Back in Flogsta - A Grand Day Off

Hello and salutations! It's been ages or very nearly a week that just feels like an age. Where have I been and where can I start? My days have been very full and after my last post, very much and very little has changed.

I have learned that change is inevitable. Call me blind but, I never realized. The last childhood-hopefuls inside of me have finally come to bare.

This past week and a day have changed and calmed me. I've learned a lot about myself and I've gained a new perspective of the life I've lived before. It's refreshing, terrifying, and offensive. I have the strange feeling that someday I'm going to tell my mind and it's not going to go over well. But finally I can say that I DO have a mind and an opinion and I don't feel so bashful about that anymore.

Anyway, back to the details of life on a farm. After the first few days it occurred to me: I've never really worked before. And I always considered myself strong, capable, and earthy but until you have spent consecutive days being strong, capable, and earthy, I think the truth is otherwise.

Everyday has been something new. New pains, new kinds of dirt, new smells, new flavors, new sights. Just today I planted a couple dozen egg plants in a freshly made bed (a bed being a rich parfait of dirt, horse manure, dirt, chicken-shit, and more dirt). Afterwards we sorted squash plants and then planted around 200+ out in the fields. The "we" being a freshly arrived girl from Taiwan, a sympathetic and helpful Japanese girl, a calming and joyfully gangly German girl, a Canadian Swede in spelunking boots, and me.


- Tangent.
Let me tell you, there is nothing more disgusting than a 50 pound bag of rotting carrots. Rot has a smell and vegetable rot is a unique experience. Sweet, soft, and damp in the nose - add a dash of heavy carrot and a sprinkle of mold and there! I'm elbow deep in a bag of black and orange slime, sorting carrots in a musty room with dim lighting, dusty farm cobbles underneath my feet and the squish-squish noise fresh in my ears. That has been so far the most disgusting experience for me on the farm. Oh sure, digging through horse exhaust with my hands was no picnic - nor sticking my head in the bucket of chicken shit as I reached for another hand full. But carrots! God, spare me the day when I have to see another rod of orange!

I spent a solid two days in a green house solely with tomatoes. Before we touched them, the tomato plants were HUGE, majestic plants bushing out in great imitations of a South American paradise. Then we came in and tore, snapped, and snipped our way through till only one naked vine remained per plant. We tied them up. It's hard for me to explain. I'll just post a picture, which will invariably not do it justice - I saw lines of blue and tomato plants in my sleep for days after. Did you know that your hands turn the soap suds neon yellow if you've been working with tomato plants?

Other duties have been to plant hundreds of cabbage and broccoli plants in the field. Once, it rained buckets as we did this. I was outfitted with a very attractive orange rain jacket more suitable for a very big man than me and green pants to match. I've also planted egg plant, squash of all sorts, lettuce, two more kinds of cabbage, as well as the broccoli.

A few things get me around the place - a few reasons why that even though I like the work, I don't really want to stay more than these two weeks. The place is vegetarian and that normally wouldn't bother me at all. I actually don't miss the meat in my diet except for my seeming constant lack of energy. It's the variety that gets me. We don't have fresh fruit, we are discouraged from eating the cheese ($ reasons), and I'm very tired of eating Swedish hard bread. Bread has been a great part of every meal. A bakery is attached to the kitchen and sometimes the husband will bake bread for the farm. I've had so much bread that the yeast is starting to muck with my body. Bread, tea, butter. That's the bulk of my diet. We have one meal a day "prepared by the hostess." I use quotations because she actually hasn't been doing the cooking very often at all. We have one hot meal usually consisting of carrots, beans, and potatoes. Granted it is wonderful and that one meal is like heaven on earth but for the morning and night... So food is somewhat of an issue for me. One day this past week I had time to visit the store and I bought chocolate and candy but it disappeared in two days (much to my own piggy chagrin). I also munch apples when I can buy them. Man. Sometimes I just want peanut butter or a drumstick!

The other thing is that the actual house is a mess. You will notice, as I go on, that I have several bones to pick with The Head Lady. She doesn't clean enough or at all. The bathroom for the workers is atrocious and stocked with the house's litter box for the family's two cats. I've stared at the mini-mountain of turds and watched it grow for the past four days and wondering when it will disappear or, more likely, topple out of the litter box. The trashcan is overflowing with scented hygiene products, q-tips, floss, tissue, and unmentionables. Am I getting anal in my old age? Anyway, the room has class.

Besides the Lady cruising around during the day, waving her pendant and whispering to it, and mentioning that she's so busy - as she stops to whittle at your ears - she has a good heart (I hope). She was a natural doctor, believes firmly in astrology, and was a portrait sculptor. Nowadays I think she runs more towards the term hedge witch, pendler, and meddler. They aren't harsh words for me - sometimes I feel quite fond of her. Sometimes.

Other random oddments are as follows:
1. The Japanese girl told me, as we were tying up tomato plants on top of a ladder, that I look like Tom Cruise. Somehow I find it difficult to imagine Tom Cruise tying tomato plants.
2. I have never had so many nightmares before and in color.
3. It's my personal mission to read all the Hemingway novels in the town library (undeniably few). I'm working through For Whom the Bell Tolls right now.
4. I'm also memorizing poetry. The nights are long and when we sit on the tractor to plant, I have nothing better to do than recite poetry in my mind. I would love suggestions! Please, tell me your favorite poems!

I would like to thank everyone for sending me - in the past or present - words of encouragement and love. It came from all corners and from places I hadn't expected. Time is all I have on the farm and your kind words filled my thoughts constantly. With such support, I know that anything is attainable. :)

A load of pictures are to follow! Love.