What came first?

This week our family has had a very serious babysitting gig. Serious in this case is synonymous of New, Important and Eye opening. Our disclaimer is this: We are not country folk. I grew up around horses and fields and grandpa grew a garden. Our family heritage is that of cattle ranchers and horticulturists, and I love me some dirt, big time. But I knew nothing of the improvisation and the constant labor of blood, sweat, death, and love that comes from taking care of many animals and watering systems and crops and weather... Since moving to our new digs, 3 1/2 years ago, so many things have been new and eye opening. Not the least of which has been living next to a farmer who is welcoming to our family learning from this totally foreign and fascinating way of life. Things that are completely normal and mundane for our favorite farmer show me daily that my kids were so sheltered before coming here and being afforded this amazing learning curve. So this has been a science unit indeed for my kids. Admittedly, they mostly try to keep up with me as I move them along through the routine that is keeping many animals large and small alive, but they help sometimes and learn little things here and there. The most important lessons we are remembering right now are: "Don't chase that (insert whatever animal it is)...", "You can't hold it if you're scared of it, because you'll drop it", and "If you're going to come in here, you have to learn to be bossy with the dogs."

These are some of our babysitting subjects:  

 

Bart is a tender heart who is often mistaken for a bully. If he looks huge to you in this picture, he's about 3Xs as big as you think. And 3Xs as sweet. He's in the truck waiting for his boss, who won't be home for some time.

Molly begs for treats, because that what she does.

Howard the shy burro ate out of my hand today. He doesn't know it yet, but we're going to be best-buds. I bet he's a really good listener as long as you make no sudden moves.

 

The biggest learning curve of the week has been with these little babes. They are a-hatchin like hot cakes. This morning we spent most of our homeschool time watching one of them break through his shell through the window of the incubator. Then we came home and watched lots of Youtube videos to make sure we can keep them alive for the next few days.

Monkey Business

One thing that sets this year apart from others for us...Is not Covid. Though for Ariel it's part of his motivation, I don't mind the idea of kids going to school wearing masks. They can do hard things. It wouldn't be the end all and be all of their education. A very big part of doing homeschool this year is that we found people. Other people who we don't hardly know, but give the impression of being loving and accepting of kids on a journey to learn. All of them have or are kids at different ages, levels, personalities, and capabilities.  

Unfortunately with writing about homeschooling, you're going to get an earful of the why.Why we're homeschooling...Everyone has a different reason. But first, because now I'm a homeschooler...(and I can't tell you how good it feels to say that...) Why were my kids in public school? Because the school here did a pretty darn good job of getting the basics into my kids. They were exposed to lots of other kids that my hermitish nature never exposed them to before. If there were a Homeschool conflict (which never happens) between exposure and protection, exposure would win in our family. I'm of the idea that kids need to be exposed to lots of things to prepare them for life. Protection comes in other forms. Protection from abuse, protection from physical harm, but not from people on the whole, not from most germs or viruses and certainly not from ideas.

We found some people. They had a whole year planned before we even got on board, but have welcomed us in our late, running to catch the bus, kind of way. But we are so excited for the things they have planned. Once a week we'll do Shakespeare, archery, birds and bunnies, and currently...monkeys! We havn't read chapter books aloud since the dvd player took over the car on camping trips...And this has given us the best experience. My kids choose everyday if they do a puzzle or a coloring book and just listen to the story. We're reading Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls with the people we found, our homeschool co-op. Other books are planned for the year, providing us with a perfect morning routine. I lack in the routine area, so someone giving me this perfect excuse to give myself just enough of a routine to create sanity for my kids with has been ideal. 

Today, along with the other science topics we've researched by way of Youtube videos, we watched a few about Monkeys. Specifically, the invasive species of monkeys, the Rhesus Macaques, and tried to imagine what it would be like to have 30 small monkeys grabbing and biting us all at the same time.

Nadaremos....Nadaremos...

You may remember a line from the classic Disney movie Finding Nemo where Dorie and Father clown fish are doing what they do, looking for the small clown fish. Dorie says in a sing songy tone, "Just keep swimming...Just keep swimming..." 

This line was somewhat humorous, if I remember correctly, from watching it in English. But the first time I saw Finding Nemo in Spanish... The line took on, what was for me, an entirely new tone and meaning. I hadn't been speaking Spanish for very long and so the fact that I could actually watch a movie in a foreign language and understand all of the words and meanings, I'm sure, contributed to the overall hilarity and significance of this menial play on words. I remember listening to that part of the movie, understanding it, laughing my head off for a few minutes. I might have laughed so hard I cried...or peed... And even though I still think it's funny, it mostly means something to me when I don't know what is to be done...

Right now, I don't know what is to be done. At the risk of dissecting the proverbial frog: In Spanish, the translation for the word 'swimming' is 'nadar'. The translation for the word 'nothing' is 'nada'. It's not uncommon in many Spanish dialects to pull words together, blending the sounds to make a new word, keeping the same meaning as the complete word. In this case: "nadaremos" means simply: "we swim." But take the two words 'nada haremos' blend them together like a gaucho, it comes out "we do nothing".  I know. Hilarious, right? Yes, I know you're rolling in your chairs...But tonight I've explained in words what in my head has been rolling around and making me laugh for over 15 years. I don't often explain what I laugh about. It would mean letting out a few small dangerous animals that I feel much safer keeping caged. 

But there you have it. What on earth is to be done? With a deadly virus, hundreds of conspiracy theories being let loose on a believing world, a catastrophic political climate, and the culmination of our civilizations historical prejudice and privilege being fanned with an oil cloth, corruption at the core of it all; Here I am. Trying to raise my family, find a little joy, and learn something useful as I go. What is to be done? Nadaremos...

So with that I introduce my blog. It's a couple years old, but it tells a sort of story. No need to even look, but it began as a way to publish work toward my bachelors degree from Utah State University and write with an eye to creating an open exploration of what we want to create in our home. 'Palenque', which translates to 'holding post' is the name we've given our home endeavors. Right now that includes our dreamy little homeschool. So this takes on the form of documenting and expressing what we do and what we feel with this new adventure. 

My heart has always been a homeschooling heart. Somehow (with a hellovalot of work) I fell into a home that is ideal for adventures with animals, biology, dirt, food, stars, and many other things worth exploration with younglings. And this year, my husband (other Disney character) Ariel is far enough along in his hard earned education that he finally wants me to do it. The collision of all these things puts me into a place where homeschooling is fully supported by both responsible adults living on the premise and makes sense. Not having to send my kids to wear masks for 7 hours a day, or contributing to negative factors of large groups of people gathering during a pandemic is just an added bonus of fulfilling my dreams. 

So without further adieu, and before my family wakes up and realizes I am not in bed: What do we do, when nothing is to be done? We do nothing and we just keep swimming. 

Palenquito

Original Post from October 2018

The Holding Post is our sanctuary. It is where we contemplate and plan and make the future of our family. As the cold breathes it's chill on my home and surrounding trees, transforming their vibrancy into brown leaves.  Their roots finishing off their storage of starches and next years buds with every days sunlight growing shorter and shorter.

I wonder nostalgically for the life that has left and contemplate the future of this plot of ground. We've taken from the ground: toys, many hundred shards of bricks, rotted wood, door handles, drawer pulls, hooks, pulleys, rusted rails that once closed irrigation trenches... All small pieces of the history of our home, the people who lived here. We've found photos of the original inhabitants and seen the glory of the home's history in the garden and leaves climbing up intricate but humble woodwork of the late Victorian Pioneer home.

Now the bricks are falling from the front window sill and the paint still keeps markings from nests of wasps and swallows as a memory of transformative life. We slowly erase the signs of neglect and wildness taking over in the form of unpruned branches still giving apples, though smallish and late. We collect the brick shards and rusted metal machinery. We've tilled the ground where dolls shoes and boys shoes were buried and made tiny holes for beet seeds and onion seeds. Tomatoes have risen up in place of thistles and wild licorice weed.

All the findings are sorted. Doll shoes and boy shoes give us a smile as we toss them in a pile to be lifted by children doing chores into trash bins.  Metal pieces and anything that has withstood the test of many years thrashing rains and wailing winds, go into a pile for me. I make the future of this ground, the face of it. What I want to present it and what I want it to mean and I'll do it in the form of sculpture. Show history in found objects. Everything now takes the form of what will be; the planning, the ideals, the sanctuary...at least in our minds. I consider the future of what was and what we are as a family.

The Holding Post. El Palenquito. A place to tie up your horse and take refuge.

Our family is mixed. We bring to this area of Sanpete county the blue blooded soulfulness my cattle ranching grandfather left me from 20 miles south. We mix it with the warmth of my husband's South American culture, food, language. We teach our children where they came from. Every time we see the old home my great, great  grandparents built, we show them it was built of the same stone cut from the mountain East of town. We teach them in the photo of the couple standing on the porch of our home over 120 years ago, hanging in the entryway. We wonder if they crossed paths with my own great great grandfather. To bring in the culture of Argentina we use the language, though sometimes it might as well be ancient Greek. We name our great adventure Palenquito to bring something my husband and I both love to a place that means forever to us.

This might be our manifesto, but I'm too shy to be so bold. As I unearth yet more toys and machined metal parts, I'm discovering that what I really need in this place, is a place to belong. I'm learning how to let myself belong in each section I till and smooth over. I feel safe. I no longer have nightmares about roads or rivers or wild animals, and I hope that a sense of belonging will come in time because I really, really love the life I'm living in this Palenquito.

Tools of belonging

I am in need of an outlet for words. A way to clarify and find my way. Words do that for me sometimes. Tonight, a few minutes ago, I tried to go to bed. I started thinking about my grandpas tools, because my Dad gave some tools to us the other day and some of them were my grandpa Jack's. I remember asking my grandpa for help once cutting the table legs shorter for a table that Ariel and I had bought. I worried that I would regret cutting the table short, because I really liked the idea of a high table. I never looked back, practically. It was too hard to find comfortable chairs for a high table. My grandpa took Ariel and I out in his garage and I remember my fascination with his tools. he gave Ariel a sander once and some other random tools. I know that I have always been fascinated by things that other people might consider unimportant. But I know my grandpa considered tools important and so do I. So I keep that sander like a priceless relic, even though my Dad later gave me another just like it, which my grandpa had given him, so apparently my grandpa had a ton of them because he collected things which he deemed valuable. Who knows how many more red Craftsman hand sanders he had. One of the most useful tools I've ever owned...

As I lay thinking about sleep, and my grandpas tools, thinking about how some people are willing to impart knowledge and how my grandpa probably had no idea how I regarded his tools and his expert use of them. The memory of being with him as he expertly cut my table legs shorter, explaining why the angle and which side it should be laid on to get the right floor contact and leveling, thinking maybe I should have been inside talking to my grandma Helen, but remembering how I really just wanted see how my grandpa would accomplish the task, I was flooded with the sensation of belonging. Even though my grandparents came from a different generation and women being in love with tools wasn't something they could related to, I felt their home was a place where I belonged. Laying in my bed I felt a sense of belonging and an acute loss of people that in reality, I lost years ago. For Helen it's been 10, for Jack it's been 3; but they are a part of me and I miss them. They appreciated me. And I felt like I belonged. I recognize that it might be helpful for me to write a list of things that make me feel that comfortable, reassuring belonging that I am in need of. And maybe, it just might be time to send my words out into the webwaves. 

Our Vision

1 1/3 Acre residence and community sourced market garden, apiary, demonstration, teaching, and U-pick it gardens.

Mission Statement:

Strengthening Community through learning, use, and teaching of Art, Soil, Plants and Sustainable Practices.

Palenquito

A Palenque is a holding post. It's a place to tie up your horse and a place to hang your hat. To us Palenque also means a refuge from storm and a place to call home. Palenquito is, affectionately, the name we give our home, gardens, school, etc. Located on 1 1/3 acre of what was once considered the bread basket of Sanpete County. This little oasis is located in the unincorporated township of Chester. In a community that struggles regularly with drought but boasts a natural stream, Oak Creek, which is fed throughout the summer to irrigate surrounding fields and livestock. The original owner, David Candland, was the founder of Chester and though the home has seen plenty of changes over the years, we're proud to continue the legacy he started through homesteading 140 years ago. This small strip on the highway was a booming farming town after he proved up the first 160 acre corner of Chester beginning in 1874.

When we moved to the property in December of 2016, it was a sad, uninhabitable house. We put a lot into rebuilding the portions of the house that were damaged by years of misuse and vandalism. These efforts renewed the historical aspects of the houses interior. Now we seek to give the outside of the home the same care and attention. We hope to add cultural value and a unique presence building up to the following:

• Palenquito Gardeners Market, a community sourced market stand situated on the highway. 
• Market Garden
• U-pick raspberries and apples
• Pollinator Habitat
• Sustainable Seed Library
• Blended naturalized ornamental landscape and  demonstration garden
• Art studio
• Small scale production greenhouse for spring vegetable starts
• Teaching and Event pavilion/ Air B&B

We are a family enterprise with deep roots in both Sanpete County and South American culture. We seek to bring the best of what we love to Palenquito through our love of 'la Pacha Mama' and all she offers. This historic corner of Sanpete will serve our community and beautify it for present and future generations. We will be a resource for the community for local food and culture, using the things we love: We strive to grow food, make art, and better our habitat and environment through responsible stewardship. All through our little gardeners market Palenquito.

Strategy for Success:

We envision returning to the homesteading staple of self sufficiency; providing for our own from our own, encompassing the local community. Currently the closest grocery store for all surrounding towns is 15 to 25 miles away in Mt. Pleasant. Locals know that eventually you'll see everyone in there because everyone eventually has to stop in. We seek to add richness to the local food climate by giving people from Chester, Spring City, Wales, Moroni, Ephraim, and Fountain Green among others an alternative to eat fresh, in season vegetables, produced here in the valley using sustainable practices. Change doesn't happen in one season of growing, so we intend to let people know we are here before we put all of our energies into producing vegetables. We've already identified a few artisans and successful gardeners who we'd like to invite to contribute including producers of local cheese, artisan bread, soaps, sheeps milk and honey along with successful vegetable gardeners.

Palenquito Gardeners Market is located in the center of Sanpete County at an important crossroads in a visible location. But even so, Sanpete is made up of small communities where much of the population has lived here for many generations and word of mouth governs spending habits and activities, based on long held relationships and communities. Our goal is not only to create a successful business but to become part of a greater community by establishing a permanent presence. Though the location is visible, there are many paths to take to get from point A to point B within the valley and many businesses fail because no one knows they are their until they're gone. Because we are a family operation with small children and a lot of work to do in our own 'proving up' efforts, it will be key to take it slow and steady. What we have to offer will be useful and interesting and represent our vision. Signage, visible to passing cars, will clearly state what we have to offer. To open up our store we'll offer vegetable starts and seeds, soon followed by greens, carrots and early harvested produce. We'll also offer other plant related items such as essential oils, gardening tools, hand salves and locally produced soaps. We'll open up our doors to sell on the honor system beginning mid May of 2019. 

Palenquito Site Evaluation

Considerations:
 
Climate:
Average lowest temperature °F                                 25 F
Average highest temperature °F                                76 F
Last Spring freeze Day                                              June 10
First Fall Freeze Day                                                 Sept 18
Number of freeze-free days                                      103
Site Slope % Aspect                                                  both production garden plots level, other slopes                                                                                       along stream bank and on North West corner 20-                                                                                     50 degree slope.
Low spots                                                                  N/A
Microclimate factors                                                 1/2 property shaded, natural ripoarian areas. See                                                                                       notes for microclimate

Soil:                                                                         
Texture:                                                                      Clay Loam and Silty Clay Loam 
pH:                                                                             site 1: 1.11, site 2: 3.57
Salinity dS/m:                                                            site 1: 7.7, site 2: 7.9
Organic matter %:                                                      site 1: 5.0% site 2: N/A

Water:
Water Type:                                                                Well
Time period available:                                                Year round
Amount inches:                                                          4 acre ft.(xs 12 inches)
Salinity dS/m pH:                                                     

Labor Availability                                                      N/A
Owner hours available per week hours                     15
Hired hours hours                                                      N/A
Economic Target market:                                          Road Side Stand
Primary Secondary Capital investment:                    Greenhouse:                   $5000   
                                                                                   Art Studio including
                                                                                   kiln and gas line:          $10000 
                                                                                   Teaching Pavilion:          $5000
                                                                                   Primary Residence:   $130,000

Site 1: Orchard garden plot, Site 2: cold frame garden plot

Micro climate analysis: Heavily shaded areas of mature trees. Natural stream running year round accept when diverted for irrigation or drought. Trees provide protection from winds and low temperatures, stream changes pressure and keeps air flowing, raising temperature. Where other parts of Chester are a sink for cold air, stream and many mature trees create microclimate a few degrees warmer, buffer for cold.

Soil analysis:
Site 1: Low Nitrogen in soil, recommended to add 2-4 lb per 1000 sq ft. While Potassium and Phosphorus were High and Extremely high.

Find crops that grow well with less nitrogen and very high phosphorus and high potassium, add compost for nitrogen, organic matter, additional micro-nutrients.

Site 2: Low Nitrogen, high potassium, very high phosphorus, very high salinity. Recommended, leach out excess salt with adequate irrigation water.

Soil Problem Possible Explanation Site 2: This site was chosen for it's optimal sunlight exposure, access to loading, unloading areas for compost, supplies etc. However when land was being cleared previous to last years growing season there was a large amount of rubbish found both on surface of soil and buried. Concluded that this was a dump site of sorts for property. Further soil tests required to test for other contaminants counter indicative to using space for growing food.