Grant and Paige: the Week of July 17 to July 23

Friends and Family,

The second week has passed!

I shall open my heart and set free of all the light I have from within. and I will not falter! Our roots in the present moment are becoming deeper and stronger. We are becoming even more conscious of the Now by dwelling in the All-Mother's infinite love and eating what She provides us. Our growth is Paragon's growth and the growth of Paragon Sustainability will result in the upliftment of humanity!

The group here is amazing. We are becoming a tightly knitted group with great vibes. We respect and care for one another. I do think this 2016 Fall term could go down into the Grange's history as one of the best terms. I will credit this to the cohesion we have been developing over the past 2 weeks. Also, I have been teaching us ASL for the past week. I definitely think this has contributed greatly to our ability to be cohesive. They are picking up very quickly and I believe they could know the language well by the next 2 months and we have 3 months to go!

Ah.. It is time for me to do a recap of WEEK TWO! I shall now reminisce.

(A beautiful picture of a Tree and a Chair basking in the love of our Sun. This was taken next to the gazebo on a lovely Sunday evening.)







Sunday, July 17,  2016, was one of our days off. I believe I mentioned before in one of my previous posts that sometimes we will have 2 or 3 days off through Friday to Sunday. This will vary depending on local events, festivals, and sometimes one class will fall on a Friday.

One of the highlights on this day of relaxation was receiving a cute little bundle of 40 yellow fluff balls. Yes, the yellow fluff balls are baby chickens. Actually, now I remember that all 40 aren't yellow fluff balls. There are two baby fluff balls that happened to be black/white and brown/white. Those two babes are as cute as the yellow fluff balls though.

(A baby yellow fluff ball being held by Sky)

(A baby Paige looking very happy and cute while holding a baby chicken with a part of Grant's creepy eye looking down at the camera. We are attempting a "welfie" which is a group selfie.)

 Our Sunday was composed mostly of relaxation and the excitement of the arrival of these little chicks.

On Monday, July 18, 2016, we woke up to a foggy and cloudy sky for the first time while being here, surprisingly it wasn't a terribly cold morning as most mornings around here are. On our way up to breakfast we noticed an "ant crossing" sign which gave us a good belly laugh.

(The first cloudy morning we had here. This is the view from our tents on the way to the gazebo which we go to every morning)

(Aforementioned ant crossing sign)

For some reason every morning/night the ants cross this specific area. It has something to do with the the grass on the left on this picture. They like to bring seeds back to their homes which are giant ant hills to the right of this picture. I don't know who made the sign but it was really random and funny.

Later on that morning, we did some field work for a few hours. The first few hours was mostly spent weeding and then for the last hour I used a hoe to create a dirt path next to a block of cabbage growth so it would be easier to weed that certain side. Because it was full of dense vegetation and wheat grass and tall thistles.

(Dead on cabbage on the far left and Savoy cabbage in the middle and Kale on the far right)

To the far left you can see dense vegetation of tall grasses and whatnot. That is the area I cleared and made a good dirt path. 

After field work, Paige and I took a well deserved nap before our Poultry/Swine classes. We learned so much about Poultry/Swine. It was kind of fascinating to know that there are more than 21 billion chickens alive at any given time. We learned about the history of poultry/swine as well as their lifespan. Pigs are easy to get but it can cost alot of money to feed and raise them for meat. It takes a while to raise them to the right condition people want when eating pork meat. Whereas raising chicken is pretty cheap and takes a shorter amount of time to raise them. It was a fun introduction to the business of Poultry/Swine and livestock in general.

On the morning of Tuesday, July 19, 2016, we witnessed our first cow butchering on the ranch and learned about how a cow should be slaughtered humanely. It was a very real and fascinating experience to see a cow go from life to food as well as learning a little about the anatomy of a cow. As much as I want to post these step by step pictures I took of it being skinned to being butchered into 4 quarters, I won't because I respect that some people do not want to see too much blood and guts. But if you are that interested and would like to see some of the pictures and 2 videos I took then you are more than WELCOME to message me on facebook or comment below and I will get ahold of you and send them to you for the sake of your curiosity. :) After this butchering, we put the 4 quarters into a commercial meat freezer and then headed back to our farm for lunch then had a class on Plant/Crop Botany! We mostly learned about their growth and how it is critical to make sure they are growing healthily to ensure a productive agricultural system as well as vocabulary for describing parts of a plant, identifying male/female plants(male parts being the Stamen and female parts being the Stigma, a "Perfect Flower" is known as having both male/female parts) and so on.

Feel free to check out this link below to see a "perfect flower" and the parts of it. It is a pretty cool slide-show kind of link so its informative and short.

http://www.slideshare.net/iqbal1313/flower-morphology-25998589

Wednesday, July 20, 2016, was a normal day of field work in the morning then we had lunch. In the afternoon, we had Food Safety and GAP's(Good Agricultural Practices) class. We were mostly introduced to current "food safety" regulations and requirements while looking inside the politics of these regulations and whatnot. Such as why GMO's, glyphosate, high fructose corn syrup are not food safety issues when in reality they are very serious issues and contribute to food bourne illnesses.. We also learned of a few places to go to for legal certification and how there are SOP's(Standard Operating Procedures) for farmers to follow if they want to market their fresh produce. This is kind of similar to writing up a business plan, as a farmer getting into business, you must develop a system to ensure that the food you are selling is healthy and does not make people sick. To make sense of this, you must basically have a site on your farm that prepares and cleans the food when it is harvested, etc etc. Honestly, GAP's pretty much require people to have common sense. One just needs to be aware that someone is going to be eating your food and you don't want to make them sick, right?

Wednesdays are one of my favorite days of the week. Because in the evening of every Wednesday, we go to the local community center where people of the ranch and the Church of the Golden Rule come together for a big dinner. Good food and a full stomach makes a happy and content heart.

On Thursday, July 21, 2016, we had our first fieldtrip to a local farm and a local nursery. These fieldtrips were probably the highlight of this week. In the morning we went to Tequoia farm which is ran by a beautiful couple and they host international folks that come to stay for a while. 

(Tequoia Farm, Hunter is the owner of this farm is on the FAR left and then James, Lyndsey, Paige, Caroline and Grant. One student is missing but this is the group that we are living with! The picture was taken in their strawberry patch)

Over the next 4 months, we will have about 35-40 field trips to different farms around the county. This was our first farm we visited. This farm is proof of how two normal people can get into farming from scratch and make a very decent income! ($2,000 a week!) Although, we are aware it takes alot of work, blood, sweat, and tears. I think they have about 1,500 strawberry plants or something. I am not too sure of the exact number they are growing but it is A LOT. They are so red and DAMN JUICY, I tell ya. We also talked about how he left his job as a banker and married his wife who moved from Mexico to where they started small then became big. We also helped weed a couple patches a little. I was amazed at how fast we are able to clear giant patches full of weed with a good group of people. It made me realize more that farming should always be approached by a community/group. Abundance is everywhere. It was a very beautiful farm packed with good and healthy growing food. He uses multiple methods of growing in his farm. Such as the no-tillage method for his tomatoes in one area and dry farming(no watering) quinoa etc etc. He also uses irrigation systems.

Later that day, we went to the San Hedrin Nursery in the town of Willits, CA. 

(Starting from the far left stands, Caroline, Eva, Grant, Paige, Lyndsey, Dave and Jenny Watts, James, and Ruthie.... then Pomona the farm dog)

This nursery has been running for about 35 years by the same loving couple. This is not a farm but a form of business(a nursery). We are learning about the different varieties of businesses. Dave built the nursery-business house right next to their original house 35 years ago. It takes a lot of dedication to keep up with the size of the nursery they operate. They grow pretty much EVERYTHING including 30 different varieties of tomatoes! Even for that one customer who only wants that one specific plant that no one else wants or isn't trending in the market. They are willing to help propagate anything and GROW only for the community! Such kind hearted people they are.

Jenny collects seeds of all kinds, plants them, and takes care of the baby stage. once they are mature enough they sell the plants to local farmers and homesteaders. It was a very cute nursery run by a loving old and smart couple. 

Friday, July 22, 2016, was a day off for us. We had a group check in to recap the week which we do every Friday at breakfast in the Gazebo. I also had a meeting with Ruthie, our director of operations of the school. It was a very enlightening meeting and pretty much changed the course of my direction here. I was introduced to a certain project which will take about 3 months to develop and finish. I don't want to exactly announce everything yet until I get more information and confidence together because this is something I have never done before and I hope my project will be a good contribution to this school. Because I love this school and I love everyone. Be in love, Always.

Saturday, July 23, 2016, is a day off for me and I am using the day to write this blog post and prepare for the upcoming week. Lessons and classes will get more deeper, science-y, and business-y. I would also like to mention Paige is managing herself so well with her interpreting. She has never interpreted in her whole life but for the past 2 weeks she has pretty much acted like a "professional interpreter" and has been by my side since the beginning. I want the world to recognize that because her muscles ache and she continues to interpret as hard as she can with those little cute fingers.