Farm 0613

I keep learning new things every day. Today Mario called me up at around 6:38AM to tell me we'd be working at Ted's in the morning, and that he'd pick me up in about 10 minutes. A little later, we headed off in his truck to Ted's field. We used the fork-hoes to move the earth in the 11 "calles" between the 10 chile "surcos", and that took a little less than an hour. Just afterwards, water from the "acequia" began running, so Mario adjusted the water blocks around the field to allow the water to flow evenly through the "calles", flooding them all. It took a little while for it all to get flooded, but when it was done, the whole thing was wet, and the water ran off past the field, and merged the 11 "calles" back into a single stream off towards some trees in the area. Mario walked around at first, to make sure that the water was distributed evenly. After a while, though, we just looked at it as it all got wet, while we talked about developing technology, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, self-driving cars, and other such topics. When water from the "acequia" began coming slower, we diverted its current down to another pipe to somewhere else, Mario cut out a “yerbabuena” stalk for me from Ted’s garden, then we drove back to the farm.

It was still before 11AM when we got back, so we got to weeding out the chile crops. Mario had his yellow noise-cancelling FM headphones on, and he mentioned that he'd sometimes like to listen to something other than FM radio while he worked, such as English podcasts or religious talks. I said I'd look for an appropriate device/solution for him, as I thought of Google Play for his online reservoir and an iPod Touch with Melodies on it for offline listening. We finished a fair amount before lunchtime, then headed off to eat some.

During lunchtime, I ate the beans I'd left cooking and made some yerbabuena tea (a very fragrant one), then looked up iPod Touches for Mario. I wrote up a little list of the most enticing-looking offers in the area, and at 1:15PM, met with Mario back at the field. He was sitting in the shade of a few trees, and offered me a slice of watermelon his wife had sent with him for me. I was very grateful, and sat down to eat it as I showed him the list of iPod Touches I'd collected. He seemed content with the prices available, and chose a few of them to look at. I got a better idea of what he was looking for, and then we proceeded to finish weeding out the crops.

We were able to finish off weeding the rest of the chile, garbanzo, bok choy, bean, and other crops in the Cipriano field. It was still before 4PM when we finished, and then I accompanied him to the area around his house to look at how the sheep were herded into the pasture field, and then back inside the penned area. Mario taught me the names of all the named sheep, and told me that the rest, the small ones, still had no name. I especially liked a little spotlessly white lamb that reminded me of Mary's.

Then I picked out the eggs in the chicken pens (only 5 of them today) and brought them back to the fridge. I then decided to come in to talk to Adan, so I knocked at his office and came inside. I mentioned how we'd finished weeding Cipriano, then he told me how I was a good-fit WWOOF'er at the farm, and that I was welcome to stay further if I liked. I thanked his offer, and then told him how, though I liked the environment, the people, and the work, I was finding it hard to have time for my own pursuits (reading, etc), so I wanted to counter-propose the WWOOF "agreement" by being a half-WWOOF'er (working only half a day), and paying a partial rent fee to stay in the cabin I'm currently in. He said that was a bit tricky, since he'd much rather have full WWOOF'ers taking up his limited space rather than a half-WWOOF'er only. He counter-proposed that I try Josh's schedule during next week (with a longer break during the afternoon), and I thought it was a good idea, so we kept it at that. I asked for tomorrow as a free day, and he accepted, and even offered to take me to La Espanola to launder my clothes. We'll drive off after helping harvest the sweet peas for about 150 minutes starting at 7AM.

Then I came back home, fried 7 onion stems that Mario picked out for me, then cooked half a cup of rice+lentils. It was all delicious (though the onion stems were a bit too fibrous), and then I proceeded to continue looking for good Craigslist offers for Mario. I considered looking at Android phones for his music player, and looking for a good laptop for his wife. I also looked for cheap, good cars in the area that would drive me around - I found a good 92 Camry for $1000 in Taos (but without the AC working), and a good 94 Tercel for $1200 near Santa Fe. I sent out a bunch of texts and emails, and now I'm almost fully decided to get a $40 screen-cracked Nexus in ABQ if the guy responds, otherwise an $80 3rd gen iPod Touch in La Espanola (when he tells when he's available to meet), and if that fails, a $60 3rd gen iPod Touch that has charging problems (possible physical connection problems, so unlikely to get that). As for the laptop, I found an older, but Intel-processor-running $80 Macbook near Santa Fe with no charger that would work out well (though the price can make it seem stolen), and a similar $200 Macbook that seems fully equipped (on OS X 10.7.5), also in SF. A 15.6" 5532 Acer Laptop at $150 also seems like a great PC alternative, though online reviews make it seem pretty slow for most tasks. But that'd be up to Mario - whether he'd rather have a PC or a Mac; a cheap but at-least-functional one or a less-cheap but reliable one. As for the car - I talked to the Taos spanish-speaking lady who moved fairly recently from Colorado, and she was quite chatty and informative, but she told me about the not-working AC, which demotivated me a little bit. Still, she said she'd contact me when she got an estimate of how much would it take to get the AC working on. The guy from Santa Fe was pretty straightforward with the Tercel - everything works, it's a manual, and firm on the $1200. If things work out and I can get the money, I might just be able to get a car this weekend (he's fine with driving all the way here).

So now it's 10:30PM and I still haven't taking out my drawing instructions or equipment, and I ponder at my obsession to getting the best deals on the extensive Craigslist space. But I think things will work out fine. I'll gather the laundry to be done and things to take for tomorrow, and then go to sleep, to be up bright and early in the field at 7AM.

June 12

Oh, and what I’d do yesterday? That’s right! I harvested shell peas with Mario in the morning, then in the afternoon we weeded, but I felt so tired at around 2:50PM that I told Mario, and he gave me the rest of the afternoon off. I picked up the eggs at around 5PM, but after that, I had a fairly early bedtime.