Many hot days with no clouds in the sky. At first there was perfect tanning weather with just a couple of sun screen applications a day but now it has become unbearable. Took a freezing shower this evening to cool some of the burns. Anyway here's a recap of the week:
Monday: Didn't start the day right today. Just had a couple sips of water, then a mug of coffee and then forgot to bring my water bottle with me and went through much of the day dehydrated. I spent the whole work day sowing seeds and watering plants. Took a shower at 4:30 and then finished my line of seeds to make up for stopping half an hour early. Had rice with mushrooms and coconut flour stirred in for dinner and cheese, lettuc, and chutney sandwiches for lunch. Only three volunteers here now so we all went to our tents around 9 or so.
Tuesday: Another hot cloudless day with tons of watering plants. I even took the time to carry loads of water from the tap across the field to the trough by the polytunnel. Biked at 4:30 to water the house garden. Had yesterday's rice for lunch and a good cathartic chat. This evening, we had a hard time recognizing Graham without his cap and suspenders. He had on short and a t-shirt. I took care of the chickens for the first time today. I let them out at 7 since no one was about, and then at 8:45, I asked someone to hang about the camp to keep watch for a brazen fox while I went to water plants.
Wednesday: Woke up feeling drugged this morning.the other 2 volunteers got up @ 8:30, just half an hour til our work day starts. Again spent most of the day watering plants. Only got 6 or 7 cauliflower in the ground with 'x' shaped slits in the ground. I tested out coconut oil as a sunscreen but it turns out to be pretty risky for long, cloudless days in the sun. I was tanning fairly well on my arms and legs but my neck just can't take any more. Kept it covered with a wet, chilled handkerchief. Learned how to do an important task with the water pipes so I can fill the IBC on top of the container. After a dinner with loads of potato wedges, a new French woman arrived.
Thursday: I started my day with a trip to the caravan park to switch out some ice blocks for our cooler bag and noticed a large bag of groceries. After watering all the plants again, I came back and carried it the 10 or q5 minutes to the field.
With last night's new arrival and two community volunteers, we put out a bed of onions, a bed of khol robby, and several meters of cauliflower. So now, we are out of leeks (alternated with broccoli) and broccoli (for now). I had to juggle taking care of and supplying the community members AND cooking. Lunch consisted of loads of rice mixed with lentils and coconut flour, greens and beans, and a bit of the garlic wedges from last night. Dinner was almost the same with some new greens and shallots.
Friday: Got a bit of WiFi last night but not quite long enough to talk about the whole week. Back at the pub to finish. Today we got up rather late again, and started work after our daily morning meeting. We got caught up in an interesting chat and when our boss (Graham) came he joined in. We made up for it doubly this afternoon by planting more out and then doing a 90 minute emergency watering of plants that were expected to settle into the soil just fine if there hadn't been weeks of no rain and a solid week or two of baking in the sun all day. (Days here are longer too, in the sunner.) We put out carrot and seeds and then onions, celery, and turnips. Got more sun today and I'm pretty sure my ears are bright red. Had a great lunch of lettuce soup and bread and dinner turned out to be incredible veggie burgers (made with my rice, lentil, and coconut flour mix and some secret ingredients) and of course some more garlic potato wedges.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Weekend Fun
Friday was super hot so I did very little heavy work and despite the sunscreen, still turned pretty red. I ended the day in the Pub in Swinford to use the WiFi to call home. That night a couple friends of Lucie's came to spend the weekend working and exploring. Saturday morning I woke up late, helped find a gluten and dairy free option and helped with making the coconut flour pancake. Then I went to water the plants just after nine and enjoy a shower by the house. They have good showers in the building made for the stable hands back in the day.
Saturday was my day to cook and I made roasted (sautéed perhaps) vegetable with oyster mushrooms picked from the grounds around the house. (Graham told me where to find them.) There was also a guacamole with tomatoes and a bit of raw onion that was used as a spread for my fun veggie sandwiches. Unfortunately, we also had to add a bag of lentils in the end. For dinner I mixed rice with lentils, cooked up some more mushrooms, brocolli, onions and a handful of potato slices and then made a small amount of mashed potatoes. This time we has left-overs. I spent the whole day walking around barefoot and when I wasn't wondering in circles, I was cooking and preparing food to cook later. We ended up spending much of the night by the foreside making music followed by deep conversations. It was a really pleasant time and we were forming a stronger connection than we had previously.
Today, I got up late again, watered plants, biked to Lutterworth and bought some cravings of junk food, had a self made lunch, and wondered the property again. At 4, I checked the plants again and then started walking to the pub in Swinford to use WiFi to get in touch with people again.
Saturday was my day to cook and I made roasted (sautéed perhaps) vegetable with oyster mushrooms picked from the grounds around the house. (Graham told me where to find them.) There was also a guacamole with tomatoes and a bit of raw onion that was used as a spread for my fun veggie sandwiches. Unfortunately, we also had to add a bag of lentils in the end. For dinner I mixed rice with lentils, cooked up some more mushrooms, brocolli, onions and a handful of potato slices and then made a small amount of mashed potatoes. This time we has left-overs. I spent the whole day walking around barefoot and when I wasn't wondering in circles, I was cooking and preparing food to cook later. We ended up spending much of the night by the foreside making music followed by deep conversations. It was a really pleasant time and we were forming a stronger connection than we had previously.
Today, I got up late again, watered plants, biked to Lutterworth and bought some cravings of junk food, had a self made lunch, and wondered the property again. At 4, I checked the plants again and then started walking to the pub in Swinford to use WiFi to get in touch with people again.
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Lots To Talk About
So my last update only covered a very small amount of time and now there are at least five more days to talk about. So starting with last week
June 13th *Gross Content Warning*: Managed to wake up in time to water the plants this morning. After watering the plants in the polytunnel, I carried a bowl of cereal and a mug of instant coffee powder to the caravan for milk and hot water. Once done, I went to the house to finish with the rest of the watering. More field work got done and at four we all worked together on building a yurt and tied dozens of knots. I was recently assigned to slug duty (collect slugs in a bucket full of water and an island of food). The idea is eventually, with enough slugs, nematodes (parasitic worm) will come along and get rid of them from the inside out and then we can use nematode water on the plants to keep the slugs from killing the crops before the harvest. Nice disgusting stuff, I know. Since the assignment, I have been seeing slugs everywhere. After dinner, I found one in my shoe. Shortly afterward, as I was tightening the ropes around my tent in the dark, I saw just in the line of light from my headlight, at least three slugs with each step. I don't know if they are reminding me of my job or trying to make me feel guilty for arranging their death sentence.
June 14th: Woke up and started collecting slugs again. After breakfast, I filled the trough by the polytunnel with water from a larger source sitting on top of a metal container (a giant metal storage area for the tools). After our 10 am meeting, Graham came by to pick up the empty gas canister, but then ended up showing us all the newly ready plants to move to the field and then helping us fix the plants in the polytunnel. It was close to lunchtime by the time he left (lunch is at 1:00 here).
We had a delicious lunch and a wonderfully spicy dinner made by Valeria (a woman from Argentina). There was another afternoon spent on the yurt and a newcomer came in time to join us in this activity.
June 15: Another morning of watering plants, breakfast at the campervan, followed by more plant watering. We got a project or 2 finished today and started planting out broccoli which has been a wonderful task. We're planting many plants with a no dig method. So, we hammer in a "dibber" (essentially a small, wooden, round-tipped stake) and place the plant in the hole. When it's beans and onions, we add water after the plant goes in and follow up with compost. With the leeks, we add just enough compost to keep the roots from roasting in the sun. I also learned more about the vision behind the place including the types of medicinal plants they are hoping to have, and plants great for cooking or even making soap.
June 16th: Entertaining breakfast fiasco, followed by a trip to Rugby today to try to get my phone to work. My phone wasn't completely fixed I'll explain later on. We had a dinner of stinging nettle and potato soup with rice and lettuce.
June 17th: After my morning routine, I thought up a few ideas for cooking as it was my day to cook. Luckily there were some left-overs from the night before so I wasn't stressed about lunch. At ten, another person and I biked 45 minutes to Lutterworth (the closest town with a grocery store). I bought a half dozen eggs (to make my pancakes), coffee and a small drink to rehydrate. For lunch, all I did was add some more lettuce to last night's meal. By this time, I had a solid idea of what to make for dinner. After checking the polytunnel and helping John fill the big trough again, me and 5 others went exploring on the estate. We took a good number of group selfies along the way. At around 4:30, I turned around so I could prepare dinner in time. It took at least half an hour to walk back and I did a little exploration myself. This is not to say I went the wrong way, even I can't get lost if I walk in a straight line with a giant, ancient house at my back. I just went a different way (used more of the road and fewer fields) and got to see the estate from new angles. I saw a heron take off from the riverside and eventually ended up, completely by accident, on a neighboring private property. But by some amazing stroke of luck, a car was heading out of the driveway I was next to. After the car went through and as the gate was closing, I hoped a small wooden fence between the field and the driveway and dashed through onto the road. I got cool pictures during the walk.
For dinner, I cooked more diced potatoes, threw in a bag of couscous, sliced mushrooms, paneer cheese, kale, spinach and fat hen (a weed related to quinoa with edible leaves). I sauteed all the vegetables in olive oil, added some salt, pepper and chili flakes then topped it off by offering creme fraiche.
It took a little effort but we finished off the whole pot.
June 18th: Planted some squash then learned how to sow seeds. Worked on the yurt again today. Found out my phone data wasn't bought as a bundle and I was wasting it all at once by using the roaming signal here. So I have to buy, again, a new bundle with a code the person from Lyca mobile gave me. (The office hours are the same as our work hours and I'm never in the mood to spend lunch on the phone so I haven't done this yet.)
June 19th to Today: Didn't write in the journal these past few days but we brought out a ton of plants this week including onions, broccoli, celery, squash and Aztec broccoli (a misnomer because it also falls into the same family as quinoa). There were visitors who came to see and to plant a little on Tuesday I believe. Yesterday I put out more onions then started planting a type of celery. The sun was out most of the day and by the time I finished helping with the yurt, I was quite fatigued and when it got cold before the sun went down, I went to bed fairly early. There was, however, an amazing sunset that I got to enjoy thoroughly before turning in.
Today, I woke up at 5:30 fully refreshed and the sun had already been out for an hour here in England. Instead of getting breakfast right away, I went to the house to water plants and really took my time there so that by about 7, I could have fewer breakfasts, so to speak. My family knows what I mean by this. If I had eaten too early, I would have had three small meals before work even started at 9. Today we managed to start planting more squash finally. We had to turn a weed bed into a plant bed again. After a lunch of more amazing garlic potatoes and greens, we planted onions, beets, and more broccoli. For dinner, since I was terrible at finishing the last big complicated knot with elastic cord, I cooked a dinner of curry rice and sauteed vegetable with the help of a surprise arrival. (The person whose turn it was to cook preferred tying knots to cooking.) Dinner was ready at a record time of 6:40.
There was also a daytime volunteer today.
The new arrival, who has been here before for some winter weeks this year, is really nice and seems nomadic in a really charismatic way.
June 13th *Gross Content Warning*: Managed to wake up in time to water the plants this morning. After watering the plants in the polytunnel, I carried a bowl of cereal and a mug of instant coffee powder to the caravan for milk and hot water. Once done, I went to the house to finish with the rest of the watering. More field work got done and at four we all worked together on building a yurt and tied dozens of knots. I was recently assigned to slug duty (collect slugs in a bucket full of water and an island of food). The idea is eventually, with enough slugs, nematodes (parasitic worm) will come along and get rid of them from the inside out and then we can use nematode water on the plants to keep the slugs from killing the crops before the harvest. Nice disgusting stuff, I know. Since the assignment, I have been seeing slugs everywhere. After dinner, I found one in my shoe. Shortly afterward, as I was tightening the ropes around my tent in the dark, I saw just in the line of light from my headlight, at least three slugs with each step. I don't know if they are reminding me of my job or trying to make me feel guilty for arranging their death sentence.
June 14th: Woke up and started collecting slugs again. After breakfast, I filled the trough by the polytunnel with water from a larger source sitting on top of a metal container (a giant metal storage area for the tools). After our 10 am meeting, Graham came by to pick up the empty gas canister, but then ended up showing us all the newly ready plants to move to the field and then helping us fix the plants in the polytunnel. It was close to lunchtime by the time he left (lunch is at 1:00 here).
We had a delicious lunch and a wonderfully spicy dinner made by Valeria (a woman from Argentina). There was another afternoon spent on the yurt and a newcomer came in time to join us in this activity.
June 15: Another morning of watering plants, breakfast at the campervan, followed by more plant watering. We got a project or 2 finished today and started planting out broccoli which has been a wonderful task. We're planting many plants with a no dig method. So, we hammer in a "dibber" (essentially a small, wooden, round-tipped stake) and place the plant in the hole. When it's beans and onions, we add water after the plant goes in and follow up with compost. With the leeks, we add just enough compost to keep the roots from roasting in the sun. I also learned more about the vision behind the place including the types of medicinal plants they are hoping to have, and plants great for cooking or even making soap.
June 16th: Entertaining breakfast fiasco, followed by a trip to Rugby today to try to get my phone to work. My phone wasn't completely fixed I'll explain later on. We had a dinner of stinging nettle and potato soup with rice and lettuce.
June 17th: After my morning routine, I thought up a few ideas for cooking as it was my day to cook. Luckily there were some left-overs from the night before so I wasn't stressed about lunch. At ten, another person and I biked 45 minutes to Lutterworth (the closest town with a grocery store). I bought a half dozen eggs (to make my pancakes), coffee and a small drink to rehydrate. For lunch, all I did was add some more lettuce to last night's meal. By this time, I had a solid idea of what to make for dinner. After checking the polytunnel and helping John fill the big trough again, me and 5 others went exploring on the estate. We took a good number of group selfies along the way. At around 4:30, I turned around so I could prepare dinner in time. It took at least half an hour to walk back and I did a little exploration myself. This is not to say I went the wrong way, even I can't get lost if I walk in a straight line with a giant, ancient house at my back. I just went a different way (used more of the road and fewer fields) and got to see the estate from new angles. I saw a heron take off from the riverside and eventually ended up, completely by accident, on a neighboring private property. But by some amazing stroke of luck, a car was heading out of the driveway I was next to. After the car went through and as the gate was closing, I hoped a small wooden fence between the field and the driveway and dashed through onto the road. I got cool pictures during the walk.
For dinner, I cooked more diced potatoes, threw in a bag of couscous, sliced mushrooms, paneer cheese, kale, spinach and fat hen (a weed related to quinoa with edible leaves). I sauteed all the vegetables in olive oil, added some salt, pepper and chili flakes then topped it off by offering creme fraiche.
It took a little effort but we finished off the whole pot.
June 18th: Planted some squash then learned how to sow seeds. Worked on the yurt again today. Found out my phone data wasn't bought as a bundle and I was wasting it all at once by using the roaming signal here. So I have to buy, again, a new bundle with a code the person from Lyca mobile gave me. (The office hours are the same as our work hours and I'm never in the mood to spend lunch on the phone so I haven't done this yet.)
June 19th to Today: Didn't write in the journal these past few days but we brought out a ton of plants this week including onions, broccoli, celery, squash and Aztec broccoli (a misnomer because it also falls into the same family as quinoa). There were visitors who came to see and to plant a little on Tuesday I believe. Yesterday I put out more onions then started planting a type of celery. The sun was out most of the day and by the time I finished helping with the yurt, I was quite fatigued and when it got cold before the sun went down, I went to bed fairly early. There was, however, an amazing sunset that I got to enjoy thoroughly before turning in.
Today, I woke up at 5:30 fully refreshed and the sun had already been out for an hour here in England. Instead of getting breakfast right away, I went to the house to water plants and really took my time there so that by about 7, I could have fewer breakfasts, so to speak. My family knows what I mean by this. If I had eaten too early, I would have had three small meals before work even started at 9. Today we managed to start planting more squash finally. We had to turn a weed bed into a plant bed again. After a lunch of more amazing garlic potatoes and greens, we planted onions, beets, and more broccoli. For dinner, since I was terrible at finishing the last big complicated knot with elastic cord, I cooked a dinner of curry rice and sauteed vegetable with the help of a surprise arrival. (The person whose turn it was to cook preferred tying knots to cooking.) Dinner was ready at a record time of 6:40.
There was also a daytime volunteer today.
The new arrival, who has been here before for some winter weeks this year, is really nice and seems nomadic in a really charismatic way.
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Breakfast Anyone?
Don't have my journal on me at the moment so this will just cover yesterday and today.
Friday: Woke up with my typical schedule of watering plants followed by breakfast followed by more watering in the house garden. Today we completed a couple projects, one in the polytunnel and a bed of leeks in the field which meant we could start putting in rows of broccoli which needed doing. I got to work with a new arrival on the broccoli and also got to help plant out some lettuce, cosmos, and marigolds. We had a couple more wonderfully prepared meals by another member of our group.
Today: I got up at 6:30 or so knowing we ran out of milk the night before but had thought of making pancakes for breakfast with the eggs our hens were laying. Unfortunately, all 6 eggs were bad and the first one practically popped in my hand and blasted green sulfur smelling slime all over the table. After a bit of white bread and jam, we headed to the caravan site shop to see if they were open yet at 9 am to buy some milk there. When we saw that they were closed, we called Graham to let him know the situation and he said to eat some bread and butter or jam and that he would work on sorting it out. I had known this was likely to happen last Monday since we are not sharing a fridge or pantry with Graham he is unaware of how fast we are eating for just 6 people. But me, being such a food oriented person, kept careful watch on how fast things were going. Each of us have cereal so at least 5 cups of milk are used daily and one person eats two slices of bread with every meal while others like bread with butter and jam for dessert or with their breakfast. With the lack of communication, the hosts have been having to shop more often than they should just to keep up with the staples. I had tried early last week to express this concern but it didn't sink in. Anyway, I got a taxi into Rugby today with two others and had a full sized lunch and got to top off my phone with data and phone service so hopefully people can now contact me from the UK. Now I'm using town WiFi to write this post. Fun, crazy day!
Friday: Woke up with my typical schedule of watering plants followed by breakfast followed by more watering in the house garden. Today we completed a couple projects, one in the polytunnel and a bed of leeks in the field which meant we could start putting in rows of broccoli which needed doing. I got to work with a new arrival on the broccoli and also got to help plant out some lettuce, cosmos, and marigolds. We had a couple more wonderfully prepared meals by another member of our group.
Today: I got up at 6:30 or so knowing we ran out of milk the night before but had thought of making pancakes for breakfast with the eggs our hens were laying. Unfortunately, all 6 eggs were bad and the first one practically popped in my hand and blasted green sulfur smelling slime all over the table. After a bit of white bread and jam, we headed to the caravan site shop to see if they were open yet at 9 am to buy some milk there. When we saw that they were closed, we called Graham to let him know the situation and he said to eat some bread and butter or jam and that he would work on sorting it out. I had known this was likely to happen last Monday since we are not sharing a fridge or pantry with Graham he is unaware of how fast we are eating for just 6 people. But me, being such a food oriented person, kept careful watch on how fast things were going. Each of us have cereal so at least 5 cups of milk are used daily and one person eats two slices of bread with every meal while others like bread with butter and jam for dessert or with their breakfast. With the lack of communication, the hosts have been having to shop more often than they should just to keep up with the staples. I had tried early last week to express this concern but it didn't sink in. Anyway, I got a taxi into Rugby today with two others and had a full sized lunch and got to top off my phone with data and phone service so hopefully people can now contact me from the UK. Now I'm using town WiFi to write this post. Fun, crazy day!
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
More Eventful Stories from the CSA
I haven't had use of a phone since I got here since I only put £5 on my phone and there has been absolutely no way to connect my phone to WiFi contrary to what has been promised last week from the head of the estate. It's no one's fault it just keeps not happening. Anyway, I am borrowing the laptop again to write about the past few days. FYI: Graham is the name of the host and Nick is the owner of the estate. Also, we have half a kitchen in the field now so we can start cooking and preparing meals in the same place we are working.
The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) field is almost directly in between the main house of the estate and the caravan park; it takes about 10-15 minutes of walking to get to both places. We work by the house on Monday and shower by the house as well.
Saturday: I woke up close to 8 AM after a refreshing night's sleep and started working in the polytunnel in order to make up the hours we lost Thursday from the house tour and Friday from the drama. Graham (the head of the project but invited by Nick to create the CSA) came in just before 10 and we talked about what needed doing. Today I finished planting the first round of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants (called aubergines in the U.K.) After a nice lengthy lunch, we learned how to plant leeks out. To finish the day I planted zucchini seeds.
At the caravan park, I helped throw away trash and brought 2 mugs back to the field. Two people decided to take a nap in the field after stamping the grass down to make a cozy bed.
Had a delicious dinner with garlic pan-fried potatoes.
Sunday: Woke up late and did a bit of work and planted some leeks. Shortly afterward, I washed last night's pots and pans so I could cook some lunch. Although I had volunteered when the moment came to cook I had quite a bit of a freak out worrying that I wouldn't make enough. When I finished, I ran to the caravan to get bread and mushrooms so people could make a sandwich with the ingredients if they wanted to. It was potatoes, lettuce, and mushrooms with a bit of cheese. I would have made more potatoes but I would have spilled them out of the pan if I had filled it to the top.
After a nice calming shower, me and two other people helped make a nice dinner and we even made crepes for everyone afterward which was a wonderful show.
Monday: There was some lovely fog when I awoke this morning. After breakfast, I watered the plants in the polytunnel, biked to the main house to water more plants before getting on with any new work in the garden. We planted a few Partisan Blanc squash after making the soil suitable by first making mud and treading on it. Then lunchtime came around. During lunch, we learned that apart from the issues we were aware of (dirty dishes at the field and trash outside the caravan), the plants in the polytunnel desperately needed watering. The sun had come out and undid the work I had done. So I hurried through my lunch, burning my tongue in the process, then biked back to the field and spent an hour watering the plants and then started on the dishes. Once finished, I rushed back to the garden to help plant out the rest of the squash with my planting partner.
For dinner, Graham made us all a wonderful curry with paneer cheese but we were eating at 9 PM since the whole chaotic fiasco disrupted the rest of the day.
Today: Fell asleep quickly last night and slept like a rock all the way through. Woke up close to 7 but felt like sleeping at least another 3 hours. I watered the plants in the polytunnel for an hour before getting breakfast. Moved slowly throughout the day but was able to delegate the tasks and we made a good amount of progress. One person planted 4 beds of leaks (70 x 4), another finished planting out the beans and I worked in the polytunnel. Tried yet again today to get WiFi on my phone but it hasn't happened yet.
The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) field is almost directly in between the main house of the estate and the caravan park; it takes about 10-15 minutes of walking to get to both places. We work by the house on Monday and shower by the house as well.
Saturday: I woke up close to 8 AM after a refreshing night's sleep and started working in the polytunnel in order to make up the hours we lost Thursday from the house tour and Friday from the drama. Graham (the head of the project but invited by Nick to create the CSA) came in just before 10 and we talked about what needed doing. Today I finished planting the first round of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants (called aubergines in the U.K.) After a nice lengthy lunch, we learned how to plant leeks out. To finish the day I planted zucchini seeds.
At the caravan park, I helped throw away trash and brought 2 mugs back to the field. Two people decided to take a nap in the field after stamping the grass down to make a cozy bed.
Had a delicious dinner with garlic pan-fried potatoes.
Sunday: Woke up late and did a bit of work and planted some leeks. Shortly afterward, I washed last night's pots and pans so I could cook some lunch. Although I had volunteered when the moment came to cook I had quite a bit of a freak out worrying that I wouldn't make enough. When I finished, I ran to the caravan to get bread and mushrooms so people could make a sandwich with the ingredients if they wanted to. It was potatoes, lettuce, and mushrooms with a bit of cheese. I would have made more potatoes but I would have spilled them out of the pan if I had filled it to the top.
After a nice calming shower, me and two other people helped make a nice dinner and we even made crepes for everyone afterward which was a wonderful show.
Monday: There was some lovely fog when I awoke this morning. After breakfast, I watered the plants in the polytunnel, biked to the main house to water more plants before getting on with any new work in the garden. We planted a few Partisan Blanc squash after making the soil suitable by first making mud and treading on it. Then lunchtime came around. During lunch, we learned that apart from the issues we were aware of (dirty dishes at the field and trash outside the caravan), the plants in the polytunnel desperately needed watering. The sun had come out and undid the work I had done. So I hurried through my lunch, burning my tongue in the process, then biked back to the field and spent an hour watering the plants and then started on the dishes. Once finished, I rushed back to the garden to help plant out the rest of the squash with my planting partner.
For dinner, Graham made us all a wonderful curry with paneer cheese but we were eating at 9 PM since the whole chaotic fiasco disrupted the rest of the day.
Today: Fell asleep quickly last night and slept like a rock all the way through. Woke up close to 7 but felt like sleeping at least another 3 hours. I watered the plants in the polytunnel for an hour before getting breakfast. Moved slowly throughout the day but was able to delegate the tasks and we made a good amount of progress. One person planted 4 beds of leaks (70 x 4), another finished planting out the beans and I worked in the polytunnel. Tried yet again today to get WiFi on my phone but it hasn't happened yet.
Friday, June 8, 2018
Crazy Week
So this week contained more craziness. Not only has it been impossible to get online, but there has been an amazingly light sleeper next door to our caravan (where we eat our meals) who works nights and has complained about the noise level. At first, this made perfect sense to us because we were being rather noisy but then we learned that even washing dishes and arranging silverware outside were noisy enough activities to warrant him coming out of his caravan to complain. The second time he started in on us, he made threats.
In other news, I am planning on staying here longer and working as plant care coordinator but so far with all the drama I'm not sure if enough work is being done and am a bit wary of the position at the moment because I'm being informed in stages since there is really a whole lot to know before I can feel effective.
A rough overview of the week. Could be slightly out of order as I forgot to carry my journal here to the house but I have been keeping notes this past week.
Sunday night: Had a nice long, deep conversation with 3 other people about life and the universe and why each of us ended up there, in the middle of a field at that moment while 7 billion other people compete in the rat race.
Monday: We had lessons on a couple types of weeds and how best to remove them then we collected slugs to create an environment in which some form of bacteria or fungus will kill them and then we are going to water the plants with the infested water to keep slugs off the plants.
Tuesday: Woke up a bit later than expected, dashed to breakfast and managed to get to work on time. Planted several beans and prayed for them to live. Had a party in the caravan with just about everyone in the group and got a great picture!
Wednesday: Had a tour of the house on the estate today and saw many amazing rooms while learning a handful of British history. The library was impressive and held the original, famous Cook's Voyages to Australia. Had a run in during lunch with a neighbor in the caravan park. Did a brief afternoon of work afterward. One of the workawayers cooked a dinner of boiled potatoes and left-over chili and we all had a good laugh at how the caravan burner can't boil a giant pot and at each of the mistakes big and small.
Thursday: Started learning about plant care and what the plant care coordinator would be in charge of. Wasted some time in the caravan waiting to see what the crazy neighbor might do next a bit too nervous to leave.
Friday: Got an amazing gift of friendship from this place as one of the group took it upon herself to bake a birthday cake for me in the tiny caravan and we ate it after our simple lunch of sandwiches. I didn't think she was serious but she did mention it often. I gave her a hug with my thanks.
In other news, I am planning on staying here longer and working as plant care coordinator but so far with all the drama I'm not sure if enough work is being done and am a bit wary of the position at the moment because I'm being informed in stages since there is really a whole lot to know before I can feel effective.
A rough overview of the week. Could be slightly out of order as I forgot to carry my journal here to the house but I have been keeping notes this past week.
Sunday night: Had a nice long, deep conversation with 3 other people about life and the universe and why each of us ended up there, in the middle of a field at that moment while 7 billion other people compete in the rat race.
Monday: We had lessons on a couple types of weeds and how best to remove them then we collected slugs to create an environment in which some form of bacteria or fungus will kill them and then we are going to water the plants with the infested water to keep slugs off the plants.
Tuesday: Woke up a bit later than expected, dashed to breakfast and managed to get to work on time. Planted several beans and prayed for them to live. Had a party in the caravan with just about everyone in the group and got a great picture!
Wednesday: Had a tour of the house on the estate today and saw many amazing rooms while learning a handful of British history. The library was impressive and held the original, famous Cook's Voyages to Australia. Had a run in during lunch with a neighbor in the caravan park. Did a brief afternoon of work afterward. One of the workawayers cooked a dinner of boiled potatoes and left-over chili and we all had a good laugh at how the caravan burner can't boil a giant pot and at each of the mistakes big and small.
Thursday: Started learning about plant care and what the plant care coordinator would be in charge of. Wasted some time in the caravan waiting to see what the crazy neighbor might do next a bit too nervous to leave.
Friday: Got an amazing gift of friendship from this place as one of the group took it upon herself to bake a birthday cake for me in the tiny caravan and we ate it after our simple lunch of sandwiches. I didn't think she was serious but she did mention it often. I gave her a hug with my thanks.
Sunday, June 3, 2018
A 3£ Jacket and Free Curry
Yesterday I got a chance to go into town and bought myself a good Regatta brand jacket for very cheap at a Charity Shop (the British name for a thrift shop). After going into town, I got to work side by side with Graham (the person who runs the camp) on cooking up vegatables from the garden to add to our fried race dinner.
Today, while cleaning up after the Wolf Run Crew, we had a chance to save the food from being thrown out by packing up for our lunch. There was rice, various curries and some fried vegatble patties.
Today, while cleaning up after the Wolf Run Crew, we had a chance to save the food from being thrown out by packing up for our lunch. There was rice, various curries and some fried vegatble patties.
Friday, June 1, 2018
A Brief Recap and Some Good Spending Money
I'm currently at Stanford CSA
So there has been a lot of drama here culminating in two people having to leave the Workaway. One person was an eighteen-year-old who was sent here by his father and didn't actually want to be here. They worked with the kid for two weeks trying to help him get motivated but he just wasn't up for it. Then when that went down, someone else took it upon himself to rally the group together to try to let him stay. None of us had all the information and even with what little I knew, it was clear that it was going to be a waste of time and effort and that he was amplifying the predicament. In the end, the person who created the whole bruhaha had to leave too although there were other serious issues under the surface of that as well.
Anyway, today, I finally got my laundry done and got to make money doing a whole bunch of cleaning. The cleaning job started yesterday and had to get done by the end of today because this place is hosting something called the Wolf Run which starts tomorrow. Apparently, someone has been messing up the place a bit and whoever has been running the kitchen needed a ton of help doing the dishes. They were put away dirty and some were greasy. After sweeping and mopping two big rooms, another Workawayer and I cleaned hundreds of dishes and all the surfaces. We did 10 and a half hours of work and we were offered £10 per hour.
The food here has been great as I have yet again happened upon another great chef. (My first Workaway in the Dordogne River Valley was also an official chef.) Tonight we had spicy peanut sauce on organic noodles with some greens tossed in.
So there has been a lot of drama here culminating in two people having to leave the Workaway. One person was an eighteen-year-old who was sent here by his father and didn't actually want to be here. They worked with the kid for two weeks trying to help him get motivated but he just wasn't up for it. Then when that went down, someone else took it upon himself to rally the group together to try to let him stay. None of us had all the information and even with what little I knew, it was clear that it was going to be a waste of time and effort and that he was amplifying the predicament. In the end, the person who created the whole bruhaha had to leave too although there were other serious issues under the surface of that as well.
Anyway, today, I finally got my laundry done and got to make money doing a whole bunch of cleaning. The cleaning job started yesterday and had to get done by the end of today because this place is hosting something called the Wolf Run which starts tomorrow. Apparently, someone has been messing up the place a bit and whoever has been running the kitchen needed a ton of help doing the dishes. They were put away dirty and some were greasy. After sweeping and mopping two big rooms, another Workawayer and I cleaned hundreds of dishes and all the surfaces. We did 10 and a half hours of work and we were offered £10 per hour.
The food here has been great as I have yet again happened upon another great chef. (My first Workaway in the Dordogne River Valley was also an official chef.) Tonight we had spicy peanut sauce on organic noodles with some greens tossed in.
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