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.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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 ;).
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 ;).
Thursday, April 9, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
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?"
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?"
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