Ajourney again...

I'm a travelin'. You? If you are, I hope you're safe, and enjoying yourself half as much as I am. I am posting this from the infamous Green Tortoise Hostel, a block away from pike's Place market. I caught a ride to Seattle with the Athairs, who Maggie lives with, and who I've been spending lots of time with. They're pretty fantastic people, and I've no doubt you'd get along with them just fine(Mindy, this means YOU). We rode the ferry into the city, which was a fun new experience for me, and a great view, but one I didn't bother to take any pictures of, since I was busy crying from the cold breeze, and just enjoying the sight for myself.

I spent the ride from the peninsula sewing a carrying case for my knitting needles, because I'm apparently a big old nerd...who would have guessed? As you might have figured from my last post things are slow these days, and until I have more definite plans for my future, they'll continue to be that way, and frankly, I'm OK with that.

What sort of things have I been up to since last we spoke? I finished that hat I was working on, only it was so large I turned it into a bag to hold my knitting projects.

I went out to Lake Crescent this week, the first time I've had a chance to get out there in a while, and boy am I glad I took the opportunity. Storm King was covered in snow, as all the peaks were, and it made for some fantastic viewing. Take a look; these shots are all from around the OPI campus:

A couple of shots from the trails around the campus, proving once again my theory that all you have to do to take a beautiful picture in the PacNorWe, is to point your camera in any direction, and hit the button:


What's that? Have I been fermenting things no normal person would even consider? Come on now. This is me we're talking about. Of course I have. I give you parsnip wine:

In the further adventures of Aaron and the Olympic peninsula, Maggie and I went out onto forest service land, and got technically lost, although we were in no danger of not finding our way back to civilization there was a period of time(an hour, maybe two) when where we thought we were, and where we actually were, didn't exactly coincide. What were doing out in the hinterlands? We were finding, and killing, a Christmas tree. My first non-plastic tree in as many years. We call her Lucille(Maggie is the one wearing boots. Lucille is wearing branches):

I'll see what I can do to get a picture of her all gussied up for the holiday for your edification.

What have I done since I arrived in Seattle...Not a whole lot. Hung out at a coffee shop(this being Seattle, after all) that I like, earlier. Did some research, and failed to find a show to check out this evening. Failing that I got all gussied up, went to a fine dining establishment, and ate expensive and refined food, and drank cocktails and had a wonderful relaxing evening. We will not discuss how much I spent, or whether I could afford such luxury. Spur Gastropub, check it out. When my meal was done I emerged from the restaurant to find the city streets awash with rain, which as you all must know, brought me great satisfaction. I walked back to the hostel, grinning like an idiot, wrote this blog, and once it's done, I'm going to do some knitting, and then hit the hay.

Going to see if I can do a little more adventuring in the morning before I head to the airport, but even if I have no time for it, I'll call this leg of my trip a success. I can't wait to arrive in San Diego, and I can't wait to see you all...in the meantime hope all of your journeys are safe, and as satisfying as mine has been so far.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I know you've all come to expect blog entries on Sundays, but, oddly enough, as the farm work has slowed, I've found myself busier and busier in my spare time. Which is all well and good, but does mean that I have less time to document my activities. Much is going on, people are leaving, and the farm is in a state of constant flux. We had a killing frost this past Monday, which means no more zucchini, cukes are dead, all the winter squash vines are no more, the beans were obliterated, and the tomatoes which were planted outside are gone too. All of this is to be expected, and although the rain has begun, the sun lasted much longer than we had any business expecting. Not to mention the fact that with the end of the cucumbers came the opportunity for Aaron to make several massive batches of pickles, which I hadn't the chance to do yet this summer. it was several days of mind dissolving labor, but I'm sure teh end results will make it all worth it.

There is a new puppy on the farm, a black lab this time, who goes by Patch. Pics whenever I manage to get some.

So what have I been up to? Well, on the farm we've been preparing ground for cover crops, and readying the beds where the zucchini and cucumbers were for planting next year's garlic crop. Worked market in Sequim on Saturday. All by myself, like a big boy. It was actually really awesome. If the market hadn't been closed early due to inclement weather(wind like you would not have believed) I think I could have had an even more successful day than I managed to. Maybe next time.

In my spare time I've been having all sorts of adventures. I went out gleaning for apples with Maggie and her friends and co-workers, to obtain fruit for AppleFest, a yearly celebration, which mainly entails drinking and pressing apples for cider. It rained, in proper PacNorWe spirit, and much fun was had by all. I think I might have actually had more fun going gleaning than at the party, but I'm weird that way, I suppose. It was fun, we all climbed into the van, and drove around looking for trees that still had fruit on them, and once we spotted a potential harvest, we, and by we, I mean Randall, knocked, and asked if we could help ourselves. I was amazed at how many people were perfectly happy to let us take their fruits off their hands.

I went and saw an evening of storytelling, and went over to Port Townsend to see Here's To the Ladies . I've been going to Yoga at the Y every week, and boy I've really got to say, there is no better way to round out a day of farm work, than to do some yoga, and then have a fantastic meal with people you care about. I went to the Sol Duc hot springs, on Monday last week, since I was gifted with a two day weekend. I was dubious of a day spent in hot sulfurous water, followed by diving into a pool of substantially colder water, but it turned out to be a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. Afterward I got to spend some time at the Lake Crescent Lodge, sitting in an adirondack chair watching the sun set over the mountains, reading a library book, and in a fit of weirdness, sketching in my notebook.

A few, miscellaneous pics from the farm, a shot of some baby golden beets:
The wheat, you would not have believed what the sky was like, on the day I took this picture, it was dark grey, and sunny, and totally otherworldly, and there was a double rainbow:

Some kale and chard chips from the pumpkin party we had at Maggie's house, the other night:

There was a pumpkin potluck, and pumpkin bocce, and pumpkin carving, of course. It was a whole lot of fun.

As I've said so many times before, I'll endeavor to take more pictures, and keep the blog coming on a more regular basis, but I make no promises, things are busy, and they show no sign of slowing. The job search continues, in earnest, and I have a few promising leads, about which more, when one or more of them have become a reality. The writing progresses as well; I recently wrote a short story I rather enjoyed. Theoretically there are some pictures of AppleFest floating around, and if I manage to get a a hold of some I'll do a quick post to share them with you.

I love you guys; miss you.

Also I'm learning to knit.

What?

Don't judge me. It's fun.

In which there is a reunion, between man and machine...

It's funny how as soon as you give something up for lost, it will show up again. Thank you to Kay for finding my camera, and returning it safely to me; I hadn't realized how twitchy it's loss had made me, until it was returned.

I'm doing well, although the lack of a job is starting to become a concern. All I really need is something to get me through the winter, and once the spring rolls around again, finding something to do, shouldn't be a problem, it's figuring out what to do until then, that is proving to be a challenge. That being said, I'm curiously unstressed by the fact of my pending unemployment. Part of it must be that so many of the people I'm surrounded by are doing jobs of a similarly seasonal nature, and we're all in the same boat, right now. The park season ends this coming Thursday, and this will leave essentially everyone I know, who isn't farm folk, unemployed.

It's a fascinating dichotomy in this part of the world. There are park folk, who are here because of the park, and they are liberal, progressive twenty-first century people, MY people, and there are the locals, conservative old-fashioned people, and oddly enough, they are MY people, too. It's weird because to them the park is nothing special, it's the background of their world, but to those of us who came here because of, or have chosen to stay for the park, it's the center. Enough pontificating...my thoughts on the subject haven't gelled yet, but they keep circling around my brain, and there's something there, although I don't know what it is yet.

I've written a couple of short stories I really like, lately, and I've got a couple of cool ideas in my head, waiting for characters to give voice to them. I think one of them might be a novel, but I can't say for sure, yet.

I went to my first Country(pronounced Contra) dance last weekend. I was assured over and again by the girls that it wasn't a square dance, but there was spinning around, and changing partners, and a man giving instructions(not to mention several square dances), which I would say qualifies. It was, and I still can't really believe I'm saying this, a lot of fun. Some days I wonder what has happened to me, and others, most of them, really, I'm just enjoying it.

As for life on the farm, it's good. There are still many crops to be harvested, and although the hot-weather crops aren't really performing to expectations, there isn't really much we can do to change the weather. The age old lot of the farmer. It has been gray and rainy for most of the last week, with only a day or two of even partial sunshine in the forecast, which I love from an aesthetic point of view, but from the perspective of a farmer just hoping for the tomatoes to ripen, it's not so nice.

We started going to the farmer's market in Sequim this week, in addition to the one in PA, and we're all excited about that. It's great to have another chance to sell some of the produce we've all worked so hard to grow. We harvested our first brussel sprouts this week, and we've been picking apples and pears for a while now. It's autumn, there's no more denying it. The leaves are changing, and combined with the misty atmosphere it allows for moments of peacefulness, anytime I pause, and look around me.

Now for the picture posting portion of our post(You like that alliteration? Pretty good, huh?), I'll start with a couple of shots from my last trip up Storm King. I really love that hike, and it presents surefire proof that a summer of working on the farm has left me more fit than I began. I almost made it to the top of the mountain this time, but realize when I got about three quarters of the way up, that I was free climbing in my sneakers, without a buddy, and without anyone having any idea where I was, and prudence won out over the desire to say I did that.

The view from the lower peak:

A view of the upper peak, from the lower peak(see if you can figure out how high I made it based on the pictures from where I stopped climbing):


A view taken while hanging onto a rope on the trail(well, techinically after the end of the sanctioned trail, but there's a rope, so it's a trail of sorts):


Le Sage, from across Lake Crescent:


The chicken coop, which we spent a day cleaning around this week, and extended the fence to give our ladies more room:


Our pigs have a new home, which I've been calling the Sty-stead('cause I'm a nerd), pretty snazzy, huh?:

Flowering parsnips:

Canadian thistle(our weed nemesis), and another, altogether more pleasant thistle(did you know artichoke blossoms smell fantastic? Me either, until now.):



Weird looking mushrooms:



Some views of the farm in the gray:






Pickles - onions and watermelon rind:

Harvested lunch yesterday:

I think that will cover me for now. I'm going to go bake some bread, get some grub, and take a hike. I probably won't do another post until after I get back from Rachel's wedding, so I'll probably see most of you before I write another one of these. I can't wait...

A blog utterly without pictures...

Long time no blog. I lost my camera, and so you'll have to do with hyperlinks(remember when links were called hyper?) and my words. I've been well. Things on the farm have begun to slow, but we're no less busy than we were before. We've merely refocused our energies on preparing the farm to overwinter. I'm sure it's still summery where many of you are, but here in the PacNorWe, if we're being honest with ourselves, summer is done. The rains have returned, and leaves have just begun to change. It's beautiful to be sure.

I've been doing the same things as I always have. I'm writing, and as far as I can tell, it seems that my storytelling has improved. I'm continuing to submit my short stories, and continuing to get rejections. All part of the process.

In the baking world, I've been playing around with developing cookie recipes from scratch, using only my knowledge of the effects of different ingredients on baked goods. I'll admit that it's a rather nerdy way to spend one's spare time, but it's more challenging than you might think. Quite satisfying as well. I'm submitting another round of applications to bakeries, no longer restricting myself to the bakery I'd most like to work at, and I've begun researching some other alternatives, including more farm internships, and the possibility of living in a van down by the river.

Did any of you do anything fun and exciting for labor day weekend? I did. It was, in fact, a perfect holiday. Highlights of the trip include, in no particular order: sleeping under the stars(and then the rain) on the back deck at Le Sage; my first yoga experience overlooking lake crescent, with clouds in the trees; entering, for the first time in over a decade, the pacific ocean(which I still maintain is not for swimming); tromping through the rain forest, in the rain. It was really a fantastic weekend, thanks to those of you(you know who you are *cough* Maggie *cough*) who made it happen. I really needed the time off, and can't imagine a better way I could have spent it.

I'm looking forward to going to Georgia for Rachel and Tom's wedding. I can't wait to see all of you. Hopefully by the time my next blog entry rolls around I'll have either found my camera, or borrowed one from one of my friends or compatriots. Hope you're all doing well, and if I owe any of you e-mail, or postcards, or phone calls, I promise I'll get to that as soon as I have a little time. Time is definitely at a premium these days. I honestly can't believe how fast this summer has gone by. My only real priority right now, is to find something to do with myself over the winter, and while I have no doubt I'll be able to find something, somewhere, there's a very big part of me that quavers at the thought that I'd willingly leave this place.

Love y'all, hope you're doing well, and a Happy birthday to Papa Miguel. I'm sure I'll see most of you in two weeks, and I can't wait.