This week, I was finally not scampering off like a racing chicken to get things done every day and I felt a lot more human-shaped.
On Monday, Leslie's Mom, sister and family friends drove in from the Portland Airport to wrap up her stay on the farm. In the morning, we had a major weeding production rescuing small blueberry bushes from a forest of blackberries and yellow doc, as well as every other weed ever and lay down a ton of woodchips. It was the start of mission: Brigam's Beds which we worked up for the next couple of days, with his mom and niece's visit as a motivator for the clean-up. In the afternoon, we weeded Brassica beds in the lower fields. Most of it was ladies thumb so the root was easy to grab on hands and knees. From above, the whole thing would have been amusing to watch, as our bodies scuffled on the ground buried under giant kale and broccoli leaves, snatching at weed roots to disappear from the surface as we dragged them down with us.
After work, everyone split like wildfire and Andrew and I found ourselves on the porch with a scrabble board. Leslie's guests showed up while she was out on a walk so Andrew and I gave them a haphazard tour of the guest house and played a round of Scrabble during which Brigam emerged and began a BBQ Spaghetti concoction for dinner.
On Tuesday, Leslie's family came down to the fields with us to help harvest and got a bit over-enthusiastic with the carrots, as we found over half a dozen extra bunches when we packed the next day. For lunch, Sean made an enormous smorgasboard to feed everyone and we had a bit of mid-day shmoosing and last minute picture-taking before sending Leslie off.
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| Green, green everywhere! |
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| Leslie, Paris and Leslie's sis |
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| The crew |
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| Lunch |
That afternoon, Andrew and I worked on finishing some small tasks upstairs and got to leave fairly early, which was perfect for our hiking plans up Neakhanie Mountain! We talked much of the way up but when we got to a sort of overlook near the top where the sun beamed through some of the tall, old growth and the ocean could be seen peaking between some valley hills, we stopped and fell silent for almost five minutes before just picking up in unison and walking to the top. Andrew has been the perfect hiking buddy. Everything is so easily appreciated by him that never does it occur to me to worry about time because he seems okay with each moment. We talked a bit more at the top, climbing to the tippy-toppest peak before eventually heading down again at which point the conversation shifted from our deeper spaces to the tribulations of Michael Jackson and Amusement parks. An absolutely beautiful hike. 
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| climbing up to the peak |
When I got to the farm on Wednesday morning, Leslie was back! Her family had stuck around the area so she came to help pack CSA boxes.
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| CSA boxes. All the yum. |
Once she left, we began part II on the Brigam Beds mission and worked in wait for our new arrivals, Shelby and Barnabus.
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| before... |
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| after. life of farmwork. |
They arrived in time for the last of our morning weeding and then got taken downstairs with Sean and Nate after lunch while Andrew and I played Archeologist in the 3-year old rubble pile to dig out debris from the mess and put it in Brigam's truck to go to the recycling center. We also succeeded in shaping and soil-filling two more of Brigam's herb beds.
The day before, Andrew and I had gotten on the subject of all things delicious and at that moment, I set in on making a pie for his last night. After the work day, I hit a series of road-side Blackberry stands and hundreds of scratches later arrived home with 3 pints of berries and all of the extra makings.
We gave Barnabus and Shelby their first harvesting lowdown the next day and got in some getting-to-know-you time after work. We all went down to the river with Andrew where, despite the exceptionally chilly day we'd had, he fulfilled his wishes of jumping in one last time. Brigam's niece and mom arrived that afternoon and that night, the four of us teamed for a wwoofer dinner movie to feed the inflated amount of guests. The process was replete with laughter and bonding interspersed with very loathsome sentiments on the overabundance of squash that we were obligated to make use of. A few hours, a few songs, a far less squash than intended later, we had a massive quantity of Tahini lemon-garlic kale salad, beans and rice and very droopy squash rings. Everyone trickled back home over the next hour and around 9:30, most everyone had eaten and was ready for pie. There is nothing like sharing my baking and having conversation outside the context of the day's tasks that feels more welcoming...and it is a good thing we made time that night to have a relaxed sort of send-off for Andrew. For the next day was market day, and it was one of the most hectic of all.
A combination of things happened on market day that are not market day things. One, we stayed up late. Two, Shelby woke with a fever and checked out for the day. Three, Brian was meandering around with a video camera, stealing Ginger for odd, repetitive motions of handling vegetables for his movie shots. Four, new people with lots of questions eager to help.
The combination put us behind by at least two hours before lunch. After that, it was a whirlwind. pretty much every leftover in the fridge was splayed out on the counter to stuff ones mouth with in spare seconds and minutes. Julianne, a woman who makes snack packs and wraps with the produce to sell, usually employed Leslie for assistance but was now needing a new recruit and was switching up her menu to a grilled veggie experiment. I got pulled away from the normal washing routine fairly early to help with that and suddenly it was three o clock and everything was getting in the car. It was one of those days that you never quite understand how you fit it all into one day. But we did. Brigam's niece is a very enthusiastic, curious and endlessly energetic girl and although it seemed like her offerings of invisible mangoes and catering to her song requests and her insistent need to have Ginger double check every one of her market boquets seemed as though they would throw us back, she was incredibly strong and ready to lift anything to the car or out of greenhouses. And with Sharon, Brigam's mom doing all the grilling, I suppose the extra hands did make for faster work.
That afternoon, I went to the restaurant, finally clear that I just had to simply be honest and voice my concerns. I went early in case she wanted to fire me but lo and behold, got to keep my job, void of worry about misunderstandings. And that night, the energy of all my interactions immediately felt ore positive.
As Ginger likes to say, we are recycling energy and transforming every moment. To receive new energy, we must let go of the old. Holding to tensely will leave no room for new energy to grow. This week has been a week of releasing tension from worrisome notions and assumptive thinking and preoccupation, opening into present moments with honesty and less urgency to hold and the energy received in return has been a beautiful reminder of this duality of life.
Also. I finally made FRESH FIG BARS.
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