Breaking the ice

My wife and I moved to Springer, NM, in the northeast part of the state, in July. We ran away from Maryland, which had been home for over 20 years, leaving behind kids and grandkids, and tons of miscellaneous stuff left over from a life in suburbia. We’ve fallen in love with this place, so we’re staying. We live on a 35-acre ranch, which we rent, and Andi works 45 miles away as a nurse practitioner.

Part of the rationale behind the move was to give me time and space to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, after full-time wage slaving to get the five kids to adulthood in one piece, which Andi and I accomplished more or less successfully. 

The point of all this is to say that I’ve decided to become a writer/publisher; there simply aren’t any paying jobs here, so I have to invent my own, which is a good thing, though difficult. Something about old dogs and new tricks applies, I think.

I’m going to talk about and around the subjects of 21st century homesteading on the Santa Fe Trail, and on building resilient communities in post-Peak Oil America. I’ve done a ton of reading and thinking, without much in the way of feedback, which I gather isn’t all that unusual. Folks tend to get that glazed-over look when the conversation turns to TSHTF or TEOTWAWKI [if you know the acronyms, you know the look]. I don’t consider myself either a Doomer or a capital “S” survivalist, but these are serious times, and we’re heading for even rougher ones, and I’d like to succeed and help my friends and family do the same.

I picked up a Permaculture certification in 2009. I was on the road after leaving my wife and family and ran across the first ever two-week class at Pine Ridge, SD, so I went. I learned a bunch, mostly on how to start looking at land in order to make permanently productive settlements. I intend to get stuff out of my head and onto the ground here at Taylor Springs.

I also learned that I really loved and missed my wife. We got back together in October 2009, and now here we are, working on our relationship and just being with each other, for the first time since we were kids together in love in the mid-‘60s. It’s been said that addressing a midlife crisis by marrying your [junior] high school sweetheart is the height of folly, but that’s what we did, and I wouldn’t undo it, and I’m forever thankful that I haven’t managed to by my own selfishness and stupidity.

At any rate, this is Post #1 of TaylorSprings.blogspot.com, which I hearby dedicate to my wife, my family, and to you, dear reader. Let’s see where this vehicle takes us.