And now back to our regular programming...(sorry, I know I'm a dork)

Check out the link below if you want the newest post on my regular blog.

http://carolhays.blogspot.com/

I made it back before all the leaves changed color yea!

Now for some parting words (and pictures)



Pesto pasta with ground turkey (seasoned with the spice I brought!) and garden salad





Conquering the weeds...and the weed eater...and life in general....



Our lovely residence aka the box aka the trailer which actually we did grow quite fond of during our time there despite the sound of rats/mice scampering over the roof every night and squeaking for hours on end



The biggest pizza slices I have ever seen. Not exaggerating. They were slices from a 28 inch pizza. The taste was really good and reminded me of how my mom makes her homemade pizza. We cut the box in half so we could each keep our leftovers!



My tug of war opponent at the Marks' - this guy was relentless!



The flight from LA to ATL was really pretty

 

The fullest view I had of the West just as the sun was setting and we turned slightly South to head closer to ATL.

 

Random, but I found these sweet acid wash jeans at a thrift store in CA. I wore them once there but I'm not sure if I'm young enough to pull off these shorts. At any rate, I won't have much of a chance this year because it's falltime already!



Thanks everybody for joining me in my endeavors over these past few weeks. California was definitely an experience I'll never forget. It didn't turn out exactly how I had anticipated, but then again, it seems like trips such as these never do. I learned alot, especially about other people, which is always a good thing. Or usually a good thing, ha.

If you want to know some more of the knitty (is that how you spell that?) gritty, email me or call me or text me or you know talk to me and I'll tell you more.

Also, in other news, I am now officially unemployed and looking for the next step to take in my 23 year old life. Trying to be patient and lean not on my own understanding.

Real Life, Kids

New friends from surprisingly! Boston as well :)  These guys were great - brought alot of laughs and humor to their time on the farm. We'll miss them for sure..

Laughing away - This is real life kids!



Jamie, Matt, Derek, me



It's funny how quickly you form friendships working like this - but it makes sense. You have to rely on your partners/workers to get the job done and comradery develops when you're all in the same situation. 

birthday

Only about a week plus a few more days until my time here is done! It seems the time has gone by quickly as well as slowly, one of those strange phenomenons.

Right now there are brownies cooking in the oven. It seems that I only post either when I am eating cakes/desserts or posting pictures of them ha.

My birthday here was a good celebration. We made cheesecake and drizzle chocolate on top and they put a trick candle in it, which I could not stop laughing at for some reason. Everyone sang me happy birthday. The best present ever was getting to go to the beach in the afternoon. Maureen, Takumi, Jamie and I all went to Oceanside and relaxed on the beach for a few hours.

My friends from high school and my family celebrated my birthday before I left for CA so I considered that my real birthday this year but it was a very nice golden birthday anyways :)



Cheesecake yum yum



Jamie and I harvested oranges this morning. You have to use about a 15-foot long picker to get the fruit at the top of the trees. One of our attempts ended up in getting 0 fruit in the picker basket but getting 2 fruit on the ground that we quickly picked up.



Orange surprise





ant....pizza?

Next present on my birthday wish list: machete. The relationship one has with a machete becomes love/hate. Well at least when you're chopping up avocado branches. The hate part comes from the fact that it's a chore and it represents sweat, cuts/scratches from hauling away the chopped branches, and being very tired of the same repeated motion for an hour or two for numerous days in a row. The love part comes from the fact that you feel like you can conquer/dominate anything that comes in your path (unless your machete is dull and that's another story).

Me in action among one of the many avocado groves.

My other two machete partners-in-crime the other WWOOFers Takumi and Jaime!

I was trying to think of all the activities I have done so far, and here's what I can remember as of now: (3 weeks in)

Weeding
Weed-whacking or weed-whipping as they call it here
Cutting up avocado branches
Hauling avodado branches
Machete-ing weeds
Helping put up an electric fence
Tending the chickens, geese, ducks
Watering
Watering
Watering
Cooking/food prep
Planting/transplanting
Digging/prepping areas for new vegetable beds
Clearing rocks/brush/logs
Cutting back branches/bamboo
Assisting in remodeling a door frame
Staking tomato plants
Harvesting

Counting grasses for sale
Cleaning out the lukewarm tub (more on that later)
Minor landscaping (cutting out overgrown bushes/weeding/pruning)
Ah, and a variety of other tasks that I can't think of right now

I think my friend Jaime and I are going to try and leave the same day and explore LA for an afternoon together before I head back to Pasadena.

My birthday is on Thursday and I think we're going to make cheesecake and melt chocolate chips and pour them on top yum :)



the other morning - there was so much moisture in the air - this spider web looked awesome with all the dew on it



same morning - the cloud that had enveloped the property receding down the mountain



before the ants

We had pizza last night for Takumi's birthday. Since there was no room in the fridge, extra pizza was left out on the counter with some saran wrap on top. Wasn't good enough apparently. This morning I saw an ant line crawling under the window; followed it to the end and found ants littering the leftover pizza. I didn't know what Maureen would do with it so I left the mess. Being the saver that she is, Maureen brushed the ants off and stuck it in the fridge. Takumi and I picked the rest off that we could see and I stuck it in the oven hoping the heat would kill the rest of them.

Let's just say ants were the new topping on my pizza for lunch today (I found 3 dead). Always an adventure!!

FOOOOOD!

We get really hungry. Lots of times we take pictures of what we eat because we're so hungry ha.

blueberry panckaes with blueberry sauce.

hamburger with cheese, avocado, salsa, onion, tomato

pumpkin pie.

breakfast

sweatpants and machetes and I might be a Mexican laborer

Two new WWOOFers yea!! Jaime got here on Monday and Takumi (sp.?) got here yesterday. Takumi flew in from Japan and I was showing him how to water the day he got in - it hadn't sunk in that because of jet lag it was 8 o'clock in the morning his time!! He had been travelling through the day and must have been exhausted! He was a great sport about it though and didn't complain but was apparently so sleepy he hadn't even taken the time to turn the lights out in the trailer we're staying in - just literally fell into the bed and passed out. We all 3 WWOOFers crashed around 9 p.m. last night and slept until our wake-up call at 7 a.m. It's crazy how I'm getting so much sleep but my body still feels tired.

This morning I looked at my spot at the dining table and saw a huge package addressed to me!! My lovely roommate Jennifer Marie Norton had sent me this freaking amazing care package. Stuffed with all kinds of goodies and love and time and energy. A proper thank you will be returning in form. :) The crazy thing was she sent my sweatpants! Now to anyone else that would seem uber random but the story is a) I didn't even know I was missing those sweatpants and b) I had just asked Maureen a few days ago if we could go to the thrift store sometime because I wanted to get some sweatpants since the nights were cooler than I had anticipated. As Jennifer says, thanks God! She has been such a blessing in my life and I really love her. And God is pretty much awesome too for caring about the little details :)

The house is a little on the crazy side right now. Maureen's dad is temporarily staying with the family and Maureen's sister is also here for a few days to help him get settled in. The routine has been a bit different feeding and cleaning up after 8 people.

Today after some weeding and duck-tending we set out into the shade (for awhile at least) to machete attack some avocado trees. The government (state or federal)  has been apparently cutting back the water supply in CA as well as charging more for the services so Gary has cut about 70 avocado trees down in the past few years to avoid having the trees just sit unwatered on his property. He still has dozens left on his 7 acres, but we were assisting in cutting down about 15 more today. Gary used the chainsaw to get the big branches/trunks and Jaime, Takumi and I set to macheteing off the smaller branches to get the 2 inch and larger pieces ready for a wood chipper. A few times we helped pull some of the heavy branches with a rope while Gary chainsawed them to keep the branches from falling on other important trees. The macheteing part was actually kind of fun since it was in the shade and the pieces were fairly easy to lop off. The difficult part was in hauling the pieces for the wood chipper over to a pile some distance away. Many of the pieces require two people to carry. We will probably be working on this project for a few more days.

The other interesting thing I did today was help sharpen the chainsaw blade. We used a sort of rotating circular mechanical file that requires some careful precision in applying pressure to the individual cutters to sharpen it.

I was staying in the house but am temporarily (or perhaps permanently haha) staying in the trailer with Jaime and Takumi perhaps until Maureen's sister leaves or we decide to do something else.

Also pumpkin pie for dessert tonight!! Yum yum yum yum!!!

Thanks for reading and I love you guys and miss all my friends so much!