Category Archives: WWOOFing

Resurrecting the Tin Can

When we saw the Spinning Plates farm profile on the WWOOF-USA website, I just knew it was meant to be – kids about Otis’s age, a scrappy homestead started under circumstances similar to ours- and the possibility of staying in a big old travel trailer in need of renovation.

Our own home is a similar structure (albeit smaller, and a few decades older), as is our own WWOOFer dwelling, the Albatross. So we had some experience working on such things, and we also wanted more (as we prepare for an addition to our home’s climate-controlled space).

After stops to visit family in New Orleans and our friends at other farms (Yokna Bottoms in Mississippi, Chastain Farms in Alabama), we arrived in Cedar Grove, North Carolina just after New Years, ready to spend two month living within the project we’d be working on – the renovation of the huge, rotting travel trailer they’d gotten for cheap a year before, hoping it would one day make a goat milking barn perhaps, or perhaps a dwelling for WWOOFers like us.

Tin Can in the background
Tin Can in the background

It was dark when we arrived, and cold. First impressions of the Tin Can were rather bleak. The floor was spongy at best, riddled with gaping holes, some patched with treacherous loose scraps of plywood, others wide open and serving as entrances for the cats. Not that they needed them – the front door frame was rotten and it would not close, and the remains of the back door had not been closed in years. It smelled dank and musty. The windows did not close, and the wind blew freely through the entire structure … chilly, but at perhaps a blessing, as fresh air.

ruin of the back door that had hung open for years

Kristin had a pretty strong opinion about the best, most helpful course of action: “We … should burn this down for them.”

She was kidding … mostly. Maybe. It was hard to believe it could be salvaged, especially by the likes of us. But, we started chipping away at the project the next day, one step at a time. First up was demolition – Farmer Lish explained her plans for the space – where the old walls needed to be removed, where new walls might go. So we started tearing out the interior closets and walls, salvaging what might be useful later, sorting the rest into burn pile and dump piles. Sadly we didn’t take any good “Before” photos, as we were working to focus on the positives …

(*note: we were invited to stay inside the house, but refused – we wanted to stay in the Tin Can all winter!)

We learned where it was safe to step, and where you had to tiptoe across the exposed floor joists. I put my leg all the way through the bottom only once during this training. After the first freezing night, we taped plastic over our windows and started closing up the openings in the walls and floor that let the wind race through the East bedroom (the one that actually had a floor, mostly).

Although it was significantly warmer outside than back on our farm, it sure isn’t balmy in the northern North Carolina wintertime. It rained a lot, sometimes for days at a time. Mud was everpresent, of a slippery but not sticky variety. Sometimes there were ice storms, where the slow drizzle coated everything in a quarter inch of solid ice – causing trees to collapse and shatter under the weight. The power went out for a couple of days as a result. It was … rather exciting really, and strange and beautiful too.

Anyway, the weather wasn’t a really big deal for us, since we were mostly working indoors. We had a propane heater in our room with which to stay toasty at night, and thaw out during the work days. Otis had a new pair of tall rubber boots for mud puddle stomping. Lish and Wayne bought a car port; we set it up out back and moved a whole pallet of 3/4″ plywood into it, where it would stay dry and I could cut pieces down to size as we refloored the entire building. Kristin found a pile of storm windows and matched them to the appropriate holes, Frankensteining them into place as needed. I did some temporary junkgineering to the front door so it would open and close.

Every day from the time we woke up until we fell asleep, at least one of us was working on the Tin Can – and when we weren’t working on it, we were thinking about it. When it was wet out we worked on the interior, and watched the leaks to learn how water was entering. When it was dry out, we worked on the exterior. Honestly, I didn’t think we could get it near a final state during our 2-month stay … but as I mentioned, the Spinning Plates Farm and the Tin Can had felt meant to be from the get go. And as things tend to do when things are meant to be – things just kept falling neatly into place.

We started with the back bedroom, which had already had the particle board floor stripped out. Before we could put the flooring on, we had to address the damages to the subfloor and walls – several studs and floor joists were rotten, and the rim joists (the edge of the structure, where wall meets floor) on both sides of the NW corner were completely destroyed.

So while Kristin focused on identifying and repairing the many leaks that had been letting water into the structure, I learned how to cut out damaged subfloor and framing, and repair it – using mostly salvaged cedar 2x4s from an old outdoor playset. I talked to myself incessantly and wrote notes on every surface with a Sharpie, like a madman. Everything had to line up properly, support the weight of the roof – and provide level, flat surfaces for the replacement floor boards and wall panels that we hoped to install next.

Once that was done, the plywood went in, and we started letting the renovations flow forward from the back bedroom toward the other end, where we slept. Next up was the ruin inside of the missing back door – before we could put a new door in to keep out the rain, before we could build a floor, we’d have to replace all the rotten framing, and expand the doorframe to accommodate the full-size replacement door. Again the rim joist and the attached studs and joists had been totally destroyed – not only by the constant rainwater, but by the termites that the moist, rotting wood had invited in.

We tried to find a replacement door of the same size, without any luck – so they bought a standard exterior door and we cut the metal skin, and rebuilt the door frame entirely to fit it.

From there the flooring project continued – first the old bathroom needed major work – a water heater in a closet had leaked for years and totally destroyed the floor and adjacent sheetrock, and the old toilet drain needed to be cleaned up and covered,

Then forward into the kitchen – where the hidden leak behind the cabinets had destroyed a section of wall and floor.

Around this time, we realized that I had been carelessly inhaling fiberglass stirred up by power tools and demolition. I had a sore throat and a nagging feeling that no amount of throat-clearing would fix.

So I started wearing a mask while I worked … and we turned up the priority of finding new wall panel material to cover all the exposed insulation left from the repair of the framing.

As you likely know, we are into old abandoned buildings – and the area was full of them, especially one specific type that we fell in love with – old tobacco curing barns, used to hang and dry the tobacco crops that once covered the local landscape. There were two right in the woods behind the farm – and when we asked, we learned that the neighbor just wanted them gone. So, of course we had to check them out.

And there beneath the blackened exterior siding boards (the builders had used fire to treat them against decay), we discovered beautiful rough-sawn pine boards, almost an inch thick, 8″ wide, and in lengths from 8 to 12 feet.

I knew this was what we needed – to not only serve functionally and inexpensively as wall panels – but to also build beauty, local history, and style into the structure we were bringing back from death’s door. It took some experimenting, but once I figured out how to loosen a board from the inside and then work the various options of a wonderful Wonderbar, I could quickly salvage the boards without damaging them in the process.

A corner was turned, once these boards started to be deployed – and suddenly it seemed that the resurrected building just might be not only functional … but beautiful, too. Motivation, already high, became nearly obsessive, as the carpentry project blossomed into an artwork, something inspiring to work on and behold transforming.

There was still much to be done – a new front door and frame, repairing the subfloor inside the door, move our whole room out and rebuild the floor before replacing our bed, build an interior wall, source smooth cheap wall paneling from craigslist, panel all the holes in the walls, keep chasing leaks, … Kristin padded and carpeted both bedrooms and rebuilt the ravaged gutters and sanded/sealed the plywood flooring, I added water catchers over both doors, stabilized and leveled the front steps, used junked appliances from the demolition to create a temporary back step and stairs. We cleared away the piles of debris to the dump, jacked up and leveled the whole thing on concrete blocks … and just generally tried our best to make it all useful … and lovely.

And against all odds, it worked. We finished with a day or so to spare before we had to leave to return to the North to start a new season’s seeds – just enough time to throw a little house warming ice cream social, and relax for a couple of nights within the project that had defined our winter. It was intensely satisfying, and we both learned so much … perhaps primarily, about how capable we can be at making it work.

if anyone ever opens the old electrical panel door, they’ll find this.

It was a winter well-spent.

snowbirds’ spring (2020 begins!)

Ten weeks in the south flowed by with liquid speed, leaving no time to feel homesick. But it still feels wonderful being home, re-rooting.

We got home yesterday afternoon, pleased to find the snow melted down to manageable depths, and our systems and structures mostly intact. Exceptions were minor; one woodpile partially toppled, a young apple tree critter-girdled, a snowmelt flood into the ice fishing shack/cabin, and invasive rodents busy all over.

But we didn’t need to clear the driveways or chop doors free from ice, the batteries that power us had successfully been kept from freezing, the generator and old Subaru started right up, before we’d left we’d been able to tame the chaos more than usual, and Otis was delighted to rediscover those toys we’d left behind.

The clouds have just darkened across the land here, but it’s still toasty down in Kristin’s greenhouses, and the wood stove up in here feels like kindness itself, with Otis napping happily in warmth from trees that lived their lives on this land alongside us.

… just like all the vegetables that we’ll be bringing to life for you to eat!

I just got back inside after repairing a break in the greenhouse water line; and now as I type this, Kristin is watering our first seeds of the season for their first time!

Welcome to another year of the Que Sehra Farm CSA’ we’re grateful for all of you that are eating with us this season!

We’re excited to grow for – and with – you this year.

Ending Winter

After two and half months away from snow and subzero temperatures, our family of winter vagabonds has returned to the glorious North.

seed starting greenhouse slumbering in the snow

It was a successful journey – we weren’t sure what to expect from our first roadtrip with Otis, given the long drives, strange places, and constant change. Fortunately, he loved the shifting locales and characters, and we quickly found ways to make the 4,000+ mile trek bearable for the little guy while strapped into his safety bucket. He met countless animals, rode in boats, enjoyed parades, had his first tastes of so many foods, loved the Ocean, and learned to walk. It was a momentous journey for a guy not yet a year old – and a joy for us to guide him on.


Otis and one of the many goats he met along the way

Given the uncertainties, we’d planned our route around friendly farms that we’d visited before, where they know us and were excited to meet our spawn. We revisited our friends at Wu Wei Farm, Habitable Spaces, the Chastain Farms, and Yokna Bottoms Farm as we looped through the south, in between visiting family and friends along the route.

(these are statues and not our actual families.)

The winter wandering went so well that we’ve decided that we will continue to do our winter snowbirding, rather than build a more permanent cozy winter dwelling on the farm (yet, anyway).

While we were away, the Best Neighbors Ever kept the farm’s driveway clear, and even shoveled off our front steps in anticipation of our arrival – of course, we’ll still have some snow to battle as we get settled in to start seeds for the year, clearing access to the woodpiles, greenhouses, outhouse, root cellar, chicken coop, and storage spaces … or maybe we’ll get lucky, and it’ll all melt in the next few days?

a welcoming driveway awaits us

I feel my mental gears grinding slightly as they shed the winter’s rust, switching back into Farm Mode. We’ve ordered our seeds for the season (Kristin is more than ready to get the onions started ASAP!), volunteers are getting lined up, and we’re signing up members for this year’s CSA.

It was a lovely winter and a wonderful journey – but we are happy to be home, and ready to rock.

Bring the Spring!

Snowbird Farmers: Winter Four

We’re back home in the li’l trailer on the tundra – single digits outside.

Looking out at the frozen winterscape, it’s hard to believe that just over a week ago, we were petting a manatee with our bare feet.

The wind moans and shrills at the trailer windows, but somehow cannot compete with the quiet cozy cracklings and shifting thumps of burning logs in the woodstove  – sounds made somehow even warmer knowing these are logs that we’d downed, hauled, split, and stacked to dry.

We just got home from our fourth winter as snowbirding farmers, thanks to the WWOOF-USA program, which connects organic farms with folks interested in helping out for room, board, experience … and, in our case, warmer climates.

This year, we decided to make our southernmost-point the Florida Keys, as we had on our “working honeymoon” trip when we first left Minneapolis in 2013. Both of our parents had plans to be there in late February, so we mapped out a course that would gradually take us there over the course of a few months – stopping to help out at other farms along the way.

Our first stop was at the Wu Wei Farm in Nixa, Missouri – we just knew it would be a good fit, given the name, which references the Taoist concept of natural action, without struggle or excessive effort  … the “cultivation of a mental state in which actions are effortlessly in alignment with the flow of life.

How very “que sera, sera!” Unsurprisingly, we felt right at home with the people, the space, the animals, and the river, and we know we’ll be back someday soon. Even the rocks in the field were awesome – while helping dig up potatoes, we discovered stone age Indian artifacts – flint flakes, a broken arrowhead, and a hand-held chopper tool.

As winter deepened, we headed deeper into the south, following the sun to return for our third time to a friendly and familiar spot – Yokna Bottoms Farm in Oxford, Mississippi.

We spent a few weeks with Doug and the dog pack, enjoying an unusual warm spell, which allowed us to continue to harvest and sell veggies at market well past the point that a killing frost would usually have brought things to a close.

As we had during both our previous winter stops at Yokna, we pulled everything out of the shed by the field and reorganized it – but this time, we decided to do something about the lack of organization, and built a sturdy set of shelving along one wall, using scrap lumber.

From there it was onward to another familiar farm – The Chastain Farms in Alabama, which we’d last visited during the polar vortex of 2014. It was awesome seeing all the little upgrades we’d put together in the WWOOFer cabin still in use three years later – the truck topper pot rack, the barnwood bathroom shelf, door, and floor, etc – and of course, seeing the folks.

We canned several dozens of jars of their frozen farm-grown strawberries (pictured) and tomatoes, turning them into jams, salsas, and BBQ sauce.
We canned several dozens of jars of their frozen farm-grown strawberries (pictured) and tomatoes, turning them into jams, salsas, and BBQ sauce.

Mama pig! She would jump up on the fence if you made eye contact and talked nice to her.
Mama pig! She would jump up on the fence if you made eye contact and talked nice to her.

 

We had a bit of a gap between farms to fill, so we paid a visit to our Facebook friend Jacqueline, in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. She’d been smacked with a case of the winter sickness, so in the mode of WWOOFers, we looked for ways to help out.

There was a cold snap and homes in the area aren’t really insulated for such weather, so we cut up some dead trees and kept a toasty fire going in her woodstove, warming the house while we chatted, made food, and dusted and cleaned her amazing museum-quality array of teapots, curios, and knick-knacks.

a fraction of Jacqueline's amazing teapot collection - a wonderful environment since I'd launched into this lifestyle with help from a couple of teapots that taught me to trust intuition and flow!
a fraction of Jacqueline’s amazing teapot collection – a wonderful environment since I’d launched into this lifestyle with help from a couple of teapots that taught me to trust intuition and flow!

Jacqueline introduced us to her friend Pat, who brought us (by Jeep) up to her off-grid mountain cabin and organic orchard where she’d been living for decades, getting her water from a stream and doing without even solar electricity … it was inspiring.

Jacqueline in front of Pat's off-grid homestead
Jacqueline in front of Pat’s off-grid homestead

From there it was onto another new spot – Rag & Frass Farm in Jeffersonville, Georgia.

WWOOFers there are expected to work 6 days a week, waking at sunrise and knocking off at sunset –  a far more busy schedule than most.

We were glad to be there and happy to help out – the work was varied and interesting … we did standard farm work such as seeding thousands of plants, and weeding, broadforking, and mulching thousands of row feet, of course.

But we also worked on all sorts of random projects that were both fun and satisfying – removing nails and screws from reclaimed lumber; tearing out musty old ceiling tiles and rotten asbestos floor tiles from the motel rooms; fashioning doorknobs from branches, lawn chair seats from old flooring, and a towel rack from a broomstick; optimizing lighting and doors; building a handwashing sink, a counter for the roadside stand, a swiveling 20-foot produce washing/drying table, and several gates;  clearing out and organizing the barn, a storage room, and the wild brambles behind the motel; repairing the kitchen table, several chairs and stools and a vintage fan … you get the idea.

the wash/dry rack project
the wash/dry rack project

two of the three barn stall gates
two of the three barn stall gates

reclaimed lumber counter/table project
reclaimed lumber counter/table project

It felt great knowing we were making an impact and leaving a positive mark on a growing operation – and we knew that once we left, it would be three weeks of lazy fishing and sunshine down in Florida …

donkeys are good people
donkeys are good people

 

Nearly a month later, it was time to mosey southward again – we spent a week in an RV park marina on a giant lake in the Florida panhandle with our friend Chris.

a small portion of our magnet-fishing haul - throwing a powerful magnet on a cord out along the marina docks, and carefully dragging it back in with treasures ...
a small portion of our magnet-fishing haul – throwing a powerful magnet on a cord out along the marina docks, and carefully dragging it back in with treasures …

Then we hit the Keys for two weeks with our folks, soaking up precious sunlight, ordering seeds, and preparing to get back to work on The Farm …

coconut harvesting
coconut harvesting

coconut processing
coconut processing

coconut cake
coconut cake

homeward bound, dreaming of frisbee
homeward bound, dreaming of frisbee

 

… and writing this website update was one of the items on our to-do list, perfect to accomplish while even the high temperatures are still below freezing.

It was a great winter, and looks to me like the forecast calls for an even greater growing season.

We’ve already started the first seeds of the season, and we’re ready to keep them alive through the freezing nights of our northern spring.

Welcome to 2017, thanks for joining us in another year’s adventure!

Winter WWOOFing 2016

In late November, we tucked the Farm in for the season, ready for its sleepy cover crop of snow, and headed southward toward our planned route of other organic farms, where we would live and work through the WWOOF-USA program.

It was a good plan, a great route – but as we all know, what will be will be – and it’s rarely just what we had in mind. As it turned out, we first had to endure some loss this Winter. First, sweet mighty Cleo lost the use of her legs, after 15 years of the finest companionship a dog has ever provided man.

We kept her comfortable and happy til the very end, let her sleep in the bed with us, rolled her to her favorite places in a padded wagon, gave her all the love and treats that she wanted, and said our goodbyes at my sister’s house in Illinois.

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Immediately afterward, my Mom’s health began to slide, as the cancer she’d kept at bay for a decade came back to roost. We turned back North, cancelled our plans to return to Yokna Bottoms Farm in Mississippi, and spent the month of December in my Minnesotan childhood home helping prepare the house for sale and my mom for a move into an assisted living facility.

By January, things had stabilized enough that we packed up the trailer again and hit the road for Texas – now with my mom’s dog Ace joining our family entourage. It would be just another month before I had to come back North  …

Habitable Spaces (Kingsbury, Texas)

We’d spent almost the entire winter last year at this unique artists’ residency, and it was wonderful to return to see our human and animal friends, all that’s changed and endured.

Scout modeling an imported Que Sehra pumpkin
Scout modeling an imported Que Sehra pumpkin

 

tile remnant puzzle floor completed
tile remnant puzzle floor completed

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adopted feral Egyptian Geese (which are technically not geese, or ducks - but "shelducks." in the space between the two
adopted feral Egyptian Geese (which are technically not geese, or ducks – but “shelducks.” in the space between the two

the simple rocket stove we built last year, keeping water boiling for feather plucking
the simple rocket stove we built last year, keeping water boiling for feather plucking

  

chewing up, spitting, lumping , and drying out some dried, rehyrdrated, limed Que Sehra corn ...
chewing up, spitting, lumping , and drying out some dried, rehyrdrated, limed Que Sehra corn …

... to make chicha!
… to make chicha!

 

a walk through the woods discovery
a walk through the woods discovery

one mile to go
one mile to go

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I love Burl.

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loved eating from the earth oven we built last winter
loved eating from the earth oven we built last winter

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the Ward Sisters installing a new door
the Ward Sisters installing a new door

the Ward Sisters nursing ducklings
the Ward Sisters nursing ducklings

 

catmouflage
catmouflage

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Biodiverse Food Forest HomeGreen Permaculture Center (Rockport, Texas)

Their goals here are as lofty as their name is long – to transform a sandy, neglected, abused little parcel of land into a lush symbiotic edible ecosystem. Meredith and her mom are just getting things cleaned up and starting to grow – we helped them out wherever we could, and enjoyed the proximity of the ocean, in between.

first encounter with the barnyard gang
first encounter with the barnyard gang

 

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doing some exploring by the Texas coast
doing some exploring by the Texas coast

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found a lot of fossilized wood in our down time
found a lot of fossilized wood in our down time

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fossilized poop! for real. AKA a "coprolite" - I had to lick it to convince Kristin it wasn't just a sun-dried poop of recent vintage. Even then, she was skeptical ...
fossilized poop! for real. AKA a “coprolite” – I had to lick it to convince Kristin it wasn’t just a sun-dried poop of recent vintage. Even then, she was skeptical …

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our MN friend Lizzy was visiting nearby Corpus Christi, and showed us a great beach
our MN friend Lizzy was visiting nearby Corpus Christi, and showed us a great beach

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#WWOOFerAmenities
#WWOOFerAmenities

 

a rooster checking out the new roost / laying boxes we built
a rooster checking out the new roost / laying boxes we built

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Loss Interlude

Immediately after leaving Rockport, I got a call from my sister – my Mom was fading fast. I got on a northbound plane immediately, while Kristin and the dogs drove West toward our final host farm in New Mexico.

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After a powerful and surprisingly positive week helping my mother make the transition into the great unknown, I flew back to rejoin them with a refreshed appreciation for life.

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Last Word Ranch (Los Cerrillos, NM)

If the native soil in coastal Texas had been  poor or challenging, the soil here in the high-altitude desert was barren and blasted. Irradiated by the sun and scattered by the howling winds, very little plant life grew – outside of the carefully nurtured gardens and the high tunnel packed with the aquaponics symbiotic system they’d just started up – fish living in water filtered by edible plants that used the fish waste as nutrients, a Rube Goldberg system as interconnected and unlikely as all of Life.

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Kristin gluing together scraps of tarp to line the new raised grow bed that Kristin and Dee built before I got there
Kristin gluing together scraps of tarp to line the new raised grow bed that Kristin and Dee built before I got there

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sifting soil for the growbed
sifting soil for the growbed

otherWWOOFer Ali, Dee Word (89 years old & always working harder than anyone), and Gabe finishing up the filling of the new raised grow bed
otherWWOOFer Ali, Dee Word (89 years old & always working harder than anyone), and Gabe finishing up the filling of the new raised grow bed

Jedi, Dee's sidekick
Jedi, Dee’s sidekick

sol in the solar panels
sol in the solar panels

refurbishing solar thermal panels with Dee - these use copper piping and fins to heat fluid as it flows through
refurbishing solar thermal panels with Dee – these use copper piping and fins to heat fluid as it flows through

Kristin took the reigns of the farm Instagram account and started making wonderful collages like this ...
Kristin took the reigns of the farm Instagram account and started making wonderful collages like this …

the local Pinion Pines had been ravaged by boring beetles - which resulted in an abundance of fragrant resin globs all over the place, just waiting to be collected and turned into incense ...
the local Pinion Pines had been ravaged by boring beetles – which resulted in an abundance of fragrant resin globs all over the place, just waiting to be collected and turned into incense …

 

one of several loaves of sourdough that Kristin made
one of several loaves of sourdough that Kristin made

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down in the arroyo
down in the arroyo

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sun & wind blasted - and loving it
sun & wind blasted – and loving it

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twisted, living arroyo bouquet
twisted, living arroyo bouquet

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gunshot gravestone in the old Los Cerrillos cemetary
gunshot gravestone in the old Los Cerrillos cemetary

good fine print, there
good fine print, there

Dee drilling holes through the trailer bed. If I'm half as active at half his age, I'll be doing good I reckon ...
Dee drilling holes through the trailer bed. If I’m half as active at half his age, I’ll be doing good I reckon …

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took an afternoon to see Santa Fe - wound up climbing a mountain in a snow storm.
took an afternoon to see Santa Fe – wound up climbing a mountain in a snow storm.

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Farmer Gene tends the Barrelponics system
Farmer Gene tends the Barrelponics system

hard to tell from the pic, but this was the biggest piece of petrified wood I've ever found
hard to tell from the pic, but this was the biggest piece of petrified wood I’ve ever found

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Looking Ahead

Although the loss of Cleo and my mom  made this one of the emotionally coldest winters in the personal record books, it was not a bad winter. We shed so many tears, but death is an inevitable part of living – and life is a wonderful thing indeed. We met lovely people, reconnected with friends, bonded with family, learned, and laughed – and we are coming into Spring ready to keep on growing; forward, upward, and ahead.

Thank you all, again, for being part of this journey.

Love,

Gabe, Kristin, Widget, and Ace