~Nate

Good Luck, My words in this post seem a bit uneven.  Oh well.

~Nate

http://www.extremeicesurvey.org

~Nate

My hat is still on my head. I am typing this as a regular document since the internet failed due to an earlier power outage. My plaid button-up work shirt is still on, and my I-pod headphones are dangling off my collar. I can still hear the music in its small ear-bud world. About two weeks ago from today, a nice song came onto my I-pod while picking. Singing it to myself later I entered into a discussion with Johnny and failed to recall what song it was. It could probably have been looked up on Google, but it wasn’t on my mind that much …so I decided to wait until it came onto my I-pod again. There are exactly 921 songs on my I-pod.

Out of all the jobs at the farm, which for Henno and I boils down to Picking and Picking up, picking up is the worst, especially after it rains. We crawl around in the mud picking up rotten fruit. Snails suction to half of them after the rain, and the really rotten ones fall apart at the touch. It’s hard to get into a rhythm with this since knees or back have to constantly be bent. At the three hour mark today there was still a half row of Packums in the dirt. We wouldn’t get paid extra for finishing, but we hadn’t exactly been super speedy that day either, and the extra 8 minutes would give us a sense of completion. Right at the end after of that last bit the song I was waiting for came on. It had been two weeks of constant shuffle. Oh yeah the song was she’s got her ticket by Tracy Chapman. I owe most of the music on my I-pod to Will, and the Artists of course. The 4 hours picking in the morning and 3 hours picking up in the afternoon is more than we usually do, so that’s not a stereotypical example. Anyways I was just called into dinner. I will post again soon,

~Nate

The next day was spent watching a sport more intense than Bocce and almost as intense as mini-golf.  Aussie Rules Football.  It’s a very messy sport.  Unlike the NFL there are no pads and time doe not stop.  The rules are probably online somewhere.  It was a bushfire appeal game, The two teams (Freemantle and Western Australia) are bitter rivals.  One player was enourmous.  Freemantle won the game.  I essentially watched people beat the shit ouf of eachother for a few hours.  I wasn’t to into the dynamics of the game.  I apologize if I’m offending the AFL league, football probably seems rediculous.   Again this was occuring while all of the east coast was in mid-sleep.  So strange. I heard that New York had a snow day recently.  How is the weather as a whole this winter?

~Nate

4200 pears a day is more than I will probably ever eat.  Its more than anyone would even consider eating, nobody sits down and thinks about consuming 4200 pears.  The leaves were wet today due the occasional yet welcome rainstorm the day before, unfortunately I forgot my Pearasol. (AHAHa dammit).  Speaking of yesterday I took a train into Perth meeting up with Kate(from camp) her boyfriend Simon, and Casey(went to camp three years ago).  I played Ultimate with them in the Perth Social league.  Good fun, windy, we won. Until that next point in the future.

~Nate

Me and Henno Decided to make this trip since we had time off from work.  Was it fun? Kind of.  Was it an experience? I think so.  I am now glad to be sleeping in a bed again, once again traveling makes you appreciate things. Dammit.  We arrived and immediately I saw a depressed chiwawa with its head buried in the dirt.  These creatures actually called Quokkas are spitting images of the R.O.U.S  from Princess Bride.  They are even aggressive.  It is an Australian saying that people used to play Quokka Soccer.  Very Cruel.  Anyway the beach’s were awesome.

The first night we were invited by a group of college kids to the beach.  I had thrown my Frisbee to one of them earlier in the day. It was epic.  One of the kids kept talking about making a fire, but he didn’t have a lighter and it was a 50,000 fine.  Somehow later on he made the fire anyway.  An i pod was playing music in the sand, pitch black night, able to hear the waves but not see them.  The southern cross was illuminated in the sky.  And for some reason their was a fire twirler doing crazy tricks right in front of the waves.  I didn’t really question why he was their,  I guess it just kind of fit with the picture.  This was all going on seconds before all of you guys woke up and flopped out of bed.  Makes one think about all of the stuff happening all of the time.  We also made and ate gross food and got sunburned.  (Henno is a red head so he got it bad)

The next day me and Henno went snorkeling.  Then a 10k Run.  Sunset.  And then the next morning we took the fairy back to mainland.  Where we waited for 2 hours.  And then another 2.5 hours!  And then finally got picked up.
Picking Starts tomorrow, I recently opened an Australian Bank account and need to nurture it.

~Nate

I am moving to leave the room giving Henno a turn on the computer. “yo Henno I bet this thing is real”  I said cockily pointing at one of those large plastic spiders that stick to walls.  My hand went to touch it but held back-the spider then moved all of its legs in the most UN-fake way.  I screamed and because I was in a roly chair, hit the back wall of the room with a crash.  Henno was laughing.  Speaking of animals, we all went for a walk yesterday and  came across a large field.  Dinosaurs.  Wait no Kangaroos, 15 of them.  It was like the back of a cereal box.  Or, coming across a valley of grazing velociraptors in the land before time(wait those might be meat-eaters)-a valley of velociraptors feeding on corpses after a battle.  “I’m Tired little foot” said Ducky.  Littlefoot: ” A T-REX F*CK”.

Pear Poem

Picking Pears lots of Pears Green ones here and Green ones their
Some are small some are round yellow ones go on the ground
Low branches make you slump, My bag is full time to dump
8′o clock is not that late, Filling up the wooden crate
Drive the tractor dirty red, down the hill into the shed

Its so hot, so hot to sleep, showers are good.

~Nate

~Nate

YesCoi

“It’s Australia’s worst natural disaster since European Settlement and for me, I feel like it’s going to be the start of a new way of thinking.  The fact that so many of us are concerned by petty differences, road rage, credit cards, selfishness or just being so insular in our focus for money and happiness, just has to be changed.  The little inconveniences of life that we try and avoid to feel more comfortable and achieve greater personal success can surely be spared for a few days to help. The positives here are all around us. So many people must be wishing they had told close friends and family that they loved them one more time before this tragedy. Use this opportunity for perspective.“-Jonny

Donations:   http://www.redcross.org.au/default.asp

~Nate