exhausted

Hi from Paros!

It's so beautiful here! Jim and Irene, the farm owners, are lovely and I've fallen quickly in love with their 2 dogs and 3 cats. My love for shoveling cow poop and carrying it around in wheelbarrows is slightly less, but it comes with a real education of permaculture, which is great.

I arrived at the farm on Sunday evening after spending about 40 hours in Athens. It was great to be back in Athens - I ate at my favorite restaurant, climbed up Lykavetos with new friends at about 3am, and had about an hour of sleep before having to leave for the ferry to Paros. Note to self: NOT a good idea to be on a ferry hungover when you already know you get seasick.

After I got off the boat (I've never been so happy to get out of a moving vehicle in my entire life), I took a public bus to a few towns over. Jim, Irene, Charlie, and Freddie (the 2 dogs), picked me up from the bus station and we went to the farm. I wish I had pictures to show you all (my camera broke the day I arrived - figures) because I'm not sure if you'd believe how beautiful it is. They have committed their lives to creating a beautiful place to live and work and the place just gushes with the type of energy that only comes from hours of serious heartfelt dedication and uncountable gallons of sweat. Believe me - I've worked for 2 days and think I've donated at least five.

Anyway, I had such a great first evening with them. They had some friends come by for dinner - Aussies that are on Paros for running Ashtanga Yoga seminars. After a really, really tasty dinner and great conversation, we went into town and saw The Good Shepard at the open air theater. The theater was so fun, but this movie is not one that you should watch after you've only slept for an hour, still feel pretty crappy, and are only running on adrenalin. It's too long and way to depressing. But the popcorn was good and the Mythos was as good as I remembered it to be.

Yesterday and today I woke up at 7, got dressed, had a small breakfast, and started work at about 8:30. I've been working with compost and mulch. Part of the permaculture philosophy is making sure that you're being smart with your resources. Jim has been taking advantage of the local economy here in Paros. He has collected grape seeds from the raki making farm down the road. Raki tastes like nail polish remover and is only tolerable with salty snacks and in small sips. It is made from the grapes that are too crappy to make wine out of. He used their "trash" seeds as compost during the growing season (which is winter). Now we're working with olive leaves from the olive oil making place in the center of town.

Oh yes, and lots and lots of cow poop that has been sitting in a pile for a year.

It doesn't smell and I've found some pretty cool potsherds while shoveling it. I actually used a pitchfork while digging in piles of crap. All that was missing was the clothespin on my nose.

I'm having a really great time and I think my time here will fly by.

I'll write more later - I'm so tired!!!