hemp news

We received the rest of our seeds and our approved hemp farmer registration letter in the mail yesterday. We are working on finding a pump for the well, getting the seeds ready to start, and working the soil on the new land.

Our Indiegogo campaign is still up and running. 32 days left.

Donate here:
http://igg.me/at/SLVHemp

Blowing out the well

When we found an old well pipe on our land, we were ecstatic! But, it turns out there's more to it than we anticipated. It could be dry, although there was standing water in the pipe. It could be plugged up, filled with clay somewhere down there. Or, it could be non-potable water.

found well pipe

So, we called many people, trying to figure out what to do next. We have some options. The well drillers came out last Friday to blow out the well, so we could see if it was worth pursuing.

well drillers arrive

They stuck a plastic tube down as far as it would go and turned on the air compressor.

blowing out the well

There were several eruptions of nasty, black water, spewing about 6 -8 feet high, and a small pond formed with all of the water they pushed out. It disappeared back into the sand within a couple of  hours.

Lots of yucky water

The well drillers measured the pipe they sent down and decided the well was 28 feet deep before it hit bottom, and seemed to have a good fill rate. They recommended testing the water, which we will do to see if it is potable or not. But, on the plus side, we have a usable well, even if we can only use it for irrigation.

We also took a load of compost up to the land to dump in the field where we plan to plant the hemp. It looks small, but we have many more loads, if we have time to move it. Ideally we will get the pigs out there to mix it up with the sand, and add some more soil and organic matter if we can. This is where Richard wants to put the big greenhouse, if we can raise enough funds on our Indiegogo campaign.

compost in planting spot

There seems to be several small peat bogs around the area. This is north of our land by a few feet. We have some of this on our property as well. We are planning on collecting it and adding it to the planting space.

peat field north of land

Next step: bring in some road base for the driveway and parking area. We have gotten the van stuck twice now with the big stock trailer behind it. Yes, we got it out with some ingenuity and misc. supplies laying around, but it's not fun and a major time loss. So, we are hoping to have a dump truck of road base dumped this next week, rent a skid steer next weekend to spread it and clear some more space for the office to be built.

We are still moving stuff to storage and whatever is not valuable out to the land. We are working on our power system and will put that in the office space. We are still waiting on delivery of a cistern. We tested the water system in the RV, which seem to be working. The toilet leaks, so we need a new one of those, and the furnace doesn't work, but overall, this was a bargain camper at $700. We may just put in a composting toilet in place of the RV toilet. That will save our water. I'm hoping it's going to be warm enough in a couple of weeks that we won't need heat in the camper. We can always find a propane heater, I guess.

On Tuesday: Fencing.

Found well update

The well we found on our land near Alamosa was blown out today. The well driller estimated it at 28 feet deep after it was cleaned out, and running about 15 gallons per minute at the bottom. As per his instructions, we put a bottle of bleach down the hole, and a cap on it to keep it clean. In a few days (when we get a pump) we will pump out all of the bleach water, let it refill and then have the water tested for potability. It looks like it is going to be a usable well, at the very least for garden irrigation.

This is good news indeed!

Hemp update!

We are officially Hemp farmers! Today, the state of Colorado approved our application to grow hemp.

We are still waiting on some more seeds to come in, but we have some to start with.

Tomorrow we are laying ready to plant compost on our hemp field, in preparation for seedlings in a few weeks.

Also, tomorrow we are getting the old well we found on the land blown out, so we will see if it is usable or not. We may be able to use it to water our gardens at least, and the hemp field too.

Big things are happening!

This week at the farm...

We disbudded the baby boy goat. That is always traumatic. More for me, it seems, than the goat kid. We changed his name to Coco, in keeping with the sweet/cookie theme. His mother is Oreo. His sister is Cookie. We haven't decided if we are going to castrate him. He's a nice looking buckling. His father is supposed to have good lines. I have him listed on Craigslis, but no interest yet. We may keep him to mate back to the other two female goats that aren't related. I'm still looking for another buckling that is not related to breed to all of girls. I'd even do a trade.

Fairy dust still has not kidded, and I was sure she was about to. Any day now....

Richard started a couple more avocado seeds, hoping to get some more trees going. We have one pretty good sized avocado tree, but no others to pollinate with. These trees will have to live in a greenhouse.

Avocado seed starts

We have moved building materials up to our Alamosa land, have moved some boxes into our storage unit, and keep on packing. We are testing the water system in the camper, and waiting for a 1600 gallon cistern to arrive. We bought batteries for our power system and are waiting for an invertor, which should come today. We are trying to get a well driller out to the land to blow out the well we found to see if it's any good.

I have decided against getting the mini horse. Horses are just too much maintenance, and it is not recommended to keep them in sandy areas, which our new land is--completely. There are so many toxic plants to avoid, plus teeth issues, digestion issues, and hoof maintenance and issues. Too bad. They are really cute. For now, we will stick to camelids and goats. The pigs are doing well. Richard has been trying to whittle down Choe's toenails a little at a time.

Harley and Chloe

The Hemp project is underway. We have our Indiegogo campaign up and running with a couple of donations already! Thank you! We have some seeds (don't ask, don't tell) and are getting them ready to start. We need more funding to really get this thing going, but we will continue on anyway and do what we can. At the very least, we can grow some plants for seed for next year. And make compost out of the mature plants. It's supposed to be great stuff.

We are trying to decide if there is enough time to move our compost and manure piles. There is so much to do still to get ourselves and animals relocated to an off grid situation.

I am proud to say, our Turkey feathers are on their way to the Hopi people to be used in ceremony. I can't think of a better use for them. I am honored. I respect the Hopi a great deal, and have studied and learned much from the Hopi prophecies.

My shamanic studies continue, but I am having a lot of trouble with the journeying aspect of it. I did acquire a lovely rattle from Wumaniti in trade for milk, cheese, eggs and yogurt, that I have begun to use in my own personal ceremonies.

There have been a couple of snakes hanging out around our kitchen door. One day, they allowed me to see them mating, which was interesting and odd. Snake medicine is strong right now. Healing and transformation. I thought they were baby Bull snakes, but now, I think they are Garter snakes.

Little Bull snake, I think male

It's Hemp time!

In celebration of Earth Day, tomorrow, we are officially launching our Indiegogo fundraiser today. Be a part of the Hemp movement and be a part of the change that will help save our blessed Mother Earth. Hemp rejuvenates the soil, can be used to replace petroleum in every way and is a natural plant...no chemicals needed.

Donate, share with your friends, and be a part of the future. Let's heal the planet, one Hemp field at a time. We can do this thing. Let's start planting!!!

Check out the Indiegogo fundraiser here:

http://igg.me/at/SLVHemp

Goat baby! and our Driveway is In!

Woke this morning to Oreo giving birth. She had a healthy little black boy that Richard named Midnight. We waited around for another, and performed the bounce test, but I think the little buck is the only one she is going to have. He's big though, like 12 1/2 pounds.

Oreo and baby

New kid nurses

Midnight

Fairy Dust, the Alpine Boar cross, looks about ready to pop too. But the other Nubian, Bluebell, doesn't look pregnant at all.

Fairy Dust and Bluebell

And, yesterday, we got our drive way in! That is one of the most exciting things that has happened this week (until this morning and goat baby). It sure seems like we waited extra long for the driveway to go in.

Culvert

Driveway

Parking pad

We started moving some nonessential things out there, like the glass we have been collecting here and there for greenhouse windows, or barn windows, or....

We also took the RV all the way to South Fork to get diagnosed. It seems the fridge and the stove work, and most likely the hot water heater too. The furnace, maybe not, and we did not have the water systems tested yet. Unfortunately, a piece got broken on the hot water heater and so the camper gets to stay up there until Saturday when we can go and get it.

We rented a large storage unit in Alamosa for our furniture and boxes of stuff that will not fit in the RV. Our landlords got back to us and it seems if we do not want to do another one year lease, we have until June 1 to vacate. We decided to go for it, and see if we can get our animals moved and ourselves set up in the RV in time. A challenge, most certainly, but an exciting adventure as well.

Adopting pigs and finding a well

Harley (black) and Chloe (white)

We adopted a couple of Pot Bellied pigs this week. One male and one female, and because we have them in the same pen, most likely we will be seeing baby pigs in about four months.  It was traumatic picking them up. They were scared, we were unknown, their nails are way too long and the female, Chloe, got her toe stuck in the trailer ramp. She screamed and screamed, but we got her out. It took three of us maneuvering her around to do it, but she got free. The two of them together were the hardest things to catch I have ever dealt with. Worse than llamas. We ended up putting cardboard and a rubber mat down on the trailer ramp, and eventually got them in.

At home, it was much easier to deal with them. We just put an old rug down on the ramp and opened into their new pen. We are all getting used to each other now. They are calmed down and let us pet them behind the ears. In a week or so we have to start working on their toes, which are just in horrendous shape.

poor Chloe's toes

Those two pigs have rooted up almost all of the soil in their small pen and turned hardpacked rocky dirt into pretty brown plantable soil, minus the rocks of course. We plan on using them in the garden, like Joel Salatin's pigerators, to turn the soil and mix the compost. But we won't eat them in the end...just keep them around to mix the soil. They are ugly cute, I have to say. We have big plans to teach them to walk on harnesses. Won't that be entertaining? Then we can walk our pigs and llamas. But, maybe not together. And not here, with the crazy running dogs, but up on our new land where there are no dogs to be seen anywhere.

As if that wasn't adventure enough, before we picked up the pigs, we went to our land near Alamosa to put up some fence posts and mark the northern boundary before the driveway goes in. It was supposed to go in on Saturday, but there was a mix-up with the culvert, so maybe on Tuesday. We put tall posts with pink flags in the four corners of our lot and used binoculars to stake a line. We got a few fence posts in, but most all of our fence posts are being used here, at the rented farm. Oh, this is a process! Taking fence down, putting fence up...so much to do now.

While we were stumbling through salt bush and chamisa, we happened upon a well pipe, just ten feet or so on our property, but it is ours! It appears there is a well there and we may not have to drill at all. So now, we have to research that and talk to the well guys and figure out what to do next. Is it a usable well? Is the water any good? There is standing water in the pipe, about three or four feet down, so there is water there. How deep is the well, I wonder? So many questions, but I'm not complaining. I am so grateful to have stumbled upon that pipe sticking up out of the ground!

Also, I have cleaned turkey feathers this week, using a couple of methods, and now have some for sale. Check it out at our farm store page (tab at top of page). Some of them are really long...nearly 16 inches!

I washed some llama wool this past week too, and hope to try felting again. Always busy. The kids and I are working on a clay project again and I hope to get the kiln dug out of the garage and get this stuff fired before we move into the RV.  I'm working on a incense burner for sage and what not for my shaman stuff. Exciting! The motif is all about snakes who represent healing and transformation. I'm looking for a rattle snake rattle too, just because it seems to be filling my ears lately (in song, and thankfully not in a reality full of live rattlesnakes).

We may also be adding a miniature horse to the farm in the near future. Why not? Horse medicine is running strong these days.

Farm news

We lost a turkey this past week. Two days in its new yard and gone over night. Taken by a coyote, I'm pretty sure. A fox would be too small to carry it off, I think. And I found a couple of piles of coyote scat and foot prints. I tried to track the coyote, but lost it in the big field north of our house.Not sure what I thought I would find. Maybe the carcass of the turkey, but I didn't find anything. As I followed the trail of feathers and occasional foot print, I came to a place of peace within myself over the loss of the turkey. The coyote was feeding itself and its pack, doing what a coyote does. Too bad the turkeys weren't smart enough to get inside their house.They go inside at night now and we close them in, just like the chickens.

I believe this is where the turkey took its last breath.

In happier news, this week for home school we made rainbow fish based upon the book Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. It's a great story and we made a couple of versions of rainbow fish with tissue paper and oil pastels.

We also went out to Our Place, our Taos land, to collect the glass windows we have stored down there, plus the poles for the windmill. Sad news...the wind blew down my coyote fence I built a couple of summers ago, and the adobe plaster is all but weathered off the shed. Shows what happens when you don't stay on top of it.

downed coyote fence

adobe plaster coming off pallet shed

We will have to get back out there to repair that plaster. We are thinking of taking it off and putting on cement instead, which will work better over paper and chicken wire. It may last longer too, if we aren't there to maintain it.

This Saturday we are headed north to our new land outside of Alamosa to watch a landscape company put in a driveway. That is exciting. Then we can get in there and decide where to build what. We need to get an office space up for Richard, and then we can move the RV up there and live in it while we build. We also need to get some batteries for our wind generator and an invertor. Plus some source of water, whether that is a cistern or we try to come up with money to drill the well.

Now we are taking stuff down on our rented farm. One of the landlords showed up and wants to renew our lease. They all decided they didn't want to do a month to month, which makes it hard for us. They came back with a five month lease, which is odd. I'd like a three month lease at most. We need to get out to the land and start building while the weather is warm, and we just can't dedicate the time to it if we are living here. Plus, we'd like to plant some hemp up there and get that project going too. So, it remains to be seen what will happen. The landlord is checking with his co landlords to see how they all feel about a three month lease. It seems it hampers their travel schedules. Must be nice to spend so many months abroad. Not good for the environment though...all that flying.

Next week we are taking the camper to an RV dealer/repair facility to have them check out the systems. We may need to replace some things. I hope it turns out that most of the appliances work and the water lines work. That'd be great news.

SLV Hemp Project

Hemp is the Future:

Ever since the forward thinking voters in our state thought to give farmers and citizens the legal right to once again cultivate the non-drug, industrial hemp Cannabis species, we have been trying to figure out a way to get involved. As stewards of this planet and this special protected spot in the Valley, we have been talking about supporting the Hemp future. And as an organization -- as a center for the new agriculture and evolving eco-spirituality -- Green Desert Sanctuary is a match for the future economy that Hemp represents for all of us. Carbon negative, Hemp generally requires no support in the form of pesticides or herbicides, and only normally fertile soil. The fiber varieties can grow from 6-12 feet in height, producing massive amounts of a sustainable fiber, and the seed varieties can yield more than 1500 lbs of oil-seed per acre. The seed can be pressed to create a very nutritious oil rich in Omega's and nutrient dense, while leaving behind a "seed-cake" or meal that is very high protein.

The industrial version of hemp even provides the basis for eco-scaled forms of our modern production economy contributing raw materials to everything from paper and fiber based products like textiles to bio-plastic composite materials that are comparable to carbon-fiber or fiberglass. It can be used for creating bio-fuels and has shown great promise as a tool for phytoremediation of contaminants in everything from waste-water to the soil itself. Hemp combines with lime to make hemcrete- a superior building material which offers both structural and insulative benefits and is better in every respect than regular cement/concrete, and much much Greener!

So it has been apparent to us for a while that Hemp should be part of the future, and now we are working on a way to make it literally part of our future. We talked in the past about sending money to support people that are working to make US hemp production a reality, and now we can BE some of those people. The Colorado department of Agriculture began taking registrations on March 1 for those wanting to grow industrial hemp for this year, and we are working to figure out a way to grow hemp, as legally as possible, and as soon as possible. We've already registered our intention with the state, now we just have to find a way to actualize our vision!

So in the next week or so, we will be putting together an opportunity to help support Local hemp through a crowd-funding, slow money type project. As the state Ag folks are quick to point out, this is all (relatively speaking) brand new to everyone. One obligation of growing the hemp is committing to processing the hemp within Colorado, and it is not yet known how many, if any, processing facilities will be in existence this fall. There may not be any, so we may be working on that aspect of this project in a few months.

In the meantime, we need to get the seed in the ground, which means we need to get seed (from mysterious sources unknown, as it is still federally illegal to ship viable hemp seed across state lines) and we need to have a seed strain that can do well in our cold short growing season. Good news is that we have some good leads on a variety, which hopefully will make it safely to the farm. Even better news is that now, as recently detailed in the previous post, we have access to land, without the looming threat of bank mortgages or absentee landlords. Land which we can feel comfortable using to grow hemp. We just need some infrastructure, in terms of water resources, probably a large hoop house, that kind of thing.

Which is where you come in!

We'll be calling on you to help spread the word in the next few days, as we finalize our start-up plan and get the crowd-funding system set up. We'll be asking you to post and repost, share with your friends and twitter out to all your peeps so that we can get maximum exposure of our effort, so that we can have the most success getting the necessary funding to take advantage of this opportunity NOW! We'll also be asking you to show that you support a greener hemp-fueled future for ourselves and our communities through your contribution. And we're working to have cute, fun, and useful thank-you's for those that care about that sort of thing.

This is your chance to support the future of hemp. 
This year it is all about learning, about contributing energy to the growing hemp revolution, about being the change we want to see in the world.

Be the change! Join the Hemp revolution and contribute to the evolution of humanity and the healing of our Mother Earth.

Future temporary home

In one day, we payed cash for 37 acres and bought our temporary home. We found this beauty in Del Norte and payed $700 for it.

It does need some work, but it has so much potential. It drives nice, but sways a lot in the incredible wind we are having these days. For it's age, it is a wonderful find.

sofa, which turns into a nice size bed, there is also a bunk above

chairs across from sofa

half of kitchen, stove is directly across

bathroom

We are not sure if any of the systems work, but we cleaned it up today, plugged it in and found that all of the lights work. The fan above the stove works, and the air conditioner comes on, but it remains to be determined if it is blowing cold air.

There is some work that needs to be done to the shower walls...like replace them with something waterproof. It could use a new toilet, and possibly a stove and fridge too. And the over the cab bed area needs some work too. Apparently there was an incident with a bear....? Anyway, there was some leaking and some water damage, but it is sealed up now, we hope.

We also met with a man about putting in a driveway onto our new land. We need a culvert installed. The estimate should come in this next week.

I kind of like this cash only economy. Not that we have a choice with our current credit situation and the current bank lending practices.

For around seven grand, we bought our land and our temporary shelter. The adventure is underway now!
Homesteading in an RV? Only while we build some really cool earthen home.