Friday, May 13, 2011

Epic Trip Out West, Day Thirty-Eight: Dirt

My crusher hat, my Watching Judas shirt, my cammo trousers and my Nikes were baptized in Colorado dirt today. Beki drove me over to the farm around eight this morning, and within the hour I was down on my knees in the sweltering greenhouse, rooting up arugula that had gone to seed. Crouch and pull, chop and sweep. Duck between wind and warm, sunshine and greenhouse. Drag the hose around without demolishing the mint. Pause for lunch with four generations of the J. family, a cacophony of charitable souls, half-deaf with age and weather, dishing out slabs of lunchmeat and white bread and colby-jack. Dig holes for the chives, plant herbs, hoe the earth and spread the kelp powder, keep three-year-old Zia from digging up the beds.   All in a day’s work. 
I doubt my fingernails will ever be clean again. 
~Lisa Shafter
Money spent today: $11.78 (almonds, craisins, clif bars)
Leeway so far: $73.33

1 comment:

  1. Ah, you must remember, you are a child of the land with names in your background like Plowman and Barfield. Could there be any stronger hint as to our commoner heritage?

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