Sorting the Laundry

"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry." E.B. White

There's an interesting piece in the New York Times that was published on Saturday - "But Will it Make You Happy?". The article uses a couple that has rid themselves of all but 100 possessions as an example of Americans who are opting out of the culture of conspicuous consumerism in favor of a more experience-driven and fulfilling life.

The extremism of that couple aside, the article then goes on to discuss general trends that even giant corporations like Wal-Mart can't help but notice - people are coming to discover that having more things doesn't equate with more happiness. The desire for "simpler times" could be a result of the enormity of crises that the US is currently facing; or, Americans could really have started changing spending patterns to reflect dissatisfaction with how cluttered our lives have become.

Full disclosure? I have long been known by friends and family as a "pack-rat". I've peripherally heard of the show "Hoarders" but fear looking into it lest I see an image of me projected in a particularly unhealthy light.

I keep various found items for "art projects" in tupperware containers and bowls and wherever there's an empty shelf. My work space is usually designated by around fifty or so pieces of scraps with notes or sayings or poems, tacked up in a scattered, chaotic mess that makes me feel calm. Anything from a note from Caitlin - "Amy! I love you! so so much. - Caitlin" written while I was frantically never around and stressed out about senior year of college, to pictures of my grandfather, notes from my roommate in college, Judy Grahn poems, Adrienne Rich quotes, a pinwheel of common organic solutions to garden pests. Numerous postcards of gnomes and picasso and chinese fortunes - "the human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it."

Could I live without these things? Yes - but being surrounded by beauty and ideas that inspire me to create beautiful things is priceless.

In addition to all of these memories, however - I have movies and CDs and books - boy oh boy do Cait and I have books! Kitchen appliances and furniture and sports equipment and musical instruments and camping gear and shoes! Tshirts and sweaters and tshirts that hold sentimental value but neither of us would ever want to wear ever again. There's that question in the simplicity movement: when do you go from owning your things, to your things owning you? At one point I remember thinking that I didn't want to go on this monumental journey because I didn't want to have to deal with storing and going through all of these possessions.

But we will. Go through everything. Decide what's worth storing and beg friends and families for a corner of their basement or attic or spare room. As for the rest of the stuff - anyone want a broken sewing machine and a bunch of random fabric?

Cause it's a bittersweet, symphony this life.

"You're a slave to the money, then you die."

No my friends, that is not a fate for me. Today, officially, marks the end of both my job at the hip urban grocery store, and as a supervisor with the 2010 census. This day, Friday, August 6th, 2010, marks the first time since I was 15 that I was not working at least one (up to 5 at one point) wage-slave job. Taking up all of my time and barely paying me enough to get by.

It is most definitely not real, not at all. It's exactly like the feeling you have when you're on break after a semester at college - you wake up startled from a dead sleep, dreading the paper you have to turn in but you never started researching. I keep thinking, even right now, that there's something I'm supposed to be doing, something I have to turn in or something I didn't check. And I almost care.... almost.

So much to do, so little time! The farms we want to visit in Virginia have offically been contacted, and we've seen replies from a few. We're narrowing that last down and deciding our official dates to request WWOOFing space. We're making checklists of equipment we need, supplies we want to have, and things that are worthy enough of keeping in storage. This is by no means as easy to do as it is to type. But oh how great that would be!

My hands, they shake; My head, it spins

"Load the car and write the note. Grab your bag and grab your coat. Tell the ones who need to know - we are headed north."

This weekend Caitlin and I went to the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. It was incredible - the music, the people, the ocean. Seeing Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore (with Yim Yames and eventually the Preservation Hall Jazz Band) was probably the highlight for me. The Avett Brothers, Andrew Bird, Brandi Carlile, The Low Anthem, Horse Feathers - all had great sets. Just as with farming - there's something really great happening right now with music. People rediscovering their voices and traditional instruments as methods to create these beautiful, thought provoking pieces of art.

Not only that, but the folk scene in general... it's really interesting to see the dynamic between the older generations - the ones that were most definitely at the first Newport - and the younger kids that are brought out by the acts that I previously mentioned - in particular the Avett Brothers. On Saturday, during numerous sets people would try to come up closer to the stage and stand/dance to the artists currently playing. A lot of the audience became infuriated and eventually got the staff to make all of the standers/dancers sit down.

I don't know where I'm going with this - but it was incredible to see the dancers eventually win out.. against the people who would have never, ever listened to anyone tell them to sit down and stop them from expressing themselves to the music when in their youthful hayday. In fact, I can never quite understand how people listening to music can sit without the rhythm infecting them. Its always been a bit perplexing, the "I can't dance" crowd. I may not be able to "dance" in the way our current society views dancing.. but I'll certainly shake whatever I have when the spirits move me to shake it!

I think the best part of the weekend, however, was our vagabond sleeping arrangements. Or, rather, lack of sleeping arrangements. We had purchased the tickets to the festival back in April, but hadn't really thought out where we were staying. After driving to a couple of hotels on the island on Saturday night, Cait finally asked if they had a policy about people sleeeping in their parking lot. After the guy at the desk basically said there wasn't a policy, nor was there a guard, we found a quiet, semi-dark corner and laid the seats down in the Honda Fit.

While somewhat nervous about people breaking into the car while we were sleeping, and both waking at various times to phantom knockings on the windows - it was a great nights sleep. I woke to the sun just barely rising around 5:45. After the strenuous task of waking Caitlin up, I hopped into the drivers seat and drove until I found the nearest beach. Just us and an older gentleman who described the cold ocean as "better than any cup of coffee" as he wrapped himself in a towel and walked to his car were on the beach at that time. To say it was beautiful would be an understatatement, of course. More importantly, it felt beautiful. While both of us still have our jobs to tend to... it felt, for a moment, as if our journey had already begun. We were free to get our feet wet, hell, to plunge right into the water and stay there for eternity.

Yes, it is extremely difficult to leave Philly right now - such great friendships, community and ideas are being built every day here - but this weekend only gave me a taste of what this next year could feel like. And I want more.

When Death Comes

When Death Comes (excerpt)
...
When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

-Mary Oliver


It is with the words of all those who have come before that I embark on this journey at all. The expectation that there is something more than this moment, this day.

That people everywhere are doing and acting and growing and the excitement of this shared adventure between us all; the unspoken camaraderie between the living.

What are we humans at our core? Hearts pumping blood and oxygen, neurons-flying and hormones racing, breathing, feeling individuals. A species with minds and consciousness. What people have created! What we are able to create!! Art, food, food as art, music and noise as music. Melody, tone, rhythm, syntax, language. The range of emotions, the need to express those emotions, the means to express those emotions!

It is with the weight of this all that I strive for tomorrow. The desire to be a part of it. To take part in it.

I received a card during my first year of college from a friend. it's a black square with white type,

what would you attempt to do
if you knew you could not fail?

Everywhere I've lived for the seven years since I received it, I've tacked it eyelevel in all of my workspaces. A reminder, daily, that my instinct of self-preservation - and moreover, self-doubt - has to be fought. I have to live intentionally, as if I am capable of anything.

Because I am. (and so are you.)

Hiatus Halted

The nature of life, or at least the nature I've come to terms with in my life, is such that plans sometimes have a way deviating from the course you originally desired.

While Caitlin and I wanted to leave early in the year of 2010 - for various reasons we were unable to. While the largest was due to dental care that I needed to both have and find a way to pay for - it didn't help that we were just having so much fun in Philadelphia. Between amazing roommates, great friends and a vibrant music and food scene - why pick up and run off?

Now, after a four month long stint as a supervisor for the 2010 Census - I've not only paid off my debts (student loans not included, ugh.), but have managed to save enough money to help us rest assured that we wont starve to death on the road. We've both given notice at our respective day jobs and are once again making preparations for the trip.

We plan on starting in Virginia in mid-September. Why Virginia?

1. Virginia is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. I'm most definitely one of those cliched individuals whose heart can just stop when looking at certain horizons. The Shenandoah valley made me almost crash my car when I first laid sight on those mountainous landscapes.

2. Virginia has a lot of organic farming and sustainable living organizations currently in practice. It's really a state that has both the natural resources and community interest in farming. Why is this?

3. Its super close to Philadelphia! and other metropolitan areas - how does this affect the way the farms are able to orient their business? Do the farms exist to provide food for the cities, or CSAs and small communities?

4. Have I mentioned that its incredibly beautiful?

5. There's this Eddie from Ohio song called "Old Dominion" that glorifies sweet Virginia and throws down a gauntlet, that being from upstate NY and having visited Vermont in the fall, I just have to test out for myself: "You think that autumns in new england / are the greatest of them all, but give me sweet virginia for the fireworks of fall. The prettiest october in all the 50 states, just drive up to the skyline, park the car and wait."

6. Why not?

We've bought a new car, are slowly ridding ourselves of our furniture, begging friends to foster our beautiful cats for a year and are saying our goodbyes.

t-54 days. yikes!

reasons for being..

As January draws nearer, Caitlin and I have begun to think about the seriousness of the trip we are about to embark on. Yes, it's about adventure and getting our hands dirty, but we both have very real reasons for taking this trip.

Caitlin plans to go into more depth about this on her site: http://amyandcaitfarm.shutterfly.com/.

As for me? Why farming? I grew up in rural upstate NY next to apple orchards and cow farms. Growing your own food wasn't a statement there, it was a way of life. I spent a lot of my time as a young child with my Grandfather - away from tv and video games. Summers meant waking up with the sun and picking zucchini flowers to fry up for breakfast. Working hard in the morning, playing cards in the afternoon and watering the garden in the evening. As my grandfather became older, he would bring a chair out to our garden and sit on the edge of the rows, telling me what to do and why I had to do it. "You tie the tomato plants up of the ground so they can grow tall and strong, if the tomatoes lay on the ground, they'll bruise, rot and they'll only be food for the bugs."

Being Italian, he only grew what he thought to be the necessities: zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, broccoli, basil, parsley and oregano. Some years he experimented with other vegetables, but they usually ended up being cursed with various expletives (let's not even talk about the squirrels and corn!). And really, less other vegetables meant more tomatoes, which meant more sauce during canning season, and what could be wrong with more sauce?

So, why farming? Because people have the right to know where their food comes from. Because food has become something grown in a lab, rather than under the care and watchful eye of people we know and trust. And if that seems to sentimentalize the issue rather than explain it - because we are a nation of McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken (although isn't there that rumor that it can't be called chicken because it's been so genetically modified?) and high fructose corn syrup and factory farms and agri-businesses and all of this means that the dollar is the most important factor in food consumption and nutrition.

Whether or not we realize it (and the exciting thing, is that so many are starting to and have already realized it!) - farming is at the heart of the redemption of this nation. As I write this, small farms across the United States are operating in ecologically sound, sustainable ways - and not because of some demands made by the government, as a matter of fact, in SPITE of demands made by the government. To me, this brings up questions, and that is why I choose farming - because I think the answers to these questions can change the world.

How are these farms surviving? Why are the people who farm them willing to risk financial and physical well-being? How do they make ends meet? What kind of practices do they do, how do they learn these practices and how do they connect to the greater community? Do they isolate themselves, or do they seek out help from others? Are they working in ways that can be replicated? Is what they're doing feasible in other areas of the country? How can we support these farms and ultimately, can these types of farms support this country? And not only this country, how can these practices be emulated by other countries?

I know that this phrase has been used ad infinitum since the 2008 presidential race, but, the time for change is now. I want to be a part of that change. So, I farm.

Amy and Cait Farm begins!!

Hello friends and family!

I hope this post finds you well!

If my big mouth hasn't already told you, Caitlin and I have decided the time has come to pack our things and head out onto the open road. This isn't your uncle's road trip, however. The routes we take will be primarily determined by the organic farms that can host us as volunteers along our journey. We've become members of WWOOF, a national (and international, for that matter!) network of organic farms that accept volunteers who work in exchange for room and board.

We hope to start our trip in mid-January, but an end date is not something we're focusing on, as we don't want it to interfere with the experiences we'll be having (sorry to all moms and dads concerned!)!

This blog, in the time between now and January, will focus primarily on our planning efforts. We'll be busting out maps, links, how-tos, and general laments and concerns as we begin preparations for this next chapter in our life.

Hopefully you'll come along with us for the ride!

With love and gratitude,
Amy (and Caitlin)