Home again, home again

After a day of traveling and dealing with crazed people trying to get home for Thanksgiving, I am finally at home! It is quiet. Which is really very nice after being on a college campus for the last 3 months. Eating good food (already I've had really good cheddar, roasted root veggies, and delicious carrot soup!)

More fun times to come!!!

To beat the Friday blahhhhhs

1) Go see Harry Potter at 12:01 (check)

2) Go to your last three classes of the term and celebrate with a "Yahoooo!" over the phone with your mom (check)

3) Make new friends (check)

4) Realize that life is great even if you don't absolutely ace your finals (still working on it...)

5) Listen to this awesome song by Pearl and the Beard!

This is what finals week looks like...

I decided to take a page out of Color Me Katie's book and add some color to my laptop...

translucent stickynotes to the rescue!!!

Please note the sadness of how little of my history paper has been written.

At least I wrote an awesome outline, AND did all my econ notes for next week.

Sorry the pictures are dim, but my roommate is still sleeping!!!

(Despite it being 1:28 in the afternoon. Wish I was capable of that hardcoreness of sleepery!)

Feelin' Farming

Today in Soil Science we were wrapping up the term, aka why is soil important, what can we do to steward soils better, whether or not we had hope for humanity... ya know, the normal topics for an Environmental Studies class!

We discussed an article we read about organic vs. conventional farming, and my professor asked "Is anyone planning on being a farmer?"

I, of course, proudly raised my hand. No one else did. In a class of the 11 people who actually cared enough to take a class about soil science, I am the only one who plans on farming. Just makes me kinda sad that at a liberal arts school, which in my opinion is a good place for a generation of thoughtful, sustainable farmers to come from, I am the only one I know who is 100% dedicated to being a farmer. I know that it's not exactly a lucrative profession, and it's hard to ask a bunch of 18-22 year olds to make a definitive decision about what to do with their life, but COME ONE PEOPLE!!!

And it doesn't help that I love dirt so much that yesterday I felt the distinct urge to lay down on the ground and just let its energy pour into me, or hug a tree to make myself less stressed. But it was icky and rainy and that probably wouldn't have been a good idea, plus the fact that it's prime prospective student season and I don't want to scare off any high schoolers!!!

Mostly I am just having one of those why-can't-I-just-quit-school-and-farm kinda days. Yah know?

I think I can, I think I can

I understand what all those lines mean!!!

One week left of classes. 1 test, 2 papers, 2 final exams, one lab report, one presentation.

I think I can, I think I can!!!

Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.

In my life, I love Knox more!

Awesome, awesome weekend.

Friday: lazy all afternoon, then Off-Knox, which is an awesome open mic held off campus. Great poetry, great music, great time. I performed a Damien Rice song with a friend, and my a capella group performer "In My Life" by the Beatles. Lotsa fun!

Saturday: Sleeping in! For the first Saturday of the year, for volleyball season is over! Saw the theater department's production of "Medea", very good!

Sunday: Harvested chard and kale at the community garden with our campus group Food For Thought, and then went to the professor who runs the garden's house to cook it all up for lunch! It was delicious and so much fun and I got to hang out with some pretty fantastic people.

Forgot to bring my camera, though, so no lovely pictures of chard to be had!

Two more weeks of craziness and then HOME for six weeks, in which I will

-be going to the Young Farmers Conference at Stone Barns

-having a lovely thanksgiving with family

-visiting my sister at Olney Friends School in Ohio

-sledding, cutting down trees, and generally having a blast at the Bit of Earth

-AND MUCH MUCH MORE! Stay tuned!

The Dust Bowl

I have been slaving over a 10-15 page research paper for soil science, a draft of which is due Friday. SUCCESS! I at least have 10-11ish pages... can't necessarily vouch for the quality! I'm writing about the American Dust Bowl and it's affects on soil conservation in the US... aka not as much as it should have had. Although there were some New Deal efforts to restore the lands, which lost an estimated 480 tons of topsoil per acre, these lands soon became recultivated or turned into pasturelands. Sad times, right?

The real irony is that small farms are blamed for the majority of wind erosion during the Dust Bowl. They were smaller and therefore less likely to invest in preventative measures like windbreaks and fallow strips. These days, small farms are the ones making the intentional decision to make the sustainable choices.

Dia De Los Muertos

Those who are dead are not dead/

They're just living in my head

-Coldplay 42