Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Orange County: Part 2

After a brief time at Leo’s cottage, exploring his eclectic record collection and preparing my foldaway bed, it was off to Newport to WWOOF treasurer Sherin’s apartment for an evening spent enjoying delicious food and looking at slides of Leo’s old farm in Sonoma County. Despite no longer being able to use her token disclaimer of being “almost a lawyer, Sherin was in a celebratory mood. He had learned just the previous Friday that she had passed the bar exam. The two of them whipped together a vegetable medley with tahini and mustard along with a fresh salad and some fancy cheese.

90480003
Seedlings from Leo's slideshow

After taking in Leo’s slides, Sherin requested the aid of our the blue pickup in transporting a quantity so large as to fill the entire truck bed on young succulents ready to sell off to new homes and be transplanted. It was an awkward affair that involved driving around her apartment to the fire lane behind it and forming a fire-bucket-style chain from the pickup, up a little ivy embankment, and over a high fence enclosing her downstairs patio. I couldn’t help but muse at how, even during a casual social get-together with WWOOF board members, I was being put to work as a WWOOFer! :-)

As we finished our chore, another Ryan, friend of Leo and Sherin, arrived and the four of us hung out and looked at slides awhile longer before it was time to return to Laguna Beach for some well-deserved rest.

palms
Another of Leo's photos, a Laguna Beach seaside scene

Monday, November 29, 2010

Orange County: Part 1

I rose at 6:30 and Max’s apartment having prepared my belongings and the rest of the lasagna the night before. Next I shuffled four blocks to the Metro (subway) station four blocks away carrying backpacks at front and back and with both hands heavily loaded. I estimate that my total load was in excess of 70 pounds. On the Metro I struggled to keep from bumping the people who stood nearby, peppering me with dirty looks. At the end of the line, I hustled into Union Station and up to the Metrolink (inter-city commuter rail) ticket booth. I turned out my train to Irvine was already waiting at the platform and would leave in a mere seven minutes!

pickup
Leo's big blue pickup

Once in Irvine, I missed my connection with the local bus system, but managed to reach WWOOF program manager, Ryan “Leo” Goldsmith, who graciously proffered a ride to Laguna Beach in his Blue biodiesel pickup. I accepted, and soon found myself in WWOOF’s cozy downtown office, drafting grant application language and casually observing as Leo responded to the needs of members and volunteers and feilded (sometimes over-eager) requests from would-be collaborators. After a bit of back and forth, we two produced a complete grant application and submitted it to the approval of WWOOF board president Sarah Potenza.

90480030
Leo's cottage from the back yard

After that it was back to Leo’s tastefully decorated cottage, walking distance from the office, where I was greeted by the aroma of fresh-cut flowers and the comfort of his well-appointed living room and quaint yard, shared with two other friendly neighbors and an adorable dog, Cinder, on the same lot.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Heinemacher Herr

Waking up for day two in LA, I found I had an itch to clean which would not be ignored. After a quick trip to the 99-cent store for supplies (upon which I’m pretty sure I walked by a hirsute Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I sunk my hands into Max’s living room, spending the better part of a day moving furniture, stacking up laundry, garbage, and disorganized possessions in piles, vacuuming, rolling up rugs, sweeping, wiping surfaces with a pine sol, and putting all the furniture back where I found it. In the end I found I was able to place his guest mattress out of the way of foot traffic, which before had been impossible.

After being duly impressed by my handiwork and having another lasagna dinner, Max took me to see a movie premier which we missed, and to a big Mexican bar downtown. After a couple drinks, we headed home and chanced to stop by an open mic mere blocks from Max’s apartment on the way, which culminated in a very lively hip-hop show which I found highly amusing.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Sweet home, Los Angeles

The Indio Greyhound station is a weird scene. Between the homeless man yelling semi-intelligible profanities at the girl behind the ticket counter and the gangsters with face tattoos eyeing you apprehensively, it makes for a rather unnerving place to wait nearly three hours for a bus. Add to that the San Bernardino rush hour traffic and wait for my ride from the abominable Los Angeles Greyhound station and you can perhaps understand my feeling a relief at finally drifting off to sleep at Max’s apartment.

The next day, between naps, I found the time to buy groceries and prepare a twelve servings’ worth of lasagna noodles and filling. When Max came home from work, we cooked up a batch for dinner and then walked to get gelato at a place on nearby Sunset Boulevard where I’m certain I spotted Jena Malone!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Dreams

Another aspect of my current lifestyle for which I wasn’t prepared is the amount of spare time it affords me. Of all things, I have managed to invest an inordinate amount of this surplus of time in sleep. I think there’s something about getting more sleep that tends to enliven the world of your dreams.

To wit, I have a number of odd and vivid dreams and even nightmares. In particular, I one dream stands out which included seeing behind me in a mirror's reflection, the macabre and ghostly image of woman who wasn’t there. Also, in my dreams I have seen a cat raise a bird as if it was its own, only to see it eat the bird as soon as it came of age. And most recently, there was the alarming affair of diving into a pool of abrasive chemicals in order to survive an explosion, to be left grossly deformed and scarred.

How odd.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Farmer and Cave Dweller

One of the unexpected pleasures of my stay at Chocolate mountain has been to hear the occasional anecdotes that make up glimpses of the life and times of my host, Gordon. A native of southern California, Gordon came of age in the 70’s and adhered to Timothy Leary’s famous formula; “Tune in, turn on, drop out”. To Gordon, this could have taken one of several forms. For instances he recalls a back-to-nature community that would have taken him as well as Norman Paulsen’s famous Sunburst community.

In the end, Gordon chose a route that he likens to that of Eden Ahbez, the famous naturist and songwriter who lived for a time in the hills behind the Hollywood sign. Gordon made his home in a cave in the mountains near Palm Springs where he lived for an entire year subsisting on food he gathered from the wilderness and gleaned on trips into town. Notably, during his time in the mountains, he had contact with Douglas Bachelor, another cave dweller who would go on to become a renowned televangelist.

Somewhere in-between then and the present day, Gordon came to own a lot in Ojai where managed to support himself by growing mulberries and carob. During his time there, the value of his land appreciated to such a degree that he was able to buy his current homestead overlooking the Salton Sea as well as a few parcels of land in the mountains above Palm Springs. Here is some video he had another WWOOFer shoot of his mountains paradise:

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Salvation Mountain and Slab City

With the winds still whipping and errands to run, we decided to make a run down Route 111 past the Wister Waterfowl Management area to Calipatria, a mere 34 miles from the Mexican border. There I read some of the literature the Peace Corps had sent me with my invitation packet and Gordon did some shopping while our respective loads of laundry ran.

choc_mountian_crop
I stand on Salvation Mountain (Gordon brought his camera)

On our way back we hung a right at Niland and drove another couple of miles to arrive at Salvation Mountain. As took in the “mountain”, its famous creator, Leonard, arrived to the delight of a Christian youth group that had come to host a free barbeque at nearby Slab City. He gave us a tour and I would have stayed for the free chicken but something told me it wasn’t Gordon’s scene, so I graciously took my leave.

After an interesting conversation with one of Leonard’s self-appointed assistants, a social worker from New York who had come to the Southeast six years ago to work with native groups, Gordon gave me a cursory tour of he The Slabs, an informal constellation of squatters which together America’s longest-standing undisputed homeless camp. It was decidedly less glamorous and campy than its depiction in Into The Wild.

salv_mountain_2
Inside Salvation Mountain

Friday, November 19, 2010

Viewing Material

One of the highlights of my stay at Chocolate Mountain Hot Springs has been the unusual and eclectic selection of viewing material available. After our requisite three hours of daily labor Gordon and I are left with the rest of the day to philosophize, tell stories, and share observations about pop culture. In the process of expounding on some obscure vein of half-wit and wisdom on my second or third day, I chanced to mention my fascination with the Heaven’s Gate incident which took place in Rancho Santa Fe, a rich suburb of nearby San Diego. This proved to be my entrée into to unique media library available to me here at the Hot Springs.

media_library
A distinctive collection

As it turns out, Gordon recorded more than two hours of news footage, documenting the media response in the hours and days following the discovery of the suicides, including no fewer than two prime time specials. Since then, to the delight of my inner trainspotter, I’ve been treated to the likes of such gems as
  • A retrospective on life and times Margaret Mead produced by California’s public television affiliate
  • A documentary telling the story of a family that settled the nearby Anza-Borrego desert following the Great Depression
  • An episode of Star Trek that features an example of the curious phenomenon known as “space hippies," which exist within the greater genre of science fiction
  • A collection of news coverage shown at the time of the WTO protests in Seattle
  • A film from the 1950’s depicting Thor Heyerdahl’s trans-Atlantic voyage with an international crew of researchers in a reed boat.
  • A documentary on the 1972 advent of a hippy/egalitarian/spiritual phenomenon called the Rainbow Gathering which is now an annual event attracting anarchists and counter-culture people of every stripe.
  • A 1970's cult classic film featuring Jimi Hendrix, called Rainbow Bridge

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, and San Jacinto

With the Santa Ana winds gusting at upwards of 30 miles per hour and a week’s worth of provisions exhausted, Gordon decided it was time to make a run of I-10 to civilization. The timing couldn’t have been better, too, with my finally having corrected all errors on my passport and visa forms and consulted the nearest UPS licensee regarding hours and services. Gordon and I hopped into his Corolla and made the hour-long trek to the posh desert shopping oasis of Rancho Mirage/Palm Desert.

With the day’s heat not having fully arrived, Gordon elected to show me a hike at the nearby San Jacinto National Monument. Together we climbed through a canyon and up a dry ravine to a wild grove of palms that grew so close together that the dead branches that hung from their trunks appeared to form an almost impenetrable wall. For a while we basked in the shade of nearby rocks while Gordon regaled me with descriptions of something called the Rainbow Gathering.

Back in town we navigated the circuitous thicket of retail the posh twin desert communities had to offer, passing by golf courses and stopping at an old experimental carob grove which had once been written up in the LA Times. At last it was off to Clark’s Nutrition and PostNet (think Postal Annex, or Mailboxes, Etc.) to get passport photos taken and go over the instructions for the eleventy-billionth time lest commit an error that would lead to the delay of my passport and visa processing and thus not get in to the Peace Corps.

Having meticulously followed every instruction to the letter and turned in my UPS package for delivery, I breathed a sigh of relief, satisfied that I had taken care of the last order of business required to see to it that I wouldn’t miss my opportunity to serve.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A Visit from Steven and Emily

The other day, Gordon announced to me that his long-time friend from Ojai, Steven, had called and was coming by, quite on the spur of the moment, bringing with him his partner, Emily. After some confusion over a missed phone connection, they arrived at Chocolate Mountain for their first time ever.

choc_mountain_before
Before (in front of Gordon's tool shed, facing southeast)

Steven, it turns out, is a masseur and reflexologist who used to run a spa in his back yard in Ojai that at one time rivaled the region’s nearby number-two spa, serving the likes of celebrities like Tim Burton. Steven told me he used to keep it booked solid and the competition referred to him as the “pirate spa” due to his being unlisted and operating in an under-the-radar kind of way.

He was duly impressed with the life Gordon had made for himself and prompted him to get out an enormous map of California’s geothermal water resources, the result of a government study in the 90’s. Gordon explained with enthusiasm the process by which he has staked his little claim amongst the hot springs of the region.

choc_mountain_after
After

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Gear: Part 2

An aspect of this WWOOF trip involves test-running some things in preparation for Peace Corps. For example. I have my computer set up so I can cache of blog post which I create online and which I upload to the server in batches during the relatively brief times when I have internet access. Part of this process was supposed to be a test from the refurbished Asus Eee 901 netbook that I bought in September using funds I saved during my AmeriCorps year. However, it turned out the netbook needed warranty service and has only just been returned to my mom’s house in Portland.

I am, however, prepared for diverse audio situations. In addition to a cassette adapter, I brought down with me a little radio transmitter. It has an adapter for car cigarette lighters and at Aquarius Ranch it just so happened that I had a port in my trailer just above my head for one of these. I simply plug it into this and my iPod and tune the trailer’s little clock radio to it an I have tunes while I work on blog posts in the trailer.

DSCN1928
Trailer-ready audio

Monday, November 15, 2010

Dump Day

I’ve stumbled into an odd little piece of Americana, Glamis North KOA, which is less than a mile’s walk from Chocolate Mountain Hot Springs and which, thankfully, has free wifi. Here I sit amidst ads and merchandise targeted at the motorhome camping and off-roading set, in a chair made in that whole-branch log-cabin style.
Today, as per his weekly ritual, Gordon and I hauled a load of trash from his place and the vacant place next door (which he also owns) in his 1950's GMC pickup to the dump less than four miles away. Gordon explained to me that he bought the place years ago from a compulsive hoarder who proceeded to spy from nearby to see what Gordon did with all the junk that was left behind on the property.

The place used to be a tilapia farm where geothermal spring water was gathered in man-made pools that now sit in front of Gordon’s ranch-style house and serve as a nice place to soak and let water cool before it is used on his date palms. The water comes out too hot for use, and must be allowed to cool also before it can be run from the taps in the house, so all the water we use on a daily basis is cold, including water I use to show each day. This is no real hardship for me since I had to do it for six months while I lived as a volunteer in Guatemala.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Bombay Beach

The Salton Sea has a strange and storied past, the details of which are expressed in a documentary in far more and better detail than I'll try to represent here. The documentary is called Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea and came highly recommended from Gordon prior to going down to Bombay Beach. In an amusing aside, the girl featured in the Bombay Beach segment who is very enthusiastic about sports and staying off drugs is now a volunteer at the North Shore Yacht Club which serves as a sort of museum and visitor center for the sea.

Bombay Beach, it turns out, is a very unique sight to see. Laid out on a grid of 8 blocks by 4 blocks, its actual connection to the sea itself has been severed by a levee perhaps 20 feet high of piled earth. While I was told that there’s a bar there, I was unable to find it. All a saw was motorhomes and double-wide manufactured homes, the nicest of which being situated furthest from the sea. Some lots contained abandoned or burned-out structures, decaying in the salty air. Here and there someone carted along in a golf cart. The only nonresidential dwellings I could find were the Seaside Baptist Church, a defunct grocery store, a convenient store, and a small hotel. I’ll be sure to stay there at least one night should I ever return.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Chocolate Mountain Hot Springs

Well, my camera has chosen an inopportune time to stop working. The views of the valley from here in the foothills of the Chocolate Mountains are simply breathtaking. My host, Gordon, was farming for years and even ran a hostel for a time before he carved out a little homestead overlooking Bombay Beach, the northern part of the Salton Sea, and the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains to the west.

My time here so far has been somewhat more reposeful than in Hinkley. Each morning, I widen the basin around one of his smaller trees, an olive or persimmon, while he trims the leaf nodes from one of his several date palms down to the trunk in preparation to fit it with a metal apparatus for deterring the kangaroo rats which breed here in great abundance and which can greatly reduce his yield. Another way he combats the rats is with traps he sets for them, to release them a couple of miles down the road.

The situation here is somewhat more austere. Because the amount of work Gordon has for me is so limited (harvest is over and there are no new plants going in), it isn’t really worth it to him to provide food. While he doesn’t impose restrictions on my diet, I am not allowed to fry food in a skillet or bake things because his guests in the past have made messes doing these things. This leaves me to boil or steam my food or else eat it raw.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Mapping My Travels

Now that I have a place I can go for broadband, I’ve taken to marking on a public Google Map the places I mention on this travelogue, just for fun. You can check out my handiwork here:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117702813592369502039.000494a3a33cde084688f

On an unrelated note, I jumped on a promotional deal Southwest Airlines was advertising for cheap airfare to Portland. I works out to about the same price as it would be to take the train and takes only 4 hours instead of 30. So, my return date is set for December 20.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Joshua Tree: Part 4

After breaking camp and bidding Tim a fond farewell, Michael, Corey, and I neatly packed ourselves and all our things into Michael’s two-door Honda and made for the highway, checking out a breathtaking “key view” from which I could actually see the Salton Sea. After a brief interlude in 29 Palms to retrieve my next host’s number from my battery-dead phone, we continued south and west around the Little San Bernardino Mountains and east toward Indio and the Salton Sea.


End of the line for me was Clark's health food store in Rancho Mirage where Gordon, my next host, had arranged to meet with me. There I bid adeu to Michael and Corey and after a breif food shopping interlude rode with Gordon for about an hour to his small lot on a hillside overlooking the Salton Sea.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Joshua Tree: Part 3

I awoke early the next morning with an abiding urge to split wood. The neighbors who had taken our extra spot the night before were able to provide a hatchet, much to my sleeping companions’ chagrin. As we soon learned, we had fallen victim to a common camper conundrum known as “too much meat”. The only solution to was to spend the day filling our bellies with hamburgers, hamburger helper, bacon, and a delicious delicacy known as bacon-grease toast.

From left to right: Tim, Michael, Corey

Between bouts of culinary indulgence (which also included raw vegetables and rice loaf), we mounted little expeditions into the deliciously climbable rock masses that give Jumbo Rocks its name. It’s hard to describe the giddy feeling I got from enjoying the natural beauty of the views at every turn on the unusually accessible nooks and crannies of rock that seemed to dare us to climb them. Tim in particular was transformed into an agile negotiator of rock surfaces and divides, crawling into and around crevices.

Michael and Tim are kings of all they survey

We enjoyed the sunset from the hill next to our campsite and after dark we made a tour of a loop within the Jumbo Rocks campground taking in the campy atmosphere. In the time since I had arrived, it was full to capacity and very much alive with the sights and sounds of jovial southern Californians. Exhausted and bemused, I was first to go to bed.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Joshua Tree: Part 2

The next morning, Lev and I had the unique experience of waking up in surroundings we had only seen the night before by moonlight. Despite the allure of the dramatic and remarkably verdant landscape we now saw, Lev saw fit to take his leave of me and head north to check out Cal Earth and return to Aquarius Ranch. I fear I may have proven a less-than-worthy travel companion the night before.

After a short hike down an interpretive trail to take in some of the park and register our site and the one next to it, I came back and buckled down. What remained was an austere day of waiting for my companions, and trying to avoid getting two much sun—I couldn’t find my sunscreen—while somehow maintaining a presence in both spots as a single person without a car.

After turning several parties away from the spot next to the one with my tent, I finally took pity on a couple of kindly climbers one of whom, it turns out out, has a son who works at the Ugly Mug in Sellwood with my friend, Brie. Tim arrived before dark having begun the five-hour drive from Phoenix quite early when he learned I had been left in the park with no means of transport and limited supplies. After a nice visit with Tim, we were joined at 11:00 pm by Michael and Corey. Revelry ensued until late in the night.

I resorted to covering my tent in safety blankets for added insulation

Monday, November 8, 2010

Joshua Tree: Part 1

A snug fit

As much as I was enjoying myself at Aquarius Ranch, the time had come for me to make my way to Joshua Tree National Park for a trip I had planned with my friends Michael and Tim. The only obstacle to my arriving was the drive from the nearest Greyhound station, so I was delighted when Lev volunteered to take me for the three-hour drive.

After a quick stop at an event to mark the beginning of renovations at the Desert Discovery Center in Barstow, Lev and I hit the road. While we careened through the desert afternoon, indulging in phone calls to girls and freestyle rapping, a breathtaking panorama unfolded before us; the lights of Yucca Valley punctuating our way with pin pricks of light like little Mexican villas on the purple and blue mountainsides as the setting sun carved them ever more distinctly against the yellow of the desert’s stone scrabble and arid soil.

Once within the Jumbo Rocks camping location at the park, we perused the campsites, selected one that looked promising in the dark, and made camp.

Bryan watches from atop the dome as Bodhi mugs for the camera

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Into LA for my Peace Corps papers: Part 4

With Peace Corps invitation packet freshly in hand, I carefully negotiated the Los Angeles subway and bus system (and, unfortunately, a rather indiscriminate McDonalds breakfast) to arrive at the Greyhound station with a wayfaring and comely Spanish graphic designer in tow.

As we passed the time in the Greyhound station, waiting for our respective buses to Vegas; we regaled one-another in Spanglish with nuggets from our lives, I letting slip that I would be serving for 27 months on the Island of Hispaniola as a ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Specialist or ICT Educator in the Dominican Republic and describing the informal research in ecotourism that I’m doing in the time leading up to my departure.

DSCN2043
Obligatory invitation packet pic

We said our farewells, with promises to continue contact (in particular with sharing of my WWOOF map in mind) and it was off to Barstow on a three-quarters-empty bus which gradually filled until brimming in San Bernardino and depositing me at Barstow station with another friend, sweet and worrisome, with whom I had exchanged food, kindnesses, and phone privileges for the sake of aiding her return home to Montana from what sounded like a difficult living situation in San Diego.

Back at the ranch, things were winding down for the day and I scavenged some food and joined the others for a bonfire of brush pulled from the land that will be Penny’s new pasture (more on that to come).

DSCN2032
Spot, one of Penny’s eight dogs

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Into LA for my Peace Corps papers: Part 3

After perhaps a couple hours of listening to Orson Scott Card on the bus and some in-between time connecting up with Max via phone, I arrived in Los Angeles on November 1, the eve of Todos Santos and thus a time for the city’s celebration of Día de los Muertos with very vivid face painting and elaborate altars at the heart of old Los Angeles. I was lucky to have Max for a guide.

After taking in the altars for a few minutes; we watched the last couple of innings of the world series at a bar, and then had sushi at a very authentic-feeling Japanese restaurant (menus in hand-written kanji and English). Next it was off to pick up Jana at the airport. On the way we caught a minute of some dancing in traditional Aztec dress and I took a call from Mom.

En route to Max’s we drummed up some interest in a bar visit with a couple of friends of Max and Jana. Being in a celebration mood as I was, I did a Bandera with the bartender while everyone placed their orders and got their drinks. In a magnanimous gesture she reduced the price to happy our price and even threw in a beer :-)

The evening’s stimulating conversation gave way to a satisfying sleep on the floor of Max’s apartment.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Into LA for my Peace Corps papers: Part 2

As I waited for my bus to have its half-hour break in Barstow on the way to Los Angeles, I watched as the sob story of the man next to me slowly unfolded. He barely spoke a word of English and more or less refused to communicate in Spanish, but he told me he was from Mexico and I was able to learn that he was promised a seat on the incoming bus without buying a ticket only to have me come and buy up his seat.

While I puzzled the ethical dilemma in which Greyhound had just placed me, I learned further that the man had left his luggage on the previous bus from Vegas when he overstayed the driver’s lunch break in Barstow and it was now sitting someplace at the LA Greyhound station awaiting his arrival.

As fate would have it, he was inside the Greyhound office at the moment the bus was ready to depart, so I abruptly severed the conversation I was having with a down-and-out drifter—another remarkable story for another time—and made my way onto my bus (despite the p*** and vinegar I received from the driver).

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Into LA for my Peace Corps papers: Part 1

The day’s work officially ends at 1:30, but I worked until perhaps 2:00 prepping food with Penny as she schooled me in the preparation of Jerusalem Artichokes. I ate heartily and quickly dashed to Barstow as per an arrangement with Stephen, made the night before.

DSCN2014

I rolled up to the Greyhound station in such a hurry that I scarcely noticed my rush until I had crushed my own thumb in a car door. What a mess. With finger bloodied, I made my way to the ticket office and bought the last remaining ticket and THEN staggered to the nearest food vendor in Barstow Station (a local tourism phenomenon) for ice.

DSCN1970
On break that day with (left to right) Lev, Stephen, and Bryan

Nursing my wound, I watched idly as the bus rolled up a mere ten to fifteen minutes later only to have the indignant driver address me in a confrontational manner with mock certainty of things I would soon discover to be untrue.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Chickens and Gardens

Today I pulled garden duty and since we now had Lev as well as Derrick (a neighbor guy that Penny hopes to employ part time), Tonya got to pick one person to help her in the Garden while the rest worked on the dome house. She picked me. My morning chore for the day was chickens which Steve showed me.

DSCN1932
Fine feathered friends

There are three pens with about ten chickens in each. Each pen gets a scattering of mash and scratch. Since Tonya and Penny are both vegan, they leave all the eggs to the non-vegan WWOOFers.

Aquarius Ranch has two gardens, a garden for produce to take to the market and a garden for the people who live and work here. Today, Tonya and I worked in the latter. First there were a couple of beds that needed weeding. Next, we transplanted some chard that has self-sewn from last season and thinned out some arugula. Needless to say, Pumpkin was all up in our business at the most inconvenient of times.

Among other things, there are starts of lettuce, tomato, spinach and cucumber. I also saw asparagus, carrots, and shallots. I’m told we also grow several varieties of garlic from which Tonya makes syrup. Yum.

DSCN1909
View of the non-market garden from atop the dome house. The beds I worked in are on the right behind the bamboo. They are covered with protective material.