5-28-10

ARTICHOKE HARVEST

EWWWW GROSS!

WHIPPING WEEDS

POPPY

ROOTS ARE STRONG AND DEEP

MASONRY WORK

Since we wake up before the sun comes up, it's quite hard to tell what the weather will be for the day. Thus far, the skies have been cloudy with rain on and off throughout the day. Rainy season is over here, or typically it's done by now, but this year it has been clearly reinforced that weather has been acting "unseasonably" everywhere this year. Here, that means cooler temperatures and more rain. Today was the first day that blue skies emerged for more than five minutes and it was glorious. Fingers crossed it'll stick around.

All of us WWOOFers headed for part of the garden to weed out buttercups this morning. Buttercups appear to be pretty little yellow flowers, but instead are an invasive troublemaker. For every one little flower, there is an intensely long and winding root system which spreads like wildfire everywhere. Without weeding it, it would easily take over the entire garden in less than a year. With all hands on deck, the task went pretty quickly.

Ready for more weeding, Aaron got a quick lesson and geared up for some weed whipping around the duck pond. There are three adult ducks now, one male and two females, and one young male duck with both females laying eggs. Ducks, like chickens, prefer to lay eggs in warm, dark spaces. Unlike chickens, ducks don't lay eggs in the boxes provided and as a result we go on a duck egg hunt daily. We've found one or two, but there seems to be a spot one female duck has taken on as hers, and we have yet to find it. The weed whipping around the pond seemed promising and likely to increase our chances, but we're still on the hunt.

There is a cave here where Dave stores wines, jars and canned goods, and his overabundance of summer crops. Being a creative guy, a drab, grey, dark space just will not do. Instead, he and past WWOOFers have been creating a mosaic on all walls, ceilings, and the floor of the cave using scrap tile from his previous career as a tiler. It's one of the most creative things we've had an opportunity to work on since our trip began and Jen took advantage of this activity while Aaron whipped weeds. We then worked together on this fun activity for the better part of the afternoon. An enjoyable project any day, this would be an even better job to tackle on a rainy day when the sunshine isn't enticing us out to play.