wwoofing on Harmony Hill, Exeter, CA

So i wwoofed (world wide opportunities on organic farms http://www.wwoof.org.uk/home.html) for two weeks in september, in a bold attempt to accomplish a myriad of things: 1) get away from my over-bearing father; 2) learn some permaculture; 3) be around "hippies" (i use this term loosely, and NOT at all in the pejorative sense) and like-minded individuals; 4) milk goats; 5) feel the earth between my toes and smell the manure in the morning air; 6) meet quirky new people; 7) exchange ideas; 8) eat, drink, sleep and be merry

luckily for me, i accomplished a great many of those things: 1) i got away and was able to appreciate home for what it was even before i returned home (afterall, it is too easy to take luxuries and love for granted); 2) i saw some amazing gardens brimming with nature's bounty and discovered that jerry baker (http://www.jerrybaker.com/) is a funny guy who knows a lot about organic gardening and whisky; 3) i got to know an amazing woman and keeper of the farm/ranch, Elena Broslovsky, who once attended Pitzer College in the early1960s and has since lived a most abundant and extraordinary life (more about this later); 4) i certainly milked some lovely goats, or at least assisted in the process, since contrary to whatever popular belief circulates amongst city-slickers, it is not a piece of cake; 5) unfortuately, i did not run around barefoot, but i scooped several pounds of horse manure every morning at dawn with the morning moisture still lingering in the air. 6) oh, i met tons of quirky people and got to see small-town living in Central California. 7) ideas: harmonious living is a beautiful thing, simplicity, contentment comes from within; 8) i was, for the most, happy. spending a goodly amount of time to properly contemplate and prepare the next meal is a important exercise. for some (and a historically dwindling number), this is done daily, for others--those dwellers of a more heavily "built" society--it ought to be done occasionally, lest we forget that our breakfast does not come from the supermarket shelf or freezer section, but from the hearth of our fire and the backwoods of the country, to very loosely paraphrase Aldo Leopold.

so just randomly: i learned how to prune trees, make goat's cheese (even though i abhor goat's cheese, i still ate some of it), make all sorts of things out of prickly pear fruit (which have nasty microscopic pricks), make fig jam, cook GOOD meals, groom horses, put the saddle and bridle on a horse, pick horse crap and rocks out of horses' hooves, find live music on a saturday night, lure alpacas, chase chickens, find chicken eggs, plant garlic, hull almonds, etc.