111"

This November closes out as our snowiest on record! 111" of snow and it's still coming! Gotta love La Nina. The ski hill opened on Nov. 24th with top to bottom skiing and not just one white ribbon of death. Pretty much the whole mountain was accessible with some hiking. There was so much snow before opening day that we just had to hike up and get some. After a long slog up we were rewarded with a mountain of possibilities, the whole place to our selves and knee deep powder everywhere.
We made a few of laps and then came back for more a couple of days later. The first real powder day came on Monday morning with a 15" dump. What a day! Tuesday brought another 10". Now I remember why I live in steamboat!

Are you ready?

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. "-John Ruskin. Well winter has quickly encompassed the Yampa Valley. The snow is waist deep at the summit of the ski hill and there's about a foot to kick around in town. Been snowing for six days now. Nothing gets your butt in gear like a good dose of winter. Snowmaking season starts today. Wow time is really flying. Loveland and A-basin ski areas opened last weekend. We'll be spendin' the weekend cutting, splitting, and stacking our winters supply of fire wood. Hopefully around 10 cords. Just trying to get a few odds and ends done before the ground completely disappears. Winter's here! Are you ready?

Fall's Here

"Autumn wins you best by this, its mute Appeal to sympathy for its decay."-Robert Browning Hamilton. Things are winding down in the garden. Just trying to get the beds cleared and tilled where needed. The flocks are headed south. Cardinals, blue jays, and eagles are touring the fall colors. It snowed on the ski hill yesterday and this morning! Even groppled at the house for a moment. Hauling wood here and there. Love the smell of a fire in the stove. Leaves have peaked and are falling fast. Plan to carve pumpkins this week. Chickens are laying a dozen a day. Time to find the winter clothes. Flannel and fleece where are you? Chicken and dumplings for dinner. I love fall.

Farm Drama

"Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form." - Rumi. Been a tough couple o' weeks here at the barn. On Labor Day the overnight temp dipped to 23 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold 'nough to freeze everything pretty hard. There wasn't really enough stuff left to take to Farmer's Market so we skipped out on the final weekend. The next morn' (Sept 7) a bear broke into the chicken run after we'd left for work. She managed to get four before the neighbors chased her off. She came back again the next night and got into the coop. The neighbors woke us up at three-thirty in the morning. " There's a bear in the chicken coop! There's a bear in the chicken coop!" We jumped out of bed, grabbed flashlights, the rifle, the hatchet, a couple pots and pans, and roman candles and ran outside into the pitch darkness. We got to the chicken coop and peered in the window. Lots of feathers but no bear. We searched around but couldn't see anything so returned to the coop to survey the damage. Looked in the window again and there she was. A huge sow in the entry way munching on chicken. Should have shot her right then and there! She looked up at us and turned towards us. "Here she comes, RRRun!" We r-u-n-n o-f-t, and Kaya dog chased her into the bushes. Lit a roman candle off and shot it that a way. We could hear her cub cross the field screaming. Spent the rest of the morning standing guard. She hung around in the bushes till about seven then wandered off. Lost 7 chickens total. I'll spare you the graphic pictures. It could a been a lot worse if it weren't for the neighbors. We owe them big time. The next couple of days were spent shoring up the fence and coop, and installing an electric fence around it. Haven't seen hide nor hair of the bears since. And if that weren't enough, on Tuesday (Sept 14 ) Sweet Pea Produce, the only source for locally grown whole foods in the valley, got shut down by the county. I got there after work to pick up a couple of cases of canning tomatoes and there were people and produce everywhere! Talked to the owners a bit and they were like get it while you can, everything's got to go, we'll give it to you for cost. So I came home with 6 cases of maters, a case of apples, case of pears, case of peaches, two cases of corn, and a bunch of groceries. It's all got to be canned or frozen ASAP. On a positive note, found the camera. The aspen leaves are just starting to turn. Fall is in the air. What a beautiful time of year!

Fall's a coming

Sorry that we haven't posted in a bit. We lost our camera and we're good at writing captions and letting the picture tell the story but not so great at telling that story with words. Just business as usual here. Been to the farmer's market each weekend and doing well with it. It' a good feeling to sell out of stuff and then think of all the people out there enjoying the food we worked so hard to make. The chickens are fully grown and getting ready to start laying. How do you tell a rooster to shut up? 'Bout ready to put an add in the paper that says: "Free rooster to ANY home. Cute." Whats your favorite part of summer? Our is the fresh fruit! Melons, pears, berries, and peaches are in right now and what a year for them! We had our first frost this past week on August 24th. That puts our frost free period at 61 days this year. Not much was affected by it. Lost the pumpkins and some squash. Well gotta run but we'll try to get some pictures up just as soon as we can get a new camera. Peace in the Middle East!

To Market

After much toil and anxiety we've completed the circle and taken a harvest to market. On Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market with a load of spinach, lettuce, radishes, mustard greens, swiss chard, mint, and rhubarb. Harvesting spinach.
Really wasn't sure how it would go. We didn't have a lot of stuff and the competitors from the front range and Junction are way ahead on the harvest schedule. Here's our booth. Sponsored by Deep Roots, a local non-profit food awareness group.
At the end of the day... we were a success! We sold out of everything! Well almost, we had a couple of bags of mustards left and maybe a dozen radishes. In total we sold 26 gallon bags of greens, 10 lbs. of rhubarb, two bushels of radishes, and two pounds of mint. A big thank you to Lisa from Deep Roots, and Tracy at Mainstreet Steamboat Farmer's Market. In the garden things are really growing. Looks like a bumper crop year for stawberries.Which the deer and birds would just love to get at, so Barney the scarecrow is keeping a watchful eye on them.Our other big project this week was the the chicken coop. After pricing out the lumber it looked like it was gonna cost about $1000 for materials plus the time to put it all together. We were all set to make it happen. Then we spotted a classified ad that read: Large chicken coop for sale. 12'X12'X6'. $500. Funny how things work out. We called up the number and went out and had a look. It was a little dirty but solidly built. The owner said they had it built last fall for a cost of $1700 but decide to keep their birds in their barn as it would be more convenient and and they had the space. We were gonna put it on a trailer to bring it home but their tractor couldn't lift it. So we called up a towing company and they came out, loaded it up, moved it across the valley, and unloaded it in about an hour. I must have bumped the easy button.
It arrived with only minor damage. After a solid day and a half of scraping, shoveling, spraying, scrubbing, and bleaching, it was move in ready.
Now those are some happy chickens!
Whew! What a week. Happy Fourth.

Summer... Finally

"Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it." -Russell Baker
Lost some squash this past week. It frosted on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th.

The greens and peas are loving the hot days and cold nights.
Happy chickens. That's our ameraucana rooster in the bottom right hand corner.
Wild flowers are kicking. False Salomon's Seal.
Whale rocks on thunderhead hiking trail.
Columbine.
Another rough day in paradise!

Self Reliance

Hermit Jim posted this essay this morning. I thought it was well worth passing along.

American Self-Reliance

by J. Ollie Edmunds

This country was not built by men who relied on somebody else to take care of them. It was built by men who relied on themselves, who dared to shape their own lives, who had enough courage to blaze new trails with enough confidence in themselves to take the necessary risks.

This self-reliance is our American legacy. It is the secret of that something which stamped Americans as Americans. Some call it individual initiative, others backbone. But whatever it is called, it is a precious ingredient in our national character, one which we must not lose.

The time has come for us to re-establish the rights for which we stand, to re-assert our inalienable rights to human dignity, self-respect, self-reliance—to be again the kind of people who once made America great.

Such a crusade for renewed independence will require a succession of inspired leaders, leaders in spirit and in knowledge of the problem, not just men with political power, but men who are militantly for the distinctive way of life that was America. We are likely to find such leaders only among those that promote self-reliance and who practice it with strict devotion and understanding.

There are very few who could provide for themselves. We've become spoiled brats. A far cry from what we we once were and what made us great. Put on your boots and work gloves cause we've a lot o' work to do!

New Old Watering System

Revived the old gravity fed watering system for the gardens. Diverted a little irrigation water from our upper hay meadow.

Into an old catch basin,
that funnels into a pipe which fills a stock tank.
Down the hill in our new lead free hose to the splitter. one line for the back garden, one for the front.
And presto! Happy plants without relying on pumps. Happy gardening!

Blessed Rain

It's that time of year again when things really start growing. First poppy of the season.
Peas climbing and lettuce leafing out.
Got a good soaking rain on Saturday and showers on Sunday. Look like we'll be getting some typical afternoon build-up all week.Still a little snow on the mountain.Looks like it dumped up there Saturday night.
We received over two inches of rain and it was just what the doctor ordered as thing were starting to get mighty dry.Taters up and exploding.
A little moose damage out in the market garden. What, am I in Alaska or something?
Never seen a moose here at the Barn before. After he wandered though the garden, he passed though the hay shed. He then crossed the drive way where he charged the sheep sculpture. Here he is moseying on up the hill.

Dry and Breezy with a Chance of Summer

Has been awfully dry and breezy in these parts for the last while.


Well sure am sorry not to have posted in a while but working full time and starting an organic farm doesn't leave a whole lot of time for chit chat. Gains are sprouting.
onions are planted. All 2500 of them!
carrots are up.
Potatoes are in.
Working out the wrinkles in the new ditches.Out back things are starting to pop.Early broccoli loving the out of doors.Lettuce peas and radishes sharing a row.Freshly watered rows of greens.Remember the fallen. Building walls for the flat bed.Chickens are fully feathered and enjoyin the sunshine.
Dig dirt all weekend in the garden and then go to work and dig dirt all week. trail work is always fun. More to follow.

Ubaldo Jimenez

If you are a baseball fan you may be aware of the rare talent that is on the mound in Colorado, Ubaldo Jimenez. With a fastball ranging from 95-101(fastest in the bigs) mph that he can throw with sink or run, a nasty breaking ball, an impossible to lay off of slider, and a change up that still breaks 90, he is undoubtedly the the best pitcher in the game right now. After last night's win over the the Padres, giving up just one run with thirteen strikeouts and an r.b.i. single, he leads the major leagues with a 0.79 e.r.a. and six wins. Oh yeah and don't forget the no-hitter vs. the Braves on April 17th. Even if your not a baseball fan it is worth the price of admission to see this guy throw. He really is once in a generation talent, think Cy Young, Nolan Ryan, and Randy Johnson. If the Rockies are in your neck of the woods and Jimenez is slated to start, get down to the ballpark.

Rocks and Cranes and Bears Oh My!

"A rolling stone gathers no moss, but it gains a certain polish." -Oliver Herford
The beautiful weather allowed us to get some rows dug. And to wrassle some rocks.

Bigun.
Lots of big birds around. Geese, heron, and eagles are passin' over. Bunch of cranes been hanging around the neighborhood for the last couple of weeks just walkin' 'round the fields and soaring and making a whole lot of noise.
The bears are out and about as well. One passed through the garden the other night.
Just a little guy.