Week 2

A whole nother week has passed, and to recap it day by day would be too difficult and take too long. So I'll just do a week recap blog!

Monday was mostly just putting everything back after the hurricane, which was basically just putting the high tunnels' plastic back on. High tunnel 2 was done for, though, so we just put up plastic on 1 and 3. It took all day, with Katie and I spending most of the day tying knots. I learned how to do a rams horn knot and a clove stitch and…something else like a half stitch…or something. But we also hooked the loose end of the twine to a pocket knife and then threw it over the tunnels to the other person. That was fun.
After Katie left I decided to go explore the area and see if my brakes would stop squeaking if i drove, and they did. It was kind of crazy leaving the farm–it was the first time I left since I had gotten there and I just went to Peck's market in jeffersonville to get some groceries, then to the gas station to get snacks, and as I was leaving, I saw a building that said "Kelly's Korner," and low and behold, it sold ice cream–the item I've missed most since beginning the internship.

So, I still believe in fate.

Kai also left monday night and so that was the first night I had eaten dinner alone. And it was a very sad affair in comparison to the past week.

And the rest of the week followed that pattern, I would work with Katie during the day and eat dinner solemnly. Most of my day was filled with thoughts of how it was and how it could've been if no one had left. How much better the days could've been.

To say the least, I was having a hard time coping.

And on Wed. Sebastian finally broke down too. Unfortunately, it was on my behalf.

So, I went in for a snack and saw some graham crackers on the table. I took one, stuck a marshmallow on it, and then Sebastian came in.

And this was the dialogue:
-That's my graham cracker!
-Oh! I'm sorry
-Why did you take my graham cracker?!
-I didn't know it was yours, I'm sorry!
-Why didn't you know it was mine?
-I just didn't know
-But my mommy said she was putting it out for me!
-I didn't hear her
-Why didn't you hear her?
-I was doing something else
-But why weren't you paying attention!?
-I was busy! I'm sorry! Here, you can have this one back
-No!
-I'll get you a new one
-No!
-But here, look! (I opened both packages looking for one that wasn't broken) Uh, idk if I can find one that isn't broken…
-I'm going to tell my mommy!

And then he did. This entire conversation happened with his crying escalating and my freaking out escalating.

Great. As if I didn't already feel inferior to Jimmy in his relationship with Sebastian….
I've been trying! I just can't do the same things Jimmy could do. I'm at least 4 in. shorter and in general, am smaller than he is, so I can't roughhouse and play the same way Jimmy did.
Nor have I ever been any good with kids.
So that aspect kind of sucks.

Thursday Jen and Sebastian went to the city for the CSA drop. Sebastian and I talked the night before about how he liked playing with Cadence, and he wanted me to call her and ask if she'd come visit him in the city. So I did, and I knew that they'd have fun.
Katie and I finished most of the things on the to-do list, which was a nice surprise for Jen when she got home. It was surprising though, since Katie left for an hour since she had to go home and turn off the generator and I basically took off an hour and made pancakes. But, a lot still got done, so that's good.
I also got to meet Katie's dog, a full chocolate lab. She was quite big! But very quiet and sweet.

Friday was cooking!! In the morning I began clearing Candice so we could plant spinach and chard. But in the afternoon Jen gave us cooking lessons! That was really fun. I learned how to brine and roast a chicken (in theory…), how to make squash-a-ganush (in theory…) and it's an extremely tasty chip dip that Jen made the recipe for, and how to make pumpkin syrup, which is my personal favorite. There are now jokes about how I mainlined it and that people would walk into the kitchen and see me injecting it. hah. I did eat a lot of it…

But yeah, the syrup originated from Jen's kitchen on the hurricane day to go along with the squash pancakes Kai made. There's quite a bit of awesome food here. At least, most of the time. :p

Saturday I continued clearing the row. I cleared from 9 to 3 with only one break to use the bathroom. I began to wonder if I was even actually alive by the time I finished. I had been alone in the field doing the same repetitive, mostly brainless, activity for 6 hours. So I did begin to go a little crazy.

It was even hard for me to readjust when I finally did go in for lunch. People were talking to me! So i guess I wasn't dead….

Around 5 I left on my journey to the city. This was quite an adventure. But I will talk of it in a different post. This is already long enough. :p

Here's my major forearm tan!!

The storm!

I am writing this by candlelight…well, okay, it's a computer so it doesn't really count–but still! It's hard to see the keys. :-p

Anyways, Hurricane Irene arrived today and although it wasn't near as bad as we had anticipated, the power did indeed go out around 4 pm, and it's now about 8:30. The house is dark, with the only light being that emitted by candles, and the wind still has many ferocious gusts, so it's a little spooky. And of course, I'm living in the attic by myself now, since Jimmy left yesterday, so it's especially spooky. But Jen did offer that I sleep in the guest room on the second floor, and I refused–so I get what I get.

I'm living the true colonial farm life! It's kind of cool. I had to walk slowly up the attic stairs with the candle stretched out in front of me and I felt like I had some type of connection with our ancestors, like I got a tiny glimpse of what life was like for them. Going to bed in the fading daylight, with a candle outstretched before your eyes.

But because of Irene, we had a completely weird day. I stayed inside for pretty much the whole day! It's bizarre! And I don't think I like it. I just sat down and tried to catch up with my blogging for the majority of the day, and it just felt so lazy…like I was missing something because I spent the majority of the day on my butt.

I can't say it was wasted though, I did get the majority of the week done–but there's just so much that goes on everyday that it takes a long time to write down everything, which is what I'm trying to do–recap the day and what I learned in that day. I also got to play with the kittens since Jen's mom wanted to bring them inside to see if her dog would get along with them. And they did! And the cats loved being inside! So I think Banjo and Piccolo may go home with her…which is kind of sad. They are my favorite and so I will have another thing that I have learned to associate with the farm taken away.

Oh well, we all knew it couldn't be perfect forever.

So I'm pretty sure that's what this hurricane is about. All the changes that are going on around now with Kai going back to work and Jimmy going back to school and Banjo and Piccolo leaving the farm… I mean come on! :-/

I also began to read The Encyclopedia of Country Living, which is basically this big giant book that has a ton of really awesome info and references in it. And anyone who works on the farm reads the majority of it. That's just how it is.

So I've begun that adventure.

It's crazy to think that a full week has already passed, and all the stuff in MY life that I planned to get done during these three months–finish the scarf, learn how to speed read or at least go through that book, choose which colleges to apply to, and go through the book on meditation–i'm realizing it isn't going to get done. Not even close.

That just means life is too exciting, I guess. And that is a good thing! Still haven't been bored here–though today I got the closest. ;-)

Another big thing is that the more I work here and distance myself from high school, the more I really want to go into some sort of science. So far, I've hated science. AP Chemistry was the only class I got below a B in, and science incorporates math which is just YEUK!

But I think I have to give in. The things I'm passionate about require a sciencey background, and if I just shut up and stop giving myself excuses as to why i'm not any good at it and actually start trying at it, I may begin to like it and perhaps even get good at it.

Regardless, I can't fully understand farming at it's basic form without knowing and understanding some biology concepts, and natural power, which is something else I'm passionate about, is pure science! The best way I can help this world–in my mind right now–is to go into some sort of science. And do like a science major english minor, because I'd still like to write, but more of an educational persuasive passionate writing rather than fiction. Plus, I'm good at english, I like English, so it would be good to fall back on.

I don't know what I'm going to do when I get to college since I still want to learn a bunch of history, but I need to focus on science, and I need to hone my english skills, but I'd also love to understand another language…basically, I just really want to learn!!

And that is PERFECT. Because before my gap year started, I had lost that hunger for knowledge, and if you don't have that hunger, that desire, you just won't learn!

And now I feel like I've found a way to love learning again, and so college will be much more useful to me. And this is precisely why I took my gap year, and so far it is working perfectly.

So I raise my glass to gap years! Nothing has worked so well for me before.

With that, I will blow out my candles, and listen to the wind howl in my lonely dark attic room as I fall asleep.

This is what I did during the storm.

The saturday of CRAZY!

Farmstock!

Ya know…I really hope I'm spelling that right. I honestly have no idea…

So today was basically a day offish. I woke up and did chores, but then was set to work washing gourds. (?) I had a bowl. I had a sponge. I had soap.

This was not what i expected when coming to work on a farm! hah. But i did enjoy it.

So, the reason for the prettifying was that we were making a display, hoping people would see it and then want to buy the gourds. I'm not sure it worked or not. But regardless, I spent all morning cleaning the DIRT-RIDDEN squash.

Everyone else was rushing around setting other things up and bringing out instruments. The atmosphere was pretty loose and excited.

Jen's parents came back with their two dogs, Katie and Leo. They had gone home for a day to make sure their house was hurricane-ready.

Around 12:30 people started to arrive, and so we began giving tours. Someone from the local paper came to check it out, and other various folk. Young and old came to see what Channery Hill Farm really has to offer. Of course, Sebastian was in heaven since there were plenty of other kids to play with, and Jen's mom, who was once a science teacher, i believe, brought all the kids up to the pond and collected some pond water for them to observe and experiment with.

I also got to meet Jimmy's girlfriend, Amanda. She's extremely nice! She even brought presents for Sebastian: lighting McQueen crocs, which were probably the most awesome crocs I've ever seen, and also a cars travel cup. He was very excited to say the least.

I gave a tour to an older couple, who couldn't walk as far, so I just showed them around the barn and the greenhouse. I told them ahead of time that I wasn't the best tour guide since I had only been there a week–but they didn't seem to mind. Just asked how I ended up here.

But as I gave them the tour I realized how much I've actually learned in just a short week. It's astounding! And it isn't like school where I'll learn it and then promptly forget 95% of it, I retain 95% of it now, and once I've got it I don't think I'll forget it because I'm actually DOING things. I'm working with what I'm learning and that makes all the difference.

After the tours were all done and people were just milling around, I got kind of… overwhelmed. There were so many people all doing their own thing and you must remember, for the past week the most people I'd been with is… 5-Jen, Kai, Sebastian, Jimmy, Katie. And I was also having trouble with the fact that Jimmy was leaving. I didn't understand the full impact it would have on working here yet, but I did not it would be different. And I didn't want different, because the way it was was perfect.

Anyway, I had to go sit alone for awhile–let myself breathe and everything.

But I soon decided that it would be better to immerse myself in the hecticness and that is when the gifts were bestowed upon the child and excitement ensued.

I also met Acadia who lives across the valley at Apple Pond farm. She's working on a land project and is hoping to make good, organic food to give to schools. It's pretty awesome, actually. But anyway, her truck broke down, so after everyone had left it started pouring rain and her mechanic still hadn't arrived so she stayed and chatted for awhile, and three things happened at once:

her mechanic arrived

I was told I should move my car since it was currently parked on a downhill slope

Jimmy was packed and ready to leave

So I moved my car and when I hit the brakes, they made the horrible screeching noise that made everyone look up and stare at me…

uh. crap.

But I did repark, and the brakes worked fine! They just made horrendous noises…

I said bye to Jimmy as the rain began to start up again, and then went to ask Acadia's mechanic about my brakes.

He said it was just rust since Ruby had just been sitting there for a week and it had rained during that week.

Or Ruby, she's so spoiled with her garage and all! Not used to weather!

But apparently, if I drove her, the noise would go away after a couple miles.

And that was basically the end of the day. We had dinner–the grandparents, Jen, Kai, Sebastian, and I–and talked about the impending storm.

Then went to bed, knowing when we woke up that a storm could be raging outside.

Here's another cute picture, because I have very few pictures this week.

The storm is coming!

Preparing for Irene!

Our tasks for the day were:

Move the wood pile so that it doesn't become projectiles that hit the house during high winds.

Take down the high tunnels plastic.

Harvest as though it's our last one.

Move everything inside that might be picked up by wind.

Finish preparing for farmstolk! Which is tomorrow.

And of course, the weather was void of clouds and HOT!

As we were moving the wood pile, garden snakes would slither hurriedly away as we uncovered them and put the wood on the tractor. It felt silly, moving the wood AWAY from the wood stove, but a necessary precaution. Jen didn't want huge pieces of nail-covered wood flying at the house.

Kaite and I cleaned up all the scraps in front of the old chicken house while Jimmy and Kai took down the plastic (a job I'm glad I missed. :p).

Things went pretty quickly with all of us, and by lunch everything but the harvesting was done. Jimmy went out and braved the heat while Katie and I made sauerkraut and pickled some cucumbers.

So making sauerkraut:

chop up cabbage (we did it with a food processor)

put the chopped cabbage in a big tub

fill the tub with salt water

find a way to submerge the cabbage completely so that the air can't easily get in

let sit (i'm actually not sure how long it has to sit for… but maybe just overnight, or perhaps a week. I really don't know)

And that's it. It's pretty simple as long as you have the right equipment.

All the while, Jen was making soup with some leftover CSA veggies, and watching legally blonde–this was a delight since I haven't seen a movie in a long while now. And I am certainly a movie person! So I feel a little deprived. It was nice to have a movie in the background.

Unfortunately, halfway through krauting I began to get an urge to pick tomatoes. I'm not quite sure why this is, especially since I generally prefer doing indoor tasks, but nevertheless, as soon as I was done making said sauerkraut, I went out to join jimmy in the harvest. Though, when I told Jen I wanted to go out and pick, she told me I could definitely have a break. I think she was surprised in my eagerness to get back out there.

So the work day ended with Jimmy and I picking tomatoes in the greenhouse, just as it had started. It was very bittersweet for me since it was Jimmy's last full day, and I was beginning to really hate the idea of him leaving.

But the night bore on and everyone was frantically trying to make instruments for farmstolk, Jimmy and Jen made a–or rather came close to making–a "ductare," or as most of us non-four-year–olds know it, a guitar, out of an olive oil tin.

Kai made a washtub bass, which, I must say, was the coolest thing I've ever played.

And Jimmy also brought down his keymonica…with looks and acts like a kids toy, so obviously Sebastian took a liking to it and ended up being able to keep it on the promise that he will practice any one instrument for at least one hour every week.

. . .

that hasn't happened yet.

Oh well.

We also ate some of the 40 hot dogs that Katie grilled. We decided to cook all the raw meat just in case we lost power, but of course, there was a LOT of meat.

Jimmy gave me some last bit of college advice, which was "don't drink the punch."

And I shall never forget it.

And that's that.

The end of my first week, really. And the end of the perfect paradise that this farm was for me.

It's certainly not bad now, but nothing holds a candle to how amazing that first week was.

And my first CSA drop off is here!

I woke up around 5 so that we could finish getting the orders ready (we ran out of bags the day before and had to wait till Jen's parents came, with bags, in order to finish bagging the shares).

It was cold and dark, but at least I didn't have a full day of heavy work ahead of me–just some social time with Jen, and a visit to the city.

We stop at the gas station first, and of course right by it there's SUMAC. Both Jen and I had an incredible urge to harvest them… but we resisted.

I guess I'm beginning to develop harvester's greed.

On the way down we listen to the radio which tells us over and over and over again that YES! Steve Jobs is INDEED resigning! Just in case you didn't get it the first 20 times, we MUST reiterate this point! Oh yeah, and there's a hurricane barreling toward your area with 65-100 mph winds. But really guys, WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO APPLE!!?

geez. I understand why NPR did this. Steve Jobs affects, basically the whole nation. The hurricane only directly impacts the East. So, I get it. But you'd think something that poses a threat to human life would be more talked about. Because, if, for instance, you didn't hear about the hurricane because everyone was too busy discussing Steve Jobs and you left your apple laptop outside and it got destroyed, YOUR LIFE WOULD GO ON. And your laptop could probably be replaced. But if you decided to go camping that weekend because you didn't hear of the impending disaster…you cannot be replaced.

So fuck you too news people!

...

Oddly, when we entered the city, the streets are NOT packed with traffic. And we arrived at 9 am! On a Thursday! It works in our favor, but we were a little kerfuffled about why the city was so empty.

We make it to IIN, our first drop off point, park illegally, and Jen rushed to deliver while I sat in the car–making sure it's not towed and driving it around the block if I find it necessary.

After this stressful event, we move on to ATC, where Jen parks the car (we arrived before 10:30, so we snagged a spot due to alternate side parking!), and I set up tables.

This is basically the end of anything exciting, or would've been, had I not had a visit from Kate, Cadence, and Hazel. Otherwise, you just sit around until three. So we're advised to bring stuff to do.

So I go out to eat lunch with Kate and the girls. We go to a Fulllaffel place next to the law school, and then get some amazing Gelato for a lunch dessert. It was pretty good visit, and Kate ended up with a lot of leftover CSA yummies! Including rainbow carrots, which I pulled myself, and were my personal favorite!

Of course, while with Kate, we also stopped at a drugstore to pick up some emergency supplies. Apparently parts of NYC were in evacuation mode and hunker down mode. Which is why the city was so empty.

Going to lunch with my sister and nieces was… an experience I had never had before. And It didn't sink in until later how bizarre and new that was. Not once have I just gone to lunch with them. It's always a big extended event because it's such a hassle and a big deal for us to get to one another, considering we've always been 100s of miles away.

In a way, the visit to the city made it more apparent that I was no longer living with my parents.

Anyway, by the time we got back, Jen is in full panic mode about the storm. We not only have those humans inside to worry about–we also have all the farm animals we care for, all our plants, and the greenhouse! So many things could go wrong.

So, we began preparing.

(And to finish the day, Jen's parents made roasted chicken with some veggies! YUM! And we all ate out on the deck in the cool summer night air. And for dessert–chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels and lemon sticks… I opted for the chocolatey goodness! It was as perfect as any night good be.)

P.S.

These seem to be popping up on every aspiring farmer's property! (I say aspiring, because my father has one on the side of his house...and he is only, so far, an aspiring farmer.)

CSA HARVEST AND PROCESSING DAY

Harvest and Processing day!

This is every Wednesday and it's very fun. Basically, we go out and pick whatever is going to be in the CSA that week and then rinse and package them into 36 different shares and stick them in their appropriate bins and store them in the giant fridge, with the working shelves!

So this week we pulled carrots, which I did with Jimmy and got to learn a little more about him, which was nice. He's really cool, I like him a lot. Very laid back. So now, of course, i'm not so happy that he leaves at the end of the week since he's one of my only possible friends around here and he is going to leave. Oh goody!

I'll just get used to it–the whole people coming and going out of my life thing.

Anyway, we also picked sauté greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower. We washed em off with the hose and I got to know the processing station well. It was a good day, since it was a little bit less strenuous and we got to work more closely with everyone throughout the whole day.

In the evening, Jen's parents came, but since they got stuck in traffic we had to do little odd jobs until they got there. So I picked Channers, or rocks, and washed them off so that we could make little channers with faces for farmstolk.

As I was picking up rocks, the kittens began to surround me and I was in heaven, throwing rocks so they could hunt them…it was adorable! And then of course, because I was throwing things, the chickens assumed they were getting a snack and also began to surround me. It was quite a sight, apparently, since Jen said later that I looked like I was having a Dr. Doolittle moment!

So Katie left, and we got tired of waiting, so Jen, Jimmy and I jumped into the car and went into town to pick sumac, which was an awesome little excursion. Quite fun.

The first place we stopped was just on the side of the road near a stream and the majority of the trees were too tall for Jen and I, so after just a few minutes, we had harvested all we could and went to Peck's Market to pick up some groceries.

You see, there are no big chain stores around here. As far as I know, if you wanted to go to a target, you'd have to go on the interstate to get to one. Luckily, Peck's has everything I'd need. Not that I know how to actually get there yet.

But of course, while at Peck's, we also purchased a junk bag of funions (i don't know the spelling of that snack). And then finished the whole bag by the time we got home.

It was Jimmy's first time eating funions, and I'm happy to report that he did indeed have "fun." :-P

Also before we got home we made a few stops to pick more sumac and go on an excursion through some tiny town that I can't remember the name of, and of course we found just a couple places in that town where there was sumac to pick, and naturally there were posted signs saying "private property! something something something gun society!" so, we decided not to stop there.

Arriving home, we realized that the grandparents had finally come! And they are really just sooo sweet! Treated me as though I was family right away.

And you see, Jen's parents are from Connecticut, so they brought live lobsters! Now, I can't say I like seafood, but as far as seafood goes, I could understand why people like good lobster. And this was also my first time eating lobster, so they had to teach me what to do.

One direction was to take the claw, take the back end of the knife, and just smash the claw until it breaks! It's a little, uh, horrendous, getting to the meat. But it was certainly a fun experience. Probably my favorite meal so far, and it was the least tasty (to me. I much prefer grilled veggies)!

And in all? Probably my favorite day so far. The picking of sumac, the eating of lobster, the having of company–all made the day quite splendid!

OOh, I also learned how to lubricate things with solid gulf wax!

And that's that!

This is the sumac!

Day 3

Jimmy came back last night, so we finally have all the interns together, which meant, things went by quickly. I picked tomatoes while Jimmy picked beans, while Katie picked cucumbers. So much more can get done with more people.

Something about picking tomatoes–you would think that you'd only pick the ripe ones, however, that's not how we do it here. At the first sign of color, you pick it because apparently there's some chemical that helps it to continue ripening after the first flesh of color, even if it's off the vine. Neat, huh? It helps so that you have less rotten tomatoes, because if you wait to pick until their ripe, you may miss some and then they'll rot more quickly. Whereas if you pick them before they're ripe, you're less likely to have rotten tomatoes since, even if you wait a few days to pick again, it'll be okay!

(euck, that sentence got crazy. I lost my train of thought. Hope you understand)

But anyways, today was just like the others, chores, daily tasks, lunch dinner, ya ya. The only difference was that Sebastian started soccer! Woo! He is an only child here in the middle of the county, so it gets kind of lonely for him, therefore, soccer is a good remedy.

He came home complaining of the mean boys who got it into his goal, and we had to explain to him that that was just part of the game. It's funny, i've never thought about having to teach kids how to understand sports where the other people are trying very hard to do something you really don't want. It seems to go against some of the other values we teach kids, such as, don't do to others what you wouldn't want done to you.

Eh, weird.

Because he started soccer, though, Jen and Kai were both gone in the evening, leaving just Jimmy and I to do evening chores. This is when I learned that there is a hose right next to the barn, so when you have to fill the chicken water, you don't have to drag the hose all the way from the greenhouse to the barn. :-p

That knowledge would've saved me a good deal of time had I known it earlier. oh well!

And then we got done a little early, close to 6:30, so I took a shower and Jimmy went down to the gas station cuz he was hungry and just couldn't wait for dinner. hah. What an appetite.

I'm still learning the lay of the land around here. I'm afraid to venture out because I'm certain I'll get lost…but hopefully I'll figure it out in the three months that I'm here.

We'll see!

Oh! and this was also the day Jen made pizza soup. It was amazing. We shall market it and become rich. AND the soup was made entirely of the things we harvested right outside. AMAZING!

And now a KITTEN IN THE GREENHOUSE SERIES!!

This sweet little one is named Banjo. She's the only girl.