A day in the life of the MZR

crissy gets crafty during a recent photograpy workshop
















ahhh, just another tough day at the MZR. Business breakfast with the ever classy business beadhead and business tye-dye.





















lots of family dinners with fresh fish and mmmmmmmmmmm.

















The cowboys hard at work on a game of "shoes", horse shoes for you non-ranchers.





















it is that season::yellow everywhere.

Little House in the Valley.

And then we found them, by a miracle really, the nicest people on earth. Here there are living totally off the grid, just them, the chickens, the navajo breed of sheep and the draft horses they use to work the 5 acres of vegetable and the 260 acres of grains they grown for the first CSA in The Valley.






















We drove up and I said, they have a teepee Crissy, this is it.
















They also have wind power, passive solar greenhouses and house, strawbale, adobe and earth berm root cellar, a biodisel mini lab and lots of other salvaged buildings and alternative energy uses. I was in love.






















Karen answered the door looking at each of for a moment and then asking, " have i met you before?" Seemed like a good sign as we settled in the cutest farm kitchen ever to talk about details of a speaking engagement met. Colin stopped us after only a few minutes saying, "before we go any further I think that you should know we are very radical."
Crissy and I just looked at each other and smiled. Thank god. I've been here for 2 months and its about time we met some folks living like this. Then we just continued with the farming conversation, that is farming as it related to biodeversity, oil, war, energy use, race, class and gender. No big deal.






Outside the straw-bale, passive-solar greenhouse:





















Inside the Greenhouse:





































Did I mention that Colin is an MD that went to Howard and drives a draft horse driven buggy to the ER where he works. They let him build a little shed there to house the buggy and horse!


















And all we have is this piece of junk.....Just a jump. that's all the ol' rental car needs to get started any more. Note to self and the rest of the world: never by a nissan.
















Chicken, never touch!!!

Fungi-allah-faeeia-ashay-ahsay

Yesterday crissy and I set off in search of local farmer and farmers for a workshop coming up next month at the ranch. Local agriculture in the San Luis Valley. I am working on the menus and we set off in search of field trip destinations as well as a guest speak. Here is what we found.

1st stop: Rakrah Mushroom farm. Largest employer in the valley at 300 people working 24/7 and supplier of button and portabella mushrooms to Sysco, Grocery strores and other food service venues. One crazy place and very full of shit, literally. They make their own compost from hay in the valley, add in liquid nitrogen (turkey poop), gypsum, etc and make huge windrows of compost for each flat they will then inoculate with the spawn grown on barley grains.


















Huge rooms of Douglas fir flats comtaining the homemade compost.



















And then they fruit:


And they are cut 3 times for different sizes and sent to the slicing room and or the packing room. This place was bumping. Music blaring, boxing being carted around on dollies and fork lifts, conveyor belts a runnin'.....



The ladies hard at work packing the sliced mushrooms.

















No rest for the weary here at the MZR....the mushroom lawn decor and the portabellas that are going into my bison sirloin burgonion tomorrow.

more retroactive blogging

some pics from the SWSBM season of my life, sent by amanda this week:


me, kat and amanda






















amy tries to hula hoop with a doggie


















(more posts with pics in the near future.)

Sayonara Suckers!

We commisioned this work from Get Pumped Crafts!, some of you may know her as one Susan Theresa Jelinek Melllage. She crafted this with the speed of the wind to get it to us in time for our AZ departure. We hung the flag from our campsite for the last week of class and took portriats of most everyone in front of it as they pulled off down the dirt road, single tears forming in the corners of their eyes, driving away for the last time from the SWSBM.

ps. you may notice the unbelieveable wind blowing whilst the piccture was being taken. This in the point at which i opened my door in the middle of this wind storm, only to have it blown the wrong way on the hinge making a terrible cracking sound. Even throwing all my weight into the door, I was no match for the mighty Zephyr and the door has never been the same. It took flagging down a classmate on highway 80 to help us get the door mashed shut.

Howdy Partner

Cowgirls::NACO, MEXICO::May 2006