Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Snow Day


It's snowed two inches last night and today, so we're sitting inside watching movies today. Jay's cooking a deer roast. Karen, the other woofer from Virginia, made deer sausage and is now drawing. I'm knitting a blanket for my upcoming niece's arrival.

The snow finally caught up with us and even though we've been evading it for months, I am happy to see it. I can't help it, I like snow. Maybe it's a Canadian thing...

We've been eating really well. There's spinach, collards, turnips, and new garlic in the garden and a freezer half full of wild pork and deer. I think we've had turnips for more than one meal everyday for the past week.

We had planned to woof at another farm in Texas but we like this one a lot, so we decided to stay here for the full month. It will be fulfilling to see all the things we've planted start coming up and we should get to harvest some stuff if the snow doesn't stick around. It's fun to talk about produce, I know a lot about it and I'm learning a lot more. I'm getting more excited about growing it and looking forward to doing an apprenticeship this summer in BC.

I'm really trying to just go with the flow of things and let life grow around me and take me where it will. Trying to shed preconceived notions of success and just do what is simple and feels good.

A shot of Belle the beagle.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Texas is the shit.

It feels good to be on a real farm. -W Ranch is home to a herd of Texas Longhorn cattle, a beagle, two cats, three ewes, and seven people at the moment. Our first night here, we drove to a neighbouring ranch for a fireworks extravaganza in celebration of Chinese New Year, although it seems merely coincidental.

Everybody is great! We work hard, eat well and drink 'til bedtime. Tonight we're having jack-rabbit stew, last night was venison chili and the nights previous involved wild hog tenderloins. Jay's down at the small lake fishing with Billy and Karen right now. So maybe we'll have some fish too!

Today we dug furrows and planted potatoes. I imagine we'll do some more of that tomorrow!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

My legs are covered in bed bug and mosquito bites and I´ve been awake since 4 this morning because Jay and I missed our bus stop in Tulum and ended up in Playa del Carmen. But really what do I have to complain about? We sat on an abandoned coral sand beach and watched the sunrise over the azul Carribean Sea.

The last few days in Mexico have been wonderful albeit itchy. The day after we got to Merida we took a bus with a fellow Canadian from our hostel in Merida to Cuzama. The bus ride was followed by a bici-taxi ride and then a horse drawn cart on rails set in a dirt path to the Tres Cenotes.

The cenotes were breathtaking. Crystal clear, kool-aid blue water in a cave! As soon as I was in the water and swimming around I couldn´t stop yelping with simultaneous joy and fear. We´ll post those photos and more as soon as we´re back in the U.S. with our laptop.

The next day, Friday, we missed our tour to the Ruta Puuc ruins but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it rained off and on all day. We did catch it on Saturday and saw five ruin sites just south of Ticul, where my grandparents lived for 30 or so years. Xlapak, Labna, Sayil, Kabah and Uxmal, the last of which is truly elegant and awe-inspiring. I´ve been lucky enough to see most of these on my previous trips to the Yucatan when I was 5 and 18 years old but it was awesome to be with Jay on his virginal excursion into the ruins. And no one got sacrificed!

Now we are at our intended destination of Tulum at a backpacker´s hostel, very close to the ruins, mingling with folks from all over the world. It´s packed, for what reason I do not know, although Carnival is this week, so that could be why... Well, I gotta pee, so farewell.

-Janet

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Sunrise in Merida

After two bus rides of about 35 hours total, we stepped into the colonial jungle of the Yucatan this morning and watched the sun rise over steamy Merida.

We got fed up with the cold front in Texas and decided that our trip wouldn't be complete without travelling into Mexico. We have two weeks to see the ruins from Ruta Puc to Chichen Itza and Tulum and to enjoy the hospitality and cuisine of the Mayans.

Expect more updates soon and some retrospective on the last three weeks. We haven't had a steady internet connection for a while but we have plenty of pictures to illustrate our journey from the Californian desert through Arizona, New Mexico and finally Texas.