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Weekly Blog #3

Wow, I can’t believe that our third week of senior project has come to an end. This week I learned so much, and spent a countless amount of time weeding and reflecting. Most days our whole five hours of work consisted of endless weeding, and on occasion we were allowed to pick white beans and onions. I can’t say that weeding is my favorite activity on the farm since it is so mindless, and repetitive, but I can say that we made some of the best memories while weeding. When it became so hot, Cat and I, sometimes became slightly delusional. I remember getting so hot, we decided to explore the planks of metal that were suspended over a swamp, next to the row we were weeding. We wandered out on to the two by four planks of steel and started to bounce and we both assumed a, sort of, praying mantis pose, with our hands in the air, and bounced up and down laughing so hard I cried. About half way through the week, we started listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on t
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18 May 2019

Today was an awesome day! We got to sleep in until 6:15 since it was the weekend. Although we didn't have to work today, Cat and I offered to help pack Aragorn’s truck for the market this morning. It was super easy work, mostly just moving the herbs and vegetables that we picked into a cooler and then into the bed of the truck. We then headed down to the market and spent time with Aragorn at the station, and met loads of his friends and usual customers. It was super hot today, but was relaxing hanging in the shade of the tent at the market instead of weeding. We dove this afternoon at a site called Dry Rock. As the name explains, it is a series of a few large rocks sticking out of the coast of Cooper Island. Before we went diving we had ice cream from Cooper for the last time, and it was so delicious. I had coconut and chocolate. Bruce was there, per usual, and some others divers. I saw a baby trunkfish and it was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. It was the classic pea si
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17 May 2019

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Today was our last day working on the farm. I thought I would be relieved, after we finished, but it felt bittersweet. Even though the time passed slowly while we were working, and it was typically very hot, I really enjoyed my time with Cat. Our time together was super fun since we were able to be super goofy with each other and get to know Drake. I don't think I'm going to miss the weeding though. This morning I made our usual scrambled eggs for breakfast, and we headed to work at 5:45. We started off the day, weeding, and listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. About an hour late, thankfully Drake told us that we could do something else if we wanted, so we spent about an hour picking Mint and Basil to prepare for the market tomorrow. After that we weeded some more until we were given another job. Drake told us that we needed to rinse out and move 50 cinder blocks, for who knows what. That was our last task before our five hours were up, which was good since i
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16 May 2019

We woke up at the usual 5:30, and surprisingly it's not that bad waking up so early. It is already light and warm outside so it almost feels like 8:00. Also we go to bed super early so I feel well rested. Continuing our left over work from yesterday, Cat and I started weeding, ughhh. The morning started off quite cool and it even sprinkled for a moment. Bonding over our love for Harry Potter, we decided it would be a good idea to listen to one of the book while we worked to make it go faster. It totally worked, and was especially nice when it got really hot in the mid morning since today we weeded for 5 hours straight. After work, we spent two hours eating lunch, showering, and relaxing before heading to the beach. Our cat, Good Cat, brought a half live lizard while we were relaxing after lunch, but I guess that just seems to be normal these days. Thanks to a recommendation from Zante, Aragorn's son, we headed to a new beach, Josiah's Bay, and it was absolutely beautiful. T
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15 May 2019

It was extremely hot here today. Even though it seems to hover around the same temperature, 83 or 84ish degrees Fahrenheit here all the time, today felt like it was so much hotter than usual. Getting a start at 5:45 as usual we started by weeding the bed we didn't finish yesterday. Thankfully some of it was in the shade, but it hadn't been during the hot part of the day :(. Cat and I thought we would be weeding all day, or at least cleaning some spring onions, like yesterday, but we took it upon ourselves to notice that some of the white beans had dried and we escaped to pick those. This took us an hour and twenty minutes since we couldn't move to quickly in the heat. While picking the beans Cat discovered that there was an avocado tree on the farm but they wouldn't be ripe until September or October. After that, sadly, we went back to weeding and the full heat of the day had kicked in. Drake, noticing that we were melting, offered the job of bagging the peppers he had
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14 May 2019

We started our day with a wake up at 5:30 to continue our weeding on the farm so that we could be done with our five hours before it got hot. Stating at 6:00, we were up and working before Drake. We weeded, continuing the bed that we had not finished from yesterday, until 8AM excepting that we would be weeding. Cat and I had a genius idea to find buckets to sit on and scoot along as we weeded so the squatting and bending over for five hours wouldn't hurt as much. Drake wandered up the hill and let us know that if we wanted to, we would start picking the green onions and cleaning them. I learned quickly that it is important when pulling them out of the ground not to stick the hand fork to close to the onions or I would stab them and damage them. Once we dug up multiple bunches Cat and I headed over to a large tub in the shade, bringing our seat buckets of course, to start cleaning them. First we had to pull the roots apart from each other and rinse the mud out of them. Then, you hav
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13 May 2019

Today we woke up at 5:30 get ready for our work on the farm which we would start at 5:45. Even though that sounds early, it is already bright and warm here, at that time, and the roosters have long been awake and lively. Like usual Cat and I started our weeding early so that we would be able to be done in two and a half or three hours before it got too hot. The weeding is getting easier as we acclimate to the heat and mindlessly picking grass for hours, but when the three hour mark we checked in with Drake and he told us to just keep weeding because there is nothing else to do right now. A few minutes later, after we got over our disappointment that we would be weeding all morning, Drake brought us some fresh mango to snack on. It was so delicious and fresh tasting. This afternoon Cat and I went diving, and ended up diving the wreck, Fearless, a site we had been to previously. Despite that, I still enjoyed it, and Cat pointed out a baby trunkfish to me. It was not the tiny juvenile th
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