Mmmm…. Alfalfa

Contrary to popular opinion goats do not eat just anything. Yes, they can be impish and grab a piece of paper out of your hand and start to chew it up, but when it comes to the food they ingest for nourishment they are fastidious, choosing only those hays and forages which give them the nutrients they need. We learned this quickly living in New York as we watched in dismay as they rooted through a clip of hay for that choice piece of timothy while a large pile of rejected grasses accumulated below the feeder.

Now that we are in New Mexico the goats are eating alfalfa-grass mix grown right down the road from us in the South Valley and are no longer as wasteful because they LOVE it. The three of them look great and their milk production is on the mark.

Desi with a mouthful of the good stuff.

Rainwater Harvesting at the New Mexico Xeriscape Expo

Jen and I dropped by the 2008 New Mexico Xeriscape Expo yesterday to check out the exhibitors, visit our friends Bard and Zoe at the Soilutions booth and attend Brad Lancaster’s seminar on harvesting rainwater. We bought a copy of Brad’s book before moving to New Mexico and are in the process of designing both rainwater catchment and grey water systems for our new homestead in the South Valley.

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (Vol. 1): Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life And Landscape

Brad is an energetic and gifted speaker. His talk was exciting because it was filled with common-sense (and easy to implement) solutions to managing rainwater so that it creates and supports sustainable landscapes rather than ending up as stormwater runoff that is directed away from communities and the watershed.

La Plazita Institute

In an earlier post we briefly mentioned La Plazita Institute and our participation in its community garden project called Sanchez Farm. A recent article in The Alibi talks more about this project and gives a good overview of what La Plazita is trying to accomplish with the South Valley youth.

From the article:

Word has spread about Garcia’s success with at-risk youth, and last spring semester, he was asked by then Principal—now APS Superintendent—Linda Sink to open an office at Albuquerque High School. In addition to this office, the café and headquarters, La Plazita has a rather unlikely “campus” at Sanchez Farm in the Armijo neighborhood. There, T-MAC members weed the soil and plant corn, squash, beans, tomatoes and herbs. Overlooking the farm, like a group of leafy grandmothers, stands a grove of cottonwood trees, a big stone for a picnic table and a fire circle. The cottonwood grove is a gathering place for T-MAC youth and community members. Sometimes “curanderos,” traditional healers, visit from across the continent or Aztec dancers come to perform.

Read the rest here.

Sanchez Farm Project

We’d been in New Mexico less than 2 months when Jen got involved with local community growers and volunteered me (Tree) and my trusty BCS to till up a plot in Sanchez Farm, a community garden that is beginning to take shape in the South Valley.

Below are pictures of me tilling an area for planting rasberries, fruit trees and some garlic. John Shipley (in the red shirt), a farmer originally from Missouri, along with La Plazita Institute - a not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating authentic sustainable opportunities for cultural practices and economic, educational and community development - is spearheading the effort to make the Bernalillo county-owned property a beautiful, welcoming space for gathering, growing food and enjoying open space.

Check out New Mexico’s clear blue sky! Having grown up in the northeast, I still can not get over it.

Burning Our Fears

Jen and I wrote down our fears on a piece of paper and tossed them into the stomach of El Kookooee, a 25 ft effigy of New Mexico’s bogeyman. A South Valley ritual for the past 18 years, the burning of El Kookooee takes place during the Festival de Otono, a celebration of fall and the end of the farming season. Here are some photos of us and the community watching our fears burn away on Sunday, October 28.