Through this blog, I hope to document our progress, however slow and arduous it may be, away from major dependance on outside resources for food, fuel, energy,and most of all, income. Moving ever closer to our vision of self-sufficiency. Trying to live happily and ever more “lightly” on this little piece of earth that is ours. We are not fancy or well-funded, but we are feeding ourselves and our animals well, sleeping well and doing good work. We are learning as we go, always students and stewards of the land, always mindful of the impact our decisions and behavior have on it. We hope you will follow along in this journey with us and offer your input if the inclination strikes you. So here we go……….
I will try to describe for you the “lay-of-the-land” as it is now and then explain where we want to go and how and when we hope to get there. I will also be as specific as I can within reason (length being the major consideration, I don’t want overwhelm you with ALL the details, just what is pertinent). First a little history. I hope it helps round out the picture.
The land had been in our family for the past 40 years. Before that, it was owned and worked by a great many folks engaging in various agricultural operations through the years. It was homesteaded in the 1860′s. We originally purchased 4500 acres, but over the years have sold all but 530 ac. There are now almost the same number of acres on which the original homesteaders began. * For the sake of expediency, I will only take you back that far historically. I do want to acknowledge that there were many previous users of this land before being settled by descendants of Europeans. Many American Indian tribes used this land long before the Europeans even knew it existed. *
This is the current situation in which we find ourselves:
Most of the $ that allow us to live here and keep us from having to sell this land are not produced here. The sources of the $ are: Retirement income (my mother’s), income from odd jobs that I take periodically, my daughter’s two off-ranch jobs, and inherited royalty income that has steadily decreased over the last few years. Only about 10-15 percent of the money that it takes to stay afloat is generated by selling what is produced here. In “good” years, that means when we have winter snows or rains throughout the spring and summer, we are able to lease pasture for grazing and that produces another 15-20% in those years. Although we live in a beautiful place, have open space all around us, and are actively engaged in production from the land; the price in many ways is very high. Not only in high energy per person use, but in $ as well. It’s expensive to live far away from any sort of commercial services. We use a lot of fossil fuels and electricity. The houses, barns, corrals, fences, irrigation ditches, wells, machinery and vehicles are all old ( and certainly not energy-efficient) and need repair constantly. All the houses need serious retrofitting and that takes capital we don’t have. Neither do we have the capital to buy new, more fuel-efficient vehicles or farm equipment and I don’t think they make trucks or tractors that are capable of farm work or hauling a load of animals in electric versions! So, not a lot of capital on hand and a mighty aversion to debt! It currently takes about $50,000 to $$60,000 a year to cover expenses. We also do not have hired help. Until four months ago, I was the only “full-time” worker on the ranch. Since November, 2009; my daughter and her boyfriend have been living and working here as well. For the past 3 years I have had an intern during the summer months( May through mid Sept.) for help with general ranch work and the market garden. My mother is 88, I am 54, and my daughter is 30. We are three generations of women living and working here to make this vision into a reality.
What we do have is a very beautiful piece of land that is free and clear. We are debt free and plan to remain that way. The ranch is long but fairly narrow (2.5 miles by approx. 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile wide…it varies). It is contained in a valley that has been collecting river sediments for millennia, so there is lots of topsoil. It can be very productive, even at 6500 ft. elevation, under the right conditions. The soils are predominantly volcanic, heavy clay loam, there is some sedimentary, sandier soil on the north side of the river. We have 5 perennial springs, two of which keep a mid-sized pond full of water, one which supplies all the drinking water for the two houses that are currently occupied, and two others which have never been put into use. The Dry Cimarron river runs the length of the property and we have the right to irrigate from it, but can only do so when there is high flow. There is a ditch system running the length of the property that was engineered very well and still flows efficiently. The head gates are in disrepair or non-existant now though. There are irrigation wells (7) that have not been used for several years and are not currently functional. There are two fields that used to be alfalfa which I have interseeded for two years with native grasses, oats, and wheat so they can be safely grazed as well as cut for hay if there is irrigation water. There is a lovely “Vega” (vay-ga) which is a field of native grasses that when irrigated in the spring, can be cut for hay. There is a small field of “Jose wheat grass” which is a perennial grass that can be cut for hay when it is irrigated. There are nine ancient apple trees and one pear tree that produce about every three years. We have a large garden, about an acre, but a very short growing season! The livestock currently includes a herd of milk goats of various breeds (50); 50 laying hens; one cow; about 2 dozen ducks and geese; three guardian dogs, two breeding Sheltie dogs, four “freeloader-charity case” dogs, six llamas, three house cats, and as many barn cats as we can keep around. We also have two tenants, one of whom rents the “bunk house” and the other rents the east wing of my mother’s house. They provide a little bit of income, but very little. In the “good” years that I spoke of earlier, we pasture up to 75 cows during the summer months and 35-40 through the winters : it is usually one or the other, not both seasons. There are three houses and a bunk house (which is an apt. over the small garage). The original portion of my mother’s house is over 100 years old, stone and frame construction. There was a wing built on to it in the 1950′s , also rock and frame construction. It is a big old drafty house. My house is a double wide trailer that we put here in 1998, it is actually the most energy-efficient dwelling now. The other house is in a very sad state. It hasn’t had occupants for 20 years. It is in such bad shape that I don’ t know if it is worth the trouble to refurbish it. It might be more cost-effective to tear it down and start over at this point. There are also several barns. There is an old concrete block barn with a hay loft that is about 30 x 80 ft. It has three tack/feed rooms at the back but only two of them still have doors. It has electricity and water. There is a “sheep barn” that is very long and narrow about 20 x 120 ft. It is post and beam construction and did have an adobe chicken house on the east end which has collapsed. The most recent construction is a “hangar shop”. It was built by my father to house his airplanes and is 50 x 100. It is a “quonset type (semi circular, and is 18 ft at the highest point), it has a grease pit (which used to be the basement of another house), a 12 x 10 garage door on one end and a 40 ft. bi-fold door on the other. It has electricity, but not water. We have a backhoe, a skid steer, and a very old David Brown tractor. The haying equipment consists of a swather (the cutting machine), a baler that pulls behind the tractor (when it’s working!), a very old seed drill, a land plane, a drag blade for smoothing the roads out, a harrow, and a small off-set disc plow. We also have two small stock trailers that are of the 60′s vintage. That’s about the jist of it. This is what we have to work with.
Next I will explain more about energy and resource use, what the consumption is now and what we would like for it to be……..stay posted for the next segment….
rainbowranch
Kelly
