SEATTLE AT LAST!

"We're taught to buy things we don't need, to impress people who don't give a shit"

I'll discuss this quote in a little bit, because this post is going to be a jumble of events and experiences running all the way back to September when Ali came to visit me in Alaska. There is so much to catch you up on... including leaving Calypso, traveling down to Seattle, and beginning my new job as an AmeriCorps volunteer. These monumental events in my life have included no shortage of adventures and new experiences. In fact it may just have been the most action packed, at times stressful, emotional roller coaster I've ever been on.

September in Alaska was beautiful (I can't believe how far away it seems now). The dry summer lasted almost until it snowed. Ali's visit was full of crystal clear sunny days. We seized our opportunity to explore the back trails of Calypso, berry pick with Addie, Elsie, Kara and Judy, listen to some local music... and explore Denali National Park!! I could write a whole blog entry about our visit to Denali (otherwise known as Mt. McKinley or "the great one"). But there is so much more to fill you all in on that I will only write a little.

The day we went into the park was one of the last sunny days in central AK. The sun was out and played beautifully off of the mountain's vivid peaks and crevices. Each time we caught a glimpse of Denali I could only imagine the wonder that inspired so many native legends about the mountain before white men claimed it during the gold rush. It is well known that Denali is an elusive mountain to view. Our bus driver explained that only 30% of visitors to the park ever get to see her. Ali and I were beyond lucky; we had clear views of her ALL DAY! My favorite part of the trip into the park (and Ali might say differently) was our hike up the ridge at Eielson Visitor Center. After eating our amazing homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with carrots picked strait from the farm, we started our assent. It was only about a mile hike, but on a basically vertical trail. It was steep! But so worth the pain. At the top we could see, what felt like, clear across the park into the snow capped mountains. We were on top of the world. Seeing Denali was awing and inspiring. There are so few opportunities to see a place so natural, wild and beautiful these days and it was so special to be able to share it with one of the people I care most about.

Just a little under a month after Ali's visit I left Calypso Farm and Alaska... the catalyst event that caused the roller coaster I have been traveling on.

It is not that I am not enjoying Seattle. I have put a lot of thought into my conflicting feelings over the past few weeks, and this is what I've come up with. Calypso Farm taught me a lot about life and what it means to BE alive. For one, Calypso was an amazing community that seemed more true to the "real world" then anywhere else I have ever been. They live their lives for every moment, whether that be tending to the plants, taking the time to make meals from scratch, going on hiking, canoing or rock climbing adventures, and most importantly actually connecting to people. My experience there changed my whole perspective on what the "real world" is. When I left the farm I saw myself as returning to everyone else's life. It's a very odd feeling to REALLY SEE all of the shortcuts that people access everyday... me included. To try and rebel against that is tough, and it has been a constant battle for me to try and keep some of the habits I formed on the farm from disappearing. I also learned a lot of things about myself.
My moral is that you can't jump into a six month internship on a remote organic farm without it affecting you deeply ;). I never thought in April when I arrived in Fairbanks that I would be continuing to work with agriculture and food. Yet here I am in Seattle, a place where you can garden year round, continuing to teach kids about food and gardens. This brings me to the quote at the top of this entry. We are taught to live in a world where material goods are the meaning of life. Where money rules who we are, what we eat and who we are allowed to be friends with. But is that really life? and is this really the way we should be living??

Calypso was a step removed from this "normalcy." Money didn't seem to matter as much because we were living off of the garden, and people traded for many other things. At farmers markets with other vendors it was not uncommon to trade some vegetables for a tart, tomatoes or some sort of sauce. We also traded with a yoga instructor who came to the farm every week to teach in exchange for vegetables. Anywhere else we would've just paid for these things without giving any consideration to exchanging our own talents for payment.

Well. that's my tangent. And I think with that said, I am going to have to leave the rest of this story for my next post. I'm looking forward to writing you all about my ferry ride to Seattle and getting settled here over the past three months!

I have also uploaded new pictures to my Picasa album! Take a look!!!

The State Fair

"Who are you here for... my boss Tom"

This blog entry is a little (or a lot) late in coming. I meant to write it directly after the end of the fair... but a bunch of other things have gotten in the way!

about.... a month ago the much anticipated State Fair started in Fairbanks. The fair was one of the events that I had heard about since I arrived at Calypso Farm. This year we were in charge of the Agricultural Hall-so there was a lot of preparation in the days leading up to it... and really during it as well. Those ten days I spent more time in Fairbanks then I have spent the entire time I have been here (about five months).

The state fair in Fairbanks is like a huge culmination of the year. One person I talked to described it as Christmas... without the cold and presents. It's just one of those times where you see everyone that you haven't seen since high school, or all the people you've lost touch with over the years. For me, it was more of a chance to get to see some of "Fairbanks culture."

Everyone goes to the fair... if not everyday, at least one day. They have the same rides and the same food... the same booths... but they do different entertainment and animal shows on all of the three stages. I personally spent a lot of time in the horse barns. They had outdoor stalls set up that you could wonder through and see the horses. Each stall was also labeled with a little description of the horse with their name, breed etc. There was also the petting zoo which Tom and Sus's girls liked to check out.

The other side of the fair was the glutenous smorgasbord of Deep fried, beer battered, powder sugar covered food! I tried to refrain from eating it as much as possible, but I did have some fried dough and a deep fried halibut pocket. If Cheryl (a calypso volunteer) hadn't been volunteering with me the majority of the time, and bringing me incredibly yummy pockets of dough filled with rice and beans, peas, stuffed cabbage leaves etc. I think I would have gained double my weight by the end of the fair! Most people I saw walked around touring the rides, which as is custom, consisted of the well named "fair"eswheel, death drop bungie ride... and other Topsy Turvy man made thrillers.

I might write about this culture as if I wasn't apart of it... but I definitely hopped on the fairiswheel with the girls, joined in eating the glutenous food... and even went up on stage to get hypnotized...

Yep, I did it, and for all of you skeptics out there.... IT WORKED! The first day of the fair I had unsuspectingly told the girls that I had always kind of wanted to get hypnotized... mistake 1. The next day I came in with them again and Tom had already picked out the hypnosis show on that days entertainment line up. I was stuck. So when it was show time I got up on stage... followed Mr. Hypnosis's (for lack of a better name) instructions.... and boom.... I was out. Well kinda. Throughout the show I kept falling in and out of hypnosis... and really it felt more like I was wide awake, just following his instructions and pretending to be a dog... or changing sexes. The farm still knows me as Brad... the man who likes woman who can hike. (hah!)

The highlight for me though, and I know that sounds wierd.., was when Mr. Hypnosis told us we were on the Jerry Springer show. His instructions were to make up as big of a lie as we could about somebody in the audience. Well... I thought about who was in the audience (pretty much the whole calypso staff) and decided on Tom.... my boss. When Mr. Hypnosis approached me he asked me...
"who are you here for."
-my response
"my boss Tom..." (Tom started to hide behind his wife Sus)
-Mr. Hypnosis
"and... what's Tom's problem"
-me
"....He reads romance novels in the outhouse...."
(hysterical laughing)
-Mr. Hypnosis
"is there anything you'd like to say to Tom"
-me
"That's JUST not the appropriate place"

After the show I approached Tom and all I had to do was look at him to send him into one of his frequent laughing attacks... which of course sent me into one as well.

There is so much more to write about in this post... I have a million stories to tell you all about the past month including Ali coming to visit. I am trying to upload pictures and I hope that they will be posted soon!!! In the meantime please hang in there, I only have two weeks left here!!!! ahhh... and then I am off to Seattle!!
much love to everyone-especially those who have lost loved ones recently. I am thinking of all of you.

Fire, Fair and Fall

"Only YOU can prevent forest fires"

It has been an extremely dry, hot summer in Fairbanks. In fact we have gotten so little water that instead of watering the garden with runoff rain water we have had to call the fire department up numerous times and beg them to bring us some more water!!! At this point they've come up and sprayed water into our pond three or four times. They get a good deal out of it though. In exchange for water we bake them all the cookies they can eat =). From what I can gather a normal Fairbanks summer is not this dry. Normally it is hot and sunny through the end of June and then in July it starts to get wetter. Then august is even rainier and colder. By the end of August the leaves are turning yellow and falling from the trees! This normal summer cycle keeps the fires down, but this year we've been dealing with extreme smoke rolling into Fairbanks from the more than 60 fires in the surrounding areas.

The worst part for me is that the last few weeks of summer field trips were really slow because of the smoke. Two weeks ago I had four Pizza Making field trips scheduled for a group from the Fort Eielson base, but partly because of the smoke all but one field trip was canceled! Then This past week two field trips were canceled, including my last summer field trip. Granted the smoke was so thick on those days that I couldn't even see the upper garden from the resource center, which is right across the driveway. No kids or adults should be spending a lot of time outside in that kind of environment... even if it is part of the natural burn cycle of central Alaska.

Like many other things, I never knew that there is a whole section of the army devoted to fire control. These fire fighters are broken up into two groups, the hot shots and the smoke jumpers. Many of the staff, friends and share holders at Calypso have connections to people working in these positions. So I have learned a thing or two about them while I've been here. The smoke jumpers work from the air, dumping water onto the burning fires. The hot shots on the other hand, work on the ground in teams. They dig ditches to stop the fire, cut down trees etc. They dig ditches because forest fires can go underground and continue to burn through the long, cold Alaskan winter. Then when it gets dry at the end of spring the fires pop out in unexpected places.... you can see the danger in that I'm sure.

I have actually been staring at the fire alert board at the bottom of the hill all summer. Every time we drive past it to go into Fairbanks I look to see what the fire danger is for the day. At the beginning of the summer there were a lot of moderate days... but now almost every time I drive past it is EXTREME (written in black letters over red!). I anticipate that the danger will be going down now that we're getting into the end of August though. It is a known fact that the Alaska State Fair in Fairbanks always brings the rain, and this year is no exception.

Right before the Fair got underway last week it began to get colder. Then the day after Susan predicted that there would be no rain until it snowed... it of course rained. After a beautiful clear night, I woke up to pouring rain outside of Steve's house. It has been raining on and off since then. Normally the mornings are a bit rainy, it mellows out in the afternoon and then eventually clears. I actually like the rain here thus far. It's not too cold yet, and it is always so much fun to go wander the woods and see how different everything looks after it's been sprinkled with water.

more on the fair to come in my next post...

ps. I have a new job!!! At the end of September I will be taking off from Alaska down to Seattle where I'll be working as an Americorps in the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods P-Patches (aka community gardens)

House Sitting

"His camp was invaded by polar bears!"

I've joined the Fairbanks fad. I have become a house sitter... well at least until August 21 when Steve Kendel returns from Northern AK . It all happend quite fast actually. One of my Field Trip volunteers asked me about it when I randomely saw her at a small music festival in Ester a few weekends ago. When I caught a ride from her back up the hill, she offered to take me to Steve's to show me his place. The rest is history.

He has a gorgeous house that looks out over the rige line with one of the best views I've seen in Fairbanks so far! The access to running water, shower, bed sheets and radio, all of which I haven't had much access to since arriving at Calypso Farm, don't hurt either. House sitting also gives me my own space. I think I mentioned in a previous post that my sleeping space is also the intern public space... I am a very open person... but everyone gets grumpy sometimes.

House sitting here is pretty common. A lot of people take week trips to other parts of Alaska and need someone to take care of their animals or their plants. Both of the other interns on the farm have been commissioned to house sit for friends of the farm, and some of the school garden coordinators in downtown Fairbanks as well.

House sitting here is a little different from other house sitting jobs I've heard of. Sitters don't expect to be paid for their services. As long as they get a space to stay in for a little while and some food they are happy. My gig is actually a breeze compared to most. Steve only wants me to water his plants once a week for him. In return I get all the fresh raspberries I can eat and access to all his house appliances!!!!

The only slight glich so far was Steve's very sudden return last week!! On Tuesday he called the office and talked to Christie (Calypso Gardener), telling her to let me know his camp had been invaded by polar bears and that his group was coming back to Fairbanks to re-group. Later in the week I spoke with him, and found out there was actually much more to the experience than just the polar bear attack. Before the bear attack his group had actually survived a flip into the Artic Ocean, drifting onto shore and managing to set up one tent in blistering winds howling around them!! So, he just left again on Monday for his second attempt to set up camp....

On a lighter note, THE SQUIRELLS ARE GONE! For the past few weeks I have enjoyed chirp free mornings. It's a very beautiful thing =).

The mish mash

"Their going to have a HAY RIDE!"

It hardly seems like two weeks has gone by since the fourth of July. Time is flying by way too fast here, and I find myself catching my breath every once in a while to think back on my time in Alaska thus far. I know that I have also completely failed at updating my blog the past few weeks, and in my defense, I tried to write this entry right after the fourth and the computer didn't save it. So here I go again....

The fourth of July, the day we gained independence from Britain, aka. time to kick back with a cold beer and stuff yourself until you couldn't move a muscle from your cozy lawn chair even if a firework came flying your way. Well my fourth of July was a little different this year. Instead of kicking back and watching free entertainment, I was the free entertainment. And I deffinitely moved a muscle from my lawn chair and then some.

It was a perfect day. There was no smoke in the sky (from the 60 some fires that are burning in the Fairbanks area), and the sun was out. In the morning we all prepared to vacate the farm after choreographing movements for Cara and Spencer's genius catapilar float, and harvesting a whole two beds of the most delicious radishes you have ever tasted!

The Ester fourth of July parade is nothing huge, but it does attract some outrageous people. Upon arriving in downtown Ester (consisting of the Golden Eagle, main bar and hang out of Ester), a man dressed as a CIA agent clicked a camera at me saying, "thankyou for your face." He then proceded to stop a van with 'peace' taped to it's side exclaiming, "excuse me sir but there is no peace allowed here." There was also the famous fourth of July pig with it's toe nails painted sparkly blue, and a woman plastered with Sara Palin reasons for "pailing" out.

Calypso farm was not out of place. Our group was composed of George, the catapilar tamer, the catapillar "ribs," and the radish throwers. We were quite a spectical in and of ourselves. After the 1/4 mile parade was over, there was a huge potluck in Ester park. Parade spectators all brought something to contribute. From what I hear there were also many fun games later in the afternoon, including a hosedown from the water wagon.

I say I heard... because I jumped in the farm's rickity old trucks to go out to Quist farm and help hall bailed hay. It just so happend that the fourth of July was PERFECT hay bailing weather. As Tom put it to me, when the hay is being bailed it's a mad dash to get it. As we rode along the bumpy, dusty road to Quist farm Tom watched for trucks coming the other direction filled with hay. He anxiously counted their bails wondering aloud wether there would be any left for us.

He had no need to worry though. When we arrived farmer Quist was just starting to bail a new field of hay. We rode around behind him, halling up his bails into three trucks color coordinated for the day (red, white and blue). After filling our trucks full and paying for the bails (6 dollars/bail), we headed home.

I only wish that had been the happy ending to our day. Almost immediatly after leaving Quist farm the red truck Edge and I were driving broke down. There was smoking... gas leaking... the whole shabang. We finally left Tom and Edge working on the truck while we shuttled the rest of the hay back to Calypso. The intent was to return with the two remaining trucks to get both Tom, Edge and the rest of the hay. There was no saving the red truck though. Edge and Tom litterally glued it back together, and actually got it started before it pooped out again. So we spent the whole next day halling hay back to the farm to.

Needless to say my fourth of July was unconventional. That is the way things go around here. If there's hay available, it doesn't matter what day it is. And there are always adventures to be had that make the work more exciting.

Just a quick catch up on life since the fourth....
-Last weekend we took a farm "black out" day to go float the upper Chattanika river. It was a great day filled with lots of awesome canoeing and river swimming!
-This weekend was the farm's open house, a somewhat large milestone in my experience here. The two events I've heard the most about since coming to Calypso have been the open house and the auction in August. The open house went really well. I was in charge of almost all of the station set ups, and they came off REALLY smoothly. Everyone was very happy, and Christie told me that it was the most organized their stations have ever been.
-Pizza Making field trips have also started!!! It is hard to keep myself from stealing the pizza right out of the kids hands... I hold back most of the time though.

NEW PICTURES ARE UP! Check them out

The most annoying animal in Alaska

"They do it because they enjoy it!"

Small, rodent like, fury, scavengers! From the title of this blog entry, and my current location, you might have thought that I was finally going to complain about mosquitoes. But honestly they don't bug me (pardon the pun) nearly as much as these tricky creatures. Allow me to elaborate...

I have been involved in a constant battle with the local squirrels for the past couple of weeks. They make me so angry I wish I could scare them back into hibernation! Although I've known about my little thieves for a while, the real battle started two weekends ago when my second cousin Elizabeth came to visit.

The weatherport is set up so that my sleeping space is separated from the public kitchen by a makeshift wall made from a cotton sheet and a heavier blanket. So during the day I tie the blanket back, and every night I pull it down. Well, Elizabeth came to Calypso from a 12 day hike in Denali Park, so without question I gave her my bed and decided to sleep on one of the couches in the kitchen area. The second morning she was here "the incident" occured (aka. my first weatherport thief viewing). I had of course been hearing the squirrels chirping away outside the weatherport for a while... but this time was different, I had a front row seat to the debauchery in my home!

The incident went like this:
at 7am they started
first...
I heard squirrel chirping
then....
I heard some scratching on the outside of the weatherport roof
next...
I saw a little squirrel head pop down from the top of the weather port window
finally... when they had decided it was safe enough...
the squirrel popped in the weather port window
subsequently I.....
jumped up and started screaming at him TO GET THE HELL OUT OF MY KITCHEN!

Since then... we have been at war. In the sense that I try different tactics to keep them out and they, without hesitation, always find a way in. They are in the worst way SUPER SQUIRRELS.

Cara, Spencer and my moves:
a. I pluged up the hole they had created at the top of one of my plastic windows
their move.... come in through the bottom gap in my door
b. Cara screwed a wood plank underneath the door so that they couldn't squeaze through
their move....chew through my other window in a decisively secret place that I
couldn't see until this past Wednesday.
c. Cara and I stapled chicken wire to the outside of the plastic windows and tucked it under the outer canvas so that they couldn't weasel their way in.
their move....has yet to be determined, but I heard them this morning chirping
inside the weatherport, and when I tried to sneak up on them I heard them run out.

My next move will be to shoot one, skin him and eat him for dinner.... just kidding.... maybe......

The problem with squirrels is that once they stake out a good spot to find food, they don't go away. I've heard stories from people who have killed squirrels in their backyards, and they say that the very next day there's a different one staking out the spot. So even though I've squirrel proofed all of the food in the weatherport, they still come in... and they still wake me up by chirping early in the morning right in front of my wool blanket makeshift wall.

All I can say, is that the war is not over yet.

ps. there are new pictures posted

CORRECTION: I think the squirrels have been chirping outside the window of the weatherport because they CAN'T GET IN! We'll see how long I can keep them out....

I'm in Charge

"YOU'VE GOT AN AMERICORPS"

I am now the supervisor of a poor unsuspecting Fairbanks teenager. yes... I am in a way her boss. This feels a little strange and at times completely un-characteristic, I never thought I'd be bossing around a teenager so soon in my life. Yet here I am.

The story is that even before I got to Calypso Farm, Susan was asking me if I would be willing to supervise an Americorp volunteer. When I was at home, and completely removed from the situation, I agreed that it would be a good idea. At the time though, it was a long shot that we would even get an Americorps. Then the second week after I arrived here I went to a meeting at Joel's Place, the organization that has the funding to put together this program, to talk about the supervisor requirements. I still felt that it was a longshot that I would ever recieve a volunteer though. The difficulty is that Calypso is not easily accessable from Fairbanks, and so few teenagers have cars or the means to get out here (ie. parents are unwilling to shuttle them back and forth).

Pretty soon after this meeting I went to a jobfair in Fairbanks. Talking to potential volunteers I got really excited about the opportunity. There were so many great people coming up to talk to me about the position. But none of those people ended up applying. So I gave up on the idea for the most part until I was hunted down at one of the School Garden's by a girl who was interested in the position. After talking with her a few times she decided that she couldn't make the time commitment. Then another girl Mariah heard about the position through an outreach e-mail I had sent out to the homeschool community. She seemed very into the whole idea of organic farming and really excited about the position... but she decided at the last second that she couldn't give up her other job. After Mariah dropped out I was dissapointed, but resolved to work harder on getting community volunteers for field trips.

Then last Wednesday Jaime called Marylee saying she was interested in the "field trip" position (ie. CALYPSO FARM!), and by Thursday she was up here! Jaime is not like any of the other potential volunteers I spoke to. She is reserved. When I talked to her over the phone for the first time I was even a little worried, because when I asked her if she was interested in organic farming she said "sure." Nevertheless I decided to give Jaime a chance and she is really working out. We had our first "Wool and Felting" field trip last friday and she jumped right into helping the kids felt wool and learn about the Calypso Farm sheep. Over the past few days I feel like I've watched her open up a little more. She seems to really like the people here, and to enjoy working on the field trips. I do have to push her a little bit to take more of a responsible role. She is aprehensive to run a station by herself. She also never eats the food we cook for lunch. She prefers to bring a sandwich from home even though I have told her multiple times that she doesn't have to.

So I'm slowly learning how to be a responsible adult. I don't know if Jaimee knows it... but I think I may be learning as much from her as I hope she is learning from me!

Putting the Plants to Bed

"Tuck them in and give them a kiss goodnight"

Ok, so I slacked a little bit again. To all of those DEVOTED dagger versus the world fans out there (the two of you ;P) I apologize.

There has been a lot of planting going on lately, or putting the plants to bed. I've now helped out the gardeners a few times with nightly planting, and everything that was germinating in the greenhouse is almost in the ground! I can't wait until harvest time!! I was talking with Christi, one of the farmers, and she said that in a few weeks there will be so much to choose from that I won't even know what to do with it all! Secretly... I think I will.

Planting is pretty simple. At Calypso seeds are germinated in soil blocks instead of the plastic six packs you normally see hanging around wasting space. So, when the germinated plants are transplanted to the garden a few trays of crops are taken out and each block is seperated and popped into holes in the ground that are about eight inches apart. Once the plants are in the ground they are put to bed... or covered with a mound of dirt pushed down very lightly. Edge also emphasized to me the importance of keeping the plants strait, so that when they grow tall the nutrients from the ground will have less distance to travel.

It is also important to note that all of the crops that we are planting have been "hardened off" and kelp dipped. The process of hardening off exposes the plants slowly to the light and colder environment, so that they aren't shocked when they are planted into the ground or get sunburned. The Kelp dip feeds the plant roots extra rich nutrients to keep them healthy until they are planted.

This is a perfect time to talk about how Calypso Farm's CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) works. I'm just fascinated by the whole thing. I don't know how many of you have bought shares in a CSA before, but if you haven't maybe you are just as clueless as I was before coming here. How it works is that the farm plants their crops with the number of families who have bought shares in mind. This can be a lot of math, but Christi said that they have figured out the number of "bed feet" to plant so that everybody gets enough salad and vegetables.

A "bed foot" is the standard length of a Calypso planting bed. The math goes something like... if there are 65 families who have bought CSA shares, then Calypso plants 25 extra crops to make sure that there is enough for them and the farm. I'm not quite sure about how many "bed feet" that is... but what I do know is that Calypso plants with extreme for thought. There are always different plants in each weeks harvest... but because Calypso knows that people like things like carrots, broccoli and salad a lot, they plant different varieties that mature at different times. So one week you might have a white carrot variety, and the next you might have an orange variety; or one week you might have the standard green broccoli (green magic) and the next the purple. Never the same. It sounds like an exciting eating experience!!

I guess I will just have to wait anxiously and watch all the plants grow from my perch in the weatherport... the sun is staying up pretty much all day long now though... so I think I won't have to wait long.

ps. there are new pictures posted!

At long last the Meltdown is here!

"She is definitely a real sourdough"

Sourdoughs can be found in two forms around Calypso Farm. One is the sourdough you are probably familiar with. A nice crusty bread with a curious complexity. It begins with a starter of warm water and flour, aged to perfection. Once the starter is made it then requires a feeding of warm water and flour whenever you want to make a new batch.

Before you bake your bread you sit the starter, mixed with warm water and flour, out overnight. Then in the morning you mix in more flour and warm water plus some salt. This is also the point at which to make sourdough pancakes. Yes I have tried them... and yes, they are amazingly good!

You let this sticky/wet mixture rest in a warm place for most of the day, and about 4 or 5 hours before baking, mix in enough flour to make bread dough. Then 3-31/2 hours before baking, it is time to take on the tricky task of forming the loaves. People use many different techniques, but the one I've been sticking with is the pinching method. I knead the dough to get the gluten going, and then make a "gluten blanket" by pinching the dough underneath and into itself. Then let the loaves rise until the wood-fired oven is ready for bread baking (a wood-fired oven is also an essential piece of the sourdough process)!

Tom, the local authority on sourdough bread, will not bake bread any other way. He stands by the fact that using a sourdough starter filled with natural yeasts from the air around the farm is the only way to make really great bread. But Tom is a "sourdough snob" and most other people around the farm use quick acting yeast to make a type of bread called a 'poolish', or in my case... Challahs!

If you haven't noticed already, baking days are a big event here. Every Friday we all plan to make our breads for the week, and then wait anxiously for the oven to be fired up. Normally, we'll make some sort of cracker or pizza to put in the oven when it is still too hot for breads, and then chow down until our bread can actually go in. People on the Atkins diet... would not do well at Calypso Farm.

Besides the actual crusty bread, the other types of sourdoughs you find moving through the farm are actually people! I just learned the other day that people who have lived in Alaska for more than 30 years are called "Sourdoughs." I was talking about one such volunteer to one of the farm apprentices, and they remarked that "yeah, she's a real sourdough." I had to do a double take, because I'd never heard of anyone referred to as a sourdough before... but after thinking about it, I can see the connection. So, for this week, I will leave you with that thought to ponder.

A mesh of two weeks

"I saw my brains"

Kids say the darnedest things... and as a Field Trip Coordinator and participant I have heard a lot of them over the past few weeks! The quote above is one of my favorites. When I asked the kids what they had seen in the woods, one of them decided he would be cool... roll his eyes back into his head... and say "I saw my brains." I have also been asked if convicts work at Calypso Farm, as well as told that jelly beans grow.

If you haven't guessed already, Field Trips have indeed started!! After weeks and weeks of figuring out the logistics of having kids come to the farm, they are finally arriving! This makes my job both ten times more enjoyable and exhausting. But the benefits definitely outweigh the complications. I love seeing the excited faces of the kids when they arrive here... well that is if they are kindergarten through 4th grade. After that it takes a little more effort to tease the excitement out of the students, but normally we get there pretty fast.

The field trips have been running a consistent hour and a half. When the kids arrive at the farm I am the first person to greet them. As they pile off the buses I gather them in front of me, and welcome them to Calypso. Normally I'll hear one or two emphatic "I'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE!s" yelled at me. After greeting the kids and asking them to name the rules they should follow while on the field trip I play a game with them. The driveway at Calypso is pretty lengthy, so this game helps them to keep their energy going up the hill. What happens is, I ask the kids to tell me an animal they will see at Calypso. Some of the answer's I've gotten have been pretty good. One kid gave me a rooster, and another said a sparrow. More often then not though someone will inevitably say a sheep or a goat. So we "baaaahhh" on up to one of the volunteers, and they give the kids another animal to be, and so on and so forth until we've reached the top of the drive.

Then, after giving them a brief overview of the field trip, and introducing them to the volunteers, I bring them over to Tom for a goat milking demonstration. It is always hard to keep kids attention when there is obviously a very interesting animal standing right behind you. As I struggle to keep the kids attention they are always looking around me and whispering about the goats. Today I heard a lot of the kids exclaiming "There's a goat's butt in my face!!!" So, when I finally announce that we are going to see a milking demonstration they all get really excited and file right past me to gape at Tom's brilliant milking abilities. It is also great to see their reactions when they get the opportunity to actually try milking! Sometimes the groups are really excited and willing, other times they are super shy and then as soon as a couple of people volunteer everyone wants to get involved! But somehow the fact that a goat has only two teats, as opposed to the cow's four, is very alarming and sometimes disgusting.

After the kids are done milking the goats we brake out into different stations. In total I have four station options to choose from when I am planning for a field trip. Over the past month I've been working with the past field trip coordinator's materials and Tom's random suggestions to create stations for the spring field trip called "Spring on the Farm." What I have ended up with is a station that covers bees, a station for seeds and plants, a woods walk station, and of course an animal station. My favorites are the woods and the seeds station. I have had the most luck with these two so far. The bees are not hands on enough yet for me, and when running the animals station it is impossible to keep the kids' attention!

Then at the end of the field trip I try to wrap up by asking the kids if they've had fun, and what parts they liked the most. I was so proud today when almost everyone said "I LOVED EVERYTHING!" This is not to say that I haven't had a number of tough field trips. Last Friday in particular I had a group that I could not get energized, and by the end of almost every hour and a half field trip the kids start to get antsy and ask for snacks. I am not too phased by this behavior though. Every group is different, and I am constantly learning more tricks for keeping kids focused, from the school groups themselves and the volunteers who come to help me.

ps. there are new pictures posted

El trecero semana

The meltdown... is hopefully coming

This week I felt much more at home at Calypso then I have thus far. I think I am starting to settle into living a rustic lifestyle and being in Alaska! It was a relief to find that when I went to chop wood the pieces seemed to fall apart quickly and naturally, rather than each piece painstakingly chopped into bits like my previous attempts. I also felt comfortable enough to start baking! which is always a sign that I have begun to settle in. I don't know what it is really... but I have never felt at home in a place before starting to bake. Maybe the smell of baked goods just makes everything seem that much more cozy, or maybe it's the creative feeling I get when digging into a new recipe... or even the satisfaction of pulling a steaming, yummy, baked good out of the oven (aaah).

I was also running around Fairbanks a lot this week! On Tuesday I went with two of Calypso's School Garden Supervisors to the Fairbanks job fair to promote their "EATING" program and the new Farm Docent program I mentioned in my previous post. I am fascinated by the EATING program, which funds gardens at local Fairbanks schools. During the summer these gardens employ kids and support either a CSA or a Farm Stand for the surrounding community. It is such a great opportunity to get kids involved in growing their own food and learning about eating locally. These gardens will teach them the difference between commercially grown products and ones grown with their own two hands! Plus the CSAs and Farm Stands they are supporting accept food stamps, so low income families can buy fresh produce!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I apologize for all the exclamation points... I'm just a bit overly excited about it!
So, all in all, the fair went very smoothly and I think I got some great potential volunteers for the Farm Docent program.
My other excursions in Fairbanks included a trip to the Rock Climbing Wall and live music at Spring Fest, both at the University. If you have never heard of "Sweating Honey" I suggest you check them out. I really enjoyed their music.

The weather has also been all over the place. On Thursday and Friday there was a substantial snow fall, but then on Sunday it warmed up to 60 degrees!! Apparently it is supposed to stay there for the entire week!! This means that I can finally spend some time basking in the sun and reading outdoors!! It also means that the fields are finally starting to thaw, and that there will hopefully be plants growing in them soon. I can't wait to look out the door of the weatherport and see lots of blooming flowers, herbs and vegetables! Right now I've been taking refuge in the greenhouse, when I can, and looking at all the little green plants they have germinated in there.
This past week Tom also sheared Calypso's three sheep Holly, Bridget and Sabrina. I have posted some pictures of that, and other adventures, in the photo album connected below. All the sheep have also been bread, and Sabrina is supposedly lambing VERY soon. When Tom sheared her she was already bagged up (meaning her utter was filling with milk), so we should have some little lambies here soon!!

Spring is in the air! and I am so relieved. As much as I love snow and winter activities, it is just too late in the year for me to be living in a twenty degree weather climate.

Week 2

"The Lower 48"

Something I've noticed about Alaska is that they never refer to themselves as part of the United States. Whenever referring to a state or place that is not Hawaii they say that it is part of the "lower 48." This mind set is a small insight into their attitude. They are different, in a very good way. Although many of the people I've met here, as I mentioned in my previous post, are not native Alaskans they all have similar mannerisms. The first thing you'll notice when you meet an Alaskan is how open and nice they are. Their generosity and kindness is similar to that of Vermonters... but taken to an extreme. As my "boss" Sus put it on Monday, if you want to be an Alaskan after living in Alaska for a week... nobody questions you. They just accept you as part of the community. Of course this may just be the attitude of the farm and the people associated with it, but till proven wrong I will continue to believe that Alaskans are really great people.

This week was all work work work! I am now fully immersed in my job as the "field trip coordinator" for Calypso farm. Monday I wrote and sent out a fax notifying the schools in the Fairbanks area about our spring field trip offering "Spring on The Farm," and since then I've scheduled thirteen trips!!!
I don't quite have all the kinks worked out yet, but most of the program has already been set up. I just need to figure out how I can fit my expertise into running it. The field trip is broken into stations. I will meet each group at the bottom of the driveway and play a game with them to get them up. Then I explain how the field trip will run and the kids get a chance to see Tom do a goat milking demonstration. After that we break out into approximately three stations... depending on the age and number of kids. One station looks at the farms animals (goats, chickens, sheep, and bees), the next looks at seeds and plants in the greenhouse, and the last is a forest walk.
The difficulty right now is that the snow is melting extremely slowly!! So I need to make sure that the teachers dress their students appropriately. My first field trip is this coming Wednesday... so I have tried to make it clear that the kids NEED TO WEAR WEATHER APPROPRIATE CLOTHING! But I'm trying to think of a game plan for if they're not.

The other part of my job that I've been working on developing is outreaching for volunteers. Right now the farm is trying to get together what we're calling a "farm docent" program. So I'm going to a high school job fair this Tuesday with some flyers to see if any highschool students are interested. We are also putting together a volunteer information day for May 30, which I have unofficially termed "Volapalooza"!!

Well, for those of you who are sitting there saying OMG.. ENOUGH ABOUT WORK ALREADY... this blog is getting way too boring. I also had some time to go out and explore some of Fairbanks this week. It strikes me as a pretty odd city. Everything is very spread out, and although there's a bus system it is not very easy to get around without a bike. I've been spending most of my time near the University... and the Fred Meyer (the local Walmart). Last night I even stayed over in the University dorms with some of the Calypso staff living there. it was a very odd experience to be back in college dorms... especially after having spent two weeks living in a little structure surrounded by trees and washing myself with stove top heated water. I still don't know quite how I felt about it.

I also think that the phenomenon called the 'coffee hut' should be transferred to the lower 48! They are all over Fairbanks!! In short, they are drive through coffee shops. Beautiful. I haven't been through one yet... but I am hoping to soon. I will keep you all posted on that one ;).

The First Week!

"There are 50 ways to leave your lover, but only 8 ways out of this aircraft"

This week started off with a blast! The anticipation of leaving for Alaska, and the disappointment at having to leave everyone I know behind was exhilarating and stressful. I honestly don't know how it happened. One second I was packing my things and the next I had boarded a plane headed to Alaska from whose loudspeaker was blaring the quote above.

Alaskans...at least the ones I work with... have such a great sense of humor. I can honestly say that I have not been here a day without having had a really great conversation filled with lots of laughter! Although, now that I think about it... most of the people on the farm are not originally from Alaska. Tom and Susan are probably the closest to true "Alaskan's" here. But Christie and George, the other couple who live here, are from Ohio. Edge, although he's been coming seasonally to the farm for three years, is from New Jersey and Katrin, the School Garden Coordinator, is a native east German who has been living in Ester working with Americorps for the past three years. Despite everyone's different origins, the farm acts as a connection to Alaska and the land here.

Since arriving, I have jumped right into learning about the different farm activities, and the projects that are being done to get ready for spring planting. Because there is still a ton of snow on the ground (I have been sledding most of the week with Addie and Elsie, Tom and Susan's daughters, and Soula, Christie's daughter) many of the crops Calypso will be growing are being germinated in a greenhouse in the upper field. Edge and Christie have been working on what they call blocking. This is the process of replanting the already growing seedlings into a larger block of soil. Tom is also working on some general maintenance for the coming season. He is improving one of the farm's yurts for me to use on field trips and fixing some of the farm's tools. He has also been teaching me a little bit about milking and feeding the farm's goats, sheep and chickens.

That doesn't mean that I haven't been doing my share of office work. I have a ton of work to do to get ready for the upcoming spring field trips. Even before I arrived teaches had started calling to schedule them!! So I have been trying to get together a fax to send out about this season's field trip offerings and to learn about the field trips themselves!! There is a lot of information to sort through and figure out, and because I am new to most things on the farm, such as milking goats or seeding plants, I haven't found my footing with the actual field trip material yet.

Yesterday night was a nice break from all of that though. Edge, Katrin and I decided to have an adventure and ski/snowshoe/sled into town to go to a local bar called the Golden Eagle. We left at 9:30 and got to the bar at 11:30pm. We had a blast getting there!! We started off walking up into the woods in back of Calypso where there are a lot of established cross-country skiing trails. Then when we got to the downhill parts Katrin and I would hop in the sled and Edge would hook up his dog, Nobi, to the front and himself to the back with cross-country skiis and we'd be off. There were also some parts that Katrin and I just sleded on our own as well. It was really nice to get off the farm for a bit and see some of the Alaskan country side before the snow melts.

My first week at the farm has been filled with lots of laughter and lots of information, and somehow the people at Calypso manage to meld those together in a very congruent way. Although it will take me sometime to get used to the lifestyle here, I think that the next six months are going to go by really fast!

pre-Alaska II

One Week Left-

In a week I head off to Alaska!!! I am still a bit nervous. I realized that I have spent almost an entire year living at home. After such a long time "back in the nest"... it feels a little uncomfortable to trek out into the great unknown again. But, upon reflection, I believe that it has been a year of growth for both me and my family, as well as a good transition to the future.

I will be the first to admit that living at home has not been ideal. It has been extremely hard after spending four years in Washington, DC fending for myself. Not to mention that without the academic stimulation that I had at GWU I regressed to watching a lot more television than I would like to admit. I have felt in limbo. Not quite sitting around... but also not really doing very much.

You might ask why I'm complaining? Every college student wishes for this kind of break from their overstimulated lifestyle. At some point four years of stress induced binge eating sweets and greasy pizza, loading up on coffee to get through a hectic day of lectures, and staying up all night to study or finish assignments gets old. What I have come to realize is that although everyone wishes for a break they never actually take it. But, I took my break... and fought every second of it. When you get what you want you don't usually know that you've gotten it... and most of the time it doesn't appear in the pretty package you imagined it would be in.

Living at home was not the pretty package I imagined my break would be. But, it has allowed me to realize certain things about myself and develop certain interests that I never could have pursued while worrying about completing college. I was just too distracted by all the information that I was being asked to absorb. Living at home, and being bored, forced me to explore.

Without my experiences substitute teaching at my old high school and elementary school, and the articles I read on the ideas behind sustainable living and organic agriculture, I would not be going to work on Calypso Farm in Alaska. So while the package my break came in was a little damaged, it is not just the appearance that counts. It is the contents of that package which ultimately made the difference for me.

Pre-Alaska

"I leave for Alaska in a little over two weeks"-

This morning I went to the gym as I routinely do every few days. Since the gym in Woodstock is very small I often bump into and chat with people from town. Today, in between sweating to death on the eliptical machine and killing myself with free weights, I ran into Greg from Woodstock Library's "Menu For The Future" workshop. After our conversation about my job in Alaska and some delicious sounding new recipes to bake, I tried to calculate the time I have left before I leave for Alaska.
....Seventeen Days!!!!
Suddenly everything felt different. I leave for a huge change in lifestyle in only seventeen days... I had to ask myself... am I ready?

This question has a very simple answer, yes or no. But choosing an answer is actually quite complicated. After having spent the past eight months sitting at home watching TV, substituting at my old high school, skiing and going to Boston whenever, I'm afraid that I've become a bit lazy. It is easy to go to the gym instead of running outside, and it is easy to have the freedom to leave and do anything I want. When I leave to go to Alaska, I am not only heading for the last partial frontier in the United States, but I am committing myself to a sustainable lifestyle on an organic farm and to a job that requires me to be constantly aware, flexible and at the mercy of Fairbanks elementary school students.

But I also have to think about how exciting it is to be going to Alaska and to be learning about organic farming. Not to mention I have willingly flung myself into various difficult situations in the past. I tell myself that going from the quaint New England village of Woodstock, Vermont to the politically charged city of Washington, DC was no easy task. Spending four weeks camping outdoors working on the Appalachian Trail and inhaling mosquitoes was no less challenging. Certainly leaving the United States to study the language and culture of Spain during my junior year at GWU was a feat in itself. And interviewing Holocaust survivors in two cities and writing a senior thesis on their legacies has to count for something right? Living without running water and electric heat, working on a farm, and organizing Field Trips should be easy....

But am I ready......

The more I think about the answer to that question the more I believe that it doesn't exist. What I know is that it is exciting to finally be beginning a new part of my life. I don't know where this journey will take me, and I don't know if I can possibly anticipate the hard lessons I will learn at Calypso Farm. All I can do is wait and prepare myself as much as possible for April 6th.

So for the moment I think that I will sit back and savor the sensation of not knowing.. and accept that I have no real answer to the question, "am I ready?"