Spring is Sprouting

Happy Spring everyone!

Windflower Farm is up and running with most of the crew back for chilly mornings of seeding, potting-on, and schlepping (yes, it's a word). There are two High Tunnels the size of what you see here just filled with little plants popping up, not to mention the greenhouse holding all the tomatoes and things that like it nice and hot.

We've been spoiling ourselves with coffee and baked goods-even some homegrown popcorn- to keep warm while we work, and it feels good to be back after a winter of down time and cold. It amazes me that Daren made it through a whole winter season working in the cold to pack the winter shares and shovel snow from the tunnels. Not something I could do. The winter is too cold for me.

By next week the weather should begin to cooperate and we can get the broccoli, cabbage, and some herbs into the ground. Transplanting season is my favorite time of year. And it puts Sunday drivers to shame. If you ever get a chance to sit back and watch the slow, thirty minute trek of the tractor as it goes 300 yards you'll understand what I mean. Hey, maybe it's more like driving through NYC traffic . . . if so, I might stand a chance driving in the city.

Potting-on = taking small plants from their initial seeded tray and planting them "on" into the next size of our transplant trays so they can establish a larger root system.

Hello from the other side of the sunset‏ . . .

Hello everybody,

Wanted to send out a quick update for y'all. Can't remember when I last did, so forgive any repetition. I left my job at the vineyard at the end of January, road tripped with a couple German friends from southern Queensland to several of the beaches between there and Sydney. Lots of beautiful sands to see! Saw dolphins playing in the waves a couple times, got thrown around by some big waves, got a little sunburnt, learned to ride a "dumpo" from some local kids and time the jump off a cliff with an incoming wave so there was enough swell to keep me from hitting the rocks. Saw the prettiest beach I've seen so far, Port Stevens, with the biggest sand dune system in the southern hemisphere. Can I just tell you how pretty dunes are at sunset? Very.

From the beaches we went inland a bit, West of Sydney, to spend a couple days in Katoomba, a little town in the Blue Mountains, my favorite place in Australia so far. I like the beach, but I'm a forest guy without a doubt if I had to choose. After about two hours there I decided I'd stay another week, as my friends were heading to Sydney to fly to NZ the next day. There was too much stuff here to do and see, lots of hikes to take, which I did over the next week. The hostel where I pitched my tent for a week and a half is great. The flying fox. Great vibe, lots of cool people who are there to hike and swim and rock climb, so every day you could find people to do any of these activities with. Hiking every day for ten days makes you feel pretty sturdy and gamesome. Saw my first big Aussie snake here. Played music a couple times at an open mic in town. Second time I went with a Canadian guy to play. We played an impromptu set of music at the hostel the night before, and had a really great time playing together. We hit it off, as they say, and now I need to introduce him to my sister so they can marry and he can be my brother-in-law. That's the plan. As to romance for me, met a great French girl, and we spent some time together hiking with some friends and staying up late at the fire drinking with Germans and enjoying great company, me with a puppy dog romance that surprised the world, but as with everyone you meet backpacking, the goodbye is inevitable, and I'm in recovery now.

On Friday I took the train to Sydney, which was aweful, noisy and invasive in comparison to the beautiful place I'd been and it depressed me. There was no vacancy at any hostel, so I sat up till 4 am at a Mcdonalds until the airport opened, then I caught a flight to Melbourne. Spent the weekend with a friend I haven't seen in ten years or more, then on Tuesday drove down to Cranbourne to start working on a large farm there. Ted, you would be interested to know the farm is the Peter Schreurs and Sons farm you told me about. Huge farm. One jillion leeks! As one of the owners told me, it is less glamorous than most farm work, and is more factory than farm. It's true, loads of machines and belts that we stand at to process the veggies. Some parsnip picking in the morning, did a little leek planting earlier in the week, but mostly standing at the belt. Work here for a month or so, then off to Tasmania! Hiking the week long Overland Track with a friend, then some woofing around Tassie! An eventful next couple months is in store.

That's the update. Hope you all are well! I'm getting by here-:0) Here's a video someone found online from my last job during the floods at the vineyard. Kinda fun. My fifteen minutes of fame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhR5EmV2ffU

Letters from Australia . . .

Just a note, maybe a little late, to let you know the waters here have started lowering, but with no promise they won't rise again. Still raining a lot on the coast, still lots of severe flooding elsewhere. The news is pretty hairy for Queensland. Cars being washed away, people climbing onto their roofs to escape the water, all a few hours from here. Crazy weather. Grape picking ended on Friday, as we picked all that could be reasonably retrieved before the waters closed us in. We boated in and out of work all of last week, and Friday and Sat I helped ferry all our pallets of grapes that had been sitting in a fast filling cool room across the road, that is, across the river, on someone's party barge that the owner borrowed. Two pallets at a time ferried over to awaiting trucks, maybe 36 pallets or so in total. A very interesting agricultural experience.

I am looking for something to keep me busy and make some money for the next week and a half, till I drive out with a couple friends from Germany, heading back to Sydney. Be there a couple days, then likely I'll headed to Tasmania! Maybe get some work picking apples or cherries down there, or maybe just woof, then spend some time hiking an eight day path around the island. That is what I'm most excited about doing over here. Visiting the natural sights with my feet and eyes. If I can't find work here till I leave, I'll probably be taking lots of walks looking for some roos to photograph. Got a few pictures from work. There was a roo that got caught in the vineyard because the water trapped him by coming up from all sides. The little farm dogs are having fun with chasing him around every day. If you're standing in the rows picking and you hear a thumping sound, hug the vines!! Traffic coming through! Sometimes I want to jump out and tackle him as he runs through, cause how cool would that be, but I hear they have very sharp toenails (seriously) and can cut you up good. Or maybe that's another of the stories Aussies tell to pull we foreigner's legs. They like to do that. But I've heard it from a few people.

~Jake the Elder