I’m at a home garden, not a farm, on the direct edge of what is undeniably suburbia, and it has thrown me. Although the home and gardens are gorgeous, my host is knowledgeable and generous, and the suburbia is Boulder (with lovely bike paths throughout much of it), there are still the same problems as…

On a pedestal I’m in the kind of place right now where they put the bicycle on a pedestal. Where it’s an art form. Where it’s revered. I felt in immediately after getting off the Greyhound bus in Denver, Colorado (following five truly life-changing weeks on an alpaca and eco-spirituality farm in Kansas). My bike…

I’ve been waiting more than two months during my cross-country Round America with a Duck journey to be able to use that headline. And now, here I am, in Boulder, Colorado. When I first imagined using it, I didn’t know that the two days prior to arriving here would be the pivotal days when I…

A storm moved quickly toward us. I only had an hour, if that much, before it would downpour. But I needed the bike ride. I had a Bonus Day in the tiny town of Ellis, Kansas yesterday because my Greyhound bus to Denver did not stop. I saw it go by. I stood there and…

How many mornings can I watch the sunrise on the prairie? How many times can I open the chicken coop or walk the alpacas out to the range? How many conversations can I have while pulling weeds with strangers, now friends? How many days of this bucolic heaven would ever be enough? How often must…

Thank you for reading my blog posts! Yes, I know there are typos. Yes, I am fixing them every day 🙂 . I am writing these posts mostly on my phone, and it is hard. Giving up my Virgo tendency toward perfectionism is even harder. Thank you for accepting my “perfection of imperfection” while traveling…

I was walking next to Lillian, the older of the two Filipino American nurses who volunteered for a few days here on the alpaca farm in rural Kansas where I am now in my fifth week of WWOOFing. We were heading out to the labyrinth, long overgrown, with the intention of reviving it. The cross-axis…

Mike was packing up, loading his bike with his four water bottles, one day’s worth of food, a change of clothes, a small tent and sleeping mat, flip flops, and sunscreen. We had spent lots of time together since he arrived two nights prior here at the alpaca farm and eco-spirituality center where I’m WWOOFing…

I was hungry. Out of crackers, cheese, jam, apples. Eating weeds (albeit the stunningly-nutritious lamb’s quarters, about which I wrote in my book, Food for My Daughters). Uncomfortable asking if someone would drive me to Great Bend to go to the grocery store. Trying to stretch my $40 weekly stipend as far as possible —…

It rained again. A gully gusher. A toad strangler. Rare here, and desperately needed — 3.2 inches, plus the inch the week before and another little drizzle. We’ve had a solid third of the expected annual rainfall in the three weeks since I’ve arrived, and the ponds and creek and moods show a positive ripple…