We started our homesteading odyssey more than 35 years ago with the desire to live more simply, sustainably and in harmony with natural world around us. Over the years we have changed our location four times finally coming to rest at this special place in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Last weekend was my mom’s 90th birthday. At 90 she is more active, engaged and alert than many much younger people I encounter these days. She lives in Santa Fe with my sister so we started the birthday weekend by meeting up in Taos for lunch and an afternoon trying to find something to do there. Then we headed to Santa Fe to prepare her birthday dinner celebration. She was up until 10 enjoying food, wine and the company.
The next morning we headed out early to the Farmer’s Market and she made the rounds talking, it seemed, with everyone. We enjoyed lunch at her favorite café, La Casa Sena, then spent the afternoon hitting various stops we needed to make to restock our home pantry. We dined at home on an assortment of tasty treats before heading to the season finale of the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. She was up until 11 that night.
Through it all I kept thinking there is no way this woman is 90; 75 maybe, but not 90. She has been through a lot in her life. She was born in the Middle East and lost her mother when she was very young. She was raised by a couple who were complete strangers. She fell in love with a married man, had a child out of wedlock (me) when that was not an acceptable thing to do, eventually married him and since he was in the Army, followed him around the world.
She’s always been artistic and in her 60s started focusing on developing that talent. She has produced some beautiful watercolor paintings that are found in personal and corporate collections throughout the U.S. including on our walls. They are some of my most treasured pieces.
My mom is a pretty amazing person. I don’t know what her secret is but I hope she shares it with me one day.
Boy, has it been a long time since my last blog posting. I promise to do better. Life just shoots by way too fast.
We put another tough winter under our belts. I don’t know why it is but they seem to get more difficult every year. Last winter was the coldest one we’ve had in 17 years. The snow depth was not as bad as past years but it was definitely much different. It was as if we had glacier deposits around instead of just snow pack which led to the worst mud season ever. The county roads were almost impassable for weeks even in four wheel drive.
After struggling through winter’s snow, ice and cold, spring arrived as a strange dry cold which slowed the pasture grass growth considerably. We were nearly 2 weeks late in getting the yearling steers out on grass but they made up for it quickly and are seriously plump now. Last year’s yearling headed for the freezer on Tuesday. We don’t eat that much beef so we’ll trade some to a neighbor who home-raises pork.
We have been fortunate to remain busy (actually really busy) with business so I scaled back my garden plans to just tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse. I’ve always been pleased with past efforts with these two and expected similar results this year. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Early on the plants started looking pretty strange with curled leaves and stems on the tops of both the peppers and tomatoes. I quick review of my plant diseases book revealed that they were infected by a virus carried by leaf-hoppers. The books recommended removal but I wasn’t about to give up on my only crops. Another organic gardening book suggested using a foliar spray made from compost tea to improve their health so I have been giving them bi-monthly spraying. Just when things were looking better something decided to start eating the leaves. I haven’t found that culprit yet. I guess all I can say is that I’m glad that there are grocery stores around. It would be a long winter if we had to rely on what I can grow. I’m all that more impressed with folks who have found a way to grow food in this difficult climate.
In case you wondered, Phoebe the pheasant is still here though she is not as regular as she was over the winter. She stops by several times a week for a handful of sunflower seeds and cracked corn. I was not able to find a male for her in time for the breeding season but we might try again next spring. I did learn that pheasants are mostly solitary so she really doesn’t mind being alone.
Last weekend we headed to Denver to take in the sights and sounds of the downtown area. After nearly two decades in the woods, we thought it was time to taste the city life. Unfortunately we picked the hottest weekend of the summer, including a record-breaking 105 degrees on Saturday. We stayed in a hotel on the 16th Street Mall and enjoyed great food and drink. It was fun but we were both ready to return to the peace and quiet (and cool) of our WetMountainValley. As they say, “there’s no place like home”.
Sometime around Thanksgiving we started noticing a large bird hanging around our birdfeeders. About the size of a small chicken, the bird would show up nearly every morning. We checked out our bird guides and realized what we had was a female ring-necked pheasant. She was an absolutely beautiful bird with iridescent bronze colored feathers. As the days passed she has become more and more friendly finally getting to the point where she would “come” when called. She never walks anywhere but rather races from point to point or explodes in flight. We named her Phoebe for no reason other than the name seemed to go with “pheasant”.
We can’t imagine where she came from though I heard a rumor that a pair of pheasants was seen last fall on Verdemont Road. If that was Phoebe she must have become separated from her mate or he died. As the crow flies, Verdemont is only a couple of miles from our place.
It can be several days after a snow before she shows up. I suspect she has trouble with the deep snow until it is firm enough for her to walk on top of. We’ve never really figured out where she is when she’s not here but I’ll bet she lives in the heavy brush along the creek. It is nearly perfect pheasant habitat.
As the days get longer and we get closer to spring I wonder if she will stay here or start looking for a new mate. I’m not sure how to find a male pheasant for her. Maybe I could put a listing on Craig’s List – female pheasant seeking male companionship. That should bring the crazies out of the woodwork.
One of my favorite past times in winter is to take an early morning walk just after fresh snow has fallen. This week I headed out early following my old route west towards Trails End Ranch and the National Forest. It wasn’t long before I found myself following a path that others had used in the last hour or so.
The first set of tracks was from my old friend, Bob. Actually Bob is a bobcat that I rarely see in person. His tracks came out from our stallion’s pasture along South Brush Creek. I chuckled at the fact that he was using my old trail to get around – it’s always easier to walk in someone else’s tracks in the snow. He continued on for at least a quarter of a mile until he drifted off the trail back into the woods. Bobcat tracks always seem so purposeful, not like Wiley’s.
Shortly after Bob left my trail, I picked up Wiley’s trail. As you might imagine, Wiley is a coyote. Wiley is definitely the alpha male in the area judging from the size of his footprints and his numerous markings. In the course of 2 miles, he marked at least 4 or 5 spots, some on the trail and some just off. As we continued along, his tracks would veer off the trail as if he was checking on something, then re-join the trail heading west.
After about three quarters of a mile, Wiley was joined by another coyote, then another. Near the end of my walk there was an interesting sight in the snow. It was obvious that another coyote had joined the group. This coyote must have been very submissive because I could see where the animal had laid down in the snow in front of Wiley. There was some scuffling and then they all continued to the irrigation culvert to see if the rabbit who lives in there was home.
It was time for me to head home and get to work. But before I left I took one more look at the stories in the snow and reminded myself just how amazing this all was.
The old homesteader’s cabin on this place was originally built by Jacob Miller sometime around 1880. As a part of the “proving up” process under his homesteader’s deed, he was required to improve his 160 acres of land. In addition to the cabin, Jacob filed on two water rights, fenced his homestead and probably raised cattle and hay. I don’t know how long he lived here but he eventually sold to a member of the early Berry clan.
From what we have learned the original cabin was attached to a small barn. The barn is long gone but the cabin still stands on the banks of South Brush Creek. Other than occasional recreational use, I don’t think the cabin had any human inhabitants until we moved in full time in May of 2001. It was our most primitive home yet, all 270 square feet of it. Initially it lacked power and running water. We added a simple electric power source (actually an electric cord running under the door) in the fall of 2001 and a well in the summer of 2002 though water still has to be hauled in buckets as no actual plumbing exists in the cabin.
The cabin was our home for 2 ½ years while Don built our new small home. Once we moved into the house, the cabin became a workshop allowing Don the space and comfort to spend the next six years building bathroom and kitchen cabinets and all the trim necessary to turn our house into a home.
Then this fall the old cabin was pressed into a new service as we transformed its simple space into a place to ship the products from my brother-in-law’s company (Geomangear). Suddenly we were getting weekly UPS inventory shipments and sending out daily packages to customers around the world. Jacob Miller could not have imagined the future his little cabin would have. In fact I couldn’t have imagined it either. Our wonderful little cabin has sheltered us, provided a workspace and now gives us a place to make a living.
This year in an effort to better manage the grazing in our pasture and to prevent grazing in the wetlands, we installed a new style of electrified fencing along the west side of our meadow. Up to now we have tried to use a temporary style of electric fencing only to have it torn up multiple times per week by passing elk. We decided it was time to come up with a better design that would stand up to elk activity, keep the cattle where they belonged, be safe for our horses, and wouldn’t require constant repair.
After studying many different examples and talking with a variety of people who probably knew a lot more than we did about fencing (just to name one subject), we designed a fence that has high visibility which helps the elk and horses see it, is flexible so that if the elk do hit it the fence posts allow the fence to bend down to the ground and bounce back up, and was simple enough to build by the two of us without the use of heavy equipment. The last factor was really important since all the materials had to be hand carried over 1500 feet across boggy ground. Anyone who has built standard wire fencing with heavy wooden and steel fence posts can appreciate this aspect.
The fencing system is based on the use of Powerflex posts which are a polypropylene (70%) and wood (30%) composite. These innovative posts have a greater strength, lighter weight and superior flexibility compared with steel posts or inexpensive plastic step-in posts.
The electrical charge is carried by a poly-braid rope that is a safe alternative to hi-tensile wire. This rope has a breaking strength of over 1300 pounds. Because it is composed of two strands of ¼” polyester rope, one black and one white, it has a high visibility factor no matter what the background (green pasture or snow) which is important for wildlife and horses. We use a solar charger to apply the electrical charge.
We built the fence with the posts spaced approximately 30 feet apart and two wires spaced at 18” and 30” from the ground. This spacing allows deer and elk to easily jump the fence reducing the potential for entanglement that often occurs with 4 and 5 wire steel fencing. In addition, three gate openings were included in the fence in locations of recurring wildlife movement. We leave these openings be left open during the non-grazing season to allow for ease of movement by deer and elk.
We have completed our first grazing season and I must admit I am pleased with how well the new fence functioned. It did everything we needed it to do – kept the cattle out of the wetlands, kept the elk from flattening posts and dragging the wires off in all directions, and kept the horses from killing themselves on a new fence line. The next test will be the winter season that can drag a fence down to the ground. I’ll report back in the spring on how that went.
You may have noticed that my weekly blogs have turned into occasional blogs. Or maybe you didn’t. As is the history of rural Colorado we in the bust part of a boom and bust cycle. These cycles have occurred pretty much since whites began inhabiting the West and while they often are based in real estate, they affect many other parts of the economy. What started as a downward slide of the general economy has finally taken most us with it.
We have been limping along since September 2008 by cutting back, dipping into meager saving, and did I mention, cutting back. Such is the nature of those of us who make our living by someone else spending money. Since we left our government jobs in 1993, we have tried to make a living on our own. By staying flexible and constantly looking for opportunities, we have been able to get by. Some years have been pretty good and some not so good but overall we have made enough to survive in this rural and distant location.
The last year has been the most difficult we have faced since leaving “real jobs” with a regular paycheck, employer paid health insurance, retirement plans, and normal working hours. To make a living we usually have three or four different endeavors going at once hoping that the diversity would balance the income stream out some. One by one they have slowed down and then disappeared. At the end of September we had finally earned our way to 50% of the poverty level.
Just when we were starting to wonder if we had finally reached the end of this trail another opportunity arrived. A small business owned by a family member is actually flourishing and they needed help handling the order shipping. It is a bit of a challenge from this rural location but we are making it work and we are even able to hire a neighbor to help out. We put in ten hours a day, seven days a week. Who knows what the future holds for this small business but for now we are thankful for the opportunity.
People always wonder how we make a living in paradise. When asked, I tell them we are self un-employed. It seems the best description of our situation.
