this is where i live

Hi there. Long time, no post. The computer at the farm doesn't work with this website very well so I had to wait until I saw Rigo in La Laguna in order to write.

My farm is called Finca Limon. Finca = farm (without animals), Limon you can figure out on your own. It took me a couple of days to adjust to life on the farm. The little room where I live (see video) was very dirty and I was warned that there are a couple of rats that have been getting in at night. I spent the first night cowering in a tent inside my room, exhausted but waking up at every noise. The next day was dedicated to making my living space habitable and comfortable. The rat situation is now thus: I definitely hear them wandering around at night in the trees and sometimes across my roof (which is just corrugated fiber glass; I can see and hear everything that wanders across it), but they don't seem to want to come inside and I don't give them reason to (no food in my room, etc.) so all I have to deal with is the noise. I'm learning to deal with it.

The rest of the farm has a general feeling of disorganization that at first I found disappointing but I'm starting to find endearing. There is a family that lives and works here - a mother, father, and three young daughters, but there's far more work than any of them can / are willing to do. So the WWOOFers who come are pretty much free to do as they please. Find something that needs to be done and do it - that's the deal. Sometimes there's more direction than that, but not often.

Yesterday my work day took place in the kitchen. Everyone in the household eats the mid-day meal together at about 2:30, so daily a meal to serve 8 or 10 people has to be prepared. On the farm we have a lot of big squash that need to be eaten up - green outsides with orange flesh; they smell rather like pumpkins. I pieced together some recipes from the internet and ended up with a fantastic soup. I was quite proud of the outcome. I can't very well make squash soup every day, so I'm very open to recipe suggestions; keep in mind that my ingredient options are limited: plenty of fresh veggies, basic spices, trying to avoid dairy (because there are some vegans among us), and no option to pop on over to the supermarket for that one obscure ingredient.

Today I came back to La Laguna with the fellow (from another farm, but part of the association to which Finca Limon belongs) who brings the produce to market. It took us 2.5 hours to make a 1 hour drive across the island because we had to stop at so many farms to pick up their produce. I was hoping to watch him in his route and learn it so that I could be the bring-the-produce-to-market person every once in a while, but after one day just observing in the market I'm sure I won't be able to do that. My Spanish is nowhere near good enough to sell vegetables to people who are in a hurry. Ah well, I enjoyed the experiment and I got a free trip to visit with Rigo (Vero is out of town) out of it.

Tomorrow I plan to make the kitchen my project. It's in an awful state of disorganization and even uncleanliness. If I'm to feel comfortable here, I have to work to make my environment as I desire it. With all this time spent in the kitchen and all this squash around me, I'm starting to feel the approach of Thanksgiving; I'm even itching to put together a little feast.

edit: I'm trying but I'm having a hell of a time figuring out how to get the video option to work here. Sorry, you'll have to wait to see my house ....