Big Creatures

Today I worked quite a bit in the garden. We've got all kinds of great fruits, vegetables, and berries. We have apple trees, raspberry bushes, leeks, purple bell peppers, many varieties of bulbous blistering red and purple heirloom tomatoes, eggplants... together, Nic and I picked about 8 pints of raspberries and a peck of green beans, yellow beans, and purple beans. Most of the meals in the cafeteria are made with ingredients directly from the farm, including meat, eggs, milk, and produce.

I also rode on the back of a tractor. But that's not the point of this post. The point is that I found a huge caterpillar outside of our house. We have this same variety in Arkansas, but they are much smaller. Check it out!

Here it is with my hand for scale...

And here it is on its own. It trashed around a bit, nibbled on my fingers, and attached itself to my bedsheets. I think it was really afraid I was going to eat it. Sorry, bug. Didn't mean to scare you.

Settling in

Nic and I are currently on day 2 of our work at Overlook Farm. Yesterday, we learned the animals at the farm, did some feeding chores, and learned how to milk the goats! On our first day, we were already milking. It felt great! At the end of the day some of the girls that live in our house took us around Rutland and to a grocery store. A cool girl that works here named Farmer Jo dropped off a bag of produce which contained a zucchini about a foot and a half long. I think I will try to cook it soon. Here's the food situation: Breakfast we are on our own for, but typically the cafeteria overcooks for lunch and dinner, so we get the leftovers from the cooking. It's awesome stuff. Last night, I had grilled cheese, vegetable stew, and kale + mashed potatoes. Sometimes there are communal dinners, sometimes not.
Today Nic and I worked in the global village kitchen. The global village here is quite a bit different, with regions such as Colonias (small Mexican colonies in Texas) and Poland represented. After we got done in the global village kitchen, we went to work in the huge garden, where we met the awesome gardener and spent some time working with her. The gardener loves to make food from scratch, which is great- she is a bread baker and was a vegan as well, so she knows alot about substitutions in baking, which I always had trouble with as a vegetarian that preferred not to cook with milk. The more people we meet the more excited I get. I also got my name tag today.
The work is a good, exhausting, dirty type of work. We don't get our staff shirts until Monday, but I can handle that- in the meantime, my clothes are browner than they were before. Nic ended up taking a short nap during lunch, and I know for sure I am going to sleep well tonight.
And we did finally get our writing addresses, so if you want to write to either Nic or I, drop me an email/facebook message and I will send you our address. Here are some of the pictures I promised last post!


This is our house, Camel Lot, and the big rock that is in front of it.

This is the big red chicken house. Notice all the different varieties of chickens there are in this field. There is also a winter-chicken named Snowball that is covered in fuzz, even his feet. It's pretty cute.

The beautiful ferns that surround the farm and fill up the woods.

This is from the inside of a hut made of vines that is located in the Global Village.

And here is a picture from the outside of the same hut.
Well, that's it for now. Take care all!

Arriving at Heifer, etc

Hello all! Nic and I have arrived safely, albeit late, in Massachusetts at Overlook farm! It is gorgeous here. We arrived extra late, at 2:00 AM, and didn't get to take a tour or anything until this morning. We slept pretty late, and then several people that lived in the house met us and took us around. We are staying in a place called Camelot/Camel Lot, haha, because there is a lot in the back with a camel in it. A guy named Al picked us up and told us all about the farm, etc. I have only been here twelve hours and I already smell like a farm girl. It's pretty amazing how quick you pick up the smell of animal. The focus really is on farming and agriculture, and it is radically different from Perryville. They do not eat the rabbit, but they do have the kids move the animals from pen to pen, feed the goats/chickens, do milking, take care of rabbits, etc. They do not have a week long global village event, but instead, a two day global village with a wide variety of houses. Here are some pictures of my husband petting animals.
Pig

Goat

Red Calf

Iamou the Inbred Baby Bull. Iamou= I am my own uncle.
Well, we have our first round of chores in about fifteen minutes so I do not have time to upload any more pictures. I took quite a few and will be putting them on this blog periodically. It's so gorgeous up here. There are ferns everywhere, tons of very friendly animals that are used to the attention of people, and great folks. Our home is beautiful and wood on the outside, I will put a picture of it later. We are actually the first of the fall volunteers to arrive, but we will be starting work anyway. I am happy and excited right now!

Habits that used to be worthwhile

I find myself quite often coming to the realization that I am, in fact, grown up, and that time, in fact, is going faster and that, in fact, my metabolism is slowing, and that, in fact, the future that I had been planning for is here, and it isn’t exactly what I thought it would be. I spent many years planning for the so-called future without really realizing that the future would instead be a culmination of many presents, and that if I spent all of my free time planning, instead of developing some skill or talent, I would learn only to plan. And what I have I discovered? I’m good at planning. And that there isn’t any thing wrong with being idle.

Every once in a while it will hit me that I’ve become a full fledged creature of the habits I had, and not the habits I intended to have. I haven’t quite gotten in to the habit of finishing things, and the habit of being relaxed I’ve avoided entirely. What an interesting thing to realize. I hereby plan to spend less time planning, and more time chilling. It’s all too easy to get caught up in organizing abstract things. I need to waste more time, or learn to waste time in a way that contributes to my value/worth/interest as a human being. I’m getting there.

In the meantime, I was sitting a table of people during my last couple of days at Future Builders and a discussion of clothing/style came to be. Many of the people liked the 80s, liked the 50s and 70s, and hated the 1990s. Grunge. Tommy Hilfiger. Plaid. Flat tennis shoes, Swatch watches, Nirvana t-shirts, off-brand cigarettes. Diablo, Warhammer, Magic the Gathering, and anime. Delia*s. AIR shop. And the consensus? Everyone in that room with the exception of myself and one other person hated the 90s. My initial response was to hide my Flik-Flak watch.

I had a Pop-sickle t-shirt, a yellow web belt, and lime green Tommy shoes back in the day. I had red pleather pants and white leopard print jeans. I wasn’t stylish, but I wasn’t too out of touch, either. I enjoyed 90s style, and still do, but it’s toned down. I’ve become practical. I’ve grown up. I've started wearing dresses.