Saturday, May 20, 2006

Where's the chickens?

Yeah, so I went over to the garden tonight. There are invasive weeds all over the place. I checked on the birds and there don't seem to be any chickens. I tried to fix the plastic that is over the ducks' cage, and to work on cleaning out their ridiculous water containers. What a mess. The ducks seemed really... needy, like they wanted me to feed them or something. There was some bread left on the bottom of the cage. I don't know why-- we're not supposed to leave bread there cuz they'll eat it instead of their feed, and they'll get all malnourished and die. Fucking idiots.

So there is an egg in the chicken coop. No idea if it's from a chicken or a duck, or how long it's been there. Fucking asses.

And there are no chickens!! I called Terri Compost, and she was like, well, i guess they (the kids) took them somewhere. Uh, process?

Not sure if the person who has been doing most of the nanimal feeding and plant watering has left town yet or not. He might have.

At least I got to see something awesome: part of this movie 10.5 Apocalypse or something, where the golden gate bridge breaks apart and falls into the water. It was really well-done, seeming all realistic. I just love the view down there at the base of the bridge on a sunny day, with the sky all blue and the bridge all red, and the water all blue, and the breeze...

That garden is so awful.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Another great visit to Davis and the farm

Shelley and grains
Started on Monday night:
I went to Davis on Saturday and just came back this evening. It was such a great visit. Chris and I went to the Whole Earth Festival on Saturday. We met a woman who has a small organic farm in their "neighborhood." They had even noticed her garden before. Her farm is called Full Circle Farm. She kind of has less planted than they do, but she's got a double-wide, interns, and a CSA. So I am excited that they will get to network with her.

Then Chris and I worked on my bike and I got to pet kitty cats. I almost got to go to a Sacramento IMC meeting, but hooking up with bianca was not happening, and she was going to stay out till all hours and I didn't want to do that. Anyhow, I got to look around at their old garden there, and then we went back to their apartment for cocktails and dinner preparation. Shelley and Herman got home at like 11:30 for dinner. That's after her bedtime! But it's how it is, a lot of days.

On Sunday we went grocery shopping. We took the route that goes through Utopian Village (Village Homes), and I almost cried when I was looking at their gardens. Their chickens were panting because of the heat, and I think they probably didn't have any water. We went back home and shared the news that the local grocery store is going to be closing while we made breakfast. Then after hanging out for a while longer, we went to the land (me, Shelley, and Chris), via the gas station. I tried to take a picture of the low gas warning in the car- I hope it came out, cuz it will be good for my peak oil blog.

Let me tell you for a minute how much i love it out there. The heat, the plants, the quiet (even in their apartment complex it is mostly quiet), the farmland, biking in Davis...I love it all.

So at the farm we hung out and drank juice while we acclimated ourselves to the sun and heat, and then went for a tour. Some of their newer trees are having trouble getting used to their new homes. Chris had told me about the weeds, but I got to really see for myself -- they have a shitload of weeds! And they are really, really hard to pull out! They are losing some lettuce because the bed they are in is so overgrown. They have more food out there than I thought, though-- young onions and garlic (sometimes these need thinning, or are starting to go to seed, so they pick those for din-dins), fava beans, peas, and like I said, the leafy green veggies. They've got some herbs that are trying to establish themselves. The wild mustard on the levee has all gone to seed and so two edges of the property have all these 6' tall plants with beautiful yellow flowers.

So it was all wonderful. We went home and ate fava beans and buckwheat with fresh onion and garlic and hung out and whatnot. Went to bed late, late, late, (the davis water does not agree with my hair!). I had a really hard time getting up on Monday, and I realized as the day went on that it was because i was getting sick. I've been sick all week now. Chris and I came up with a plan for a little house that we can build for me.

I biked back to the train station all by myself, with some awesome veggies from the farm. I was so inspired when I got home that I went over to the ridiculous community garden. It was...interesting. Things are green, which is good.

Ok, goodnight.