I Wanna Knit You A Sweater, Wanna Write You A Love Letter, Wanna Make You Feel Better, Wanna Make You Feel Free

Oh my gosh, Duluth is awesome! It's so full of trees and rocks and water and crashing waves and soft sand and big metal bridges and heavy log cabins and people who love music and good food. It's like visiting a whole different part of the country, and WHY on earth haven't I been there more often in my life?

Well anyway, above is a picture of Jenny (invisible in hood), Bill and Stu, as we walked downtown on the first afternoon. We worked at the farm until noon, then headed out and got to Bill's stepdad's house in Duluth about 5pm. Then a delicious dinner of chili (Bill's homemade recipe) and cornbread, then out to the sauna in the backyard (a tiny room made of cedar logs, heated by a big woodburning stove with stones on top) until we sweated out all of the week's work, and then we dove into Lake Superior to cool off. Run back to the sauna, have a drink of water, and repeat for about two hours. It was HEAVEN.

As Maddie and Julia if you want to know how the inflection sounds on that last sentence.

Then we went to a brewery and had a drink, and by that time it was midnight and I was exhausted, so I went back to the house and fell asleep under a down comforter on a very comfy carpeted floor. Slept for about ten hours (such a treat!) and woke up to the smell of french toast. Had a big breakfast of said toast and homemade maple syrup (have I mentioned how Bill and his family are into making everything from scratch?? So great.) and then went for a long walk on the beach by myself. It was the best morning I've had in a long time. Life was just perfect for those few hours, and I couldn't think of anywhere I'd rather be.

Then we visited Duluth's co-op and the Electric Fetus where I bought Blue by Joni Mitchell (yes, I know I could have gotten it from one of the many people I know who have it, but I really wanted my own hard copy. It's SUCH a good album.) and a vinyl version of Snow Patrol's album A Hundred Million Suns since Jenny was bringing her record player back from home. OH, and I saw a chocolate shop with a whole window full of covered apples!!

So we hung out on the beach for the rest of the day and then had a dinner of buffalo burgers and headed back to the farm, freshly laden with Bill's canoe, Jenny's record player, a twenty pound bag of wild rice, and a fresh sense of peace to carry into the new week. It was a superbly relaxing weekend.

But then of course the first thing I go and do this morning is get one of the Bluebird trucks stuck in the mud and have to have Mark pull it out with the tractor when he's already in a bad mood. It was a pretty terrible start to the day. But it got better! Today I harvested radishes, cleaned and bleached the packing shed to get it ready for the CSA veggies, washed lettuce, kale, spinach, cucumbers and onions, and spent the afternoon putting up fencing for the young chickens to keep them from running into the road (they'll run after any human that moves near them, even if they're in a car). I also helped turn an old horse trailer into a makeshift chicken coop, built some perches and fenced in a small area for the sick chickens to live in, since we have to move them out of the pig pen they're currently living in since the new pigs are coming on Wednesday! Poor sick chickens. At least they'll have a nice place to live while they're getting better!

Oh. And I ate rabbit today for the first time. I couldn't refuse, since Zach shot it and Ernest cooked it up with a Ghanan recipe and was so excited to have everyone try it. It would have made him really sad if I didn't have any. And you know, if I lived in the woods and needed meat I don't think I would mind having rabbit be part of my diet, but as it is I don't need the meat, and I just couldn't stop thinking about the cute little bunny it had been before it died. Rabbits are just special to me. I don't think I'll eat it again for a while, at least.

So tomorrow is another CSA day, so it'll be an early morning, and it looks like it'll probably rain for most of the day. Thankfully I finally broke and bought a pair of big rubber work boots at Fleet Farm today (adult boots cost 25 bucks, but the same boots in the kids section in size 8 only cost 15! Bet you can't guess which ones I bought...). So for now I shall finish up my cup of peppermint tea and maybe try to do some yoga before I go to bed (there's no big, clean floor space to do it here, so I've been slacking off lately).

I hope all is well with you, dear reader.