Camaleón

The song that is the soundtrack to everything here:

"Cama, cama, cama, camaleon
Yo soy el camaleon
Cama, cama, cama, camaleon
Yo soy el camaleon
A mi me dicen el camaleon por que cambio de color
Para cada situacion yo tengo un color mejor (bis)
Cama, cama, cama, camaleon
Yo soy el camaleon
Cama, cama, cama, camaleon
Yo soy el camaleon
Si me habla rosa me pongo rojo
Si tengo miedo amarillo es mi color
Si me andan buscando no quiero que me encuentren
Transparente tambien soy (bis)
Cama, cama,...
A mi me dicen el camaleon... (bis)
Cama, cama,... "

- Los Tigrillos

Shoot

It didn't help the fact that I woke up feeling sick today that a photographer came to shoot the farm and then spent most of the day shadowing me. He was shooting for a group of artists that were coming together to make a show of farms within 100 miles of Sacramento. But he picked the exact right day to make me look like a red-nosed reindeer in all his shots. Greeeat! Or not so much.

Alice through the looking glass

After they've been warmed by the sun all day, you can walk through the trees and actually smell the almonds. The orchard is bursting with soft white flowers and the bees work busily at each tree, sending the sweet aroma of pollen into the warm air.

At first glance the orchard stands still, a lovely and breath-taking bunch of trees. But the longer you stand, the more the trees begin to shake the frame of the postcard photograph they seem to occupy. A quiet breeze rustles the flowers and the bees tremble as the branches sway gently. The whole orchard suddenly comes to life in front of your eyes.

spring forward

If the abundance of baby lambs hadn't been enough of a clue, the amount of gnats I almost swallowed on my run today are certainly a heads up that spring is finally rearing its beautiful head. With rains in recent history the farm is at what I imagine to be the height of its idyllic stage. A warm dose of sun bathes us as we work these days and a sweet breeze keeps us at the perfect temperature for most of the day. Babies are everywhere and plants are fat with green juice. Human lunch time is always brimming with people, kids, dogs. Even lamb lunch time has now turned into a huge event, neighbors send their kids over and all 14 (!) bummer lambs are taken care of individually, royally. Work has dwindled and I am finding myself with more time to be with the animals. Some days I wish there was more work but my coworkers tell me if I stay until April I will soon be swallowing my words.

clear signs

you know you live on a farm when....you get a new computer and two minutes after you open it, a tick crawls across the screen.

A powerful sound.

Bottle feeding baby lambs or working in the greenhouse will never become uninteresting to me, but now that I am getting more accustomed to these everyday tasks I finally have some room to discover the smaller details of the farm.

With new babies being born every day, the farm is brimming with animals. But with so much attention on them, I realize it is not often that I stop to think about the many other animals that also share the farm. I came to this realization over the weekend as I was strolling through the orchard and heard the most beautiful of sounds. Between a gurgling and a whistling, the magical noises this bird made were unlike anything I could ever hope to imitate. The noise moved me so much that it made me question why I had never heard it before. With this new enlightenment, I've developed a greater awareness of the birds around me:

On my many short trips down Highway 16, from one side of the farm to the other, I am now beginning to notice the many hawks -- such a rarity in Berkeley -- perching casually by the side of the road.

Also in the past week I’ve been encountering a flock of the most beautiful and vibrant blue birds. They don’t ever stay long enough for me to get a good enough look at them but the flash of bright blue wings which offset a beautiful rusty chest are enough to dazzle anyone.

On my run after work today I passed a juniper tree and upset a flock of doves that were settling in for the night. As I ran by, the tree suddenly seemed to tremble and a dozen white doves burst from the tree in a flutter, making me stop in awe as the tree came to life.

farm talk

I've come to the conclusion that the most commonly used phrase at Full Belly is definitely: "six of one, half a dozen of the other". Gotta say, I've never heard used so many times in one day. Another favorite phrase: "a couple three".

Ta da!

Well if I wasn’t feeling integrated enough at Full Belly already, I can say with confidence that I feel quite at ease now. Yesterday, without knowing, I made it in to the Full Belly Beet which means that approximately 1,500 CSA customers will be reading the newsletter and seeing my smiling face washing collard greens!

Newbies

I don't care what they say about this being the "slow time" of the year, this farm is still bustling all the time. Just last week two almond farmers gave us a lunch-time lecture about their farming. Today, a new intern arrived. Greg. (And with him came Ona who is staying here for one week.) Then at lunch I sat down next to a stranger, a man from Kentucky who was visiting for the day. He talked about Livepower farm in Mendocino which really struck me as an interesting place. It's a tractor-free farm that uses only horses. Oh the things I could do if only I had more time in my gap year! Already I can feel the time running through my fingers like sand. 

Lazy sunday

Now I'm finally back to where you can wear clothes of varying grimy-ness. And so far, today has been a lazy day. Drizzle drizzle.

It's nice not having to think about when I need to wake up but even without an alarm, my body automatically woke me up at 8 oclock. There's no escaping it! So I spent the rest of the morning in the kitchen with Rawley and he taught me how to make granola which was a very exciting revelation for me. Then with the precious yeast that I've been saving in my Pinky, I taught him how to make a loaf of bread.

Now there's a potful of soaking garbanzo beans in the kitchen that we're using to make hummus.

2010

In Baltimore, I re-watched the 6th Harry Potter movie with my cousins. In the movie there's this magic hourglass that changes depending on the level of conversation. If a conversation is more interesting the sand slows down, but if it gets boring it speeds up. Unfortunately for me, right now I feel like my life is moving like that magic hourglass' evil twin. The New Year is quickly approaching and in less days than I can fathom I am moving away to Full Belly. Everything is moving in high gear (hence the sporadic blog entries). In these few moments of quiet that I have just before I go to bed I wonder what change the new year will bring and hope that 2010 will be full of interesting discoveries. Here's to the next chapter in life!

Put your hoes down!

October: Harvest festival at Full Belly.

My first time contra dancing, so fun I couldn't stop. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've ever danced in my life, from 4 in the afternoon until past midnight....

Catching up

I've always toyed with the idea of starting my own blog but somehow it's always seemed too daunting. Inspired by another "gap year girl", I have finally decided to bite the bullet and start my own. I guess I have just been waiting all this time to find a good excuse to write one and all of a sudden I have one!

But first I'll have to do some catching up.....

It's been a few months since I started working at Pie Ranch and a LOT has happened.

September: Splitting my time between Pescadero and home, Berkeley. When I'm not at Pie Ranch I'm working with City Slicker Farms in Oakland/Emeryville and working as an assistant at the Young Artists Workspace (YAWS) in Totland Park, Berkeley.

October: Spent two weeks at Full Belly Farm in Guinda, preparing for the Hoes Down Harvest Festival then back to Pie Ranch. Working with Oakland-based artist Sita Rupe in her cozy studio.

November: Things are winding down at Pie Ranch now... Lots of cover crop planted and many pies to be made!