing and unwarranted. We need to plant winter cover crops instead of letting the soil blow away. So, there is that, plus the high heat in the summers. There are also a couple of interesting places down near Cerrillos, NM that I have been snooping on via the internet. We shall see what new and interesting things the Universe has to reveal about any of these places.

So, as the weather warms, I have an urge to clean up, to get rid of any thing just sitting around, to be free of stuff so I can fly away in a moment's notice. Uh-huh. Also have been looking at campers on Craigslist and of course old school buses. I have an urge to wander. I'm feeling very nomadic, or maybe it's just time to move on.

Spring?

Is it Spring now? The wind is blowing continuously and the daytime temperatures are rising well into the 40's F. Everything is turning to mud. The weather is so unpredictable now, how do we tell for sure? I am enjoying the warmth though. I prefer it over the cold, any day. I could do without the snow too, even though I know we need the moisture.

Ah, well, no matter where we live, it seems the winters will get colder and the summers will get hotter. Welcome to our new reality. And the future is only going to get more unpredictable.

So, we finally found a home for four of our goats, including the big ugly billy goat. They left this past week and moved onward to a new farm out on the east side of Colorado. Now we have less mouths to feed, which will certainly help with hay costs.

We are thinking about a place to relocate that we can be more involved with the community, as that is so important as we move forward as a sustainable culture. We'd like to be a little closer to a town, even if it's a small town. A library would be a luxury. Possible playmates for the kids would be great too. Dream a little dream....

We are still working hard on our homeschooling program, although I was feeling more uncomfortable with the unschooling techniques as my kids don't really want to learn anything at all, it seems. Now we are working through some workbooks, which gives all of us a bit more structure and I feel like the kids are actually learning something. I'm learning something too, as a parent as I work through some of my own books, including a great book by Dr. Laura Markham called Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids. If you are interested in building better relationships with your children, and are interested in a new parenting paradigm that doesn't include punishment of any variety, then check out this book. I think this parenting style will allow children to grow up healthier and be the kind of people we need more of on this planet.

Pekins find a new home

Baby ducks and geese, bathing in the tub

We re-homed our three Pekin ducks this past week. We took them into town with us on our shopping/errand day and gave them to a nice man who has many more. He raises fowl and even has a pond they can use. Our ducks were getting trampled by the insanely nervous turkeys in the coop. It wasn't fair. Plus, they need some water to clean themselves up in. A bath in the bathtub in the house now and then is just not workable for me anymore. It's a big mess of duck poop, feathers, and flying water.

When we moved to this rental farm, we thought, and were told, that we could use the pond for our water fowl. But on closer inspection, we realized it was not a good idea, as the birds would cause the rocks lining the pond to roll into the middle of the pond. As it was, our young son was being accused of throwing the rocks in the pond, which simply was not true, as he does not have unsupervised access to the pond. The fact is the pond is poorly designed, with too steep of sides and the rocks tend to roll in by themselves. Or maybe the foxes and other critters help out too. In any case, we decided we didn't need the headache related to the pond and decided not to use it. Although Richard did plant some cattails on one edge and added some fish.

So the ducks found a new home. Foolish of me to think I could maintain water fowl in a desert climate anyway. They sure were cute when they were little though, and developed some personality as they grew.

This week, I also came off my water fast. I made it through ten days and decided I was just too tired to deal with my life on the farm while fasting. Still, no small accomplishment, ten days of nothing but water. Now, I am trying to transition back into food without gaining back the weight I lost on the fast.

We are still looking for a place to relocate, as usual. Living this transient farm life is unnerving. Now, I am stuck between the extreme bitter cold of the winter temperatures, but mild and nice summers, here in the San Luis Valley, and the other extreme of mild and relatively nice winters, with extreme hot and unbearable summers, in the Arkansas Valley. What to do?

I suppose the Universe will decide for us anyway, as we pursue some type of financing and see what we can afford. I have found properties in both areas that could work for our purposes, although each has its own pros and cons. The adventure is in not knowing, isn't it? Change is always interesting, no matter which direction we head.