flu, electrical problems, and lousy orientation

In France I have somehow morphed into a damsel in distress!

It all began with my couchsurfing request. Last minute, desperate, so appreciative when Thibault said it was alright for me to stay on his couch for 2 days. I arrived Thursday afternoon (late, because my plane was delayed) in Paris and took the metro to Montmartre where Thibault's flat was located. Also the location that most of Amelie was shot in and around, so for those of you not already familiar - extremely picturesque!! It was cold and rainy and I was feeling exhausted already when I arrived, but I explored the city with Thibault's other couchsurfer Gaelo for a little while and it was as beautiful as I imagined it would be, maybe more so. It looks like every amazingly perfect photo and movie you've ever seen shot in Paris.

Next day, Halloween. Gaelo had the only spare key, so we agreed to meet at 5 o'clock and go to the Louvre. I wandered around Montmartre, explored the beautiful cemetary, spent a long brunch at a cafe.. Word of advice - if you're not feeling 100%, don't eat a croque monsieur and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes in the rain. By the time I got to the gorgeous old Shakespeare and Company bookstore, I kind of felt like I wanted to lie down and die. I perked up a little watching the british hipsters working there carving pumpkins and listening to the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack.

I halfheartedly went sightseeing for a bit longer, finally ending up at Notre Dame, where I wandered in an appreciative daze for a while. Then when I finally sat down, with the big beautiful organ music and the murmur of tourist babble in many foreign languages enveloping me, I realized that I was really not well, and probably needed to lie down as soon as possible. So I sat for 2 hours in the cathedral, kind of floating in and out of consciousness, and it wasn't a wholly unpleasant experience.
When it was finally 5 o'clock, I met Gaelo, canceled our Louvre appt, went back to Thibault's were he was preparing a dinner party for his friends and crept into my bed with all my clothes on and passed out for hours, waking up from time to time to puke. What a scary halloween indeed!!

The next day, Thibault was leaving early to catch a flight, so I had to leave early with all my bags. I was weak and dehydrated and as I lugged my heavy bags across the city to the luggage lockers at Gare Montparnasse, I vowed to never travel again (or at least not bring any luggage).

Amused myself around Paris til 5 o'clock when I went to catch my train. Got on safe and sound, but then - disaster! After 10 minutes the train stopped and there were all sorts of announcements in French, of which I understood only completely non-vital words. Sitting next to me was a really sweet little 19 year old veterinary student named Yun, who thankfully translated that we were having electrical problems and would be delayed indefinitely.
Eventually after many hours it was clear that I would be missing my connecting coach from Le Mans to the tiny town of La Fleche where I was then going to be picked up by my wwoof host Joyce. Yun was more concerned than me, seemingly, and insisted I use his cell phone to call her. But of course, I look in my bag only to realize I misplaced it. How handy!! So Yun called his friend and had him look up the website and get her number, and then of course he let me call her, and she was already back from trying to pick me up at the station by then, and was really flustered. I ended up taking the train to the small city of Angers and spending the night in the Citotel L'Universe next to the train station, where Joyce would pick me up in the morning. Excitement!

Then of course I only had like an hour to explore Angers in the morning before I got picked up. It's an extremely beautiful city with an old chateau and a big cathedral and little windy cobblestone streets. So lovely. I glanced at the map in the hotel, and happily wandered off, nibbling a croissant and sipping a cafe creme and snapping photos. I thought I was looping in a large circle, but somewhere along the way I stopped paying attention for a few blocks, and after 40 minutes of walking I was totally and utterly lost. I stayed lost even after checking the map at a bus stop, and finally had to ask directions. I asked this incredibly beautiful man who looked like a more rugged frenchier version of Colin Farrell, with a pony tail, rolling a cigarette on the hood of his car. His response was a very concerned "oh la la" (for real!) when I said I was looking for the train station. He showed me on a map and it was ridiculously far. So, he offered to take me there. Now, I know you're not supposed to get in cars with strange hot french men in unfamiliar cities, but it seemed wiser than getting myself more lost, and I was secretly hoping he'd kidnap me anyways! hah. No such luck. He didn't really speak much English, but I gathered that he was a dentist originally from La Rochelle, which was a much more beautiful city on the Atlantic Coast. Why don't dentists look like him in New York? Anyways, I sadly did not get kidnapped, he just drove me to my destination and I was rescued for like the 80 billionth time this trip. What a wimp I'm becoming!















So now I am living at La Bresnadiere, a beautiful tiny farm in Fougere, in the Loire Valley. Along with Virginia, the other wwoofer, I cut back like 8 bramble patches and cleared 5 wheelbarrows full of donkey poo from Poppy the donkey's big pasture. Virginia is leaving tomorrow, and it'll be hard to follow in her footsteps because she's reeeeally wonderful. Smart and sweet and helpful and Joyce has totally bonded with her. It's always a little awkward to be the unfavored new wwoofer. But, I think I'll like it here! Sooner or later, I have to figure out what happens next. Where do I go? What do I do? Damned if I know.

Time Racing By

I can't believe I'm already leaving Ytre Lygra tomorrow! Ack. I've gotten really comfortable here. In fact, it's going to be totally surreal being back in a city surrounded by unfamiliar faces. I'm heading to Bergen tomorrow for a couple of days. Erik and Annette were so sweet, they called their good friend who has a flat there and arranged for me to stay on his couch. AND we're baking fresh bread today, which they are insisting I take a loaf of to hold me over so I'm not just eating crap for the next week of traveling. I've been so spoiled, eating the most delicious meals every day, with only the freshest most organic ingredients, there's no way I can continue this while on my own in the city! I think I might go on a coffee and bread fast. I mentioned that to Erik and he shook his head in misery (serious body pollution, hah).

Well, shall I give a brief overview of the fun times I've had here? It was a rough start, because it was so different from the life I was leading before, but honestly I think I've been happier here than I've been for a really long time. Maybe years. Just to be living with two really positive and sincere and healthy happy people who have created their own beautiful life here... it's a nice influence, I think. I finally uploaded photos. Chantelle (the awesome Aussie wwoofer who left yesterday and I miss already) took many photos of me as well, which is sooooo nice, because I never have photos of myself since I'm always behind the camera.

Here is the lovely Dina.. all 550lbs of her. She is massive and has monsterous teeth, but she's sweet and gentle and just likes to be cuddled (Chantelle has nicknamed her Cuddlebunny).

And here is Chantelle on the swing in Johan's barn. We go there to feed Erik's sheep that are waiting for the slaughtery. Depressing maybe, but the swing is quite fun!

And now, speaking of which, I actually have to go feed those little sheepies. This has taken too long. Wish me luck in Bergen! I will be there for 2 days, then Oslo for 4 days, then a flight to Paris and on to the Loire Valley where I will be helping a woman named Joyce with her B&B farm. It looks really beautiful. Also extremely different from where I have been. Another period of adjusting! Maybe I will be used to it by now though.

Fiskemannen

Well, of course I am now so far behind in my blogging that it's impossible to fill in all the missing pieces of my experience in Lygra so far.
By now, I have been here for half a month, so I am feeling quite comfortable. It's always once I seem to get used to being in a place that I have to start thinking about leaving it and moving on to the next. I have about another 10 days here, so I don't have to worry about leaving yet I guess, but still...
I finalized some plans for a farm in the Loire Valley in France next month. I hope to spend a few days in Paris as well. I keep thinking about what I will do when I get home eventually though, since that time is slowly approaching. In some ways it's nice that I don't really have a home or job right now to come back to, because it means I can start over pretty much anywhere I want. On the other hand though, I know I am going to want some stability and the chance to start my own life as soon as I am back home, and I still can't decide whether I want to do that in NYC again or not.

Anyways, that's a whole other topic that shouldn't even be breached in this post (although if you have advice, do feel free to email me).

This past week has been pretty fabulous. Like I said before, I am getting really accustomed to the lifestyle here. It's really simple, but I don't feel like I'm missing too much. Earlier, I felt like I was lacking a bit of contact with the outside world, but this past weekend we had a lot of visitors staying at the house, so it didn't feel isolated at all anymore. Plus I am beginning to enjoy the isolation. I didn't think that was going to happen, to be honest. But it has! The other day, digging potatoes, I found myself mesmerized by a particularly beautiful dung beetle, and thought about how in my previously overstimulated life I would not have been able to appreciate the purple and blue tones on it's little shiny back. When would I have time to notice a dung beetle? (Not to mention, where would I find one?)

Friday- Monday were sheep gathering days here. Erik keeps his wild sheep in 3 different flocks, 1 on the home pastures, 1 on outer Lygra in the heathlands, and 1 on an adjacent island whose name I can't remember. We rounded the sheep up and then the farmers decided which ones were right for slaughter. I helped tie the rope around the necks of the chosen ones, and after they were put on the boat to transport them to Lygra, we had to lift them up onto the dock and into a trailer which then took them to Johan's barn. The new wwoofer Chantelle and I rode back a couple kilometers on the wheel guard of Johan's tractor, holding onto the roof. I feel like a real farm girl lately. It's becoming a bit more natural, finally.

During down time, I went fishing with one of Erik's visiting friends who works as a cook on big fishing boats and knows a ton about fishing. So much fun. I love fishing. I've caught things before, but there's always been some dude there who wants to do the killing and gutting, so after I reel it up my job is done. But Ingvar let me do the whole thing, so I murdered my first living thing. This past Sunday. It felt very strange, but I love eating fish, so why not know how to catch it and kill it myself?

I did draw the line at the sheep slaughtering, though. I get really squeamish around all that blood and flesh. It's too much. There were 2 sheep who died during the rounding up process.. one broke his leg trying to escape over a tall fence and had to be shot, and another one was already small and weak, and got trampled by his flock when they were in the holding pen. Isn't that one of the most tragic things you've heard in a long while? I remember seeing him looking especially tired earlier on, but to die just from lying down in the wrong spot? Ugh. It was really horrible.
So Ingvar and Erik had to take the carcasses home and skin them and hang them and all that. They did not need my help, so I stayed inside with Annette drinking tea thank god.

We ate especially delicious food this past weekend as well, because Ingvar is not only a fisherman but also a wonderful chef (double bonus!). Yesterday he made us sheep heart stuffed with apples and horseradish and braised in Danish ale and pig fat. Might not sound good, but it was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten! He also made pate from the sheep's liver. Also delicious. At the moment I can't remember what other incredible things he whipped up over the few days he was here, but let's just say we were all super spoiled, and threatened to go on a hunger strike if he left (which he did, and we didn't).

Today we focused on domestic concerns. Mainly having to do with apples. We siphoned the apple cider into bottles, made lots of apple juice, and apple jam, and apple & mint jelly!

Sustainability

Well it's been 5 days of ups and downs. Every day I seem to have this battle in my mind of should I stay or leave early. But I think I've decided to stick it out. It's been a bit difficult adjusting to this new farm. It took me a little while to adjust to the initial pace of country life at Anders', but now I have a whole other lifestyle to suddenly get accustomed to. I'm finding it hard to describe, because it feels like I've given up a lot of creature comforts, but when I go to name them I can't really think of what particularly important things I am missing. The composting toilet took some getting used to. It's funny though, once you've only had things a certain way for 5 days, it's hard to remember how things were previously. Was I really in a posh house with heated bathroom floors and a big bathtub a week ago?!

They work really hard here, but they're immensely happy. This weekend they've been catering for some guests at the Heathland Center up the road, which is very beautifully designed. We all ate dinner in the main room up there last night. It was so incredibly beautiful. Erik prepared wild sheep and potatoes and japanese winter squash (all home grown, of course) and we drank this blueberry wine from 1986 that his grandmother had made! That is definitely a first for me. 22 year old blueberry wine. It smelled a little like grappa, but it was really tasty. We all got a bit giddy, from the delicious food and wine and the huge floor-to-ceiling views of the fjord out the window of the center.

They had invited their neighbors over for coffee and dessert, but the parents were sick, so just the kids came over. We hosted 14 year old Signe and her friend Oscar, and Signe's brother Ervin whose probably 8 or something. Coffee and apple cake and banana cake with chocolate sauce. Oh my good god, it was amazing! We played a long and rousing game of cards called Presidents and Slaves, which Erik kept reminding us was a metaphor for the capitalist system, but it was tons of fun and the kids had a great time and didn't leave until past midnight. Erik & Annette have a very cozy sitting room with a hammock and a big couch and this old barely working organ and other instruments. Tonight their friend is coming over to play some celtic music, I think. The nice thing about living on a tiny barely inhabited island is, you bring the fun to your house, I suppose!

It's starting to get really cold. I can see my breath inside the house after night falls. They have loads of extra slippers and wool sweaters, but it's still uncomfortable having a cold nose and fingertips most of the time.
We've been harvesting potatoes all week, and we're still not finished. That is not fun work after the first day, let me tell you. My first day here, some friends of Erik's came to help us with the harvesting, and one of them was a dude from New Jersey whose been working in Denmark for the past few years. Digging potatoes on an island in Norway with a Rutgers alum. It's a strange world sometimes, don't you think?

If my hosts weren't so freakishly nice, I have a feeling I would have made some plans to leave early. I think it's not a bad thing that I went from one extreme to the other (NYC office job to Norwegian rural farmlife) but a month is a long time to stay in one cold isolated place. One thing I have come to terms with here, though, is that I do not have a future as an organic farmer. I like civilization and comfort a bit too much. And that's okay. I am dreaming of starting life over in some metropolitan area and finally taking some real photography courses so I can have access to a darkroom. Or maybe I can build my own darkroom (if I'm dreaming, why not?)! I can live with the knowledge about sustainable living, and shop local and organic (which I already tried to whenever possible) and support the lifestyle in my own comfy way. Is that a copout? Maybe. But right now all I can think about is a warm bed and a movie marathon and tons of coffee with milk and sugar (I've been drinking it black - they're not a dairy farm yet), and a hot bath, and tumble-dried clothes, and people, lots and lots of people.....

Oh, and one last thing. This computer is so disturbingly slow and crappy that I am not able to upload any photos! :(
So I will explain to you - I am only a few meters away from the sea, but it doesn't feel anything like the sea. It's technically a fjord, because it's super deep, but it doesn't have the usual high cliffs surrounding it. It's mostly very still and silent, and really beautiful, but it feels more like living by a lake than by the sea. We have 70 chickens, 2 calves, tons of vegetables, 3 male pigs, and on Thursday we just got a big mama pig who weighs 250 kilos. I have no idea how that converts to pounds, but she is pretty much a huge rhinocerous. When she waddled out of the horse trailer she arrived in, Erik nearly fell to the floor laughing. She's like 4 feet tall and 5 feet long, and has 3 chins! But she's very sweet, and he's helping to keep this ancient breed of Norwegian pig alive (I think there are only like 8 left in Norway, and he has 4 of them now). I have a view of Dina from my bedroom window. How nice!
Well, I am missing all of you who know me so well. I seriously can't wait to come home and be loved. Can December be a very social month, please?

Lygra Day One

Well. I believe that now I am truly living with organic farmers. I might turn into a hippie yet! I arrived on the ferry boat last night. In fact, Hilde dropped me off in her boat, and we were running late, so we parked at the end of the dock where the ferry had just pulled up, and I had to climb one of the huge tire bumpers to get onto the dock, and my hands were pitch black from tire grease, and then they were just about to fold up the ramp when I ran up waving frantically. Then I had to arrange with the ticketguy to make sure they stopped at Lygra (it's such a tiny island, the expressboat only stops there by request). It was a pretty large ferry, and it made me happy that I had my own personal door to door service (or kind of). Sorry if I am writing this sloppily, I am trying to be quick because dinner will be ready soon. Anyways, Erik picked me up at the dock and I came in to dinner still warm on the table. It was a tasty lentil stew. I'm not at Anders' place anymore where we go grocery shopping every week and he says "Buy whatever you like!" Here they are living almost totally sustainably, save for a few dairy products like milk and cheese and butter that they do not make themselves. I think we will be eating mostly vegetarian, after my month long carnivores diet at Åsen. But I'm sure it will be delicious! The fridge is down in the basement, through a hatch in the kitchen floor. The bathroom is a composting toilet - which is essentially like an outhouse, except inside. There is a heartshaped hole with a heartshaped lid and a barrel of sawdust to pour over.
Uh oh the dinner gong just gonged, I must stop.
More to come at some point soon! Wish me luck with this simper life I am about to start trying.

TGIF

It was a rainy day today, so we took it easy. Cleaned the house, baked bread, made plum jam, spackled some windowsills... all in all, a decent rainy Friday.

Tonight Anders & Hilde & I drank Courvoisier and ate chocolate and watched Prime (a romantic comedy with Meryl Streep & Uma Thurman and some douchebag actor whose name I forget). Let me give you a little piece of advice. Don't watch that movie. Please. Oh my freakin gæd. Well Meryl Streep was awesome because she pretty much always is, but everything else was so vomit-inducing, I had to restrain myself from covering my eyes. Anyone whose watched a bad movie with me knows I have trouble keeping my observations to myself, so it was reaaaaaaally hard to shut up and be polite but I did a decent job of it (I think). Unconvincing love story.. he finds her number in the telephone directory, for christs sake. In Manhattan. After briefly meeting her once and only learning her first name. And then of course they fall in love immediately. That's to be expected though. But he's such a worthless piece of crap, you just don't understand. And then at one point he sells his first painting for $2000 and with that money somehow affords a big beautiful old 1 bedroom apartment downtown, and furniture and new paint, etc etc. Without a job. Oh and I'm sorry, he also drives a red convertible. Okay okay I know.. "suspension of disbelief". Regardless, it's a crap film and you should prob just avoid it. The cognac and the company were lovely, thankfully.

Sara left for Germany yesterday morning, and then Hilde & I went traipsing up the mountain to find some runaway ewes who broke a hole in their pasture fencing. I still pant like a dying dog on even the slightest incline, but it's just so stunningly beautiful up there, I've got to love it. The trip was a success. We found the ewes, and they followed Hilde back down the mountain. She had wisely given me the job of trailing after them, which I sort of managed, at a distance, flailing my arms and tripping over tree roots the whole time. Graceful I am not. But I feel like each hiking trip is a step in the right direction. Who knows, it may actually get easier eventually! Anders is like a mountain goat, he's been hiking up these mountains for so many years. He just hops straight up the mountain, whistling the whole way, with me desperately running and falling behind him. It's probably really hilarious to watch, in fact! :P

Here is a photo of me on the mountaintop with a massive rock, and Førde in the distance.

On Tuesday, Sara, Hilde, Anders and myself went to Hilde's farm on Grøneng to help Pete & Ginny weigh and mark all the lambs. It felt good to be working in a big group like that, as a team. We each had our own specific task, so by the end we did it really well. I was the marker specialist. Pete and Sara would catch the lambs from the pen, call out their number, and get them into the big old scale thingy. Ginny would read off the weight (a harder job than it sounds, with a chunky kicking lamb jostling the numbers) and record it. I would find their number in a big pile of numbers from 80001 to 80140, 1 yellow and 1 blue, and dip them in iodine and clip them onto the ear tagger (similar to an ear piercing gun), which I would then hand off to Hilde. Anders would wrangle the lamb out of the weighing machine, and hold it steady while Hilde marked their ear with the appropriate tag. The whole process probably took about 2 minutes per lamb, and with all those people it was extremely efficient. Most years, it's usually just Anders & Hilde doing the whole thing, so they were happy to have us all there helping. It was funny being in charge of the numbers too. The sheep are so noisy, Sara would shout their number over to me and I would shout it back, and after a while it sounded like a raucous game of Bingo.. "One hundred twelve! What's that, one one two? One one two, yes! Okay, one one two, got it."

Of course I don't have any good photos of the lamb weighing, because I was busy with my iodine and plastic numbers.
But here are some of Hilde's sweet little lambikins. They're an even older breed than Anders' sheep.. really really wild. She lets them roam free even more, so they're extremely independent, but because she doesn't bring them indoors over the winter, they're much much tinier. And so beautiful!!

I'm going back to Grøneng for the last time on Monday, and will be sure to take some better photos then. On Tuesday the 31st, I take the expressboat to my next farm, on the island of Lygra! That will be an entirely different experience, but hopefully equally as wonderful!!

Ponies and Generosity

When Vilde was here over the weekend (Anders' daughter, for those of you just tuning in) we drank pink champagne to celebrate her arrival, and Hilde made these wonderful little figures out of the wire and foil from around the cork. She just absently bent the first little wire dude into shape while we were having a conversation, and it was so expressive that I started free-associating on what kind of character he was. First he was this jaunty happy jogger, then he was a serious downhill skier, suddenly morphed into a depressed old man with terrible posture. We had a lot of fun creating little stories for each figure, and took some photos.
I contributed. The deformed dog is my creation. Your welcome!
Today I befriended a 12 year old. Our neighbor, Nicolina. She has a pony. She's awesome. On Wednesday she's teaching me how to ride a horse! And she invited me to watch her jumping competition over the weekend. Her ponies are really cute. The little one isn't for riding. He's really old and fat and kind of surly. It's funny actually, being around him in the stable, I sensed this vibe of kind of a grumpy old man, like maybe a character Danny DeVito would play (except in horse form). I was asking Hilde about him, and she said he's 24 years old! I had no idea ponies lived that long. He's so friggin tiny! And fiesty. He escapes alot. I love it! Just look at that belly.

Yesterday, Sara & I were left alone in charge of the farm while Anders and Hilde went to Hilde's farm overnight. It's such a wonderful house, it was really pleasant and cozy to have it for just the two of us. We kept the woodstove in the kitchen burning and drank tea and ate delicious food and played the radio loud. Before it got dark, though, we had a great little adventure on the 4-wheel bike. Neither of us had driven it before, I had only had a 2 minute lesson from Pete on how to work the thing, so it was extra fun. Today we saw a 4 year old neighbor driving faster than we had been going yesterday, so clearly we were not being super daring or anything, but it was good! We went up to Anders' little mountain hut on an old abandoned summer farm, and fantasized about living there during a snowstorm in the dead of winter. That is one cozy little hut! It's all stocked up with everything you'd ever need, essentially. Even a little radio and tons of extra sweaters and knit socks. And there are berries growing right on the roof so you'll never run out of jam either!Hilde and Anders came home tonight, and gave us each early going-away presents. They gave us presents. Doesn't that seem just too ridiculously sweet?! I am SPOILED ROTTEN. It's official. I'm being taken care of, living in a beautiful house with tons of delicious food and doing really pretty minimal amounts of work.. AND they gave me two of my very own Moomin mugs. The most beautiful wonderful whimsical little mugs (really expensive too, which is partially why I hadn't bought any for myself already). I can't believe it! I think it's just nice to know that such kind and generous people exist in this world, honestly. Warms my cold little heart ;)
And then, before retiring to our respective bedrooms, we sat around drinking wine and sharing pig stories. Well, I was the only one without a pig story, because I have never formally met any pigs, which they were all very sad to hear, and they recommended that I do so at the earliest convenience. So, to all you pig farmers out there reading my blog, I would love to come work for you to acquire some good pig stories, but I have a high standard of wwoofing now!! Pretty hard to live up to, really.

Sugar Highs

I am pretty tired, so this post will have to be somewhat brief.
I had a really fun day with Vilde (Anders' daughter) and Sara (the other wwoofer). We went with Anders and Hilde to the art fair, as I mentioned previously. It was nice, overall, but most of the art wasn't that interesting to me. There was wall of these bizarre little plastic figures that the artist had pasted his own face on. That was fun to look at. But strange. Very strange. He called himself ClayBoy. I didn't read his artists statement, but we took a photo in front of his wall.

When we got home, I did a little research on wwoofing in France. Right now I am thinking of Corsica in November, perhaps? I'll start emailing the hosts tomorrow. Anyways, time flew by, and eventually Sara came over to me and was like Are you hungry because I am starving. And it was 8pm and we hadn't eaten since lunchtime. Hilde was cleaning the horse barn and Anders was out hunting deer and Vilde was on the phone I think. Anyways, we took everything that looked tasty out of the fridge and the cupboard, and Sara began slicing up some bread. Vilde came downstairs and was thrilled to join in. We ate nearly the entire loaf of bread, with toppings that consisted of pesto, salami, tomatoes, avocados, various fish in tubes, cheeses, blueberries, honey, peanut butter, nottepalegg (nutella, essentially). It was a real feast. We drank milk and got the giggles. It was really fun. Vilde very seriously declared "I can't imagine a better way to spend this Saturday night" before chomping into a sandwich piled high with fancy cheese.

So yeah, that was lovely. And then Hilde returned and told us that Anders had shot a deer and the neighbor Carl was helping him transport it back from the woods on his tractor. We all rushed over to Carl's barn to see it. It was cold and dark, and the lights from the tractor were very bright. I took some photos of the big buck, and when it was all set up to slaughter Carl looked at me with a smile in his eyes and handed me a knife. Him and I both knew that I wasn't gonna do it. I wanted to be that gutsy wwoofer who will try anything, but I knew I couldn't. The smell of blood and the steam rising off the newly killed deer was actually making me feel a little ill already, and I was a few feet away. I'm not the most squeamish person, but I'm also not so good with blood and guts.
Vilde and I went back to the house, but Sara stayed and helped them skin the deer. She's a physical therapist, so she said it was fascinating to see the way the muscle attaches to the skin and to view all the organs and stuff. Personally, I can live without seeing that much.

I did capture a nice shot of the deer arriving on the back of the tractor though. The tractor lights look theatrical and give the whole scene a bit of a surreal tone, I think.

Rewind and Edit

Scratch that last whiny post from below. I was just having a moment of self pity and felt the need to share my insecurities with the world of the interweb. But now I'm done with that moment and thoroughly enjoying myself.

I was in the car today with Anders and Hilde and Vilde and Sara and for the first time felt like I was actually in my own life. You know how before, I was saying that I felt like I left my life behind and was living someone elses? I am finally comfortable enough with being in such a different place, that it's not feeling quite so different anymore.

We went to a farmers market and an art exhibition today, which was really nice. I'm being completely spoiled by my hosts. They're really amazing. And it was great to feel a sense of community and be around other people as well.
It's helpful having the German wwoofer Sara here, to give me some perspective. She's been traveling and wwoofing for 6 months almost, and I asked her the other day if she ever got homesick. She didn't hesitate for a moment, she just said No I have been having too much fun to miss my home. And it was such a positive answer, I thought to myself, Why the hell am I not approaching this experience that way? So from now on, I'm just going to try and enjoy every day, all the ups and downs of daily life, and not miss the silly things like Brooklyn flea markets and urban landscapes. Those will be there in the future anyways.

I am considering flying to France to work on a farm there for the month of November. Before I was thinking of Ireland, but then I really thought about continuous cold rainy weather, and suddenly France sounded more inviting. Plus Pete and Ginny told me that they could see me in an old ramshackley French farm (having been to one recently themselves), so that's a good enough reason for me.

Anyone have any suggestions of where I should go? I don't really know my French geography so well.

Ramblings

To be perfectly honest, I'm not really having that great of a time. I feel guilty saying that, since my hosts are very kind and I am in a beautiful place learning very practical and sometimes interesting things. But I miss the variety of my former life in Brooklyn. I didn't realize what a varied life I lived in NY, perfect for the fickle Gemini who wants to see and do something new all the time. I honestly thought I was boringly doing the same thing every day, but being stuck on a farm in the mountains (albeit a gorgeous farm) has shown me what REALLY being in the same place every day feels like. It will be great for a few months, but I think I will be happy to go back home again.

Perhaps the thing I miss the most is my independence. I'm not really in the mood to go pick blueberries high up in the mountains today, especially since my boots are still wet from picking potatoes for 6 hours yesterday, but that is the activity chosen by the majority this morning at breakfast. I'm sure it will be really nice, but it's just a strange feeling to not know what your day will look like.. and it's not a normal workweek, it's every moment of every day, you know?
I suppose I am quite lucky to have nice and interesting and funny hosts, and I'm probably just having another cranky moment, because my legs are still killing me from hiking up a very steep mountain 2 days ago, and it rained last night, and so now I have to go get incredibly muddy again.

I am looking forward to having a real weekend again in the future, where I sleep in and go have brunch with friends and poke around the flea markets and take silly photobooth pictures. I actually am missing the hipsters at Union Pool. hah! Ok maybe that's going too far. But maybe not! Lauren told me it would happen and I didn't believe her. Lauren, if you're reading this, you are completely allowed to say I told you so.

It's been about 20 days. Maybe I haven't really let go yet, and this is part of the learning growing process or something. Yesterday I started to feel like I had no personality. Like I was a quiet boring shy person all of a sudden, with nothing to say. I realized that I shut down a lot around these new people because I feel like I don't have that much to offer them that they will be interested in. It made me panic a little bit, and I started thinking about what this experience of being a constant beginner and a constant outsider in this world of outdoorsy people is doing for me. And that's where this rambling is coming from. And maybe I should stop before I sound like a whiny depressive. I'm not, I'm just floundering.

I think I'll make a separate post about the things I've done recently, so as not to taint them with this paragraph of self pity. Ok!

Glaciers and stuff

Well, I've had a busy week!
Right now I am very sleepy and very full. We went blueberry picking today, and came home and immediately cooked up some delicious blueberry pancakes and stuffed our faces and now everyone is napping. I'm baking some more bread, and later this evening Anders will teach Sara and I how to salt and cure and cut the meat..
This meat here:
So, last weekend, my hosts Anders & Hilde went to Hilde's farm on the island, leaving me and my wwoofer buddies Pete & Ginny to take care of Ytre Aasen here in the mountains. We decided to go for a mini road trip, which Pete entitled the Magical Mystery Tour (very original). He was the Navigator, Ginny was the DJ/Caterer, and I was the Trip Photographer. First we went into the town center of Foerde, where there is little else but a large shopping center (a mall, essentially). We went to the mall and browsed around H&M. I hadn't seen that amount of people in such a long long time, it was like sensory overload, and I will admit that I actually had a wonderful time. It's amazing to realize that I could be overwhelmed by the "crowds" in such a tiny small town in the middle of nowhere. NYC might just blow me away! No, but honestly, I really do like people a lot. Not so many that you can't move without running into someone, but more than like 2.

Our road trip led us to the Josteldalsbreen Glacier (largest glacier in continental Europe) and along the Sognefjord (one of the longest fjords in the world). We stopped at loads of roadside viewing spots to take photos, and ooohed and aahed a lot, and listened to Led Zeppelin, and overall it was very nice. Lots of amazing nature, all right along the roadside.

On Sunday we went bilberry picking up the mountain again, and when we came home we gathered up the lambs from the pasture into the barn. Anders came home that evening and together we all marked the fattest rams with a green crayon on their foreheads, to be picked up for slaughter in the morning. It should have been a similar experience as the ram wrangling on Skorpa, but somehow it was a lot more depressing. I didn't even take any photos. Maybe it was worse because I am now alot more fond of the sheep overall, and I feel a greater connection to them than on my first day at the farm. But I think it was also because they were gathered together in these enclosed pens, indoors, to wait overnight for their sad fate. The rams on Skorpa were ushered into those metal crates only moments before the boat came to pick them up.
I also bonded with one of the fated rams in the sheep house this Sunday. He got my attention by attempting to nibble on my hand, and then was so sweet and so tame, and just stood there wagging his tail and looking up at me... it honestly broke my heart. Pete saw me petting this sweet little guy and said "If it was your farm, I have a feeling only two lambs would make it onto that truck in the morning" and Anders said that if the little lamb had been a ewe they might have kept him because of his sweet temperment, but they really have no use for rams on the farm, so he had to go. What an awful night! I attempted to be brave about it, but I felt really awful in the morning when I heard that truck leaving. I did shed a few tears too, behind closed doors. But it's all part of the farm experience, I suppose, right?

On Monday night, we had a new arrival. The German wwoofer Sara came to stay for about 12 days. She had been here before for 5 weeks in the beginning of the summer, and is stopping by again before returning home. She is only 1 year younger than me, and also is traveling alone for the first time (although she's been on the road for months and months now, and I am just beginning). It's wonderful to have more company and meet a new person, and she's very cool as well, which is a bonus. Anders' daughter Vilde is also visiting from college in Bergen for the weekend, so I think this weekend will be a lot of fun. On Saturday we are going to a local arts festival, and on Sunday cooking a big Greek feast. Finally something I know about! Greek food! haha

Frost is coming soon. Today the air was very chilly and the leaves are turning beautiful colors.
On Tuesday we went hiking up a mountain to search for the remaining sheep that are still at large. It was stunningly beautiful, and there were tons of blueberries all along the way for snacking on. Wonderful!

Wednesday was spent digging up the rest of Anders' potatoes. 6 hours on our hands and knees in the dirt! It actually was not so bad. We rummaged with our gloved hands in the overturned dirt for the hidden potatoes, and it reminded me of being a kid again (because I think that was the last time I played in the dirt for so long).

Today was grey and chilly, but we went back to the foot of the mountain where the blueberries were really thick on the bushes, and between the for of us (me, Sara, Anders & Hilde) picked 20 kilos of blueberries. Amazing!

seems like the appropriate time to start a blog

So in less than 2 weeks I'll be leaving the country. Traveling alone for the first time. Leaving the city for more than a week for the first time in like 5 years.

After 5 years living in Queens and Brooklyn, going to school and working retail and assistant jobs, I decided it was time to really WORK. Get my hands dirty. See some real outcome from hours of hard work, not just numbers or a shortened checklist.
So I found a few organic farms that needed workers on the Southwestern coast of Norway, had a yard-sale to get rid of alot of the crap I'd accumulated over the years, and in the next week I'll be packing my life into a big backpack and flying from the nest.

This seems like a good time to start a blog.

I'll be posting photos of sheep and fjords and updating you on all the exciting new things I'm learning. I'm sure some days I'll just be shoveling manure or looking for rotten potatoes in the root cellar. But I know you're dying to see photos of Norwegian root cellars.
You won't be disappointed.