Opt-Out.

   

    We are not what most would consider the rebellious type. Although we have strong feelings about a plethora of issues, you won't likely find us in the picket lines, chained to heavy equipment or sitting in a tree (unless, of course, there is some fine looking fruit up there!). There was a time when I wished that I was more outspoken. I once envied those who possessed bolder personalities and could fearlessly shout their views to the world. I still appreciate those who can.  Indeed, broad sweeping reform requires the voice and action of those who can rally support and shake an indolent political system into action. Rebels like these are both commendable and vital, but the world needs rebels like us too. We may have a quieter and more passive role to play, but our actions are no less valuable and can be equally influencing of change. I am talking about passive resistance, I am talking about the choice to opt-out.
      Our world is so connected today that it is virtually impossible to be unaware of the many conflicts and injustices in the world. We are constantly bombarded with pleas from all sides of countless issues whether they be political, social, ecological or philosophical. It is so overwhelming much of the time that I believe we have developed an apathetic auto-response to shield ourselves from the chaos. To some extent this is necessary. Our resilience, however, may be both our greatest ally as well as our greatest obstacle to moving forward. The trap of our apathy is that we can begin to feel that there is no use in trying to change anything when there is no possible way that we can change everything. This is especially true when it seems that everyone has a different solution to a problem, or even worse, there are no apparent solutions at all. This trap is avoidable, and for me, the greatest reason to side-step apathy is purely a selfish one; it feels great to live and to grow on the the principles that you hold closest.
      On the face of it, opting-out is simply choosing not to participate in something you don't agree with. But for Heidi and me, opting-out has become a kind of mantra and a life philosophy. For us it's about much more than simply not engaging in the things we don't believe in. Although non-participation is at the heart of it, it is more about taking a different course. It's about being true to our feelings and making a commitment to engage in proactive opposition. Choosing a new path really boils down to these three actions: learning, living and teaching. I would like to share one of our own experiences so that you may better understand what I mean.

Some of the fruits (and veggies) of our opt-out labors.

     For years now we have been aware that the food we purchase in supermarkets is not often produced in a way that lines up with our principles.  Sustainability, humane treatment of animals and fair wages for workers are all ideas we believe in. The problem was that for a long time our ideals did not align well with our actions. While we were actively thinking about these issues and claiming to support them, we were simultaneously purchasing products that represented the complete opposite approach. It was easy to turn a blind eye, to make excuses about cost and convenience, to not think much about our contradictory actions and simply go with the flow. Our entire industrial food system, after all, is setup to encourage us to do so. I remember on several occasions actively avoiding books and movies that documented truths about which I was already suspicious. By avoiding these truths I hoped to avoid taking on additional guilt and the nagging and intimidating push to change. I think that it was this active ignorance (a trait which I disdain) that finally convinced us to take action, or in-action as it may have been. Our choice was to stop giving so many of our hard earned dollars to institutions that go against most everything we believe in. Our choice was to opt-out.
       This decision was not a distinct point in time but an evolution over several years and it continues to be refined today. As I had expected, I was happy to shed some guilt every-time I passed on the conventional produce for organic options. What I did not expect was the way I would feel inspired to take my ideals even further. It didn't just feel good to "do the right thing", it felt great! I began to read those books that I had been avoiding for so long. Instead of burdening me with guilt, they cheered me on in my pursuits. What started as buying organic carrots when they were on-sale at the grocery store eventually led us to seeking local, in-season produce from farmers markets. Our appetite for good food grew voraciously as we began to search for locally pastured and processed, meat, eggs and dairy. Eventually, this led us to seriously pursuing gardening, hunting and raising our own heritage breed chickens to fill the freezer. It is hard to believe, but that simple choice to opt-out of factory farmed carrots has precipitated an expansive vision that truly defines a huge part of our lives. Opting-out of the industrial food system gives us both satisfaction and purpose, but the experience has given us something even more valuable. We have been given a frame-work by which we may pursue all of our principles and ideals.

Happy chickens just taste better.

       As I mentioned earlier, there are three distinct actions that have materialized from this process of opting-out. The first is learning. Learning has been ongoing and endlessly inspirational. Books, magazine articles, blog posts and documentaries have all been essential in solidifying our opinions and guiding our journey. I am not only talking about taking bits and pieces of evidence that support the views we already have, but also exploring opposing views. It's not about choosing a side, but creating your own side. It's about crafting a position that you feel is right and that is worth pursuing in every way. Our ideals are not set in stone, but should be nurtured and encouraged to evolve. Living by your ideals, the second piece, may be the most important and the most satisfying action to practice. Learning inspires living and living inspires learning. It is a wonderful cycle to get stuck in. Finally, there is teaching. Teaching is one part of opting-out that has more recenlty become apparent  in our adventures. I am not talking about proselytizing, necessarily. In fact, for many, the old idiom "teach by example" is plenty. I believe that on many levels living by your ideals is teaching. But you may find, as we have, that you have an overwhelming desire to share your ideals, visions, mistakes and victories with others in a more active way. This sentiment is not rooted in some altruistic mission to save the world. It simply feels amazing to share something that feels so right and maybe with a bit of luck, to also leave a tiny wake of inspiration along the way.
   
      Have you ever felt the desire to opt-out? What have your experiences been? What lessons have you learned? Please feel free to share. 



This post shared on: The Homestead Barn Hop  

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Taking Flight

   Yesterday the air felt different. I took a break from the power tools and saw dust that have been consuming my waking life (and many of my dreams) for the past few weeks to take Ryder-Dog for a quick jaunt across the field. The steady warm breeze had eroded the remaining snow drifts into the elongated shapes of a white sandstone desert. Though the the brown grass that is beginning to emerge remains fixed in lumpy frozen ground, it wont be long now until the land begins to wake. The sun hangs around a bit longer everyday. Birds are impatiently and excitedly caroling at the slightest break in the late winter weather. It feels like it's time to move forward.

    After two years of living-in and working on this project that we call home, our school bus conversion is finally nearing its completion. This week we are putting the final coats of paint on our new cabinets and trim work. The interior will be completely finished! While we have already traveled through several western states and logged thousands of miles on highways and back-roads alike, we are now planning our greatest bus excursion yet.

Click map for larger size.

         Leaving in early June, our intended route will take us from Montana to meander across the country and finally land in Vermont sometime in the early fall. The route on the map above shows our general intentions. We want to leave our plan fairly open to pursue whatever opportunities arise in the coming months and during our journey.  Ideally we would like to spend some of our time volunteering at farms/places of interest along the way, while also embracing the freedom of the open road and enjoying all of the spectacular country we will be cruising through. Some of the highlights of our proposed route include:

• Portland, Oregon, to visit friends and family (especially our new niece due June 10th!)
• Crater Lake NP, we lived in Oregon four years and never made it there. Pathetic, I know.
• Ashland, OR, we have heard many great things about this area.
• The Oregon Coast, we hope to stop at some farms along the way.
• The Washington Coast, all the way to the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic NP.
• Mt Rainer NP
• The Northern Cascades and the Leavenworth WA area, because we love mountains :)
• Missoula, Mt. and the Bitterroot Valley, hoping for a farm stay here.
• Yellowstone NP, because you can't see it too many times.
• Southwestern Colorado, our least explored part of the state. Anyone want to show us around?
• Santa Fe, NM, yum chile peppers.
• Northern Texas and Oklahoma, any suggestions?
• Fayetteville, AR, to visit family especially our nephew Xander!
• Nashville, TN, the birthplace of bluegrass music. Enough said.
• Great Smokey Mtns NP
• Ashville, NC, looking for a farm-stay
• NYC, not so sure about navigating that beast with this beast, but I've done crazier things (I think).
• Boston and Massachusetts, to visit family, Noah and Seth our nephews-in-love.
• Vermont, for friends, family and the beautiful colors of fall in the Green Mountains.

        We are making a list of potential places to stay and volunteer. We would love to explore anything related to the interests that we have mentioned on this blog. Our interests include (but are not limited to) organic farming, permaculture, biodynamic practices, homesteading, green building, small-scale renewable energy (solar, micro-hydro, wind), beer and wine making, small space design and living, intentional communities, any related journalism and writing, cheese making, animal husbandry, and all things related to food and cooking, especially Slow Food. If you or anyone you know might be interested in hosting us, please send us an email ( just click the "Email Me" button in the side bar) or leave us a comment on this post. We are open to anything. Although we cant offer any monetary compensation, we are very happy to trade labor, knowledge and some good conversation for a place to park our bus. We will be documenting the experiences, people and places of our travels on this blog. Thanks for checking in!

Promises of spring in the greenhouse at Full Circle Farm

 

Building Small (Small Space Design)

        Many of our readers have expressed interest in scaling back and living in smaller homes. We have taken this to the extreme by moving into a 250 square foot bus which accommodates ourselves our two pets and most everything we own. We introduced this concept in our earlier post Living Small. Through trial, error and research, we have learned a lot about the importance of good design in a tiny home. The smaller the home is, the more important it is to use your space well. What we have found is that there are some fantastic consequences in thinking and building in this manner that could be applied to any space, large or small. What we have discovered is that our small space is comfortable to live in, easy to clean, reduces clutter and has a completely unique feel. In this post I will take you through the process my thinking, designing and building a cabinet to fit our small space.

This is an image from Google SketchUp which we used to create our floor-plan.

     We are nearing the finish-line on the interior of the bus (the exterior is a different story which is waiting for springtime). One of the last major interior projects is a cabinet that will fit above our dinette. The purpose of this cabinet is to house a pile of miscellaneous items that we use on a fairly regular basis. Until now, these items have resided in a box in the storage area underneath our bed. This makes them difficult to access and creates clutter in our storage area. The goal is to make these items accessible and organized in a manner that does not crowd our tiny space. The cabinet will also serve as a platform to mount one last set of LED lights over the table area.

This is the space where we want our new cabinet.

     There are a few things to consider when approaching a small space project like this one. The following are questions I ask myself when designing a new feature in a small space. These ideas are based on my own experience as well as many other peoples examples.

What space is available?: Even in a tiny home like ours there are a few areas that are rarely, if ever, used. The area above our dinette is one of them. You can really only sit down when you are next to the wall of the dinette, so this is one of only places on the bus that we can have overhead storage. There is no useful wall space for anything else, so why not turn it into something beneficial?

Will the design element make the space feel crowded?: This is a major concern for us and one of the most difficult issues to address. With a space that is just one step away from feeling over-crowded, we need to be very cautious about adding anything new to it. We have avoided the threat of claustrophobia by providing a lot of light. We 5 windows which is a lot for our small space. We have also used lighter colors on the floor, ceiling and walls to reflect this incoming light.
    Just like in a larger house, compartmentalization makes the over-all space feel small while open floor plans tend to maximize it. This concept is compounded in tiny homes. Even though much of our floor plan was pretty restricted by the challenges of putting plumbing in a moving vehicle, I still tried my best to keep the sight-lines open. There are few places on the bus that you can't see from one end to the other, thereby maximizing feeling of space. We did use some partial walls to give a feeling of separate areas without crowding the overall space. While we have basically accepted that there is NO privacy inside the bus, aside from our tiny bathroom, one might remedy this with curtains which could serve as moveable walls.
   For this project, the planned cabinet location will work well within these parameters so long as I keep it fairly shallow.  By doing this, it will not restrict the view out the window while standing up nor the view to or from the bed area behind it. Visualizing this can be very difficult and we have found that using simple cardboard mock-ups can be helpful in judging how the element will affect the space.

How does the design add to the space?: This is the fun part for me. Since we really need to use every inch of usable space for functional purposes, we don't have much room for decorations like pictures and paintings. For this reason, I have found that adding a little artistic flare to the design helps to keep the space from feeling regimental. While squares are by far the most efficient use of space, they don't make a small space feel very comfortable. I figure since we basically live in a nest, why not make it feel like one. We already have the curve of the bus ceiling, so I have carried that feeling through many of my designs. Just a simple curved shelf or wall cut-out can make a square cabinet fell a bit less boxy and a little more organic. For the dinette cabinet I will continue this concept with a gentle arch over the table. I also want to add a little extra artistic element that will individualize the space and offer something interesting to look at (more on this later).

The Process: 
     After answering the previous three questions I am ready to start designing the cabinet to fit the space. I begin by making a very basic sketch of my ideas. It is a very rough approximation just to get my general vision on paper so that I have something to work from. My first sketch below shows the basic elements in the general space. So far I like the way that the cabinet fits. I also add some curved shelves to the right end of the cabinet as well as underneath the right side to give the whole space a rounder feel. I like the idea off having three compartments because it will center well over the table. I also am considering leaving the center compartment open as more of a display shelf since we don't have a lot of that kind of space in the bus. I also think that by leaving it open it may add depth and not feel too encroaching.

A basic sketch of my idea. 

    The next step is to refine this sketch with accurate dimensions. As I mentioned before, one of the most important things to consider in designing for a small space is how everything will have its own organized spot. The best way to do this is to physically lay out the items that you are designing around. I gathered all of the miscellaneous items from under the bed and started to arrange them in a way that I thought might make sense for a long narrow cabinet.  I took note of the dimensions of the larger items for use later on.

Some of the things that will be stored in the cabinet that we are making.

    Now it is time to get some real measurements and come up with an actual design. I go back to the bus armed with a tape measure and some scraps of cardboard. By using the Item dimensions I have an idea of my minimum height and depth. By holding the cardboard up at various locations (mimicking the potential face, bottom and sides of the cabinet)I get a better idea just how much space I can use without crowding or making it difficult to maneuver around. I write down the final dimensions and its back to the drawing board. This drawing is much closer to scale which allows me to actually see how the cabinet will look in real life and allows me to make changes simply by erasing instead of cutting new boards! After a lot of erasing and re-drawing, I have something that will fit all of the dimensions and fits well enough in to my original vision. I also add some cut out shapes along the bottom edge of the cabinet which will be back-lit by the light underneath. This will serve as the artistic piece I had wanted to incorporate into the design. 

Final drawing.

 Building:

    The fun is in watching your design come to fruition. It always amazes me when a fuzzy idea materializes into a physical object. I make a few minor changes in the design because reality always works out a bit differently then you think it will on paper. I decide on using the moon phases for the cut-outs because of the design symmetry and that I think an illuminated moon will look pretty cool! When I have got the face of the cabinet made, I position it in the bus to make sure I haven't made any miscalculations or want to make last changes. Fortunately I am happy with it and continue building.

I start by tracing the cabinet face design then cutting the moon phases.

Face frame cut!

    Once I have almost all of the pieces, I put it up again with a couple of screws to make sure every thing fits. With a little trimming it should work well. I also realize at this point that the center bay just feels like it is missing a door and it will make it safer when we are moving. I decide to go against my original idea (which isn't always easy) and add a middle door.  

The first "dry-fit"

Construction completed with doors and shelves.

 

Curved shelf detail.

  Now for the best part! Stand back and appreciate your work! All it needs now is some paint. There are a million-and-one ways to approach a project like this one, but I hope that I have given you a few considerations for small-space design. If you have other ideas or projects that you would like to share, please leave a comment. I hope to post some pictures of the bus interior after it is all finished in a few weeks, so please check back! I'll leave you with a couple of nighttime views. I think it came out pretty good :)

Many thanks to Tammy and Jeff for letting me use their shop. It"s so much better then working outside in the winter!
  

This post shared on: The HomeAcre Hop

One Gallon of Raw Milk...

          Last week marked the beginning of our own personal dairy revolution. Heidi and I have always had something of a love-affair with dairy products. Cheese, butter, ice-cream and yogurt are all way up there on our list of favorite foods. This is not going to be a post debating the virtues and risks of raw milk consumption. There is plenty of info on the web concerning raw milk that is written by people with far better credentials then I. Realmilk.com is one great resource for info on this subject. All I will say is that knowing the farmer, the farm and the actual cows that our milk comes from has increased our appreciation of dairy products in ways we never thought possible. The product is natural, it's healthy, an actual person is accountable for its quality and above all, it is unbelievably delicious. I can also say that some amount of lactose intolerance may not be an issue with raw milk. Our raw milk farmer is a living testament to this.
        What I want to focus on today is the amazing possibilities contained within a single gallon of raw milk. What really precipitated our experimentation was actually one of the disadvantages of raw milk. Since raw milk has not been pasteurized it has a shorter shelf-life than store bought milk. Seven to ten days is generally a good range to count on provided you keep the milk as cold as possible from the moment of milking. Our milk provider distributes milk by the gallon. Since neither of us drink copious amounts of plain milk, we needed to find other methods to consume or preserve our precious resource before the week was up. We have been making yogurt regularly for over a year now and we have no problem devouring a quart of the stuff each week. The only difference in making raw milk yogurt is that you do not heat the milk above the ideal culture temp (110 degrees) in order to preserve the beneficial properties of the milk. You may heat it to the point of pasteurization if you wish to extend the life and/or reculture the next batch, you will simply lose some of the benefits (and risks) of raw milk. Lisa Lynn of the Self Sufficient HomeAcre blog recently made a great post about Making Raw Yogurt.

A ball of mozzarella ready for the freezer or pizza!

          So one quart went to making a delicious raw yogurt. We use about a quart of plain milk for our daily use in breakfast cereal, coffee, cooking etc. What to do with the other half-gallon? How about cheese? We looked for the most straight forward recipe and found an easy one for mozzarella. Although traditionally mozzarella was made from cultured water buffalo milk, most mozzarella today is made from cows milk. You can make a great quick mozzarella without using a culture. We used this recipe from the New England Cheese Making Supply Company. For me, cheese making is like going back to high school chemistry class except that the results are edible and there's no lab grade to stress out about. There are some amazing things that happen in a pot of milk when you add heat and something acidic. Seeing the curds separate from the whey and then making those curds into a crazy stretchy substance that is ultimately a delectable, melty pizza topping is a truly awesome experience. The only problem with making cheese is that you only get a baseball sized hunk out of a half-gallon and what remains is a greenish liquid by-product called whey. It feels like a complete waste of precious milk. But don't worry, a little searching turns up all kinds of things you can do with whey. For one thing, you can make more cheese! Ricotta is made from leftover whey. By heating the whey to a higher temperature and adding a bit more acid (citric acid or vinegar) the whey releases a fine flaky curd that can be strained to make ricotta.

Ricotta draining in a soft cheese basket

        At this point we had a quart of milk, yogurt, mozzarella, ricotta and whey, but we weren't finished yet. We just so happen to be experimenting in fermenting our own sour kraut. It turns out that whey makes an excellent starter by encouraging the growth of good lactobacillious bacteria which is key to successful fermentation. You can learn all about fermented products and procedures at the Wild Fermentation website. Whey also makes a great substitute for the liquid in bread recipes since it boosts the protein content and helps it form a nice brown crust. We also used left over whey to soak and cook beans, which makes them more digestible and adds great flavor. We saved the bean cooking liquid in the freezer to make soup stock later on. There are even more uses for whey listed on the Prairie Homestead website

Whey, the bi-product of cheese making.

Using whey as a fermentation starter for sour kraut.

       

           So just to recap here. With a single gallon of milk in one week we made: 1 quart of yogurt, 1/3lb of Mozzarella cheese, 1 cup of ricotta cheese, started a batch of sour kraut, made three loaves of bread, used a quart of whey to cook beans and make soup stock and we still had a quart of milk leftover for daily use! Pretty cool, right?

Just a few uses of raw milk from left to right: whey, ricotta, mozzarella, yogurt, bread and sour kraut.

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A Visit to Pine Needle Farm

Heidi, Ann Keenan and me during our farm-stay at Pine Needle Farm

        
         If you look at a map that shows the topography of Montana, you will notice a flat depression nestled into the mountains of the state's north-west corner. It's like some giant thumb left its mark on the Rocky Mountains long ago. This thumb print is an enormous valley which the locals refer to lovingly as The Flathead. Glacier National Park crowns the north-eastern side of the Flathead Valley and the southern end is defined by the largest natural freshwater lake in the western United States, aptly named Flathead Lake. If you head west out of the Flathead you will you soon be confronted by the Salish Mountains, a sea of beautiful forested mountains rolling toward the panhandle of Idaho. The Salish Mountains are largely accessible only via an immeasurable network of mostly defunct logging and Forest Service roads that snake like veins up into the hills. It is on one of these remote roads, very near the top of Wild Bill Mountain that you will often find Ann Keenan tending to her flock of nearly 60 cashmere goats. It was here in this remote and idyllic landscape that Ann and her husband John carved out a 20 acre parcel that they now call Pine Needle Farm.

An early morning view of the Flathead Valley from Kila

       

          It was late in August of 2011 when Heidi and I arrived from Portland, Oregon to Pine Needle Farm in our half baked school bus conversion. Even though we were no strangers to rural and wild places, having settled into the urban lifestyle during the previous four years, I would be lying to say that we weren't a little intimidated by the move. We had been acclimated to a fast paced and social environment where we could find any of life's necessities in a short five to ten minute walk from our home. Pine Needle Farm is no such place. The winding gravel road leading to the farm climbs up, out of the valley and far away from civilization. The closest public building is the Kila (pronounced ky-la) elementary school, where Heidi is currently teaching. It is an arduous half-hour drive from the farm. To get to a grocery store, its best to plan on at least 45mins one-way. The land is tough yet inviting. One might say the same of our gracious hosts Ann and John Keenan. Ann is a commanding woman with soft blue eyes and big smile that seems as though it could warm the Keenan's straw-bale home through the long Montana winter (if only it were that easy). She is the type of person who could milk a goat with one hand, crochet a cashmere afghan in the other and simultaneously prepare a delicious meal in the home's wood-fired oven. Ann's husband John is a slender man, clean shaven and adorned by round rimmed glasses. John has an athletic build that seems made for professional bicycling, which consequently suits him very well. Although he is not actually paid to ride, John is something of a biking legend in these parts. He has worked in a local bike shop for twenty-two years and has made the 40+ mile round trip commute by bike, from mountain to valley and back, on virtually every day that there was no snow. Ann handles most of the farm animals and domestic tasks on the homestead. John takes credit for building the home's off-grid solar power system, gathering much of the ten cords of firewood required for heating and cooking each winter and presides over many of the gardening tasks. In recent years, John has spent much of his time on the East Coast helping his aging parents and taking advantage of a stronger economy to help pay off the farm's debt. This leaves Ann in charge of the farm with an occasional hand from interns such as Heidi and myself.

A stunning fall view from Pine Needle Farm

        The farm itself is built into the hillside. As you climb the steep driveway through a handcrafted wooden gate you are suddenly surrounded by goat pasture. The pasture is only distinguishable from the  forest by a welded-wire fence on its perimeter and its distinct lack of undergrowth. Oregon grape is about the only small leafy plant that the goats will rarely touch and so it thrives in this open preserve under a dense canopy of Larch, Doug Fir, Pine and Aspen trees. Nearing the top of the drive to the east, a large hay barn is perched on one of the few level spots on the property. It is surrounded by smaller goat pens each containing clusters of small shelters built from used pallets and plywood scraps. More than 50 goats mill about doing what goats do best. Eating. During the summer the goats are free to range the twenty acres keeping the forest mowed back and filling themselves like balloons. During the winter when the greenery has long past, they wait eagerly in their pens for the next load of hay to come rolling out of the barn. When the delivery finally arrives they flood in upon it with total indifference to each others spiraled horns and to the poor sap pulling the cart. Having been this person many times now, I would have to agree with Ann that the goats are both the best part of living at Pine Needle as well its greatest challenge. Goats have no lack of personality for better or worse. While some are gentle and personable, others are shy and timid. There are a few who will do absolutely anything to make your life more difficult. These don't usually stick around for very long as they better suited for the crock pot. More than a few times I heard Ann threaten a particularly cantankerous goat with an impending trip to the freezer.

Heidi braving one of the goat pens with a bucket full of grain (i.e. goat candy)

         While Ann's famous goat roasts are indeed delicious, that is not the primary purpose for the goats on this farm. Ann raises cashmere goats which are prized for having some the softest and warmest fiber of any animal on the planet. As Ann puts it, after being spoiled by cashmere, even merino lamb's wool feels course. Every winter, the goats grow a thick wooly coat that keeps them warm and seems to almost double their girth. In the early spring when their cashmere naturally begins to shed, each goat is painstakingly combed, much like grooming a dog, to collect their precious fiber. The color and texture of each goat's fiber varies from one to the next.  With a trained eye, Ann can look at a single strand and judge the fibers quality based on the hair's length, thickness and its crimp or waviness.

Ann meticulously combs a goat in "full cashmere"

        Many would see life on Pine Needle Farm as the quintessential and romantic vision of "the simple life". For Ann, however,  life now is far more complex and "civilized" than the humble roots from which the farm first began. When Ann and John first arrived in 1994 the land was completely raw and untamed. All that existed was a rough road leading to a dead-end logging access that had not been used in many years. There was no electricity, no water and no neighbors aside from the resident deer, mountain lions, bob cats, eagles and bears. What the land did provide though was precious solitude and breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains and forests. Despite the clear challenges, Ann and John fell in love with the land and the price was within their tight budget. They quickly erected a platform on which they placed their 16' x 18' canvas wall tent in the early spring of that year. Their plan was to "rough it" in the tent while they proceeded to build a house that summer. As it turns out, it took a bit longer to get their finances together and start building. And so, for three-and-a-half years they lived in the tent, collected water from a spring six miles away, and kept a small wood stove burning continuously to stave off the winter's chill. For the first year they lived illuminated exclusively by candles and flashlights. The following year they built a tiny solar electric system to power one florescent light.

Summer on the farm.

     
        Although Ann reminisces about those simpler times, I don't get the idea she would now want to go back and abandon their cozy hand-built home. With its thick straw bale and plaster walls, a large solar array that can easily power most modern conveniences, and large wood burning cook-stove, the Keenans live comfortably off-grid year-round. Instead of hauling water and hand washing laundry, Ann dedicates much of her day to the goats and to her blossoming cashmere business. Both the cashmere business and the goat herd were things that evolved gradually. Not long after building their home, Ann was invited by a friend to look at some goats that were for sale in the area. Ann and John had read a bit about the topic in periodicals such as Countryside Magazine and Mother Earth News and the idea of diary goats intrigued them. That trip with her friend was just the beginning. She purchased three dairy goats that day and hurried home to construct a place for them to live. The goats were a good fit for the mountain life since they are useful for clearing undergrowth (a dangerous feature in areas prone to wildfire) and they are well equipped to handle the steep, rough terrain. A few years later Ann took on a small herd of cashmere goats. She began to experiment with spinning their luxurious fiber into yarn and then stitching together beautiful crocheted items. Beginning with some surplus goat's-milk soap that Ann had made at her sisters request, she tried selling her goods at the local farmers market. It wasn't long before her display table was also brimming over with hand spun yarn and other cashmere products.

A cashmere hat raised, refined, spun and crocheted by Ann Keenan

            Today, the herd is nearly sixty goats strong and the cashmere production line is complete with the acquisition of a "dehairing" machine. This machine is a very large mechanical contraption that consists of a series of rollers and brushes with a conveyor belt that pulls the raw cashmere through it. As the cashmere passes through the rollers, the stiffer "guard hairs" are removed. What remains is only the finest cashmere fibers that fall from the belt in puffy clusters which are appropriately referred to as "cloud". Cloud is the raw material that can be spun into yarn. Ann sells her cashmere as cloud, spun yarn, as well as hand-made crocheted products. Most of the sales from Pine Needle Farm are now sold though on-line outlets including the farm's own website pnfcashmeres.com.





        Having lived at Pine Needle Farm for eight months, I can attest that the lifestyle, while challenging at times, also produces a bounty of satisfaction.  As Ann put's it,"It's a very rewarding life". She even goes as far as considering herself spoiled in a life which is, quite literally, lined with cashmere. You couldn't pay her enough to live anywhere else. Her advice to others who are interested in pursuing a similar lifestyle is to "just go for it". According to Ann, based on her and John's experience, its good to embark on the homesteading journey with some savings for a safety net. She goes on to say that nothing ever goes quite as it is planned anyway, so you may as well jump in without over-thinking it. Judging from Ann's fantastic smile, she just might be right.

The pros and the cons of living in a goat pasture.

      You can read all about the adventures at Pine Needle Farm on Ann's blog pnfcashmeresblog.blogspot.com. If you are interested in purchasing cashmere products or participating in a farm-stay, you may contact her by email at ann@pnfcashmeres.com

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