Achey back, dirt caked nails, and sun kissed face

(Written April 2nd)

Today my first day of working on a farm! I really did enjoy it. We started the day with a group meeting, before heading out with Brian. Basically how a typical week will be split up is, the first two days will be spent working on Brian's land, Wednesdays a field trip with Betsey, then the end of the week on Betsey's fields with other farms mixed in throughout the week. Today, Brian spent some time showing us around his land. He does a lot of vegetable farming, but also uses and sells livestock. He just recently purchased a cow and her calf to use for milk which he is excited about. We also got to see his chickens. He said that he is thinking of getting a couple of pigs here soon, and he has a small flock of sheep (seven of which are about to have babies!) which are on a different island I think. We then went to his greenhouse on Morales Farm where we transplanted a couple different kinds of lettuce that he will sell as starter packs at the farmers market. Then it was on to weeding... Brian told us that in the spring we will do three things; weed, weed, and weed. Awesome. Haha, actually it really wasn't that bad. We were first weeding a variety of lettuce, which we had to be careful about since they are loose leaf and  will continuously be harvested throughout the next month, so we had to watch where the mud was flung. 

It was funny working in the greenhouse since with the sun out, it was about 80-90 degrees with lots of humidity. One of the girls asked me if this was what Iowa summers were like, I guess if I miss home I can always hop in a greenhouse because it was pretty close! It was nice though as we got to the ends of the greenhouse and could feel the cool 50 degree wind come in, and if it got really bad you could cool off pretty fast by just hopping outside- opposite of home. It did remind me of summers growing up though when we would hop around the neighborhood houses to find which one was the coldest. 

We finished the afternoon out by weeding around some broccoli and garlic. Got to learn the names of some pretty handy tools that help uproot most of the weeds to make it easier, but none of the names come to mind right now. It really wasn't as bad as weeding out the flower beds growing up. Sitting on top of a field looking down these huge rows of produce can be pretty overwhelming at first with the sweat literally pouring off of your face, but when you are all done there is something really gratifying knowing that you completed that, and your sweat is literally being put into the soil of the plants that you are helping to grow. 

Since it was the first day, we all were trying a variety of poses while weeding to keep from cramping up or being sore. I quickly learned that flexibility is a definite benefit and something I need to work on. I would go from kneeling on the ground, sitting on my butt, standing straight up and leaning over, standing with a very wide stance like I am going to do the splits, squatting like I did in softball, pretty much anything and everything. My hips and lower back are feeling it now... Every couple of minutes we would be reminded to stretch so that you don't get stuck in one pose, but its pretty impossible to not feel stiff at the end of it. Even with all that, its work, its what I wanted, and I love it :) What is there to complain about when I am getting paid to sit in the sun all day and play in the dirt!? Plus, I will get all the vegetables I can eat, once they start producing! Even now, my belly is full with potatoes, garlic, and kale that was grown only a couple hundred feet from me! When work was all done, I came home, popped open a beer while looking at the cascade mountains in the distance and recorded what I had done today in my farm journal. We are asked to keep a farm journal so that we can use it as a resource in the future if we are working on our own farm. It was a lovely end to my first day. 

Here is a picture of Betsey driving the horses around the farm for some practice this weekend, it was a nice ride! 

p.s. as I was writing this, we saw our first mouse in the house... I have been up and down trying to place the mouse trap in just the right place but keep failing- the mouse keeps poking its little head out running around or floor teasing us. I don't know what I would do if I actually caught it. ugh. Advice? It's especially important since my room is also on the ground level...