Our last night in the Berkshires is here at last.

I miss my friends. I miss being in a place where people know my name. There has been drama and good times here. The farm girls gave us a warm goodbye with singing and good food at the Gypsy Joint. I really hope to see them again.

For now, it's time to hit the road.

The hostess is really acting like we've overstayed our welcome.

Since my gf stopped working at the farm we've both been doing work around the house. We've been getting up later but working for longer on the shutters. She is making snide sarcastic remarks at us in her passive aggressive way instead of telling us what is really wrong. Today she told me "you need to move from there" when she wanted to use the stove. The bright side of this is that we are happy to return to NYC and then to Florida, where there are plenty of people who are happy to see us.

For dinner, since the hostess wanted us out of the house since her friends were over, we went to eat at an Indian restaurant in Great Barrington. My gf has been craving something spicy, but I feel like I disappoint her because I can't eat spicy food at all. Which means we can't share a plate. But today we shared a plate and compromised on a medium-spicy dish, and were both very satisfied.

Dessert was a cool rice pudding with pistachios that really pulled the meal together and extinguished the flames in our mouths. We took pictures, talked about high school, and walked around town for a little while. In Great Barrington, it's pretty empty by 10 p.m. (it's a town of early sleepers) but there were two musicians on the sidewalk and a few rebellious ones getting ice cream.

Eating out with the farm girls tonight was amazing. They are so funny and I get a warm feeling inside when we all hang out. We went to this great Thai restaurant in Great Barrington and ate so much, but everyone wanted ice cream after. So we went to SoCo and I had coconut with Rieces Pieces.

The dog is back; he went on a trip with the hostess to her parents' house. He has really grown on me. Whenever the aggressive guinea hen tries to peck at my ankles he chases it away and when I work on the shutters alone in the back by the shed, he comes out and sits next to me like a guard. He is very useful for telling us when guests come: he can hear cars from way before I can even hear the tires on the gravel. They really spoil him here but I think he's a nice dog.

It's my last week here and I don't miss Florida, but I miss my friends. I wish I could build a little community of them to have them near to me always. I like the co-op lifestyle; I think I would enjoy that as an older adult still.

Free yoga in town!

We stretched our bodies as our breaths aligned and our consciousness went from being focused on everything to being focused on singled out parts of our bodies. We thought about the big world at the tips of our fingers and we thought about nothing. We imagined that our toes were roots and our hands were sunflowers searching for the sun.

I walked out with a straighter and stronger back. My mind felt clearer and my smile felt more relaxed.

So today instead of facts and lists of events, I want to post questions.

Is it impulsive to buy food on the store's shelf when you have what you need at home?
Do people vary on what older-person-problems they fear because of logical guesses at what they're prone to get, or illogical fear?
Who sneezes when they look directly into bright light?
Is it really ok to be a language lover while not loving one language?

I turned in my keys at the B&B that I worked at. I went in to work in the morning, but the owner said he tried to call to tell me not to come in. I gave him the keys and walked home.

With my gf I went to Daily Bread Bakery and just missed lunch, which was served till 3 pm. Still we got some pastries and walked around town.

There was a mini market that we discovered all too late, since this is our last week here in the Berkshires. It had all the essentials and fresh lunch.

We walked over to Red Lion's Inn for lunch. In the Red Lion Den we had the day's special - meatloaf and potatoes. Apple pie with vanilla ice cream was for dessert. The place seemed pretty sweet and it was a great value for casual dining. The Inn also offered more elegant dining, and more expensive options, upstairs.

We went back home and worked on the shutters. Then we got ready to go see a movie. This weekend definitely feels like a vacation and we've been relaxing for a few days.

In Hudson, NY we went to see a showing of Girl Who Played With Fire. It was a dark thriller. Intriguing and intense.

I love how author's build characters. I think of people that could exist, and my imagination carries me away. At the end of the daydream I realize that I created a character that a story could be built around. Do author's typically build them in this way?

We went to Catherine's Chocolates today. Yummy!

We were home alone all day and I defragmented my laptop for the first time. It took 5 hours.

I have work in the morning at the B&B.

Life is great with all the extra time I get to spend with my gf.

Today we both worked on the shutters after sleeping in. She made an awesome eggs-with-veggies breakfast. After a while we took a break, something she was never allowed working on the farm, and we went for a walk. We ended up hiking up the mountain behind the house, all the way up to the top. We discovered Laura's Tower, which had a view of the entire town.

When we came back home the guinea hen started attacking me, probably because I had picked it up earlier and put it near the house so that it wouldn't follow us into the woods. The bird loves following people. Anyway, it's lucky that it is a pet, and that my gf loves him.

Since the hostess wasn't planning on cooking dinner we went into Great Barrington, downtown, and did some groceries at the Co-Op. Then we had the most delicious pizza at Babba Louie's. They specialize in "wood-fired organic sourdough pizza, and the one we had was called Hannah Jo. The toppings: fresh mozzarella, ricotta, red onions, shrimp, pineapple, prosciutto, green chili sauce, and dried coconut. We switched out the prosciutto for garlic sausage and it was amazing.

We laughed, ate and had a wonderful couple-y time. Now that she has more energy it feels great to be out at night with her. We had a beer and thumb wrestled at the table. We watched a fly get drunk off of some of the beer in the cup. We laughed as we teased each other and people watched.

After dinner we got into the apartment building upstairs from the businesses. We climbed the outside stairs, once we got through the fire escape door, and hung out on the roof. There was an almost-full moon in the sky and it was a beautiful night.

At Price Chopper we bought brownies and milk, and ended the evening by watching a show together on her laptop.

In celebration of my gf's new found freedom, we didn't work at all today.

There was a thunderstorm and we made zucchini pancakes for a late breakfast.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/zucchini-pancakes-recipe/index.html

We tried them with everything from maple syrup (the strangest combo) to jelly, yogurt, butter, and jam.

For linner (lunch and dinner) we went to Kripalu.

http://www.kripalu.org/

It's a yoga and meditation center on a huge piece of beautiful property with views of a lake, hills and mountains. They have a dinner buffet with tons of healthy delicious foods.

Today it was back to the shutters for me. I scraped old paint off in preparation for the primer. There are 12 more shutters to repaint after this set of 4 to complete the second floor.

I thought I should post some pictures of these shutters I've been talking about. Here is one panel as it is right after being taken off the wall:

Here is what it looks like after all the peeling sections are scraped off:

These are the tools I use:

And since I bought a camera for the NY trip, I will be happy to post pictures of the previous painting assignments and the wood splitting assignments. Just to get a taste of my job.

An update on my posts: they may come later in the night, but with good news. My gf left her farm slave labor, so she'll be home working with me. We get to stay up later! Tomorrow will be the first day of that. Since she won't be exhausted anymore, I might be reporting on fun activities in Massachusetts.

People around here say things very differently.

For example, when I first came I was told to go down what sounded like "Iceland Road." I repeated "Iceland" and they said yes, that is what it's called. When I see the street sign, it is actually "Ice Glen Road."

Today I discovered the entrance to the hiking trail leading to what I thought was "Lars Tower." But of course, it was not named this. It is called "Laura's Tower."

Around 7 pm there was a storm passing over our area. The thunder boomed and echoed in the valley between the mountains. Lightning cracked. The dog came to stay with us in the bathroom. I realized how hairy and soft he actually is as he quietly curled up on our feet.

After our dinner of soup, scrambled eggs with veggies, and curried cubed potatoes (okay, it tastes awesome despite it sounding convoluted) we made a late night trip to Price Chopper for some cookies: ginger snap and chocolate chip.

Since I was gone for the weekend, I will have an extensive post about the trip to Queens in addition to today's daily post.

It's Thursday and tomorrow we're leaving for New York.

I really have to get everything together. I know I want to show my gf where I grew up, but also I want to visit old neighbors and check out the High Line Park that opened recently in Manhattan. We still have to find an urban farm to check out.

Also, I'm considering buying a camera. I miss taking pictures. My camera got stolen in the Dominican Republic. So we'll see.

In the mean time I'm at home doing work. I split half of the logs today and started stacking some of them to be used in the furnaces for wintertime. I will attempt to do the other half tomorrow.

Farm Girl Dinner!

Tonight I was invited to dine with the farm girls at an intern's house. I've gotta say, when you eat with farmers, there's a lot of veggies on the table. We went vegetarian and had fried eggs, tofu, three kinds of salad (one with beats) and quinoa. For dessert- zucchini chocolate chip cookies and raspberries from the backyard garden!

The girls were hilarious. I didn't say much, I just listened and tried not to crack up too much.

Earlier in the day it had been raining. I sliced wood for the wintertime for Jim until the gas ran out in the wood-slicing machine. For lunch I discovered that Beef Brisket makes the most delicious hamburgers! Then I joined my gf at her farm and planted flowers for a future pick-your-own flowers CSA pick-up day.

*CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Members of the community pay for a share and get fresh veggies weekly from their local farm. They come to pick up the veggies and there is often a "pick-your-own" item in addition to the ones laid out at the table.

So far I haven't really written about my job at the bed & breakfast. It'll be over a week till I work there again, since I just work there when the owner needs extra help.

At the start of my job, it was amazing. The owner had to go on a week-long trip and so I was there doing the check-ins, breakfast, cleaning and talking with the guests. He told me he'd prefer if I'd stay there overnight to make sure everything went well in the house. So me and my gf had a guest room, which was really sweet. For that time we had two homes.

The first couple was from England. They were the only guests for the duration of their stay and they kept asking when other guests or the owner would show up. I tried to gauge how much they liked my food by how much they ate. The guy really wanted bacon, which the owner had smirked at me for mentioning to him that he should get some, so I went and got some. The guests were very pleased. The guy made quirky jokes that I almost didn't catch (he said them very seriously) and the woman hugged me at check out.

The second couple was awesome. They had a baby with them and stayed in the biggest room. It was great taking care of them on my own: we chatted a lot and they really liked me. I told them to enjoy the big house since they were the only guests there that day and they were happy about that. They also enjoyed my food!

When the owner came back I became more of a behind-the-scenes person. He cooked and chatted, and ordered me to clean while he sat with the guests during breakfast. I don't know if the guests even know there is someone else taking care of the B&B. Still, the second couple came to see me at check out and gave me $20! Whoa, super cool!

This Friday we'll be driving to NY to stay for the weekend. I really have to start planning out exactly what we'll be doing there. I tend to get lazy and in a home-ish mood when I'm there (I lived there for 14 years) so I have to remember I only have 2 days and lots of plans.

There was a warm breeze throughout today. I painted the first coat of green on the 6 shutters for the west end of the house. Jim calls me his painter. I have an official title! It feels good.

After my gf came home we went to the shops nearby in Stockbridge. It was 7 pm and they were all closed already. Except for one general goods store. We were overwhelmed by the colors and miscellaneous goods on the shelves. There were candles, toys, books, magnets, etc. We bought Swedish ginger cookies and fudge.

Since we were upstairs for the rest of the night reading and being on the computer, we didn't eat dinner with the couple. We had the cookies for dinner instead. At least there was milk.

I'm sorry that I didn't post yesterday. I didn't want to continue ranting about how badly this farmer was treating her "interns" but most of the day was spent talking about what the workers could do about it.

Today we were going to take a hike into the mountains but we chilled at home instead. But from my last hike into this forest next to our house, I realized how important a walking stick is.

The uses of a walking stick:
-to test the depth of water
-balancing on logs
-supporting you when the ground is uneven
-fending off animals
-pushing aside branches that have spikes

Tonight we had a wonderful meal that my girlfriend cooked and we ate with Jim. Over wine we talked about technological developments around the world and communicative advances in recent years.

I worked a lot today- spent most of the day prepping and priming 6 shutters for the west end of the house.

For better visualization of this place that I work and live in, here are some pics:


4 girls on a rock in the backyard of the house


The back of the tool shed facing the forest

I volunteered my time on the farm today. I’m not a farmer, but I felt like something was totally wrong.

Farm Girl Farm is this small place run by one lady who hires “interns” to work for a small stipend a month. The thing is that there is no organization. I worked for almost 6 hours straight in the field with no break, and when it was time for the planned lunch, she changed her mind and wanted everyone to keep working. Then she left, with assignments to be finished by the hungry overworked interns.

The weeds were horrendous, since they were neglected, and there is no equipment at all to take care of them. I was mostly upset because what would have taken me 2 hours to do (harvesting beets) took almost 6 because we had to play a game of “where’s the veggie” amidst the forest of weeds. The interns are not informed of her plans, or even of the accurate names of some of the veggies (I thought internships were for learning).

And then when I mentioned the weed situation she said “I didn’t ask you about the weeds.” Whoa farm nazi. The kids on the farm work 10 hour work days, the schedule changes at her whim, and she expects all to work overtime on top of the insane hours. The “interns” get paid about $2.50 or less an hour. Which they agree to do, to see positive results on the farm. But she doesn’t take advice from these people that have interned on other farms, took agriculture classes in college, and have had experience at home. It’s hard to stay motivated when she runs her workers to the ground and they get less kindly than her farm dog.

I hope this doesn’t continue happening to people who come from all over for a learning experience. Maybe next year she’ll be more humane?

For lunch, me and my girlfriend ate at a local cafe. We split a burger and had clam chowder soup, which was awesome! We were going to buy chocolate at this place called Chocolate Springs, but it was ridiculously expensive. The good-local-chocolate hunt will have to continue another day. We got back home and I got back to work on painting assignments (this morning I did a second layer of paint on the porch) as she went back to work at the farm.

Scraping paint feels like busy work before the actual assignment. Right before working on removing the paint from the shutters, which will get painted by me later, my host, we’ll call Jim, talked to me about how people in the past built houses intelligently. They couldn’t rely on electricity like we do, so they positioned the house and everything in to be insulated efficiently.

One of his kids and her friend came by to stay for a bit. He barbequed and we had 6 people around the table.

These blog posts are getting posted a bit earlier (I think) because my girlfriend now has to work on the farm starting at 6 am. Which means we have to go to bed even earlier. Her farm boss is a slave driver and uses outdated and inefficient farming techniques that take more effort and time for the interns to do everything. Plus a lot of crop gets wasted in the process. This is really frustrating my gf who would like to learn something from this experience and make a difference on the farm. Farm boss lady won’t listen to anyone though. And these absurd work schedules with less than minimum wage pay is frustrating to me to. She doesn’t get out until 7 at night!

I painted the porch today with my host. We scraped the old paint and bleached it in preparation for the primer. I was glad to be outside with him because the hostess had blown up at us about eating food in the house without asking for permission first. This made me feel like I was in a place where I wasn’t wanted and I was irked, but even more upset about how it hurt my girlfriend. She doesn’t take scolding very well.

We were out in the 98 degree weather painting the floorboards and he starts to tell me the story behind the house. I love these kinds of stories: the histories of places that I’ve been or lived in. He tells me that the person who built the house had a father who was an engineer and had eventually made a lot of money working on a railroad back when this was the newest mode of transportation. The son built the house with the money he inherited. And his last name was the same as my last name.

This gave the story even more of an appeal to me. I was not born in this country and I do not have a common American last name. So when he told me that he read the biography of this man and has the book above the fireplace in the living room, I became excited to read it. The house was passed down in the family until it was sold to another family. This is when my host had first seen the house. As a young man he was hired one summer to do painting around the house. The last time he had painted that very porch, in fact, was 35 summers ago.

As an older adult, and after living in Boston for years, he came back to visit his parents and noticed a picture of the house for sale in the window of a real estate office. He was curious and asked about it. The current owner, a grandson of the person he had painted for, had been lazy and the house was a wreck. It takes a lot of work to keep a big estate like this one maintained and potential buyers were scared away by the cost and effort it would take to do repairs. The entire heating system needed to be updated and there was a lot that needed to be redone.

My host knew the potential of the place. He knew the gorgeous 80-something acres it sat on. He knew the history of the place. So he bought it.

With a crew of professionals the house was brought to living standards. The interior designer loved the place, and stayed. This was the woman who would become my hostess this summer. His lady.

I'm guessing it's common knowledge here that porcupines eat chairs.

Two nights ago, my gf and I were watching some stand-up comedy, specifically Russel Peter, on Youtube. The windows behind the couch look out to the front porch, and coming from outside we heard a terrifying grinding sound. We were alone in this huge house and we were warned that we had to be extra careful this weekend because a lot new people would be in town for the holiday, and if anyone wandered up our driveway it would be wise to have the doors locked.

Hearing the slow scraping of wood just outside our window set the scene for an awful horror movie, in our minds.

I turned off the lights in the living room and crept to the door's window. Peeking out, I couldn't see anything, but the noise was loud and unusual. Then a small black object on the far corner of the porch caught my eyes. It was moving, hunched over on a chair.

Squinting I could make out spikes, and the creature turned to look at the door with black beady eyes. I shuddered.

July 4th in the Berkshires

We had a full house today at the B&B. I cleaned rooms quickly while guest met each other over breakfast. Hungry, I hurried home after noon, having eaten only a pancake and two dried figs.

My girlfriend stir fried veggies, boiled rice and we ate pecans in nutella. We have been surviving the weekend alone (with a food-less fridge) with veggies from her farm. At this point we are feeling pretty meat deprived.

So on to an awesome party with farm girls. There is a bbq with sausages and chicken. Pie, brownies and lots of drinks. The best part of the night...

We go to Tanglewood and lie in the grass, listening to a concert by Taylor Swift. Then the fireworks. So sleepy...

I’m 2 weeks into my summer in the Berkshires and have been toying with the idea of creating a blog. There is a lot of beauty to report on and quirky lifestyles that I want to illustrate. My hesitations have been, as with everyone, a lack of time since there is a lot of work to be done in the countryside and everyone goes to bed so early to rise at 5 or 6 am. This is wild for a college kid like me, but I’ve been adjusting and I’m trying to steal away a few minutes a day to write this blog.

About me: I’ve escaped the Florida heat and the college town to live with my girlfriend in Massachusetts. She’s also from my college town, but she’s interning on a farm and stays with a host couple. I got a job at a bed & breakfast around the corner, and then I work around the house doing landscaping or painting. The house: 10 bedrooms, 3 floors (not including the basement), 40 something acres complete with a brook and a forest, 3 horses, cows, chickens, a guinea fowl named Uni and a dog named Burt.

This weekend, the couple went on a roadtrip and we have the house to ourselves. After taking care of the animals we have some delicious meals planned using fresh veggies from her farm. And it's the Fourth of July weekend; there'll probably be a lot of people in town. I’ll be back to post upcoming activities and commentary on life here in the Berkshires.