"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!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, May 11, 2009
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
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
Saturday, April 25, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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