Abridged version:
In late May, due to circumstances beyond all control, we left Rockin' Egg Farm and sought solace in nearby Earth Mountain Farm. We rolled up to the farm on a whim with just a desperate voicemail, but were greeted with kids our age, elders, children, and a delicious lunch. By that evening we had transported all our shit (2 carloads worth, somehow), including Allen and Chevy of course, to our Earth Mountain home.
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| Earth Mountain crew + some more, early June |
The weekend we arrived was a busy one as it was their annual "open house" weekend. Lots of pizza in the horno oven, campfires, and musicians. A gal named Lori stayed for 3 or 4 days and might have been the reincarnation of Janis Joplin. She lives out of her van, travels all over, and leaves a place with barely a "goodbye." Amazing. She's originally from Trinidad (the nearest real town to us), so I figured I'd be seeing her in time. In fact, yesterday, I was happy when she turned up at the Trinidad Community Co-Op. Joni and Carter, the people who run earth mtn (PA natives - Carter went to Pocono Mtn High '87 and Joni is from Bucks County) were instrumental in starting the co-op, which is just about the only place to buy good groceries in Trinidad. There are also crafts, tinctures, soap, jewelry, and clothes for sale at the co-op. Sancho has some of her whittled pendants there and I'm planning on getting some knit stuff in there soon.
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| Allen, Rockin' Egg Farm, May |
When we first arrived, we lived in our backpacking tent ("Old NorthFace") for 4 days. Chevy adjusted (he'd sleep in NorthFace all day long), but I don't think Allen slept ever. How relieved he must have been when we relocated to a most beautiful 10' x 12' cabin. Besides Joni and Carter's house, our cabin is the only cabin on the property. Everyone else lives in sweet tipis (crafted by Joni) or a tent. What I'm getting at is that Sancho and I almost can't believe our luck -- for some reason awesomeness is landing in our laps. I won't worry.
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| Cabin, Earth Mountain |
Earth Mountain is way involved with the community. Besides the co-op, Joni helped start the Trinidad Community Garden, teaches summer classes for high schoolers at the Trinidad State Junior College, and hosts day camps and overnight camps at Earth Mountain. We've had a few day camps already - young homeschoolers and ninth graders from the Junior College. This weekend we have our first 3-day overnight camp for high schoolers. The camps are "up my alley" -- I went to Pocono Plateau camp for ten-ish years, even attending long after I denounced Christianity, because what is god about anyway if not mountains, lakes, campfires and crafts?
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| West Spanish Peak with wildfire haze, 13,625 ft, June |
The month of June saw a lot of WWOOFers coming through. At one point we had twelve WWOOFers. Now we have four - Sancho, myself, Jen, and Monica. Curiously, the two WWOOFers from Stacy and Chanson's that we loved so much were also named Jen and Monica. We just lost two great people this week - Jayna and Katherine. They'd both been at Earth Mountain a long while and were great fun good people. I miss them. The energy at the farm has been different with this sea change of WWOOFers. It is what it is.
Joni's web of community connections has also been helping us with our Appalachian Trail plans. We let her know that we want to save up some money for hiking, and within two weeks she had found us no less than three paying gigs. As of now we are: helping Earth Mtn. neighbor/friend, Fred, who builds kickass notched log houses for rich people; working for the Trinidad History Museum as gardeners; and occasionally helping out neighbor/friend/ex-Rainbow child/awesome lady, Holly, clean up her property. yeah money.
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| Sancho and Orion in the aspen grove |
A few other things we've been up to:
1) ceremonial sweat lodges
2) learning lots about local flora
3) crafting
4) sancho's learning mandolin
5) pounding tires full of dirt...
6) milking our goat Daisy Mae and taking her on hikes
7) bouldering (sancho)
8) playing with baby kittens
9) hangin out with hippie children Justice (7) and Orion (3)
10) getting very tan
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| Justice |
