3-14-2012

Sorry for the lack of blogging, as I said before the Internet here is just unpredictable. But maybe we are keeping our readers on our toes, maybe, even, we are getting followers that are checking daily, and consistently being let down because we don't have any new material up. That would make me happy, in a sort of contradictory way. So yesterday, a new WOOFer came to the farm. Jason and I were doing some extremely repetitive, irksome task of unraveling this corn starch tarp to lay down for the tomato plants when Taquino, the farm owner (TURKEY), pulled up in his European car and out walked a averagely tall, very caucasian, ginger bearded 30 year old. When I say bearded I mean a full on, what would take me 2 years, mane on his chin. We shook hands and had a few awkward seconds, and that was that. We didn't really meet him again until dinner that night. Turns out he's a really cool guy. He comes from Northern Michigan and he graduated from a small school around there with a Illustration degree. After college he went out into the real world, searching for a job. Some three years later he ended up working a 5-9 job in a cubicle staring at a computer. Classic real world. This is his last shot, he says. To see the rest of the world, and figure out what he really wants to do. I respect that a lot. Kudos, CJ, Kudos. So this morning I woke up at around 8:30 and then the three of us had a silent 5 minute walk to the house. Sometimes, I am always too tired to tired to talk. We got into the house, and I had my usual oranges, and some cookies. I also, stopped wearing my watch. Its really annoying to conciously check your watch every 10 minutes, whether it be working or anything. And obvioulsy if I needed to be on time, Jason has one. After we ate Jason and I did a load of laundry, and then it was to the greenhouses. Without the main farm worker, the Fonz, we were a little lost. Alicia, another worker on the farm, told us what to do for the day. Jason and I would be unraveling the terrible tarp, and CJ was planting tomatoes. So, Jason and I plugged into our iPods, and worked on figuring this puzzle out. After a couple hours, we were summoned to plant tomatoes for the rest of the morning. I was drilling holes through the lain corn starch and the dirt so that CJ could come behind me and plant the tomatoes. One thing I have noticed: The Fonz was hired 2 years ago to run their farm. The direction that the farm is going in seems to be less and less organic. Fauno started buying machine based planted plants. They come in little blocks of dirt, that at my last farm I was making by hand. And now recently, after scoffing at the task of unraveling the corn starch tarp, he informed us he would be buying inorganic tarp that would last 20 years. How productive right? Eh, not so much Fonz. So today we had some spaghetti, and leftover gnocchi. Let me tell you, that the gnocchi we had when it was fresh, was quite possibly the best thing that has ever been placed in my mouth. They were little balls of egg, and goodness. The savory was unprecedented. After every meal here you feel the need to take a good hour nap. You will never be dissapointed by the food. After lunch we hung out for awhile. Turns out CJ knows guitar pretty well, so that was really fun. He can definitely teach me some tricks of the trade. And yes, I have gotten a lot better at guitar. Obviously not amazing yet, but I can play the basic chords, and some basic songs. Then after hanging for awhile, I had to figure out how Jason and I are going to get to Croatia next week. I spent a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes waiting on the phone to get a rep. at rail europe. After waiting forever, I finally managed to get someone on the phone, and not only was she hard to understand but she was asking me for zip codes, and addresses, and of course I didn't know them. I quickly sprinted to the nearest adult and barely managed to get my question across. They had to write down address, and by the time I ran back I thought the rep. would've hung up. But, luckily she was still waiting. I got everything settled, and yea I will be taking a 14 hour train ride that day, but at least its figured out, haha. While I was on the phone CJ and Jason had been working with the cows, and when they finished we all met up and hung out for a little before we took showers. Jason and I did our 5 minute abs, and CJ tried to learn some more Italian. When Jason went in the shower first CJ and I had a nice talk about life. About work, and about being happy. It was a marvelous conversation that ended with, if you love what you are doing you never have to work a day in your life. True for the most part, or at least I would like to think its true. The night times are pretty quiet around here. After dinner I either blog a little, or play guitar, or even play card games with the youngest son. He loves to hang out with us. Its been really nice here, and I cant believe we are already leaving next week; moreover, that I am already coming home in a month. Well, hopefully I can post this now.