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.

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