Green Fields

It's a windblown day on the mesa with storm clouds scudding across the Buttermilk's. It's been an unusual June with more rain than usual and cooler temperatures and the grass in the fields surrounding the mesa is thick and knee high. All the cows and horses are happily grazing on the lush growth.


I think of the green fields of Massachusetts today. Our family farm in Western Mass. was a farmers dream. The soil was black and rich and everything would grow in profusion. Out here on the mesa we do our best with planters, soil and manure infused beds and lots of spirit! We've broken a few shovels on the dirt they call soil here! We celebrate rocks here on the mesa incorporating them into rock gardens and use boulders as focal points. We stack them and make walls and the lizards use them as sunning spots and do their funny push ups on them.


Back to Massachusetts and my childhood...My father had a special talent with roses. In fact my maiden name was Rosell which had to do with roses. We had old roses growing on the picket fence in the yard and roses in beds. We also had old lilac bushes against the barn- white and purple and a stand a good 20' in diameter elsewhere on the property. The scent was heavenly. Just picture our back yard with apple and pear trees lining it, a raspberry patch, an asparagus patch and a crop of potatoes for our own home use, a prolific garden everywhere else. Every 4Th of July would find me and my friends shelling bushels of peas for canning and freezing. We are Swedish, so we'd always make saft- a thick fruit juice that we'd bottle for drinks (non-alcoholic) and syrups. We did it all. Waste not want not was our motto.
We'd have sauerkraut-making parties with our neighbors and put it up in large crocks. We'd do some pickling the same way, make a party out of it. We'd have lots of desserts to nibble on too.
There is something to be said for sharing and conversation and the successful outcome of such a homely project. It wasn't work to us...it was fun!
We have eleven tomato plants, more than half are heirloom varieties, in containers. We have tomatillo's and a variety of peppers in beds; lettuce, beans, a lone eggplant, and zucchini squash all in planters and a small herb garden with essentials near the back door for easy clipping. Its been years since we've had a decent garden. Hopefully we'll have a good yield and then maybe we'll have a party to make salsa, tomato sauce or pickles with our family and friends and
start a new harvest tradition all over again and even if we don't... we'll still have a party and celebrate being together.

Adaptability...making the most of where you are!

If ten years ago you would have told us we would be living in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains we would have thought you were crazy! Sometimes Life picks you up and carries you to a new place and you have to do your best to adapt to your new home.

Our first nine years found us living at an elevation of +8,000' next to a creek, deep in the woods with bears and an assortment of wildlife. Life in the mountains is a circle of springtime wildflowers, summers by the lake, colorful Aspens in the fall and wild and windy winters with deep snow. Living in the mountains is work; wooding 4-6 cords a winter for the wood stove, keeping a pantry, and in the winter shoveling and more shoveling. You know it's deep when the snow you throw by the shovelful comes right back down on top of you because the bank is too high for you to throw it over. Coyotes used to stand on the snowbanks and look down into the house at the cats. Unnerving for the cats! The rewards though are many; the satisfaction of learning and knowing how to take of yourself; walking in the woods under a hush of freshly fallen snow; going to sleep with the sound of water rushing down the mountain in the creek; seeing two big black paws and a big nose of a bear peeking at you from over the deck railing; sitting in front of a wood fire while the winter winds howl outside. It was quite the experience.

Now, once again we find ourselves in a new place, not far from the first but so completely different it's like night and day. We moved down the mountain to an elevation of approximately 4500' to the high desert. We live on top of a mesa, Mustang Mesa. To the East the White Mountains, to the West Mt.Tom and the Buttermilk's. The landscape is sagebrush and rabbit bush and rocks, lots of rocks. I'm not going to lie but we found this new place a bit bleak and scary in the beginning. Old gnarled, overgrown sagebrush, dead trees, dirt and arid landscape made for a depressing view when one was used to towering pine trees, wildflowers, and rushing water. It didn't help that no one had done anything to the yard in a very long time. I wouldn't step off the patio before looking carefully for anything slithering! Scorpions on the walkway and walking across the bathroom vanity, black widows weaving webs everywhere, lizards doing their strange push-ups...I'm telling you I was downright jumpy!

Of course you have to get yourself settled first. Day to day schedules and life take precedence. You have to start exploring your new place, meet people, learn about the history in your area and it all takes time. Then one day you start to see things differently. You notice a different plant, a new bird, a piece of volcanic rock with a perfect vent hole through it. The wind picks up every afternoon at a certain time and all of a sudden the jack rabbits are back and the quail have tiny little chicks that they carefully watch over as they make their way through the yard. You watch the sun rise over the mountains to the East and the beautiful sunsets over the mountains to the West. We are surrounded on all sides by mountains within a round valley.

We were discussing all the varied places we have lived in our lives and how very different each was from all the others. From Southern California coastal desert to New England dairy country,to Texas Hill country. We've been blessed to experience and more so to be able to appreciate all the wonderful , varied places we've been. We feel it is important to experience a place fully. To learn as much as you can about its history, its people and their culture as well as its wildlife and environment is enriching and inspiring for yourself. The beauty around you becomes a part of you. You learn to bloom wherever you are planted.