The farm house is where we are staying in one of the many bedrooms which ours is upstairs. Every day we seem to find a new room or closet or nook. The two bathrooms and kitchen have been completed remodeled an overhauled with the finest amenities one could ask for, washer, dryer, stocked kitchen, and a hot water on demand system so you'll always have a hot shower no matter what is going on elsewhere in the house. Most of the rooms are filled with furniture and tools and kitchen equipment but we but a comfy reading chair in the room adorned with four large bay windows where you can watch the sunrise and then dip over the hills to where the ocean lays. We get some good reading and blogging done.
There is so much so hopefully I cover everything about the farm. Three people started Starcross Brother Toby, Sister Marty, and Sister Julie; I do not know much about then since they live up the property and we have a boundary to allow them to do what they do. I believe they practice some sort of monastic traditions, but they are not monks just regular people like you and I who decided that retreating to the wilderness to focus on gardening, writing, religiousness, and olives where what they wanted to pursue.
Starcross is a nonprofit so they do some stuff with the community like today I helped with their food pantry that they have every Friday where fresh veggies, fruit, canned goods, rice, beans, bread, meats, clothes, and books are given to families in need. When they sign in there is someone there with information about programs that can help them get on their feet and support themselves. It was good to be part of that aspect of Starcross and see how each person is known by name and Julie or Holly knows their situation and if they are vegetarians and if they have kids. It was a very kind, gentle, and honest act of giving without an in your face 'do you know Jesus?' or demeanor of anyone being better than the other. I was thankful for that.
The farm consists of thousands of olive trees, a small fruit orchard, a good sized veggie garden that will be expanded and add a couple greenhouses next year, a small Christmas tree farm (just for the families living on the property), and numerous wild acres of forests that are protected in a land trust. They have a patch of land across the street where they have given to the county fire department so there is a fire engine across the street which must be soothing just in case there is an emergency.
What is different about this wwoofing experience than when we were at Revolution Garden is that there are no other wwoofers, we mainly work with Lance the farms manager an only full time worker, there are no community dinners but we do get to pick out the fruits and veggies we want for ourselves when we harvest, also Holly or Marty make us goodies like cupcakes, apple butter, apple cobbler, we are actually doing farming work instead of solely handymen work which is fine but it has been such a learning experience by doing. Starcross also doesn't provide you with food like we had access to at Revolution Garden where we would so breakfast on our own then do community lunch and dinners and we could choose from a wide amount of foods but here we are each given $50 for a weeks work (20hrs) and actually any hours after 4 each day is paid, $10/hr so we have been making money while we are here and it's so nice! We go to town (Gualala) once a week for groceries and then we are pretty much around the farm. It does get a little boring after work because there isn't much to do besides read. I do sudoku and we can get a little bit of wifi on and off from the second floor window so sometimes we are able to see what is going on elsewhere. I would love to be able to play some guitar or even watch a movie but this free time has allowed me to write out and reflect on things that I take for granted when I'm back home, wherever that may be.
While we have been here we have harvested many kinds of apples, pears, and tomatoes. With the tomatoes we boiled them, juiced them, and canned them. With the apples we peeled and cut them for apple butter and cobbler. They were also given out in CSA boxes and at the food pantry. One day we delimbed and cleared a huge fallen tree and other tree trimmings from around the farm and made a huge burn pile. We will be painting the farm house exterior so we spent one morning and afternoon scrapping the old paint off. There have been other odd and end jobs we've done but those stand out.
We will be here for two weeks total so we finished our first week and we are going to Santa Rosa this weekend with some friends to celebrate Evan's birthda then come back Sunday evening. Blake will depart us then and head back to Idaho.
I feel like I'm forgetting something and hopefully I'll remember and will add it to the next weeks blog post.
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