Growing Grass Polyculture Style At The Walking J Farm

We followed Louis and Mireille Roux to Walking J Farm in Amado, AZ. We have been here two weeks and are loving it.

The lineup –

Including our hosts, Jim and Tina, there are four families…twelve kids, and two single WWOOFers. Our kids are in hog heaven with all the playmates available.

As far as WWOOFing goes this farm has been great. There is laundry on-site and all the pastured chicken and beef we could want. Nearby is Forever Yong Farm for our fresh salad greens, carrots and Napa cabbage. Nate works full days here, 5 days a week, which gives me freedom to do farm work around my housekeeping and homeschooling tasks.

What we have been doing here –

Chicken processing day happens every two weeks (150 birds every other Monday!):

Game night on Saturdays

For our Maggie’s 6th birthday party we had a potluck and campfire cookout with everyone. Mireille played the accordion and Casey played the harmonica, which prompted dancing by the little girls.

There is also the daily interaction between moms, dads, and kids…including an easy but steady flow of farm work. Farm work has included daily moving of the chicken “tractors”, animal care and feeding, preparing new garden acreage, fence building, seed planting, plowing fields for new grass planting, etc. It is more than a full-time job to build a farm like this from scratch.

Our hosts, Jim and Tina, took the plunge into sustainable agriculture (grass based polyculture) about a year and a half ago. Jim grew up ranching, and has been in several agriculturally based business ventures as well as owning a fabrication shop and general contracting company. Tina has been a Montessori teacher and teaches yoga. Their farm, Walking J Farm, is what is called a polyculture farm and produces pastured broilers, turkeys and beef. They are also growing their egg and pig production. With their goats, Tina is hoping to begin having milk for their family. Eventually they would like to have cows for a raw milk herdshare program. (Yeah!)

Real Food In the Airstream Kitchen

I have started my first brew of authentic ginger ale and I have been making lots of broths and soups with the meats and bones available here. I also made a chicken liver pate’ out of the pastured chicken livers from “chicken” day. If you are curious about why we would want to eat liver read here.

New Friends

The day after Christmas we were hanging around the trailer having some post Christmas fun. Our host was away and Nate had stepped out. There is virtually no traffic on our host Kyle’s road so I was surprised mid-afternoon to see a woman walking down Kyle’s driveway. I poked my head out, saw an RV at the end of the driveway and asked if she was looking for Kyle.

Thus began a friendship with Louis and Mirielle, a French couple and their two young boys, who are traveling in the U.S. for 6 months, WWOOFing and sightseeing. They ended up staying at Kyle’s place for a week and talked us into following them to the next farm when we were done at Kyle’s.

We have many wonderful conversations with Mirielle. She speaks fluent English but her husband and boys are just learning. We talk about education, philosophy, religion, child-rearing, non-violent communication and our culture’s differences and similarities. We learn French words…which we seem to forget the next day:) We learned that certain four letter words that have to do with excrement are understood in French or English, as my husband and Louis did their best to work together and communicate.

We shared a meal in our small trailer (10 people!), and shared stories of our lives. Louis was a dairy farmer.  Mirielle teaches foot reflexology and had a small Montessori school. Other days we play games with all of the children…language doesn’t seem to be a barrier to having childlike fun.

Our lives are richer because of the perspectives that new friends bring.

Phase Two

Almost three weeks ago saw us leaving Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. This marked the end of Phase One, resting and exploring and in general being in a vacation mode. December 13 saw us arriving at our first actual “farm” to work at. Phase Two. It has been a busy three weeks, thus the lag in writing, full of interesting experiences and work.

For those who may not know what WWOOF is, it is an organization – World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It had it’s birth in New Zealand and has now spread throughout the world. The point of the organization is to connect people who want to learn about organic farming with farms who are willing to teach and feed in exchange for the labor of these volunteers. For a nominal fee you can sign up with the WWOOF organization of your choice, like USA or New Zealand, and search by region and farm description.

We chose southern AZ to start our WWOOFing adventures in, mostly because the weather is pretty nice this time of year. We sent out letters to farms in Arizona and New Mexico, introducing our family, our goals for learning, etc. We got about 15 responses back from farms willing to take a family.

We are currently at the homestead of Kyle Young, Erda Kroft, in Arivaca, AZ. It is in the territory where the Apaches roamed and not too far from where Geronimo ultimately surrendered. Arivaca itself is in a valley surrounded by mountains. Beautiful, though brown this time of year.

We came here with the intention of staying just two weeks, but within a few days we decided we would stay longer, in the hopes of being able to learn to build a wood-fired horno oven for baking things like bread, tortillas and pizzas.

The things we have been learning can’t really be fit to a scope and sequence … but I am confident that if we keep on, the pieces will fit together into a useful tapestry for the future warming of our own homestead.

A list of what we have been doing:

Transplanting seedlings, butchering roosters, fermented fruit chutney making, moving a LOT of dirt, building a new garden site, sauerkraut making, planting seedlings in the new garden, fence building, free amendment hauling (A.K.A. getting manure from another farm and being confronted by a snorting, protective male llama). And now horno oven building. Here are some pictures of the beginning stages. Here is a link to a finished (small) horno that Kyle has built before. http://www.erdakroft.com/wood-fired-oven-workshop/

Our host is a single guy in his late 50’s. A natural builder, he has built his home and

outbuildings out of cob construction mixed with bamboo. He is the type of guy who knows a little bit about everything.

The food we have gotten from Kyle, though not plentiful for a family of 6, has been great. Stewing rooster, Black Copper Maran eggs that are worth $5/piece, biodynamic persimmons, grapefruit and lemons…and we have been introduced to other local farmers for grass-fed meats and greens.  There is still a shortage of available raw milk, which is understandable with the lack of good pasture in this area. 150 years ago this whole area was a lush pastureland with head high perennial grasses. Due to heavy ranching and overgrazing it is now predominately populated with mesquite trees and cactus.

Two weeks ago I found a gallon of raw milk at the Food Conspiracy Co-op in Tucson…for $13 a gallon. I ignored the organic milk next to it for half the price and made a home for the Save Your Dairy raw milk in my cart, with only a small pang of monetary guilt.

Last of Phase One-Carlsbad Caverns

Our tourist days eventually had to come to an end. At least for now:) From Fort Davis, TX we journeyed on to Carlsbad Caverns. It was truly amazing and our pictures won’t do it justice.

I think we have actually had our fill of beautiful sights and tours and state and national parks and picture taking for a bit. We are on to the next phase, more on that in the next post…but first a few poor pictures of a beautiful place.

A look back on one more adventure…

The best adventures require some discomfort…

Our last night in Big Bend National Park we wanted to go to the Hot Springs one more time, this time hiking the almost 3 mile trail instead of driving. The trailhead was about a 1/2 mile from our campground.

Nate wanted the boys to have an adventure so he decided to let the boys have a 15 minute head start. I agreed (what was I thinking?). So we set the timer and then set out after the boys, biking to the trailhead.

I started to realize what I had agreed to, as we made our way up the rocky hillside at about 3:45 in the afternoon. The trail was up and down rocks, and in and out of small canyons through the desert, with cactus on either side, and if you were not paying attention there were some places where you had to guess at which way the trail continued. As I started to realize this two things were warring within me, the sheer beauty of our surroundings.. and imagining any number of scenarios happening to the boys. The bad scenarios were winning. As I huffed hurriedly along, pulling Maggie, I told Nate that when I knew the boys were safe I would enjoy this hike retrospectively. I can admit now that I knew in my heart this adventure WAS good for the boys, it was more of what other people would think of me as a parent if something DID happen.

Well, the boys were obediently sitting by the Hot Springs when we arrived and I had a brief respite from worry. We enjoyed our last soak as the sun was starting to dip, chatting with a young, bearded park worker. But realizing that we had a 3 mile trek home and that we had one lantern between the 6 of us, we didn’t tarry long. We bid the Mexicans across the river one more “Buenas Noches” and started out.

It wasn’t to matter anyway. Before we were halfway home it was quite dark. I had been verbally pushing the kids with no small amount of vigor, Cade in the lead, shivering Jack next. I was third, with Maggie’s hand an extension of my stiff arm supporting her over the rocky ground. Nate, with Charlotte in the backpack, brought up the rear. Cade led for awhile as it was getting dark and then it was really dark and Maggie and I took the lead with the lantern. At that point it was too dark to hurry so I slowed and decided it couldn’t get any worse and we might as well have some fun. So we sang silly made up songs as more and more stars came out and the breeze kicked up. I am sure a swinging light and six crazy singing people kept any critters far away. It ended up being magical. As we finally reached the trailhead and our bikes, we were windblown, exuberant and I was exhilarated. Maggie’s bike tire was flat so we finished up the thrill with Charlotte still on Nate’s back in the backpack and Maggie riding the trailer bike behind Nate. I led our procession with the lantern.

Very soon we collapsed into our warm trailer where warm soup awaited in the crockpot and reveled in our late precariousness.

This is where I invite your comments. What would you do? Would you let your two boys hike 3 miles through the desert without you, on a previously unknown trail, in a country inhabited by mountain lions, cactus, and tarantulas? Is all adventure accompanied by discomfort and is that what makes it all the more thrilling?

A quick jaunt in Fort Davis, TX

We are now in Carlsbad, New Mexico. We passed through Fort Davis, TX on the 6th and spent two nights with the intent of visiting a Star Party at the McDonald Observatory.

So that is what we did on Tuesday night. The night sky did not disappoint but the program kind of did. Or maybe it was the wiggly, cold kids…:) Anyway, my highlight was seeing Jupiter and it’s four moons all in a line, almost exactly 401 years after Galileo first discovered these four moons and that they were revolving around Jupiter and NOT us.

I restocked some of our depleted food stores in Fort Davis. I could walk from the dusty RV park to a little store called Stone Village Market – an interesting half natural food store/half conventional food store.

More to come on Carlsbad and Phase Two of our adventure…staying on small organic farms in the southwest.

Big Bend, Big Vistas, Big Kitties, Big Adventure

We arrived in Big Bend National Park, TX last Saturday, the 27th of November. We had spent Thanksgiving in Seminole Canyon and got to spend a post-Thanksgiving day with some new friends. We were invited by three camping Mennonite families to share a ranch/Mexican meal over their fire and then they sung accapella as we ate apple crisp baked by Dutch oven over the coals. An unexpected bit of magic.

Anyway, on to Big Bend. We drove on Hwy 90 all the way from Seminole Canyon to Marathon, TX and then took a left on Hwy 385. Arriving in the park, it took us about another hour just to reach our campground. Big Bend, all 801,163 acres of it, is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. I learned later that the road into Big Bend, and the different forks it takes, were Comanche war trails.

There is so much to do and see, that it cannot be done in a week. We have done very little official school as we have chosen nature study and phys. ed as more important. We have gone to several interpretive talks/hikes that are very educational. We are learning our Chihuahuan desert plants-sotol (baked in a pit 1-2 days makes ancient energy bars), lechuguilla (only found in the Chihuahuan desert), prickly pear cactus, octillo, century plant (used for tequila), candellila (wax). We are learning about the Chihuahuan desert in general and that it’s place as one of four in North America. We are learning about the habits of wild animals, like mountain lions, rattlesnakes and bears. We learned about Texas Rangers Wednesday night. Next on the list is learning about Big Bend’s geological diversity.

Of course taking hikes into majestic mountains is our physical education. 

And I learned that some fears are worth being acknowledged and set aside. I was very afraid of going into “mountain lion” territory. There are approximately 24 in the park and by tracking them for a number of years they have discovered that about 75% of the time these big kitties are within 300 yards of the trails, especially in the Chiso Mountain region. So they know you are there, when you are there. And yet there have only been 3 attacks in the last 20 years, and in all three of them either A.) The humans were doing something unwise or B.) The lion had something wrong with it. We found all this out because the first morning after we got to Big Bend, we went on a delightful nature hike with Ranger Smith, right in lion territory. It was good to face my fears head on, and just make the conscious effort in general to not be so afraid. Knowledge and love are the enemies of fear, right?

Food-wise we still have 1/2 a gallon of raw milk that we are rationing. Our good food is running out and the Big Bend options are junky food at gourmet prices. I guess they get away with it because it would take you over an hour to go to the nearest grocery store. So I am trying to have good food with junky food to stretch it a bit longer. So sprouted beans with junky-soybean-oil-white-enriched-flour tortillas and factory farmed cheese. Grass-fed beef (sloppy joe style) with white rice. Frittatas made with organic potatoes and onions but factory-farm-wouldn’t-dare-eat-raw eggs. You get the picture:-) Necessity is the mother of invention though. I made up a killer soup, that Nate loved, with my available ingredients. Kind of a sausage, squash, sweet potato, onion and coconut milk spicy soup.

Tomorrow we head out for the McDonald Observatory and Fort Davis, TX in the hopes of catching a “star party” in the desert and brushing up on our astronomy. But not before we take one more hike to our favorite family spot here in Big Bend. The Hot Springs, a natural hot-tub that sits right on the Rio Grande River. The favorite thing to do, for those who are not faint of heart or have broken arms, is to jump into the frigid waters of the Rio and swim back to the “hot tub.” 

The state of food in Corpus Christi, TX

I came into Corpus not having much hope for finding good healthy food, let alone local food. After two trips to the local HEB chain grocery store I was pleasantly surprised at what I found. While a grocery store chain is not high on my heirarchy of food value, it would have to do, because the local food in Corpus is not readily available. If you are into food chains, fried seafood, and soda machines, this is your town.

Anyway, HEB did help the food budget to stop convulsing. Here are the treasures I found – Kerrygold butter (grassfed butter from Ireland), Texas goat cheese, Texas grapefruit and oranges, an organic fruit and veggie section, sprouted grain bread, Brown Cow yogurt, kombucha (!), and even 3 lbs. of grass-fed beef nestled amongst the plethora of grain-fed meat. I left with enough groceries for a week. While not exuberant, I was satisfied.

And we didn’t even touch our grapefruit for some days as the boys discovered a grapefruit tree just a stones throw away, with awesome tasting fruit! So in the midst of corporate chain heaven we were “foraging” 🙂

Before heading to the grocery store I wrote out my first menu plan since heading out on this adventure. Even if it’s simple, a plan makes everything a bit smoother and means we eat better.

A little more raw milk foraging was done. I could have driven 1 1/2 hours one way to Victoria, TX to get goat’s milk but decided to get milk at the Miller Farm in LaCoste, TX, when we went on a day trip to San Antonio for the Alamo.

Then today, on our way to Seminole Canyon, we took a slight detour when passing through Hondo, TX, to pick up milk and eggs at the Steubing Dairy. Nice, clean, good smelling farm with healthy looking animals in the fields. I get a kick out of the adventure, some others in my family…not so much:)

Fearful Beauty-Seminole Canyon St. Park

The…View…Is…Awesome. We arrived this afternoon in Seminole Canyon State Park. It is a wild and beautiful desert place. Hushedly quiet except for the occasional animal noise and the murmurs of a few camping neighbors.

Tonight it is dark…really dark. And the stars are plentiful. It is exciting and a just a teeny bit scary to be here. Tomorrow we will go on a hike not available without the park ranger to guide you. There are ancient pictographs painted in the canyons. And big signs warning of snakes…

I have been reflecting, in between the care and feeding of children, on what happened to make me so fearful of the wilds. I remember sitting, running and playing for hours in the woods as a child. And well into my teen years we would race down the sandy trail to our nearby swimming hole to be the first one in the cold refreshing water. We would float down the river on our bellies to a natural whirlpool and relished the currents that carried us. We would sit in a cornfield in the dark, playing corn tag. Our dreams and youth pushed the boundaries of our fears.  Now I go in the water like an old maid, slowly and reluctantly…that’s if it’s pool water. If it is wild water, like the ocean, I proceed with more heightened caution. I am content to just walk along the shore and get my feet wet. And as much as Nate is excited about Big Bend National Park, the ultimate wild place…I match his excitement with an equal amount of dread.

Anyway, I don’t like the state I am in, I don’t like realizing I have lost a lot of my ability to be child like and playful. I don’t want to be accused of dying of boredom before I die from adventure. But for now all I can do is chip away at the mountain with my little chisel. And be brave in the ways that I can.

Jack’s broken wrist

On my flight home from Pennsylvania there was a strong headwind causing my flight to come in late to Houston, where I was to catch my connection back to Corpus Christi. As I was missing flights and experiencing standby, Nate and I were emailing back and forth about logistics. Then I got this email:

“Hey,

Jack just fell out of a tree and I’m trying to determine if he broke his arm or not. Is he a drama queen when it comes to injury? I have it on ice right now.  Trying to find a walk-in clinic….”

This was one of those “worst case scenarios” that I had been hoping wouldn’t happen. One of the kids getting hurt while I was gone…Nate alone in a strange town…no family or friends to step in. For a time it brought up all my subconscious vulnerabilities. You know, going it alone on this “quest.”

All in all it could have been far worse, and I fortunately wasn’t too far from being home. After some delay, I got a flight and Nate and the kids picked me up a couple hours after the falling-out-of-the-tree incident and then we headed out to find help. We first went to a chiropractor who graciously took a peek at Jack’s arm gratis…we wanted to get an opinion on whether it looked like something broken or not. She referred us to a really nice doctor, who she took her own kids to, Dr. Dorrell on Padre Island.

So Jack got X-rays, showing that he had a pretty good fracture about 2 inches above his wrist. Nate and I and the doc decided that we needed to take care of it sooner rather than later, and not wait to see a pediatric orthopedic the next day. Then the hard part. Nate was looking green just thinking about the setting of Jack’s bone. So he stayed with the other kids. I had my typical travel migraine, but figured I was up to the task of being the strong parent to sit through Jack’s ordeal and comfort him. I made it through, but just barely. When the bone setting was done I was pretty woozy and had to retreat to the bathroom for a break. Poor Jack, he was a real trooper.

He is now in a real cast. We are sticking around Corpus longer so that he can have one follow up with the same doctor. We will have to find doctors along our route to check on his healing and also to take the cast off at the end.

And (this part is to humor his Uncle Brian), he will be getting lots of raw milk during his healing, because as we know, the calcium in raw milk is very bio-available because the co-nutrients in the milk that help our bodies assimilate the calcium have not been destroyed by pasteurization. 🙂

Our biggest trial is getting Jack to act like he has a broken arm and keep him from running, jumping, skidding, sliding, tumbling, wrestling and generally wreaking physical havoc on his arm.