ORIENTATION
for the record, i am at an artist retreat center in Harveyville, Kansas. the name of the place is The Harveyville Project. it is run by Nikol Lohr and Ron Miller. Nikol is a fiber artist (i refer you to her book and website, Naughty Needles Knitting). Ron is a painter, tattoo artist, and well-practiced musician (having just returned from the SxSW music festival, where he did some tattooing and played drums with the legendary Kid Congo Powers). Nikol and Ron migrated up here from that Big Rock Candy Cool Town, Austin, Texas (where ELSE could they be from?).
Nikol is really getting into the homesteading thing. her chicks will be here in only a few days. the sheep are on their way. as i write this she just acquired a 250 lbs. side of locally raised beef, and she is attempting to contact a local woman named Melda to inquire about having the kids in the local 4H chapter raise a pig on her behalf. she’s eventually going to transform the Ronald Reagan Fitness Center into the Cupcake Ranch. …but you have to work slowly with these things. Nikol is just now having the land surveyed to put up a proper fence to pen in her own animals, as she acquires them, and to keep out the predators. Nikol has been enraptured by the geek.farm.life podcast. living in the city, i know it’s hard to wrap your mind around it, as Joe Walsh taught us - but do yourself a favor and spend some time even just considering what it takes to live another way. i think flexibility is a big watchword for the future.
so, yeah, Harveyville is about fifty minutes southwest of Topeka (not too far from Lawrence, too), in southeast Kansas. Nikol found the proprty on the internets and snapped it up. it’s an old high school that fell into disuse when a larger regional school was built. they do big events like ‘Yarn School’ and ‘Prom’; they also host local meetings, like for the chamber of commerce; and they provide a place for hobos like yours truly to keep from getting too many miles under the soles of our shoes. i have my own room (which was the science room). my cat, Peg, stays in here with me so as not to run afoul of Boots (sometimes known as Sugarfoot) and little Freddy Pickles, the resident mousers.
the price is right and even though i “have more hang-ups than anyone (she’s) ever met”, Nikol indulges me with a sweet vegi/pesca-tarian dinner every night. it ain’t no secret and i ain’t tellin’ you nuthin’ ya don’t know already - this is a good damn life from time to time, if you don’t weaken!
