Open the gate pt 2

A little garden update, with some older pictures...

Found the official before picture... we hadn't touched it all

This was a couple of weeks after we planted!

Here it is today in all it's glory!!

Onions galore!

Beautiful greens!

Peas and carrots are coming!

And, I've finally figured out how to compost... basically

Our broccoli and chard are so big, I could really capture them on my camera.  This week I'm going to make a chard cheese bake!  Let me know if you have any good chard recipes.

Trapped in a Box

Community living.  Yes, this is what I signed up for.  Yes, I knew it would be hard for me.  Yes, this is what I wanted.  Or, so I thought.
I'll be honest, I don't love it.  It's not the people (I like them), it's me.  I'm realizing I love control.  I'm know I can't (and don't want to) control my housemates.  My philosophy on living with people is: you affect me, good or bad, you affect me; and I affect you, good or bad.  Sometimes we affect each other too much.
However, that being said, I do like WHY I'm living in community.  For me, I'm doing this so that I can relieve a bit of financial pressure from the public health department of this rural county (have you heard?  there's no money in public health) and only receive a small stipend each month for full time work.  Then, that money goes into the house fund and we all pool our stipends together and live simply to support each other to volunteer in the community.  I think this is a great way to do it.  I like that I'm not getting money from other people, so I have more freedom- don't get me wrong, I think that can be a beautiful thing and I've supported people... I would just have to be 100% sure about the work and the organization (which I wasn't going into this).
With that, it does make me feel weird to think about living by myself again.  I loooooove living by myself and I am sure that I will do it again.  I miss the ownership and independence of it all.  However, it will be different for me to spend that much money on just housing when (in all honesty) I could be sharing with someone and using that money for more worthwhile purposes.  I'll have to see how I can justify to myself... I'm sure I'll figure out something!

But I do enjoy this...

...although hopefully people will come over for dinner, right?!?

Open the gate

... But not to deer!  Our house has taken on a task that may be a little over our heads, but still exciting.  We've started a little veggie garden in our backyard!  Now, just so you don't get your hopes up of a huge harvest later this season, you need to know something about where I live: it's a high altitude desert!  I'll be happy if even half of it turns up.  However, it seems to be doing ok so far (it's been about a month!).  This afternoon we did our first hoeing of weeds- we'll have to do that more frequently from here on out.  We had our first visitors over the weekend:  deer!  Luckily, we can enclose our back area.

I'm excited to see what will actually pop up.  We planted onions, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, chard, peas, carrots, radishes, basil, and cucumbers!  Oh, I hope I can one day just go outside and get my salad or ingredients!

While our backyard is quite active, our front is something of an eyesore.  There are a few aspens which are nice, the tree we planted for Chloe (it survived and started to bloom!), and a few flowers around her tree.  However, the rest of the area is straight up dirt that  only has some weeds.  Maybe one day we'll get some grass going, but for now I want to concentrate on useful plants!

Making the rows

Planting onion starts

Broccoli!

One month later!

Onions

Broccoli and Chard

P.S.  I don't mean to make it look like the guys aren't helping... they were there just didn't make it into the photos, sorry!

I get one every year

It was my birthday on Sunday, I'm 26!  It's been a while since I've been so calm about turning another year older.  I think the last time was when I turned 21, it's been downhill ever since, hehe.
I had a good weekend away.  We took a retreat to Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp outside of Colorado Springs.  It was soooo beautiful there!  We stayed in a little cabin in the woods.  On Saturday we made waffles (our house thing) and went on a couple of pretty light, but nice, hikes around the camp.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing then making yummy food.  There were some games there and I picked up a box of Trivial Pursuit questions and just started asking, not playing the game or keeping score.  Man, that was fun!
It's funny to think about where you're "supposed" to be in life.  I remember telling Chloe "this is what I'm supposed to be doing" and she quickly turned into the carefree 20 year she was and said "you should be doing what you want, not necessarily what you're 'supposed' to be doing."  Well, I don't think I really think about it in the sense of "what does society tell me to be doing at this age?"  I think more about "what is really important to me and is that a focus in my life?" because that's what I should be doing- what's really important to me.  Well, I'd like to think I'm doing that.  I thank God for giving me this opportunity to have the freedom to focus on what really matters and what is important to me.
Am I where I thought I would be at 26?  Not necessarily.  Am I doing something I'm proud of?  I think so.  Have I taken advantage of life?  For the most part, yes.  I am where I'm supposed to be, even if it isn't always exactly where I am "supposed" to be.

We can live comfortably

Another wonderful weekend, this time it involved not doing much at all!

The whole house was able to go out to a cabin about an hour and a half away in the mountains. It was really nice to really not be doing anything, to not run from place to place, and just hang out with my housemates. We made waffles, played games, read a lot, walked across the frozen Rio Grande, and had some good fellowship. Alice, our house coordinator, also came for a sort of halfway point regrouping. This was a good time to reflect on our expectations of the program, our jobs, and each other. I am very thankful for this time away.

Our (town) was too small

So we had to move! I'm happy to tell you that we are officially residents of the booming metropolis of Alamosa! It's about 15 miles north of La Jara with a population of 10,000. All my housemates can now walk to work and my commute is about 25 minutes shorter. Pretty much our lives are in Alamosa- our friends, church, work, shops, etc. Our house is also really great- open and bright. Our house in La Jara really didn't have that much natural light, but this house has huge south facing windows in all the common rooms. We've been here for 2 weeks and have already had many people over (our church meets at our house as well) and people can just drop by to say hi! It will be just nice to be part of the larger community out here and be more connected. My favorite part? It's 4 blocks to my coffee shop! It is sort of weird that we're sort of starting this house here after volunteers have been living in La Jara for about 30 years. Here's to new traditions!

I'm excited to be going to Seattle at the end of the week! With the move and this trip, it gets me thinking about "home" and community. I like living here and I like why I'm living in community, however I miss Seattle and I miss living by myself. I've been alone at the house all week and it's made me realize just how much I miss living alone- I miss the freedom and the sense of ownership. While my community here is solidifying, I don't really know where home is or what that really means. When people ask where I'm from, I say "Originally, Seattle". Seattle is more home to me than anything else, I guess. I can't wait to be there for 5 full days!

May I present, the NEW MVS house in Alamosa...

The kitchen with lots of counter space:

Our welcoming living room:

My room! Yes, it's a bit smaller:

And, just to remind you that I'm living in Colorado:

Love from Alamosa!

If you lived here

I have a new home- it's a house! This house has been hosting volunteers for over 20 years, so we are known in the area. I will tell you more about La Jara later, when I know more about La Jara (it's small, but hard to get to know).

Here is our kitchen. There's lots of storage and we often find fun random things from years past!

This is our living room- I can't wait for winter and using the fireplace!

We have a little front room where I like to sit and read, Chloe will sometimes play the piano which is nice.

This is the "green house" AKA storage room for bikes and recycling. We recently reaaaallly cleaned it up, it was getting pretty bad.

My room! It's nice and big with lots of storage! I love the windows with lots of light and birds outside!