Boston day 1200...Williamstown day 1

I had a great last week in Boston, building raised beds, seeing folks from TFP and roommates. Tuesday, Liz and I got pedometers from our friends Derek and Leslie. Derek started a pedometer club for his mom and her friends and keeps up a google document where everyone can put in their # of steps each day. I'm trying to see if working on the farm increases my average steps. so far, this is inconclusive, because (in addition to insufficient data so far) it wasn't really working where I had it mounted this morning, so after working and walking around the entire farm this morning, it had registered 1600 steps. Whereas after lunch, walking much less, it was at 4500. So we will compare with some more reliable data soon.

Wednesday 69 Elm had a potluck with veggie white bean soup, pasta, tortilla pizza and chocolate souffle, and i got to catch up with Becky and the roommates. Thursday i heard from joey that my car wasn't going to be ready until Monday/Tuesday. so i freaked out. then i got coffee. then I called anim. i talked to him about different plans for 20 minutes. then i got off the phone and called him back and totally reversed all my plans. Anyway, I went out to lincoln to make sure all my stuff was packed and I could remember where it was and to prioritize what i took to make sure i took the most important stuff, got to walk around town a bit, and then Kate, Karen and Daniel came back to the growers house for dinner. We headed to concord next for the Contra dance, and all my roommates came and gave it a try!

Friday I worked with Kathleen and Heidi, from Groundwork Lawrence, building raised beds in the morning in the rain, and then had salt cod at Antonio's Cafe in front of the office. so good. it's nice to have a good option so close to the city office, with lots of veggies so seems pretty healthy. They say they have coffee but i have a feeling it's nescafe. i've seen the bottle. one of my favorite signs in chile was on a menu:

nescafe
real coffee

much better. i'm totally ok with nescafe, but don't pass it off as the same thing. Israel was all into nescafe too. in my eyes, it's almost a food crisis.

not as big as the true financial crisis happening in argentina. there is no change in the whole country. it's really a problem. you go into a town (not such a big deal in Buenos aires, but still) and you have 100 pesos ($30 bill, granted it's big, but it's the only thing you can get out of an ATM). and NO ONE will cash it. sometimes even the grocery stores will refuse.

but i digress.

Friday night, Liz, Mel and Mel's friend Valerie and I went out to the Phoenix Landing for a good night of dancing to 80's music and the new justin timberlake. There were gin and tonics, there were guys talking to me about cognitive psychology in front of the speakers who were totally sexist ("my boss is a woman, but she's pretty good at science"), there was dancing. and at the end of the day, i'd taken 28,145 steps. so there were also sore feet.

Saturday Mel and I rode to JP to hit up Canto 6, the fabulous bakery at Washington & Green St where Becky is the new pastry chef! we had chocolate croissants, a ham, bacon and cheddar biscuit, brioche, almond biscuits, a beet sandwich...and got to watch Becky using the sheeter to make croissants and then put a little strip of chocolate in each before folding them. so cool. My roommate Emily joined me to try it out too.

Sunday, Michael Iceland picked me up, helped me pack up my stuff in Lincoln while his dog Tala rolled around in the pond/marsh/mud pit behind the growers house, and drove me out to western mass. along the way i got to stop and meet his best friend from college's grandparents and parents, and check out his property in readsboro VT. We ate at the Readsboro Inn...so amazing. I tried hash for the first time (corned beef and mashed potatoes put back on the griddle). We got to the farm around 3 and got unpacked and met my cabinmate Katie, who just moved up here from Baltimore, but has also worked for a fruit farmer in southern PA and knows a bunch of the MD and DC markets. The 3rd apprentice is Melissa, who did the apprenticeship 2 years ago so is here as a 2nd year, and her husband Geoff, who's helping out a couple days a week and starting his own internet business the other couple days. Bridget made chili and butternut squash...and the chocolate zucchini cake i remember from visiting Caretaker 3 summers ago! Micah, their 20 month old, is about the smiliest kid i've ever met. even though he had pinkeye today, he seems like he's always happy and laughing and smiling and in a good mood. Gabriela was showing me birds in her bird book. This is incredible. This 4 year old telling me which starlings she sees in her yard and pointing them out in a bird book.

Today we had our first day on the farm. We did animal chores first: feeding the chicks, pigs and Chloe, the milk cow. Chloe is due to calve in early june, and the vet said she needs to gain weight so Don's been giving her some extra grain each day. She's pretty psyched about that. And then we let all the cows (Chloe, Lucy, Lukey and Lina) out to pasture. Then we went on a long farm tour, and then started turning over some beds to let them dry out so that we can plant in them soon. the soil here is a lot more clayey than in lincoln, so it holds a lot of water. We seeded some flats in the greenhouse, started to build the cold frames (where we will "harden off" seedlings when it is warm enough for them to come out of the greenhouse, but still too cold for them to be out all night). For lunch Bridget made rolls and I had hummus and sprout salad sandwiches.

off to bed...