Track 13: Small Town Livin'

So, here I am, sitting in the back seat of my car in front of the post office in Plymouth, California, which is the closest "big" town to Fiddletown. It's not really that big. But I can sit here for hours, taking advantage of the fact that someone doesn't know how to password-protect their wireless network. Hee!

Here's a rundown of what's been going on since I left Salt Lake City last Friday:

Having Angela along to share the driving made the last leg of the journey a lot better. Luckily, she's a Garrison Keillor fan as well! We drove through Carson City, Nevada (another state capitol I can check off my list) and ate at In-N-Out Burger, where I had an awesome cheeseburger without the burger. Grilled onions, people. And fresh-cut fries. AND they pay their employees $9.50 an hour! No wonder they were all so happy.

We arrived at Safan Ranch after a harrowing trip through the Sierra Nevada mountains (Angela knows those roads very well and therefore was driving at speeds I found...a little anxiety-inducing). We did stop at a lookout point before it got dark, and I got a couple of awesome pictures, which I'll post to Flickr.

After a good night's sleep in the guest room, I spent the next day getting to know Aaron and Kendra, two other WWOOFers (www.wwoof.org - it explains WWOOFing), getting a tour of the immediate property surrounding the house, and picking out my trailer. Angela zipped off names for all 22 goats, 3 pigs, and a dozen hens and roosters, and right now all I can recall is Wendy (a goat). Oh, and her favorite hen's name is Ginger. I think I may have to take photos of all the animals and study. There are three dogs -- Halie, P.B., and Big Boy, and two cats -- Kuching and Mr. Tom. I need to take pictures of them too.

I did a little cleaning in my trailer and made myself at home. They have half a dozen old travel trailers that still have (non-working) appliances, so it's pretty neat. They're not heated, though, and it's been getting down into the 40's at night, so I bundle up in my sleeping bag and two blankets. And lots of clothing. So far, so good, but I'm not sure how I'm going to deal once it gets into the 30's at night.

In the garden so far, I've planted onions and cleared out the melon patch to prepare it for planting garlic and shallots. These will all grow a little over the winter and then really take off in the spring. Angela sells produce at the farmers market during the growing season, and she also fills orders from a local bed and breakfast, but a lot of the food grown gets eaten by Steve and Angela and all the WWOOFers and other guests that stay at the ranch. Angela also sells chickens and guinea fowl, and eggs, and I think the pigs as well.

Yesterday, Angela and I went over to Mike the neighbor's house to help stack firewood. After a couple hours, my back was killing me, but I got $30 and a bottle of Mike's homemade wine as a thank-you. After lunch, we went back over to Mike's to use his grape press. We pressed a WHOLE lot of grapes, and Angela now has about 30 gallons of wine to keep processing, in addition to a bunch more barrels in the barn. What did I say about everyone that lives here? Wine-o's. So, when in Rome... Anyway, it was really fun and educational. It makes you appreciate what you're drinking when you know how it's made.

In addition to drinking good wine, Steve and Angela are fabulous cooks. There goes my plan to lose the weight that I gained back over the past year. At least it's all good, whole food, a lot of it fresh from the garden. We've got tomatoes out the wazoo, and squash as well. Angela has a friend with an apple orchard, and she said we can go pick some any time we want! Woo-hoo!

Aaron and Kendra left on Monday, and Caitlin joined us yesterday. There's always a rotating cast of WWOOFers here, more over the summer, but I believe a few more will be joining me at some point in the next couple months. Today Steve took Caitlin and I on a tour of some of the rest of the property -- they own 56 acres. I hope to get into a habit of going on a hike every morning, at least to shake the cold out of my bones, and also to work off all the mounds of great food I'm eating.

Speaking of food, I've got to head back to the ranch to help with dinner prep. Tonight we're having salmon on the grill, roasted tomato soup, and zucchini bread that Angela baked this morning. Are you jealous? Yeah, I thought so.