Valley Mama

Rain

I never get tired of the smell of rain.  Probably because it's so rare here.  Melissa and I and all four farm kids were in the garden right before the storm hit yesterday.  I suppose one of the benefits of being able to see so far in any direction is advance notice of storms rolling in.  We were replanting beans and cucumbers...many of the seedlings of the first planting got consumed by grasshoppers...when we felt the first drops.  We put everything away and started towards the house.  I was in the back yard when I noticed a glimmer on the ground out by the animals' pen.  

                                                

Sometimes someone turns on the hose to fill the goat and sheep water and walks away to tend to something else.  Every once and a while someone forgets and does not return for some time.  When this happens, the area outside of the pen is flooded.  The farm kids love this.  The grown-ups and animals...not so much.

                                                             

It's evening time - time for the goat and sheep to come in from the field and go into their pen for the night.  Also, a storm is coming, so Melissa and I go out to bring them in, babies on our backs...of course.  Melissa finds a huge board (fairly easy to find in our yard) and puts it across the lake that we discover by the pen to make a bridge for us to cross.  I open the gate to let the the girls in.  Normally, then run right in.  Tonight, however, they are not thrilled at having a lake where there used to be solid ground between them and their hay.  They are not going in, and the rain is coming down a little harder.  They bolt a couple of times, we are soaked, and Melissa is up to her knee in mud before we get them in.  Then the rain really comes.

                                                                       

An actual drenching, ground-quenching rain.  

                                                                        

Rain always feels like such a gift here, and with fires burning all around us, this rain feels even more like a gift than normal.  

        

The garden loves it.  Since we don't get much rain from the sky here, we irrigate everything.  It keeps the plants alive and they do pretty well, but it cannot compare to an actual rain.  After the first real rain of the season everything pops (including weeds).  It seems the plants grow inches overnight.

                                          

                             
I went out this morning to check on everything, slipping and sliding in the mud.  Maybe it's my imagination, but I'm pretty sure the plants look greener...happier.  

                                       

                           

It's raining again this evening, and we're loving it...it sure is nice to not have to turn on the drip for a couple of days.

                                     

It Takes a Village

I like to keep these posts fairly current to give you an idea of what is happening around the farm now.  This post is about something that happened a few weeks ago, but I never got around to posting because we left for a cross-country road-trip shortly after (ten states in ten days!).  It is still important to share because it is a great example of why we grow here.       

I love living here in the San Luis Valley.  Really.  I do.  I will admit that from time to time I think about what it might be like to live in a place where there's a little more green than brown.  Where it rains more than a few days a year.  Where you can throw seeds outside and watch them grow.  Where it does not get to thirty below zero and hang out there for a few weeks in January.  

And then, I look out into this beautiful high desert valley, surrounded by mountains, and I think about the community that we have here.  I am rooted to this land, to the valley, but most of all, I'm rooted to this community.  I've lived several other places in my life, but I've never experienced community like I have here.  

Aaron sent out the word about a work party to put up a new fence around the garden and the field after our garden expansion and septic system nightmare.  It was kind of last minute, but so many friends showed up to help.  Aaron asks for people to bring post hole diggers if they have them, and Mark shows up with this...

  They had the holes dug for the aspen posts (which Aaron cut the day before in the mountains), in no time.  A few hours later, we had this...

The garden and pasture are now completely fenced in, keeping the chickens and goat and sheep out...for now.  Buttercup (the goat) always finds a way in.  It's crazy to look at this picture.  All of those rows are now filled with green, and it has only been a few weeks!  

Other work got done that day as well, like some prep work for the base of the new greenhouse and some new beds around the old greenhouse.  We are so thankful for everyone who came over to help!  Thank you all so much!

River did her job of playing in the dirt...

While the farm boy did work of his own...

Thanks to some amazing people, it took one day to complete what would have taken a week on our on.  These are the kind of things that happen all the time in our community, and why we choose to make this place our home.  

We grow here...and we grow so much more than food.  

Spring Update

Happy spring everyone!  I've started a blog for the garden.  Finally.  I've been wanting to do it for years.  I'm still working on it, and will be adding more content soon.  This first post is a spring update that customers received via the email list.  It seemed an appropriate beginning for a new blog!  

We are in full spring swing here, and I'm loving it.  As I sit here thinking about what I'd like to include in this update, River is making her first attempt at crawling on the braided wool rug on the living room floor.  The familiar sounds of Mason playing come from behind me (something related to superheros, I think).  I can look out of one window and see freshly turned earth.  I look out of another window and see the metal frame and lumber that will soon be put back together to become a greenhouse.  I feel so incredibly thankful.  For so much.  So, I offer a garden update this spring in the form of my thanks.  Right now I am incredibly grateful and thankful for...

                                                                    

This amazing Mother Earth, who continues to provide.  From the millions of little organisms in the soil I hold in my hands, to the water that comes from the snow in the mountains.  Melissa and I planted garlic earlier this spring, and there is nothing like digging my hands into the soil for the first time of the season.  

                                                        

One truly incredible partner, who's hard work makes this life possible.  I get to be with my children every day, and grow food for my family and yours...there is nothing else in the world I would rather be doing.  Without Aaron and his ability to put up quick fences for my ever-expanding garden, the animals would have eaten everything.      

                             

Two amazing little people who provide the inspiration and the joy for all of this.  Farm boy is such a big helper this year, and farm girl just had her first taste of soil...I think she liked it.  

                  

Did you hear?  I have an amazing garden partner this year.  Or maybe I should say three, because with Melissa comes Bella and Utah, and I can already tell we're going to have a blast.  Babies on backs, while the farm kids play...we are going to make some amazing things happen this summer.

                          

Alan Simpson.  With his generous help (and his tractor) we are increasing the size of the garden this year.  Seriously.  What would we do without Alan?

                                   

My parents are in Creede full-time now, which means lots of grandma and grandpa time for the farm kids.  They are already helping in our garden endeavor as well.  Just this week they came down from Creede with their truck and trailer and we headed to Jaroso for some of David West's compost and greenhouse soil.  

                         

The gift of a greenhouse from our friends Angie, Russ and Cecily.  Also their time and energy to disassemble this greenhouse (in the rain), load it up, drive it here, and unload it.  They are a beautiful family, and I'm so happy to know them.

                                

Tom Barr, the best sheep shearer in the Valley, who just this week stopped by because he was in the area and sheared the sheep.

                                   

My circle of mamas (you know who you are).  For being inspirational and working to nourish the health and wholeness of us all.   

                                              

All of you.  For buying veggies, offering lovely, kind words of encouragement, and supporting local food in this community.          

                           

For one tiny seed, literally and metaphorically speaking.  Oh how much potential for life and growth can be contained in something so small. 

                              

Also...green tea and functioning septic systems.     

                            

Happy spring to you all!