Week 4

TYPICAL day at the farm & garden

I'm currently typing and sipping coffee at the Abbey coffee, art & music lounge in Santa Cruz. I feel very Santa Cruz right now [which is hard to describe without coming off as super judgmental, but I'd say it's a distinct mix of modern hippie suburban upper middle class social justice vintage rural chic]. Anyways, four weeks have gone by since I got here, and time is really just flying by. I feel the need to recap and reflect.

m o r n i n g

6:50 - alarm sounds off, snooze

I live in one of those tent cabins. 4 units per structure, but I've got my own room.

7:30 - breakfast ends in 15 minutes, must get out of bed, get dressed, and gear backpack with water bottle, felco trimmers, harvesting knife, sunblock, and notebook.

7:40 - eat breakfast, prepare coffee, lounge around

8:20 - impromptu stretching circle

The 'Down Garden.' Everything here is hand-worked. This is the garden on day one. I've been working in this site over the past 3 weeks.

8:30 - gather at veggie shed for the day's run-down of tasks

9 to 12 - work in crews: bed preparation, transplanting, irrigation, weeding, etc.

We're learning about CA native plants to prepare for our plant sale, which raised over $18K this year.

a f t e r n o o n

12 to 2 - lunch, usually something extremely delicious and nutritious, everyone gets really excited about food here

Recently, I've been stirring molasses into equal parts whole milk and coffee during lunchtime as a comforting snack-beverage, which usually leads me to falling asleep. This is the farm cat/rodent exterminator, Nanook, also taking a nap.

2 to 6 - continue working, around 4 o'clock 'cookie fairies' come to raise our spirits with something like homemade peanut butter cups and milk, it blows my mind

We're preparing the soil for raspberry planting. It's a tough job.

e v e n i n g

6:30 - dinner

8 - lounge around, internet connect in library, solar heat shower under the sky, study/read

10 - go to bed

I'm only starting to get accustomed to the scene and the routine. It's too dreamy, surreal. Bright pink blooms, hands in dirt, sipping cold beer, breaking off chocolate chunks, picking strawberries and then eating them right after, sharp tools, hummingbirds diving, barn owls screeching at night, guitars strumming, laughter, hot afternoons & cold evenings, living with 45 extremely capable people & hearing their stories. I feel like I'm on sensory overload sometimes. In contrast, I lived in a solitary studio apartment not too long ago, sometimes going days without having a conversation and eating noodle soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's been quite an awkward process to jump from one lifestyle to another. The transition trips me out, but I think I'm getting there okay.