And so my first week at Side by Side is finished. I'm sore - sometimes when I stand up I feel like my legs have aged forty years. I have bug bites on my back. My fingernails are neglected. The backs of my arms have two rosy spots of sunburn.
I've weeded, planted, started seeds, started mushrooms (super easy, just so you know), let chickens out for the morning, helped to herd escaped donkey's back into their pasture, watered, run a wheel hoe, been show how to identify weeds, put signs out for market, eaten carrots straight out of the ground (real baby carrots), seen how the water system works on the farm...Every day for the rest of the summer I know I'll learn something new.
It's just Devin and I, out in the fields. Right now he has no other workers. We talk as we work and I've found he's an incredibly knowledgable and enthusiastic person, about all manner of things. He seems to be a natural teacher - he's very patient and is always willing to explain things, to let me get my hands dirty (literally).
Devin left it open everyday this past week and he said it out right too: if I ever felt that this wasn't the thing for me I was welcome to say so and be done. But that's not going to happen. I intend to keep going. He's absolutely right; it is hard work. Still, it's hard work that is worth it - for me, for him, for the shareholders, for the land.
Very soon there will be coming posts about other subjects too though: reading and cooking are mainly what I have in mind at the moment. Keep your eyes peeled, as they say.
(Above are the farm's "upstairs" fields and greenhouses. The blue truck is now a shed.)
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