It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Well folks, ,it's been quite a week. We've had some pretty awesome ups, but some punch-you-in-the-gut downs.

Monday and Tuesday Jen went to her friends house to watch TV for hours on end. I don't blame her, I'd need a break too. And Sebastian went to the city with Kai for the week. SO it was an intern house for the first part of the week. We did smaller tasks like picking huckleberries while watching scrubs and digging Edgar potatoes, cutting wood, and watching more scrubs… Scrubs is awesome. I didn't realize how much I liked it until I started working here. Maybe it's just because it's my only form of TV (even though it's TV on DVD), but watching Scrubs seems like the best thing on earth. I take no shame..

Wednesday was pick and process day, however, it looked like the apocalypse outside. Dark, cold, extremely windy. So we decided not to process and keep ourselves inside as much as possible. We still had to harvest our greens, though. Mustard and chard. But a WHOLE LOT of mustard and chard. The CSA bags this week were full to the brim. We also chucked in some garlic, baby cabbages, broccoli, and/or cauliflower.

After we finished work for the day I went to my room and took a nap. It was the most glorious feeling EVER! I always crave sleep from the time I wake up to midday. And this time I was actually able to satisfy that craving! It was awesome.

Thursday Jen and Sebastian went to the city and as a nice gesture, Tess and I made dinner all by ourselves! I felt so accomplished! It ended up being a nacho dish. Tortilla chips, rice, beans, salsa, cheese, green peppers, olives. And it turned out amazingly well. I also made more bread that rose so much the top of it hit the top of the over and I couldn't get it out… Jen had to pull out the rack from under it while I held onto the bread. Tasted awesome though! And now I know to never put the bread on the top rack.


We wanted to have dinner actually ready by the time she got home, but unfortunately we were still working on it. But when she came home and asked what we were making and we answered with "dinner" she got really excited. She later said that on the way home she was trying to think of what to make for dinner but kept drawing blanks. I was glad to help out. I knew she'd like to have someone else cook for once since on the way back from NYC that first week I worked at the farm, she said that what was really exciting was that her mother was making dinner, so she didn't have to!

Friday Jen, Kai, and Sebastian went to Connecticut for Jen's dad's birthday so Tess and I again had the house to ourselves…for a little while. That evening Jen's friend Deb, and her friend, Sue, came to the farm. It was interesting hosting these guests that I didn't know in this home that wasn't really mine. I guess it truly shows me how my age doesn't matter…i mean, here I am, taking care of a whole entire farm and playing host to 40 something yr olds. And doing both successfully. I'm 18, remember.

We chatted about college and application essays since Sue was an english major. I've been going through one of my many "All my friends are amazing therefor, I suck" phases. And this translates into: I will not be able to write a good app. essay.Which is stressful, because I'm pretty sure my app. essay will make or break my acceptance into most of the schools I'm applying. GAH. college. I don't know how I would've been able to apply last year when I had no desire to go.

Saturday was the day. It was when Teddy and Katie came to the farm, when Deb and Sue left, when everyone went down to work on the garlic field, when the tractor got stuck, and when Didjeriedoo died. Yes, folks, one of our beloved kittens–my favorite, actually–died mysteriously.

I'll break it down from when the tractor got stuck…
Kai was bringing down a hay bale to the lower lower garlic field and got stuck in the mud, but in trying to get out ended up sliding farther down hill and being stuck IN the part of the garlic field that we had just finished readying to plant. Damn you, fate. After about an hour of trying to get it unstuck, Kai was thoroughly frustrated and obviously felt horrible so we finally called the hallorans and had them bring their tractor down and tow it out. A small bit of the field was ruined but there wasn't any serious damage. Everyone was safe and the tractor made it back up to the garage safely.

Unfortunately, while we waited for the Hallorans to arrive, we all went up and began chores. While Tess, Teddy, and Katie put away the tools I headed to the chicken house and in my path I saw a lifeless kitten…. It was more shocking than anything else. I can't quite explain the feeling I had when I found him. It was just… finding something that shouldn't be. I ran back to the milkhouse and told tees that a cat was dead and all of us ran to the spot where I found him. He had blood from his mouth and nose and his left eye was almost popped out of his skull. We all tried to figure out what could've happened but came to no conclusions since there were no other visible injuries. Teddy went and told Jen and Kai who were just as shocked as everyone else. And eventually Tess and I continued with the chores while Teddy, Jen, and Katie laid him under a dead apple tree in the pasture.

It was a solemn rest of the evening. I told Jimmy about the events of the day and his response was spot on: That's a sad day. People always try to romanticize farming, but neglect to highlight the potential emotional drain that goes along with it.

Very very true. Working on a farm hardens you. It's impossible to raise chickens from their baby chick phase and then soon after turn em over for slaughter and NOT form some sort of emotional shield. Or plant 5 rows of a crop and only 1 row actually survives… there are many different things.

So R.I.P Didj. You had a short life, but you touched mine greatly.

The next day was hard and slow getting started. I was still trudging through my grief of Didj when we began working at 9:30. And it was a missing Parker day. Our whole day was made up of remaking the part of the field that was wrecked by the tractor and haying and shaping the rows. It was a long tiring day. At the end of it Tess and I began salivating at the thought of waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and then jumped up on a couple hay bales and tried willing them to fly us back to the house (the walk from the garlic field to the house is a long steep hill…go figure). So that was a lot of fun. And then that night Katie and Teddy made tacos!! OHMIGOD they were so delicious. Just thinking about them makes me swoon. After dinner, Tess and I stayed up and chatted with the guests while Teddy made a portrait of Jen's "ancestor aunt Flo."

I'll get a pic of that and put it up here when I get back to the farm. Basically Jen wants anyone who visits the farm and wants to-to paint a portrait of some fake ancestor so that we can add a bit of history to the farm. Such as, oh aunt Flo, she would always hunt out chickens…that's why the family couldn't actually have any chickens for 20 years… ya know, weird stories like that.

Somehow I also ended up driving Katie and Teddy back to the city this morning, since I was heading there and they needed a ride and vuala! They're really cool. Teddy is going to begin traveling this Feb. in India and on my journeys I may even meet up with him if I decide to go to India. who knows!?

And there it is again, the other my-age-really-doesn't-matter thing. I would say that these two folks that I gave a ride to could possibly be considered friends. Or at least, they would've been if there was more time for us to actually hang out. And these two folks are in their late 20s? Katie is married. And Teddy seems to have had enough time to spend four years in school and then a good amount of time traveling since he's been to thailand, laos, and India. I'm 8.5 years younger than my sister, but I hang out with people that are her age. weird.

So all of us went to breakfast and then we parted ways, I traveled the city for the first time by myself–took the uptown train from 103 to 145 so I could get back to Kate's appt. And now I'm in the city just getting some of my much needed R&R, watching the kids play ball and readying to go shopping for making candy apples. I'll spend the night, wake up at 6 and head back home tomorrow morning…with just a short stop at dunkin donuts! I'm excited about the rest of the day. And ya know what? I have less than 4 weeks left of working on the farm! That thought is bizarre. And kind of scary, because then I'll have to enter the rest of my life which is ALL completely unplanned.

Next time I post there'll be 3 weeks left, then 2, then 1… so I guess that means there's only 3 more blog posts! man. Time sure does fly...