Final Day at Revolution Farm

For our last day on the farm, it rained until 9 and after eating breakfast we went out and started working on revamping the fire pit and garden area.

We broke up the ground and reshaped the garden into a crescent moon shape, making a rock wall around it. Transplanted a sage plant to a new raised bed we made; planted a few trees and herbs inside the 'moon' too. The fire pit needed to be relocated out a few feet so we dugout a new area for it and built a brick wall around it. We removed a good amount of grass and then leveled it all with topsoil. It looks pretty darn good now.

This wwoofing experience all in all was positive but we really didn't partake in much of the farming/harvest since they already had 2 farm interns and 2 long term wwoofers. We mainly worked with Brigham doing odd and end jobs that needed to be done at some point and having extra hands helped motivate him to do some projects. I wish we did actual farming but for the short notice and duration of this stay it makes sense and I am please with everything we accomplished and learned. 

I learned a lot just by observing and seeing how things worked around the farm. I'm excited to bring back info to others about solar panels, composting toilets, hoop houses, community dinner and washing help. Should be interesting to see how the monastic community compares and contrasts. 

Blake arrived this evening from biking from Portland and him and Evan met me in Nehalem for some dinner then we rode back. Packing up out bikes and heading to Tillamook tomorrow.

More wwoofing

I will condense yesterday and today; got up early and started the day laying wire mesh an twisting cement thingys to the wiring. The cement truck was gonna be an hour late so we took clippers and such to a heavily forested part of the farm and hacked (no puns) away to make a new path and space for the hammock as well as get rid of some invasive plants.

The cement truck came and we spent the next several hours dripping sweat, shoveling concrete to low spots, and using a large piece of wood to go back and forth smoothening out the excess. I've never done this before but it is some hard work but glad to be a part of it. We finished that up around lunch time and we were done working for the day so Evan and I planned the rest of the bike trip route through Oregon and chatted with a couple guys who are making a book of poems with a letter press. Pretty crazy stuff!

That evening my friend, Jared, came out for a visit from Newburg which was so awesome to see him. Jared, Joey, and I used to hangout a lot when I lived in Portland. He drove Evan and I into Nehalehm to meet up with the rest of the wwoofers at a pizza place for dinner.

We sat around and chatted for the rest of the evening back at the barn then bid farewell to Jared.

Today it was just dumping rain so Brigham, Evan, and I sat inside and drank some tea seeing if it would let up since we had some projects to do outside and it never did let up so we did some other projects. 

We cleaned out an old hoop house and weeded it then dugout a couple clay pits and made a 3 ft deep by 15ft long and 3 ft wide row for next years growing. We did some random moving of a huge bay window, cleaned some tools, and went through recycling stuff before heading down to the lower farm and cutting wood for close to 3 hrs. 

Oh at one point in the day I was telling Evan a story about my childhood where we would buy trading cards and in the middle of my story Evan says, "yeah I need to take a shower too." And we just busted out laughing. He wasn't even paying attention. We had some good laughs today especially when we coined the phrase, 'above the lolz'. Feel free to use it.

We are just kicking back this evening reading and waiting for community dinner. Blake should be getting in tomorrow then on Saturday we are hitting  the road to bike in some nicer weather before more rain comes.

WWOOFING Day 1

Last night we slept in the big red barn since it rained pretty hard and our tent was a little wet. We swept the floor in the welding room and slept pretty well.

Got up had some fresh tea and hot cereal with raisins, honey, and peanut butter. We then got to working ripping up grass in a 14 by 14 foot section for an outdoor kitchen area. Then leveling the dirt since one side was level and the other needed some fill. We then cut wooden stakes and boards to prepare for the cement truck tomorrow. We also moved dirt around to start building a cat haven so one of the cats stops killing the hummingbirds since they aid in pollination.

We had a great stew for lunch and a zucchini pasta (zucchini strips instead of noodles) for dinner. All very great. We've been helping with the dishes since we didn't cook.

Sat around and read and admired the farm. The wwoofer workers harvested tomatoes, corn, cucumber, and such. 

All in all a good first day. Will see what is in store for us tomorrow weather dependent.

Let the WWOOFING begin!

With Blake off with his friend, Evan and I left Gearhart and headed to our first wwoofing farm. If you haven't heard of wwoofing it stands for world wide organization of organic farming. Basically there are organic farms all over the world that are online and you can go work at them and they will house you and feed you. Some want you to be there for a minimum stay like 2 weeks and others have a come and go policy while others have full time positions. 

We are at Revolution Garden in Nehalem, OR. A smaller farm I'm told, there is an upper and lower farm and the upper is completely off the grid with solar panels and a river power generator powering 5 buildings. Pretty impressive! There is over 3 acres of farmable land and they rent out an awesome Japanese cabin on AirBnB that was built out of all found wood mainly drift wood. 

There are several hoop houses and rows of vegetables. They just harvested this morning a ton of onions, it's insane. They are drying in a hoop house and I believe they didn't even harvest them all yet. The rain started up and it was intense all day. 

So there are two long term volunteers, then two shorter term (month) volunteers, Ginger, Brian?, Ben?, and Evan and I. I believe Ginger and Ben? (can't remember some of the names sorry) own the property and Ben built all the structures which is nuts. Guess Ben is a master carpenter and he makes his living doing small kayaking classes where you actually build your own kayak in a week. We saw some today and they were amazing. Truly talented. 

Since it was raining we went to the tomato hoop house and most of us weeded while two pruned infected leaves. Was a nice time to get to know the other volunteers. Evan and I will be mainly working with Brian I think is his name (Ginger's bf) build a cob rocket stove if the weather permits, leveling an area and pouring a slab and making an outdoor kitchen, as well as some other projects. Just depends on weather and materials. 

They have compostable toilets, a Japanese tub, and solar heated showers. I'm full of questions. Hopefully some will get answered. Time will tell.

Rest day in Seaside

Awoke to condensation in the tent and laid my sleeping bag out in the sun and grabbed my book to read for a bit. We planned on making today a day off from riding before we head to the farm in Nehalem. 

Let me note this is the second attempt to write this post; I had finished and hit send and my phone crashed losing the post. Sorry if it is short.

I reactivated my phone by plugging it in to the laptop of our hosts but it still has issues. We washed our smelly clothes and waited for them to dry so we'd have something to wear for the day. 

Blake was getting a ride from a friend into Portland for a couple of days then he's planning on riding to meet us at the farm. Evan and I went to the bike shop to get his headset adjusted and top off our tires. I meandered to a book store and then down to the beach where I chatted with a strangely vague man for some time. He was fascinated with our trip but every time I asked him about his life he skirted around it. So I thanked him for the friendly conversation and met Evan at Seaside brewery for lunch.

Let me preface this by saying I'm basically trying all the veggie burgers down the coast when we stop in somewhere to eat. I was really disappointed by Seaside Brewery not only did they not have any of their own beers on tap but they were using Morning Star black bean veggie patties which I sometimes get myself. I should know tourist town and tourist prices doesn't mean good food. I could have made a better burger and fries for the amount I paid for it all. I hope this is the last time I ramble about veggie patties.

Ev and I rode out along the coastal bike path out past the crowds and to a bench to read, journal, and nap. Basically Evan was reading aloud to me because he was just loving his book and felt the urge to share. I've been there, most recently with Michael Pollan's 'Omnivores Dilemma' just ask Nate, Dani, and Joey. It was still a nice time to hangout and soak in the mind boggling notion of the ocean.

Once the sun started setting and the temperature dropped right along with it, we started biking the 3 miles back to our host's house. Hungry, we decided to try the 'The Great Wall' Chinese restaurant across the street which was good but a ton of food. Darkness was upon us and we meandered around the covered picnic table before retreating into our tent for the evening.

Hood to Seaside

This day was supposed to be a rest day but it was more like a light riding day. I rode to the library to try and reactivate my phone but didn't work; rode over the bridge to Warrenton to the AT&T store but they couldn't help, said I had to go to the apple store in Portland but that wasn't gonna happen so I went to Fred Meyers and got a sin dog by Dave's Killer Bread (if you haven't had one, find one, eat one, and share with friends). I waited for Evan and Blake to meet me so we could head to Seaside. 

After a couple hours passed, they showed up. I was able to read and chat with some employees on their breaks. There's just something about people from the Pacific Northwest, friendly in a different way than Western Canadians which really stand out to me.

Today was Hood to Coast, a 198 mile relay race from Mt Hood to the coast in Seaside. Teams of young and old, many and few, churches, school groups, friends, and coworkers make shirts, decide on cheesy team names, and decorate their support vehicles and start early morning and end whenever they end that day. What is waiting for them is a big BBQ and beer and the beach! They do fireworks that evening and have dance music going too. Basically this place is super busy. 

Here is where we come in, dressed in our tuxedo jerseys and riding loaded bikes through what could be a scene from the Walking Dead of gridlock cars. People kept asking which part of the 'leg' we were doing and why were we riding loaded bikes and we kept explaining to people we are touring not participating in Hood to Coast. 

We bypassed countless cars and rode to the beach where we kind of became part of the participants crossing over the runners lane to get to a line swing set on the beach to lock up our bikes. We were happy to be done riding but now didn't really know what to do since it was sheer craziness in town. We stood on the beach people watching celebrate finishing the relay and then the others who were just there enjoying the waves and sun. People wandering out way to far out into the ocean with their baby, not a good idea. 

After we got all sandy and had no means to wash our feet off we rode to a cafe for a smoothie and wifi. We ended up hearing back from a Couchsurfing couple in gearhart and we rode out to setup for the evening. 

A nice older couple who are school teachers in the summer and sell flowers and trinkets at farmers markets in the summer, were our hosts. Mark showed us the property then proceeded to take us for a hike through some backwoods trails along an old railroad path and to a marsh where a herd of elk meander, a bald eagle nests, and raccoons cause raucous. 

After showering and making dinner, Mark shared some stories of school trips he takes his students on to cowboy poetry festivals in Nevada and to Portland to talk with the son of the interpreter of Chief Joseph's last speech. After sharing some wine and many laughs we headed to our tents for the evening.

Goodbye Washington, Hello Oregon

After 360+ miles and several wooded and clear cut hills, we found ourselves riding in the mist watching the bridge to Astoria, Oregon getting larger and larger.

I was awoken that early morning by Evan rustling around in his tarp contraption, wondering if there was room in the tent since it started to rain. The rain turned to mist when we had to get up and pack up. 

The only two things that really stuck out in y mind from that day of riding was a dismal mill on the side of a grimey river. Saw a couple other mills, but this one and the tiny town seemed more downtrodden. We took a break on the bridge overlooking the whole scene. The second part that stuck out was out lunch stop; we just went through a construction area and we noticed an overgrown road that led back into the forest. The road went back maybe 40 feet and seemed to be a turnaround parking area for hunting. The trees were thick and the ferns reminded me of Jurrasic Park. It was just enough removed from the road to muffle the sound. 'Twas a nice break in the cycling.

We came down a hill and the landscape opened up to a view of the river separating Washington from Oregon and a bridge connecting the two off in the distance. We were rejuvenated with excitement but knew there was still some riding to be had. Once on the bridge we had 4 miles to cycle with lots of traffic., wind, and mist. The excitement wore off a bit once we started climbing the last section which was quite steep. Nonetheless we cruised down the main strip to Fort George a nice pub for a celebration of completing Washington and the excitement of Oregon! 

As I was sending off a couple texts to friends my phone shut off and came on with a reactivation screen which I had no way to do. I figured I'd take it to the AT&T store the next day.

We ended up staying the night with a Couchsurfing host on her sailboat. Blake an Evan shared the main bed and I sprawled out from a bench over a cooler to another padded bench which happened to be right in front of the doorway. Needless to say it wasn't the best sleep but served its purpose of shelter from the elements. Blake and Evan awkwardly stepped over me when they needed to use the piss bucket throughout the night (bladders like children). Guess I will end there.