Its been 5 months...

And I would like to start blogging again.

Since December many things have happened, for instance, The Winter. Capital T capital W. Coldest 5 months of my life. well the last two haven't been so bad but Dec-Mar were brutal.

Currently its 81 degrees and I just planted peas, radishes, and swiss chard. Time flies.

Other things that have happened:
I have gained 15 pounds living here

I live alone for the first time in my life. And love it.

I've become socially awkward from such Glendivian social isolation and don't really know how to interact with people my own age

I'm sick of the prairie

I have eaten chicken fried steak

I have tried to start a farm to school program

I have successfully grown beautiful spinach for the last 6 months

Did I mention the weight gain? This plays out into general bodily well being, or the lack thereof, like sitting down stretches me out these days. Welcome to a year in fried food america.


As for my work at Farm to Table, I'm somewhat disillusioned although many delicious greens are coming up in my hoop house, I'm helping build another one, I've got hundreds of transplants in the basement that I started and the farmers market is starting in a couple weeks.

And the weather is lovely. Things are on the up and up

Listening to Jess play my banjo in the kitchen - of course she's never played the banjo before but that doesn't stop her from picking it up and immediately strumming away, clinking plucking dinging in a way I have never been able to even after a year. Some people are just talented.

Monday morning meeting: lasted for over an hour as Bruce, Peggy, Erin, Jess and I gushed ideas and talked about the future and exciting things while we tried to talk about what we were doing for the rest of the week...picking raspberries early tomorrow!

Weeded onions at Alvin's in the morning, the field had been irrigated so at least the weeds were easy to pull up. The onions are in the most serious trouble - last week Bruce said he was just going to "spray em with roundup" and I convinced him to let me weed them instead. Alvin came by and showed me how to set up the irrigation channel for the millet and we moved the irrigation dams and fixed the channels. I like him. a lot. He couldn't help but continue our political gush-session from friday and started in on reagan again

"..aw man, them republicans, they were smart to pick that Reagan, I mean OH BOY he was a poster child"

and then I told him about the Eat-In school lunch campaign I'm going to start (via Josh Viertel, Slow Food because he asked me to and their campaign was missing Montana and he kind of guilted me into it...in the best of ways I'm sure) and Alvin leans over to me and whispers, even though we are in the middle of millet field in the middle of nowhere.."I know who you can talk to on the legislature in town...a little secret, 95% of the courthouse is on OUR side" and he winks. Yes, I really like him.

After lunch I worked on getting together the Eat-In and brainstorming about what it would entail, watered the sweet potatoes at the community garden and weeded the other potatoes and then I started making/painting a huge "welcome" sign for the community garden. It's kind of ugly...yellow and purple...but we have all this free paint in the basement and I just got so excited to use it and and and...

Some exciting things that happened today:

Jess and I got our food stamp cards and we each have about $120 EACH to spend on food a month. omgomgomgomgomomg

I got my health insurance card

I got reimbursed by Americorps AND my first stipend (aka I feel richer than I have in MONTHS)

Jess made me go on a wild goose chase after work today...let's just say we ended up at a pet store/adult entertainment store/head shop in a trailer park. Kind of scary. Definitely smelly.

Peggy, our boss, invited Jess and I to her LAKE HOUSE this friday. omg. We're going. Obviously.

Jess is making fried rice because we were craving chinese food and just couldn't let ourselves do it so we'll see how this vegan version turns out, it'll be no Ollie's but a girl can dream.