HOT

friends: don't be fooled. it has officially gotten HOT in the central valley of california. i don't quite understand what's going on though, because suddenly the "dry heat" that i had heard so many precious things about has become a dripping, sodden blanket draped over our bodies from head to toe. one cannot leave the house without walking into a tunnel of moisture. so, not only is it 100 degrees, but its as wet as can be. california! what the hell?

i'm bitter, as you can see. dry heat my tuckus.

so today, this is what we faced. we woke up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and headed out the door. (ok, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration) but we did indeed head out the door, ready for a new day of tasks and trials and triumphs. we picked squash and cucumbers as has become our routine, and this went fairly well. but then we moved onto the bean picking. we have four rows of beans. two green, two yellow. they're fun; i like them because it takes a distinguishing hand to tell the difference between a bean that's plump and just firm enough to be picked and a bean that needs a couple of more days of sun. although i like picking beans, i must emphasize the sheer number of plants we have to work with. maybe 200? either way, LOTS.

so, emily and i dove into bean duty, but after about 45 minutes she began to break out. apparently emily has an allergy to bean plants! she then went to pick peaches instead while i stayed on the beans. pick, pick, pick. out there in the field, the sun just beats down on you. sure, it was 7:45. it didn't matter. it was still hot as hell and only getting hotter. thankfully, in a few minutes, ivan came over to help out, but then we got interrupted to go and transplant melons, winter & summer squash, and cucumbers.

and so the morning came and went much like this. i rotated back and forth between bean picking and melon/squash/cuke transplanting, emily dealt with peaches and then right before lunch we came together to work on planting lettuce seeds. we normally do planting when its really hot out so that we can get a break. we do it inside of the shed where its usually a little cooler. but today there was no escaping the heat. you see, there was no breeze; and without a breeze, you're basically sucking steam. not pleasant. we took a lunch break, then went back into the shed to finish this task off, and were joyfully interrupted by a phone call from farmer john who told us to take the afternoon off because it was so hot. putting the phone down i noticed the sheen of sweat that had formed on my arms. i felt like a human slip and slide.

so we came inside, showered, and rested. thankfully its cool in the house. we don't have air conditioning, but somehow the house stays cool, and all i can do is praise god for that little mystery. because of the crazy temperatures expected for this week (110!), farmer john told us to start work at 5:30 beginning tomorrow. thus, such will happen. its 8:45 right now and i should have been in bed about 15 minutes ago. tomorrow i need to get to bed on time.

though i may complain, i'm still enjoying myself. i've gotten to the point where i no longer feel like a visitor but rather like this is what my life actually consists of. i'm trying hard to get into the moment and not be distracted by the past or future. its difficult, but the intense heat and work help me to stay focused.