20 Apr recapping winter ’23-24
We returned for another ski season at the Snowmansion, just in time for Thanksgiving. We were fortunate enough to get a free-range organic turkey from a local farm up in Questa, NM – and though we requested the smallest one available, we still ended up with a whopping 38lb turkey to cook! What a feat! We smoked the wings and legs over apple and plum woods. The rest of the bird was slow roasted at 225º overnight and turned out fabulous. I also finally got to make a New Mexican Thanksgiving tradition: green chile turkey enchiladas with the leftover turkey and gravy! That is definitely a new favorite!
Other kitchen wins this past winter were making our own yogurt with the raw milk we get from our Questa neighbor and a from-scratch ramen with homemade fish broth (simmered salted cod with veggies for 2 days to make the broth). Topped with home-grown lentil and radish sprouts, a soft-boiled egg, and bacon!
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- Vegan carrot pumpkin cookies
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- Smoking wings and legs from the Thanksgiving Turkey!
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- Leftover thanksgiving turkey green Chile enchiladas
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- Homemade yogurt with raw cow milk from Questa, NM
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- Ramen Night complete with homemade fish broth
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- Ramen night, topped with sprouts, soft-boiled egg and bacon
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- Cardboard burnin’ with the Chiminea
Another big aspect of 2023 was helping my mom relocate from Denver to Taos! She found an incredible deal in Denver on a tiny home and they offered free delivery to New Mexico, so we all said “Yes! do it!”
With the arrival of a tiny home to the property, Aaron found a perfect opportunity to delve into a new passion project: solar configurations! Aaron single-handedly designed and built a very, very, VERY large system for my mom’s tiny house. Using flexible panels covering her roof and and 8x 165AH batteries, her system was launched this winter powering 4800 volts.
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- Tiny house delivery!
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- Great views of the greenhouse and El Salto mountain
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- Solar Panel unpacking
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- So exciting to see these flex panels in person! They are lighter, easier to install, and work with wider ranges of sunlight & angles than glass panels.
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- Connecting the 6 x 165AH batteries
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- The panels, battery box and control box all attached to the house for future movability.
With the close of ski season, Aaron and I felt ready for a spring & summer of traveling again! While we will still call Taos / Northern NM home, we ended our full-time tenure at the Snowmansion / Peaceful Earth Gardens after 2 years and 3 months. What a fantastic place to find and build our community in Taos, and a perfect entry to New Mexico. We are forever grateful and will definitely be frequently back to visit!
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- Coffee shop work date
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- Celebrating our time at the Snowmansion with dinner at Medley
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