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Hello from California!

2013 February 14
by dena

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This is Mak saying HELLO FROM CALIFORNIA! (I AM YELLING SO YOU CAN HEAR ME IN HOUSTON). I am spending a month WWOOFing on an organic farm/homestead. What is WWOOFing? It stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. I live for free in exchange for ~6 hours of work during the week. It’s been a whirlwind couple of days getting settled but I am finally starting to get the swing of things. I am only a little homesick…travelling is fun but I think being home is the best!

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The farm is located on 3.5 acres of beautiful southern california property. I am here with a girl from Britain and we share a bunk room in the barn. We get up at 7 to start our chores: feeding the horses, goats, and chickens, sweeping the porch, and cleaning up after the animals. We have breakfast at 8:30 or 9:00. After we eat, we start on our work for the day. Sometimes it involves riding the horses, sometimes it’s weeding the gardens, or maybe even chopping up kindling for the fire.

P1000037We eat very very very well here. Above, you can see a picture of some of the gardens. There is not much produce from the gardens right now, but I think a lot of the vegetables we eat are local. We eat yard eggs and drink fresh goats milk. Most of the meals are made largely from vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. We also get very fresh meat from neighboring farms who take good care of their animals. I know a lot of yall are radical vegans/vegetarians…but man, it’s good meat.

P1000040We have the afternoons off and can amuse ourselves around the farm. I thought I would run out of things to do here but the speed of life is so laid back! We finish our meal around 2:30 and then I leisurely stroll down to get my books, computer, etc from the bunk house. I draw, read, work on zines, check my emails, and do a little yoga. The sun sets around 5:30 and we’re in bed around 9:00! I definitely definitely definitely love Houston and miss the speed of life there, but this is a nice change.

P1000036Travelling is fun but also kind of scary and lonely. Sometimes I start to wonder what I’m doing here or why I thought this would be a good idea, especially when I start getting homesick. However, I’ve already been learning a lot of things: that there’s so much more to life then graduating, getting a good job, and settling down. That there is nothing wrong with being idle and resting. That a day of honest work does the soul good. That the world is full of so many different people living so many different types of lifestyles. That I can trust the people who love me to keep on loving me even when I am away. What is a month anyway when everything is relative?

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I love the chickens. They are EVERYWHERE and they lay eggs wherever they can. I have never seen such beautiful eggs: the yolks are ORANGE!

If you want to drop me a line, you can e-mail me at makm103 at gmail.com. I don’t have cellphone service but I do have my google voice set up so I can receive texts at that number when I am by the main house. You can email me to get that number.

MUCH LOVE AND SEE YOU SOON, HOUSTON

MAK

 

 

2 Responses leave one →
  1. Cobb permalink
    February 15, 2013

    Much love from Houston! Enjoy yoself.

    Have you tried AEIOU(Y!) with bunkmate?

    • Dena and Makenzie permalink*
      February 16, 2013

      had not thought about that ! will have to try

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