steve-wilson.net

So I’m sitting here in the small office cabin/cottage on the farm, having an after dinner chai, catching up on email and web stuff and about to do a little web work. I can barely keep my eyes open.

It’s been a full week. Lots of cabin building, a little bit of gardening/farming and there’s still tomorrow! Last night and again today it SNOWED - this just a few days into the official beginning of spring. Things have changed! I love being here so far.

Most of the work has been towards the cabin. I really want to get moved in there. I’ve spent this week on the island so far and it’s nice not going back and forth. But I really want to be on the farm full time! Sleeping at the neighbors vacant and creaky house is not ideal. Especially after a long, cold and wet day having to slog up the significant hill between here and there only to arrive to a chilly house (with no means of getting rid of the chill - no heater!). Today we wrapped the cabin with Tyvek and got all but one window in and also got the door hung! Such a milestone … yesterday I finished hanging the plywood on the interior walls and tomorrow we borrow a compressor and nail-gun to finish things off. Now we can paint and start trip work. As soon as the last window is in, the surrounding insulation is done and things are painted (and I guess the roofing is on), I’m moving in! I can’t wait!!! I look at how far it’s come and think about how great it will be and I wish I had been building the cabin for myself on my own property. Now that I have, the thought of it being real for myself one day is evident.

Today we also planted out three different kinds of cutting lettuce, Merlot, Royal Oak and Lollo di Vino. Also sowed a bunch of leek seeds, three different varieties, into flats for pricking out. Let’s see … I want to get better at keeping logs of farm happenings … Periodically I get to check the greenhouse, make sure it’s not too hot and water seedlings.

Back in Seattle, the remodel at Kevin’s house is going well. The plumbing is in, the drywall is up and we’ve even put the tile in the shower floor. Not sure if Kevin got to anything while I’ve been gone this week. This weekend I imagine we’re gonna be tiling, tiling, tiling … cabinets will be ready next week and we’re gonna try to be ready for them. That means tiling the kitchen floor and bathroom floor. Right as the cabinets are being installed they will do measurements for the counters as well. Things will come together really quick!

And, I’ve even done a little freelance work in between. We have DSL now on the farm, and it coincided with me needing to finish a project. So now I can just about fully be on the farm and not go back to Seattle. If only the cabin were done … I think it will work out quite well to have some freelance stuff going in the background. Rob, Joanne and the kids go to bed pretty early - 8pm early. Even after a full day on the farm, I’m tired, but going to bed that early does weird things to my sleep. As in, I’ll sleep soundly for three hours, wake up and realize it’s only 11:30 pm and have a hard time falling back asleep. Some of that had and has to do with the neighbors cold house, but I think some of it had to do with going to bed so so much earlier than my body is used to. The last two nights I’ve been up until 11 pm and I’ve slept much better.

One of the main things I do need to get onto the farm is my coffee grinder. That, and my pillow is about the only things I really miss at this point. (Well, honestly, I do miss some form of motorized transportation too …) There is a great coffee shop just at the corner, but I’d rather do my own coffee in the morning … although it has been nice to sit and read the paper with a cup of coffee and the excellent muffins they have there.

I also missed my camera today because the cold, wet and even snow turned into a glorious sunny afternoon. Just stunning! Taking some pictures of the progress on the cabin would have been great, but just having the camera around when I feel like taking photos (which isn’t very often these days) is nice. I’ll just have to pack it along in my panniers next time!

That’s all for now. I need to get some work done and then ride over to the other house for the night …

Alright. So. After much pondering and soul-searching - I am continuing my farming passions: on Vashon Island at Plum Forest Farm.

I went through phases in the past few months … I was working my ass off, making killer dough sometimes thinking “wow, this is niiiiice. Mooooneeeeyyyyy.” But then I had a string of 12-14 hour days and hell no, that’s not what I want. I quit my decent job over a year ago to get myself out from behind the computer.

Then I thought about traveling again after my friends Robert and Danielle started planning a trip to Japan. I thought, damn … with the rate I’m working my ass of now, I’ll have plenty of cash for another year abroad. I seriously considered it for a week or so, and confused a few people in the process. Then decided that no, I don’t actually want to set out traveling again just yet.

It was around the time I was working too much and fretting too much over what to do this year that I went to Florida for my grandma’s funeral. Then I came back to Seattle and worked my ass off for 11 days and then went to Arizona for 8 days to hike the canyon, visit friends and take another break from working. It was a good trip. But, that combined with the Florida trip concreted the feeling that No, I definitely do not feel like traveling extensively again just yet.

Which brings me into February. And, focus back to Vashon Island. Since I had decided I don’t want to travel, of course I had to ask myself the question - well, what DO I want to do with myself this year? And, like so many times before, I came back to my interest in small-scale organic farming. I had visited Plum Forest Farm on Vashon on December 15, having contacted them way back in November about possibly apprenticing on their farm. When I left the farm, we had a good feeling that things could work out and said we should set up a date so I can work on the farm to see how we get along. My trial try-out day was February 14. It went well! But, I had communicated to them a few times in the interim between these two dates and gave them the impression that I was non-commital because I was talking about traveling to Asia and was rather just unsure at the time what I was going to do. This prompted them to advertise for apprentices since, although I sounded good on paper and our initial meeting went well, they really wanted an intern this year and could count on me (I didn’t give them any reason to!).

So anyway, our farm day trial went well. I left think, heck yeah! I could live and work on this place. And it’s on Vashon! But I also though, hmmm, what if they interview some other folks and then decide they don’t want to invite me? I went back to the list and looked for another interesting farm. For some reason, I’m gravitating to island farms. Dunno why. Looking at the list, I saw a farm called Willowwood Farm on Whidbey Island that sounded rather amazing. I contacted Georgie and we talked over the phone within a couple days. Then she invited me up for a night and I went to visit the farm, as it sounded just amazing.

And it is. It is a very nice, old farm smack in the middle of a historic reserve on Whidbey. I think if I write too much people reading this will think I’m crazy for not going. They have tractors and a huge barn and 20 acres and almost 360-degree views of the surrounding mountains and Puget Sound. They wined and dined me - home brewed beer, home made wine, a delicious dinner mostly from the garden. I met the family, met the parents, got a great tour of the area and they even bought me breakfast. The accommodations are first rate. I almost could believe it. I felt really comfortable there and it was easy to see myself there. Maybe some day … but this year it’s not quite the experience I want. I want to be out of my comfort zone, farming like I’d be farming if I were to take the plunge, buy the farm and jump in head first. I wanted to be in a learning environment as close to that as possible.

As it turns out, I’ll be getting even more valuable experience at Plum Forest than I originally thought. It ends up that instead of living in a trailer, they want to build a cabin for me to live in! And, I get to help them build it! I’ve been wanting to do that for a long, long time. Plus, it is going to be coinciding with all the remodeling work I’m doing at Kevin’s house as well. Starting March 10th, I’ll be on Vashon Island at Plum Forest Farm working towards my dream. It is so nice!So that’s where I’m at. I’ve also recently read a great book by Louis Price about her 20,000 mile adventure from Anchorage, Alaska to Ushuaia at the tip of Argentina, the most southerly place in the world that can be reached by road. That’s got me thinking of buying a motorcycle for my primary means of transportation and setting out in November for a trek down south for the winter (south being possibly Florida, but more adventurously Mexico or beyond).