Archive for the 'Lifestyle' Category

it’s like the U2 song …

Published
by
Steve
on August 19, 2008
in Lifestyle and Travel
. 2 Comments

I still haven’t found what I’m looking for …

While that’s not a good or bad thing, necessarily, it’s amazing how many things that lyric can apply to all at once. Mainly what I’m applying it to right now is my love life. Or, now, my lack thereof. In my last post I mentioned Alissa from Chicago. Well, she’s back in Chicago for almost a month now. And, things have changed. It was different when she was here, apparently. Sure it was! I don’t know what it is or what happened, exactly. Of course I want to say it was on her end, but who knows. Maybe it was my fault.

In any case, I’m bummed and disappointed because - I truly felt with her that I had found what I am looking for. After she had left I thought, possibly incorrectly and mistakenly, way to much about what I ought to do to keep things fresh and interesting between us. I felt like, I really want to hang on to this girl. I mean, it is not like I was calling her every day, or emailing her every day, or poking her on Facebook every day. We talked every once in a while on the phone. I sent her an email here and there. I asked twice in an email two weeks apart if she’d had any more thoughts about me coming to visit. (Which, I thought would be crucial to anything lasting.) I mentioned a visit once on the phone and got very positive response (not so much with the emails). Also in an email I tossed around some travel ideas, about meeting in Chicago and going on a trip, or her joining me on a motorcycle trip somewhere. Or various other ideas.

But I guess I pushed it too far. Pressured her a bit more than she wanted. Had I known that she doesn’t feel up to a relationship, I would have never kissed the girl. I mean, you can’t ask that before can you? Wouldn’t that ruin something?

After feeling so good about the connection between us, I felt really stupid to find out she’s essentially not interested. How does that happen? The only thing I can think is that it was all in my head (which, everything is, really). She showed interest in me too (fleeting or not, maybe I need to be able to tell the difference?)

How do people find each other and stay together?

I guess 2000 miles between you at the very beginning (i.e. days after) of a relationship isn’t the best thing for keeping things going. And, finding out if the other person is looking for the same thing you are (a relationship) is key, I guess. I don’t know what to do now. Do I let it go? and if she wants to rekindle something later, renew my interest then? She knows how I feel about her and my desire for there to be an “us”, I’m pretty sure. Do I call? keep in contact?

Damn.

Any secrets?

For the moment this recent occurrence has made my future planning easier. I’m now planning my motorcycle trip down the west-coast. I may have the first wwoof farm already lined up. I’m putting some feelers out for freelance work.

I still don’t have even any vague plans about 2009 yet. Although, they could involve a drastic move away from the Northwest. Or could involve extensive two-wheel traveling. Either way I think farming will be part of it.

Send me some freelance work if you got it! :)

farm happenings

Published
by
Steve
on July 31, 2008
in Lifestyle and farming
. 0 Comments

The last three weeks have been good ones. I’d almost say that if I’m not posting to my blog, then something good must be going on!

My mom’s visit was a lot of fun. I didn’t write much about that, but it was really great to have her here. We went to the strawberry festival a lot, listened to some great live music, walked and talked and got too much sun. She helped around the farm a bit. And, mostly fed me well and was a great mother! I got spoiled, having someone here cooking all (or most) of my meals. Her being here made the week of me running the farm go a lot better.

The day my mom left we had a wwoofer scheduled to arrive at the farm. All I knew about Alissa was that she was an art teacher from Chicago. I can say now with a smile on my face that she was the most interesting and the most beautiful wwoofer ever! From the moment I saw her walking up the driveway, carrying her backpack, I was like “Wow.” We worked together, cooked a meal or two together, talked, watched a movie, and to me there was never a dull moment. We ended up hitting it off really well, and for lack of a better term, I’d say that I pretty much have fallen in love with her. Or at least I think about her every day and a lot of what I think about is when and how I’ll get to see her again! Alas, she was only here for a week, one great week! We hope to spend more time together some time in the near future. :)
Other than two incredibly excellent women being in my life … the farm is going well. We’ve got chickens coming out our ears! The Cornish cross birds are out on pasture converting their feed to meat, and it’s amazing how good they are at it. A couple weeks ago we got 100 egg-laying chicks in the mail and they are growing fast too. We’ve had our two biggest weeks at the farmer’s market and have nothing but more great stuff to come. We harvested all of the garlic, and whoa - it is soooo good! I have no idea what kind boring white-skin garlic the grocery store usually sells, but the garlic we have is awesome. A few of the varieties I remember are Siberian, Silver Skin, Killarney, Italian Red. Onions are almost ready. There’s more ripe tomatoes every day. We harvested our first potatoes last week, a red variety called Huckleberry. Summer squash is growing like bonkers. I picked a bunch of raspberries and boysenberries (and ate a lot in the process :).

We’re caught up on weeding, for the most part, too. Which is an amazing feat. That’s not to say there aren’t a couple beds that have weeds almost as tall as I am … it’s just means the beds we care about are all tended and beautiful. Today I renovated the mobile egg-laying coup with new dividers. We’re hoping it helps the chickens break and eat less of their own eggs. Yes … the chickens know how good their eggs are and will eat them. I think the problem was they didn’t have their own private laying cube, just this open area that was easily shared by other crazy chickens. They would all be piled in this one spot for some reason, like 5 chickens on top of each other. Then the bottom one would get claustrophobic and want to get out, and crush an egg. They’d smell the yummieness and start eating away. This egg-eating would happen several times a day and we’d lose several eggs, probably more than we know. The next thing we have to figure out is how to keep a few rogue chickens from flying over the fence and laying eggs in random places. We’ve found a few caches where they make a cozy spot and lay, but it’s usually too late, after they’ve layed several eggs who knows how many days before.

The chickens, the animals, are definitely a big issue on the farm. I’ve personally went back and forth on the whole animal thing. I haven’t decided yet whether they’ll have a place on my farm yet. This week is a bad week for me to decide, anyway, as I’ve been fatigued and can’t quite seem to build up enough energy and momentum to really get going in a good way. I’m feeling a bit tired, really. Maybe it has something to do with not really having a day off for a few weeks. And, I know it’s got something to do with being on a total high with Alissa around, and then her being gone and 2000 miles away. Funny how that works!

I’m also riding my motorcycle a fair bit. And, now I’m almost completely official official. I took a Motorcycle Safety Foundation Intermediate Rider Course this past weekend in Bremerton. Essentially now I have this little card that I can take to the DoL and get my full motorcycle endorsement on my license. Also I think I can show it to Progressive and get a discount on insurance. The class was good, I’m glad I took it. That’s all I’ll say before I say something not nice about it.

Phew, well, so much for going to bed at 9. I’m tired and need some sleep. I’ve been woken up every morning by my alarm for the past two weeks. One of these days I’ll get caught up!

the heat, a market and an interesting idea

Published
by
Steve
on June 29, 2008
in Lifestyle and farming
. 0 Comments

First, the idea: Sell everything you own, “your life” as some people call it, on an ebay auction and start over! A guy in Australia has apparently done that, and the auction ended today. The link is to his web site, where all the details are. Quite interesting. I practically did that, although it was more spread out over a few years and I kept some things. It would have been quite amazing to get rid of it all in one shot, though. The option is still there … I’d keep the motorcycle, though!

And, the heat. Today it is hot. Damn hot. The hottest day of the year so far. I’m fairing well in the cabin, but it is just on the verge of being uncomfortable. I need to move back up to the loft next to the big open window where the breeze is blowing in. The heat is making me sleepy.

The market on Saturday was a good one. We totally sold out! Everything we took! It all went!!! It was a great feeling. Every market gets better and I enjoy it more and more. I will definitely miss it. It’s such a great thing to do! Work all week, tending, prepping, growing, cultivating and then take all that hard work to market every Saturday and sell our wares directly to the people. There is nothing like it! It’s going well.