Life on the Ranch

Aquarius Ranch is in the basin of dry lake that dates to prehistoric times. It’s in the Mojave Desert about a three-hour drive from Las Vegas. Los Angeles is a small dome of light on the horizon at night. There is a radio station here for people on I-15, commuting to one of those cities or going between them called, “The Drive”. It plays an odd collection of Steve Miller and Metallica mixed with the occasional track by Nickelback or Sevendust.

The first dome house (already complete when I arrived)

Life on the ranch ain’t bad. Mornings are devoted to animal care and whatever other labor is the order of the day. Sunday and Monday we tend the garden, and Tuesday through Thursday we work on the dome house. In the afternoons we get out of the heat and do whatever we please. Same goes for Fridays and Saturdays.

Pumpkin, one of Penny’s dozen or so cats

I could sure get used to this. There is a fridge in the house with food just for WWOOFers and a trailer where we all hang out and cook meals (and where James currently lives). The big news from the day before I got here was the 40-mph winds. Everyone was nervous for their trailers and anything that wasn’t tied down was liable to blow away. Later this week we are going to tour a neighbor’s ranch. More on that to come.

Aquarius Ranch: Day 1

This is the trailer I presently call home

There is a lot to learn here at Aquarius Ranch. The place pretty much has a revolving door (Penny says the magic number is about 6 WWOOFers at any given time, each working for six hours a day), so routines and schedules are important. The day begins at 8:00 with a short meeting in the house. I was on horse duty, so Penny took me around the corrals, introducing me to her five horses (Poco, Navajo, Raffles, Feather, and Johnny) and acquainting me with the routine by which she cares for them.

Today was a dome day which meant contributing to the ongoing construction of a dome house on the property. Fellow WWOOFer, James was here before and has returned after taking an intensive course at the nearby Cal-Earth Institute with other students from around the world. The course was in the construction of special dome-shaped dwellings made from a material known as super adobe which consists of earth, water, and cement.

Together WWOOFers Stephen, Bryan, and I worked under James’ direction to fill long tubes made of a woven plastic material and lay them on top of a layer of identical tubing that was already laid when I arrived. I worked for several hours out in the 62-degree day (actually quit bearable with the steady breeze) listening to 96.9 FM “The Drive” until it was time for lunch. When we stepped inside, the garden director, Tonya already had a delicious, cheesy vegan sausage pasta dish waiting for us.

Lunch!

Into the Desert

I awoke at Max’s apartment having spent the evening before at a great Mexican restaurant and a very authentic-feeling, smoky Korean bar. Having given myself until 3pm to catch my bus to Barstow, I was able to leisurely shower, repack, and make my way to the Greyhound station. I dozed and listened to drum n bass while watching through the windows of the bus as the Los Angeles urban jungle slowly gave way to dry mountains and desert subdivisions and finally the rugged brush of the Mojave Desert.

Penny, my first host picked me up in Barstow around 6pm and we drove another half-hour to Hinkley, a tiny desert community that garnered national attention years ago when Erin Brockovich went to court against the authorities to win its people the right to clean drinking water (never fear; Penny’s ranch, Aquarius Ranch gets its water from a separate aquifer).

Arriving around dark, Penny gave me a cursory tour and went over some ground rules before introducing me to my fellow WWOOFers and saying goodnight. There was just enough time for a game of Settlers of Catan (I won!) before it was time for bed.

The inside of my trailer

It’s in the Mail!

Thursday afternoon as I drove across town for the third or fourth time, scrambling to square away the last of my arrangements for moving out of my apartment, sloughing excess possessions and cramming what was worth keeping into the space under the stairs at my mom's place, I received a call from the notorious 202 area code.

It was the placement office calling to tell me they had mailed me an invitation packets on October 9. Concluding that it must have been lost in the mail, she agreed to send a new one to my friend's address in Los Angeles. Hopefully it will have reached him by the time I arrive. All I know so far is that I’m departing in March.

Friday was spent with my new friends, OMEN's current VISTAs, on a trip to Tillamook to help Food Roots work on its community gardens. We camped in a yurt and I departed first thing this morning for Portland where I caught Amtrak's Coastal Starlight bound for LA. As I write this, a couple strums mandolins and sings folk songs two tables down from me here in the observation car as I barrel into the California night.

The 2010-11 OMEN VISTAs plus a dog (you know, the one in the orange jacket)

All Systems Are Go

Well, folks, from the sound of things it actually just may happen. Yesterday I had my second interview and today they filled the second-to-last checkbox in my toolkit:

According to Kevin Brendle at Peace Corps headquarters, the reason I didn't get placed in the program for which I was nominated, is because that program was cut. He told me that given the present situation, I'm under consideration for a placement in community development. Specifically he mentioned working as a teacher either of English or health-related topics. I told him I would be happy to serve in either capacity. He also wanted to know whether I was willing serve in a more rural or more urban setting to which I responded that I would be equally pleased with either.

In other news, my WWOOF tour has begun to take shape. I've been diligently emailing potential WWOOF hosts and have gotten positive responses from a handful. One in particular is quite excited about my web skills (of all things) and wants to put me to work at an art collective and community garden she organizes.

Finally, I also received notice that CNCS has paid the interest that accrued on my student loans during my AmeriCorps service. The sum? A cool $857.13, baby. Stay tuned in November for when I take my next big bite out of my student debt.

Profile of a WWOOFer

Greetings, my name is Charlie Thompson and this is my blog, "Life Called". I created this post to share a little about myself with individuals and organizations seeking to host a WWOOF member.

About Me
I grew up in Tualatin, Oregon and attended Oregon State University for business administration and management information systems (MIS). During my last year of college, having already completed my business and MIS coursework and worked for a cumulative year in manufacturing, I decided to spend a half-year in Guatemala volunteering at an NGO and finishing my Spanish minor.

Returning to the United States near the beginning of the recession, I became an AmeriCorps volunteer to support myself and learn about microfinance. At the same time my interest began to grow in movements surrounding alternative food systems and international development. In July, 2009 I applied to the Peace Corps in hopes of pursuing the latter. While researching the former, I discovered WWOOF. Presently it appears that I will begin Peace Corps in January or February of 2011.

As a WWOOFer
I will be WWOOFing alone with no more baggage than I can carry on my back and in my hands. While I am not vegetarian or vegan, I welcome opportunities to have a diet free of meat specifically or animal products in general. I have had many group living situations, good and bad, and I am committed to promoting harmony and respecting shared living space and amenities. I am not shy when it comes to household chores.

I have a great amount of latitude in terms of lodging arrangements. I am happy to share a house or apartment with a host or occupy a separate building with a room to myself or to share a room. To give you an idea, I once spent a year in a cooperative house where we lived two-to-a-room and slept twelve-to-a-room. I am also willing and able to live in a tent if the climate permits.

I want to contribute whatever manual and technical labor I can. I have experience developing database-driven web applications and doing various tasks at nonprofit organizations including grant-writing and leading personal finance workshops. I have also worked as a dishwasher and a food-service worker, so I'm no stranger to blue-collar work. I want to gain practical, hands-on experience in various forms of food cultivation and generally become a more knowledgeable and conscientious consumer of food.

I am also interested in whatever construction, administrative, or related work you might have to offer. Also, I'm fluent in Spanish.

Labor Day

My AmeriCorps year had me living pretty lean. I don't really trust the water in the house where I live, and while I am morally opposed to the concept of bottled water in principle, I'm finding it somewhat of a necessary evil in my present living situation.



These bottles represent 17 days' worth of water consumption from the four 1-gallon jugs I took with me when I left work August 20; my last day as an AmeriCorps Volunteer.

There's another bottle as well that I bought when I was in a jam. It's about half empty. Guess that means I'm not drinking a whole lot of water. About two gallons and three quarts (a little more than 6.5 liters) or less than half of a liter per day. I can hardly imagine how whole families get by with similar water conservation needs in developing parts of Latin America.

I'm reminded of a water situation that emerged while I was volunteering in exchange for room and board in Guatemala. You can read my blog post that mentions it here:

http://guatemalacharlie.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/neighborhood-meeting/