Rio Rose

I feel your pain, it is a sister to mine. The sort of community available to me in my own area feels similarly closed off, and I’m an odd duck who doesn’t swim so happily with the main flock, it seems. Isolation and loneliness is a real and devastating threat to health and wellbeing, for all of us.

For myself, once I realized that even the sorts of people I want to share a cuppa with aren’t a dime a dozen here, (as much a reflection of me as anything) it became more about really inhabiting and embracing who I am, what I want, what I like and what is truly important to me - what turns me on, what lights me up -  and looking around locally for activities where other odd ducks like me, might like to paddle.

For me it’s woodsy pursuits like hiking groups, plant or mushroom ID forays, gardening and weaving, maybe a yoga or a writing class, or a seed swap at the local library. It’s rare, but every now and again I find a gem whose sparkle reflects off of my own, and ever so slowly, I grow my group of people. Is there anyone in your community doing things that inspires you? Look for them, and don’t be silent when you find them. It’s a likely bet your people are as starved for connection as you are.

If you are like me and tend to isolate when you are unhappy, I’d urge you (and me, I’d urge us!) to think of one person you love or even like and reach out - a letter, a text, an email, a call. When I was feeling so alone in my own spot and no takers in the community at large, I started a correspondence with some long lost friends and family members, which brought back to life a mouldering thread of connection.

Even posting here is a great way to drop a stone into the void - I am feeling the ripples right here in my pond!  I recently read a book called “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans - all about a woman who navigated the later chapters of her isolated-in-person life by corresponding, with everyone: authors who wrote books that moved her (or didn’t), companies that make products she took issue with (or loved), customer service reps, her family members, and on. Not everyone wrote back, and not all correspondence was lovely, but in the end you look out over a life rich with communication, connection and meaning - instead of its lack.

Define and ask for what you want most, (be specific) then sing it loud: birds of your feather will hear you only if you do. Reach out to me any time, if you’d like a pen pal. I’ll close with one of my favorite poems:

Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting— over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

Somehow, the knowledge that a Jade plant is blooming on the Isle of Skye, really does feel like an important piece of breaking world news.

I’ve seen many jade plants in this life, but never a jade bloom. And just now I find myself with wonder blossoming in my mind about them: apparently they are annual bloomers in their natural habitats (dry and sunny South Africa, so very far from Skye) but rarely as houseplants. May we all get what we need to flower in this life, wherever we are planted.  

Ned, thanks for your words. At the risk of hijaaking your thread into a love fest for NM (as worthy a rabbit hole as that surely would be)…

What madness caused me to leave sun-drenched New Mexico?  I’ll simply say that we have and are becoming increasingly feral humans over the years, drawn to natural spaces where the ratio of people to wild things is heavily weighted on the wild side, and the northern forests along the Canadian border certainly fits that bill for us. There is also very little regulation, land was cheap at the time, no need for building permits, etc.

It seemed to us if we wanted to get lost for a lifetime in wilderness and try our hands at carving a piece of it to hold us, this would be a good spot. And it is. I only see other humans if I wish to, most days. If I could have NM closer though, I surely would!

PS. The advice to start now, in whatever way and place you can, however small -is one I’d heartily second. Our pace has been slow by anyone’s standards I think, in no small part because we added the caveat of maintaining zero debt without a safety net and fat bank accounts. But the snail’s pace has also been a true boon, because it has allowed us to fix mistakes before we set them in stone. If we had met with a designer to turn our initial plans into reality and paid money we didn’t have for a home that went up in less than a year, this place would be far more ‘finished’ but would also be vastly different, and it would not work so well for us. Plus we'd be sitting on a pile of debt!

We didn’t start this as contractors and designers and builders with decades of experience in the various fields; we have learned those skills as we’ve gone along, and that education takes a lot of time and energy, but once gained, it serves you for life. Wherever you choose to take it! Suerte Ned!

I was born and raised in NM by folks who wanted to raise their children in a rural setting and in community, and they found that, near Taos, in the late 60’s. Now I’ve followed in their footsteps, but far from them in a remote patch of northern US forest. We bought our raw off grid land in 2018 and have been transforming it with our four hands, out of pocket with no outside contracted work, for the last seven years.

We weren’t experts at any of it when we started, the learning curve has been precipitous. We lived in a camper for two years while we built. We are nowhere near as far as we thought we’d be in that time, but we are also in awe of where we find ourselves today. We have created a life for ourselves outside of the grind.

I can’t tell you about your own specific make up or circumstance, I can’t tell you what you’ll be able to endure or what you will have to sacrifice, but I can tell you about my experience.

This from-scratch out-of-the-ground life is really, really hard. And if you are anything like me, really, really worth it.

This has been so much more difficult than I ever imagined it would be, and I did not imagine it would be easy. It has cost so much more money than we thought. Our most moderate timelines have been blasted to smithereens. Our bodies have suffered from injury, our spirits have felt bowed to breaking under countless unlooked for storms.

What I had to let go of in order to continue with this dream, was any sort of expectation of finishing - that is a foreign concept now, this is a journey with no final destination. And also, the idea that you need a certain level of comfort in order to keep moving forward.

The conventional push-button life: hot water with a twist of a wrist, hot air with the turn of a dial, internet and Netflix and food that doesn’t talk back, that stuff is lovely and easy and those of us who have become  accustomed to it tend to take it for granted until it goes away.

We have become extremely adept at doing without in the last seven years. If I had not been able to let the trappings of civilization go for a time, I would never have made it here. The question really is one nobody but you can answer: this life is not for everyone. But if you relish freedom above all else, this is one way to find it.

PS- Silver linings are many, but one of the most fun has been coming back to the things I let go. An example: December 17, 2022, was the first time we experienced hot water to the house out of a tap - the most delightful twist of the wrist! As of January 2026, the giddiness and joy from that oh so trivial experience has not lost its luster, at all. Happiness from hot water? My oh my, am I cheap date!

Don’t underestimate just how hard this is - everyone would be doing it if it were easy. But DO try, if it calls to you. It is achievable. Good luck.

PPS- New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment for good reason, you have simply to look at the sky. Some folks also call it the Land of Entrapment - a cheeky nod to the way it gets its hooks in you and never lets go. Not sure how I got away, but I will always come back. Viva Nuevo Mexico!

Last year I thought it would be neat to grow peas up my giant sunflowers along the garden fence- they’d grow up the stalks instead of the fence and I would lose less to the critters forever nosing in on the other side. Forgetting that sunflowers are said to emit allelopathic toxins that stunt or kill surrounding plants, I did it anyway. The sunflowers grew great, but the poor peas, while alive, did not thrive as they usually do in my garden. They were sickly and produced a fraction of the pods.  I won’t forget that particular sunflower fact again!
PS- I've not grown sunchokes myself but they are in the same genus as sunflower and said to have the same allelopathic tendencies. Something to note if you do try it. Good luck with all!

Chaga can definitely be found in the wild in the lower 48, though relatively rare. I’ve read it infects about 1 in 20,000 birch trees and it certainly seems to me I check that many before finding some!

Some things I’ve learned about Chaga: it should only be harvested from a living tree. Chaga will eventually kill its host tree, at which point it produces spores and is no longer as beneficial medicinally.

Chaga should not be consumed every day for long periods of time, especially not in high doses. There is apparently such a thing as too many antioxidants! It seems to be best used periodically or when you need it vs. in a daily regimen.

As far as foraging ethics: I personally will not harvest the entirety of the chaga on any given tree. In fact I revisit chaga bearing trees for years, harvesting here and there. That’s just me. It feels greedy to do otherwise, and harvesting only what I need allows me repeated harvests - Chaga takes a long time to complete its life cycle.

I encourage everyone to their own research and to listen your body. Happy and safe hunting and wild medicine making.

You know the saying, Nature abhors a vacuum?

I think you are missing half of the solution. You’ve got the first half - removal by hand. But you’ve then left a vacuum which is happily and promptly filled by your nemesis.

I’d be asking myself if there’s a plant that fills a similar niche (acidic soil loving, shade tolerant, low growing, tenacious) that you wouldn’t mind having everywhere until it runs its course or fulfills it’s biological need in your landscape.

Once you’ve got a target list you can start introducing them into your sorrel spots. My two cents.

I don’t have any potential plant suggestions except possibly miners lettuce, Claytonia species. It makes a tender and lovely salad green and for me anyhow, grows on the same sort of spots as the sheep sorrel. Good luck! 🍀

Rose-hip purée in place of tomatoes in pizza sauce is surprisingly on point. Combined with all the other aromatics you might find in a tomato based pizza sauce, (herbs, garlic, etc.) you might not even guess it didn’t contain tomato.

It must be Pie.

We are fishing folk near-ish to Glacier NP - last season on the water over the span of several months we saw sick and/or dead: black bear, bald eagle, merganser, grouse, turkey - all in the same general area, all on or adjacent to the river. Many of these animals were collected by fish and game and bird flu was suspected (but not yet confirmed) for all including the black bear.

Our small wild bird populations (songbirds) do not seem affected judging by our observations, and my research indicates songbirds are the least vulnerable of all wild bird types. The birds we saw sick or dead were the sort most commonly associated with Avian Flu (waterfowl, poultry, and those who feed on them, the raptors).

There have been confirmed cases of Grizzly Bear in the park with Avian Flu (2023) - those bears were euthanized, and exhibited the same symptoms as the black bear we encountered. Flathead and Glacier Counties have both confirmed cases of Avian Flu in domestic poultry flocks as well. It is definitely here. And whether or not what we witnessed was Avian Flu as we suspect, something odd is afoot (and awing), in these parts.