#ranchodelalibertad — Public Fediverse posts

Just released the free May newsletter, titled "On Food Sovereignty". It is at once a cautionary tale and clarion call for the work we must do for liberation - which cannot only include marching but which must include cultivation. Indigenous peoples have fought this fight now for generations, and it's time that others understand its importance and join in creating networks of aid rooted in ground and not the economies of empire.

https://rancholibertad.com/on-food-sovereignty/

This month's paid newsletter will be an original recipe honoring nopales, and trust me, it's worth paying for (and supporting our project as a result).

*Edit: reworded the clause in parentheses at the end, and fixed the title of the newsletter because my brain can't be trusted these days.

#Indigenous #FoodSovereignty #Sovereignty #Food #RanchoDeLaLibertad #PoliticalAction #Liberation #AntiCapitalism #AntiFascist

Just released the free May newsletter, titled "On Food Sovereignty". It is at once a cautionary tale and clarion call for the work we must do for liberation - which cannot only include marching but which must include cultivation. Indigenous peoples have fought this fight now for generations, and it's time that others understand its importance and join in creating networks of aid rooted in ground and not the economies of empire.

https://rancholibertad.com/on-food-sovereignty/

This month's paid newsletter will be an original recipe honoring nopales, and trust me, it's worth paying for (and supporting our project as a result).

*Edit: reworded the clause in parentheses at the end, and fixed the title of the newsletter because my brain can't be trusted these days.

#Indigenous #FoodSovereignty #Sovereignty #Food #RanchoDeLaLibertad #PoliticalAction #Liberation #AntiCapitalism #AntiFascist

Just released the free May newsletter, titled "On Food Sovereignty". It is at once a cautionary tale and clarion call for the work we must do for liberation - which cannot only include marching but which must include cultivation. Indigenous peoples have fought this fight now for generations, and it's time that others understand its importance and join in creating networks of aid rooted in ground and not the economies of empire.

https://rancholibertad.com/on-food-sovereignty/

This month's paid newsletter will be an original recipe honoring nopales, and trust me, it's worth paying for (and supporting our project as a result).

*Edit: reworded the clause in parentheses at the end, and fixed the title of the newsletter because my brain can't be trusted these days.

#Indigenous #FoodSovereignty #Sovereignty #Food #RanchoDeLaLibertad #PoliticalAction #Liberation #AntiCapitalism #AntiFascist

Just released the free May newsletter, titled "On Food Sovereignty". It is at once a cautionary tale and clarion call for the work we must do for liberation - which cannot only include marching but which must include cultivation. Indigenous peoples have fought this fight now for generations, and it's time that others understand its importance and join in creating networks of aid rooted in ground and not the economies of empire.

https://rancholibertad.com/on-food-sovereignty/

This month's paid newsletter will be an original recipe honoring nopales, and trust me, it's worth paying for (and supporting our project as a result).

*Edit: reworded the clause in parentheses at the end, and fixed the title of the newsletter because my brain can't be trusted these days.

#Indigenous #FoodSovereignty #Sovereignty #Food #RanchoDeLaLibertad #PoliticalAction #Liberation #AntiCapitalism #AntiFascist

Just released the free May newsletter, titled "On Food Sovereignty". It is at once a cautionary tale and clarion call for the work we must do for liberation - which cannot only include marching but which must include cultivation. Indigenous peoples have fought this fight now for generations, and it's time that others understand its importance and join in creating networks of aid rooted in ground and not the economies of empire.

https://rancholibertad.com/on-food-sovereignty/

This month's paid newsletter will be an original recipe honoring nopales, and trust me, it's worth paying for (and supporting our project as a result).

*Edit: reworded the clause in parentheses at the end, and fixed the title of the newsletter because my brain can't be trusted these days.

#Indigenous #FoodSovereignty #Sovereignty #Food #RanchoDeLaLibertad #PoliticalAction #Liberation #AntiCapitalism #AntiFascist

Proud mama hen hatched two baby chicks early today, and we're hoping for more over the next few days. She's staying on the nest, so she seems fairly certain more are coming!

#Chickens #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Chooks #Chicks #SmallFarm

Proud mama hen hatched two baby chicks early today, and we're hoping for more over the next few days. She's staying on the nest, so she seems fairly certain more are coming!

#Chickens #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Chooks #Chicks #SmallFarm

Proud mama hen hatched two baby chicks early today, and we're hoping for more over the next few days. She's staying on the nest, so she seems fairly certain more are coming!

#Chickens #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Chooks #Chicks #SmallFarm

Proud mama hen hatched two baby chicks early today, and we're hoping for more over the next few days. She's staying on the nest, so she seems fairly certain more are coming!

#Chickens #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Chooks #Chicks #SmallFarm

Proud mama hen hatched two baby chicks early today, and we're hoping for more over the next few days. She's staying on the nest, so she seems fairly certain more are coming!

#Chickens #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Chooks #Chicks #SmallFarm

This month's newsletter release for paid subscribers is a compilation of the six biggest things we think you need to consider before going off on your homesteading, permacultur-ing, or back-to-the-land-ing dream.

While this might sound corny, we see you. We know that lots of you are disillusioned with the polycrisis and the economic and social institutions we live under and you wish for either sovereignty or an exit from capitalism or just to get out of your day job (or all three). Alternatively, we see those of you who are just trying to figure out how to reduce your own impact while seeking to solve some of the more structural issues, because let's face it: there is a possibility that all we can do is what *we* can do, because we know that the powers-that-be really might not care that we need change.

So we sat down and thought about what mistakes we made, and what mistakes others make, and what it is that people are ultimately looking to do when they try to get into a life like this. The result is useful, we think, and we hope that if you can spare $5 you'll look into it. Any contributions help us with our own sovereignty project, and help us feed others, and help us rewild this section of the Mojave and (we hope) a big enough section to make meaningful microclimate impacts one day.

If you read it, or contribute in any way, or share it, thank you very much. We appreciate you, and you're helping to keep us going.

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #RegenerativeAg #Rewilding #Homesteading #Permaculture #IndigenousOwned #Decolonize #ClimateJustice #ClimateAction #ClimateChange #Polycrisis #FoodProduction #SeizeTheMeansOfCommunity

https://rancholibertad.com/6-things-to-consider-before-you-even-think-about-homesteading/

Hello, all! Checking in here, it's been a while! We're much more active on our self-hosted instance: @stewards

There has been a lot going on this season. We have sunflowers the size of us opening now, we brought home rabbits (rabbits!), we processed our first pig, and there is a lot to consider about the world as it is right now and how we fit into it.

There was an extremely stressful few months where it looked very much like we might lose the Ranch, but we recovered and it looks like we'll be here to stay. There are still some plans in the works as we consider the viability of certain projects here, and the shifting climate, and the longevity of our family's survival -- all of which are very exciting and which I hope to be in a position to finally share more about soon.

Our next newsletter, to be released sometime in the next week or so, is going to be on the most critical survival skills for either socioeconomic collapse or increasing supply chain pressure -- inspired by a question @fey asked us on the other server. Trust us, it won't be the things you're expecting, and I think it'll be worth the read.

Anyway, if you're still interested in following along with us feel free to subscribe to the newsletter or join us at the other instance. Any support helps at this vital juncture, and we look forward to continuing to share what is hopefully useful knowledge.

Hoping your early Spring is abundant and the appropriate temperature for your climate ~

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #Sovereignty #Community #Farm #Ranch #Homestead #Commune #ClimateAction #Degrowth

Resharing this here for anyone new who hasn't found us over on the new server yet, because it's really very worth sharing:

https://rancholibertad.com/on-community/

For anyone new following, feel free to join us @stewards, or sign up for the newsletter. We share a lot of wonderful knowledge and have some enormous updates to share very soon!

I'm keeping this account alive until (hopefully) the new instance is able to support porting over our current followers, but it's not really being updated and may disappear eventually. I might pop in from time to time to check in, though ✨

In the meantime, feel free to dialogue about our latest article. We'd love to hear your perspective, and if there are any opinions on a future installment to cover some of what we had to omit in this one.

#Community #RanchoDeLaLibertad #CommunitySovereignty #IntentionalCommunity #Commune #Liberation #Indigenous #Liberatory

Apparently chaotic gardening that is actually quite intentional:

We are digging the greywater channel deeper after adding a charcoal & rock base biofilter. This aims to reduce soil salting by minimizing water evaporation directly from the channel and forcing the water to be pulled *up* through the soil via the plant roots. Current seedlings in this basin are getting top water but when their roots can be expected to be slightly deeper they'll be left to only seek water from the saturated soil below. Initially I wanted to optimize for a proper floodplain but now I think intentionally incising the channel may be a strategy so long as matting roots can hold the bank against rains - we'll just have to see!

The squash mostly killed off by frost was pruned back, and the volunteer plants are frequently cut back and their stems used for mulch - you can see the slight mulch layer being built from vegetation in this site. The squash is trying to put on baby leaves again but the weather has been erratic so I'm fine if it just decomposes in place and doesn't come back, another round of beans, squash, and corn has been planted nearby and if the weather is conducive to getting a head start on the season we will have much more to harvest this fall.

The other side of the basin was seed blasted and is being mulched over with animal bedding and manure.

For this season this basin holds mostly cover crops sown for animal feed or milling, but when we can afford to we will be starting a series of trees in this basin to establish more permanent cover. Ultimately this will do more to avoid soil salting and nutrient loss, but for now simply establishing roots and working on soil restoration is a good start, especially where we can get a useful yield and bring down the cost to raise our animals.

#permaculture #earthworks #greywater #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Farming #SmallFarm #FoodSovereignty #NativeOwned #Indigenous #RegenerativeAg #Gardening

Apparently chaotic gardening that is actually quite intentional:

We are digging the greywater channel deeper after adding a charcoal & rock base biofilter. This aims to reduce soil salting by minimizing water evaporation directly from the channel and forcing the water to be pulled *up* through the soil via the plant roots. Current seedlings in this basin are getting top water but when their roots can be expected to be slightly deeper they'll be left to only seek water from the saturated soil below. Initially I wanted to optimize for a proper floodplain but now I think intentionally incising the channel may be a strategy so long as matting roots can hold the bank against rains - we'll just have to see!

The squash mostly killed off by frost was pruned back, and the volunteer plants are frequently cut back and their stems used for mulch - you can see the slight mulch layer being built from vegetation in this site. The squash is trying to put on baby leaves again but the weather has been erratic so I'm fine if it just decomposes in place and doesn't come back, another round of beans, squash, and corn has been planted nearby and if the weather is conducive to getting a head start on the season we will have much more to harvest this fall.

The other side of the basin was seed blasted and is being mulched over with animal bedding and manure.

For this season this basin holds mostly cover crops sown for animal feed or milling, but when we can afford to we will be starting a series of trees in this basin to establish more permanent cover. Ultimately this will do more to avoid soil salting and nutrient loss, but for now simply establishing roots and working on soil restoration is a good start, especially where we can get a useful yield and bring down the cost to raise our animals.

#permaculture #earthworks #greywater #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Farming #SmallFarm #FoodSovereignty #NativeOwned #Indigenous #RegenerativeAg #Gardening

Apparently chaotic gardening that is actually quite intentional:

We are digging the greywater channel deeper after adding a charcoal & rock base biofilter. This aims to reduce soil salting by minimizing water evaporation directly from the channel and forcing the water to be pulled *up* through the soil via the plant roots. Current seedlings in this basin are getting top water but when their roots can be expected to be slightly deeper they'll be left to only seek water from the saturated soil below. Initially I wanted to optimize for a proper floodplain but now I think intentionally incising the channel may be a strategy so long as matting roots can hold the bank against rains - we'll just have to see!

The squash mostly killed off by frost was pruned back, and the volunteer plants are frequently cut back and their stems used for mulch - you can see the slight mulch layer being built from vegetation in this site. The squash is trying to put on baby leaves again but the weather has been erratic so I'm fine if it just decomposes in place and doesn't come back, another round of beans, squash, and corn has been planted nearby and if the weather is conducive to getting a head start on the season we will have much more to harvest this fall.

The other side of the basin was seed blasted and is being mulched over with animal bedding and manure.

For this season this basin holds mostly cover crops sown for animal feed or milling, but when we can afford to we will be starting a series of trees in this basin to establish more permanent cover. Ultimately this will do more to avoid soil salting and nutrient loss, but for now simply establishing roots and working on soil restoration is a good start, especially where we can get a useful yield and bring down the cost to raise our animals.

#permaculture #earthworks #greywater #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Farming #SmallFarm #FoodSovereignty #NativeOwned #Indigenous #RegenerativeAg #Gardening

Apparently chaotic gardening that is actually quite intentional:

We are digging the greywater channel deeper after adding a charcoal & rock base biofilter. This aims to reduce soil salting by minimizing water evaporation directly from the channel and forcing the water to be pulled *up* through the soil via the plant roots. Current seedlings in this basin are getting top water but when their roots can be expected to be slightly deeper they'll be left to only seek water from the saturated soil below. Initially I wanted to optimize for a proper floodplain but now I think intentionally incising the channel may be a strategy so long as matting roots can hold the bank against rains - we'll just have to see!

The squash mostly killed off by frost was pruned back, and the volunteer plants are frequently cut back and their stems used for mulch - you can see the slight mulch layer being built from vegetation in this site. The squash is trying to put on baby leaves again but the weather has been erratic so I'm fine if it just decomposes in place and doesn't come back, another round of beans, squash, and corn has been planted nearby and if the weather is conducive to getting a head start on the season we will have much more to harvest this fall.

The other side of the basin was seed blasted and is being mulched over with animal bedding and manure.

For this season this basin holds mostly cover crops sown for animal feed or milling, but when we can afford to we will be starting a series of trees in this basin to establish more permanent cover. Ultimately this will do more to avoid soil salting and nutrient loss, but for now simply establishing roots and working on soil restoration is a good start, especially where we can get a useful yield and bring down the cost to raise our animals.

#permaculture #earthworks #greywater #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Farming #SmallFarm #FoodSovereignty #NativeOwned #Indigenous #RegenerativeAg #Gardening

Apparently chaotic gardening that is actually quite intentional:

We are digging the greywater channel deeper after adding a charcoal & rock base biofilter. This aims to reduce soil salting by minimizing water evaporation directly from the channel and forcing the water to be pulled *up* through the soil via the plant roots. Current seedlings in this basin are getting top water but when their roots can be expected to be slightly deeper they'll be left to only seek water from the saturated soil below. Initially I wanted to optimize for a proper floodplain but now I think intentionally incising the channel may be a strategy so long as matting roots can hold the bank against rains - we'll just have to see!

The squash mostly killed off by frost was pruned back, and the volunteer plants are frequently cut back and their stems used for mulch - you can see the slight mulch layer being built from vegetation in this site. The squash is trying to put on baby leaves again but the weather has been erratic so I'm fine if it just decomposes in place and doesn't come back, another round of beans, squash, and corn has been planted nearby and if the weather is conducive to getting a head start on the season we will have much more to harvest this fall.

The other side of the basin was seed blasted and is being mulched over with animal bedding and manure.

For this season this basin holds mostly cover crops sown for animal feed or milling, but when we can afford to we will be starting a series of trees in this basin to establish more permanent cover. Ultimately this will do more to avoid soil salting and nutrient loss, but for now simply establishing roots and working on soil restoration is a good start, especially where we can get a useful yield and bring down the cost to raise our animals.

#permaculture #earthworks #greywater #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Farming #SmallFarm #FoodSovereignty #NativeOwned #Indigenous #RegenerativeAg #Gardening

We poured a lot into this new post on pigs, and who doesn't love learning more about these intelligent, sniffy, chonky beings? Check it out:

https://rancholibertad.com/on-pigs-and-integrating-new-allies/

There's a LOT going on right now including us potentially needing to give up the land and move. If you're capable of upping your subscription to the paid tier it's just FIVE dollars a month and it helps us out a lot. We also still accept donations through our (currently slightly neglected) co-owner's ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/sigillosacro. We're offering a lot of good stuff for free and we do it because it needs to be done but also any contributions help us justify the time and energy we're spending doing this instead of other things that could keep us afloat.

Anyway. Love you all, stay safe out there, and thank you for reading and sharing if you do!

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #RegenerativeAgriculture #FoodSovereignty #RegenerativeAg #Homestead #NativeSovereignty #IndigenousOwned #IndigenousSovereignty #Community #MutualAid #Pigs #Farming

Growing food in the Mojave feels a bit just like hacking the seasons and figuring out how to break the rules of certain plants. Most say plant in spring, but I'm learning that that really means "plant in December and then expect it to die off in June" or "plant in late August and expect it to die off if February gets too cold". In reality, we have a really long growing season: longer than some of the higher altitude locations nearby, and the better we can make our soil it seems the easier it is to grow... almost anything.

Though, this year we're planting a lot of annuals in addition to our existing perennials (which mostly consist of various edible cacti and mesquite tree varieties), and I'd love to hear your favorite (preferably Southwest or at least North American natives) perennial recommendations! I hope to be able to afford to source some more seeds and tubers for some perennial food crops this year, even if they take some time to establish, I want our diet to begin to shift more in the direction of food that makes more sense where we live and rely less on Eurasian-derived common annual vegetables.

#Permaculture #PerennialGarden #Gardening #Zone9a #Perennial #RegenerativeAgriculture #RanchoDeLaLibertad

I had promised a bonus December newsletter, and I just sent it out today to all of our subscribers. It's on degrowth and deconsumption, which, on the heels of this "giving" holiday feels especially pertinent and I hope you'll read it and give it a share.

This may be one of our most challenging newsletters to date: I hope that if you find yourself feeling a little uncomfortable as you read it you're able to understand that we don't want to make anyone feel guilty, but we do want to encourage lucidity and awareness of the cost of our actions. We dearly hope that it's a worthwhile read, and that you're willing to consider the points we make.

https://rancholibertad.com/on-degrowth-and-deconsumption-the-only-way-forward/

We're at a critical point financially as we close out the year, and if you're able to, please consider bumping your subscription to a paid subscription or offering a donation to our ko-fi. We want to continue to share meaningful work with all of you, and to do meaningful work here on the ground. Thank you all ~

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #MutualAid #Degrowth #Deconsumption #ClimateJustice #ClimateAction #ClimateChange #Climate #Christmas #NewYearsResolution #NewYears

We finally have an update for you all on what has been going on here! This gives a little info on why we've been so distant, what we've been navigating, and some very exciting additions to the Ranch.

https://rancholibertad.com/quarterly-updates-awaiting-the-return-of-the-light/

I hope to share some very fun pictures of our new animal residents soon, and I feel like I have a lot to say about this season as a whole that I'd like to share here rather than in a longer form newsletter.

Please email us your questions if you'd like to participate in this quarter's paid sub Q&A. Last quarter we were able to give some very in-depth answers to wonderful questions, so if you have something pertinent to your own project or goals now is a great time to learn from our experiences! Paid subscribers have also been promised a gift for the Solstice season, and if you're one of them please send us your address so that we may send you some goodies from the land.

I hope to be more active here very soon, I wish to catch up on all of your posts and updates and be a little more participatory in this community. It is almost the season, we have one more push before we'll be settling back into a routine and having more leisure time.

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #Community #RegenerativeAg #Livestock #Animals #Farm #Homestead #IndigenousOwned #MutualAid #CommunitySovereignty

Thank you to all of our subscribers for being so patient: I just released our late paid newsletter for October. I look forward to getting back on track for November!

October's paid newsletter is a brief intro to home fermentation with a recipe for preserved lemons that is definitely worth trying!

Please share with a friend and let them know paid subscriptions help us support our residents and our mission of building a sovereign community and regenerating this land for future generations. Our residents are some of the most vulnerable under this current regime, and now more than ever we're relying on your support to keep going and continue to support them in having a place to live and good food to eat so they may continue to spend their time working on community liberation.

https://rancholibertad.com/wild-fermentation-an-intro/

#IndigenousOwned #Indigenous #RanchoDeLaLibertad #CommunitySovereignty #MutualAid #Sovereignty #Liberation #Queer #POCOwned #FoodSovereignty

Meet "Cinchweed", my current favorite Mojave desert wildflower. It's beautiful, but even better, it's delicious! It has a lemony, cumin taste with a little spicy kick behind it. I've been snipping a few flowers here and there and adding them to meals here at the ranch.

Shifting our diets to include more native plants requires a little research, but is a great way to diversify our diets and begin to shift towards more sustainable ways of living.

Do you have a favorite uncommon edible native from your home?

#NativePlants #ClimateJustice #Sustainability #FoodWays #Indigenous #RanchoDeLaLibertad #EdiblePlants #Food #FoodJustice

This month's newsletter is part of our Quarterly Updates series for those who follow the Ranch's progress.

Lots of things to share this quarter, and we anticipate even more big changes come Winter.

A few big markers of ecosystem revitalization (even if currently in unbalanced states) are showing themselves, and we're incredibly optimistic about the next year and what we'll be able to do.

I'll be releasing our first Quarterly Q&A chock full of excellent gardening questions in the next week or so to paid subscribers. If you'd like to help materially support the community here and gain access to more knowledge, please consider subscribing at the paid tier to help justify the work put into sharing what we're learning as we develop this space.

https://rancholibertad.com/quarterly-updates-vernal-descent/

#RegenerativeAg #Permaculture #Commune #Community #CommunitySpace #LandRegeneration #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Ranch #farming

For paid subscribers of Rancho de la Libertad I would like to do a Q&A post this month answering any and all of your questions (from our perspectives and experiences) on:

- intentional community
- sustainable living
- gardening
- land regeneration
- composting
- animal husbandry
- any of the philosophical tenets of what we're doing

Or whatever else you can think of, so long as it's vaguely relevant to the project and the answer benefits you in some way!

If you haven't subscribed as a Supporter yet, but would like to be involved, please check out rancholibertad.com to sign up.

If no questions are submitted, we'll release a different (but still very practically useful) post for paid subscribers this month and try again next quarter!

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #Commune #RegenerativeAg #Q&A #Newsletter #Support #ClimateJustice

A passionate, provocative, and very nuanced take on whether or not it is ethical to keep livestock just sent out to subscribers. I've thought about this for years, and hope that my thoughts spur your own pontification on your relationships with all animals - pets included - and the broader context you live in.

Please consider subscribing and sharing if this is valuable, to help support our mission.

Thank you as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

https://rancholibertad.com/on-the-ethics-of-livestock/

#Livestock #Animals #AnimalRights #Regeneration #RegenerativeAg #Agriculture #Farming #Homesteading #SmallFarm #RanchoDeLaLibertad #CommunitySovereignty #Environment

A passionate, provocative, and very nuanced take on whether or not it is ethical to keep livestock just sent out to subscribers. I've thought about this for years, and hope that my thoughts spur your own pontification on your relationships with all animals - pets included - and the broader context you live in.

Please consider subscribing and sharing if this is valuable, to help support our mission.

Thank you as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

https://rancholibertad.com/on-the-ethics-of-livestock/

#Livestock #Animals #AnimalRights #Regeneration #RegenerativeAg #Agriculture #Farming #Homesteading #SmallFarm #RanchoDeLaLibertad #CommunitySovereignty #Environment

A passionate, provocative, and very nuanced take on whether or not it is ethical to keep livestock just sent out to subscribers. I've thought about this for years, and hope that my thoughts spur your own pontification on your relationships with all animals - pets included - and the broader context you live in.

Please consider subscribing and sharing if this is valuable, to help support our mission.

Thank you as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

https://rancholibertad.com/on-the-ethics-of-livestock/

#Livestock #Animals #AnimalRights #Regeneration #RegenerativeAg #Agriculture #Farming #Homesteading #SmallFarm #RanchoDeLaLibertad #CommunitySovereignty #Environment

A passionate, provocative, and very nuanced take on whether or not it is ethical to keep livestock just sent out to subscribers. I've thought about this for years, and hope that my thoughts spur your own pontification on your relationships with all animals - pets included - and the broader context you live in.

Please consider subscribing and sharing if this is valuable, to help support our mission.

Thank you as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

https://rancholibertad.com/on-the-ethics-of-livestock/

#Livestock #Animals #AnimalRights #Regeneration #RegenerativeAg #Agriculture #Farming #Homesteading #SmallFarm #RanchoDeLaLibertad #CommunitySovereignty #Environment

A passionate, provocative, and very nuanced take on whether or not it is ethical to keep livestock just sent out to subscribers. I've thought about this for years, and hope that my thoughts spur your own pontification on your relationships with all animals - pets included - and the broader context you live in.

Please consider subscribing and sharing if this is valuable, to help support our mission.

Thank you as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

https://rancholibertad.com/on-the-ethics-of-livestock/

#Livestock #Animals #AnimalRights #Regeneration #RegenerativeAg #Agriculture #Farming #Homesteading #SmallFarm #RanchoDeLaLibertad #CommunitySovereignty #Environment

The last July post went out just in the nick of time - this one only for paid subscribers. It's our family's recipe for from-scratch pasta, and it's most definitely worth getting your hands on if you can spare the cost of a cup of coffee.

https://rancholibertad.com/pasta-from-scratch/

#Recipes #Kitchen #Pasta #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Food

Golden hour antics ~ including an attempted assault by our meanest rooster

#Chickenstodon #Chickens #Farm #Farming #RegenerativeAg #RanchoDeLaLibertad

Our May newsletter just went out, a practical guide to building infrastructure in consideration of the whole.

However you seek to do better in your world: create a compost scheme, set up solar, raise your own animals, build out a garden, or rework your home to be more efficient, this newsletter is a guide to designing your systems better.

https://rancholibertad.com/in-consideration-of-the-whole/

If you have any tips to add, feel free to leave a comment, and if you find it useful consider sharing with a friend. Paid subscribers are one way we seek to keep the Ranch afloat, so every share and dollar really counts.

Thank you all ~

#ClimateChange #DirectAction #RegenerativeAg #SystemDesign #EcoInfrastructure #CommunityDevelopment #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Regeneration #Mojave #SouthernCalifornia #JoshuaTree

If you're interested in learning how you can more deeply participate in or support our mission of building community sovereignty and stewarding abused land, you can find options for in-person or financial participation on our website:

https://rancholibertad.com/participate

We just opened our Supporter tier, and look forward to offering more opportunities to support locally and from afar in August. Those who subscribe at the Supporter tier receive a twice yearly gift basket of goodies from the Ranch (the first will be sent in December) as well as access to participate in quarterly Q&A posts.

You will also know (perhaps most importantly) that you are tangibly supporting projects that enable us to better serve residents (now and in the future), guests seeking sanctuary, and the land. Projects such as tree planting, renewable energy infrastructure, sustainable building, animal stewardship, sustainable and place-sensible food production, and more.

We are so grateful to you for your interest and collaboration ✨

#MutualAid #ClimateDirectAction #ClimateChange #Renewable #Regeneration #RegenerativeAg #Permaculture #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Community #CommunitySovereignty #IndigenousOwned #WomanOwned

The next Rancho de la Libertad newsletter drops today, a bit of a treatise on existence at this seemingly apocalyptic juncture.

"This is the almost-unspoken dilemma of our age, of our activism. There appears to be no way out, and so we consume what we must to get by, we work for the company we work for not because we truly believe they’re doing something worthwhile but simply because we must in order to survive, we sell our creative passions (if we are lucky enough to make a living this way) and turn this medium of radical change—art--into castrated product. Who can blame us? Perhaps we try to make small choices that make a difference, but at bottom we feel like there truly is no way to make a difference. And so we accept the seeming end of our world with a kind of indignant resignation."

If you want to join our community in search of answers to this dilemma, consider subscribing so you don't miss the post. Soon we'll be releasing a paid tier soon to not only support our project but to gain access to exclusive gifts like fresh eggs, bread, and pasta for those who are local and other resources for our supporters from afar.

https://rancholibertad.com/#/portal/

We thank you ✨

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #RegenerativeAg #ClimateChange #Decolonize #SocialJustice

Our first newsletter was sent to subscribers today, with many more to come, including technical guides on greywater reuse, earthworks, preparation for climate shifts, and many other musings from our arid land.

Quarterly Updates: The Rebirth of Spring

Greetings from the Holy Mojave in its period of yearly renewal: as heat returns to us with the return of the Sun to the Northern hemisphere, so, too, does life begin its frantic rush to living before the heat slows it temporarily. We experienced the Spring Equinox on March 20th, and so return and rebirth are on our minds.
We believe that humans are a keystone species, and that our role is the careful stewardship of the ecosystems we a a part of. This belief underpins our philosophy and intention, and serves as the basis for the work of sowing seeds and routing water, allocating resources to plants and animals that serve the land as we do.
This is our first release of a continuous series of quarterly updates aligning with our Wheel of the Year observances and so we will, just this once, start from the beginning. We hope each quarterly update reminds you how capable you are to make the changes you wish to see in your own community, your own landbase.

https://rancholibertad.com/quarterly-updates-the-rebirth-of-spring/

#ClimateChange #ClimateAction #DirectAction #RanchoDeLaLibertad #RegenerativeAg #Permaculture

Thank you for your patience as we've taken a few steps back to evaluate our approach to communication in the context of, well, everything.

We are standing on a precipice, or so, at least, it seems. There is a shattering occurring of what we deem "normal" to be, and what happens next will depend largely on how we choose to relate to instability and uncertainty, and what we choose to do about it.

Rancho de la Libertad stands on this precipice, gathering materials to build a bridge to a yet-unknown other side. We are continuing to take steps towards building a sovereign community insulated from geopolitical and climate instability, insofar as we can be. We wish to nourish, provide space and sanctuary for, and educate our community and those who join our community from afar - to empower and enable all of us with the skills we will need to establish distributed networks, remain safe, feed and house ourselves, and thrive.

By the end of this week I hope to release a website and free newsletter offering, but also a paid subscription that will help support this project. While we may keep this account, it will not be very active. We are trying to rigorously protect our energy and time so that we can focus on real direct action, while simultaneously ensuring we maintain communication with our community and those interested in our mission. Creating one central source of contact feels like the best way, at this time, to build and maintain relationships and community.

Stay tuned for the release in a few days with more information about what we're offering our community at this time. If you'd like to send me your email to be added manually in advance, you can send it to [email protected].

Be safe, and don't forget to take a few steps back from your online spaces to check in and be present alongside your regional community.

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #DirectAction #ClimateChange #Newsletter #CommunitySovereignty #MutualSupport #MutualAid

Spring & new life arriving. Our first flock of new chickens brooding in the chirping rave cave, getting taller by the hour and more feathered every day.

These are Naked Necks, with another flock of Rhode Island Reds to be our foragers in the mobile coop coming in April.

#Chickens #Chickenstodon #Poultry #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Sustainability #Homesteading

It's been a very busy season here at the Ranch. Sometimes in this environment it can feel like seasons are reversed: while the Northern states of the US are experiencing slowdown, we are experiencing winter & shorter days in a different way. This is our season of motion, albeit in a quiet, inward kind of way. It is critical to make use of cool days and restful nights, before the winds of spring and the brutal heat of summer force us to take rest.

With that being said, I've been sadly behind on updating this page. I hope to return soon to this online space with more pictures and in-depth musings about our work here, but for now I'll share just a few moments of work with you all.

This past week we planted an abundance of olive tree cuttings, and are crossing our fingers that they will take root even in the cooler weather. We amended more soil with horse & human manure, fed the chickens quite well on abundant scraps, and are preparing to cull our aging flock this week to open coop space to a new family of birds in the spring. The cycles of life & death, of generation & decay are so beautifully evident when living this way.

We are (finally) laying pipes for a legitimate greywater system: the grey water from the house will soon water nut trees we hope to plant soon, beans, squash, and whatever other companion food plants wish to grow.

There is more, and I hope to come back and share it with you, along with some images very soon. Finding the time to sit at the computer with our growing family and wonderful guests has been difficult, but I know that it's valuable to share this adventure and so very much plan on being more present soon.

How has this season of sacred inwardness felt for you? Are you able to take the space you need?

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #RegenerativeAgriculture #Permaculture #Earthworks #ClimateJustice #ClimateChange #ClimateAction #LandRelations #LandWorship

We had the absolute pleasure of hosting 12 UC Santa Barbara students this week at the ranch. They chose to use their break to volunteer here, and assisted with earthworks, building a solar array, and erecting outdoor bathrooms to enable us to continue to host and teach large groups.

Each day began in meditation, sharing stillness or intentional movement with one another, connecting down into our roots and sacred attachment to the land. We then engaged in discussion - I gave talks about regenerative agriculture, and a friend with a wonderfully fruitful food forest in nearby Joshua Tree spoke about plant teachers, and building abundance through listening to the land.

But we also highlighted something crucial: regeneration is not just about doing large-scale agriculture "better". It isn't about protecting profits through crisis. It isn't even about reversing climate change, because we firmly disbelieve in abiding by a philosophy that is solely an opposition to something else. No, regeneration has to begin with ourselves.

We cannot do the work if we are empty. We cannot listen to the land if we are deafened by dissasociation.
We cannot maintain sovereignty if we are convinced of authority and our own incapability.

And so we discussed how sometimes degrowth is vital in our own approach to direct action: shrinking one's world down to a size that enables energy to go into a community cycle, rather than sending it outwards without impact. We discussed the mindset of closing cycles, of minimizing external inputs. We discussed shifting from a mindset of "they need my help" which comes from a place of superiority and towards the mindset of "how can I be of service?", which comes from a place of humility and connection. We talked about degrowth in terms of our own choices, our own consumption.

And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't share about carbon sequestering, the potential for altering microclimates, making an inhospitable environment thrive and support its residents once again. But that can't be the point, because the memory of the technical details will fade, and (hopefully) what will remain is the impact of relearning agency. That we do have a choice how this whole world ending business goes down, and when. That we do have influence, but that it just might be on our own tiny corner of the world, but that that is enough. More than enough.

And perhaps they'll forget. It's easy to return to your life and not make changes. But we can hope, and continue to open ourselves up in this way.

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #Permaculture #ClimateChange #DirectAction #Degrowth #Sustainability #CommunityBuilding

We're adding organic material directly to the soil in between the basins, digging two feet into the land and filling one foot above it to create a kind of compost-in-place berm. This technique is more water efficient than all of the other composting methods we've read about, and is the only one that has so far been effective in our climate. It also enables us to control where humans move: the raised berms become walking paths, and to better utilize rainwater through intentionally sloping berm walls down into our infiltration basins. Building soil little by little!

We can then seed these paths with cover crops that do better with less water, and plant crops that require more water in the basins. Eventually this will all be green, helping us cool the area, produce place-sensible food, and avoid the persistent soil erosion this region deals with.

#Permaculture #RegenerativeAgriculture #CarbonSequestration #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Compost

Going to also begin a thread of the earthworks & planting we're doing on the West side of the house. We're starting our most intensive efforts at regeneration & food production near the house, and working outward. This fall our focus has been this area: planting mesquite guilds including nopales (prickly pear cacti), jojoba, and elderberries in addition to the trees themselves. Some of our started trees are bigger and ready to support the other plants, or plants have been added if other structures or trees provide enough shade to support them. Some will stand alone until they're prepared to support other plants. It's important to zoom into an area to focus, but to always zoom out to see the picture of the land holistically.

#permaculture #RegenerativeAgriculture #Trees #ClimateChange #RanchoDeLaLibertad
#DirectAction #LandBack #LandStewarding

Things went on this way for a few months. A few friends did visit that first fall, but mostly it was just us in isolation, learning slowly how much we did not know but unable to ground ourselves in any way that enabled filling in those gaps.

We decided to throw a party. Our first event. Things were kind of ready, and we had gutted and made somewhat liveable a 1976 Airstream trailer we got from a family member. This innocuous and silly decision actually ended up being the turning point we needed. Several friends flew in from the East Coast, many of our LA and Bay Area friends drove out, and I recall vividly looking out the window while preparing dinner, watching everyone laughing, playing with the dog, and helping to prepare. Some friends came days in advance to help clean up trash, outline walking paths, make furniture. One made a light installation for us. Another was going to be our DJ. It was a preview of the potential for gathering here. We did so much to prepare, and it was hectic, and then the party was wonderful until a brutal windstorm swept through and ended it early.

But that evening while everyone was dancing, stargazing, eating, sharing, laughing, I had one of the most intense visions I've ever had in my life.

Generations of women, mostly of nomadic clans, passed into and out of the land. I witnessed thousands of years of this land's history in moments - but at first I thought I was being shown a different place, because up until the most recent few generations of women, this place did not look like a desert. They showed me my place in this story, and it was twofold:
Offer spiritual guidance through shared rites and training others
And making the land green again. I saw myself middle aged, and then old, and saw the land progress and trees grow taller between those two stages.

My partner had a simultaneous visionary experience, and I set out researching, almost convinced there was some metaphor here. But I learned that wasn't the case: this was a grassland, once. Before settlers cut down every last tree to fuel the gold rush, razing the vulnerable vegetation with enormous herds of cattle, and hunting the local ruminants to near extinction. And our valley was hit hard: in a lower elevation than nearby Joshua Tree and with less average precipitation, a higher concentration of mines here sealed the death sentence for nearly everything that lived here. And so that ancient creosote, some 13,000 years old, this living network of unforgetting and unforgiving medicine, took over and held the land when nothing else could. Gone were junipers, oaks, mequites. Gone from this valley were bighorn sheep, tortoises, cottontails. Gone were roadrunners, most of the jackrabbits even. Songbirds failed to stop here on their migratory routes. The cholla didn't make it, even. Nor the ocotillo. Not a saguaro to be found. One after the other sacred beings disappeared. The first summer we spent here there were no birds. Only wind and coyotes and the creosote branches whispered and whined and lamented, waiting for ears to listen to their tale.

#ClimateChange #Desertification #WonderValley #RanchoDeLaLibertad

I want to start from the very beginning, because I haven't chronicled the evolution of Rancho de la Libertad this way quite yet.

Summer of 2022, my partner & I were living in the mountains of Southern California with some of his family members. We had left Oakland with a bad taste in our mouth: the pandemic stratified the neighborhood we were living in -- already in the midst of extreme gentrification and community struggles -- to an intense degree; the school we were attending which exalted itself as "inclusive", "diverse", "progressive" simply used these terms as veils for avoiding accountability when it demonstrated through action it was anything but. The communities we had formed and those we'd tried to be a part of all existed in a continual state of internal dissolution, and we felt frustrated at the unwillingness to collaborate, engage in critical discussions or in-depth self analysis with the intention of actually listening to the voice of the other. At the same time, we had met some really wonderful people, improved our own community building and collaborative skills, and broadened our horizons intellectually and otherwise. So we were disillusioned, but hopeful, and ready for the next thing.

The mountains were a good balancing point and for the next year we planned, mused, formed conclusions about the social experiences of the previous years. We knew a few things, but knew little about how to put them into action.

So we decided to buy a house and some land in the desert, knowing very little about this area but that it was meaningful to my partner & that it called to him somehow. Our intention was to create an art space, a space for self-expression and communal experience.

At the time I don't think we fully accepted this, but that goal was self serving. A gallery unto ourselves, our own event space, a place to experiment when it would otherwise require significant networking or resources to do so had we stayed in Oakland or moved back to LA. And we had our work cut out for us: we moved into a house built in 1951 that had been vacant for five years. The house had never really been updated. The previous owner was old and had clearly done some work to preserve it, but there was also evidence that much went undone. He had what basically amounted to a private landfill on the property, the fence had been cut and broken into, the two outbuildings were horribly stuffed full of junk and dead birds and rats for some reason. The drawers in the kitchen were full of cactus spines, inexplicably.

And we had a three week old, and it was the middle of a brutal summer. To take this property on was insane, and we knew it. But from the very moment we stepped foot on the property to view it we both experienced a profound sense that this land needed us as much as we needed it.

We toiled by ourselves for months, and I recall those first hot days, sweltering as we got the ancient air conditioners running, coughing on dust from the smoke-saturated carpet we immediately ripped up, pulling down layers of curtains that had hid incredible mountain views, painted walls, sanded floors, pulled up baseboards, and scrubbed every inch of the kitchen (all in the short bursts of our daughter napping).

It began to feel impossible, and we started to re-evaluate our approach. We can't do this alone. The land was fighting us every step of the way - and eventually we would learn why, but then we just thought perhaps we'd made a huge mistake. #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Homesteading #Commune #Story

Hello!

My name is Siin, one of the stewards of Rancho de la Libertad, a pioneering regenerative agricultural project in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree, California.

Our mission is to steward and regenerate this once flourishing arid grassland, since abused by extractive settler actions and completely desertified. We feel passionate that engaging thoughtfully with our existing ecosystems is one of the primary ways we can take meaningful direct action against climate change.

It is also important to recognize that climate change is happening, and so our secondary mission is the creation of a sovereign community providing food, energy, housing, and teaching and engaging in mutual trade relationships with other community members. We cannot exist alone through inevitable shifts in our climate & political situations, but we also cannot afford to outsource any longer our action and energy to solutions that are not rooted in the Here and Now of our own ecosystems. We abide by the tenet of "shrinking our world", rigorously focusing our energy in place, and therefore expanding greatly our impact on the land and our community.

Rancho de la Libertad is a place for humans to come and detach from the reactionary and often exhausting world we live in, to touch the earth and hear its hatmonies, and to thoughtfully utilize their curiosity in a secure, supportive communal environment.

I will be posting updates regarding our regenerative work, and I'm sure some commentary related to climate activism and the general State of Things. If that sounds appealing to you, give us a follow! Feel free to reach out anytime to chat or ask questions if that feels right. We are not experts. We are here to learn as much as to share, and welcome feedback and thoughts on what we're doing here.

Thanks for having us!

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #ClimateDirectAction #ClimateChange #RegenerativeAgriculture #Permaculture #Sanctuary #LandWorship