los montanas - the mountains

Rita, Wes and Toby came to visit last week. They have been anticipating this trip for almost a year - dreaming about all there is to do in the Pacific Northwest. Their vacation required stamina, determination, and not a whole lot of down time. I was happy to join them for a whirlwind tour of Mt Rainer, Mt St Helens, and the lovely city of Portland.

Rainer can be seen from Bush Point beach, where I live, creating a sense of close proximity. But when all the hours of travel are summed up, it takes about four hours to get to Rainer National Park from Whidbey Island. We had a beautifully hot summer day to tour the park. A perfect day for travel, best noted by the hordes of visitors who were driving the same roads we were and stopping at the same pullouts we intended to stop at.

After flying through Rainer National Park we headed across the back roads of Washington State to get a view of Mt St Helens. After a few hours drive we were tragically disappointed to find that two years ago a flood had washed out the road to Spirit Lake (where we were headed). So we had to settle with a view of the mountain, but no real view of the total devestation created by the volcanic eruption of 1980. Blast!!

Portland was a great place to end up, though. And we had fun touring the street market, the parks, the river, the country's largest used bookstore and the eateries. I can't wait for my next trip to Portland.

Year of the Bird

The year of the bird continues for me in 2008. Besides the fact that a bird landed on my back while I was harvesting lavender a few weeks ago, creating a weird scratching sensation on my back, I have had close encounters with a nest of barn swallows that have made their home above Sarah and Rick's front door. It has been fun watching the momma and papa bird build the nest, sit on the eggs, feed the fledglings. And the loud, and quite demanding, chirping of the babies as the momma and papa spend all day catching insects and feeding the hungry mouths. It was a monumental day when the three surviving babies took their first flight, and I was there to witness it. Since that day the babies don't come back to the nest that often, but upon occasion I see three sets of beady eyes looking down at me as I am coming or going from the house. They remind me of 25 year olds that aren't ready to face the world quite yet. Still benefiting from their parents hard work.

Life is fascinating.

Lavender Lovers Unite

Part of the reason for my blogging tardiness is due to the annual "event" at Lavender Wind Farm known as the Lavender & Wind Art Festival. Since beginning my job on the farm in February, a group of people have been meeting every month to plan this August event. I initially thought this seven month in advance team meeting a bit premature, but amazingly the time disappeared somewhere between February and August.

My duties for preparing to host possibly thousands of people from the Washington area included: weeding, harvesting, watering, and the like.









Other staffers were in charge of making products, planning and ordering food for the fundraising tent, reserving chairs, glasses and the like, committing musicians for two hour time slots.

The event came and went, the first weekend of August and was a whirlwind of activity on the farm. Musicians, artist booths, beer & wine tent. An insane number of people wandered the grounds, filling our shop, buying lavender plants, browsing the artist's tents. It was a weekend of sunshine, smiles, and adrenaline (at least for the six of us farm staff).

And now maybe my life can resume some sort of orderliness. Right...

life in fast forward

The month of July flew by, it started out with a much anticipated visit from Calli and it ended with an equally anticipated trip to Lake Tahoe for Megan and Chad's wedding.

And then all of a sudden it is August 7th already. What in the world?

A few noteworthy events:

• a bird landed on my back as I was harvesting lavender yesterday, I must have seemed like a very strange colored bush, maybe?
• the acronym NADM stands for National Association of Diesel Motorsports
• Gretchen, a friend from IWU (whom I haven't seen since 2001), visited me last weekend
• lavender beer tastes decent, if you can believe it
• i harvested my first cucumber

Thanks, the library is closing, must go. More later friends!

the best and the worst

You know most people have at least one friend who has seen them at their best and their worst and has amazingly decided to continue being their friend. This is the best kind of friend. A friend who knows you when you are fun and somewhat funny, and a friend who knows you when you are in pain, complaining, and smelling like rotten vegetables. That is who Megan is to me.

We met playing softball against each other in college. She was an all-American catcher for the Bethel Pilots, and I was the goofy, left-handed second baseman for the Indiana Wesleyan Wildcats. We were conference rivals and competed against each other for four years. My second year in college I noticed that there were a core group of Bethel softballers who were always having way more fun than anyone else and , true to form, I wanted to know them. And that is where it started.

Both Megan and I graduated with teaching degrees, she moved to South Bend, Indiana to teach Special Education and I moved to North Carolina to teach eighth grade science. Midway through my first year of teaching, she called me up and asked if I wanted to take a road trip to Montana during summer break. I couldn't think of anything more fun, and so our annual backpacking trips began with a whirlwind trip out west.

We learned a lot about each other on that trip, marveled at sights every American should see (Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, the Black Hills), and at trips end realized we had never actually made it to Montana.

Four years later, Megan and I walked the 2,174.6 miles of the Appalachian Trail. We started it together, we finished it together. Believe me, she has seen the worst of me, not to mention smelled me at my worst. She has witnessed me cry and rage and pout and whine. And through it all she was right there, never far.

And so this weekend I found myself in Lake Tahoe, California at Megan's wedding. Celebrating life, her life, what it is and what it will be. I adore her husband, Chad, and am looking forward to sharing life with them.

Megan and her father head down the aisle Friday, July 25.

Some memories of Megan:

• hearing her belches from the visitors dugout when she was warming up a pitcher in the bull pen
• helping her move her stuff out of a flea infested basement apartment
• horseback riding on the postman's horse in Andover, ME
• oozing, infected, silver dollar size blisters and the numerous emergency room trips
• hitch hiking halfway across the country to get home for her mom's birthday
• sharing a cigar and champagne at the top of Mt. Katahdin, the last stop on the Appalachian Trail

My life would be very different if Megan and I weren't friends. I hate to think about it. So here's to friends who have seen you at your worst!

Maddie's Gift

Maddie drew me a very cool picture of Bailey and I, for my birthday. So I wanted to post a picture of Bailey appreciating the work of art. She loved it.

mid-July rush

It has been a busy few weeks. I'm sharing space with Dean and Suzie the rest of the month, it's harvest time on the farm, the weeds still grow, the plants still need watered. And, I ate my first Dungeness Crab (the local crustacean) last night for a belated birthday feast. Thursday I leave for Lake Tahoe, California for a mini vacation to celebrate Megan's wedding.

Since nearly all of my vegie seeds were free this year, I couldn't be choosy. Thus the purple and white carrots. I love the purple carrots, they are so cool sliced in discs. Their inside is orange like a normal carrot, but the outside is deep purple. They look like little bulls eyes.

I plucked my first garlic from the garden. Again, I was a bit hasty, it wasn't at full maturation, but it still tasted good in my stir fry.

Harvesting lavender makes all the rest of the work around the farm worth it. It smells great, the bees are buzzing around all happy and full of pollen (except that one time when the swarmed me and attacked me), all the visitors are enthralled with the process. It's a happy place to work.

Here is Mr. Crab who graciously sacrificed his life for my birthday feast. I watched Suzie gut her crab and then she passed the torch to me. My crab, my gut job. Nasty business, but not as nasty as filleting a fish, I say.

a needed vacation

Calli has been visiting since Wednesday, we've been traveling the island doing usual and unusual things. I told her the other day that I was glad she came for a visit so I could take a vacation. My life has been most frequently run by work. Work at home, work at work, and work after work. Makes for a slow-building frustration of sorts. I'm not one to get stressed out that easily, but I was definitely feeling overwhelmed. And I know that I am on the verge of the same for the rest of the summer, as soon as Calli flies eastward on Monday. But for today, I'm going to just chill.

Thursday, Calli volunteered at Lavender Wind Farm while I worked. We were able to harvest fresh bunches of lavender in the morning before lunch and hoe weeds in the field after lunch. A fun and educational day, I think. Above, she is learning how to bind lavender bunches with rubber bands for drying. We were able to try some lavender ice cream at the end of our work day. I chose a blackberry lavender ice cream sandwich, while Calli decided a vanilla lavender sandwich worked for her.

On a quite different note: I was wondering why the daisies looked distressed. Can you figure it out? Might be time for some more beer. Toasting time!

Two different beasts here, can you believe it? Amazing!

living in the margins

Organisms that live in tidal zones are some of the most adaptable creatures on earth. Their life is split into surviving the abrupt polar changes from life under water to life without the cover of the sea. And when you stumble upon these survivors, it is a peek into the incredible.

too many anemones to count out there

three happy sea cucumbers - a Chinese delicacy, I'm told
a ginormous starfish hanging on for dear life

on being 30

I've been in my 30th year for six whole days so far and it sure feels like something, I'm just not quite sure what. Wait...I know what it feels like. It feels just like 29, which felt like 25. Whew, that's cool. I was afraid it was going to feel old. But it doesn't, it just sounds old. And I can deal with that.


A few things that I've learned in my 30 years of life:

• when it thunders it is only a matter of time before the light follows
• friendliness is contagious, except in extremely rare cases, in which case you should flee, because grumpiness is contagious also
• the "wait and see" theory is boring, I prefer to live by the "go and learn" theory (of which may not be a theory at all, I just made it up)
• acquiring new skills requires risk, patience and humility
• friends are not a dime a dozen, so cherish those you have
• my actions do matter (to others, to the earth, to God)
• time will not wait on you, so don't wait on it
• I am a unique individual so it is okay if others think I'm weird
• and most recently - feed the soil and reap the abundance
• don't be afraid to change and grow

Of course, I've learned much more in the 30 years and six days of moments that have been stitched together to yield my life. But if I was to record all that I've learned in life I'd still be sitting here next year typing away. So this condensed list will have to do, I suppose.

Life is a blessing. My personal suggestion is to "live it".