Snow, Snow and More Snow
Donna Carey shares her experiences of Winter at the Mothership.
My life this season has been about shoveling. Snow, snow, and more snow; as we shovel paths, roofs, cars, and entrances to buildings. We are fortunate to have a tractor outfitted with plow and chains, although that does not help with the paths to the growing dome, root cellar, and between our many buildings. It is challenging to keep the property plowed, sanded, and de-iced. Since we run our business in this rural high mountain community our staff, UPS, and FED EX, need to get safely up the driveway and back outDespite our best efforts, we often end up pulling neighbors and staff out of ditches, and they pull us out from time to time. Sande and Ellen have both been stuck in the ditch at the bottom of our steep driveway. Yesterday, it was my turn. I hit a patch of ice on the sharp curve into our valley skidding into a deep snow pile. Almost everyone who passed stopped to see if they could push us out, or shovel us out, but we were truly stuck. One neighbor, driving his small car offered to go home and get his truck, but we had already placed a call to our neighbor who was on his way with his truck and quickly pulled us out. Living remotely we depend on one another and it was heartening to see almost everyone stop to offer assistance.
Despite the challenges that this weather brings, there is a magical beauty to the light and shadow on pristine fields of new snow. It is also great to put on snowshoes and walk for miles in this winter wonderland, observing fresh animal tracks and snow-laden trees. Throughout December and early January sunny days were rare. Storm followed storm, but today and many days this past week despite the cold and wind we have had bright sun reflecting off the snow.
Growing Year Round in a Growing Dome
I share this weather report to emphasize the contrast between the wintry, bitter cold and what is unfolding in our 33
’ geodesic growing dome. Although the fig and Meyer lemon tree are partially dormant, there is an abundance of fresh cold hardy vegetables. Even with bitter cold outdoor temperatures on a sunny day it will reach 70 plus degrees Fahrenheit in the growing dome. Currently, we have all types of greens, lettuce, chard, and three types of kale, Dinosaur, Red Russian and traditional Blue Curly. We also have three varieties of spinach: Galilee (an heirloom spinach from the Middle East that is very yummy and prolific), Olympia, and Tyee. We are also producing carrots, parsnips, beets, cilantro, parsley, and lemon thyme. Using our abundant crop of Meyer lemons and garlic from the outdoor gardens.
Ellen made a large batch of Mojo de Ajo, a garlic infused oil with citrus that is a foundation to many simple meals including tacos with winter squash and chard, and all types of lightly sautéed greens. There are fresh ingredients available every day for creative vegetarian meal planning. Recently we’ve made all types of hardy soups and stews largely from stored vegetables in our root cellar and fresh picked vegetables from the dome.
Tuning Forks and Chimes Enhance Vegetable Production
In order to facilitate growth in the winter, we incorporate the use of sound vibration from our tuning forks and hand chimes. In October and November, high frequency Mars/Earth Day or high frequency Mars/Venus tuning forks were applied to seeds for germination. Soil in the growing beds was enhanced with mushroom compost and nitrogen rich super food (dried algae collected from our pond). The wooden planting beds were then treated with direct applications of Low Pluto/Nibiru as a probiotic that gets deep into the workings of the Earth and Low Sedna Unison to deepen the impact from the dried algae. The entire dome was also treated with Mars/Venus chimes and in December, when we had lots of snow, short days, and very little sun we used the high frequency Solar Octave around all of the plants in the dome. The Solar Chimes were used throughout the dome to create a sense of warmth and light. Now that the sun has returned and the days slowly grow longer, we see increased daily growth. The dome provides fresh, healthy, organic food every day that leads us to try many creative recipes. When our neighbors are snow bound we have much bounty to share, as well as home made wines (which will be featured in a future blog). Living and running a business so remotely we depend on our neighbors so it always feels great to share.
It’s a wonderful gift!
