Update on Kristin

Hello all,

So, Kristin is doing much better. However, yesterday was another rough day...

Kristin woke me at 1 am because her arms had gone from achey to incredibly painful. She tried taking some pain killers, but it just got worse. Another call to the 24 hour nurse hotline led to another trip to the 24 hour clinic across town.

At this point, it is early Sat. morning, and the clinic is full of triage patients that were overflow from the hospital next door. I had just read an article the day before arguing that NZ needed to raise the drinking limit, cause at 18 years old, the nation's ERs were being flooded every weekend with alcohol related injuries from 18-20 year olds. And here I was, witnessing it in person.

There was one whole group that had gotten in a fight at a party. One guy had busted his hand up pretty badly. Across from them was a boy that had a sever concussion from falling while drunk. And so on....

All in all, it was a 2 hour wait for Kristin to see a doctor, at which point the pain had gotten worse and her wrists became swollen. A rash had begun on her arms. I was freaking out... kept asking the receptionist every 30 minutes when she was going to be seen. Poor Kristin was just curled up on the waiting area bench with her arms curled into her tummy.

The diagnosis is that Kristin is having a reaction to a viral infection that was causing "target lesions." It is a rare reaction, but it can happen with a whole host of viruses. The only thing to do is to wait for test results to come back and manage the pain.

So, Kristin spent another day sleeping. Slowly the target lesions spread to her tummy, back and legs.

But last night we did not go to the 24 hour clinic. The rashes and lesions are slowly clearing. Kristin is feeling better. :)

In other news, I bought a car yesterday. A 1989 Honda Civic, with high miles but very well maintained. I will try to post pictures sometime, but it is very cute car.

Also, I have not heard back from a couple of wineries that were next on my list. I am not sure how to proceed. I might just head up there in my new car. Or head south.

~ matt

Eventful week! (Long post)

Oh boy! Where do I start?

Last I left you all, I was just about to leave Blenheim to go to Kaikoura via train to meet up with Kristin and her friend Claire.

The train really was the way to go! I cannot even explain what a difference it was. The cost of the ticket was about $3.50 USD more than the bus, and in return for my investment I got a nice, full seat with tons of leg room, a 1 hour shorter overall trip with none of the sickness and cramped conditions, and I got a really neat experience to boot. The Lonely Planet guide says that the trains here are not to go anywhere so much as they are to see places, and now I see how true that is. The train has 3 passenger cars, and one car that is the observation car. The sides of the observation car are open to the air, and allow for stunning views as the train makes its way from the vineyards of Blenheim to the rocky coasts of Kaikoura. The engineer would come on the speakers throughout the trip, announcing good photo opportunities and explaining the scenery. For $3.50 more, I got a narrated train tour of some of the most beautiful land I have seen. Definitely worth it!

Kaikoura was great, and Kristin's friend was a joy, even though she was still getting over the last of her bout with H1N1! (which neither Kristin nor I managed to get) Our day in Kaikoura was spent visiting the beaches, seal colonies where there were seals lounging willy-nilly, and was finished by a presentation of sheep shearing. The presentation was extremely educational, with the presenter, a former shearer with awards for his shearing, going through each of the types of wool, the shearing process, the packaging, etc. I was very skeptical at first, but I was actually a blast.

The next days were spent getting Kristin's friend off, and relaxing a bit.

Next stop was Akoroa, a tiny little town about 75 km east of Christchurch that was settled by the Frenchs, and maintains its French heritage. All the architecture is French, and all the roads named in French as well. Despite the wonderful weather and 70 degree temperatures, however, everyone in the town insisted it was in fact winter and refused to open most of their businesses or rent any equipment for exploring the area. Most of our questions were met with a shocked, "Well, of course no one is open... IT IS winter, afterall!" Finding food was tough, and most of our time was spent exploring on foot (sometimes barefoot on the beach, much to the dismay of the locals... Who goes barefoot in winter?)

Our lodging in the town was a farm stay at the Tree Crop Farm, a unique little place overlooking town. The owner was a hippy woman who implored us to go naked most of our stay... and seemed distressed when we did not. (Not even joking! When she saw me in the morning, her exclamation was "People! And with clothes on!") It was bizarre for sure, but fun none the less. Kristin and I had a great 1 year anniversary filled with lots of French food and lazy beach combing for pretty shells.

Two days ago and on the way back from Akoroa, I check out Kristin's car and found it was low on coolant. Over the course of the trip it overheats, and I begin to suspect a blown head gasket. This is bad news as the repairs will cost about $400 more than the car is worth. Poor Kristin dealt with it very well, even though she was due to drive a newfound friend up north for the last week of her break, and this would leave her high and dry.

Unfortunately, she no longer has to worry about that...

Today was my planned day to leave Kristin and head out on my own in search of a car and such. She was due to head north to meet a friend towards Nelson. At 5 am this morning Kristin wakes with a heaviness in her chest and difficulty breathing. By 6:30 am we have gotten the NZ 24 hour health hotline's advice to seek medical attention immediately and are on our way to the nearest open medical clinic 45 minutes away in a car that might overheat or die any minute. Talk about excitement!

The clinic decides that after a battery of tests there is nothing wrong with her, and diagnoses it as a panic attack (despite all indications that it is not and is getting worse). They send Kristin out the door with the advice to just go home and relax. By the time we are back to her room on campus, she has developed crippling stomach pains that leave her barely able to walk. Thankfully the student health clinic is open by this point... By the time I got her there, she cannot move and can barely speak... is crying doubled over because the pain is so sever. Kristin is a pretty tough cookie and not prone to crying over anything, and especially not in front of me. At this point, I am reasonably terrified.

After many more tests, they decide she most likely has sever gastritis, and start to medicate her. After 8.5 hours of many medications, several incrementally stronger pain medications, followed by meds to combat the dizziness and puking caused by the pain meds, and lots of general poking and prodding, blood tests and consultations, they finally have Kristin well enough to be wheeled out in a chair and for me to get back to her room and into bed.

Her tummy seems to be feeling better at this point, and although she is extremely loopy from the meds and exhausted by her ordeal, I think they have it sorted out. She is absolutely passed out, and will likely be for a while. There are still lots of questions about why it developed so suddenly and so strongly, and without any real contributing factors (alcohol, spicy food, age, etc.), and there are many blood tests to be run and sorted out before she meets with the doctor again Monday morning. The doctor has put me in charge of taking care of her until then (since there is no one on campus and she is not much capable of taking care of herself at this point)... so I guess I am not leaving quite so soon.

Really, though, the timing could not have been better. The rest of her school is on break, and her residence hall and most of campus is completely deserted. All of her friends are out of town till the end of the week, and she was in no shape to be doing anything. I am really really glad I was here to help her... I am frankly not sure what could have happened if I were not here. Yikes! Besides, my plans were to regroup and seek out a car and reliable enough internet to continue my efforts with wineries.

So, I am making her soup and picking up her medications. While she sleeps I am continuing my efforts with wineries and trying to line up a car of my own to buy. It is giving me lots of time with fast internet and time to run errands, which is very helpful. Hopefully by Monday I will have a car and Kristin will be feeling better. :)

Then off to Dunedin!

All and all, it was actually a pretty good week, though...

~ matt

Kaikoura Pictures

Hello All!

Here are some pictures from my last couple of days...

Burleigh Rd., Blenheim, NZ

NZ vineyard winter weed control

View from the train

Beach in Kaikoura

Seal Napping

Another one

Pretty shells (Paua shell is the big one)

Ha ha... Kristin decided we all needed to walk barefoot in the water. The water was a bit cold, and the beach was a pebble beach, not sand. Ouch.

Kristin holding a week old lamb.

Freshly Sheared...

~ matt

Hätsch's Advice

Hätsch had some good advice that I thought I would share:

About Winemaking:

• The future of winemaking will be in organic production. This is because only the best, healthiest grapes make good wine, and healthy grapes come from healthy, strong plants. Additionally, every soil is unique only so long as it is still living. Once chemicals are sprayed and the balance of the soil destroyed, you lost the terroir, the unique and subtle variation of flavors caused by different locations.
• Just as healthy vines make good wine, so do healthy and happy people. You must have joy in your work, and that joy will show in the wine. When you lose sight of that, then the wine becomes ordinary and dull.
• The art of fine winemaking lies in the "magic" of the unpredictable and the unexplainable. See previous post.

About Life:

• As Einstein said, knowledge only comes from experience. Everything else is information. It is important to realize that schooling is important, but can only carry you so far. Until you have done something, you do not really know anything about it.
• It is important to remember the above point, because allowing yourself to think you truly know something will limit you, as a winemaker and in life. He went so far as to say some of his worst workers graduated with degrees in Viticulture.
• Always be ready to listen before telling.

About Finding Work:

• It is inconceivable that I will not find work. Showing up with my work-permits in hand, and a willingness to work and learn should go far. My strategy of researching individual wineries, meeting the owners/operators, and showing up with lots of questions should produce results. He had already filled his small crew for the season, but otherwise would hire me.
• Keep looking at small wineries, because only at small wineries will I get exposure to every aspect of the operation. Expect the pay to be poor, but it will be a more valuable experience overall.

~ matt

Fromm Winery

Today was the day for my visit to Fromm Winery(www.frommwinery.co.nz) in Marlborough, THE wine region in NZ.

I decided, lacking a car (still), I should just hire a bike from the hostel I am staying at (which is, by the way, still the sketchy hostel...it was too much work to move, since I will be leaving tomorrow and needed to be at the vineyard this morning). The cleaning lady assured me it was worth renting the bike, even though the hostel had "freebie" bikes that looked just fine, cause the rentals are so much nicer in every way. This should have been a warning sign.

The bike I rented (the only one that fit me) was a little cruiser bike. The $15/day rental fee included a helmut, lock, and safety vest.

My first stop was the library. Already I noticed that the bike was taking far more effort to pedal than it should, but I stopped along the way to have the tires filled, and assumed this would do the trick. At the library, I also realize the key does not fit the lock I was given. Ok, I can deal with this...

After the library, and about 1/4 of the way to the winery I have an appointment with, I realize the bike is in the process of falling apart. But unlike my crappy bike I managed to destroy in a day in China, this one's death is manifest by a lot of resistance and drag in the running gears... so bad that I am needing to pedal down hills to keep my speed. At around 1/2 to the winery, I am dripping sweat and out of breathe from biking at what feels like a miserable crawl over flat ground. At one point I actually got off and walked, this being much easier and not too much slower than pedaling.

But I somehow made it to the winery in one piece and with enough time to straighten up before my meeting.

The winemaker turns out to be an Swiss man named Hatsch with crazy hair and an even crazier beard. But he is warm, and gives wonderful advice.

At one point, we are in the room where all the barrels of wine are aged, and he finds a cork on the ground... Puzzled, he looks around for the barrel that it popped from. Finding it, he sniffs and listens to the barrel. Pleased, he has me listen to the fizzing sounds coming from the cork hole on the top of the barrel.

"This one is really going!" he tells me excitedly. Checking the surrounding barrels, we find that two others out of the ten or twelve are also fizzing, but the rest show no sign of activity at all. They are all from the same press, with the same treatment, and Hatsch has not explaination for it, but does not seem concerned.

"Winemaking is all in the things that happen that you cannot explain. You see, I could filter and manipulate the juice so it does exactly what I want it to, and some do, but then it is stale and dead. The unpredictable is magic. Winemaking is about that magic. Without it, wine is just a beverage."

And I have to say, he did make some rather fine wine...

And in the end, I survived my trip. I have been trying to work out every other night to keep in shape while traveling, and I am afraid that between my workout last night and my ride today, I am going to be a very sore boy tomorrow. But all that is on the agenda for tomorrow is relax and await the train which will take me to Kaikoura and Kristin. :)

I really really need a shower...

~ matt

I am in Blenheim (and not thrilled about it)

So, here is a quick little update from the road. The night before I left Nelson, the wonderful little city where I have been staying for the last week, I went into a bookstore. I am chatting with the nice little shopkeep, and when she asks where I am heading next, I tell her Blenheim.

"Blenheim!" 'orrilble place, Blenheim is..."

And while I feared it was just her being overdramatic, I am finding it might not be....

My first 24 hours in Blenheim has consisted of:

• Checked into a hostel that was highly recommended by a traveler I meet in Nelson. The big draw of the place was its owners, who were supposedly sweet, nice, and very helpful. I arrive, and the owners are on holiday and have left the hostel in the care of a apathetic couple that are there a total of 3 waking hours. The hostel is messy and dirty, and feels like a mix between a frat house and the house in "Fight Club." Seriously... there are dirty dishes all over the place, the kitchen is a disaster, the furniture (including the beds) is old and beat up, etc... sigh. Barely 2 hours into my stay, and someone walked into the hostel and robbed things from two of the rooms. About 6 people lost a great deal of valuable things. Good thing I travel like I am in China; I carry with me anything I cannot afford to replace(which at this point is almost everything!).
• Test drove a couple more cars. Nearly bought one too, but my bank saved me. I could not withdraw the necessary amount in a single day. Turns out the owner was in a little too much of a rush to sell the thing, and in our communications following I decide that I can find a better car. Just have to be patient... Which is too bad. The bus ride from Nelson consisted of 2 hours of cold-sweats and clinched knuckles as I sat crammed into a seat so small that I could not physically sit straight because the seat in front of me was so close, just trying with every bit of me not to throw-up.
• Internet everywhere in Blenheim is about $1/10 min. Thankfully another person at the hostel turned me on to the free wireless at the library. :)
• And perhaps the biggest thing! I have yet to meet or hear anything promising about work in Blenheim. There is certainly work here in the vineyards...that is not the issue. I have talked to two different people who were taken advantage of by local employers (not paid enough, etc.), two people who have quit multiple jobs because they were so awful, a couple people who are currently working, but are not enjoying it. And after talking to ~20 different people, I have yet to meet anyone who actually enjoys living and working here. And no one has said that working here has taught them anything about running a vineyard.

It turns out the consensus is that Blenheim is indeed 'orrible.

I think there are a couple things working against this place being what I am looking for. They have a surplus of labor, so there are not compelling reasons for employers to try to keep people around. It seems few vineyards have their own crews, but rather hire contractors to do most of the work. This means that the work is not varied (there are separate specialized contractors for each job on the vineyard, and do that same job at different vineyards each day), and you have little to no contact with the viticulturists and winemakers, or even any staff of the actual winery.

Getting work in Blenheim is going to be a last resort for me. It already is a night and day difference between this place and the beautiful family owned and operated wineries of Nelson.

So, today, my to do list is:

• Find decent notecards, write "Thank you" notes to the two wineries I looked at earlier this week. I am hoping that when they do start to hire, they might think favorably of me and hire me on for a couple of months.
• Look at different hostels in the area. I am still conflicted about this one. It is a lot of work to move hostels, and it seems (according to the Backpackers Hostel Association) that all the hostels are about the same in this town. One boy actually told me that this hostel was much better than the last time he stayed there!

News about the rest of life:

Kristin and I celebrate our 1 year anniversary on the 25th! I am super excited about this... It has been a good year, and while I try not to get too bogged down with anniversaries and the like, it seems appropriate to celebrate this one. Mmhmm. She is a good one. :)

However, Kristin's friend from the States is currently visiting her, and got swine flu on her flight into the country! So, I might be celebrating the anniversary by taking care of a sick Kristin and maybe even her sick friend, if she is not well enough to fly back to the States on the 24th. Bummer...

My schedule is I am here till Sat, meet Kristin and her friend in Kaikoura (a wonderful little sea-side town), celebrate till the 29th, hang out in Christchurch till I find a car worth buying, and then head south to Dunedin (which I have heard nothing but good about).

I think that might be all...

On a side note, Macs are very rare and excessively expensive (I saw this very model in a store for over double what I paid for it!) in NZ. Where as in the States I never got a second look, and my laptop is an older model and not very impressive, I feel like here I have a big "Rich Spoiled American" sign on my head. Everyone looks... I have been taking great care to only take it out and use it in public places, and certainly do not want anyone at the hostel to know of its existence. But I do love it. It took me over 2 years of looking to buy a laptop, but I feel like I got the perfect one for me! Just wish it weighed a little less (~5 lbs is a bit much to carry around every second of every day).

~ matt

Winery tours, round one

So, today was a pretty mixed bag. It started off with me trying to figure out how to rent a car for the day, since I have failed to find a car worth buying for the amount I have to spend.

I called one local rental company, who informed me that the rental rate was $50 a day. I tried to get a small break, but no dice. Turns out that was the cheapest one day rate, so I call back, and the conversation goes like this:

"Hi! I would like to rent a car for the day."

"No."

"Umm...sorry?"

"Don't rent for a day, mate."

"I just talked to you 10 minutes ago, and you said you did... you told me it would be $50 for the day."

"I've changed my mind. Don't want to rent for just a day."

Sigh... I am glad that he did not decide this after I had gone down there. I ended up renting with another company, who charges $.35 NZD a Kilometer for day rentals. Turns out it will be cheaper if I just rent for 3 days, since the 3 day rentals get unlimited kms. Grrr... today was expensive before it was even 9:30 am.

But once I get on the road, life is good. Soon I am out of the city, and in some of the most beautiful hills ever.

The wineries were amazing. I toured Neudorf and Woollaston Estates. I am in love with Neudorf Winery. Small, well done, and with friendly staff that feels more like a family and world class wines... said by some to be one of the top 5 wineries in NZ. Woollaston is a bit too pretentious for me, but still a beautiful winery with a unique approach to sustainability. They have a huge facility built on a hill so they can gravity feed all of their wine through the various stages of the winemaking process, from the crush to the bottling. They say it helps their quality to not "beat up" the juice so much!

Only problem is that I just barely missed their pruning season, and they lay off all their workers from now till mid Oct. to save money. They both seemed impressed with me, just were not hiring. But they give great advice.

So, I learned today:

• That my timing is not great, 1 month earlier or 1.5 months later and work in the vineyards would be easy to find. I had not planned on the vineyards laying off their workers in downtime to save money. The bonus of this is that the owners/viticulturists have nothing better to do than give me private one-on-one tours of their vineyards. I am hoping this ends up being worth it.
• I need a car. Today would not have been possible without one, and for the amount I paid for the rental, I could just buy one for about 8 times more, and resell it in the end of my trip. And my likelihood of getting a job with these wineries is vastly higher if I show up in person. I am not sure I would have much of a chance at these world class wineries if I did not show up in person. The problem is if I buy a car, I will not have enough money to survive till Dec. without finding work. I guess, worse case, I could sell the car mid-trip.
• I need to remember my camera. I am a little upset that I forgot it on this day trip, and have no pictures to show off these gorgeous sites.
• I need to remember to bring my water bottle. Forgot that too, and ended up dehydrated and head-achey.

Also, for anyone who wants copies of my pictures, just email me which pictures you want, and I can send you a higher resolution image.

I need a shower...

~ matt

Pictures!

The Cathedral

So, the cathedral in Nelson is amazing. Although not much bigger than St. Joes back home, the architecture is great. Crafted from local marble, the church is a giant grey sentinel standing on a hill overlooking downtown Nelson.

I went in yesterday on a lark... It looked imposing from the outside, especially in the rainy grey drizzle of the day. There was not a soul inside, and the whole building was dead quiet. I decided to sit for a while and contemplate my situation. I have been stressing about many different things for the last couple of weeks, and while I would like to think that it was just while I was getting ready to go, that is really not how it is. I have been stressing since getting here just as badly. Worrying about work visa, money, car, etc., etc...

So, I am sitting there in the dead stillness, and slowly it dawns on me that I am not in control anymore (although it is debatable if I ever really was!). And somehow, that makes me feel

better.

So, here are some pictures from my day.

On the floor of the cathedral, they had a labyrinth painted on the floor, known as the "Road to Jerusalem." The story goes that during the middle-ages, when pilgrimages to Jerusalem were costly and dangerous, Christians would instead go to a cathedral in Europe and slowly walk the labyrinth as a symbolic journey... traversing the path from outside to the center. The walk is broken into three stages; releasing on the way in, receiving in the center, and returning to the outside with that which has been received. Upon entering, a small prayer is said... "This is my journey. Give me the courage to carry on."

You can see the labyrinth in the background of the image above.

In Nelson Gardens, they have a wing that is a Chinese Garden. It was actually very well done... I was surprised.

Below is the geographic center of New Zealand. Interesting...

Laundry list of my day.

Today was eventful. Things that I did today:

1. Freaked out about money.
2. Freaked out about getting a job.
3. Panicked when the Immigration office said they needed proof of me having more funds than I had.
4. Convinced the lady at Immigration that I had enough money (just barely). Emailed a pdf of the required paperwork (my new computer is so cool, by the way).
5. Got a notice that my permit was approved and passport in the mail less than 10 minutes after sending in my info. NZ Immigration evidently does not mess around!
6. Emailed a winery that I had fell in love with. Check them out at http://www.neudorf.co.nz/
7. Took the bike from the hostel, rode down-town, got a deliciously strong mocha. Not sure if I like the fact that I have become addicted to coffee.
8. Went to the cathedral, had a semi-religious experience.
9. Found cheap produce. I have no idea why, but NZ carrots are not only so unbelievably good, but also really cheap. I have a feeling I might be living off carrots.
10. Road bike to the beach. Discovered cheap smoked fish (~$0.75 USD a lb for good smoked fish). Discovered cheap fish and chips! (I got a meal for under $3.50 USD, which in the land where every restaurant costs at least 1.5-2 times what it would in the states, this is huge!) Might live off carrots and smoked fish... what a diet!
11. About eaten by seagulls. Eating freshly fried fish and chips on the dock is dangerous!
12. Got a flat on bike, had to walk the ~10 km back to the hostel in the dark, in the drizzling rain. Found ginger beer along the way.
13. Got email from winery. They are not currently hiring, but would be happy to show me around.

Now I need to figure out a way to get to this winery. I figure it would not hurt to get to meet them and get my foot in the door. These guys seem super cool, and happen to be one of the top 5-6 wineries in the country... so, it certainly cannot hurt. They are kind of up in the hills, and not on any bus route.

Still trying to figure out if I should buy a car. I think it would be really helpful in the long run, but my finances are a little tight until I get paid work, and I feel nervous spending the money that I might need later this year. Of course, if I had a car, getting to the winery would be no issue, as would touring other wineries (which tend to be out of the way and such). I would be able to re-coop most of my investment since I will be leaving NZ just as all the backpackers descend on the poor country, and many of them will be looking for cars.

The hostel I am staying at is nice though. I have been told by another American that it makes a good "base." It costs about $13 USD a night, and has free internet. The free internet is actually a big thing... It is not as common here as in the states, with practically no coffee shops having it, and internet cafes charging for it. It is also very clean, with a mostly helpful staff, a big, well equipped kitchen, free tea, oil and spices, and nice beds.

I have purchased enough food to eat for the next 4-5 days, I figure. Food is expensive here! I am keeping an ear out for hostels that will trade a couple of hours work for free lodging. I am planning on living on a shoe-string till work pans out.

That is about it! :)

~ matt

Ah, lambs..

Ok... where do I start?

So, having spent a couple of amazing, wonderful days in NZ recovering from my last horribly stressful couple of weeks in the US, I decided it was time to hit the road again. I decided to make for Nelson, NZ, since there are wineries that I want to check out in the area.

The cheapest way up there was by a service called "nakedbus.com" (stripped down bus fare...ha ha). On their webpage, they have a picture of what buses they use, and it is a picture of a big, new touring bus. I think, "this is great."

Kristin drops me off at the bus stop at 7 am, and there is this dinky little van sitting there... and of course I respond to Kristin's question as to whether or not that is the bus I am taking with passionate "NO."

Ah, karma...

It was the "bus" I had booked a ticket with. Crammed full and rattling, it sets off... I am wedged between a smelly Brazilian, who insists on talking on his phone through-out the trip and a man who reveals to me that he has not slept or eaten for 36 hours because of the demons... I am not even joking. Grr.

20 minutes in, and I realize that my butt will go to sleep unless I shift every 20 or so minutes. This is easier said than done when sitting with 2 other grown men on a seat that probably would not fit 3 children. Especially when you would prefer not to touch either of the individuals seated with you.

45 minutes in, and my hips start to cramp...

1.5 hours in, and I am starting to get car-sick. The rattle of the road and the stuffiness inside the van finally gets to me on a windy stretch of road. Of course this is when the smelly Brazilian decides to hold on to anything he can, while practically screaming into his cell phone repeatedly... lifting his arms in the process.

1.51 hours in, and I seriously debate opening the sliding door, and shoving the Brazilian out. The smell from his armpits is making me want to puke...

2 hours in, and I decide that this bus trip has done the impossible! It has unseated all the bad memories I have of travel (in China and elsewhere), and is now firmly in place as the worse day of travel. Yes, this beats out the train with the broken toilets...but just barely!

2.5 hours in, and I decide I must get a car....

The trip was a total of 7.5 hours.

(On a side note, lambs are about the cutest things ever... They live up to their reputations! Even after you have seen lamb after lamb for 7 hours... PS- This and the unbelievably delicious Mocha I got on our "tea break" were the best part of today.)

Welcome

Hello!

So, before we get going, I have to confess...

I have no idea who will read this. I have no idea how often I will update this... This will be a grand experiment, of sorts.

This space is meant as a place to rant and rave. To share thoughts and observations, on farming and politics, love and life. Perhaps wax philosophic on occasion. :P

The title refers to my favorite Chinese story, which goes like this:

Zhuangzi was fishing one day along the bank of the River Po. Men from the kings court approached him, saying "Our king has heard of your wisdom, and has sent us to request you to join him in the court as an honored advisor."

Without looking over his shoulder, Zhuangzi replied:

"I have heard that in the palace, there is an ancient turtle shell, sacrificed 3,000 years ago, wrapped in a fine silk cloth and placed in a box. It sits on the highest spot of honor at the shrine. What do you think the turtle would want? To be dead and honored, or to live, wagging his tail in the mud?"

The kings men responded, "To live, of course."

"Then be gone, and let me wag my tail in the mud!"