This may be my last post for a few days. Since moving to my current house, I've been plagued with allergy symptoms from the resident cat(s). Treatment has been ineffective, so I've chosen to move to a new locale. I found a room in a house on 27th Avenue, not far from the Fruitvale District of Oakland. One of the features of the new place is its' fine backyard garden, which includes a trellis covered with now withered chayote vines. This has provided the inspiration for the title of this blog: Under the Chayote Vines. I'm sure there will be plenty of other things to write about in the new neighborhood...as soon as I get the internet hooked up.
Ready for another day of field work Spending long days in the cab of a John Deere 8410 belted tractor gives me a lot of alone time. When I'm not staring at the sheaths of earth left tossed up by the powerful steel disks in tow behind the tractor, I watch the rice trucks on Highway 99, which runs next to the field, or I observe the chickens, cranes and the crows as they feast on insects unearthed by cultivation. And I wonder how of all things I ended up driving a tractor on a farm in South Sutter County. It is because I spent these recent days alone on the tractor--and because Fall is the season for remembering and for contemplation of life and death-- that I have resurrected up this blog yet again. Sutter County Mornings I could go back years, trying to figure out how I ended up where I am, but a good starting point would be the Summer of 2009, when I began my fourth year as the Nutrition Education Site Coordinator, aka 'Garden Teacher' at Park Elementary...
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