Verdant North Fork Valley vs. Sacrifice Zones: Big Plans

"Sometimes, to someone lonely, there comes something which serves as a wondrous balm.  It is not a voice, not even a sound.  It is the smile of women, which like the light of perished stars, is still on it's way."  - Marie Rilke

Winter is lonely sometimes, in a way that spring and summer can never be.  It can be hard and cold as diamonds, and even the brilliance of stars in the deep, black night sky feels like ice, not comfort.  We struggle to pull ourselves out of our dreams and the warm covers and into the deeply unappealing cold of the apartment.  I've resolved to make a morning ritual for myself that will beckon me to get up in the still dark hour and get my day started; my new cranial-sacral healer, Becca, helped me think of this.

I plan, no, I Resolve, to get up with the alarm (cat generated or Nora Jones CD on the clock/radio), throw on my robe and house shoes, stumble over to the couch and turn on the radiant heater, splash water on my face and rinse out my morning breath, get the tea pot boiling, and snuggle under a blanket on the couch until I'm ready for the day.  It takes a lot of resolve to get that far, but I'm sure I'll get a lot of satisfaction out of taking charge like that. It's also necessary, so I can be ready to work as a substitute in the schools, once I start getting calls.

 Moonrise over the Raggeds, from Fire Mountain Farm

Sometimes I wonder why we bother making plans; they so often get blown to pieces by new realities, right?  The simple answer is, if we didn't make plans, little would get accomplished, other than the simple necessities of life, and in truth, they can easily fill the days of our lives:  washing clothes, washing our selves, feeding ourselves, cleaning up our messes, getting to and from places where we meet friends and do errands and get exercise... We need plans to break our routines, inspire us and give us hope.  Mark and I plan on buying a small piece of acreage in the valley; now those plans are on hold.

Skiing on Grand Mesa on Mark's 54th birthday!

Our beautiful valley, with one of the highest numbers of organic farms per acre in the United States, is under threat from oil and gas companies, for exploration and drilling.  I had no idea what that could mean until we moved here, to the Western Slope.  Have you seen the movie "Gasland", or read about the health risks Fracking presents?  If the energy companies get their way, our plans for buying property here may be dashed.  And what about the hard working farmers in the area, who've staked their life's claim on their organic acreage?    

A Paonia street in the snow

Other communities have fought the onslaught of drilling companies, and nearly all have lost.  And we are not even allowed to know who nominated these particular parcels, until after the sale has taken place this August... if indeed it does take place.  We are hoping that the newly documented dangers of fracking will buy us time to protect our valley.  It makes no sense to drill now, when experts admit that the price of Natural Gas is too low to make new drilling profitable. Why risk our water supply, clean air and natural beauty for the possibility of hitting the jack pot, when they know it's not likely to yield gold?

Another truth I just learned is that even when the EPA finds that indeed, fracking by energy companies has directly poisoned the water in a community, such as in Pavillion, Wyoming, they cannot undo the damage.  They can agree to provide clean drinking water - trucked in; and guess who pays the bill?  Taxpayers.  The Energy companies get the profit, and we pay for the remediation - but there is no fix.
What's the underlying game plan here?  To ruin rural communities, and suck all remaining funds out of the middle class?

 Here's the real gold - healthy communities, willing to think outside the box and use our resources wisely.  This was taken on a bike ride just outside of Paonia.  And speaking of low-impact travel, I saw a neighbor ride by our studio window today in a cart pulled by his horse!  It seemed wonderful, somehow...   why not?

Next Swingin' at the Sage: February 18th! Extra sweet social dance

Special date for our February dance:  the 18th, extra sweet with chocolate, hearts, and lots of fun friends to dance with.  Featured dance:  Swing and a mini waltz lesson!

A Few Art Pieces

So you know we  have a studio right in downtown Paonia. It is on the ground level of a former bookstore, and we love it. It is around the corner from the Blue Sage, across from Don's Market, and an easy walk for me to the elementary school for my job. The building is for sale, so more on that if and when there is movement on that. In the meantime we struggle to get there and put hours in, what with farm and chickens, dance business, other political involvement in the valley, my job and all the social opportunities.

We have been managing it some, and here are a few of my early pieces, just taken with our point and shoot. When we can get some higher quality photos, and when I can produce some higher quality work, I will post them on the MarkWillsonArt blog, but since I hadn't posted here for awhile, I thought I'd put them up.

This is Mt. Jumbo, or Jumbo Mountain, I'm not entirely sure which. Everyone just calls it Jumbo. The sketch for this painting was done from our hayfield.

This is untitled. I think the sketch might have been done on a bike trip we took up Back River Road, but I'm not sure. I have lots of sketches.

This is Lambourne Mountain and her companion, whose name I can't retrieve from my foggy brain at the moment. I have many sketches of them. They dominate our landscape. They of course have snow on them now.

Also a view from our hayfield, looking off toward the Raggeds. This is version one. I have since finished it. I will get a picture soon.

All of these pieces are gouache on paper and they are smaller than I typically work. I am not super duper happy with them yet, and was thinking today I need to start working bigger to loosen myself up a bit. I'll keep documenting.

Margot was inspired by an exhibit the Blue Sage is having this month. They had a call for entries into a History Exhibit, so Margot put her thinking cap on and came up with a fabulous idea for a series and came up with an even more fabulous painting. She entered it, it got in, and Annette at The Sage asked her to make more of the series. So I have made her some cool wooden panels to work on, and she is plugging away. We are talking to a local photographer about getting some professional shots of these, and we will post as soon as we have some. Get ready DeEtta, these are going to knock your socks off.

Other News
Margot is struggling and jumping through hoops to get her teaching certificate and sub certificate for Colorado. They are making it extremely difficult. We still don't know when that ordeal will be over.

The chickens are doing great and are making lots of eggs. We are averaging around 18 to 20 a day, with a record 25 one day! We have no trouble selling them, and actually eat a fair number ourselves, but we have been buying organic feed of late, which is awfully spendy, so we are not really making any money on it,  but we love our girls, and the eggs are exquisite!

It is very cold! Takes some getting used to, and also appropriate dress. I get fooled in the morning by how bright and sunny it is, and go out under dressed to check on the chickens and the barn cats, and yowchy it is biting! Riding my bike to and from work can also be interesting, but I actually do have good gear for that.

The job is good. The kids are getting to know me and I am learning the ropes. It is every day, and actually provides a good anchor to build the rest of my day around.

Our third second Saturday social dance is tomorrow. December's turn out was spectacular and surprising! We hope the momentum continues. It was great fun and everyone was very enthusiastic. We built a short choreography (well, Margot actually did) that we have been working on with some students that we will be performing at the dance.

We just got a DVD of the Christmas show we were in. It was great to see all the acts! We are going to try and isolate our number and download it as a file and post it here. That one we choreographed together.

Thanks for keeping up with our adventures. All our best to all,
Mark

Real and meaningful action to address Climate Change

  Dear friends, living in this incredibly beautiful valley in Colorado, Mark and I have become aware of just how urgently we all need to act to protect what we value most:  clean water, clean air, and healthy soil, for starters.  It's simple enough:  life depends on us to protect it, and to enable it to flourish in all it's intricate intelligence.  This young woman gave a remarkable and powerfully clear speech at the U.N. Climate Change conference in South Africa yesterday.  Please take a moment to listen and be inspired to act.  Many blessings, Margot

The Light Around Here

Did I mention it's pretty spectacular?

Both these shots are from the field where we park every day. They work best enlarged, just click the image.

Lamborne Mountain with her head in the clouds

Looking off toward "The Ruggeds", which are hidden behind that bright cloud bank

Life here for us is very full.
Farm work proceeds apace, since winter still hasn't prevented working in the afternoons. It does get very cold now at night, sometimes in the teens, but lately the sun has been out and by afternoon I'm in my T-shirt.

Dance goes well, we have some very devoted students and we make new contacts every week. We had our first second Saturday dance in November, and those that came had a great time. We are learning how to structure events and are making more contacts and getting the word out, so hopefully the December dance will be packed. We took the long drive to Montrose last Saturday to check out their bi-monthly dance and had a blast. Everyone was very welcoming. Margot misses all the fabulous, talented, and creative leads we left behind in Seattle.

We are coming up to Seattle in February, for those who don't know, speaking of dancing. We are going to run Jodi's Valentine's dance on the second Saturday of February. I hope you all can come so we can dance together!

We had trouble in the coop in early November. We discovered a chicken dead one morning, and later that night found another that had obviously been horribly abused. It was quite a crisis for us and we did lots of research and sought out lots of good advice from more experienced chicken farmers, and we ultimately decided we had to cull the flock by two. Two of the mature Rhode Island Reds were found to be the instigators and were modelling bad behavior, so with John's help, we killed and plucked and butchered them, leaving us now with twenty seven. Both Margot and I feel that the energy in the hen house now is way more relaxed and positive.

We got a studio in town. We realized the plan to build or buy a shed or a structure to put here on the farm to paint in was going to be super scary expensive, considering we'd also have to insulate and heat it, so we looked around in town and found a shared arrangement that will work out great! We have it mostly set up, now the trick is to schedule the time and get the work in.

Mark accepted a job yesterday. Yes I went ahead and did it. I've been hired by the Delta School District for a part time custodial slash maintenance position at the Paonia Elementary School. One's earning potential here in the valley is frankly pretty grim, especially compared to what we were used to in Seattle, but I think it will be a good thing. It is only three and a half hours a day, which will leave time for farm work and the dance business, and it is very convenient from here, so I can ride my bike or even walk if the weather is too gruesome.

We finally got it together to take a trip out to the north rim of the Gunnison Gorge last week, and took the camera and some drawing stuff and a picnic lunch. Unfortunately the road had just been closed for the season. Missed it by that much! So we drove up towards Gunnison instead, and had a great afternoon though it was bitter cold and the light wasn't that conducive to photogrphy or art work right then.

On the road to Gunnison
 

A chilly self portrait

We hope you are all thriving and are healthy and happy.
Best wishes from all of us (including the two cats and the 27 birds.)
Cheers

Finally, Another Installment

Wow, it has been awhile. We have both been meaning to post, lots to share, but it's amazing how busy we are staying. Farm work keeps us pretty busy now. When winter sets in for real there will less to do, so we are hitting it hard while the sun still shines, mowing, weeding, mucking out the settling box for the irrigation system, and now John, the other caretaker and I , are spending quite a bit of time fencing the perimeter of the property to keep the deer out who are coming down to the lower elevations now that it's colder.

Here's a shot of the cool red barn on the property. I am quite taken with its shape and color. I will post more shots from other angles later. Note the bright blue sky and strong shadows.

Attached to the barn is the chicken coop, where our girls are clucking away, fat and sassy. Here they are in their tractor, a device that allows them to be "free range", and scratch and peck outside, and still be safe from predators. We can move it around the field with them in it. Getting them in and out of it can be comical.

I took the following picture quite awhile back to mark a momentous day. Our first two egg day! It tells you how remiss I've been with posting... we are now up to ten egg days!

One day a few weeks ago we went to Missy and Rooster's to help them harvest beets and carrots.

Here Rooster washes carrots.

And here we are roasting the fruits of some of our labors. Yummy beets!

One of the jobs a few weeks ago was to scrape all the old wax and dried honey and other sticky debris off some old bee boxes and frames. Note the blue sky and strong shadows. Just sayin'.

At the same time Catherine and John were harvesting beautiful delicious honey from the working hives. They shared some comb with us. Yummers! Margot called it "nature's baklava" Truly delicious.

Speaking of delicious, that's the name of our new dance company. Delicious Dance. We are teaching lessons and they are going quite well. In a few week's time, we will have four lessons a week going! Also, this next Saturday the 12th, we have our first 2nd Saturday dance at the Blue Sage Arts Center. Margot has been working hard on ads and posters and promotion. We are having great fun with it, and have the beginnings of a very enthusiastic dance community. We are performing a lindy number for the Christmas show at the Paradise Theater in December incorporating the shim sham accompanied by some of our more enthused and capable young teenage students.

Well there is lots of news, but I'll save some for Margot to talk about. 

I also recently updated the blog that shows Persephone's evolution (that's our big fountain and sculpture project that most of you know about),  and I just finished posting to a blog Margot made for me years ago to show my artwork that I never had time to put together.

Check them out if you feel like it.

http://spaindanceart.blogspot.com/

http://markwillson.blogspot.com/

Best wishes to everyone.

Mark's First Post

As everyone knows, Margot arrived on beautiful Pitkin Mesa exactly one month ago.

I have been here, unbelievably, a whole week, and it has been a whirlwind. 

 

Linus and I rolled away from Seattle early the morning of the 21^st of September in the monster rental truck. I had a few tense moments driving it around on Tuesday gathering our stuff from the house, the Shepherd, and the packed to the gills storage unit. All went well, actually, with no mishaps, and once we got out on the open road, it got a lot easier to maneuver as we got more and more used to the way the beast handled.

Our goal the first night was to get to Southern Idaho, to a place called “City of Rocks”. It is an amazing place, one Linus had heard about through his climbing buddies, and according to Google Maps, was a 10 hour drive from Seattle. We discovered something, however, about the fully loaded 22 ft truck... it doesn't go up steep inclines so fast. 17 hours after leaving Seattle we rolled into the visitor's center, having been unable to find the camping area in the dark down the narrow dirt roads in the big truck.

The next day we had a fabulous morning scampering over rocks together, scoping out the area, and looking for particular features that Linus had heard about. That afternoon we headed for Moab, where we set up camp and met with our dance buddy Paul Bullard, who was down in the area on a big motorcycle riding event.

Friday we went to Arches National Monument, where Linus couldn't resist climbing around a little. He did some research and found that climbing is officially allowed inside the Park, something we were surprised by. He also learned of other world class areas right nearby. We hope he will arrange a climbing trip with some buddies someday soon, since it is only a three hour drive from our new home!

The trip to Boulder and Denver to see Linus off on his flight to Seattle was really fun and bittersweet. I so enjoyed the time I got to spend with him and so appreciated his help, even though it may mean we don't see him again for awhile. He is a good man and we are both very proud of him.

Now life on the farm. Lots of work, lots of learning. I do feel good here. I do feel a sense of well being. I miss our dear friends every day, but there is excitement and possibility here.

Today we took a drive across Kebler pass to Crested Butte. We heard the Aspens are at peak color right now and they did not disappoint!

This week we begin a new phase of our lives as dance teachers! Our first swing one sessions start this week. More on that later.

We wish you all the very best from our new, sunny, soon to be chilly home.

M and M