The three of us

Some day we will get all four of us in the same room with a camera but until then here are the three of us.

Talking to Gramma and Grandpa

Looking like a teenager

Cute face

kisses

Latest Lucca pic

Cinnamon Bun mountain

Nisha made the best cinnamon buns I have ever had. I will get the recipe to post it. I love these pictures it looks like the bun is huge.

It's electric

Does this remind you of a trip to a science museum? haha

I love my family

This is an older picture but today all of the chickens ran out of the coop when I opened the door to feed them. I usually have the portable coops ready for them but for some reason today I just spaced it. I got some of them back in be shacking the empty food bag (chickens are not known for their brain size) but the rest we had to chase around and sneak them in the door one by one. Everyone was chasing the chicken, well Lucca was asleep but everyone else. The dogs I am happy to report just sat watching. It was another crazy morning on the chicken ranch. Haha sometimes I feel like we are totally nuts, out in the middle of the desert chasing chickens. At the end of it all you just have too clean the poop off your shoes and laugh.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

A must read Kingsolver book for anyone who loves the environment. This is the real answer to so many problems. Go local, get to know your food and your farmers. Teach your children that carrots, not spaghetti grow in the ground and watch them become more aware and respectful of food, the planet, plants, animals, water... http://animalvegetablemiracle.com really it's a beautiful thing. Inspirational to see what just one family can do. I loved it. Well I still have a few pages to go. Thanks Cass! It was just what I needed to get my energy and hopes up again.

How Mexican

The Virgen (that's how it's spelled in Spanish) in all her forms. I have seen her on shirts, pants, flags, backpacks, belts, pretty much everywhere, but this is a first. Yup, that's a watermelon. I love it actually.

Great news!

The Santa Julia girls are on board! The girls from the Casa Hogar Santa Julia Don Bosco orphange are going to be a part of our "A Day on the Farm" workshops. Check out their great website http://www.santajulia.org/ I am so excited. We are also working on getting the Mexiquito boys involved on a different day. The workshops will teach the girls not only basic farming skills like growing plants from seed, composting, and animal care but will also include craft hour where they will learn to take materials from the farm and turn them into wonderful things. Yogurt, cheese, gourd crafts, cornhusk dolls, basket making, dried flower art, paper making, food preservation (canning, pickling, and drying) also they will learn to be environmentally responsible with grey water systems, rain catchment, recycling and reforestation. I believe all of these things are so important and basically missing from our traditional educational system. I can't wait to get started.

Remebering what it's all about

Today was the perfect San Miguel fall day. Like my friend said, "one of those classic sunny fall days which just make you want to hike for hours." Waking to a cold morning and a hot cup of tea I tried to forget that I basically haven't slept in weeks. Despite having a beautiful new family member (or a bit because of it) my energy has been low lately. It has been months since the idea of starting the farm has been out of my head and into the air. After so many years of dreaming it I was sure once I opened my mouth people would be knocking down the door to help out. Though we are blessed with really great supportive friends and family our financial situation has made it a lot harder than I ever imagined to get things going. I have been stressed, worrying for months, running like a chicken with my head cut off trying to prevent this inevitable situation that I could see coming along with the birth of our son. We were already too close every week with our budget to have any extra expenses, and I knew they would come. All of that worrying in vain. The time has come, along with the expenses and we are living the situation I dreaded so much. It has not been easy. Add to not sleeping and a generally difficult life style not having enough money at the end of every week... A recipe for a very stressful run. As a result of all off this I really haven't been enjoying trying to get the farm started, and, go figure, it really hasn't gone that well. So this Sunday I gave in. I decided I would stop with the compulsive emailing, begging really, and just stay on the farm. No phone, no email no way to drive myself crazy opening and reopening the same email page hoping for a response that would change everything. So went grocery shopping, got enough food for the week and hunkered down. Today, Wednesday, was enlightenment day. The kids were up at a cruel 5 30 and several times in the night. It seemed freezing outside but it was great for piling everyone in the bed for a cuddle. After Alejandro went to work I started my daily cooking, cleaning chicken feeding routine. I made yogurt, bread pudding, and a big pot of stew filled with organic veggies perfect for a chilly day. Lucca was fast asleep and Adelia out playing in the yard Then all the sudden I could hear her laughing and talking. I looked out and she had pushed down one of the flimsy chicken wire walls around the six chickens we keep in the garden. These were our smallest chickens and they were getting their feathers pulled out by the big bossy ones. So, there is Adelia weaving in and out of the rosemary bushes "chasing" slowly our little friends. She was making those funny squawking/clucking noises that chickens make. She would reach out to touch them, then they would jump and squawk and so would she. She finally calmed down and sat in the tall wheat like grass, chickens all around her. When she came inside she was covered in dirt and smelled like rosemary. We ate big cups of stew and gooey cinnamon bread pudding. I thought, this is what its all about. This is why we work so hard. This will be the gift we give our children and hopefully many others. In a world so lost in the unreal we will bring them back to nature, back to their roots. I kept saying everything will be ok, not really knowing I really ownly half believed it until today. Two beautiful children, a wonderful husband, chickens a hugely supportive family, equally supportive group of friends, and a big pot of stew.
Everything is going to be ok.

Adelia looking so big

Lucca!

impossible to get...

Trying to take a picture of both of the kids together is an impossible feat. This is one of about 10. At least Adelia isn't too blurry.

The most beautiful thing

There is nothing more beautiful than having both your kids fall asleep at the same time!

Cactus in bloom

You can eat this fruit

Nesting

I have never seen a humming bird so still for so long.

Our first watermelon!

It wasn't quite ripe yet but the grasshoppers were eating it so I thought we would try it before they killed the whole plant. It was sort of pink but really sweet. I can't wait until next year when we can plant them earlier and try and do a little grasshopper control. Anyway it was still exciting to eat something from the garden.

Alicante

Look at what crossed our path yesterday while leaving the house. It is the first snake I have seen in Mexico. They call it an Alicante. In Jalisco it has an Indian name meaning corn snake. They are not poisonous and have an ironic myth that goes with them. The Indians said that these snakes would drink the breast milk of lactating woman and cows. They would put there tails in the babies mouth so that it wouldn't cry and wake the mother. Sort of creepy. At least we know that it is not possible but it is funny that the first snake I see is a breast milk theif!

Spider webs

I got up early to take a walk (this was a desperate effort to get Lucca to come out) and found hundreds of spiderwebs covered in dew. It was beautiful. Here is one on a rosemary bush.

Missing fall

Look at them apples! Oh cider, leaves, apple cider donuts, fall in New England. Makes me miss home. I am going home to make some apple sauce or something.

Had to put another!

Lucca!

The long awaited Lucca has arrived. Here is a cute picture taken on Saturday, only about 12 hours after he was born.

Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats

So these are the breed we are thinking of getting. They produce less milk but it is more nutritious and they say they are perfect for kids. Also they need less space, food, and housing than average dairy goats that are twice their size. Plus! they are adorable.

The Children

We need some advise. I have spoken with two out of the three orphanages here and it seems that the kids are very busy with other projects, which is great, but I am wondering if anyone can think of another group of kids we could work with. We want it to be about 20 kids, and the same ones every week for at least a year. We want the farm to be like there second home. We can figure out transportation but we need them to be committed. Can anyone think of a group that might fit. I believe this is a very important thing for every child to experience but I have a real draw toward wanting to help children that don't have such an easy life. Thanks for your input!

Slideshow

Full sized Angora rabbit

Who could resist this!

Angora bunnies

We have to get these bunnies. They are too cute! I guess I will have to learn how to knit!

Fixing the greenhouse

Here is our unfinished greenhouse. It needs some work. I am going to sew the doors on tomorrow if I don't have a baby! Then we will need to wire down the sides because the wind blows and the whole thing goes to one side. Not good! We are going to dig out the beds and then add compost to the soil. We don't have great soil but we have all winter to make it better. Our plan was to get plastic so we could start planting now but the greenhouse is so big and the plastic is expensive, sooooo we will wait and just be happy bettering the dirt. The dog in the picture is Ipet, he is are very sweet SPA Doberman. His owners were Japanese and he came with the name. Anyone speak Japanese?

Meet the chicks

Here are our girls! This picture is the first day we brought the chicks home. We had them in the house for a couple of weeks because I was afraid they would be cold at night. They were four or five weeks old when we got them, they are now at least twice as big! They wont be laying eggs until around Christmas, until then they are just getting fat eating all of our hundreds of grasshoppers. We have had a couple difficult learning experiences with our mobile coops. The first day they were out our dogs went crazy and broke into the coop and killed several of the chicks. It was horrible but we have made improvements and they are happy now running around inside. The dogs have calmed down, I don't know that they will ever all just be friends but we can hope! We have 86 chicks left and can't wait until the kids can come and name them. We are in the process of building a sandbag chicken coop. If anyone has experience with building with sandbags we would love a helping hand!

A vision

When I was 16 years old I had a vision. The vision was of a farm in the middle of a large open space. A sanctuary really. All around the main building were children with animals. The children were learning to care for the animals and this caring was in some way healing them. Since then that vision has become a part of me. It is something I carry deep inside and it drives me. I can feel it's pull in everything I do. Years have past and so much has changed from 16 to 26. Living in Mexico, I have made a small family here. My Husband, born and raised in San Miguel, is passionate about the environment and the horrible things that are happening around us, pollution, deforestation, wasteful water usage. Our daughter is almost two and passionate about just about everything, especially chickens. We have dreamed and studied together since we met five years ago but with no land or money our dreams seemed like a very distant reality. But then a miracle happen. We connected with old friends of mine, a beautiful couple from the States that have a house on one hector of land between Rancho Viejo and Palo Colorado. They are still very active in their lives in the States and needed someone to take care of the house. The house needed a lot of work but months after we moved in, one day out of the blue I looked up and realized that this house was the farm in my vision! We are now living in the house and together with the support of our friends are working hard to create our dream. Now the questions I need to answer are who are the children and how with very little money can we successfully create this healing place. We need this farm to be for the children. A childrens garden, a magical place where they learn to grow from seed their own food and flowers. A toolshed with a cubby for each child to hold their boots, hats, tools, and baskets for collecting eggs. A weekend Day on the Farm Workshop where they learn to milk goats, harvest vegetables, cook food and make yogurt. They learn to care for the animals and each other. We could have a craft hour and make cornhusk dolls and birdhouses from gourds that they grew and dried themselves. I believe this natural connections are essential and can truely heal.
We have the base, we have the drive and the passion what we need is help. If this is something that interests you please let us know. Our email is elrioseco@gmail.com Please any interest is welcome!