Wednesday, May 26, 2010

So the funny thing about that was...

So, I can't help but feel that this week's trip to Cascabel is going to be the oddest series of events of my time spent in AZ. Rather than wait a week to post (and most likely forget everything that happened) I am treating you all (you're welcome) to a special "bonus" post.


So WWOOFer Jenn,WWOOFer Whit, and I drove up to Cascabel Sunday evening so that we could put in a full day's work on Monday and Tuesday. Before leaving, Debbie let us borrow a book she had on Enneagrams -- needless to say much of the car ride was spent on self-diagnosis (we also got Dairy Queen so that took up some time as well). If you are wondering, I am a two. The book is written in such a way that makes one ashamed to be whatever number you are. It starts out by saying some really frivolous things about your personality (e.g. you are really generous and are kind) and then the gloves come off. Twos apparently are extremely giving with their time and energy but it's only so people think of them positively/ to avoid dealing with their own issues. It goes on from there and each number description goes about the same. You are good at silly x,y, and z but in general you are terrible and awful and no one should bother being your friend. Needless to say, we are sulky about the book. However, whenever anyone did anything clumsy or say something offensive we would just say, "That's typical 4 behavior (or 2 or whatever)".


On Monday we finished fence reinforcement and then as a group we scoured the field for large rocks so that can be safely tilled. During this process I found an Indian artifact (maybe two?)! I found awhat I am told is a Mano-- a stone used wit a matate to grind grains into whatever. I was very excited and contemplated mailing it to Mom... but thought it was better to leave it at the farm than to risk criminal charges/ crazy UPS shipping fees. I also maybe found an arrow head. If not an arrowhead, then it is an incredibly symmetrical naturally arrowhead shaped rock. Who's to say?

Also on Monday: A trip to the river. So, there is a river at the back end of the property! During monsoon season it is swollen and looks like a typical river/creek. Currently though, it's a kind of meh trickle. Despite how unimpressive it looks at this point in time, it is absolutely teeming with minnows and tadpoles. Ihler had a really fun time letting the minnows swim between his toes and catching the chubby/sluggish tadpoles. During the hour or so we spent by the river Ihler went from completely clothed to completely naked. It happened slowly...but really we should have known that naked baby was on the way the moment his shoes and socks came off. I'm looking forward to monsoon season to see what sort of new wildlife is around when there is a consistent water source available/ tubing down the river during lunch breaks.

Monday night CJ said, "It would be great if someone could drive to Benson to get Diesel fuel so that Tuesday we could have full use of the equipment." At the time he asked, I was feeling alert so I volunteered. It was a definite, "If you give a mouse a cookie..." situation because by the time I had left I was committed to doing 2-3 more errands out in town (and by the time he'd finished his list of things for me to get I was getting into the sleepy range). So Benson is a 30 minute drive away and I think size-wise is like Richlands. In order to get there you have to drive through windy, hilly roads in which cows are a very real road hazard. It's a scary drive to make in the day time and much more difficult at night since there's no light around except for your headlights. To keep awake, I rolled the windows down on the pickup and listened to one of the few non-static-y radio stations around. It was classic rock so I was content for a while. When I noticed I was the only car on this deserted highway It occurred to me that I was living out any number of Jackson Browne and/or Eagles hits and I decided to change the radio to the other non-static-y station, Mexican Mariachi Music... lest I end up at the Hotel California or Running on Empty.


Tuesday I think was the funniest day of all. We took the big dogs, lily and gus, for a walk around the property in order to exercise them and to reinforce their understanding of the farm's borders. When we came by the pond we took them off the leash so they could swim around and cool off. CJ brought his bathing suit and jumped in with the pups. I wanted to wade in with them so I took off my pants and got in just above my knees. Jenn just got her toes wet. So while we people were hanging out and talking, the dogs decided to do some exploring. Lily slipped under the fence and Gus followed and soon they were outside the borders of the fence. We could still see them, and knowing that they aren't fast dogs, we limited our retrieval efforts to whistles and the occasional yell of the name. Then they just take off -blam-and are no longer in eyesight. It's important to know that our neighbors in the direction they bolted are cow farmers (actually in about every direction...cow farming). It is the policy of cow farmers to shoot dogs who wander on their property in order to protect livestock. Suddenly, there is an urgency in getting the dogs. I start running after them.... as is... barefoot in my underwear. I have a pretty well known "I would not run to save my life" policy, but my urge to protect the dogs overwhelmed my desire to not look ridiculous (I'm an ugly runner) and I RAN after the dogs....for a mile and change in the desert...barefoot...in my underwear. I caught up with them after about 10 minutes when they stopped to sniff sniff something dead. They were happy to see me and were very compliant in their return home. Cute.


So, I thought all of that was funny, especially my run for dogs (typical two-- right?) and I hope you all feel a little bit closer to me now that I've shared alll of that/ won't avoid eye contact because of all of that.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

a lovely ride

Hey halfway point-- sort of! Halfway will be officially this coming up Tuesday. I am blogging early (or a week and a half late) because it's not clear if I will have internet access at the time of halfsies. So better early (or kinda late) than never, right?

So, the past couple weeks have been a blur and whatever is opposite of a blur (lull? dead stop?). The week before last work was ho hum same old- wake up at 6 work sweat sweat sweat break sweat sleep at 10. I suppose the most exciting thing I can report is that I got to meet the "Bee Guy" and even be his helper. He's incredibly sweet and his voice is similar to Winnie the Pooh, which makes him an ideal bee keeper. He runs dozens of hives in the Tucson area, and because there is only one hive on the farm we rarely see him-- low priority. The bees on our farm are a very docile breed of Italian bees (Ciao, have some honey! Gratzi! Prego! Vespa vroom, vroom!) As we were opening the hive I was expecting/half hoping for a swarm of bees to cover us from head to foot or at least make interesting facial hair formations (bee beard!). Instead they just sort if looked at us and gave the bee equivalent of a shrug and a 'meh'. The Bee Guy said the ladies looked great and added a new level to the hive. Before leaving he broke me off a piece of the wax so that I could snack on the honey- what a bizarre and wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Interesting trivia: smoke does not hypnotize bees. It tricks them into thinking there is a forest fire. Sensing the smoke the bees gorge themselves on honey so that they can have start up honey if they need to make a new hive. So they get really bloated and sluggish (neither response really great for a real forest fire, bees.) and cannot flex their abdomens enough to effectively sting someone. Cool trick. Gratzi bees!


Monday and Tuesday were spent at the new farm. We had a giant sleepover with Adam and Debbie's friends who came to help out. It was a lot of fun and we finally finished reinforcing the fence in the first field. I am calloused over but am content with the knowledge that push come to shove can throw together a mean fence. I also got to trim Mesquite trees. From my experience, there is nothing in AZ that isn't covered in 3 inch spikes. The trees did a number on the WWOOFers... we are all covered in scratches and have gone through a couple of tubes of neosporin. We look tough now and that gives us some street cred , which is nice.

So where does the blur come in? Saturday night at 5:40. My graduate program at UNCG had a mandatory meeting so I had to fly back. I went from Tucson to Phoenix to Philadelphia to Raleigh over the course of 9 hours. I was a little loopy when Dad (thanks dad!) came to get me at the airport. He was kind enough to check us into a hotel early so I could nap. The plane ride to Tucson was my first plane ride ever... and after this trip I feel like an old salt. I really enjoy layovers in airports because while I'm on the farm I rarely see people and at the airport I have no choice. I like the airport gift shops that try to cater to the interests of the passengers flying in/out of that terminal. I'm not specifically talking about the kiosks with the neck pillows and ear plugs. I am talking about the "native spirit" stores in the Tucson and Phoenix airports. If I had 400 dollars to blow, I would have loved to own an authentic Native American headdress... love to own and love to wear it onto the plane. Damn you, WWOOFer budget!

So, graduate school. My program is Joint Masters program with NC A&T, an historically black university right down the road from UNCG. It's an amazing program that focuses on diversity. I will attend classes at both universities. My professor says to think of the experience as a living classroom, which it definitely will be. As a white woman I was definitely in the majority at UNC... so it will be a change with my classes at NC A&T but I am super looking forward to it. My professors are wonderful and my cohort looks like a cool bunch of girls (35 girls, 5 boys) and I can't wait to be with them full time.

Also while in Greensboro I got to check out my future living situation. To be respectful of my roommates I won't go into too much detail. I will say though that it's a very cool old house in a great location and I'm thrilled to be there with such cool ladies + boy.

So that's about it for the last two weeks. I was enjoying the momentum of writing a post once a week, but I'm afraid routine has set in. I will try and be more diligent/force interesting events in my life to warrant blog posts. As usual... I have pictures and will post tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

IOU tons of pictures



Rather than try to integrate the photos into my last blog, I figured that they could just as easily (read: way more easily) have their own entry. Enjoy!




Since it's the first thing I see every morning (thanks a lot cats...) I decided to share this with you first: Dead Dove.


This is 0ne of the polar bears on the farm, Gus. Gus says, "Hello!" (subtext: what tasty things do you have that I can nom nom on?") Gus is a fatty fatty fat fat puppy dog.


Dan and I try and walk the dogs twice a day in the early morning and in the evening so we can avoid the heat. We were pausing briefly in the wash (washes fyi are temporary rivers that form during monsoon season in july and august. For the rest of the year they are just dry river beds) to watch a sunset. The dogs, despite weighing in at least 130 lbs apiece, are convinced they are lap dogs. Upon seeing me sit down, they took full advantage of my now available lap and set about crushing me to death. That's right, I am posthumously updating my blog. Consider me Tupac.


After my death by puppy cuddles, Dan comforts himself in the arms of another woman-- Lily the dog.


These are among the pretty things I get to see everyday!




So, someone somewhere keeps bees on the farm. I've never seen him but I know he exists because people talk about him. Anyways, there are tons of honey bees around doing some open pollination, and they are wonderful. A few days ago though the bees were going absolutely crazy over the cactus blooms. There would be as many as ten bees in one flower and they were just rolling in the pollen and sort of "bee wrestling". I recommend clicking on this photo and making it bigger-- the bee is clearly making eye contact with the camera. Vanity, thy name is honey bee.


A wide display of Sleeping Frog Farms' table. Seemingly, Dan and I are left to our own devices running the thing (bad idea all around, guys). In reality though there are between 3-4 WWOOFers at Sunday market and at least 1 farmer running the show. At this particular market we were selling scapes (the flowering part of onions), mint, turnips, head lettuce, beet greens, spinach, dino kale, swiss chard, dandelion greens, eggs (duck and chicken), and dates (which are grown in California and not at the farm). What we sell varies between market to market--though as I mentioned earlier, we are in seasonal transition and will be carrying actual produce and not greens (yes, yes, yes!).



Other things at the market: cute kids. To my knowledge they are not for sale (or maybe they are for the right price?)


Musicians! Ok, so I really like these guys because they are playing the Eagles, the Beatles, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. They've apparently lost their novelty for everyone else as there is a distinct eye roll when they start to set up (they play the same songs every market... so I guess I could see that getting old. I'm still on board guys!)
So this sweet child is Ihler, Adam's four year old son. He is riding his very cool 1960's pixie bike around the "lush" landscape of the new farm (look, it's a tree! One of like twelve in the entire state of AZ). He' is riding after Ramona, the sweetest dog in the world. She is both terrified and completely joyful about Ihler chasing her.
So, there's a pond on the new farm! Gus and Lily wasted no time finding it (they were very hot and probably very glad to find such a thing). This photo documents the moment right before Gus starts his wet dog shake 'em off routine. Because their hair is so unbelievably thick, they continued to shake water off for the next 2 hours.

Debbie and I had the pleasure of ripping out 1970's puke green carpet out of her new cottage. It was awesome- check out that mask!

This is Ramona's big find. What a sweet day for Ramona.


Ok, so clearly they are advertising alcohol, right? Lies, lies, lies!


I'd post more pictures but I lent my camera to Dan. His camera doesn't have a usb cord so I'm letting him lift some of the pictures that i've taken for his blog. Mosey over there to see the rest of the pictures.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

“Time, time, time, See what's become of me, While I look around all my possibilities”- Paul Simon

Week Three! I am about 1/4 of the way through my adventure in AZ. Days are starting to run together and I'm at the point where most of the time I have no idea of what day of the week it is. A couple of weeks backWWOOFer Tony made the comment that, per state , there should only be one person with a watch. This was either a joke or an instance of field philosophy (this happens when it's really early and no one is coherent enough to string together rational thoughts and someone offers something far out). Whichever the case, the farm has slowly adopted the practice--Dan is the only one wearing a watch these days. The rest of us have a very loose concept of time based largely on meals. There's breakfast (espresso and toast) work (field philosophy 101 + harvesting) 2nd breakfast (like first breakfast but better --with more coffee and fatty eggs) , work again, LUNNCCHHHHHHHH (it's a long break), work again, dinner, sleepy times (i'm probably dreaming of food).

Work this week has been pretty typical. They are starting to switch growing seasons, which means fewer leafy greens and more produce. I am really excited to not wash spinach again for a while; though now that I can readily tell the difference between kale and swiss chard I'm a little bummed to see it go. Such is life, right?

Fun spider story of the week:

I found a black widow. I was in the green house because CJ was kind enough to give me an organizing job (OCD's dream) while he taught Dan how to use the tiller (spinning blades inches away from feet- how could this possibly backfire!?). Thinking I got the cushy job, I set about organizing flower pots and seeding trays. I dug under the shelves and pulled out a stack of smallish flower pots and emptied the soil into a holding bucket. I looked into the first pot and saw a spider web and a small dead black spider. Meh... pull the next pot... blam! Black widow. She was carrying an egg case so presumably the dead black spider was her spouse/snack. So, yes I screamed and yes I made someone go in there and tend to it-- I regret nothing.


Today (Monday) is usually the WWOOFer day off, but today we went out to check out the new farm. It's about an hour away towards the southeast ( I think... I really don't have a good sense of where anything is in the state). The farm is 75 acres (actually 74.7... but I'll let them round it if they want to) and is amazing! There's a big main house (which I think will be CJ's and maybe the WWOOFer house), a smaller cottage that will belong to Adam and Debbie, and a big barn filled with TBA. There's also an old church on the property but it's pretty torn up and looks like it was housing goats until fairly recently (yikes!). There's also a pond and their land backs up into the river. Because there's a water source around, the landscape is much more lush than in Tucson (and I use the term lush very, very loosely. It's still only brush and scrappy trees... but that's lush none the less around here).

We took the big puppies, Lily and Gus, to see their new home. Usually when people say they are "taking the dog to the farm" it means that the dogs are being euthanized. Bummer, right? Well today they actually did go to the farm to hang out and get some serious exercise. They have been confined to a small pen for the last three weeks because the current farm property isn't completely fenced in and they are fairly aggressive dogs (rarely a winning combination). We walk them twice a day but they need much more activity (Gus sounds like a chubby asthmatic after the first 10 minutes). Today they frolicked and swam around and acted like 'real dogs'-- so fun! Debbie and Adam's dog, Ramona, found an old cow jaw and spent a good hour gnawing on it. She weighs only about 25 lbs so the jawbone was a sizable find for her. Moral of the story: today was a good day to be a dog at Sleeping Frog Farms.

Since we WWOOFers are not confined to a pen, we had to keep our frolicking to a minimum. Dan and Jenn helped reinforce fences around the perimeter and I helped Debbie gussy up her new digs. We ripped out the awful carpet. It was cathartic in a way, as most projects involving ripping and heavy lifting are. However, the best part was wearing cool Darth Vader respirators. It's the little things, I guess.


On the way home from the farm we stopped in a place called the Horse Shoe Cafe for greasy diner food. It was delicious and disgusting and good again. The place was covered in very weird horse memorabilia- including a very racist painting of Native Americans on horse back and a painting of a noble steed that was kind of grinning in a way that no horse could or ever should. Though the sign on the restaurant said cocktails... they in fact do not serve alcohol... or at least don't on Mondays. We know this because several bikers came in for a drink and very sullenly slumped away when they couldn't find what they were looking for. It's so hard to be a biker these days.

As usual... I have tons of pictures from the week, but I'm too tired to post them just yet. I will put them up ASAP (probably by second breakfast tomorrow).

Additionally: Mom and Mert- Thank you for the care package! I love it and I love you!