Early Days

I would describe my first 10 days in Virginia as an emotional rollercoaster. I arrived to Staunton in a fragile state: tired from driving, sad to be leaving my old home, nervous to start something new, and maybe still a little hungover from the night before. Add to this mix a very strange dinner with my parents where they offered to split a Costco membership with me, among other ideas that would have my life way too intertwined with theirs, and I was questioning my decision to move pretty hard. 

I'm lucky the mountains here are so beautiful because they are a nice distraction from the fact that my new home is a full 40 minutes outside of town. (Some folks call Craigsville (10 min away) 'town' but it's comprised of the most depressing IGA I've ever seen, a DG, and a gas station.) Driving to and fro on move in day was another reality check and "what have I done?" vibe. Truly, thank God for the beauty of these mountains, and even for the dog food smell that settles in the valley on the humid days and reminds me that this place was my home once before. 

If you had asked me how things were going during my first days of work, I would've said every day was like the hardest day of my life. I always have to get my farm strength back after a winter indoors, but that coupled with the relentless pace of this farm and I was aching like never before. Think 8 straight hours of harvesting, followed by a full day of broad forking, followed by a day of construction projects-- just nonstop drilling through metal. It's all typical farm stuff, except that for some reason these people are morally opposed to sitting down ever (including one day where we even ate lunch standing up!!). In general I am finding my coworkers a little uninspiring, but the more I get to know them the more I am liking them. While I do think my boss might be a workaholic with unrealistically high expectations of his staff, we do have similar music taste, so at least when he has me building nursery benches all day while I silently curse him, we can both be happy listening to Turnpike or the Local Honeys.

During that first week, I was skeptical that I could do even one season here. Well, I believe I could but would I want to? I am weighing just how much I am willing to give up during this learning year. How much of my social life can I give up? How much of my physical wellbeing am I willing to give? Will I learn enough to justify sacrificing so much of what makes life beautiful? I am still weighing these questions, and I don't know what I will say at my 30 day check-in when I'm asked if I want to stay here.

Starting off my second week, I am feeling generally more positive than before. I think my coworkers and I are going to band together and demand a longer lunch break, which is exciting to me. (As soon as I found out we only got 30 minutes I started to wonder what it takes to unionize...) I was also heartened to find out that despite what the boss (and the employee handbook) may say, my coworkers encourage each other to take time off when they need it. I am told there are popsicles in the summer, and that we should no longer be expected to work more than 8 hours a day. I am feeling deeply comforted by the solidarity I am sensing among my peers. 

I don't know if this will be a place I want to stay more than a season, and to be honest, I spend a lot of my days daydreaming about coming back to Wheeling and doing cool things with my friends there, but I am feeling less like I need to quit immediately. I am also keenly aware of the fact that even though these early days have been so hard, I needed something new. Already I am having such an explosion of new ideas, personal realizations, and creativity, and I know I wouldn't be having that if I had stayed where I was. 

I was imaging this post as being a little more humorous than it turned out, so to make up for the reality check, I will end this with a celebratory list of new things I've already done here: 

• Built a fire!!! In a wood stove!! 
• Used a BCS Tractor! 
• Burned holes in landscape fabric!! 
• Made sandbags!! (less to celebrate here... that was horrible) 
• Drove a side by side! 
• Set up irrigation! 
• Tried Popcorn shoots! (there's a reason they're not more common...) 
• Used a Jang seeder!