I drafted this in 2018 and never edited or further adjusted or dealt with any of it. I"m going to publish it as-is because, well, why not? I think I'm going to start blogging on this again, though at this point it's basically blogging into a void. But I think it'll be helpful for me to type type away about my latest and newest life change (bout to buy a small house and larger parcel of land in an entirely new place). Apologies if tone and image quality is, uh, not great on this year old unfinished round up.
As always, the order in which I took these photos, and the order in which Blogger chooses to display them is not one and the same, but I am an inveterate lazy person and refuse to go to the trouble to sort it all out. We'll see how this whole post shapes up as far as actual content goes. This most of these photos were taken a year ago or just under that, and my current wanderings and wonderings are far more fresh than the state of mind I was in back then. I imagine there will be a fair amount of 'woe is me, my face and body used to be skinnier/stronger' and maybe a modicum of passive aggressive griping about the reasons behind my departure (I hope not though, because it's not a good look and life goes on). And maybe further discussion of the concept of home, or how big and little and same and different all of America some times seems to me as I drive through it, staying very small amounts of time in myriad places. If America was a map, and I was a rain cloud, then my foot steps would be rain drops but the smattering of them would never make much of a puddle, let alone a lake. What? Maybe just pithy captions is the way to go. We'll see.
Birdie and Rey remained steadfast sparring partners. That my life is most often now documented through Birdie as my proxy is pretty okay with me.
Yeah this is way out of order. I think this is on Lopez Island in July, after I had left Ellensburg.
The above and below were taken on Whidbey, also in July or late June. I spent a couple of days there before going to Lopez, staying with Clare or camping by Whitney's tiny house in her parents' yard. But a lot of my days were going to the old farm and hiking my way down to its beach for final days of beach lounging. Stan had gotten really into felting likenesses of his friends and the farm dogs. I left Birdie with them for a few nights when I went to Lopez, and when I returned, Stan had made one of her. I was so happy to have one. It hangs from my car's rearview mirror as one of a few talismans from that time - the others including two of the most perfect moon snail shells I managed to find on the last day of farm beachery and a wooden otter that Whitney carved for me.
Skinny faced beach time. Fuck.
I joined M&A and their kids and old college friend Jason for a couple of days on Lopez. I'd never been and certainly did enjoy it. We went to a community concert featuring the musical stylings of a Beatles coverband that had come all the way from Athens, Georgia...because of course it did. At one point I ran into a hippie lady with this puppy and I was missing Birdie so much I really wanted to take it. But I didn't...just watched it while the lady went to the restroom.
Whitney and Brock on her tiny house porch. Great photo of both of them, for sure.
Whitney's house is a culmination of two or even three years of hard work on her part and with many assists from Stan as well. It is delightful and magic.
Lopez Island rocks. Figuratively and literally.
Birdie and I stopped by Whitney's workplace at that time for a quick burger and maybe a goodbye?
I also met up with Gabby whilst I was on the island. We took our respective terriers to Double Bluff and ate sandwiches and caught up. She is a very delightful, smart, funny and kind teenager. If all of them could be that way, I wouldn't be so terrified of them. As we were heading back to the car, we were walking across the pool of water that forms way back from the shore...I don't think it's a tidal pool as much as a weird giant puddle. In any case, across in this instance means balancing ourselves on a log or two that had been put across it. Of course this ended with me going ass over teapot into the water, along with my bag that half a sandwich in it. I was so amused I asked the strangers laughing at me to take a photo. And my left breast seriously considered revealing itself, but chose not to at the last possible second.
The Whidbey farm was - and I imagine is - a pretty magical place to spend some time. It wasn't all roses and there were challenges and difficulties to my time there, but even factoring them in, the good generally outweighs the bad. I'd never had gotten myself Birdie without first meeting her aunt, Coco, never would I have blithely and giddily followed Stan into the sound on a low tide day and caught my own Dungeness crab, nor would I feel confident in so many elements of farm chores without having been first taught and then trusted by Lynn. And then there's just the fact that the dogs were having such a great time most all of the time.
Back, inexplicably, to Lopez and little M looking out into the beyond.
I was never a super model skinny girl, but damn I felt good about myself and looking at these photos, I am glad I did. I'm glad at the time of my healthiest/fittest self I was fully cognizant of it and enjoyed it, instead of somehow beating myself up for even smaller flaws. Womp. Womp. Womp.
I always would bring little M. bits of jewelry to play with because I knew she liked to...this visit was no different.
The Ellensburg house and the small landscaping steps I took before it was clear that I wasn't going to stick around. I somehow imagine the moment I left the boss man pulled it all up and deemed it done all wrong.
Birdie and her aunt Coco playing at the beach.
Before it turned all the way warm on a walk in Ellensburg.
A drawing I made.
I caught Bobby sniffing around a wheelbarrow one day and found that he had located a secret laying place of the free range chickens.
Whitney visited and we went on a hike up into the hills. We hoped to find elk sheds, but found none. Super steep terrain.
The mezze I put together upon our return.
A morning boop and cuddle between Whitney and Birdie.
Another photo from the hike that sort of shows you the landscape and the rushing stream.
Lambs were born.
Very cute lambs. Because they weren't a dairy operation, and also just had a different philosophy about it, lambing season was far less intense or hands-on when compared to the Whidbey farm.
One day my boss called me whilst he was out and asked me if I could meet him by the ag store to help locate and return a hitchhiking chicken he heard/we eventually found in his trailer's wheel well.
So many eggs.
Bebbe.
Bebbes.
Can you spot Bella the dog? She went looking for chickens up in the hay stacks and then wasn't entirely sure how to get down.
Sun either rising or setting. Setting because that would be looking west. I'm smart!
One task I had was to put away the chickens at night. When their "tractor" home hadn't been moved for a couple of days this was pretty simple, they made their way there by themselves. But on the evenings when we changed the homes' locations, at least 20-100 chickens would not understand it and would bed down in the grass where the tractors had been the previous night. So, to get them to their rightful sleeping domiciles, I got on the ATV and brought with me two large garbage cans with lids. Then I would scoop/chase chickens, get them by their feet, place ~8 of them in each can then zoom down to the tractors on the ATV and dump them all in. And then repeat that a few times depending on the number of stragglers. It was dark work and not entirely fun, but also, like most farm chores from my perspective...still pretty fun.
This seems to be a roasted chicken I made with a side of stuffed and baked poblano peppers.
Another hilly walk. Or perhaps the same one. Hard to say.
A more defined and happy face.
Cow skulls come with toupes.
Rainbow on the way in to Seattle.
Eating treats with M&A before they entirely gave up meat.
Birdie and Coco.
The ridiculous mud/water situation at the entrance to the cows' pasture. God it was bad.
The cows coming after me because I started spreading out their breakfast on the opposite side of the pasture from where they had been hanging out. It was always fun to see them roll into a canter-like gait.
Birdie wasn't sure about any of it.
A tofu stew I made with poached egg on top.
Butter calf.
I couldn't quite get a photo that fully showcased just how deep the mud was. Like, this doesn't look so bad from this angle...but it was. It really was.
Spring starting peeping.
The dogs kept playing.
Birdie looking hella swole after a hike and splash.
My kitchen sink view.
My face after I moved the tractors by myself and didn't fuck anything up.
Somewhere outside of Wenatchee on the way to get my hair cut.
My hair cut.
More spring.
I did make a couple of friends whilst I was in Ellensburg. Steven worked for the farm from time to time and I enjoyed getting to hang out with him and his wife Therese from time to time.
When the digging to lay in plumbing/gas began.
Trump loving mongrels were a dime a dozen round those parts.
I also made friends with Maxine and Matthew after meeting them at the Iron Horse Brewery one night. They were lovely people to get to know and I was happy to have them over for a small fire/diner one night.
A different hike, this one in search of a waterfall.
Which we found.
I'd never worked cattle before, so I was both excited and trepidatious to do so. I can't say it was an altogether fun time. On the whole it was just Chris and me, and whilst I was fitter and stronger, and he was fit and strong, it might have been easier if we had two more sets of hands. Chris refused to 'trim' the cow's hooves and we all knew I wasn't ready for such a task, so the boss man did it.
At one point I was trying to ear tag a calf, who had horns, but it shook its head in such a way and at such a moment that I got hit in the face with its horn. Or, more accurately, grazed...if it had been a more full blow it would have been far worse. Chris and I were both a bit shaken up about it. Kept doing the work of course, but he was like 'you really could have just lost an eye' and I concurred. Then I spent the next few days trying to take a good photo of my shiner without entirely satisfying myself with a really good one.
Drawing.
Black eye attempt.
Steven and Therese also came over for a fire and sausages.
This hike killed me a little. It was so steep and remained that way for the duration. I actually ended up not getting to the summit, so wiped I was from the first mile and a half. Summit is not really the word because compared to mountains, it was just a really big hill.
The wildflowers were worth it though.
Not the cow that hit me. Or maybe.
Another big mud puddle, but one we never needed to deal with in regards to the tractor. I think it also would expand or contract depending on what the bossman was doing irrigation-wise.
Then it started getting hot. At this point all the animals were off the old farm and on the new one. The new one was bigger but didn't have the same infrastructure as the old one. Ie: no water spigots in all the best places. So a huge portion of my day would be filling up the drums behind me with water and then distributing the water to the various flocks/herds etc. The cattle could go through a good portion of the water in just the time it took me to fill up their troughs and go back and get a little more for sheep.
Bones.
Finished.
A fun thing I saw on my drive from the old to new farm one time.
More spring.
More sausage.
An accidental attempted upload of a video of me filling the trough and the bull getting first dibs. I took a lot of said videos in slow-mo because their tongues lapping at the water amused me.
Sunset in downtown Ellensburg.
Living the good dog life.
Another accidental upload of a video (that I believe won't play?). This was the big project of renovating the old dairy barn into a kitchen and farm store. I left before it was complete, but much was accomplished whilst I was there.
Whipsaw Brewery was a pretty nice place to hang.
So strong. This was about a week or so before I left.
Digging the big hole for the new septic system. I learned a lot about what it takes to make a building actually functional...and the way some choose not to get the right permits to do so.
Chris in the new septic tank before it was connected to anything or had anything ugly inside of it.
The skies were pretty awesome.
Oysters in Seattle I think.
Yes. Dinner at Solare with M. once I had officially left Ellensburg but was hanging around the west coast for a bit before heading eastward.
I was able to run into Seth, who is a good friend of Louise and Tony's, while he was in town for a conference.
I followed that up with seeing another Louise/Tony friend, Tim, and met his girlfriend as well.
Then I went to Whidbey. My off-farm social circle was relatively small, but good. I stayed with Clare, and she and I met up with Bob and his wife Bernita for a lovely dinner at Prima (no surprise there, of course) and then a final glass of wine at Ott and Murphy's. Gooooood people.
Clare does not like having her photo taken, but I insisted.
I am a lucky girl to have such friends.
Me happy to be in a bikini at the beach. I think I had Coco and Birdie in tow.
And that's about it for the round up of my final days in Ellensburg and last visit to Whidbey and the San Juan islands.
