Catching Up!

Ah! It's been over three weeks without a solid update, and for that, I apologize. We have been basically without internet- aside from what I can do from my phone, which basically equals checking facebook and reading emails. But we have found ourselves back in Braddock, PA, after our sojourn in Upstate New York, and though the internet connection is weak, it suffices for updating the blog.

We left Braddock, as I mentioned, about three weeks ago, and spent our first night out in Salamanca, New York, which is actually located on the Allegany Indian Reservation. Nym had a few friends from Seattle who were staying there, trying to save money and move to Pittsburgh. They were nice enough to take us out to breakfast in a... quaint... diner in the hamlet of Kill Buck, and to ply us with beers and let us crash in the van in their driveway.

From there we took backroads to our next farm, Linwood Gardens. We passed Amish farmers and huge fields of windmills. The drive itself was gorgeous, but it didn't prepare us AT ALL for how amazing Linwood would be. L.G. is a 325+ acre, 100+ year old "estate". Its famous for its tree peony collection, which is the oldest hybridized collection in the country. The views are, literally, breath taking; rolling fields for miles, a secluded house set into the woods, etc etc. Nym took to calling it "shang-ri-fucking-la". I think between Una and I, we ended up with over 300 photos of the place on flickr, and thats AFTER culling the pictures down.

Lee, the current owner, and her granddaughter, Holly, were excellent hosts- in fact, we got to meet most of the family the first night over dinner. And every night after that, either Holly or Una would prepare amazing meals for dinner, with farm fresh produce. We didn't work in the gardens, really- aside from some pruning and weeding- most of our work was spent helping restore the crumbling, 100 year old garden walls- which basically meant hours of chipping loose stone away, then power washing, then applying a mud/mortar over the chipped and washed walls. Then repeat. It was actually pretty enjoyable, and, as we ended up staying a week longer than originally intended, we got most of the walls done. Nym, who has the mad construction skills, even helped build forms and mix and pour concrete around the worst damaged walls.

Most of our free time was spent either in the pool- one of the oldest in ground swimming pools in New York- reading (I read all of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food aloud to Nym and Una), the aforementioned eating of amazing food, or just walking the grounds, which included a huge swath of woods with a ton of deer trails and secret little nooks and hiding places. It was exceedingly relaxing, and I got a bunch of writing, thinking, processing done. We also made our way to the drive in- Una and I's first ever- where we saw Inglorious Basterds and A Perfect Getaway- the former being amazing and the later being amazingly awful. We also checked out a few antique stores and ancient graveyards around, and took a tour of the dairy owned by Lee's children- which was educational, if depressing. Lee gave us two books about Linwood when we left, which I will be showing off to anyone interested when we get home.

From there we headed up to Rochester, NY, for Nym's show at the Dubland Underground. He played with two acts from Bad Wolf records and a local guy, all of whom were awesome and really friendly. We took off that night and ended up sleeping at a rest stop somewhere in upstate, before finishing our trip to Harlemsville, NY to visit my old friend and roommate, Kristin.

Kristin lives in an anthroposophical community in Harlemsville- its where she grew up, and she moved back there from Seattle about two years ago. Her and her mom live in a 200+ year old little house, right across the street from the Hawthorne Valley Biodynamic farm and next door to the Hawthorne Valley Waldorf school. They have a huge backyard with an amazing garden, and we spent our time there also mainly reading and chatting and writing and thinking, but Kristin also showed us how to make lacto-fermented sauerkraut and kimchee, to which I am now addicted and will be making a ton of once we return home. Her, her boyfriend Peter, Nym and I also went on a little campfire picnic in the woods for dinner one night, where we baked bread on a stick, which was awesome. Kristin has long been one of my favorite people to have long, dense, processing talks with, and it was beyond great to spend time with her again, and to see her so happy and healthy. She and I talked about me coming to visit again, and staying for much longer, which I think is a definite yes for sometime next year.

We hung out there for about a week, got to see her brother Ben and Kristin managed to find some work for Nym, doing construction with some friends of hers. So now we're back in Braddock for the weekend, where we were greeted with a "welcome home" banner from Juan and the Emilys, which was adorable. We head out to Chicago tomorrow, where Nym has a show, and then its Minneapolis (and Jamie!) for a few days before starting at our next farm, Earthen Path Organics, in Minnesota.

Its been almost two months since we left, and its just under two months or so before we return home. I miss everyone incredibly (aww, homesick Tori) and have tons and tons of plans for projects and adventures and stories and everything once we return. Hopefully the interweird will stay strong over the rest of our journey and I can keep things more steadily updated! Please check flickr, as I try to update that from my phone- and getting a flickr account (its free!) and friending me is best, as some of my pictures are set for friends-viewing only.