upperstated

farming is great right now! i just got back this afternoon. got there tuesday morning with four friends and there was a giant dead pig waiting! well, the pig was in parts. in the living room we have your normal table full of PIG FAT, waiting to be made into soap (i myself won't wash with PIG FAT, but i guess it's cool and all). the whole house smelled like PIG FAT once the soap started boiling in the kitchen. first day we all cleaned out the giant barn out back because they're going to have a show there in a couple weeks. i swept the shit out of that barn, cause its so fun to sweep when the floor is really dirty, but i swept so much pulverized ancient bird shit powder i almost had respiratory failure.

then the next day me and bobby cleared out all these felled apple trees from the overgrown orchard, for burning once it gets colder. that was hard work and i got covered with scratches. i've never really wielded a machete before and it was really awesome to clear away all the raspberry bushes and stuff with it. that thing is no joke, though! you can take off a toe real easy, or brain your friend something fierce. that tired us out good, and food tastes so good after work in the sun amongst the trees. we ate so many greens from the garden that our bellies were swolled out. then we drank the juice we boiled them in! green monster!!!

oh i forgot to say the first night we cooked a really awesome dinner when there were more people, and i got a special cardamom/orange birthday cake with flowers. cardamom and corriander are my favorite spices and i think i'm gonna get heavy into them again.

so we were stuffed with leaves and raspberries and goat cheese and tahini and i thought i was gonna topple over. colin, the awesome guy who's brother bought the farm after he graduated from bard, put on 'wild strawberries' and we watched it with hot cocoa. then we said goodnite as he was washing the liver and heart of the pig, which were beautiful and frighteningly vibrant and crucial. fuck it, i totally wanna live like that all the time.

i know this is too rambling and sincere, but that's what's going on! i'll post some pictures of the dinner/ PIG FAT when liz gets home and reteaches me to work that infernal camera contraption.