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

Mark and Linus arrive! And we get our flock of 30 chickens...

 After driving this 22 foot Penske truck from Seattle to Paonia over 3 long days, Mark and Linus arrived!  I'll let Mark tell of their adventures, including rock climbing and meeting up with our pal Paul Bullard in Moab!
As soon as we compared the storage unit to the amount of stuff in the truck, we knew the unit was too small.  So we quickly located a bigger, newer facility, and unloaded until it was pitch dark.  Finished up the next morning, and finally got to enjoy a little time on the farm together.  We celebrated with a delicious dinner of farm fresh foods, with Catherine and John, and Delta friends Missy and Rooster.

Sunday morning we took off for Boulder, to give Linus a taste of that environmentally savvy city.  It sure is full of beautiful people!   Spent the evening visiting a swing dance venue called the Mercury Cafe.  Then slept at an airbnb (a private home that rents out rooms for about half the cost of a hotel).  And on Monday, Mark and I bid farewell to Linus, as he flew out of Denver, returning to school at the University of Washington.  Stocked up on the way home at IKEA and Costco, before returning to the rural ways of sourcing food and hunting for second hand furniture.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, the compost pile is quite a bit smaller now...

 

 ...since our flock of 30 chickens came home to roost!  4 Rhode Island Reds are the mature, queens of the hen house (although they are all molting right now, so they look a bit shabby and only sporadically lay eggs).  The other 26 are still growing their combs, and not producing eggs quite yet.  30 chickens, and we still have to buy our breakfast from Don's Market!

 

This is my favorite chicken.  She's recovering from a combination of molting and being picked on.  I named her "Denise" after my sister, not because of personality similarities, but because I can recognize her, she lets me hold her, and I miss my childhood pal.  So I can say her name many times in a day, and think of my sister.  I'd like to name them all after my beloved family and friends, but I honestly can't yet recognize the others!  

Mark and I are doing a crash course in raising healthy chickens, helped greatly by Catherine's experience and advice.  So far, we get maybe 1 egg a day... I'll keep you posted; it's sure to improve.

Life feels much more familiar now, here in Paonia.  We will start teaching dance classes soon, and be on the lookout for building materials for our art shed.  Thanks everyone for keeping in touch.

  The days are getting shorter, but continue to be absolutely gorgeous.  With the new moon, galaxies of stars have been revealed to us; the night skies are awesome!  Wish you were here to gaze at them with us.

With love and great affection, Margot and Mark

Getting Settled

Hola friends!  Here I am, sending you the first post from our new home at Fire Mountain Farm.  So far, so good.  It is unbelievably beautiful here, like a mirage after crossing the vast, hot desert plains of Utah.  Christine and I were very forgetful about taking photos, but luckily, I do have the three pictures taken in Arches National Park, Moab Utah (thanks, Steve!).

We were quite occupied during our road trip, taking care of the cats and ourselves.  Bella escaped once along the way, but luckily, only got as far as C's grandmother's bushes, where we found her crying for help.

As you can see, Bella is now happily exploring the farm, catching giant grasshoppers and following me around in that nonchalant feline way.  Christine, how would I have managed to get these cats here without you? 

 Here's a funny synchronicity for you - when the 2 cats that live in the barn made their first afternoon appearance, I cracked up - they are the visual doppelgangers of our cats!  The mama looks like Bella, though with a sweet, droll expression, and her daughter looks like Boris!  Bella is not at all sure about Mama cat, as you can see...

 ...but Boris is perfectly comfortable hanging out with her.  "Mr. Social", that's Boris.  Notice how I'm going on and on about my cats?  Well, they are my familiars in this new landscape.

 The water system is crucial to keeping the farm growing and green, and this is our biggest job as caretakers.   Here's the sprinkler set to water the plantings we see from our basement apartment.  John, the experienced caretaker, is teaching me how to run the water...

...while Catherine, owner of Fire Mountain Farm, is coaching me on how to care for chickens, among many other tasks.  This is the smaller coop ( I LOVE the bright colors of the purple house and cheerful outbuildings).  Mark and I may soon be the proud owners of our own flock!  Farms are very busy places; I'm gaining a new appreciation of what goes into growing food and maintaining an organic farm.   The beauty of this place is deeply nurturing. 

Keeping in touch!

 

Hola friends,

Here are a couple photos we took while visiting Catherine's farm last May.  Soon we'll have many more to give you an idea of what our lives are like.

Our contact info remains the same, except Mark will have a new cell phone number:

Mark:  jmontheroad@earthlink.net  206 419-1184

Margot:  illuminahealingart@gmail.com    206 913-3962

View of the surrounding mountains and valley

Catherine's house + the greenhouse

Paonia Colorado, here we come!

Pictures are coming... this is just to get us started