April 2019

Wow April has got to be the busiest time of year here.  I'm writing this in December, looking back at our farm journal from April.  It's strange to read about our activity level last April while I'm sitting in a cozy, snow-surrounded cabin, typing on a computer.  

Here's what went on in April.  We evicted the poultry from the garden so that bed prep and planting could begin (they had done a great job over the winter of breaking down last year's plant matter and mulch, picking out parasitic insect eggs and larvae, manuring and generally having a great time).  Then all of the bed prepping (starting to broadfork then entire 155'x55' area, shoveling paths into beds, mulching beds that weren't going to be direct seeded), then transplanting and direct seeding into the beds.  Our irrigation water source (creek) started running, so the 6000' long, 10" diameter pipeline needed flushing and repairs, then all of the terminal end infrastructure (fittings, valves, sprinklers) needed attention and periodic use and draining on cold nights.  One of our two pregnant does, Jasmine, kidded on the 13th, resulting in 3 wonderfully cute kids (2 doelings and a buckling).

Linc realized he was missing important planting dates, and spent an afternoon coming up with a couple of garden planning spreadsheets.  This is what happens when you convert an engineer into a homestead gardener.

In the middle of all of this, Linc started grumbling about missing out on spring mountain bike season in Moab.  Around noon, Jeanne suggested that she'd be willing to cover his chores for the next 2 nights if he wanted to go by himself.  It didn't take any arm twisting.  Within 2 or 3 hrs, he was packed up and on the road.  Here's a shot, probably from a trail called Captain Ahab, with a view out over the Behind the Rocks area to the La Sal Mountains.

The desert has some crazy rock formations.  This boulder sure looked like an enormous Desert Tortoise lumbering along.

On his third day, Linc decided to do something epic, and opted to put together a ride that combined several trails into a thirty five mile long odyssey that involved a little over 3000' of climbing.  Midway through, he passed by Gemini Bridges and took this video.

Linc's end of ride tired happy face, partially because he'd just found the homemade chocolate goat milk frap that Jeanne had put in his cooler.

Near the end of the month, Amber once again gave us both a break (which Jeanne still very much needed), and we planned a 3 day backpack down Owl Canyon and up Fish Canyon on Cedar Mesa in Utah.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast called for heavy rain, and canyons aren't the best place to be in that kind of weather.  Undeterred (desperate maybe?), Jeanne said, "I'm going!" and Linc tagged along.  Afraid of Jeanne most likely, the rain held off long enough for us to grab permits from the off-duty friendly rangers, drive into the trailhead in the Prius before the rains made the road impassable, and even get down into Owl Canyon and to a high and dry campsite before the rains came.  The weather for the next two days just got better and better.  Here's looking down into Owl as we started in.

A 600 to 800 year old granary tucked into an alcove under the rim.

We both love the laughing call of the Canyon Wren, and as we finished the descent into Owl, there it was.  Jeanne couldn't stop grinning.

The beauty of a pour-off pool midway down Owl.

The view from near our campsite in Owl of an arch (Jeanne's pack stashed in a boulder-cave in foreground).

The second day, as the weather cleared, we made our way to the confluence and turned up Fish Canyon.  With all of the rain the day before, the trail turned into an exercise in route finding with a lot time spent crossing back and forth over, or walking in, the canyon bottom stream as it streaked across ledges and tumbled over little waterfalls.  Jeanne, who wear's Keen sandals on almost any backpacking trip, loved it.  Linc had boots, but switched to a pair of half broken camp Teva sandals, and we splashed our way happily up the canyon.

Our camp site on a ledge over the stream, below the hair raising climb out of Fish.

Here's Jeanne, about halfway up the scramble/climb out of Fish early on the morning of the third day.

We tried to avoid thinking about the one serious (for us) scramble that we'd read about to get through the Fish Canyon rim, until we got to it, here, and found the fixed rope missing.  We both hate heights.

Linc got part way up it with his pack still on before getting stuck, but somehow turned into a lizard and slithered up the final bit before lowering a rope down to Jeanne, first for her pack, and then for her to use as a guideline.  This photo is looking down that last pitch.

Finally up, we celebrated with a snack and enjoyed the view, before the easy mesa top walk a mile or two through Pinyon-Juniper forest back to the car, and home.  Thank you desert canyons - you are full of magic.

March 2019

With the 89 Toyota back on the road, we decided to sell the 98 Tacoma that Linc had bought as a replacement.  After putting a new steering rack and ball joints in it, repairing dents and repainting the whole truck, we still thought the old 89 was a better farm truck.  The 89 has a V6, auto locking front hubs, a customized rear suspension and receiver hitch for hauling, and the Tacoma didn't.  Besides, the previous owner had hidden those scented christmas tree air fresheners all over the inside of the truck, and it still reeked of fake hemlock tree, a year after purchase which kind of drove Jeanne crazy.  Linc sold it on Craigslist.

With the two trucks done, he pulled an old Ferguson tractor into the garage for new brakes and rear axle seals.  With the first hint of spring, we started to get a little busier with farm things.  Cleaned out the barn and barnyard using backhoe, loader, wheelbarrows and hay forks, an all day job but worth it for the goats and for the huge amount of already half composted goat manured bedding that we pile up for the garden.  We also were busy starting plants from seed in our cabin greenhouse in trays of 2" soil blocks (home pressed earth blocks instead of pots).  The garden already started to need some work, cleaning up from last year, and getting ready for the next.  Some water started coming down Roatcap Creek and the pipeline that serves our land sprung a leak or two that caused some exciting flooding and repairs.  

Winter here is also a time for catching up on indoor hobbies and gatherings, crocheting for Jeanne, mandolin practice and a weekly Irish music gathering for Linc, some song circles that we both attended.  Jeanne has been gradually rediscovering musical pitch, practicing singing with some interactive music software on the laptop.

The highlights of the month were getting out skiing up on Steven's Gulch, below, to get ready for a winter ski camping trip in the San Juan Mountains.

Then the trip itself, thanks to Amber for taking care of the goats and farm so we could get away!

Jeanne at the Blue Lakes Hut trailhead, Sneffels Range (where we were headed) behind.

Great view of the Sneffels Range on the 6 mile ski in to where we tented near Blue Lakes Hut, located at the head of the valley ahead.

Ah, toasty toes around the wood stove as we melt some snow for drinks in the winter tent after a long day of skiing.

Jeanne on Log Hill above our tent site.  Mount Sneffels behind.

February 2019

A little bit of repair work to do on rentals, but still a pretty quiet time of year.  Linc spent time in his car garage, taking our old 89 Toyota Pickup apart to get it ready for a non-rusty bed, fender and doors from our parts truck.  In the process, he discovered the fuel tank, rear brake line and fuel line were all goners (as in, they crumbled when touched).  Nothing like fixing things at the last possible moment!  So, he swapped those from the parts truck, sandplasted, rust-cured and repainted the truck frame, and even swapped the rear axles and fixed rust holes in the cab, before installing the body parts from the junker.

Hey, where'd the wheels go?

Non rusty tank, brake and fuel line installed, frame repainted, ready for replacement rear axle.

The finished product.  We'll never have any trouble figuring out which truck is ours in the parking lot now.

In the meantime, we decided we needed a better winter camping setup.  After some research, we purchased a tiny 2 lb titanium woodburning stove and chimney, and made a floorless pyramid tent out of a neighbor's donated used greenhouse plastic (involved a day or so in the local library community room cutting and sewing).  Linc also made a ski pulk out of a plastic toboggan and some PVC conduit and hardware, following Youtube how to videos.  We took the whole rig out for a two night test run up at 10000' on the Grand Mesa.  Worked great!

First, a photo of the Prius next to snowbank on the Mesa.  Record setting snowfall this winter!

Here is Jeanne pulling the homemade ski pulk.

The tent stove in use.

A view of the homemade tent with smoke exiting chimney.

The video is from our first backcountry skiing day trip up to Huntsman Ridge off of McClure Pass, about 35 miles from home.  Jeanne skinning back up for another run.  A nice playground fairly close to home.

January 2019

 We had a fair amount of snow this month, and were able to ski right from the door, and out onto the Fire Mountain Canal path for as far as we wanted to go.  We also occasionally drove about 10 miles from home, up Steven's Gulch and into Gunnison National Forest, a couple thousand feet higher than where we live, where we could find deeper snow.  There, we could get out on forest roads and find a mix of untracked powder and some groomed snowmobile routes.  Linc took a couple of videos holding camera in one hand while attempting to not fall over.  The resulting films are a bit jerky, but give an idea of what it's like up Steven's.

Our home rental business was puttering along without much input, the garden in winter limbo, so Linc spent a good portion of the month working on vehicles in his homemade hoohouse garage.  More on that next month.

December 2018

 In order to roll the hoophouse to its new location for the next year, the end walls need to hinge up to clear the ground.  The new metal frame (with Trex lumber sideboards) that Linc had fabricated and installed last summer worked like a dream compared to the rotten lumber that he'd replaced).  Below, you can see the hoophouse ready to move towards camera, and in the second photo in the new location - a 24'L x 24'W x 14' high structure moved 24 feet over in about 2 hrs by 2 people.  Nice!

For Jeanne's birthday, we drove down to Ridgway, went for a nice ski tour up Corksgrew Gulch off of Red Mountain Pass in chilly (10F) temps, then back to Orvis Hot Springs where we car camped, snuggling into our -40F down bags (temps down to 6F that night) and spent a lot of the evening and next morning exploring the various soaking pools, sauna, and then discovering the 55 F cold plunge pool next to the 110 F "lobster pot" pool, and spent hrs going back and forth between the two.

 That shiny stainless steel $4000 high efficiency wood stove that came with the tiny house on wheels never worked all that well.  Linc took it out, put it on Ebay with a description of the problems we were having with it, sold it immediately for $2500, and bought this replacement, a Grizzly Cubic Mini wood stove (12"w x 11"d x 15"h, that IS mini!) for $600.  A MUCH better stove.

Meanwhile, besides all of the usual farm chores, and getting out every other day or so for some exercise running, skiing or biking, we slowly worked on our larger "to do" list.  Jeanne decided she'd prefer that we restore the old 89 Toyota pickup rather than keep the 98 Tacoma, so Linc spent some time in the new workshop, popping out a couple of dents, then sanding and repainting the Tacoma to make it easier to sell.

Another project Linc finished in December was to pipe up hot and cold running water to a shower head above the bathtub in the cabin greenhouse.  So now, 9 years after we started building the cabin, we took our first showers!

Summary for 2018

Water

We received a total of 10.5" of precipitation for the year, lowest month was April 2018 at only 0.14" for the month - talk about a dry spring!  Snowpack in the mountains from the 2017-2018 season was a record low, 60% of the normal.  Irrigation water for our farm went off on July 4th, about 2 MONTHS earlier than normal.  The forests throughout the west caught on fire.  We stored what we could in the soil and in an old swimming pool and in the pipeline, and miserly watered it out over the rest of summer and fall, saving enough in the pipe for minimal winter hoophouse watering, and watched our healthy plants shrivel.  Still, despite the lack of water, we still harvested and ate pretty well - the farm is becoming more and more resilient!  

Farm Harvest

Chicken, duck and turkey Eggs - 260 dozen

Goat Milk - 540 gallons

Meat - 102 lbs

Asparagus - 21 lbs

Beets - 96 lbs

Broccoli - 16 lbs

Cabbage - 37 lbs

Carrots - 37 lbs

Corn - 65 ears

Garlic - 320 bulbs

Cooking greens - 185 lbs

Salad greens - 98 lbs

Onions - 65 lbs

Green onions - 41 bunches

Melons - 55 lbs

Parsnips - 45 lbs

Peas - only 10 lbs

Peppers - 28 lbs

Potatoes - 185 lbs (blighted, reduced crop)

Winter Squash - 282 lbs

Tomatoes - 120 lbs

Turnips - 65 lbs

Zucchini - 180 lbs

Garden Apples - 19 lbs

Garden cherries - 6.5 lbs

Grapes - 6.5 lbs

Garden peaches - 65 lbs

Plums - 1 lb!

Berries - only 2 lbs!

Rhubarb - 35 lbs

Hay baled - only 65 bales (about half of previous year)

Total farm product (not all shown above) - 6700 lbs, not counting hay

Market value of product - $18,800

We started out the year continuing at the daily routines of homesteading, gradually taking on projects, doing what we've done for 9 years or so now.  It's a satisfying life, and has its inspiring moments, and is a strange mix of being tied down with daily care of domesticated animals and birds while feeling a strong sense of belonging and attachment and love for the land, water, plants, animals and birds that have co-evolved with and sustain us.  Missing, at times, has been the opportunity to really get out in the wilds and feel the awe and inspiration that comes from that.  That all changed after Amber arrived and we started getting out for longer hikes, then an overnight backpacking trip, and the bike packing adventure in Moab.  Life is suddenly changing for us.  We probably get a little less done on the farm now, but we're super energized and becoming more and more inspired.  Nature is the source, and wild nature is the strongest source there is.

On to 2019!

November 2018

November!   Well, at least everything being brown like it was for much of the summer, seems normal now with the cold weather.  During summer, it was because it almost never rained.  What a strange year.  Despite our fields looking brown and lifeless, our goats continued to go out to graze in the paddocks each day, which surprised us because we've had other years when the grass looked green and they wouldn't eat it.  There's so much we don't understand about farming - it's a continual learning curve and source of inspiration.

 Last month, Linc spent some time making a car workshop.  Cleared some land behind the cabin, leveled it with the backhoe, bought a used 20'x10' hoophouse frame from a friend for $75, put it up and anchored it, added some used hoophouse plastic from our hoophouse renovation project this year, and "Voila!", a $100 workshop!  Solar heated, even!  Later, for cloudy days, he added a wood stove.  Here, we've got the Prius in there, gradually making all of the trouble lights on the dashboard go away.  So nice to finally have a dry place warm place to work in the colder months.  Linc likes the combination so much that for our final, larger workshop, he's thinking of doing the exact same thing on a larger scale and with a cement or adobe floor, and shade cloth for summer.

In the hoophouse, beneath the secondary protection of row cover on PVC hoops, and with the addition of beneficial nematodes and fungal insecticides, we are finally starting to have success at growing winter greens again (our winter crops were decimated by root aphids the last few years, so this is a nice change).

Linc realized that Amber would need a wood box for storing wood for her tiny house on wheels woodstove, and came up with this structure from scrap materials.  The boards in the front are removable so that wood can be added and removed easily, and the shade cloth that's flopped over the roof drops down to protect the wood from windblown rain and snow.  This was one of those projects that kind of evolved into something better than the original vision.

October 2018

 OK, so I'm sure that we didn't spend the whole month of October playing in the desert, but the photos sure make it look like we did.  We are definitely making up for not having been able to do overnight trips for a few years!  Amber took care of the goats and birds for two multi-day stretches, which allowed us to fit in two trips, both to the Moab, Utah area, both with mountain bikes.  One involved car camping and day rides on several trail networks.  The second was a five day adventure, towing off-road bike trailers for two days up one canyon, across the high desert for a day, then back down to the trailhead through another canyon.

The first photo above is from the bike packing trip, in Pritchett Canyon, with Jeanne negotiating a portion of a (jeep!) road that required taking off the trailers, carrying everything down over the ledges and reassembling.  This happened a few times on that trip!

The next is from the first part of the trip, as we traveled 20 miles or so up Kane Creek Canyon, crossing and recrossing Kane Creek (over 50 crossings in 2 days).

Near the head of Kane Creek Canyon, we climbed out along a jeep road with the La Sal mountains peaking up over the rim, our route visible halfway up the canyon wall.

 Below shows Jeanne soaking up some morning sunlight while sitting high in an alcove on the SE side of Prostitute Butte.  The desert colors are intense, and have a way of burning into your memory.  When I see this photo, I can immediately feel the warm sun, rough sandstone, cool morning air, and smell the sage and juniper (and even the rocks!) around that morning's campsite.  It all stays very vivid.

Below is shot from our campsite near the head of Hunter Canyon.  The large pour-off beyond forms an alcove with springs and hanging gardens of water loving plants clinging to the wall.  A beautiful spot to spend a night under the desert stars.

 Another photo of our campsite at the head of Hunter.

 Jeanne pedaling into the head of Pritchett Canyon, near Pritchett Arch.

 Desert pothole water, the La Sals in background.

 Jeanne up on the canyon rim overlooking Kane Creek, looking down at the route that we had bicycled up a couple days before.

Jeanne negotiates a typical ledgy downhill along the jeep road route we took through the Behind The Rocks area to get from Kane Creek to Pritchett Canyon.

 Petroglyphs found in Kane Creek.

 Same spot on rim overlooking Kane Creek as before, just looking up canyon.  You can see the road that we'd traveled 2 days earlier at bottom (before it began crossing and recrossing Kane Creek).

Kokopelli lives for sure - we saw his shadow!

 Jeanne drags her bike/trailer combo up a ledgy section on way out of Pritchett Canyon.

 More ledges in Pritchett.  It's amazing that rock crawler vehicles can climb this stuff, some of it was difficult enough to scramble on and down on foot, never mind a bicycle and loaded trailer.

This is what the inside of the Prius looked like, packed for the bike packing trip.  Putting the bikes on a rack on the back would have decreased the gas mileage by 10 mpg.  Not frugal!  So, we crammed it all in and smugly got 45-50 mpg on the drive over and back.  Only problem with this method, is that when you want to sleep in the car at the trailhead, you've got to remove just about everything to do so...

 Third morning out, we climbed up to Picture Frame Arch for a morning view of the Behind the Rocks WSA.  Picture frame - I wonder why they called it that?

 Obviously no particular order on these photos - another shot of Jeanne sunning herself above our campsite by Prostitute Butte rock.  I've got to say, that's a lousy name for this intensely beautiful rock monolith, perched by itself up in the middle of the Behind the Rocks area.  It looks and feels more like I imagine this spot in Australia, sacred to the native people there, does.  Uluru - Australia

OK, so we did play a lot this month.  Great pics though, right?  

Other than that and the usual farm chores, Linc started building a workshop out of a salvaged 20'x10' hoophouse frame, some leftover greenhouse plastic and an old wood stove for heat, started (finally!) cutting, splitting and stacking firewood for the winter (I know, it's supposed to be done a year ahead of time, but that hasn't happened since we moved here 9 years ago).  And, it was time to finish harvesting everything out of the garden and getting it inside before first frost, so that occupied some time too.

Wait, just one video from the bike packing trip.