First things first - on September 20th, I went roller skating with a few farm crew people, fell four times and ended up spraining my right wrist. It hurt! Got really swollen and looked horrible. Public safety had one of their crew members take me to the ER with my roommate, where we pretty much sat around for two and a half hours. I got x-rays, they gave me a splint, and told me not to use my wrist for a week or two. So here I am, basically with one and a half hands. Fun times!

Now…

For the past week or so, the school has been revving up for homecoming weekend. It’s only mildly exciting to me, since neither of my parents can make it down here, but I am happy to have my brother and his girlfriend nearby now. Since Wednesday, my own excitement has been building, based on the tasks I’ve been assigned for prep.

Some of you know by now that on Wednesday, I became the coolest person you know, because I got to operate the farm’s dump truck, affectionately named Big Red. Big Red is an old Chevy, probably from the 1970s, and, thankfully, an automatic. The seat cover is missing, leaving the foam cushioning exposed. That’s actually worn away in some areas, too, showing the springs and support underneath. The insides of the doors seem to be only half-intact, and both windows are missing. The driver’s side door handle is missing on the inside, and so is the driver’s side mirror. You start the truck with a choke! Like our weed whackers! I thought that was a little funny. Also it doesn’t start right away - everything on the farm is temperamental like that. 

In any case, I drove this massive machine down to the sawmill three times to pick up mulch so we could fill in low spots around the homecoming shed. Seriously, coolest thing ever.

On Thursday, Chase asked me for about the 50th time if I had a driver’s license and campus license, and then asked if I felt confident driving a minivan. Yes. On the highway? At high speeds? Yeah. With two dead hogs in the back? …Probably? He laughed and said he was happy I said that, because if I’d said yes he’d want to hear about my adventures driving with dead hogs. Ha!

So they put me in a WPO minivan with a tarp and directions and sent me on my way. Luckily, I had my newest CD in my backpack already, so I cranked that up for my four-hour (total) road trip. Awesome! I drove out to Forest City to our preferred butcher and the kind southern gentlemen did all the work for me, and put down some extra plastic sheets because the tarp was kinda dirty. How nice! Two of them asked me, in drawling accents, what I’d done to my hand. I told them and they told me to slow down. I lol’d. So then the big piggy halves were chucked in the back rather unceremoniously, and I headed back home. 

On my drive I passed a buffalo herd! That was pretty cool. I also saw a llama in their pasture on my way back. Yay llamas! Also, a lot of superChristians looked at me funny. Because I am a crazy devil girl, drivin’ on my own, wearin’ mens clothing, singing that there rock ‘n’ roll music that them punks are all listening to! Shame on me! 

So I got back around 4:30, which meant I spent most of my shift away which was awesome, because on Tuesdays and Thursdays I work for four and a half hours, and any work they can have one-handed me do gets pretty boring after a while. But then I had to drive over to the garden shed and store the piggies in their freezer, so I pretty much just watched as two of the farm guys did all the work. The garden people were simultaneously disgusted and intrigued. The abject! That which repulses us and draws us in! So cool (Thanks Lilian!). Then I only had 15 minutes of work left, because I had to drive back to the WPO’s parking spot and return the key. Yay! 

They’ve been cooking the hogs all night, in a huge smoker. We have these two open ended metal barrels, about eight feet tall, filled with firewood which gets caught about halfway down. The wood burns up and crumbles into coals, which are then scooped up and deposited in the smoker for a steady, 12-hour or so cooking time. Wish I coulda helped, but I did get to go down and check it out last night. Very cool, ritualistic process, in my anthropological mind! Anyways, I must eat lunch now, but BBQ for dinner and a bonfire, then festival on the field tomorrow! I will let you know if anything interesting happens!

<3 Love y’all!