Glass Center for Sustainability Overton, Texas

Currently we are near Overton, Texas on a lovely farm. This is a 1300 acre property with a 100 acre lake and many large fields. This is the site of Daisy Bradfords oil discovery in 1930 where there is the biggest oil field in the lower 48 states. There are two and a half acres of thornless blackberries which we personally weeded and mulched. It is beautiful here and a lot of our work has to do with preparing for spring planting.

We have been on the road for 5 months now and are not broke yet! We will be continuing our journey East and hope to be in New York by July. We are doing very well and feel like this is exactly what we should be doing right now. We are now very used to life on the road and now consider our van our home. We meet very amazing people and see new and cool places all the time. Our idea of what America looks like keeps changing. We are now seeing what it is to live a self-sustaining life and that this is exactly what we want to create for ourselves. Being on the farms is a very grounded life with low stress and simple pleasures. Going into cities has become almost a shocking experience, fast and complex. It is exciting to move onto the next farm and next part of the season with its new task, people and places. We will be heading to a farm in Mount Ida, Arkansas on February 6th or 7th in the Ouachita National Forest where a lot of quartz is found. The most exciting events that have happened here was a ghost encounter and an amazing thunderstorm with tornado warnings!

Some Pictures to Enjoy

Big Bend National Park, TX

One side is Mexico and the other is the U.S.

Carlsbad Caverns, NM

Mora, NM (Where we stayed for December and Christmas)

Beginning a New Year.

Plans for January have frequently changed and keep continuing to do so. We are still very happy and so excited for our journey to continue into this new year. Currently we are near Las Cruces (still in New Mexico!), enjoying our visit with our friend Nicole and her grandparents farm. We are getting an interesting perspective here going from a small scale intensive organic farm to a large conventional farm that sells to places like Costco, Walmart and so on. The differences are huge, not just in size but in aproach. The bottom line is the driving force. There are migrant labors, pesticides, fertilizers, packaging and distribution. To say the least we think it is really interesting and great to see where a lot of our food comes from and what it takes to get a watermelon from the farm to the store to your table.

We will be leaving soon and heading to Texas for January. We will be stopping in Austin to visit friends and then on to a farm in East Texas until February. More to come...pictures included. Internet is not easy to come by here so we are doing our best to let you know how we are!

La Sierra Farm

Life on La Sierra Farm was very peaceful and beautiful. We stayed three weeks and learned lots of new things while we were there. Winston got to explore some forestry and chain saw work. We both made our first very large book shelf that hung from the ceiling. Caitlin spent a lot of time seed collecting while sitting next to the fire in the Adobe. We learned to make bread, applesauce and canning. Our time there was a very full experience of learning, working and connecting with the land and the family there. It was a lot of fun because Winston got to reconnect with Marianna and Ania who are old friends.

Christmas was very mellow with a nice gift exchange in the morning and a potluck at the Hummingbird Ranch Community. We met some really great people and were very grateful for being welcomed into their home for the Holiday. This year was our first Christmas away from our immediate families and missed them. However the journey must go on.....