Wednesday, July 27, 2011 – Girl’s Night Out
Girls’ night out was really, really awesome in so many ways. Chynna took us to a really nice restaurant off of the Blue Ridge Parkway called Knife and Fork. They served incredibly delicious local, seasonal food and provided a really pleasant enjoyable atmosphere. I really like that Knife and Fork provided “fancy-restaurant” quality of food and atmosphere without being too… fancy.
Oh, and was the food incredible! I do not think that I have ever really experienced food like that. Every dish had such a variety of flavors and textures! I could tell that the chef had really taken the time to create high-quality dishes from high-quality ingredients.
Plus, I really enjoyed spending a fairly low-key evening out with the ladies. We shared dishes and stories, and we laughed so hard! By the time dessert came around (there are no words… there are just no words), we were completely “food drunk” and having a blast and a half. Awesome!
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Thursday, July 28, 2011
Today was a crazy, intense, busy day.
After house meeting at 8:30, I checked in with Patricia about my responsibilities as kitchen manager. My responsibilities are as follows:
- Monitor order & cleanliness of Root Cellar, Kitchen, & Dining Room
- Represent kitchen needs at House meeting re: deep cleaning, fridge cleaning, shopping, food money, etc.
- Orientation of new people to kitchen
- Inventory bulk food and produce for ordering
- Maintain rotation of frozen foods & bulk
- Oversee bulk food and personal food storage in the root cellar
- Liaison with food providers (local food sources and bulk purchase)
It seems like a lot, but I do not believe that it will end up being too much. As a “manager,” my responsibility is to keep an eye on the kitchen, see what needs to happen, and make sure that it does. This involves a great deal of recruiting help and delegating tasks to others (although I am not entirely sure that I have what it takes to be a “boss”… I guess we will find out.) Also, all of the time that I spend on these task will count for my work exchange hours, so I would already be working for those hours anyway. Everything will be fine. (And yes, I am going to keep telling myself that.)
Then I went out and worked on the fence for several hours, stripping locust posts and then dragging mountain laurel down to the orchard. All in a day’s work. ;)
At some point I realized that Nathaniel, who was supposed to be cooking tonight, had left a day early for his weeklong vacation with his son without finding someone to cook for him. So, in the spirit of household cooperation, I decided to pull dinner together. Unfortunately, for some reason my housemates were feeling particularly slobbish today, so by the time dinner was over, I was feeling pretty grouchy from having to clean up several people’s messes when it was not my responsibility in the first place.
So right after dinner, I ducked out the door with the pretense of closing the gates (a post-dinner chore) and simply took off for the Red Tent after completing that task. The Moon Lodge was a really fabulous experience, as usual, and within a few minutes of being in that space, I felt as right as rain. I am so glad that the women of this tribe have that space and that time to share with each other.
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Saturday, July 30, 2011
2:48pm
This morning I was in the garden by 8, still weeding beds and paths. Then, when Lyndon and Steven headed up the hill to work on the water line, which I had previously committed to, I dropped my work in the garden and headed with them. I think that working on the water line with the guys is earning me some real credit and respect from them. When I first started working with them, they seemed to regard me as being there to “help out” rather than as one of the core workers. They gave me the relatively minor job of scooping out loose dirt and measuring depth. However, when they set down the 10lb mattock to take a break, I started just picking it up and going to town. I do not get nearly as much accomplished, blow for blow, as the guys, but between my willingness to try and my perseverance in finishing the sections that I start, I am now treated like a member of the team rather than someone along for moral support.
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Sunday, July 31, 2011
9:36pm
I had a really incredible experience in the garden this morning! I was bent over pulling up some weeds out of a path when I heard this really loud buzzing approaching me. At first, I figured it was a bee, but as it got louder, I thought to myself, “Geeze! That bee has got to be the size of my fist!” When I looked up, though, I was face to face with a hummingbird, not two yards away from me. To my amazement, she kept coming closer and closer until I could have almost reached out and touched her. She hovered there for a long moment, holding my gaze! Then, as quickly as she came, she flitted off. WOW! Later, Patricia told me that in some Eastern tradition the hummingbird is the bearer of good omens. She came out of the east, too, which symbolizes new beginnings. Wow. Just wow.
Today has been really good. I have been working in the garden on and off all day. I got up early-ish and was out there clearing paths, weeding beds, pruning the blighted branches off of tomato plants, and watering for a good two and a half hours before the sun came out. I took a break about 10:30, and ended up taking a nap. I felt very refreshed and rejuvenated after my nap, so I decided to start some more seedlings in trays, as we have had very little luck getting seeds to make plants direct seeding them into the garden. When I had finished that, I planted out some sugar snap peas in the spiral trellis bed, making this the third time that bed has been planted this year. We just cannot seem to give up on it!
Something I think I really learned today was the value of taking breaks. If I had forced myself to continue working in the morning even though I knew I needed a break, I probably would have exhausted myself within an hour, and I would have lost the rest of the day. However, by taking a well-placed break, I was able to spend more time in the garden and I was more motivated and productive during that time.
I just got done with my second class with Joshua, and I am getting really, really excited about it! We talked about the pre-Socratic philosophers of the Mediterranean (who all have really awesome names that I have absolutely no hope of being able to spell until I see them written down). Basically, these were the first recorded discussions on the nature of matter and the nature of reality outside the context of mythologies, divine decrees, and anthropomorphized deities. Joshua also mentioned that he hopes to turn me on to “real magic” (magick?), but that we “do not yet have the language to begin discussing the nature of reality.” Was that just a hook to get my psyched for the next class? Knowing Joshua, he is entirely serious.
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