I had a wonderful 3 weeks in North Idaho and have started to make the way to Solway, MN. I write from a Super 8 smoking room in Jamestown, ND.
While I was in Idaho, I was able to help the family with many projects and learn new skills. The family was great...kind, hospitable, and great conversationalists. The parents are a bit anarchistic and rebellious, having spent their formative years in the 60's, but they have a son that is polite and responsible. They joked that this was a purposeful component of their parenting style. We had dinner together every night and the conversation would revolve around books, philosophy, politics, technology (the parents don't think computers have added much value to life), organics, etc.
I weeded, pruned, watered, raked, transplanted plants, hauled and placed woodchips, and organically fertilized vegetables. The mom is the primary caretaker of the gardens (both the greenhouse plants and the outside garden). All kinds of vegetables, fruits, and flowers were cultivated.
I also helped around their homestead and at their welding shop (they make mounts for solar panels).
Learned:
-How to varnish (Evidently, I am an excellent varnisher and could consider a new career in varnishing).
-That crushed dead fish (fish emulsion) make excellent organic fertilizer. However, gates must be kept on the garden because other varmints smell the fish and come.
-How to use bolts and a strap to carry items using a forklift.
-Comfort in a canoe, while shooting bullfrogs.
-Plucking the wilting flowers off some plants allows the plants to put out more flowers and continually bloom through the summer.
-A Japanese woman who previously volunteered there misunderstood the directions for trimming the raspberry plants by cutting every single leaf off the plants. However, the plants will put out their best crop ever this year so the couple is thinking the Japanese woman may have secretly known what she was doing.
I saw on their homestead 3 moose, 1 muskrat, many turtles, frogs, and ducks, mole hills that popped up every other day, bumblebees and other bees, and heard the howling of a coyote.
While I was in Idaho, I was able to help the family with many projects and learn new skills. The family was great...kind, hospitable, and great conversationalists. The parents are a bit anarchistic and rebellious, having spent their formative years in the 60's, but they have a son that is polite and responsible. They joked that this was a purposeful component of their parenting style. We had dinner together every night and the conversation would revolve around books, philosophy, politics, technology (the parents don't think computers have added much value to life), organics, etc.
I weeded, pruned, watered, raked, transplanted plants, hauled and placed woodchips, and organically fertilized vegetables. The mom is the primary caretaker of the gardens (both the greenhouse plants and the outside garden). All kinds of vegetables, fruits, and flowers were cultivated.
I also helped around their homestead and at their welding shop (they make mounts for solar panels).
Learned:
-How to varnish (Evidently, I am an excellent varnisher and could consider a new career in varnishing).
-That crushed dead fish (fish emulsion) make excellent organic fertilizer. However, gates must be kept on the garden because other varmints smell the fish and come.
-How to use bolts and a strap to carry items using a forklift.
-Comfort in a canoe, while shooting bullfrogs.
-Plucking the wilting flowers off some plants allows the plants to put out more flowers and continually bloom through the summer.
-A Japanese woman who previously volunteered there misunderstood the directions for trimming the raspberry plants by cutting every single leaf off the plants. However, the plants will put out their best crop ever this year so the couple is thinking the Japanese woman may have secretly known what she was doing.
I saw on their homestead 3 moose, 1 muskrat, many turtles, frogs, and ducks, mole hills that popped up every other day, bumblebees and other bees, and heard the howling of a coyote.
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