We’ve landed in Lake City Colorado for our summer workamping gig at Vickers Ranch.

It’s insanely beautiful here in the San Juans, but we’re an hour from the nearest place to do any real grocery shopping. Since we only get one, maybe two days a week off, neither one of us want to spend precious off-time on long-distance domestic duties.

Until last year, Lake City had just one small grocery store, known by locals as “The Food Museum” because the inventory is too close to their expiration dates for comfort.

Last year, a great little health food store opened up but with sporadic produce at best, we couldn’t rely on it for regular grocery store trips.

This year we are thrilled to see a second health food store is opening up with a huge choice of produce! Woohoo! We met the owners today and they’ve promised us regular deliveries of kale, lettuce and greens.

This new store, and the UPS truck, are going to be our lifeline while we work here all summer.

Thus, today we being our 2013 Shop Local in Lake City Challenge. We’re going to see if we can live off the provisions in a small mountain town without ever going to the big town. With a health food store, liquor store and post office, what else do you need?

Pummeled. That’s the only way to describe this very unexpected Rocky Mountain blizzard that’s bombarded us since returning to Jerry’s Acres for a few weeks.

This photo was taken yesterday. There’s even more snow now that’s covered up the trees you see here. Another 2′ is supposed to fall today.

I am so over this. I’ve never experienced snowfall like this in my life, and hope that I never do again. Yes, I’m a sissy. I want my flip flops and cold beer, waaaah! Life is too short to shovel snow. It’s a great workout but I’d rather go for a run in warm weather.

About the only thing that makes this weather disaster fun is our newest neighbor.

Say hello to Rocky!

The 2013 Slab City snowbird season seemed quieter this year. We arrived later than usual, but overall there was less activity and fewer crazy incidents like we’ve seen in the past (like trailer fires and ambulance rescues). Here are a few observations we made during last week’s stay.

Fewer Snowbirds

It looked to us as if fewer seasonal campers called the Slabs home. A young hitchhiking traveler confirmed this when he told me that less of his hippie cohorts found their way to the Slabs. Apparently the Global Rainbow Gathering in Mexico lured a lot of the regular campers away. When I spoke with the owner of the SoCo gas station, he said a lot of the snowbirds he’s gotten to know also skipped out. I asked why he thought they didn’t make it, he said “Gas prices probably.”

More Permanent Residents

More long-term, hand-built structures are popping up all over the Slabs. From outside patios built alongside de-wheeled trailers to more solid A-frame buildings like this, it seems like more people with the means to invest in custom housing are laying down roots.

A whole new generation of Slab City kids is being raised without indoor pluming, behind razor-wire fences that warn curious observers to back off.

Is this recession fallout or a desire to get back to the basics? It’s hard to tell.

A Thriving Entrepreneurial Spirit

As you approach the Slabs, one of the first sights you’ll encounter is this thriving welding shop set up next to a large, not-so-temporary encampment.

Following in the footsteps of Solar Mike, off-the-grid businesses like these seem to be popping up all over the neighborhood.

Off-grid capitalism is alive and thriving as the Slabs economy seems to be growing. You’ve gotta love the lack of bureaucracy it takes to open up shop here.

These new businesses have a more professional look to them than the usual hippie artisans that we’ve seen in the past. It’s great to see more people taking charge of their economic situation by coming up with creative ways to make money.

Always In Flux

No matter what people say about the Slabs, each yearly visit reveals new endeavors that blossom among the heaps of rubbish left behind by less ambitious residents. The Slabs is always changing, we never get bored of coming here. Hopefully next year we can spend more time to really take it all in.

Just in time for our annual Slabs visit, the Slab City Lizard Tree Library was saved by a couple of awesome Southern California volunteers!

In 2010 the library suffered a terrible fate when the caretaker suffered a meltdow and destroyed much of this handmade monument. My heart shattered when I returned last year, only to find the library was further deteriorating after three years of no maintenance.

But a couple of weeks ago I was contacted by half of a dynamic duo of women who love visiting the Slabs and its enchanting library. She wrote to tell me about a generous and wonderful plan that her friend Amy had hatched to try to save this institution.

Just a couple of weeks ago this dynamic duo went to the Slabs to help preserve the library. Here’s how the day went according to Kim:

A resident named Russell came by and joined our effort by sawing up wood we brought to make bookshelves. Russell arrived on a motorcycle with a dog in the passenger seat . . . He stayed and worked with us until we had to leave at 3.

Another resident arrived on a motorcycle and said “the lady who used to own this place, she would be happy about this.” we told him that’s what we were aiming for. I think his name was Chuck. He straightened up a bunch of books that someone had left before we arrived that day.

I think others did some work before we got there, as it was a bit tidier than December 2013, and it seemed there were quite a few piles of donations. We patched the roof where we could. It still needs some work and the back needs a wall patching to protect the books, but hopefully people will add to what we tried to start. We left wood out there, but also know it could end up at another camp. As long as it helps someone who needs it – that is fine by us.

As cars and bikes went past that day, everyone waved – although they might have been waving at Russell, not us.

We had five large bins stuffed with books. I have probably five more’s worth here that we had to leave behind. We will be delivering those held back books to the library, but probably not before October.

In a letter to others who had donated materials and books to this project, the women wrote:

Dear Contributors,

I wanted to thank all of you so very much for your generous donations. The books were very well received and a special thank you goes out to the Girl Scout troop who donated so many children’s books. The residents were very happy to see those.

We were busy with the roofing and clean-up – so the only person you see in these photos is my friend Amy Hooper who actually came up with the idea that the two of us could make a difference out there. All by ourselves. I also didn’t get the kind of time I would have liked to show more of what we had accomplished since projects like this always take far more time than you estimate they will.

A few residents picked up hammers and saws and helped us construct bookshelves. One resident quietly wandered in and straightened up a whole two shelves of books that had been donated prior to our arrival and quietly left. I only noticed the straightened books when I went in to do that task myself.

I also want to thank Flora And Sharon’s New and Recycled Reads Bookstore located in Costa Mesa, CA (near Triangle Square.). This bookstore donated a large amount of books to our project and they didn’t ask one single thing in return. They were as nice as could be when I came by to haul away potential profits from their store. The store is organized, clean, friendly, and lots of fun. So if you are so inclined, go by their store and check them out. I will be putting them on my regular used bookstore haunt list – and I didn’t even know about them until this project. Their address is 145 Broadway Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92627.

We are planning on returning in October/November to see what else we can do.”

Thank you Amy and Kim

What an incredible act of kindness and generosity these two women have! The fact that they’re only infrequent visitors to the Slabs but still cared enough to put so much energy into saving the library speaks volumes about their character. Can we please have more of this kind of spirit in the world? Please?

A big, big THANK YOU to Amy and Kim for helping to save this one-of-a-kind institution!

You’d think that after nearly six years on the road we would know better than to plan ahead. But I made that mistake last summer, when I planned where we would travel after our Greyhounds Rock presentation in Virginia.

Little did we know that Wyatt’s illness would throw our whole season off track. Instead of seeing the Great River Road and moseying back to Stillwell Ranch this winter, we’re here in Southern California for a long-awaited family visit that we didn’t do for Christmas.

And while it’s great seeing la familia and taking care of domestic matters like rig maintenance, I yearn for the solitude of our favorite places like West Texas.

Each morning we’re waking up to awful news about random shootings, neighbors cars getting ripped off and horrifying diesel prices hovering in the $4.75 a gallon range.

Good thing the madness of this area is offset by the fabulous weather and of course, my family.

With fuel prices that stab at our hearts, we’re keeping our travels lean this winter. This weekend we are taking a whirlwind trip up to the Bay Area to see family and a few friends, but we’re not taking the RV.

When March rolls in, we’ll head straight back to Jerry’s Acres for the beauty and peace of the wilderness that we miss so much right now.

In the meantime, we’re pretending the roar of the nearby freeway is the sound of the ocean . . . .