Living in Balance: A Pueblo Woman Discusses Her Balanced Life Philosophy
(Page 2 of 3)
May/June 2003
By Linda Mason Hunter
Roxanne’s high desert half-acre receives fewer than twelve inches of annual rainfall, making water a sacred commodity. Drinking water from the tribal well is too precious to waste on gardens, so Roxanne harvests as much rainwater as possible. A large metal tank under the eave catches rainwater as it falls off the roof. Trees surrounding the tank provide shade to keep water from evaporating. A shaded open tank a few feet away provides water for a small plant nursery (and makes a good swimming hole). Two small cement-lined ponds support fish and water plants.
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She uses graywater in a simple irrigation system composed of swales (shallow, contoured ditches lined with rock). By providing a channel for water to flow, a swale helps control erosion, holding water around plants until it seeps into the ground. At Flowering Tree, bathtub water empties into a swale, as does dish and laundry water. Once the irrigation system was established, plant areas off the swales “became full of life, like magic,” Roxanne says.
Ditch water runs through the ponds, helping clean and aerate them so fish can breathe. A series of three cement “flow forms” acts as a waterfall, aerating, energizing, and cleaning water before it’s carried to a corn and bean field.
On and off the grid
That the couple transformed half of a desert acre into what is now a jungle oasis is truly remarkable. Add to that the family’s ability to live completely off the grid, growing their own food and raising organic vegetables and meats, and the story becomes almost miraculous. That was back in the 1980s, the heyday of the nonprofit Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, when the property was known internationally as a successful experiment in sustainable living systems. During the institute’s glory days, Roxanne and Joel experimented with different ways of raising and storing food. They killed pigs, turkeys, sheep, chickens, and ducks with their own hands, then butchered, dried, smoked, or froze the meat.
“We did the whole works. From the sheep we got milk, cheese, and butter; from the chickens, eggs and meat. We raised bees, made candles, gathered honey; grew wheat and ground it in a mill. We dried all the fruit we could and turned grapes into vinegar,” Roxanne says. “Plus, we were having to learn it all. There wasn’t anyone to teach us. We lived as completely off the land as we could.”