high times

Since I fell asleep sometime before 7:00pm Wednesday night, I got up at 5:00 yesterday morning and took a field walk. Bill and Ashley have been advising that we do these walks daily to observe changes and get an overall sense of what’s going on around the farm. Usually I’m too tired to do much more than dress myself and throw together a peanut butter and banana sandwich + coffee before work starts at 7 but I think I’m going to try and make it a part of my morning routine because it was really serene and peaceful. 

This week we harvested green onions – which was our first plant out ever! It was an interesting experience to pull out the same onions I had put into the ground. Somewhere in between there they had somehow grown! We also learned how to harvest broccoli – another task involving our knives, which I LOVE. You basically hack it off the stem and then hack off the leaves and pack it into the box. Hack and pack. Oh – and we learned how to harvest Rainbow chard as well. Pretty much the same deal as the kale – snap it off at the stem and make a bouquet. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the bouquets, but I will during the next harvest. The leaves were GIANT; yellow, red, white, green, and pink. 

some rainbow chard

As the weather continues to get warmer, we are slowly but surely rolling up the Agribon FOR GOOD!! It’s a very exciting time for all of us. Each bed we roll up is one less we have to take on and off each day. 15 beds left! 

Barn life this week has been especially fun – I think it’s all of the hysterical, body shaking laughter that starts at breakfast. For some reason every comment, gesture, incident has been overly ridiculous and deserving of loud outbursts. For example, during a frustrating moment searching for the lid to a particular Tupperware container it was suggested that I crawl into the cabinet to have a look, (which seems like the worst idea ever because obviously it’s going to be dark in there, but ultimately I did find the lid when everything came spilling all over the place as I was trying to get out). This kind of environment is like ‘home’ to my spirit and has felt like a re-birth of sorts. I don’t remember laughing this much or hard since 2004, when I lived with the absolutely hilarious Brad Riley and Erin Paul. I think my barnmates were taken aback the first time I reached a state of pure hysteria, something I know all of you can picture – my deep asthma-cough guffaw bursting the blood vessels in my eyes as they pour out tears - and in between gasps of air, my classic outcry: “I’M GONNA PEE”. 

Anyway, it’s been high times. And it’s not just me, which is the beauty of it. Pretty much everyone but Rita has a booming laughter that apparently echos between the hills - tonight at our Pie Friday meeting Deborah reminded us that she is running a silent retreat this coming week and weekend, and asked that we be mindful of loud music, etc. Bill piped in with: “No, for this crew, it’s not their music I hear, it’s all the laughing.” To which we all burst out in laughter.

Yesterday was my meeting with Bill. It went fine, my worry was over nothing. I told him that because he doesn’t give me much feedback, I really was nervous that I hadn’t been doing a good job. He said that he figured we all knew that if he didn’t say anything, then we’re doing it right. Not how I operate, but, o.k. He said that he appreciated my preparedness, attentiveness, and willingness to ask questions. He also said that he’s noticed how discouraged and irritated I get when I don’t learn something or catch on to a task right away, and suggested that I work on not judging myself so harshly. He pointed out how frustrated I had been when we first learned how to cut salad, (in fact, his exact words: “there were some….tense….moments….) and how now I’ve declared it as my favorite thing. I acknowledged that I could make things easier by letting go of the need to be perfect at everything I try and to give myself time to learn something, practice it, be in it before forming a judgment or jumping to “I can’t”, which is something that’s pretty much true in all areas of my life. Other than that he mentioned some things that he had brought up to everybody regarding speed, efficiency, focus, etc. He also assured me that I wouldn’t have to do Saturday Market if I really didn’t want to – I think Ashley must have told him how poor my mental math was last weekend. I gave the wrong change back to at least four people – in fact, it was probably more than that because Ashley just happened to overhear me at those random times. I also charged a man 8.50 for spinach that was 4.50. By the time I realized he had walked away and it was too late. I think he was surprised at the 8.50 price, but paid only because he was also trying to flirt with me. Then on more than several occasions I lost all train of thought and forgot how much the totals were, what bill the person had given me, and how to do the ‘count back’ method, during which I just stood over the money box with wide eyes and waited for Ashley to save me. My god, I’m back on my Saturday Market woes. 

This Saturday, which is tomorrow, I will thankfully not be at Market. I’m hoping for some good biking weather and a bonfire or two. Maybe some coconut banana chocolate chip cookies. Yeah Weekend!