Thank You and my First Farm!!!

 
            More progress!!!  I got my desktop up and it survived the bounce and heat and whatever else was going on in that trailer while I was driving!  So, below is the first farm video – simple, but a beginning.

            I’d like to add again my thanks to Patty and Zack for hosting me and not asking me to do too much.  I arrived a bit out of sorts and hadn’t yet acclimated to the heat – it seems they were not hot flashes but just hot!

            I did learn quite a bit in my week there – besides who could fix what on the trailer!  I learned that Patty’s form of natural horsemanship is very similar to the dog whisperer’s approach and her animals are most appreciative.  They all follow her around like one big pack – two mini horses, several chickens, a dog, and Bart the turkey (though he moves much slower than the rest!)

            I also had the information reinforced that working a farm and growing crops is not a one-year prospect.  There is a lot to learn about your soil, what the market wants to buy, and the weather to support it all – which as we all know seems to have a mind of its own this year!

            Also, thanks again to everyone who has been my friend the last 8 years in Crestline and for all your support in getting me out and over here to New Mexico.  I do miss home very much, I am a routine and structure kind of girl and it’s been hard having very little of either.  The mountains and the lake are also very much missed, there is great comfort in the familiar and all the memories that they hold.

            I am also so incredibly grateful to my mom and stepdad.  Without their love, support, and faith who knows what would have happened this last year!  And with my stepdad on speed dial ready to share his trailer and trucking experience as I lumbered across the desert – most needed and appreciated. 

            It’s only been three weeks, but it feels like a lifetime has gone by.  Just a few short hours ago exactly three weeks on that Saturday, I was crying as I said good-bye to my mom and taking off in an over weight trailer and not nearly the experience I would have like to have had in pulling one!  Then it was up a long climb in Indio where I overheated, well, things just went wrong from there!

            But, I did make it to my destination, even if it is a bit south of where I originally planned!  The best laid plans as they say….but with one farm under my belt I feel much better in knowing what to expect and am excited to keep learning as much as I can!

            As a preview here in these parts there is a wolf sanctuary, a 100% off grid earth ship that’s been built, and some spectacular scenery I’ve been promised is close by!  Now that I’ve found the video camera, unpacked the computer, and seemed to have calmed down from the frenzy of the last few weeks – we’ll see what comes next!  I hope you all stay tuned and share what you like with your friends. 

            Much love, gratitude, and blessings,

            Jill

September 2, 2011 - Advice on the Road

            I have noticed an interesting phenomenon as I’ve traveled across the states to arrive not in the place I had not planned.  It is the approach to which others seem to view my journey.  There are two main camps.  Those that acknowledge the adventure and see the possibilities and those who are quick to point out all the problems I am sure to encounter along the way.

            My first weeks were so fear filled that I am sure I attracted the negative outlooks more readily, but it is a good analogy for the way we each view life.  I know for myself I have trained my brain from years of social work and other chemical and wiring issues to look for the problems.  I can see many of them a mile away.  Sometimes this works in my favor because I can plan accordingly.  But it also works against me as law is impersonal and can only follow the vibrational stance I offer.

            Even this morning as my RV home neighbor began to pack up to get ready to pull out, he was full of advice I could do nothing about.  “You’re sure asking a lot of that Bronco pulling that trailer.  Yes, Fifth-wheels are much better than what you’ve got.  You can’t winter here in that thing, you’ll freeze to death.”  These were his comments throughout our brief conversation.

            I have already traveled the hard part of my journey, so getting a new truck and new trailer and a new hitch, none of which I can afford, really are not options for me.  And as far as life many months from now, how can I know where I’ll be at that time when I can barely keep up with what is happening right now?

            This journey has been full of advice I can’t use and at the same time spotted with encouragement I really can benefit from.  The mechanic who sang the praises of a Bronco, though he was not so enthusiastic about the life left in my trailer!  The few who got that freedom was the key to all this and not the recreation of an old life I already know how to live.

            There was a woman who stayed just one night that I am sorry I didn’t get to talk to.  I thought she was with her husband, but it turned out she was on her own.  She looked much closer to 90 than 70 and was traveling in an old RV closer to 30 feet than not.  She must have weighed all of 85 pounds as she walked across the park with her very lively little black dog.  As she pulled away, her RV made the kinds of noises that makes you cringe thinking how it could pull itself up the hill – but up into the hills was the direction she drove.

            But she was living her life without the kind of fear that I felt as I began and I wonder how she found her courage to move forward no matter what.  I wonder what kind of advice she would have given – the kind that was focused on all the things that could go wrong and that I shouldn’t do or the kind that just says go for it!

            In hindsight I really didn’t know what I was doing and it was on a wing and a prayer I got this far safely and relatively in tact.  Yes, things broke, overheated, stalled out, and were highly uncomfortable – but we all made it and we are all okay.  Besides, I have learned more in these last few weeks than in all the months I spent preparing.  It is in the journey we learn, not in the preparation.

            One of the biggest messages I got coming here was “NO ONE gets to their dreams alone.”  I’ll keep saying it over and over because it is true.  In The Course in Miracles, we are told that Relationship is the Holy Temple of God, not a place or an idea that is singular or on its own. 

            And every interaction and piece of advice is each of us in relationship with each other.  We can support the dream or try and tear it down.  That doesn’t mean we don’t help when advice is asked for, but do we really need to offer it when it’s not?

            I’ve talked a lot about the idea you can only stand in one of two places, the problem or the solution.  But without problems how would we know where to pivot to next?  Without problems what need would we have of each other to create relationship?  Problems are just the starting point, not the main point.  Problems are not what we need to look for, they will appear on their own as steps to guide us where we need to go whether we think we do or no!

            All of this is training me to be much more gracious, patient, encouraging, and open-minded as I go both with myself and with others.  Who am I to say what each of us can and can’t accomplish no matter how broken down or ill-equipped we may be?  And isn’t that really the point?  Faith is not built by avoiding what we fear but by facing it and moving forward anyways.

            We don’t get to our dreams alone and neither can we get to Truth, Love, or Heaven on our own.  Every exchange counts.  Every observation gets recorded.  Every moment is another chance to choose who we want to be in our life and the lives of all we share this world and beyond with.

September 1, 2011 - Here's what went wrong...

           Quick update as it’s almost 1pm and time to go get into the trailer torture chamber with the cats while we wait out the heat of the day!  If I don’t get the door open soon, their temperature enclosed isn’t fair to them, so we all sweat together!

            Today I took pictures of the damage so far from the trip on the trailer.  Some is fixed, some not – apparently when you bounce a few  hundred miles in a 40 year old trailer, things shake loose….hmmm maybe that is why some of my parts are all a little more south and a little more broken too?

Lost two dust cops, the mechanic added the duct tape!

            When the floor fell on the tires, the mechanic welded in a two inch piece to lift it up –that seemed to work for that section, but not the front and back end.

            When I put water in the water tank a few days ago, it started leaking in a few places.  

 I tried to fix what I could see with JB Weld Wet and a Plumbing tape that seals, but the real problem is the bottom of the tank I can’t see which is still leaking three days later.   

And lower and lower it sinks thru the floor....

Now my fear is the tank will fall through the bottom of the trailer floor – every day I check it, it is sitting lower and caving in more though most of the wood floor damage was done before my time.   

Needless to say there is only imported water inside the trailer, but luckily things do drain out without making a mess!

            Inside some of the paneling fell down and is now being held up by all the blankets I brought and may never need to use if this heat doesn’t break soon!  There are a few other minor fixes, some shelves which fell down on top of the tire and the hole where the tire broke thru (some of that hole had been there already but wasn’t nearly that big!).

Here's the hole, the wire is covering it so the cats can't get out!

            The man who fixed the shelves turns out to have built the only earth ship passive cool/heating house in town – what are the odds!  I promptly invited myself over and with him being so shy and quiet not sure if he didn’t want me to come by or not?  But he only charged me $10 for 90 minutes work plus materials – really?  I gave him quite a bit more.  My philosophy is you shouldn’t have to lose money while doing work for someone else. 

            It cost me two or three bucks just to start my truck these days, how could he ever make a profit at that rate?  But it just goes to show the kind of kindness that still lives in and around when you look for it or rather allow it to find you.

            That’s it for today – sweating is my plans for the rest of the day!  Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get an earlier start and can upload some of the first farm footage!

 Here's the rest of the pics - 

This is where it's leaking out of three days in a row!

 

 

Here's where the water should be coming out of...

Here's where he welded as is the one below.

Here's another view of the welding.