Punatics

I finally have time to update! Let's see...

We had a lovely Xmas dinner at the farm with our boss and coworker and a few friends of theirs. It was unfortunately also a sort of going away party for our boss, Don, though we didn't know it at the time. He had been trying to secure the property for 8 months and finally after all that, the deal fell through and he decided to pack up and go. In an act of solidarity, we helped Don with packing, cleaning and delivering his things to a storage place. We resolved to go back to Hilo instead of staying on at the farm and working for the previous owners.

What a weird situation! I can't say much because we didn't really interact with her much but we heard from other wwoofers that the owner was often drunk and verbally abusive to wwoofers. I didn't want to work in those conditions, especially knowing how much work there was to do to get the place back up to running speed.

Luckily we didn't have to go far to find a place to stay. Our friend Sean offered us a cabin for a week, no strings attached. We had a great time with him, making lots of food together and getting around Puna a bit.

For New Year's Eve we went camping on the easternmost tip of the island, 25 feet away from huge waves breaking against the lava rocks. We had a bon fire complete with hot dogs and set off some fireworks at midnight. We awoke at dawn to see the sun rise over the ocean. A nice way to start 2011!

We're back in Hilo now at Uncle Bob's, mustering up our strength for the next leg of our journey. We're set on going to Kona side to check out the farm we'll be working on come February and hopefully we'll find a place to work/stay in the meantime. I've been a little disappointed by the farms we've found so far, especially in Puna. It's a beautiful place and I'm sure all the working farms are full up with great wwoofers and that's why we never got a reply from them.

The Puna area is just packed with organic farms and it's a vibrant community. Even being there for two weeks, we were starting to feel like locals. But it just isn't our scene: sitting at the health food store talking about what kind of yoga you're doing or how you're dropping red meat from your diet or that ayahuasca ceremony/rave you went to... There are gems amongst the hippies but so many hippies...

Not having rewarding work to do and lots of organic food to eat like our previous wwoofing experiences has left me a little bummed and homesick. I'm sure things will start looking up soon after all, we are in Hawaii!

Lots more updates soon on funny jungle stuff and check out my photos!

Every Day is an Adventure!

We're back in Hilo again! I've adopted Bob (our couchsurfing host here) as my uncle because then I won't feel so bad showing up at his door and crashing on his futon when things don't work out elsewhere. He doesn't seem to mind at all. In fact, I think he likes us!

The place we went to check out today was outside of Pahoa Town in the Puna district, the eastern most point of the island. This is what they call the "Wild West" of Hawaii, which seems counter-intuitive because it is to the east but it makes sense because it is the newest part of the islands. An undeveloped final frontier made up of intermittent lava flow over the last few hundred years. This area is world famous for black sand beaches and proximity to the volcanoes but is locally famous for the amount of hippies, squatters and organic farms! Whoda thunk it?

We were picked up in Pahoa by the proprietor and he seemed like a nice enough guy but when we pulled into "the farm" it became very apparent that this was a worse situation than the one we had just left. On the ride there he mentioned just having gotten rid of a bunch of losers and scabies. That really should have been the tip off. We should have gotten out of the car and saved the next hour of our lives.

The "farm hostel" was a bunch of open air, thrown-together, shacks with tin roofs. Basically a garbage dump with a sort of kitchen. There was a lady there covered in what they call "haole rot" and scabs from a sun burn. (Haole is the local word for white person or mainlander.) Hoooooo eeeee! Our accommodation was a platform 6 inches off the ground with no walls and a futon frame covered in moldy pillows and foam. Did I mention that we were expected to pay $20 a night for three nights before our work trade would start?

As soon as we were left alone, I started to cry. I am not expecting a hotel here but this is squalor, this is an absolute sham of a hostel or farm. I can't even believe that this place is in the WWOOF book. I was appalled and totally grossed out. Jay was trying to get me to pull it together and I was really trying but after a good look around we both gave up, put our packs on and said goodbye. We hitched rides back to Pahoa and waited for the bus while a local crack head regaled us with tales of drunk-driving and a loveless childhood.

The bright side is that after seeing this place, the gulch looks like a four star hotel! We will continue to look for more opportunities but in the meantime it is nice to know that we have a place to stay that only expects 10 hours of us weekly.

A New Year

It is a gorgeous day here and is supposed to get up to 37 degrees! My birthday was this past Friday, the 13th, and it was so lovely. We had fresh garden pasta for dinner and watched the Perseid meteors fly overhead late at night.

Recently I received an email from my mum asking me what our plans were for when we are done at Sapo Bravo. In responding I realized that we didn't have to do the conventional thing, to move back to the city and get jobs and an apartment again. We can do anything!

We started talking about the possibility of doing more farming somewhere in the world where it isn't winter. New Zealand was discussed but we've decided that Hawaii is the place for us. We can fly directly there from Vancouver and as Canadian citizens we can stay for 6 months without trouble.

Now we are in the throes of planning another trip and it feels like we just got back from the last one! I love my life.

Country to City

It's a hot, windy day here in Texas. It's hard to believe that it snowed two weeks ago! Well, we're wrapping up our month at -W Ranch this Friday and driving into the city (Austin) on Saturday to go to the farmer's market with our farm buddies. I'm excited to see all the produce and hopefully get some bargains!

I'm also excited to see our friend Tina, who will be in town for SXSW festivities. It's mostly coincidental that we'll be in Austin during one of the biggest music industry festivals in North America and we're gonna milk it for all it's worth. Free shows and food! Thank goodness for that because Austin is really expensive otherwise. We were there for a night this last weekend and it really reminds me of Calgary in so many ways.

I'm really excited for the next leg of our journey because I not only get to rendezvous with Tina in Austin but also with Sydney in New Orleans. I've wanted to visit New Orleans for a long time (possibly coinciding with reading "Interview With The Vampire"). I really have no idea what to expect. It feels good to be a "traveler" and not a "tourist". I think we end up seeing cities in a different way because we aren't always looking for the same landmarks that everyone else is and we are so cheap we can't afford to do most touristy things anyway.

I can't believe we've been gone for nearly four months! We've seen so much! And learned a lot. It's hard to even summarize the experience. I've barely been able to keep up with blogging because we're either on the road in between cities or we are working every day on one farm or another. I miss the routine of having a home and a job... but not enough to want to go back yet! Both ways of life definitely have their benefits.

I just had a conversation with Iris (a wwoofer from the Netherlands) about how weird America is. It is weird. As a Canadian, sometimes the differences between our cultures are hard to define but they are there. They say "pah-sta" and make fun of me for saying pasta!

-Janet

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.

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!

Solstice Reflections

It's that "festive" time of year again. As we approach Christmas, even though I don't celebrate in a typical fashion, I am reminded to think of what I am grateful for.

I am grateful that I am able to choose to not buy gifts or spend any money on a holiday that overemphasizes the accumulation of unnecessary material things ;)

I am grateful that we as a species still have a chance (however small) to repair the centuries of damage we have done to the Earth.

I am grateful for family, mine, yours, and everyone's. Family is our first community. It is our lifeline, our guidebook for life. It is where we come from and where we go back to. It is where we learn to feed ourselves, to work hard, to support our loved ones and to grow together.

I am grateful that I have been lucky enough to be born in North America and that, though I am a woman and would be made to feel a lesser individual in the greater part of the world, where I live I am equal.

I am grateful to be allowed to pursue my dreams.

I am grateful to be pursuing a dream right at this very moment! Not only a vacation but a valuable experience, an opportunity for learning and maybe even a farewell to the American road-trip as we know it.

And so many simple things besides these.

Last Sunday, as we sat amongst strangers and new friends at a community potluck, I remarked to Jay that it was like "church without the god". I do believe that one can be reverent without being religious. There is something bigger than us, a greater power, a knowledge beyond our knowing and we live on it. Earth.

Much love,
Janet

What's brown and red and rhymes with cute?

For the last few days we've been pruning chestnut trees on a hill overlooking the valley. It's very misty in the mornings and the sun eventually burns it off but the grass stays moist for most of these shortening days.
Look what we found!

Red-bellied newts! So many of them and I want to hug them all.

Chestnut Roasting

I'd never done it before but yesterday I helped Tom roast and peel about four pounds of chestnuts for the Anderson Valley Grange Annual Holiday Potluck. I felt ignorant for being here, on a chestnut farm, and having never tasted the things even though the trees stand on nearly every block of Vancouver proper. They are so delicious! Especially when seasoned with olive oil and sea salt. I know next year at chestnut time in Vancouver I'll be running around collecting them and I'll know just what to do.

When we told Tom that there are chestnut trees all over Vancouver he asked if there was an early Italian settlement, which there was especially in our neighbourhood Commecial Drive. That would explain the chestnuts and that they are most likely European Chestnuts as opposed to American or some other variety. Tom however grows Colossal Chestnuts for their size and flavour.

So, we roasted the chestnuts and took them on down to the potluck which was a lovely celebration including all sorts, young and old and really showcased the vibrant community of Anderson Valley. Nearly all the food was locally grown including wild pork(!), organic turkey, delicious chevre, a multitude of tasty winter veggies and even bread made with locally grown wheat!

We met another wwoofer from down the road and many other interesting locals. We sang carols! We mingled! It was a lot of fun and made me long for the day that we'll be a part of such a group of likeminded people.

When we got back to the ridge, we were greeted by the bright, clear night sky and the stars so thick. Lucky for us the rain clouds from the day before had cleared in time to watch the Gemenid meteor shower. It was awesome in the true sense of the word and made up for missing the Leonids in November.

My lucky stars...

The First Week

We've somewhat settled in the "woofer's quarters" as Tom calls it. A huge open room sectioned off by book shelves. We sleep on a waterbed(!) and have our own living room area including a fireplace. It does get cold at night. And today has been particularly frosty.

We eat so well, it doesn't feel like it's unpaid work. Vegetable curry last night, pot roast the night before. All kinds of snacks. A well stocked beer fridge, liquor cabinet and wine shelf. Hot, strong coffee in the morning and whatever we want for breakfast. Then leftovers for lunch.

It's been a week of mostly pruning for me. Rose bushes, pear trees, almond trees, a pomegranate bush and wine grapes. Jay's been doing different stuff. Chopping firewood, landscaping, hauling rocks and pruning with me. Four hours or so a day and then we are free to do whatever. I've been reading a lot. Two books currently: In Defense of Food by Micheal Pollan and Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. Jay read an Agatha Christie book in a day. I've also been experimenting with knitting (I keep pulling the stitches off to start over) and teaching myself to crochet. It's not as easy as I'd hoped... I've been trying to play guitar a little bit everyday to build up some calouses. I surprised myself by remembering most of what I'd learned before we left. I also want to do some still life watercolour painting. There is a lot of gorgeous landscape all around.

Oh, Nicky's barking. (The sweethearted, dumb-as-all-hell Golden Retriever.) That must mean Jay's back from his bike ride. Or she overheard the highway.

All in all, I feel incredibly lucky. Tom is a gracious and totally cool host with tonnes of stories to tell and really up to date ideas about the world. We listen to Democracy Now every morning and watch John Stewart at night. The work is easy and there are new things to learn everyday. More or less. Even though this wonderful place is more of a retirement scheme than a functioning farm there are still opportunities everywhere. To learn from a unique community. To see and experience life off-the-grid (almost totally). To relax and hang out with a cool, old dude.

First Impressions of Chestnut Ridge Ranch

As we approached a small town called Philo we pulled over along the 128 because I had a feeling that the road we would have to take would be approaching soon. I must've seen it on Google maps months ago because we never received directions. I pulled out the wwoof book and the address said 7700 Peachland Road. So we drove along and a few miles up, there on the left was Peachland Road. It was paved for the first half a mile and then broke into dirt and gravel. This is a real road!

The road crawled up along the sides of hills and seemed to be kept in place by the roots of the trees growing horizontally outwards. Signs warning trespassers were nailed to trees and hugged by the bark that grew around them. Elwood chugged along in second gear, climbing, climbing climbing and then descending and climbing again. We stopped at the first dwelling we saw and asked a girl (who was probably a wwoofer herself) if it was Chestnut Ridge. She said no, so on we went. We followed the road for more winding miles until we reached three locked gates. On one hung a sign that read "Cats Ear, Emerald Earth, Chestnut Ridge Ranch". So Jay parked Elwood out of traffic and we continued on foot until we saw some buildings. A large, unfinished house, a number of sod roofed huts and a weird spherical structure. Jay hollered, "Hello?" and a woman came out of the sphere. After a short explanation she directed us to take the middle fork in a road still down the way.

We must've walked a mile or two more up the side of the mountain, passing houses and farms here and there. Finally we reached a large automated gate. Then we saw the chestnut trees and the oaks, then the rose bushes and the moon rising in a purple and pink sky over a big beautiful house we would later learn was originally meant to be a barn.

I was overwhelmed by the beauty of this place. Here we were on top of a mountain and everything around me so unfamiliar and near-exotic. Trees I don't recognize and a redness to the terrain. I had butterflies of excitement in my stomach.

We got up to the house and were greeted by the "fierce" barking of a Golden Retriever which quickly descended into sniffles and waggling, of course. Then came Julie, the current wwoofer, a sweet girl from Chicago and at the top of the stairs was Tom.

We had snuck up on them. He thought he had given us directions and the padlock combination for the gate. They were expecting the crunch of gravel under tires but we had come almost to the front door without being noticed. We were welcomed into the kitchen and given snacks and conversation. And such a beautiful kitchen, warm with a fire and full of functional knick-knackery.

So we're here. More updates soon on the work and everything else. So far we've just been pruning rose bushes, of which there are many. Tom's had to trip into town the last few days for deliveries and to take Julie to the Greyhound so we've been without guidance for the most part. With this lack of direction we have been fine. In this place it matters very little as time has slowed and there are books and fires and even a small bass pond from which Jay caught our lunch today. All is well with the world from our beautiful vantage point.

-Janet (& Jay)