Finney Farm: An Intentional Community

When we first heard from Jennie at Finney Farm, she explained that the farm is an “intentional community of anarchists.” I didn’t know what to expect. Amber knows of some people in Silk Hope that live in an anarchist community, I still think of the red letter “A”, black clothing, and Jinkos, (yeah that’s right, Jinkos). I guess I just assumed that anarchy meant running amuck, wreaking havoc, or at the very least, existing without any type of organization. I was very wrong. That is not what it means at all; at least not at Finney Farm.

Finney Farm consists of several members; Robert and Jennie (their two girls Willow and Violet), Brad and Brandy (their two girls Zoya and Izzy) and George. Flap is what you call a floater- a friend and frequent guest…more like family. Luke is staying temporarily on the farm. People like Kat and Emily (and her son Brian) come frequently for weekend visits and Wwoofers (like us and Jack, from Yonkers, NY) come and go. The members each have a stake in the property. The farm is open for growth as long as everyone agrees on the new members. Every decision on Finney Farm is made on consensus. This means that if one person disagrees, the idea is vetoed. George is on a sort of trial period. During the first six months he can participate in the roundtable meetings and vote, but he does not have veto power. His opinion is still valued, but depending on the issue, his “nay” may not necessarily prevent the motion from passing.

Each family lives in a home on the property. Some of them have jobs and outside sources of income. Jennie states on the website, finneyfarm.org, that one of the main goals of the community is to “create and maintain affordable housing, eliminating much of the need for forced wage slavery.” Other goals are to “steward the land in an ecologically sound manner free from traditional development”, and to “encourage a strong community work ethic which is beneficial to the community as well as the individual.” Each averaging from 10-20 hours input a week; they share the responsibilities of managing the gardens, maintaining the community house, harvesting, chopping wood, and working the farmer’s market in Concrete.

The gardens are a good size for their community producing enough to sustain the people on the farm with fresh and preserved food throughout the year, with a little extra. The stand at the market is not only for profit. They mostly do it to for PR and to raise public awareness about the farm and their community. They also do different things throughout the year for the community. They have a stage on the property where they hold different performances. In early July they host the Southside Social and Barn Dance. They also host community dinners every Monday night in the community house. From the delicious, healthy food to the great conversation to the sauna, community dinners always bring the people and the land a little bit closer.

Mingling with the Locals

After a surprisingly good night of sleep in the car Amber and I ate breakfast car-side, hummed a few more bars of Ray and headed back into the park. The day before, we decided to do one of the ranger-led hikes. Each one is on a different subject matter (edible plants in Glacier…the shrinking glaciers of Glacier…safety in the woods, etc.) Originally, we had intended on doing the hike on plant life but because we ended up on the west side of the park, we decided on the 9:00 a.m. hike on the Robert Fire of 2003. When we arrived at the trailhead (5 minutes late, of course) we found Leah, our guide. Leah was walking back to her car because no one had shown up yet. “Are we too late for the hike?” we asked. Leah is a cheery looking gal of about 25. Her hair was in a side ponytail under her ranger hat and her thumbs were youthfully tucked into her backpack. “Haha. No, no! It’s fine.” She assured us. Luckily, it could be a little bit more laid back hike than her normal “And to your left you will find blah blah blah….We’re walking. We’re walking…”

For about an hour, we casually walked through the forest and got to know Leah. We learned about the benefits of forest fires (and about prescribed burning), how they put the fire out, and about the changing ecology after a fire. It’s not the complete disaster you would think. Sure, from far away the mountainside looks bare, like a wasteland with tree trunks littering the ground; but up close, there are all kinds of new growth: saplings of trees whose cones only get released when fire can melt the sap around them, tall grasses, fireweed (one of our favorites—It’s this gorgeous tall, green weed that has bright fuchsia flowers). We picked huckleberries too. We told Leah about ourselves and our trip. She told us about herself and what its like to work summers in the park. We even got a few pics too. Toward the end of the hike, Leah asked us what else we wanted to do on our visit to Glacier. We told her that swimming is one of our favorite things to do. Ok here is why Ranger Leah in The Woman.

Not only did Leah insist that we had to go tubing through the park, she made it happen for us. On her lunch break, we followed Leah back to her house just outside the park in a neighborhood where mostly employees/rangers live. She let us borrow her tubes, took them to the bridge where we put in, and shuttled us to get our car to the bridge at the end of the float. She even pointed us in the direction of a store for beverages on the way. For two hours, Amber and I floated through Glacier National Park on a river that started at Lake McDonald and headed south to the Middle Fork Flathead River. We were surrounded by beauty the whole way. We passed mountains, through valleys, heard a variety of birds, ducks swam by us one by one. It was amazing!! One of the coolest things we have ever done.

Leah completely made our trip with the tubing, and continued to by offering us a place to stay. We camped in her back yard, and made ourselves comfortable in her home. Her roommates were awesome. They were so hospitable. Her friends were awesome. So funny. We loved listening to their war stories about the weirdest park visitors, bear attacks, and stupid questions. (Just so you know, Jack Hanna did NOT get attacked by a bear in Glacier. He sprayed a cub that stopped to look at him with bear spray…the same bear spray he was visiting the park to PROMOTE) The local dive bar, The Stone Fly’s karaoke night was awesome. (The bro-mantic boy band singing “Rich Girl” was awesome) Everything was…AWESOME! We are so grateful that we met Leah. She truly made our trip to Glacier unforgettable.

The Bear Necessities

Originally, we expected to camp in Glacier NP. At the east entrance, we saw that there were only a few places with sites open so we would take the Going to the Sun Road all the way through. Our intention was to find availability at one of the campgrounds, but after the two and a half hour drive through the park, all of the camp sites were full. Of course we didn’t find this out until we got to the campgrounds themselves, and by that time, it was getting late. Too late to drive out of the park and pay for some other campground. So we drove to the Ranger Station.

Actually, we THOUGHT it was the station, but it was really his residence. Talk about some prime real estate. At the end of this windy, gorgeous private drive there are cabins for the rangers right on Lake McDonald. Michael a friendly man of about fifty with salt and pepper hair was off-duty, sitting in his home office. As we walked up his sidewalk, he hollered to us through the window, “Alright ladies you get two questions. It’s my day off.”

We only had one. Where can we camp tonight? Michael got on the radio to the visitor center, and sure enough, every campground was full. Ok here is why Ranger Michael is the man. You can’t camp in National Parks, but you can camp anywhere in a National Forest. Turns out, Michael knew of an awesome spot to camp on the river that separates the park and the forest. The land may or may not technically be part of Glacier NP, but it backs up to a railroad and doesn’t get a lot of traffic or monitoring by any authorities. There is an awesome bridge that’s close now, but beyond that, there is a trail down to the water with a little beach. It’s a perfect place to camp. “I used to camp out there many years ago when I was your age…” Michael said, “you should be fine down there.”
Then, he gave us detailed directions to the spot. He even drew us an awesome map to get there. Just outside the park in West Glacier, behind a schoolyard, down a gravel road, past a now closed bridge, up a footpath and down a well-hidden trail, we found the beach.

It was gorgeous. Right on the river with bright teal water flowing through. The mountains in the background. A Sandy beach. A little privacy.

But wait…maybe a little too much privacy. What about bears? If we scream…who will hear? Our parents have been freaking out about all the bear attacks, and everywhere you go in the park there are warning signs with instructions on what to do if you encounter a bear.
Make noise while hiking. Bring pepper spray. Fight back if it’s a black bear. (They are much smaller. Apparently like “big, dumb dogs”. Not as aggressive either.) Play dead if it’s a grizzly. Don’t run. Ooh ooh, I love this one—talk to the bear and a calm, low voice. Haha. You got it! I’ll put on my best Barry White and ask the bear, “What’s shakin’ big momma?”
But Michael, one of the head rangers, didn’t mention anything about bears. It’s all just a lot of hype. He said we should “be fine down there.” We decided to trust ol’ Mike. We set the tent up and headed back up the bridge where our car was. We would cook and hang out there, change clothes, and only sleep in the tent.


The view was amazing. We walked around the bridge and took pictures of the river. I asked Amber to take a picture of me out on this rocky cliff over the water. I climbed down to the spot and Am took the photo.
Then, as I am climbing back up, Amber says in a low, calm but definitely serious voice, “Katy.” She paused, “There’s a bear.” She spotted the black bear, maybe 180-200 pounds, down river from us, maybe 50 yards away on the bank of the river. He was on the other side from our tent, sure. But can’t bears swim? Mostly excited, we jumped up to get a closer look. Amber got a shot from far away. The bear was just hanging out. Going about his own business, and then he walked away into the woods. Just like that.

We looked at each other, giggling, jaws dropped, and decided, okay. Let’s pull over here and think this thing through. It’s not like bears aren’t out there. They just very rarely attack usually only if they are feeling threatened. Most attacks happen when a bear is startled or protecting their young—like when hikers surprise the animal. We are already set up for the night. Once we are in the tent, it’s not like the bear would stalk us. (Insert mental image of Anthony Hopkins in the movie “The Edge”) We would only sleep there. There will be no scent to attract a bear to food. Everything would be in the car. Also, this was a black bear- typically harmless, not a grizzly. We were already set up here and it was almost dark. We didn’t have time to find another spot, and if so, where would we go? We asked some people we passed fishing. They had never had any problems here. THE RANGER sent us here. He said we’d be FINE.

We decided that the risk of a bear attack was no different now than it was before we spotted the thing- So we would stay. We cooked dinner on the bridge and relaxed a little. We decided that this spot was amazing and we should enjoy it. Before bed we changed clothes, packed the car, and walked down the trail to the tent.
We brought pepper spray and metal water bottles to make noise if need be, and a couple of knives. There is about a one percent chance we would need this stuff, but we felt better knowing we were prepared. (Funny thing is—I brought the pepper spray from home…one of those things you can put on a key chain. The next day, when we were waiting in line at a store, Amber pointed to a box, laughing. It was a can of bear spray…probably the size of a small fire extinguisher. What I brought---MIGHT make a bear sneeze.)

Once we were in the tent, we laid down and felt fine. We chatted a while and looked at the blog on my phone together. Then—we heard something. The sound of something brushing against the tent. We had camped many nights in the woods by now and were used to the sounds of wind, rain, and even other animals, but this was different. Something was out there. In the silence in the tent, we heard the noise again. “That sounded sketch for real huh?” I eloquently asked Amber. “Yep,” she responded. Listening hard, we became acutely aware of every little sound around us. Crickets chirping. The babbling of the water on the bank of the river just a few feet away. That was the worst. I was sure a bear was walking by our tent for a midnight snack of mountain trout in the river and we would startle him. Threaten him. Teeth chattering, hearts pounding and legs numb, we began to talk to each other in our best “low, calm voices”.

This would be our second time sleeping on the car. We gathered enough guts to head back to the Jetta. We clapped and sang Ray Charles together the whole way. (Why Ray? I have no idea) “Weeeeeell….I gotta woman…doo doo…way over town…doo doo…that’s good to me….OOOh Yeeeah!” The walk back seemed a lot longer in the dark. But we made it back to the car safely, and surprisingly enough, slept really well in the car.

Day One in Glacier

Years ago, my mom bought a book about Glacier National Park and Waterton. (Same park, Waterton is the Canadian side.) It was filled with beautiful pictures of glaciers, snow capped mountains, rivers, and colorful flowers. Ok this place looks just like that guys. It’s sort of a “meeting place” for many different kinds of biospheres. The amount of diversity in the park is incredible. There are tall peaks with mountain goats, sheep, etc. that rest on top of these green valleys with tall cedars, and waterfalls and rivers that flow down into prairies. It is breathtaking.

Our first day there we drove up to the east side of the park, St. Mary’s, and took the Going to the Sun Road all the way to the southwest entrance to the park. The road is fifty miles long and winds around glaciers, waterfalls, rivers, lakes, through tunnels. It took us nearly three hours to drive through because we kept stopping to take pictures. (There was also a fair amount of construction going on—probably an ongoing project due to weather/rock slides/etc.) There isn’t really much I can say to explain the beauty here…so I will just post a bunch of pictures. They probably won’t do it justice either, but it’s worth a try.

Into Big Sky Country

We got an early start on Saturday morning leaving just after breakfast. We thanked the Conklins for their hospitality and started on our 14 hour drive to Montana. The drive through North Dakota was just how you would expect; long stretches of nothing but flat farmland with a rolling hill here and there. Most are cattle farms or they are covered in “amber waves of grain”, beautiful, but they can get just a little boring after so many consecutive miles of them. Every once in a while we would pass a sunflower farm. In the midst of all the brown and pale blue landscape the view gets a bit drab. But then, out of nowhere there would be acres and acres of bright yellow and green sunflowers; cheery faces smiling to us in the morning, and pointing away throughout the afternoon.
The coolest thing to see in North Dakota are The Badlands. They are these huge, sandy canyons with enormous sand/rock formations jutting out.

The pictures cannot possibly do this place justice. There is nothing really to show how huge it is. This place is amazing!!
Driving through place like that really does something to your depth perception. It’s a little weird at first driving into a town like Fargo for example. There’s nothing for miles. I mean miles. Like ‘not one radio station on the FM for three hours’ kind of miles. Like ‘bring an extra can of gas’ miles. Then you come over a hill and you are suddenly in a highway town with big signs in your face, restaurants, car dealerships, etc. It can almost be a little invasive at first. But the people are friendly. At every stop along the way we spoke with people who were both kind and helpful. Lots of tips about watching out for birds and deer. Once you get into the hills with a 75 mph speed limit you don’t want to swerve for anything, “so if it’s a bird, just go on and hit it, but at 80 miles an hour, you are going to want to NOT hit a deer.” So we crept on, acutely aware of every bug and bird along the way.

That night, we headed to a national forest near Great Falls. Mary and Josh Greune happened to be returning there from a horseback camping/fly fishing trip. They would spend Sunday night in a hotel before flying home Monday so our goal was to be as close as possible in order to enjoy most of Sunday with them. Using our trusty atlas, we found the dirt highway that would take us to the forest, but driving slow at night on a gravel road makes for two tired girls. We weren’t quite sure exactly where to go once we got there either so, for the first time, we slept in the car. Wasn’t that bad really. We just found a safe spot on a straight away with plenty of shoulder, whipped out the sleeping bag and pillows, sipped on a little bit of the mead Amber brought from home, and hit the hay.

When we woke up it was like Christmas morning. The topography had changed so much but we couldn’t really tell in dark. We were surrounded by beautiful foothills and mountains, and we even saw two enormous elk, just as we started heading to Great Falls. Awesome. (We thought they were moose at first, but, our search for the moose would continue.) They were in the middle of the road at dawn, just hanging out. Huge things- maybe three or four times as big as a deer. There was a fence for cattle on both sides of the road. These guys just hopped right over them...no problem. You can't see them very well in the photograph because we got a shot of them headed away...but if you look real hard...
Great Falls, Montana is named for the huge damn there, seen here.

There are also trout hatcheries near the welcoming center as well.


In Great Falls, we caught up on some errands while we waited on family to arrive. (Phone calls, laundry, oil change, mini blizzards at DQ, the blog…this was where the previous four blog entries were posted as well, right inside the business center of a Best Western—very nice facilities by the way-- in the heart of Great Falls, Montana. Oh and for those of you who enjoy literature from the first person present tense; right now we are sitting in the community house at Finney Farm in Concrete, Washington. You know, that small town from that DiCaprio/DeNiro movie, “This Boy’s Life.” It’s rainy out so why not blog.) After a very short, but awesome visit with Mary and Josh, we parted ways and headed to Glacier.

We learned how to drive a tractor

So check out Amber and Katy learning the ins and outs of driving a tractor. Also, here are some pics of the antique potato picker.