Remember how I was complaining about all the bugs and bug bites yesterday? I may have muttered, "if I get one more bug bite I'm going on a homicidal rampage"??
Well, yesterday I decided, "forget organics!! Pesticides were the greatest invention ever, lets kill them all!!"..during that proclamation, I DOUSED myself in deet, all day long in fact, and even before I went to bed. I was determined to not wake up with eyelids covered in mosquito bites. Well, I woke up this morning with eyes so swollen I could barely open them; they were ON FIRE! Also, I spent a good portion of the morning washing my sun glass lens without any success on getting them cleaned. Finally, it dawned on me. No, my lens would never be clean because the deet actually melted little pockets throughout them. My eyes swollen, burning, and goopy? Why yes, magical deet. Needless to say, I have (again) seen the light and revoked my anti-organic stance. I mean, the stuff BURNS THROUGH PLASTIC!! When you are at the supermarket considering whether or not to spend that extra 30 cents on organic versus the other stuff, remember what I am saying here: the chemicals used to kill the insects on your food, as well as the chemicals that cover your food (in increasing abundance) BURN THROUGH PLASTIC (I can say it again if you'd like).
Aside from that revelation, hydrocortisone cream works very well in reducing the inflammation and itching caused by mosquito bites. I am no longer going insane from itch, all though I am still quite itchy, I think that I won't murder anyone....today.
After almost 2000 vines, we have switched from planting Chenin Blanc to Riesling. As Danny was explaining to us today, Riesling is a very common white wine in Germany and Eastern Europe. At one point in the United States, it was more common than Chardonnay. After 2000 vines, even the smallest change is an exciting one. Tomorrow we will be continuing to plant Riesling and will have a new WWOOFer with us. Tonight someone from Minnesota will be coming to join us, and tomorrow a group of WWOOFers from Britain will be coming in as well.
I suppose that is all to talk about today. Except maybe that we felt rain drops while working. Throughout the day and night we will hear heat thunder and see heat lightening, which (self explanatory) is caused by the extreme heat. Yet, today we actually felt rain drops (again, we have been doing nothing but plant vines for hours a day for the past four days, this is exciting stuff people!). We also decided that we are going to crush Benadryl and put it in Danny's morning smoothie so that we can either take the day off, or steal one of his dogs and hold if for ransom. I suppose we don't actually have to do it anymore since tomorrow will be our last day working. Saturday we are going fishing. Danny will be showing us how to gut a fish and then we will be grilling them as we catch them on coals. I am pretty excited for this.
I will try to post pictures ASAP but the Internet is so slow that I am having a hard time doing it. Wish me luck everyone! Lets hope my sore legs and feet can last one more day.
Oh yeah, and we were going to go to four corners today, but got out of work too late. Tomorrow we will most likely visit four corners (I've been there, its a plaque in the ground where CO, UT, AZ, and NM meet and that's about it, but still fun to do at least once in your life).
Talk soon! My skype name is Ncolao86 if anyone is interested.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Montezuma Canyon Ranch Day 3
So the internet is extremely slow here, but I do have it! It takes a while to do anything which is why I have not updated recently.
Anyways, today is my third day working at Montezuma Canyon Ranch and Vineyard, and let me tell you I'M EXHAUSTED. We are planting vines, Chenin Blanc, and working from 9:30am to around 5pm with a lunch break in between. The first day was incredible. The first 4 hours flew by without me even realizing it. After lunch, we all lost momentum (like usual) but it was still easy work. The second day was a little bit more difficult but nothing to complain about. Let me tell you, day three was excrutiating. Among the regular aches and pains one receives doing physical labor, I am covered head to toe in bug bites. All I remembered about Utah the last time I came here was how great and beautiful it was. Yes, I remembered the bugs, but not as vividly as I do now. I must admit, this morning I was in tears over the situation, I mean for goodness sake I even have bites on my eyelids. How the hell do you itch you eyelid?! I can tell, all the workers are a bit more fatigued today and we were all asking for the time more often than the other days. We even heard stories about previous workers who only had to work 5 hours a day. I called for a strike and even the formation of a union. We are still working out the details. Let's see how tomorrow goes!
Here is how one plants roots for a vineyard. You dig a hole. You put the root in (making sure all the roots are facing down or else they will grow upward and strangle the plant). You put a little bit of dirt over it. You put a "vine shelter" on top of it. You fill the vine shelter with dirt. You make a mound outside of the vine shelter. We do this for 8 hours a day. We need to do 3000 more. Yes, life is good.
Yesterday after work, we went for a hike around the canyon and learned a lot of interesting facts. First, the canyon is 50miles long, thats MONSTROUS. Throughout the canyon (which is 90% public land, along with the rest of Utah apparently) are Anasazi ruins. For those of you who don't know, Anasazi are a prehistoric Native American tribe. We went hiking to many of their shelters and kivas (ceremonial houses). As a budding Anthropologist, this was AMAZING. There was one part of the hike where there was almost a flat rock wall with little (and sparse) footholds going to a cave above. We all eagerly climbed up to look at this ancient shelter, only to realize how terrifying the climb down was. We also went to several other shelters where ancient pottery was littered throughout the clearing. There were the more popular pieces, which were black ink on top of white stone, and then rarer pieces including black ink on red stone, as well as crude arrowheads. I have visited Anasazi ruins in Utah state parks before, but it is an entirely different experience to find these ruins on your own without a huge arrow pointing you where to go. It was absolutely spectacular.
Danny Bull and his parents own the vineyard and they are originally from Santa Barbara, California. Danny opened the vineyard 5 years ago but lost most of his first years batch in a fire. When my group first arrived at MCR, Danny took us on a tour around his property. He has just under 200 acres, but only 30 are farmable. Mostly, it is a vineyard, but he also has a small vegetable garden. He carries many varieties of grapes, including my favorite, Pinot Noir, which does very well in the region. One of the most interesting aspects, for myself at least (a complete vineyard novice), was that the actual wine making process takes place in a cave on his neighbors property. He took us inside the cave and showed us where he racks and makes the wine (as well as his "vinegar barrel", or in other words, his mistake barrel). The most interesting aspect about this vineyard is that Danny started off as a novice as well; he learned about vineyards from books and then started his own. Prior to opening his own vineyard, he said he worked on others (where he learned nothing), took a seminar on planting, and read tons of books. While the vineyard may not be flourishing (it is only 5 years old), he is definitely doing exceptionally well for himself considering he is teaching himself every step of the way. Even yesterday Danny's neighbors came to his house and brought him over so that he could check on their vines. They thought they may have a virus, so they went to Danny, the novice, to ask for help; he diagnosed it as a potassium deficiency. Danny studied film at college, but decided that the big city LA life wasn't for him. It was around then his parents bought this farm in UT and let him start a vineyard on it.
The WWOOF (world wide organization of organic farmers) program itself is quite exceptional and diverse. Along with my group is another woofer and exchange student from South Korea who is attending a college in South Dakota. Previously he spent 5 weeks working on a farm in California. He will be spending the next 5 weeks here in Utah and visiting New York during his summer break. I haven't gotten a chance to ask him what made him interested in the WWOOF program, but it is definitley on my list of things to do. Friday, a couple of WWOOFers from Britain will be joining us.
There are so many things to write about but I just can't think of what else to say at the moment. Saturday we will be getting a one day fishing liscense and Danny will be taking us trout fishing at a nearby lake. I asked him to teach me how to gut a fish, so we will be bringing coals with us and cooking whatever we catch for dinner. Sunday we leave Utah and head for Arizona. We will be spending one day in Acrosanti and another day in Taos, a city very similar to Acrosanti in that it is purely sustainable (and quite famous, everyone asks me if I've been there). Also on Sunday, a surprise WWOOFer will be joining us. My boyfriend will be coming to join us for our farm work in New Mexico and leaving the day our original group begins to head home. I only have a one person tent packed with me so this will be quite hilarious (or enourmously frustrating, we will see).
As for everyone back home, enjoy the heat wave!! I bet you all wish you were in the pleasantly dry and moderate temperature desert with me!! Oh yeah and at night, its outright COLD!
Talk soon!
Anyways, today is my third day working at Montezuma Canyon Ranch and Vineyard, and let me tell you I'M EXHAUSTED. We are planting vines, Chenin Blanc, and working from 9:30am to around 5pm with a lunch break in between. The first day was incredible. The first 4 hours flew by without me even realizing it. After lunch, we all lost momentum (like usual) but it was still easy work. The second day was a little bit more difficult but nothing to complain about. Let me tell you, day three was excrutiating. Among the regular aches and pains one receives doing physical labor, I am covered head to toe in bug bites. All I remembered about Utah the last time I came here was how great and beautiful it was. Yes, I remembered the bugs, but not as vividly as I do now. I must admit, this morning I was in tears over the situation, I mean for goodness sake I even have bites on my eyelids. How the hell do you itch you eyelid?! I can tell, all the workers are a bit more fatigued today and we were all asking for the time more often than the other days. We even heard stories about previous workers who only had to work 5 hours a day. I called for a strike and even the formation of a union. We are still working out the details. Let's see how tomorrow goes!
Here is how one plants roots for a vineyard. You dig a hole. You put the root in (making sure all the roots are facing down or else they will grow upward and strangle the plant). You put a little bit of dirt over it. You put a "vine shelter" on top of it. You fill the vine shelter with dirt. You make a mound outside of the vine shelter. We do this for 8 hours a day. We need to do 3000 more. Yes, life is good.
Yesterday after work, we went for a hike around the canyon and learned a lot of interesting facts. First, the canyon is 50miles long, thats MONSTROUS. Throughout the canyon (which is 90% public land, along with the rest of Utah apparently) are Anasazi ruins. For those of you who don't know, Anasazi are a prehistoric Native American tribe. We went hiking to many of their shelters and kivas (ceremonial houses). As a budding Anthropologist, this was AMAZING. There was one part of the hike where there was almost a flat rock wall with little (and sparse) footholds going to a cave above. We all eagerly climbed up to look at this ancient shelter, only to realize how terrifying the climb down was. We also went to several other shelters where ancient pottery was littered throughout the clearing. There were the more popular pieces, which were black ink on top of white stone, and then rarer pieces including black ink on red stone, as well as crude arrowheads. I have visited Anasazi ruins in Utah state parks before, but it is an entirely different experience to find these ruins on your own without a huge arrow pointing you where to go. It was absolutely spectacular.
Danny Bull and his parents own the vineyard and they are originally from Santa Barbara, California. Danny opened the vineyard 5 years ago but lost most of his first years batch in a fire. When my group first arrived at MCR, Danny took us on a tour around his property. He has just under 200 acres, but only 30 are farmable. Mostly, it is a vineyard, but he also has a small vegetable garden. He carries many varieties of grapes, including my favorite, Pinot Noir, which does very well in the region. One of the most interesting aspects, for myself at least (a complete vineyard novice), was that the actual wine making process takes place in a cave on his neighbors property. He took us inside the cave and showed us where he racks and makes the wine (as well as his "vinegar barrel", or in other words, his mistake barrel). The most interesting aspect about this vineyard is that Danny started off as a novice as well; he learned about vineyards from books and then started his own. Prior to opening his own vineyard, he said he worked on others (where he learned nothing), took a seminar on planting, and read tons of books. While the vineyard may not be flourishing (it is only 5 years old), he is definitely doing exceptionally well for himself considering he is teaching himself every step of the way. Even yesterday Danny's neighbors came to his house and brought him over so that he could check on their vines. They thought they may have a virus, so they went to Danny, the novice, to ask for help; he diagnosed it as a potassium deficiency. Danny studied film at college, but decided that the big city LA life wasn't for him. It was around then his parents bought this farm in UT and let him start a vineyard on it.
The WWOOF (world wide organization of organic farmers) program itself is quite exceptional and diverse. Along with my group is another woofer and exchange student from South Korea who is attending a college in South Dakota. Previously he spent 5 weeks working on a farm in California. He will be spending the next 5 weeks here in Utah and visiting New York during his summer break. I haven't gotten a chance to ask him what made him interested in the WWOOF program, but it is definitley on my list of things to do. Friday, a couple of WWOOFers from Britain will be joining us.
There are so many things to write about but I just can't think of what else to say at the moment. Saturday we will be getting a one day fishing liscense and Danny will be taking us trout fishing at a nearby lake. I asked him to teach me how to gut a fish, so we will be bringing coals with us and cooking whatever we catch for dinner. Sunday we leave Utah and head for Arizona. We will be spending one day in Acrosanti and another day in Taos, a city very similar to Acrosanti in that it is purely sustainable (and quite famous, everyone asks me if I've been there). Also on Sunday, a surprise WWOOFer will be joining us. My boyfriend will be coming to join us for our farm work in New Mexico and leaving the day our original group begins to head home. I only have a one person tent packed with me so this will be quite hilarious (or enourmously frustrating, we will see).
As for everyone back home, enjoy the heat wave!! I bet you all wish you were in the pleasantly dry and moderate temperature desert with me!! Oh yeah and at night, its outright COLD!
Talk soon!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Day 3 Sustainability Project
Today was the third day of endless and nonstop driving. I personally drove 11 hours to Denver Colorado, and tomorrow we will have a final 7 hour drive until we finally make it to our destination in Utah! We had a bit of drama today. First, we feared for several hours that my engine was overheating (it was 95 degrees out) only to realize that the maintenance place I took my car to before the trip began forgot to reset the oil light. After that drama, and 11 hours of driving, we finally made it to Denver where we had made reservations at a motel outside of town. After checking in and entering my room, I immediately noticed toe nails covering the bed sheets and floor as well as a sign on the door reading, "For personal safety, always use deadlocks when inside room". Needless to say, I am now staying at the Sheraton (the others in the party found their rooms to be adequate).
As for the drive today, we went all the way through Kansas (9 hours) and one third the way into Colorado. Kansas is absolutely the flattest and definitley one of the most mundane places to drive through. There is not much going on, just flat fields of grain and the occasional picture of Jesus and promotion for adoption over abortion. In other words, it was extremely boring. Upon passing the state line into Colorado I was desperately looking forward to the Colorado of my memories from the last time I drove to Utah, unfortunetly, it wasn't until literally Denver that we saw the mountains we were craving. Aside from that, there really isn't much more to talk about.
These few days have been very difficult for me for a variety of reasons and so I am eagerly awaiting our arrival in Monticello, UT. This is a town that I have previously spent 6 weeks at and remember fondly. I cannot wait to revisit old places, but more importantly, focus on an entirely new topic: sustainability. This is something that I was unfamiliar with during my last visit. I cannot wait to view this city with new and educated eyes.
As far as WiFi connection, I am not sure if I will have it on the farm in Utah. If this is the case, I will try and update every few days by driving into town (my estimate is about 20 minutes away from the farm) and finding something to work off of.
Wish me luck!
As for the drive today, we went all the way through Kansas (9 hours) and one third the way into Colorado. Kansas is absolutely the flattest and definitley one of the most mundane places to drive through. There is not much going on, just flat fields of grain and the occasional picture of Jesus and promotion for adoption over abortion. In other words, it was extremely boring. Upon passing the state line into Colorado I was desperately looking forward to the Colorado of my memories from the last time I drove to Utah, unfortunetly, it wasn't until literally Denver that we saw the mountains we were craving. Aside from that, there really isn't much more to talk about.
These few days have been very difficult for me for a variety of reasons and so I am eagerly awaiting our arrival in Monticello, UT. This is a town that I have previously spent 6 weeks at and remember fondly. I cannot wait to revisit old places, but more importantly, focus on an entirely new topic: sustainability. This is something that I was unfamiliar with during my last visit. I cannot wait to view this city with new and educated eyes.
As far as WiFi connection, I am not sure if I will have it on the farm in Utah. If this is the case, I will try and update every few days by driving into town (my estimate is about 20 minutes away from the farm) and finding something to work off of.
Wish me luck!
Friday, July 2, 2010
What Can Go Wrong...Will - Sustainability Trip Day 2
I must have said the words, "Murphy's Law" at least a dozen times today.
Lets make a list of everything that has gone wrong:
GPS-broke
Kindle (Electronic Book which I cannot live with out and was oh so looking forward to reading)-broke
Trackball on my blackberry-broke
Around this point of the day, I decided that I was terrified to use my laptop. I was right, somethings up with the internet, and applications are randomly deleted (its been funky since before i left, BUT STILL!)
Oh yeah, don't forget about the ticket yesterday and how we lost a driver....
Go on with the self pity? Absolutely not. After speaking with a friend, she pointed out how hilariously awful the situation actually was. Seriously? How the heck could EVERYTHING have gone wrong? At this point, there's nothing to do but laugh. And laugh we did. And now after the multitude of emotional breakdowns? I'm actually impressed with you, yes you, Murphy.
Anywho, the drive today was way better and more entertaining the yesterday. Missouri is absolutely hilarious to drive through. Alongside the endless adult superstores (I saw one that was drive thru!! I will not repeat the scenerios we created that would go along with a drive thru adult superstore-use your own imagination) are GIANT Christian Crosses matched up with Adult Arcades. Of course, we saw the general cornfields, but in between, hilarity ensued.
I drove the entire 8 hours today from Indianapolis to Kansas City and to be honest, it was pretty easy. Im hoping that I will be able to do another 8 tomorrow before I let Annabel take over and hopefully do 4. The more hours we do tomorrow, the earlier we will get to Utah on the 4th. Also, tomorrow night we are going to be spontaneous and find somewhere to sleep on the spot rather than book in advance. Lets hope that we will find something vacant!
We also visited both Kansas Cities today. "Both?", you ask. Why yes, in fact Kansas City is split between Kansas and Missouri. I bet most of you know that, but we didn't. So if you received a phone call from me today saying, "we made it to Kansas", well..I lied haha. Kansas City in Missouri is actually way better. We visited the Jazz District (well, we blinked and missed most of it) and Riverside (theres an awesome Farmers Market there, which was closed). We also went to a park and saw a giant cock something or other (the badmitten thingy you pervert). it was a pretty cool city all in all.
Right now, I'm getting eaten by bugs so I have to end this a little earlier than I would have wished. I will post HOPEFULLY tomorrow, but if not, very soon.
Wish me luck, and that something else won't go wrong (or that if it does, its not something important!).
TTYS!
Lets make a list of everything that has gone wrong:
GPS-broke
Kindle (Electronic Book which I cannot live with out and was oh so looking forward to reading)-broke
Trackball on my blackberry-broke
Around this point of the day, I decided that I was terrified to use my laptop. I was right, somethings up with the internet, and applications are randomly deleted (its been funky since before i left, BUT STILL!)
Oh yeah, don't forget about the ticket yesterday and how we lost a driver....
Go on with the self pity? Absolutely not. After speaking with a friend, she pointed out how hilariously awful the situation actually was. Seriously? How the heck could EVERYTHING have gone wrong? At this point, there's nothing to do but laugh. And laugh we did. And now after the multitude of emotional breakdowns? I'm actually impressed with you, yes you, Murphy.
Anywho, the drive today was way better and more entertaining the yesterday. Missouri is absolutely hilarious to drive through. Alongside the endless adult superstores (I saw one that was drive thru!! I will not repeat the scenerios we created that would go along with a drive thru adult superstore-use your own imagination) are GIANT Christian Crosses matched up with Adult Arcades. Of course, we saw the general cornfields, but in between, hilarity ensued.
I drove the entire 8 hours today from Indianapolis to Kansas City and to be honest, it was pretty easy. Im hoping that I will be able to do another 8 tomorrow before I let Annabel take over and hopefully do 4. The more hours we do tomorrow, the earlier we will get to Utah on the 4th. Also, tomorrow night we are going to be spontaneous and find somewhere to sleep on the spot rather than book in advance. Lets hope that we will find something vacant!
We also visited both Kansas Cities today. "Both?", you ask. Why yes, in fact Kansas City is split between Kansas and Missouri. I bet most of you know that, but we didn't. So if you received a phone call from me today saying, "we made it to Kansas", well..I lied haha. Kansas City in Missouri is actually way better. We visited the Jazz District (well, we blinked and missed most of it) and Riverside (theres an awesome Farmers Market there, which was closed). We also went to a park and saw a giant cock something or other (the badmitten thingy you pervert). it was a pretty cool city all in all.
Right now, I'm getting eaten by bugs so I have to end this a little earlier than I would have wished. I will post HOPEFULLY tomorrow, but if not, very soon.
Wish me luck, and that something else won't go wrong (or that if it does, its not something important!).
TTYS!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Day One Sustainability Project
4AM wake up alarm, tearful goodbyes, and by 5:30AM Annabel, her brother Jeffrey, and myself were on the road heading towards our first destination on our sustainability road trip: Indianapolis. Like every trip, and the promise of Murphy's Law, my gps almost immediately stopped working. Yet, the with the beauty of old fashioned road maps, we were able to make it to our destination only an hour late: 13 hours. The ride started off chatty, but with all long trips, eventually silence took over and we allowed our thoughts to envelop us. I studied all the farms along interstate 70 and couldn't help but notice that while one hears that the United States is being taken over by corn and soybeans, its an entirely different experience to actually witness 10 hours of nothing but corn, and yes, soy. I never thought I would imagine myself saying this, but I was actually excited when there was an advertisement along the highway for McDonalds or whatever other fast food chain, fireworks shop, or adult superstore. Regardless of this redundancy, it was enlivening looking at all the farms and knowing that I am about to embark on an important and useful adventure: to learn organic and sustainable farming techniques and to adapt these techniques to urban settings.
Aside from the long drive, remembering everything we forgot to take, thinking about everyone we left behind, day one has been uneventful, except for losing one driver due to the fact that they already got a ticket and their parent has requested that they no longer take the wheel.
Actually, perhaps not that uneventful, considering we have decided to bypass one of our booked campsites so that we can arrive in Utah earlier the following day. Instead of stopping at this campsite, we will drive until we can't drive anymore, and then we will HOPEFULLY find a place to sleep. If not, Utah's calling!
We arrived in Indianapolis with enough time to swim in a murky, yet insanely relieving, swimming pool at our KOA. Currently, our tents and beds are set and our coals won't light, guess I am eating a cold dinner until tomorrow when I go out and buy lighter fluid (anyone have experience grilling with coals?? I have no idea what I'm doing!). Considering I am sitting on a sink in the KOA bathroom using the only available electrical outlet while typing on my laptop and being forced to endure this Christian Rock station...I must call it a night. Anyone feel free to call or email me, my phone will be on this whole trip.
Ill update every time I have wifi. Thank you everyone who donated and who is following my cause. I appreciate all of your support and enthusiasm.
Natalie
Aside from the long drive, remembering everything we forgot to take, thinking about everyone we left behind, day one has been uneventful, except for losing one driver due to the fact that they already got a ticket and their parent has requested that they no longer take the wheel.
Actually, perhaps not that uneventful, considering we have decided to bypass one of our booked campsites so that we can arrive in Utah earlier the following day. Instead of stopping at this campsite, we will drive until we can't drive anymore, and then we will HOPEFULLY find a place to sleep. If not, Utah's calling!
We arrived in Indianapolis with enough time to swim in a murky, yet insanely relieving, swimming pool at our KOA. Currently, our tents and beds are set and our coals won't light, guess I am eating a cold dinner until tomorrow when I go out and buy lighter fluid (anyone have experience grilling with coals?? I have no idea what I'm doing!). Considering I am sitting on a sink in the KOA bathroom using the only available electrical outlet while typing on my laptop and being forced to endure this Christian Rock station...I must call it a night. Anyone feel free to call or email me, my phone will be on this whole trip.
Ill update every time I have wifi. Thank you everyone who donated and who is following my cause. I appreciate all of your support and enthusiasm.
Natalie
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Sustainability Road Trip and Social Media
During our road trip, Natalie and I have decided to incorporate social media to document our fabulous adventures on the road. Why? Because in addition to nearly elimintating our paper trail, social media is a good tool to keep in touch with friends and family in real time with up to date statuses of not only what we are up to but more importantly, what we are learning on this trip.
So check us out on Facebook:
So check us out on Facebook:
Natalie's Partner in Crime
A few months ago, January to be exact, Natalie and I decided to go out for dinner. It had been forever and a half since I've seen her and in true Natalie fashion, we had our one on one time at a Japanese restaurant. I usually don't eat out at asian restaurants mostly because I don't like seafood but with Natalie, I am willing to try anything. We spent the entire afternoon swaping stories, from what we were doing right before meeting up to sharing what we would like to do after meeting up and everything in between. We both admitted that we would like to embark on a road trip and we also learned that our family owns farms. As I was taking the train back to my aunt's house, I was replaying our conversations back in my mind and an idea was born.
"Natalie, when are you starting your sustainability project where you go around seeing the strategies of farmers/people in the USA? How developed is this project of yours?---Do you want to farm across the US of A?"
This is the message I sent to Natalie as soon as I got home. When I look back at our dinner, I couldn't believe how much we still had in common. So it only made since to me if we collaborated our efforts this summer and engaged in a road trip that we would both benefit from.
Six months later, we have finally developed a proposal, a fine one that hopefully will provide us funding that will take us to the southwestern states and back. How did we go about coordinating all of this together? We both had to decide where we wanted to go, how long we wanted to stat there, how many stops we wanted to make on this trip and finally, how much it would cost to take us from point A to point B and C...Thanks to www.wwoofusa.org, we were able to select our destinations (three regions across the southwest) and finally decide that we want to spend a week at each farm.
As soon as we get into our car and drive, we will be chronicaling our journey one blog post and Youtube upload at a time. In the meantime, check us out on Facebook (our Facebook group is called HOMEGROWN ECO-TOURISM) and we'll keep you posted.
"Natalie, when are you starting your sustainability project where you go around seeing the strategies of farmers/people in the USA? How developed is this project of yours?---Do you want to farm across the US of A?"
This is the message I sent to Natalie as soon as I got home. When I look back at our dinner, I couldn't believe how much we still had in common. So it only made since to me if we collaborated our efforts this summer and engaged in a road trip that we would both benefit from.
Six months later, we have finally developed a proposal, a fine one that hopefully will provide us funding that will take us to the southwestern states and back. How did we go about coordinating all of this together? We both had to decide where we wanted to go, how long we wanted to stat there, how many stops we wanted to make on this trip and finally, how much it would cost to take us from point A to point B and C...Thanks to www.wwoofusa.org, we were able to select our destinations (three regions across the southwest) and finally decide that we want to spend a week at each farm.
As soon as we get into our car and drive, we will be chronicaling our journey one blog post and Youtube upload at a time. In the meantime, check us out on Facebook (our Facebook group is called HOMEGROWN ECO-TOURISM) and we'll keep you posted.
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