A New Kind of Crew

We've been at a new farm for a little over 2 weeks. It's a good place to be. The farm owner, Craig, nicknamed Nature, is a raw food and healthy life enthusiast. He is the author of Raw Foods Bible and I suggest checking out his book. Craig has it going on with raw food knowledge and is authentically dedicated to the lifestyle (his website if you're interested: www.rawfoodsbible.com).

Craig's homestead property was impacted by the Bastrop, TX fires last year. Most everything on his property burned except a small cob house and half of another cob house. He is focusing on restoring the property and Crick and I have been added to his construction crew. It's a pretty unique experience. Examples of our job duties include planting seeds in a garden, creating new garden beds, mixing and laying cob, cleaning recycled windows and doors, painting, cutting wood, and replanting baby pine trees.

Crick and I set up our living quarters in a tent on the construction site. Most nights are spent sleeping under the brightness of a full sky of stars and glowing moon. We're on the grid but water comes from the lake or rain. We cook in an outdoor tented kitchen and make compost from food scraps. Facilities are an outhouse with flush toilet and outdoor shower room. The land is somewhat remote and not too far from civilization (only a 15 minute car ride to the oh so familiar Starbuck's and when greens and veggies don't seem like enough for dinner after a long day---Taco Cabana).

Our day begins with optional yoga at 8am, one hour for breakfast, then the crew meeting at 10am to discuss how we're feeling, how we slept, and the day's tasks. Our crew is small and Craig leads as our yogi foreman. Our fellow wwoofer Selahattin, nicknamed Sel, is a strong and handsome Turkish man, coming from NYC where less than a month ago he held a high stress corporate lawyer position on Wall Street. He told me he realized he didn't want that life anymore, and now is discovering what he really wants. (This is an admirably common theme with fellow wwoofers we've met).

Sel is also making strides to become a fruitarian-eating large quantities of fruit as the main part of his diet. A further description of what large quantities of fruit means is essential here. A typical meal is a handful of bananas, an entire large watermelon, followed by more bananas and some raw greens. He educated us on this very serious community of fruit fanatics---check out 30 bananas a day and the Woodstock Fruit Festival. We'll never ever eat another banana without thinking of Sel!

Our crew recently took down a burnt 60 foot tree as one of our tasks. I had two favorite moments of the process-first was Craig's suggestion to visualize where we wanted the tree to fall, and second was Craig's instructions: lean to pull the rope, followed by pull the rope strong, followed by a loudly vocalized RUN!!!!! The assignment was a success except our attempt to video record it. We didn't realize the video camera's SD card was full until after the tree was down...

An added bonus to our days include Craig's girlfriend who is a music teacher and opera singer. She practices singing and piano inside the house and it's a lovely addition. So I'm really digging being a part of this hippie construction crew. We wear straw hats and bandanas instead of hard hats. We take raw food breaks instead of smoke breaks. We use some power tools yet rely a lot on our hands, awareness and the earth to get tasks done. Oh, and the only construction injuries included a bee sting (me) and a bumped head two times over (Crick).

Enjoy the photos!

~Deb