Soaking in White Sulfur Springs

Yet another gloomy day here on the farm.  With a nasty forecast, Laurie gave a short list of things to do and gave us an early day, ending at noon.


Dave, Sara and Laurie set off to a nearby ranch to pickup a load of straw that would've been burned so we can use it for the crop-rotation rows we've been making.  They forked the straw in the bed and trucked it over.

The process is called sheet mulching - it's a permaculture technique that strengths and maintains the soil.  You lay down a layer of organic material - either wood shavings, manure or compost - then cover it with recycled cardboard (but not shiny stuff like beer cases) and cover that with a thick layer of straw.  In a year or two, the soil underneath is healthy and bug-filled for planting.  And you can cover the adjacent rows that were planted to rejuvenate those rows.

Meanwhile Kelsey and I focused on soaping the plants in the greenhouse to get rid of the aphids.  It's been a frustrating battle; generally, Laurie says, aphids come at the end of the season not this early.  But we think we're making progress and can get them all out.


We worked until just after noon, had lunch, and then the four of us WWOOFers decided to take an adventure to White Sulfur Springs hot springs!  Our first adventure together.  It's about 45 minutes north of Wilsall.


Needless to say, it was much-needed.  Kelsey barely made it a few minutes in the car before passing out.

The hot springs are housed inside a pretty run-down shady motel.  But once you're in, the atmosphere is irreverent.  There's two hot springs - a giant pool that was about 98 degrees and a smaller hot tub (still big enough for alot of people) that was about 107 degrees.  Both felt great.  We relaxed for a long time.

We hit the road a couple of hours later but not before we raided the little gas station for candy (massive sugar cravings) and a couple six packs.  We were all pretty low key for the rest of the afternoon.  Dave and I took Boo on a walk around the farm and she got to meet the horses for the first time.  They were much more interested in her then she in them - she was too busy chomping on every piece of grass she could reach! 

Around 8, we had dinner together - curried lentils - and had an early night.  It was a great half-day of work on the farm.