I forgot to write about Thanksgiving!

I've been out of the country for Thanksgiving a couple of times before, and it's always a little strange. It's not like being away for Christmas, where everyone knows what day it is, even if they're not a Christian society. Thanksgiving is particularly American, and even if someone has heard of Thanksgiving they don't have an understanding of what it is. So though I've tried to celebrate it on my own before, I've never quite felt successful.

This year was an exception. My job here, at this farm, is to help, but that job has been presented in a very general way. I got it in my head I wanted to cook up a Thanksgiving meal, so I presented it to Petra - the woman of this farm - in this way: let's invite a bunch of folks over for a yummy meal and ask of them an hour or so of work, then we can all put in together and get some project done on the farm that wouldn't get done otherwise. She liked the idea, and suggested we pull out a tangle of living and dead agave plants so she can put in a tree.

There are several chickens running around this farm. Once in a while they get in the garden and eat what we are trying to grow, but in general they clean up weeds that are outside the garden fence. No one knows where they are laying their eggs. There is one old cock who has a terrible cock-a-doodle-doo and who is just a general nusiance, so Petra told me that if I could catch him I could cook him up for the dinner. It's no easy task to catch a free range rooster, and from what I've heard it's no easy task to pluck and prepare him either. By chance, I caught up with him the day before T-day, but the children begged me not to hurt him so we ended up with a veggie-loaf for the centerpiece of our meal. Other than that, there was lots of fresh veggies, fresh baked bread, mashed potatoes, gravy, garden salad, and several pies.

The guest list wasn't very long, but I don't think our table or kitchen could have handled much more than what we had. And the amount of hands present for the agave project was perfect - there was a struggle involved, but in the end we won and the agave lost. I thought a lot about home and family and friends on that day. It felt good to be American that day, which certainly isn't usually the case with the reputation that our country has in the world right now. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!