Sorry I disappeared for a while there.
I didn't get hauled off by USDA jackbooted thugs or attacked by the black helicopters.
I've been busy.
January is planning season at the farm, so I've been having lots of meetings.
The Farm is (loosely) organized into committees (teams) who are responsible for the various duties in that area.
This is a great idea, but we have more teams than members, which seems to be somewhat demoralizing for The People.
Each team meets and plans projects for the year, and comes up with a labor budget, and a costs/income budget.
I am on the Garden team, Autos team, Livestock team, Pet team, Food Preservation team, Long Term Planning team, Correspondence Team, and often act as a consultant to some other teams (like Orchard, Firewood, Forestry, Flowers and Herbs).
Don't get get me wrong, I think this is an awesome way to organize about 50 people, especially if you have strong crew leaders organizing each team's activities. That would likely be very effective. In some communities the "team leader" (or whatever you want to call it) is elected by The People for 6 month terms, which seems fair.
But having 23 budget meetings when you only have about 17 active participants, eats up lots of valuable time that could be spent actually DOING something to take care of responsibilities on the farm. It's also difficult to motivate hippies to fill out paperwork.
However, identifying goals is great. A lot more good things are likely to get done if we know what outcome we desire, and can work together as a group to manifest that vision. Spending time with people planning our collective future is a fantastic community building activity.
I've been busier 'cause we lost some people, too.
Billy Bob (good ole' boy firewood intern) and Loopy (female "guest" taken in as a favor to a neighbor) went MIA for a week, and eventually we heard thru the grapevine that they went to Cally. No great loss, except of 2 warm bodies and one strong back.
Chef and K the photographer leaving is a great loss. They're moving up-valley a ways to a ramshackle cabin off the grid. It will be a good experience for them, and holds learning opportunities for me, but together they 'held down the fort' at the Farm for a while.
I've taken over K's correspondence responsibilities (the farm gets lots of visitors) and since Chef did the bulk order for the Farm and store, and facilitated weekly scheduling meetings, (among other things) I've taken that on as well.
In fact, I sorta had a panic attack for a while when I realized how much of a power vacuum arose with Chef and K leaving.
Nobody else was stepping up, and I realized....
I care more about this place, about this idea WORKING, than I've ever cared about anything in my life.
So I'm stepping up.
I don't want to be a leader. But I guess the best kind of leader to have is one who doesn't want it.
All of this added responsibility has resulted in me carrying a clipboard around with "to do" list and weekly planner. I try to explain to people that the clipboard doesn't mean I'm important or anything; it just means I have a lot to remember and a lack of short term memory.
Anyhoo, in between planning and organizing, I've been pruning the orchard, working in the garden, cooking dinner once a week, and helping with "Friday Night Dinner" at our cafe.
Whew.
So I apologize again for neglecting the blog. It's easy to get sucked into this reality, and forget about all y'all out there in consensus reality/internet land.
This shit is just so REAL.
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