Far-Out, Man!

Helloooooooooo readers!

Sorry about not updating yesterday, but it was a pretty uneventful day full of bad weather and indoor activities. Lots of fun, lemme tell ya... it was supposed to freeze and snow last night, but it only froze. The temperature has dropped dramatically in the last few days. The weather here is more fickle than in Texas!

Today was pretty good, though. I woke up a little late (8:20), had my breakfast, got dressed, and since the wind wasn't too bad at 10 am this morning, we got to do a little work in the garden. Bella had to leave to do massages, so it was just me and Nico, which was nice. We work well together and have the same task-handling process, so it's almost better when it's just the two of us. We cleared one of the greens patches, which I thought had just been grown wild. I was really thankful that we got to clear that section of the garden though because all of those dead flower stems and weeds were driving me insane! I went to town with the rake. I think so far my favorite garden activity is raking and clearing. The raking calms me and the overall clearing is like cleaning and that just makes me happy, haha. Obsessive compulsive, no? We also fenced in the compost pile with some chicken wire. That was more Nico's project, but I helped when another set of hands was needed.

After we broke for lunch, we got a call from Leon, the crazy hippie up on Libre who we just love, and he wanted help constructing a greenhouse for his friends Bob and Nancy over on one of the other once-was-communes, Red Rock Canyon. Apparently, back in the day, there were like four communes on Greenhorn and in the Huerfano Valley. Greenhorn is an amazing, magical mountain. So, anyways, we went over to this other commune and this house was so far-out. Nancy was one of Red Rock Canyon's founding mothers and Bob did his commune experience with Bella at another one in the valley. Bob is such a mountain man. He has long hair and this grizzly long beard -- which he's apparently had for like thirty years (I saw pictures). REALLY nice people. They have the most amazing outside garden I've seen yet since being in Gardner. They actually have a lined up orchard, and all of their beds are separated and raised with rock walls. It's just so pretty and organized. I can't wait to see it this summer! The house is situated in this perfect little valley on Greenhorn. When you come out of the house, if you look to the left you see the remaining hills and cliffs of Greenhorn and seem enveloped by the mountains; when you look right, you get a view of the entire valley and the canyon serves as a frame of the Sangres de Cristos. They have a chicken coop, and make money off of selling their eggs, etc. Bob said he'd let me come out there and learn how to work with chickens and coops and eggs... I'm super stoked. Handling animals and livestock is a big part of self-sustainability... especially if you're not vegan or vegetarian.

So, we spent the afternoon at Bob's constructing this greenhouse kit. It was soooo funny watching Leon do it by the manual. He was a construction worker and contractor in the past and he's built a few houses out on the communes, but he could not seem to get this manual straight at all. Maybe it was all the joints being passed around while we were building... ;-)

The wind had picked up down at Bella's place, so we thought we'd be safe by going up onto the mountain where the wind wasn't so bad. WRONG. Not only did the wind decide to start blowing through the canyon like a freakin' funnel, but it started to snow about thirty minutes after we got there! We kept on it though and got that freakin' greenhouse roof up... IN THE SNOW. It was pretty cool, except, since we were working with nuts and bolts, we couldn't really wear gloves so our fingers were like frozen from both the icy air and the cold, metal nuts and bolts!

After we got the roof up, we had a nice little dinner of rice and pinto beans and salad. It's really cool hanging out with all the old hippies who've been in this valley for 40 years. It's like they haven't met anyone new or welcomed anyone new in a LONG time. The community is all so nice and welcoming. They're so excited to see young people learning about living off the land, and they have a LOT to teach. Each individual has some different wisdom and craft or way of gardening that they've developed over the years, so you can learn something different from each person. It's really exciting. Plus, going to work for other people also gives me a break from Bella's hectic/crisis-centered energy. Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful for her hospitality and she is a wonderful woman.... just nutty as a loon, haha.

So, now the day is ending, the sun is setting over the Sangres de Cristos and the snow is coming in... again. I am sooooo tired and will probably be in bed within the hour (its 8:00 right now). Wake up with the sun, go to bed with the sun! ;-)

Thanks for reading and I hope you all keep on keepin' on! Everything passes and changes and its a wonder what a little positive energy can do, so put on a smile and be happy to be alive! There's my preach for the day!

Peace.