I Miss You! But I like it here...

So the ranch is great. Everybody's young and progressively minded; up for involved conversation and singing in the field. The work is outdoors, using our bodies constantly and rewarded with healthy food grown here, made by a collective of excellent self-taught cooks. We're also gratified by things like the potatoes we planted in our first week of work peeking up through the soil.

I saw my first rattlesnake last week! It was hiding in an aluminum pipe along the fence line and it's rattle sounded like water leaking out of a hose, so I didn't register it right away (also, being from a place where we never really encounter poisonous/predatory creatures, I'm still working on my snake/spider radar). We ended up picking up the pipe by it's middle so that we could ascertain which end the snake was lurking from. Then we put that end of the pipe through the fence, outside the field, and stuck a hose in the other end to rinse the snake out. Once it fell out of the pipe, it coiled itself and raised it's head--pissed that we had disturbed it's protected hiding place. I couldn't blame it! All I could do was be in total awe of it's beauty and the power inherent in an animal that is designed to warn you before it strikes.