On a Sunny Wednesday

Hi All! Happy Wednesday and Happy Birthday Derek!

This morning has been relaxing, it is beautiful outside and our day off! Yesterday, Tuesday, we harvested spinach and lettuce and did some weeding. With the summer solstice approaching we suspect spinach harvests will come to an end. I learned to use a weed-wacker (or a weed-whip as they refer to them here)! They are much harder to use than expected and my end result was somewhat uneven, but it was fun and a goods skill to learn. In the afternoon, some interns planted various types of melons and others went on thistle patrol. Thistle is a noxious weed and a general pain in the ass. We must thistle patrol the pastures because if the state sees that we are not keeping up with managing them, they can legally spray our fields. This would seriously conflict with our non-certified organic practices. Anyway, last night we went into Fort Collins! We went to Everyday Joes, a coffee shop, which is graciously hosting the Fort Collins Food Co-Op's film series for the summer. We watched Big River, a short follow up to the movie King Corn. After the movie we went to the Goodwill! Apparently Fort Collins has a thriving market for second hand stores and is home to some of the best thrift stores in the area! Yippeee!

Happy Cows

Monday was a very interesting day. We spent the day down in the permaculture garden. This pet project of Patrick's involves the entire communities compost, the chickens hard at work, lots of worms and microbial activity in the soil and specially designed gardens which help with water retention and maintaining the health of the soil. Permaculture design is something I hope to learn more about and apply to my eventual home garden.
I forgot to mention that on Sunday we walked up to the Rimrocks across from the property. They are beautiful and the view is even better!


Garden as seen from the Rimrocks

I have been thinking about something we mentioned in my OT (occupational therapy) lab class. We were discussing general hand strength (pinch and grip etc.). There are tools OTs use to measure each of these (to gauge baseline and improvements in strength) and they come with norm figures for what is "typical". My instructor was saying these figures are not so relevant anymore and that if a client is below the average not to be too concerned. The changes in occupation (factory worker and farmer vs. desk jobs) have decreased people's overall hand strength. I have experiences this first hand (no pun intended). My hands and forearms have been the most sore part of my body. The weeding, hand tools, weed-wacker have all increased my hand strength. Bring on the dynamometer!!

Dave and I are off to begin our garden in the space outside of the trailer (yes on our day off we will be gardening), we are also preparing breakfast as we are hosting the classroom session tomorrow! The class is on the ethics of eating animals. More to come on that front soon!

-A