Old McDonald

In previous posts I might have made reference to Food-Life Work here at ARI, for foodlife I am assigned to the chicken houses. We have two chicken houses, each with around 200 chickens, and we recently got 200 chicks (minus two that were tragically smooshed in a tragic newspaper accident,) which makes about 598 chickens at ARI. So every morning I am greeted by a face like this: well about 200 faces, and they are all hungry, very hungry. This morning I was in there before the food turning the floor (think compost) and they surrounded me and held me for ransom until the food came. The chickens can be very persuasive.

This weekend is our big Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration and we are all very busy. The HTC is an open house we throw for the community in celebration of this years plentiful food. So we are expecting between 750 and 1000 people to come through each day. All day we have been getting tents ready, cooking food, practicing for our performances, and decorating. There have been lots of new volunteers for the weekend and local community members bringing in food and items to sell. I have now met little old church ladies from Japan and let me tell you, they are the same as the little old church ladies from back home, smiling helpful, burdened with thrift goods and they come en masse.

Tomorrow morning I have a feeling that the top is going to blow off here, it will look like a volcano erupted and we are all going to be running around trying to put on the final touches before the guests arrive. My day will start at 5:30 in the kitchen, someone needs help grinding something and I got to volunteer, as such things go.

On another note, along with the chickens we have two cows and lots of pigs. One of the mama pigs (pictured here) had 15 piglets a few weeks ago, and another mama pig started having babies last night, as far as I know she is done now but I don't know the final count.

So, life is in full swing here and we are rolling along at full tilt. I want to leave you with a few of the thoughts that have been floating through my head, the idea that we are built for work, and only through work can we be truly fulfilled. If there is no toil how then can you appreciate joy? I think at times we feel bored or anxious because our bodies are lacking the satisfaction of work. As I work during the days here I can reflect on the merits of labor. It occurs to me that by growing our food and working this land we are taking part in an inherent act. I try to think about how this could be applied in a normal life back home and can't get beyond the fact that it should be applied back home throughout my life. The gratification I get from working to produce the food we eat is amazing. There is a song here that was written by a volunteer in 1988 I think it speaks well to us, here is an excerpt "Until the day we can feed ourselves, we never will be free." I leave you with those thoughts, do with them what you will. Peace and Love and good good feelings.

Mike