Tag Archives: adventure

Into The Great Wide Open

I bought a house and my own whole woods! The reality is still setting in… I have dreamt of this for 15 years. It’s finally real. I bought a house. I bought a house on 29 acres. I bought a house on 29 acres! A creek runs through the property. It is heavily wooded with hard woods and butts up to a ridge in the heart of the Ozarks. I have a handful of neighbors and there is a small, unassuming post office in the trees that looks abandoned, or haunted. The closest gas station is 20 miles away. It’s perfect! I’m terrified. I’m elated. I’m at a loss for words…

All those years of fighting against all of the odds, swimming against the current, have finally paid off. I’ve been a single mom for the last 12 years. I’ve lived well below the poverty line the entire time, until I caught a break. It’s your typical “rags to riches” story, except I am still not rich by any stretch of the imagination. Just better off than I was. I have always been stubborn. Downright ornery even. I refuse to let go or give up when I set my mind on something. Call it grit or tenacity. Some may even call it stupidity, but here I am, about to step into the great wide open.

And now the real work begins. I have lists of to-dos. I have a 2-year plan, working on a five-year plan. It will be called Faith Haven Homestead. The orchard & perennial garden will go in this fall (hopefully). I’m planning to also build a chicken coop & start building fence. I can’t wait to get started!

Terrified but Exhilarated

I’ve been chasing a dream for the better part of 12 years. I’ve had great successes & epic failures. There have been many highs & lows. A few detours as well. At this moment I am at the threshold of stepping into the reality of my dream coming true. The work is far from finished. It’s really just begun… As I stand in the doorway, the reality hits me like a roundhouse kick to the face. I can’t do this. I’m one person. One, small, middle-aged female with little to no support system. How the hell am I supposed to build greenhouses, propagate plants, clear land, take care of animals, maintain a garden, run a business, manage a home & work 40 hours a week!? All this time I’ve been running on blind faith & sheer determination, and it’s gotten me where I am, but now what? I have never been one to cower in fear of the unknown. I’ve always been a fighter. A problem solver. A do or die kind of girl and I haven’t died yet. I guess it’s time jump off the cliff into the great wide open & see what happens. This Nomadic Farmer is about to become a rooted Gypsy in the Ozarks of Missouri.

Peace

I’m in love with this new piece of ground I will call home for the next year. I’m procrastinating and putting off all of the things that need to be done because I am caught up in childlike wonder at the beauty I have been blessed with. Staring out the window, watching maple leaves dance in the gentle breeze, I notice there are crimson flowers high in the trees. The trumpet vines have climbed to the top. The hummingbirds do not lack. Dragonflies of every color zip across the property, swarming especially when a storm is coming. There is a gate that opens deeper into the woods and an old well. There is a stone picnic table and a deer statue. It reminds me of a scene out of one of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books… A rock path leads around the house and in the thick of it there is an abundance of wild herbs. To the northwest of the property, there is a meadow where deer and horses graze. It’s peaceful here. So peaceful it almost makes me cry. In the background, Ludovico Einaudi softly plays, and I know I’m home, for now.

Take The Leap!

Well, I did it… I left my home state of Colorado (yet again) and went east to the greenbelt of Oklahoma. Found a quaint little midcentury house on 1.3 acres on a hill and surrounded by old growth trees. The deer frequent the property every morning and every evening. I have a screened in patio to watch the sunset from. It needs a little work, but nothing I can’t handle. I enjoy these old houses that need some TLC, especially when the landlord is okay with me tinkering with things.

I have big east facing windows to watch the sunrise through. Though I’ve only been here a little over a week, I already have a small garden planted. I planted potatoes in a large Tupperware tote. They rode in the bed of the truck for 1000 miles next to peppermint and chives in large pots. I sent my four small heirloom tomato plants ahead of me with my dad when he was passing through. My brother gifted me some miscellaneous squash and melon plants. It’s too warm to plant lettuce without it bolting immediately, but I bought a jalapeno plant and some onion sets. It’ll be a decent garden.

The trees are vibrant with the activity of Cardinals and blue birds and big squirrels. There is a very large nest in the top of one of the trees. I think it may be a Vulture nest, or perhaps some other bird of prey. The shed is overgrown with vines and Queen Annes Lace lines the perimeter of the property. I have much to learn about the local flora and fauna. I would like to do some foraging. This may be a good place to plant some blackberries, but I only have a one-year lease.

My goal is to buy a house and a few acres next spring… It may be time to set some roots, or at least have a base camp. I’m thinking I want chickens and maybe sheep or goats. This nomadic farmer may become a rooted gypsy…

Shifting Winds

I don’t know who keeps hitting the fast forward button, but they need to stop… It was Summer just weeks ago. I vaguely remember Winter and now it’s Spring again. The wintered over onions are pushing bright green shoots out of their dry paper skins.

I’m not really feeling it this year and I’m not sure why. Of all the years to plant a garden, this would be the year. There’s a heaviness in the air. An uncertainty about what the future holds.

The garden is my happy place, or at least it used to be… I planted some seeds, more out of duty than passion. Spinach, beets, radishes, lettuce, arugula, kale. They’re coming up nicely but I’m still not feeling it. I barely looked at my seed catalog. I feel like I’m just going through the motions, but my heart isn’t in it. My head’s not right…. I don’t really want to be here anymore.

The winds have shifted. I think it’s time to go somewhere new. Start something new. Endless wandering in the desert isn’t taking the edge off lately. Feeling anxious, rough and lost. It might be time to hit the road.

I’ve acquired too much stuff. Why do I have this much stuff?! It’s a rhetorical question… I have been lingering and stagnate too long. Do I sell all my crap to other packrats or just leave it behind? Do I care either way? Not really. The wind is picking up now. Stirring my soul to take flight and land wherever. Have to wait until the kids’ braces are off. Then we’re gone….

Companion Planting: How to Make the Most of a Small Space

While living in California, I had my first encounter with companion planting. I came upon a roadside fruit stand selling strawberries and, of course, could not resist. Across the road was the man’s strawberry plot. The plot was edged by onions. The onions made a nice border, but I was curious why he chose them instead of some colorful flowers. I asked him why he planted onions around the strawberries, and he told me that the onions help to protect the berries from bugs. I asked him if he sold the onions as well, and he said yes, when they’re ready. It was a small plot, perhaps 15 feet by 15 feet but it would provide him at least two crops for his roadside stand.

Intrigued, I went home and started to ponder my own small space and what I could grow in it. Container planting is great but if you have a sunny piece of ground, you can do a lot with it. Companion planting will help you make the most of your sunny patch. One of my favorite books on this subject is Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte.

Herbs like basil, sage, thyme and oregano increase the flavor of tomatoes and peppers. These same herbs help to protect cauliflower and broccoli from pests due to their strong aroma. Plants are like people in many ways. Some plants just don’t get along. Some plants thrive in dry sandy soil and some thrive in a rich, moist environment. Some need more sun than others and some need more space than others. Some plants like it warmer and some like it cooler. Some are more susceptible to pests and some just won’t put up with them.

Anything in the legume family is beneficial to corn, cucumbers, potatoes and spinach, since legumes fix nitrogen to the soil from the air and these plants need more nitrogen than other plants. Legumes, in general, are peas and beans. Green beans, wax beans, Lima beans, black beans, etc. Beans have a negative impact on the onion and cabbage families (allium and cruciferous). These plants include leeks, chives, garlic, kale, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.

Carrots aerate the soil for tomato plants, and really anything in the nightshade family. The nightshade family consists of eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and potatoes. They also do well with the onion family, lettuce, radishes and parsley. Carrots do not do well with celery or dill until after they are harvested and put in a dish together… Cabbage does well with potatoes and most herbs but they do not like basil or beans.

Cucumbers are some of the most easy going plants I have ever met. They are easy to grow and very versatile. They get along with almost everyone in the cabbage family, legume family and the nightshade family. Cucumbers don’t do well with potatoes or the aromatic herbs like sage, rosemary or basil though.

One would never guess by looking at it, but lettuce belongs to the daisy family! Lettuce is a diva and does best in her own space or with some of the cruciferous vegetables. Definitely not kale or cauliflower. Lettuce also does not appreciate the strong chemicals put out by the allium family because they hinder her growth.

Peppers will thrive with practically everyone else, except fennel and kohlrabi. Peppers find fennel to be antagonistic and kohlrabi to be strange. Peppers aren’t wrong either, almost all vegetable plants agree that fennel can be a bit hostile…. As you can see, this is an in depth and complex topic. Almost as complex as understanding the human mind. Don’t let this intimidate you! You don’t have to grow everything! Grow what you eat and figure out who those plants get along with and everything will be fine.

Happy planting!

The Desert Southwest: Chaco Canyon

The desert has always spoken to me, even though I was born and raised in the mountains. I’m an ectotherm and can relate to the lizards sunning themselves on the hot sandstone. I like being warm. An excerpt from Edward Abbey’s book Desert Solitaire explains my passion for the desert best.

“The wind will not stop. Gusts of sand swirl before me, stinging my face. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the world very much alive in the bright light and wind, exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning. Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in sparseness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that t he living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.”

Sometime between AD 850 and 1250, Chaco Canyon, in New Mexico, was a major center of culture for the ancestral Puebloans. The people of Chaco canyon quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings ever built in North America until the 19th century. These people built an empire in the middle of nowhere, out of nothing!

It’s one of the greatest mysteries in North America. Supposedly a whole civilization decided one day to leave everything behind and wander deeper into the desert without anything but the clothes on their back. The theory is that there was no more water, so they left…. The conspiracy theorist in me says something else happened.

I needed to see it for myself, so I packed the truck and headed south to New Mexico. My son and I stopped in Santa Fe first to check out the art and music scene. I bought some beautiful earrings from a Navajo woman peddling her wares in the hotel parking lot and the next morning we went to Los Alamos for a dose of history. We explored the Science museum and learned about the destructive nature of mankind. From there we explored the Bandelier National Monument and Chaco Canyon. We roamed the rugged and beautiful canyons and mesas and got a feel for how people lived in this unrelenting wilderness 11,000 years ago.

After getting gas and checking our supplies, we drove a good distance from civilization. We turned left down a dirt road and onto the Navajo reservation and followed a rough dirt road for about twenty miles into the canyon.

Camp was set up by dusk, and we had supper by the fire. As the sky grew darker, the stars got brighter. We let the fire burn out before crawling into our tent. As I drifted to sleep, I heard the hoot owl call out and coyotes yipping in the distance. Voices of the ancients rang out in my dreams. The sounds of drums and singing and children playing while women talked as they weaved baskets and ground corn.

That first sunrise, we arose to a cool morning and a hot pink sky. Fajada Butte in the background drawing our attention. Breakfast consisted of pancakes and coffee over an open fire. We loaded our packs and started walking. The ruins were massive! They were intricate and expansive. I have been a ruin hunter for a long time and I had never experienced anything like that of Chaco canyon. This lent even more credence to my suspicions about what happened there. We couldn’t even cover all the territory that encompassed the entire complex in the three days we were there, as most of the area is off-limits to motorized vehicles. Next time, I will bring the mountain bikes!

Yellowstone

Noris Geyser Basin

I went to Yellowstone once when I was 12. It was the last family vacation before my parents divorced. I didn’t remember much about it but I’ve always wanted to go again. My son was 11 when I took him. We spent a total of 6 days on the road and in the park. We camped in a tent in a few different locations. The first night, we camped at Buffalo campground in Idaho, just outside of the west entrance to the park. We got there late. It was about 10 pm. We set up the tent in the dark and went to bed. Just before we fell asleep, we heard Moose all around us looking for their mates. A hoot owl was circling overhead, hooting and looking for dinner. As the sun came up, the hoot owl came back to say goodnight and go to bed. The moose were still very close and active. We packed up and headed for the park.

We went north to Mammoth Hot Springs. It was packed and way too touristy for my liking. We did some off-roading outside of the park in Gardiner, Montana to try out my new tires. We went back into the park and made camp at Bridge Bay campground. Most campgrounds were full. A lot of them were closed. The park was getting ready to shut down for winter. We stayed two nights at Bridge Bay campground, right by Yellowstone Lake. The wolves were howling all night the first night. There was an epic Elk battle the second night. It was mating season.

We moved down to Lewis Lake campground for two more nights. The weather began to move in as soon as we got there. It was going to snow. I could smell it. The first night, it rained hard and it was extremely windy.  The next morning, the snow came. It snowed for a few hours. At one point, it was a blizzard. We went to Grant village to get breakfast and coffee. It drizzled and was cold all day but we didn’t let that stop us. We went to see the Old Faithful geyser as well as the Grand Prismatic Spring. It stopped raining and we went back to camp. Around dinner time, the clouds started to clear and it got cold. We woke in the morning to a quarter inch of ice on the inside of the tent. There was thick frost all over the truck as well. The sun came out. The last day was the best day. We decided to hike to Lone Star geyser. It was five miles round trip in thick woods, in bear country. The weather was perfect. We made it just in time! The geyser went off for five minutes. Boiling water shot up about fifteen feet. It was just a warm up. About ten minutes later, the geyser erupted again. This time, boiling water shot up thirty feet and it lasted almost twenty minutes.

Lone Star Geyser

On the way back down the trail, I saw a side trail. True to form, I had to explore. We wandered into a meadow and found an unnamed geyser or hot spring. There were holes in the ground everywhere and very hot steam was rising from all of them. You could tell the ground was unstable. We made our way back to the main trail and stopped to get a drink and a snack. I looked over my shoulder, up the main trail and saw a large, dark figure coming towards us. At first I thought it was a grizzly bear. I looked harder and realized it was a buffalo coming towards us. We got our packs back on and kept moving. He wasn’t running or trotting towards us, but I still wanted to maintain a safe distance between us. It was a good day. We had dinner on the tailgate and then hit the road to go back home to Western Colorado. We made our way through the Grand Teton National Park just before dark.

I drove until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I pulled over at a rest area on the Wind River Indian reservation. My son slept on the back seat. I slept in the front. At about 3 am, I got back on the road. I drove through the early morning under the stars. No highway lights on the reservation that late at night. I love how many stars you can see when you’re far away from civilization. I saw Antelope, White tail deer, coyotes, fox and about a billion other little glowing eyeballs in the brush. When the sun came up, I woke my son and took a nap in the backseat.

We were out of money and tired. We smelled like campfire, sulphur and dirty feet. We drove on through Wyoming and into northern Colorado. Finally, we were home and we were happy.

It has been two years. I miss Yellowstone. The sound of the wind in the pine trees and the distant howl of the wolves still haunts my dreams….

Roadside Ponderings

I have had many conversations on the side of the road, over peaches and tomatoes. I chat with strangers about the weather and politics. Over cherries and apricots, we’ve discussed faith, fear and loss. I feel like a bartender or a hair stylist. Passersby come to hear news or confide. These sources of information are more reliable than that of network news.

I’ve heard tales of courage and adventure. I’ve hugged strangers mourning the loss of a loved one. I’ve encouraged single moms to stay strong. I’ve made children smile by letting them pick their own fruit.

The old timers like to reminisce on the days when they would grow tomatoes and such. They give advice, then always comment on how the prices have gone up and how the times are changing.

I’ve endured every type of weather imaginable. Sometimes all in one day. I’ve learned to keep extra clothes in the truck, just in case. I’ve lost a tent to 70 mph wind. I’ve watched helplessly as the wind flipped a table over and the fruit and the scale went flying. I’ve frantically tried to protect boxes from torrential downpours that come out of nowhere and I’ve hid in my truck in many a lightning storm.

I’ve raised my son on the side of the road. He’s quite the salesman now. Many people have asked me why I do this work. Many have tried to talk me out of it. This is my 5th year roadside. I thoroughly enjoy it! It’s not about the money. I love being outside and talking to people. I believe in what I’m doing. People need to be reconnected to their food.

I’m part of a growing movement that is helping people to understand that what they eat is intrinsically connected to their health. The pandemic of 2020 helped this movement gain traction in a way. It showed people how reliant they are on an unreliable system. When the just-in-time system broke down and the stores were empty, people began to wake up to the fact that we need to get back to our roots and the old ways.

Wild Flower Hunting

The western United States is in a severe drought. This is the worst it’s been in a very long time. The mighty Colorado river is drying up. Lake Meade’s hydro-electric dam won’t be able to produce power if the reservoir gets much lower and house boats are no longer allowed on Lake Powel. These are scary times…

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a desert oasis on the Colorado/Utah border. The surroundings looked a lot like what I imagine the terrain of Mars to look like. There was water, in the middle of nowhere and I couldn’t figure out how it got there. My best guess was that it was a natural spring.

I went back there this mother’s day weekend. My son, me and my dog did some off-roading and a day hike to try to find this spot again. We found a wasteland and quicksand instead. The water had dried up and most of the wildflowers were gone.

We left and went deeper into the desert to see what we could see. Luckily, the cactus was beginning to bloom. I found a handful of wildflowers as well.

It was a good day all in all, but it made me start to reconsider my residence. It’s impossible to be a farmer without water. Perhaps it’s time to go east….