try again

ok the link didn't work so here's what you gotta do:
-go to christianitytoday.com
-type in "the good shepherds" that's the title of the article by rob moll
-it'll be the third option listed
-read it :)

it's been a long time

wow, it's been a while since i've written. maybe it's because i no longer have the scheduled coffee shop/internet time. now that i have the internet at my fingertips virtually any time i want it perhaps i'm not as purposeful with my time. the other reason could be tha ti find my life less exciting now that i am back in the suburbs of chicago.
i have been working as a receptionist for a month now. it's not bad really. definitely not my lifework but it is good for now and i'm getting to know some great people. i've started working at borders again in the cafe. so i am one busy girl. i'm enjoying being back in the cafe and it's been good to see my friends there again.
i've started my farm business class and it is going well. i alternate between being inspired and overwhelmed. there is so much to think about and organize and we're only talking about the business side of things! the actual act of farming is just as daunting as is the business planning. but i am still excited for farming my own piece of land and seeing the beauty of what grows. tomorrow will be my third class. we meet at a small farm near rockford, il. it's great. i love being there. it's such a good reminder of what i want to do and why.
speaking of the why, about a couple of weeks ago an editor here wrote an article about farmers that farm because of their faith. i loved it. i'll try and include a link to it because i think it does a great job explaining why i want to farm and the why for the way i want to farm.

too much strongbad

it's true. there is a limit to how much strongbad/home star runner i can see over a short period of time. over the summer i was unable to check in on my favorite internet cartoon. i thought it rude to fill a small coffee shop with the ridiculousity that ensues. so in order to celebrate my return home i have been catching up on the goings on of the home star runner gang. i have laughed a lot, but now i find myself chanting the valentime cheer from the teen girl squad. it just fits so well with my walking rhythm. i can't help it.
"what time is it? it's valentime! what time is it? it's valentime! what we gonna get? several boys! how we gonna get 'em? . . . . . um"
believe me it's catchy. anyway, so i have put myself on a little hiatus from checking out strongbad's email. it's hard but i have to draw the line somewhere.
today i got a job! i'm working for christianity today as the morning receptionist. i've got a friend on the inside that tipped me off to the job opening. it's part time so i'll probably end up getting another job. i am amazed how God provided this and how quickly it all came together. so cool. i took my very first typing test. i was doing well at the beginning and then i started getting nervous and my hands started shaking. which of course did not help the typing at all. so then i messed up more because i was thinking too much about what was going on. silly me.
well, it's back to exorcizing the voices of strongbad, homestar, marzipan, bubs, and the cheat out of my head.

Home Again

Today finds me back home in Illinois. I left the farm on Friday loaded with my belongings and a bunch of farm produce, some of which did not survive the journey. I stopped off in the Madison area for a few days to meet up with friends and to celebrate the career of a great man, Ken Kalisch. While it was good to be there and see all who could come, my heart was longing for home. Now here I am. Monday found me recovering from a night spent hovering over a toilet. Not the best homecoming but I found myself grateful that I did not have to endure such a night at the farm or in Madison. Today I am back on my feet. Which also means I have been put to work on some chores. It's good to be home. :)

Harvesting Broccoli By Moonlight!

(actually written on Thursday, September 27, 2007)

Yes, that’s right. I have been harvesting broccoli by moonlight. It was beautiful too. The days have gotten so short that it’s still dark when we start work on Thursday mornings. The moon was big and bright this morning and so it was first by moonlight that I harvested. After a while the sun rose and I watched the moon set. Such a wonderful and unique way to start the day.
It’s hard to believe that I have only a week left! Today was my second to last delivery day. Pretty soon I’ll start my “lasts”; my last Monday, my last family meal, my last cooking session in the outdoor kitchen. Strange. I’ve learned so much over the summer. I’ve gone from a timid, unsure of my farming intensions intern to an excited, “ok, let’s farm!” intern. I am excited for where this adventure is leading me. I am still surprised at times to find myself where I am, pursuing a dream of farming. I think about all those times I dreamt of farming, but never taking it seriously. They were just “what if” dreams. I never considered them things I could actually pursue. Now here I am, a beginning farmer. Funny, how life works. Amazing how God designs.

one life goal accomplished

life goal #15 see "a prairie home companion" live. check

this past weekend i went and saw the radio show "a prairie home companion" live in st. paul, mn. my mom and sister in law, angela, were visiting me at the farm and the three of us went to the dress rehersal. we all had a great time. it's such a wonderful show. it's just like good friends getting together, singing songs, telling stories, and just enjoying each other. i loved it.

well, i have two weeks left on the farm. only two weeks! i can't believe it's ending so quickly. i am excited for the next step. i'll be moving back home and starting my "farm beginnings" class in mid october. the class is on the business side of farming. we'll go through creating a business plan and marketing strategies and other things like that. i'm excited. i'll be needing to get a job too when i get back. i'll cross that bridge when i get there.

Wasps and Early Frost

Just in case you were wondering wasps do not make good roommates. This week a few had found their way into my room. I wasn't too concerned because they quickly left after I opened the door. However, the weather has gotten colder this week. We've had two frosts, Tuesday night and last night. This is the earliest in 15 years, or so I've heard. crazy. I walked into my room on Thursday after a full day of vegetable deliveries to find my room swarmed with at least 20 wasps! I went a little wild with my antiwasp spray bottle (a soap and water concoction). I wish I could say I victoriously slew all without a scratch, but alas, I cannot. Heroes rarely escape wounds. I was stung that night, then again on Friday night. I hate wasps. I was even stung by a dead one at that. Oh the cruelty.
I'm continuing to have a good time on the farm. This picture is of me and Dolly (the horse) and something called the stone boat. It's basically a wooden palette that you roll rocks onto. The horse then drags them wherever you want them to go. Not only is it functional but it's also an excuse to skitch behind a horse. It's a lot harder than it looks. Farmer Dan made it look so easy and graceful. I wobble around when I try to skitch. It's a lot like waterskiing (which i'm not good at) only you can't pull to hard on the lines because they are attached to the horse's mouth. If you pull too hard the horse stops. It's quite comical and I'm sure it's even funnier watching the action. :)
This weekend marks the 1 month to go point of the internship. I can't believe it's almost over. It's been hard and has had its rough parts, but on the whole it's been a great experience. I'm excited to continue this pursuit of farming. I'll be taking a business class for beginning farmers this winter. After that I'll hopefully find another internship. Then I'm hoping to start on my own! If you're shocked you are in good company, because so am I. Life is always full of surprises and adventures.

Mildew and Destruction

Well, the weather didn't actually break until this morning. Thursday I woke up to one of the thickest fogs I have ever seen. It was foggy where we were packing our harvest boxes which is under a roof! On the up side I've gotten to experience harvesting in wet weather. The down side is that my room smells of mildew because of my wet work pants hanging and trying to dry. blech!
Although soggy, mildewy pants are not fun I really have nothing to complain about. We've been hearing more and more stories of farms in the south east part of Minnesota where they have had over 17 inches of rain within a weekend! There's a vegetable farm that has lost 80% of their crop, another has 30 acres under water. We've heard stories of dead animals floating around, trucks floating off never to be found, tractors and other equipment submerged. It's awful. How do you recover from something like this? Can you? What devastation. My heart breaks to hear these things. God be with them.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The clouds have finally broken this evening. We’ve almost had a full week of clouds and occasional rain. I began to forget what it was like for the sun to shine. The rain has been nice though. Unfortunately our neighbors in southeastern Minnesota have not had such an enjoyable experience with the rain. They have gotten over 17 inches throughout last weekend! 17 INCHES! I can’t even imagine what that looks like. We’ve heard of a farmer that has 4 ft of mud in their basement! It’s unthinkable.
By the way, I have a new favorite book. It’s a seed catalog! I love looking through it and imagining what I would plant on my farm. Of course every crop is a bumper crop and weeds are nowhere to be seen. What can I say; I’m a dreamer.

In the Mood for Pumpkins

Sunday August 19, 2007

Today is a cold and drizzly day, blustery even. It’s hard to imagine that only a week ago it was so hot and humid. What a stark contrast! All I can think about today is pumpkins. I have a longing for pumpkin pie (which I don’t really like by the way), carving funny faces into the bright orange globes, and roasting seeds in the oven. I’m in an October mood. Too bad it’s the middle of August.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes (it's cooler), Tomatoes (pigs), Tomatoes

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Well it’s been a busy few weeks. I got to see my family again and good friends too at a camp I’ve grown up going to, Camps Farthest Out (CFO for short). I had a great time. It was a little dizzying to be around so many people that I knew and loved.
The next week was hot and sullen. But we were greeted with mountains of tomatoes! That’s right, the tomato crop is coming in and we can’t pick them fast enough. Eventually Farmer Dan had to come out and stop us from picking! Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to fit them all in the boxes we send out to the members.
And guess who likes fresh tomatoes now. Yep, me. I used to hate fresh tomatoes. They had to be cooked for me to eat them. Well, now I’m eating sliced tomatoes almost every day. They’re so good! I still can’t eat them like apples, but I do like them in sandwiches and salads. I know my parents will be proud but will probably miss getting my unwanted slices of tomatoes. Such is the price of growing up. ☺
This week has cooled off, cooled off indeed. Yesterday the high was 72 degrees! Today it is cool, windy, and rainy. We’ve gotten a lot of rain over the past week. We had 3 inches last Monday!
By the way did I mention that we have tons of tomatoes? It takes about 2 afternoons to pick them all. It’s crazy how many we have.
Today’s adventure was rounding up pigs. All 4 remaining pigs on our farm got out today. We have two huge sows and 2 smaller (but not small by any means) pigs. So we spent and hour and a half chasing them around the farm. The two sows weren’t much of a problem. They ran a little, which was funny to watch, but didn’t go far, The two young ones made us chase them literally all over the 40 acre farm. Ridiculous. I laughed a lot. They are all snug in their pen now and the gate has been reinforced. Ah, the life on a farm is one adventure after another.
Well, it’s time for me to have my new favorite sandwich, fresh basil, cheese, and tomato toasted on a slice of bread (homemade sourdough is best) I wonder if I’ll be able to find a tomato. ;)

tractor lessons

it's been an exciting month on the farm and off the farm. this month i've visited some family in the twin cities area (got a manicure and pedicure! wow did it feel good!), a bunch of my family came up to the farm, and just recently i've learned to drive the farm tractor!
the tractor lesson just happened yesterday and yes, it was quite the adventure. farmer dan had me plant some cover crops in two fields. cover crops are planted in fields that won't be used for vegetables and their job is to bind up the soil so it doesn't run off during rains or snow melts and to keep the weeds from growing. they look like green carpets. i did pretty well. i tend to go a little too fast or really really slow. at one point i popped a wheely twice with the tractor! talk about heart stopping! i had stopped to get instructions on the next field to plant. when i started up again the grain drill, the thing that was doing the actual planting of the seed, had dropped it's blades into the ground, which was unknown to me. i slowly let out the clutch and the tractor reared. instantly i put the clutch back in. i tried releasing the clutch a little slower and again the tractor reared but also started to move forward a little so i let out the clutch comletely and drove up the hill i was on. once i reached the top i turned off the tractor and turned, wide-eyed to farmer dan. he very calmly explained what had happened. i was impressed at his calmness. my heart was racing. i was sitting about 8ft off the ground in that beast!
after my heart slowed down a little i went back to work driving the tractor and planting the cover crops. there was a little damage to the grain drill but farmer dan didn't bat and eye and commented he could fix it. he didn't seem sorry that he had taught me to drive the tractor. in fact, i'm scheduled to do more tractor work in a few weeks! hopefully my tractor aerobatics are over. :)
by the way, the county fair was fun. i'm considering entering something next time it comes around!

so this is rain

Thursday, July 26, 2007

It’s raining! It’s been a long while since we’ve had a good rain. Today that changed. It was so hot and humid the past few days. Bad sleeping weather. The change in temperature is a amazing. It’s so cool now. I think I will take a nap soon. The past two days I’ve gotten off early due to the heat. Yesterday I went swimming in the St. Croix River. Oh man, did it feel good. I could swear I heard a sizzling sound as I entered the water.
So what do I do on a rainy day with my extra hours? Well, being the nerd that I am, I have a tendency to put my nose in a book. I found a German language textbook at a garage sale this summer. So I’ve started brushing up on my German! I also have checked out books from the library on home orchards and making cheese (two different books). Alexis, the other intern here, has a book on home made fermented foods, from saurkraut to yogurt to ginger beer! Oh, the ideas that are tumbling through my head.
So I definitely have a range of books to choose from. Being my father’s daughter I also have plenty of projects waiting for the inspiration/drive to strike me. There are a few belated birthday presents that need finishing. Though I may not be the most social this summer I am not lacking in things to do.
This week I’m planning on going to the county fair. I’m terribly excited. Like I said, I’m a nerd. But I’m embracing and enjoying my nerdiness!

Heat Waves and Zucchini

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Life at the farm is continuing its frantic pace. Farmer Dan often jokes that he sleeps in November. I’m beginning to believe him. Thankfully the lettuce is done and so he can sleep in to 4 am on harvest days! I, however, do not start until 7, although there have been times when a 6 am start has been necessary. We are harvesting on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and a little on Thursday morning just before the delivery van leaves.
Harvesting still amazes me. I am struck by the beauty of the vegetables we grow. There is one exception. Zucchini. I don’t think it’s that beautiful. Perhaps I once thought different. Now I do not care for it. What caused such a change of heart? I think it is the millions, perhaps, billions, of scrapes I get from harvesting zucchini and summer squash (a yellow version of zucchini). The plants have tiny spines that cut and poke and make washing legs and arms slightly painful. Stupid vegetable.
Today I harvested purple cabbage for the first time. It’s gorgeous. Even the scallions and leeks are beautiful with their green tops and white heads. Often during harvest days I have strains of songs from Veggie Tales going through my head. I pick cucumbers and laugh at the thought of dancing cucumbers. I pick the scallions and think of all the devious people they have played in all the Veggie Tale shows. Mostly though I hum the theme song. Then I laugh. The others around me shake their heads at this crazy girl with whom they are working.
It has gotten sultry hot here. I’m not sure how I’m going to sleep tonight. I have a cement floor and I’m tempted to sleep on it. The crickets have started singing, which is a welcome change from all the tree frogs calling at night. They have such a loud chirp that is nice when you’re sitting and enjoying the evening. It turns obnoxious when you want to sleep though.

long time, no blog

Well, it's been a while. I've been traveling a little on the weekends, and since that's usually when I update this page I've missed a few weeks. Then i wonder if anyone is really reading this. Oh well, I know there are a few of you out there. I was hoping my entries would be more exciting than they have turned out to be. But then again, life here isn't terribly exciting.
I am still enjoying myself. We've gotten rain last weekend and so we haven't irrigated for the last week. That was a nice break. We've sold two of our piglets, which was nice because they are getting huge. It's so funny that something that compact can weigh 100 lbs. The momma sow is the size of a german shepherd (not as tall) and weighs 350lbs! crazy! did i mention that pigs blow bubbles when they drink? well, they do. I laugh everytime and think of how I was scolded for blowing bubbles in my milk.
We have zuchinni coming out our ears. Those plants just don't stop. The pig pen is lined with over ripe zuchinni. I think the pigs are even getting sick of it. :) I must say though every week I'm struck by the beauty of the vegetables, not just the zuchinni. Harvesting is definitely my favorite thing to do. I love seeing all these things my hands have helped to grow. Vegetables really are beautiful! It's strange to think that I've been a part of planting almost everything on the farm. If my hands didn't actually plant them, I've still spent time watering them and weeding them. I've spent time in many fields crawling on my knees either weeding or harvesting. I've walked other fields multiple times. The tomatoes and I are old aquaintances and they aren't even ripe yet! Tomatoes are high maintainence!
I've visited a few other farms this past week. It was great to see other farms and how they are set up and to meet other people that are excited about small farming. It was very encouraging. A dairy was one of the farms I visited. It was very interesting. I got to feed the calves and I saw a calf that was born just a couple of hours before I got there! The rest of the time I just watched what was going on. I decided I don't want to have a dairy, but maybe one milking cow. That's a possibility. mmmh . . . anyway, with only spending an hour and a half in the dairy barn I smelled of cow and my clothes still smelled the next day. :)
Thanks for checking in with me and I hope I'll get better at updating this. :)

Fried Frog Anyone?

Things have been busy on the farm. Then again, when are things not busy here? Probably in January. We've been running around harvesting vegetables, delivering vegetables, planting vegetables, weeding vegetables, and eating vegetables. To break things up I went to a u-pick strawberry patch yesterday. :)
One morning this week I woke up to a crazy loud snapping sound. I live right next to the horse pasture that has an electric fence that usually makes a mild clicking noise. You can only hear it if you listen specifically for it. However, this morning it was a insistant snap. Being the farm novice that I am, I had no clue what it was or why such a loud sound was occuring.
My curiosity was quelled at breakfast when Farmer Dan announced that the electric fence had been grounded out sometime during the night. He was expecting to find a downed branch. Instead he found the fried remains of a tree frog! No kidding, a tree frog had grounded out our fence! It was perched on one of the iron poles and had reached out to the electric line. That is how he met his untimely end. Farmer Dan said he was burnt to a crisp. I laughed and laughed. Ah life on the farm. It's great!

Harvest Time!

We harvested our first crops for the farm members this week! It came as quite a surprise. I arrived back on the farm Monday night after traveling to a friend's wedding the previous weekend. Farmer Dan was very gracious in giving me a four day weekend. We sat on the porch sharing our various weekend experiences and Farmer Dan announced we would be harvesting this week. The first week in June! And what did we harvest this week? Spinach, Romaine and Loose Leaf Lettuces, Swiss Chard, and Green Kale.
Harvesting was quite hectic and the normally steep learning curve dropped off and became a very tricky cliff. We survived though and Farmer Dan was quite patient with us newbies. Hopefully this coming week will go better and we will only make mistakes half or less than half the time. :)
It took a while for me to get back into the swing of things after my incredibly busy four day weekend. I blame the weird weather. This past week it was cool then hot and humid, then cool, then ridiculously hot and humid, then cool again. Unfortunately we are in need of rain again. We were doing so well for the past few weeks, but it's dry again. I guess farmers are never satisfied when it comes to weather.
The picture I'm including is me in the harvest shed where all the picked produce is washed in these huge bins and then sorted into the boxes that we deliver to the members. We get all the extras. So, needless to say (but I'm going to say it anyway) I've been eating a lot of salads. Yesterday I found some slices of cornbread that I had baked a couple of weeks ago and I think I've discovered a few new strains of mold or at least some new colors. I will attack that mess today. I hope that a lot of boiling water and a few hungry pigs will erase this disaster and this blog will be the only evidence of it ever happening.
I made two discoveries this weekend. First, I found a German textbook at a garage sale and bought it for 10cents. So in my free time I will be brushing up on my german. The funny thing is that this textbook is much more up to date than the one I had in high school. In my garage sale textbook Germany is actually one country! In my high school textbook there was still a West and East Germany! Ha ha!
My second discovery is a beautiful but short walking trail in downtown Osceola. Osceola is located on a bluff that looks out on the St. Croix River. There is a smaller river that runs on the south end of town and there's a staircase in the middle of downtown that takes you to the waterfall and then follows the little river as it runs to the St. Croix. It was beautiful.
Well, I'm off to do some cooking. Auf Wiedersehen!

we have rain!!

Finally, it has rained! Oh has it rained. It started on Wednesday and continued all Thursday. It was a beautiful, gentle rain. There wasn't any washing away of plants and we got 2 1/2 inches! It was perfect. Praise God. Today it's been raining on and off and we're supposed to get rain on Tuesday. So we've gone from record drought to lots of rain. I guess when it rains it pours. :) ( sorry, i know that was awful but i couldn't resist.)
My partner in crime arrived this week with the rain (aka the other intern). Her name is Alexis Walker. She's in college on the east coast and is also exploring the possibility of becoming a farmer. She's very sweet and it's been nice to have someone to talk to in the field. Juan, our worker from mexico, and i are talking more. I'm becoming braver with my very small knowledge of spanish and with sign language. Farmer Dan and I talk too, but Alexis is a breath of fresh air.
Today I find myself fighting some sort of sickness. Yesterday we mulched the kale with moldy hay and didn't wear masks. Dan and I both found ourselves with fevers last night and i still have a tight chest. Needless to say we will make sure we wear masks next time. I have fears that now i've developed asthma or a lung infection. but in my more sane, less panicky moments, i think i'll be fine. i just need rest. I dragged myself into town to catch up on internet stuff.
So I'm starting to plan my own farm! When I was a student at HoneyRock we had an assignment to design our dream camp. Well, this week I found myself picking up a notebook and designing my dream farm. Does this mean I've made a decision that farming is for me? No, I wouldn't go that far, yet. We'll see what this season brings. That's why i'm at a farm, to see if this could be for me. Who knows what God's got planned. I'm trying to stick with one step at a time. It's kind of like working on a long row, either planting or weeding. I try to look at the end as little as possible. Otherwise it feels like i'll never get there. If I just concentrate on what's in front of me I find the end of the row comes so much faster, than when i'm constantly checking where the end is. So, we'll see where this row leads. Ok, deep philosophical thought for the blog is done. :)
one last thing, i'm at coffee shop in osceola, wi and "carry on my wayward son" is playing on the radio only it's not kansas singing. it's weirding me out. they're not bad, whoever it is, but they're not that good either. until next time!

planting planting planting

that's about all we did last week. i was either sitting on the transplanter setting plants in the field or crawling along the row and hand planting. most of the time i like it. but if i get hungry i get a little crabby. then i don't like anything. oh well.
this week i met someone who has been in antarctica 5 times. he worked down there about 5 months at a time for 5 seasons! amazing. he also has a degree in antarctic history. so interesting. he's a friend of farmer dan.
last night there was a small party at the farm. we baked pizzas in the old fashioned brick oven that's on the farm. it was so neat. we heated the oven over three hours. it took only 5 minutes to bake the pizzas. probably less. they were delicious too. i think hawaiian pizza is becoming one of my top favorite pizzas. i'm looking forward to baking bread in the oven.
let's see. i'll give you a list of what's been planted: potatoes (red and yukon gold), broccoli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, bok choi, swiss chard (red and yellow), lettuce (romaine, red), carrots, peas, spinach, onions ( we're going to plant 20,000!), beets, dill, and fennel. i think that's everything that is planted in the fields so far. we've got a ton more planted in the green house.
i've definitely been more tired this week than the previous two. but i am still enjoying myself. i find myself with a lot of time to think. so now i'm wondering what should i think about? what if i don't think about the right stuff? what if i waste my time thinking of stupid things when i could be thinking about deep things? but then i tell myself to lighten up. i can't force being contemplative.
today i went to a draft horse demonstration in a nearby town. there were a lot of people there. i went on a wagon ride and then watched a bunch of teams plow a field. there were the giant draft breeds of clydsdales (think budweiser), and belgians. there were also smaller norwegian fjord horses. they are beautiful cream colored horses with a black strip in their manes and tails. they're about the size of a big pony. one man had 6 belgians hitched to his plow. it was fun to watch.

the new farm apprentice

that's me! the new farm apprentice. the second week has gone well. we have new piglets! they were born last Sunday. we actually got to see it happening too. it was amazing and weird at the same time. we've begun planting in the fields this past week. we've only done a little since we really need rain. it's a little scary that we need rain badly already when this is supposed to be the rainier part of the year. we've started using our sprinklers which is a lot of extra work. i've kept on working with the horses. i even took one out on the road hitched to a two wheel cart! it was definitely an adventure. we spent some time on the road and some time in the ditch. but over all it was a good experience.
i've tried doing laundry today with an old fashioned wringer washer. i hated it. the wringer didn't do much for wringing out my clothes and the wash tub kept leaking so i had to add water periodically during the soaking and agitating. i don't know how people managed with these stupid things. so now i'm in town to finish laundry.
osceola is a big biker town on the weekends. yesterday and today there is the constant rumbles of harleys and all other kinds of motorcycles. i did see one moped and i had to give the guy respect for riding out there with all the bikes. i think he's a local and was just out doing his daily errands. but with all these other bikes he looked like a little kid trying to play with the big boys and girls.
i'm adding some pictures and i hope this works so you all can get a little picture of my new surroundings. i'm enjoying all the new experiences and everything that i'm learning. it's fascinating. i hope i'm this excited in july when it's hot and we're harvesting every day!

My First Farm Report!

My first week at the farm. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I'm here. But then I hear the chickens, horses, oxen, pigs, cats, and dog all reminding me that this is, in fact real. Yes, you did read that right. All those animals are on this farm. Sometimes I break out laughing when I listen to them. I can't believe this is my life now.
This week I've spent working in the greenhouse, clearing fields of rocks and last year's crop remnants, learning to drive the horses, and moving into my new room, half of an old chicken coop. That's right a chicken coop. The chickens haven't lived there for a very long time though. It's referred to as the people coop since that's where the interns have been living there for the past 7 years at least. But yes, I have now joined the precious few who have lived in chicken coops. :)
Common Harvest is the name of the farm where I'm living and working. The family here is great. They have definitely welcomed me into their home and lives. I'm starting to get to know the people in the area as well. There are actually 4 organic farms, including us, along this road! Quite unique, I'm sure.
So, now it's the weekend and I'm getting settled and getting to know the area. Everything is still pretty brown. The grass is green, but there are no leaves on the trees yet. It's warming up though and hopefully we'll get some rain soon. That's all from a small farming town in wisconsin! :)

easter thief

in preparation of the family easter egg hunt i set out the eggs in the morning. evidently the squirrels saw this as a welcome change from their diet of nuts.

getting ready

this week begins the one month countdown until i leave for the farm i'm going to work on this growing season. i am terribly excited. i've started sorting through my stuff and choosing what i will bring and what i will leave behind. i will most definitely leave behind my ridiculous alarm clock/cd player. that stupid thing is a piece of junk. the digital display does not work. it gives me clues as to the time instead of telling me like a good clock does. sometimes the clues are quite ambiguous. for instance, one night i was reading and glanced over at my not-so-trustworthy alarm clock to see how late it was. the clock smugly read 10:77 and would give no further clues. therefore i will leave that stupid thing behind. ha! take that!

it starts . . .

well, here I sit late at night trying to ride out a caffeine buzz resulting from consuming some sort of coffee beverage a little later than I should have (an occupational hazard when you work at a coffee shop). As I bide my time I have begun a blog. Forgive me for the mundane beginning. The purpose of this is to merely document my newest adventure, working on an organic farm!
Yes, you read that right. This growing season I will be working on a small organic farm in northwestern Wisconsin. This new adventure will start in mid April and end in mid October. I am hoping that with this blog I will be able to share this awesome experience with you. So stay tuned . . .