Spring FEVER

Spring has arrived with snow-melting sun and seed blowing wind.  Not to sound too cliché but the need to grow has awakened in me propelling my every muscle, as I spend hours shoveling dirt into a wheel barrel, with a tire barely able to make it, to the raised bed in the green house and in front of the house.  Load after load I move the dirt in hopes that I will be able to grow food free from rabbits, protected and well amended by the time I put the seeds in.

The winter was a hard one.  Snow blessed the cracked ground for a time until it blew away or melted and then returned with another storm.  In this area of Northern New Mexico sage dominates the ground, pushing out some grasses while it protects others and holds tight the high desert floor from being whipped away by whirly winds or serious straight winds. 

My plan this spring consists of creating as many good growing areas as possible.  These areas must meet some requirements: they must be amended, the valley floor has little organic matter and has an alkaline make-up; they must be protected from rabbits and other hungry little critters, a portion of the goods is great to give as an offering but there are too many animals to sustain on small crops; they must have some protection from high winds and frost, this area has reported frosts in every month of the year seeds must be hardy and people must be cunning. 

Construction continues. I’ve been trying to build and have built a green house made of recycled, found and given materials.  I’ve just filled the pallet-bed with soil from the yard and am beginning to amend it with composted mushroom, cottonseed and indoor mix.  In front of the house I’ve begun a keyhole inspired garden built with rock and filled with soil.  The rock may hold some heat in over the cool summer nights and I plan to build the wall high enough so that some protection from wind will exist. 

I don’t claim to be a carpenter or a rock layer.  The greenhouse was built primarily by a friend, I’m adding the simple parts—and never said that it was pretty, but the plants don’t care what it looks like as long as it houses them.  The stonework has proven more difficult than I had imagined.  I’ve seen amazing walls that seem to fit together perfectly.  I rely on the dirt, which will be used to grow to balance and provide strength.  Miguel Santistevan once told me that he was not only a farmer but also an artist, I feel that I aspire to this but have nowhere near arrived.  My art is in the process and learning rather than the end result I imagine.

Grow at home so that you don’t have to buy.

Scavenge and Be Creative...

OK....The green mantra of Reduce Reuse Recycle is a strong truth but hearing any phrase too often takes the power away from the truth.  Would it be better to say you don't need that, get some more life out that, and scavenge what you can....

Id like to show off my brand new lawn chair.  I scavenged the frame from the Sunshine dump, full of old rusty metal, melted colored glass and broken plastic.  The colorful cushion was woven from old dog food bags cut into strips.  I secured the weaving colorful ductape, bought but getting some good use out of it.

One must be careful not to wind up with piles of junk so you can visit this site http://thebucklist.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-free-barter-swap-sites.html to find barter and trade groups where you can get rid of items that you might trade your trash for another treasure, and vice versa as the saying goes.

The green house image to the right has been built craftily by a friend who has skills and patience.  The frame existed in the yard when I moved in.  It was made up of Railroad ties in a large square...not a square square mind you maybe more like an oval shape.  The incredible Zam made the structure square so that a roof could be put on.  The windows were throwaways from a neighbor and my own house.  The footers on the greenhouse are made from chicken wire and rocks.  This innovative support allows moisture to come into the growing house.  Mice or ground squirrels attempted to get through and had to stop digging at this wired rock wall.

Try try try to not buy it, make it last and scavenge like a rat....Green doesn't have to be bought but in order to survive we have to be sustainable....

Compete for Green?

What does Green Living look like?

In the Northern New Mexico area there are several levels of “Green” that many people move in and out of either with intention of Green or of pure simple survival.  From Tom Warrel’s “Green” Hotel and Ranch to the mesa dweller who works for the most simple survival. People work on different levels and with different intentions..  This is a sketch of some of those possibilities.

Extreme Green—a person may exhibiting these qualities she may not have electricity, if they do it defiantly comes from solar or wind power though some will refrain from solar as the production of the panels are somewhat hazardous to the environment.  These people live truly true and somewhat outside of the mainstream.  Many of them will ride bikes or horses even in the dead of winter.  Daniel Hutchinson, from Sangre de Cristo Youth Ranch, wound up with an 18 inch long icicle hanging from his baklava after pedaling 10 miles to the northern territories of El Rito one January.  Other tell tale signs of Extreme Green are no flushing toilets, refusal to ever use plastic, gathering clothing from the free table or free box to insure that you recycle what is still good.  A woman in Lama took old clothes that were close to rags, she dipped them in cement rolled them up and made bricks that she built her outhouse with.  No petroleum, and the Amish have it right.  These people grow much of their own food or find ways to trade for it.  Many people within this classification work to live as simply as possible, in search of sustainable survival as opposed to how to be more green.  Earth ship dwellers ftt into this category as do people that continually work to improve building in an energy efficient sustainable manner—with rocks, straw bails, cob or pumic-creet. 

Meanie Greenie—those who live with all solar or wind, they live off the grid using a generator to complete high voltage projects.  These people may have a composting toilet or out house but they also may have finally caved for a flush toilet.  Some characteristics are that they experiment with lessening the use of petroleum going to hydrogen or hybrids, this only because they are still tied to the modern world through jobs forcing them to continually drive long distances and thus partially rewriting their carbon footprints.   These people either buy or work for a share on a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture Farm).   This Category also insures that all investments are environmentally and socially conscious (as two go hand in hand).

Green—Many people continue to have one foot in the “Going Green” category.  They continue to work to use non-toxic cleaning supplies such as vinegar and ammonia or the pricy green products. They have bought into Kit Carson Electric Coops wind energy and add to the grid with their own solar panels.  They have begun to change their lifestyles, the largest and most daring step that a person can take.  They make their decisions based on a simpler and more sustainable lifestyle.

Living green isn’t a competition. None of these categories should be ranked higher or lower than another.  When people say green they mean Sustainable.  Sustainability means that we survive.  One rarely survives alone, it takes a community to support and maintain positive and progressive ideas and a movement toward a more sustainable future.  Where do you fit in?

Living Green?

Living Green...What is that?  This blog will explore living green through interviews and my own experiences we will explore traditional agriculture as well as permaculture and other innovative ways of survival...because thats what its all about...surviving in a way that sustainable.

I live in the middle of a sage filled high desert valley in Northern NM.  My adobe house is off the grid with electricity provided by solar panels and water from a well.  I do buy propane for a kitchen stove and to heat the water--although I have a wood cookstove that wont fit in my 700 sq. ft. house and I do have ideas to create a wood fired water heater, but this is a long way away.  I have a toilet, a regular old water efficient porselin toilet, I had a composting toilet but was doing something wrong and could no longer handle the flies.  I've been told that composting toilets are great in warmer climates or when they have more ventilation.  BUT I still drive my gas guzzling car at least 20 minutes to get anywhere....

People around this area live in a similar way....well some people.  There are people who are completely off the grid and even off the consuming and the physical maps, they have either been doing this for years or they continue to build and innovate one step at a time.  Other people have spent thousands even millions to create their energy efficient/green homes and permaculture paradises.  Im in the one step at a time and learning more as I go group.