so... what do i do here?


well
if you read it

they hired me to be a carpenter
-- even though i told them i wasn't skilled in that
i told them i'm Smart
and can figure it out

so i'm taking my time:
my first project is making a tree swing

simple
and yet involving all the cutting and measuring and aesthetics and tools that any project would take

good place to start: no stress

i thought i'd have it done in a day or two
but it's taken all week
and i won't have it hung until monday

this last week i've been marking my hours
6 the first day, then 5, then, 4, then 3, then 7 : today.

i've been weeding the garden around my yurt

i feel that this is My place
it's where i'm based
and where i'm coming from
so putting attention and love into it
will make it more mine
and build my confidence and grounding

i also know it's really their guest yurt
so anything i do to it is also for them
and any other worker who stays here afterwards

-- the boys don't want to have to tell me what to do all the time
but they gave me a list (two pages long) of things that Need to be done
-- i've already added many things to it that i've seen

and accomplished a few of them.

i'm generally lazy
so i wake up
read, or play SoM a bit
then stretch/yoga

then go week the garden, something simple
for an hour or two or so

this week i've planted four trees:

three avocados
two in the forest
one by the yurt

and one coconut
that was today
and incredibly hard

very interesting to see how they grow
there's a bunch of them behind the banana shed
how'd they all get there?

seemed like hundreds of coconuts on the ground
rotting
covered with moss
and snaking thick green vines
-- coconut roots?
the trees anchor into the ground with bright red, spiky roots
unfortunately
i had to break many of them to get this tree out

i wrestled with it for an HOUR
it was so intense
i hope i didn't hurt myself..

i spent a good deal of the day weeding around the Kava plants too..

this farm is so big
there is so much to do
the boys can''t do all of it
and it's hard to point out to new workers Everything
so i'm sure things just get forgotten over time

these kavas..
some trees had fallen on them
weeds all over them

it took hours to fix them up
replant some of the broken stuff
clear around them

then open up the space
dig up the plot for the coconuts

i was exhausted


so i work work work

lots of digging and hauling and planting

and weeding

this work is very good for me:
getting my hands in the dirt helps translate my thoughts into reality
grounds me down
so things make more sense

however
i'm a lazy guy
so rest every hour or so
just for ten minutes or so
but that's important

and i've mostly kept out of the mid-day sun

during that time i either rest
or write

sometimes read, sometime SoM
but chill
keep chill..


i've not gone to the beach yet this week
i'm learning more about hitch-hiking.

last night
after leaving the internet cafe
everyone told me hitching at night was a bad idea
and Dangerous

apparently there's lots of Meth on this island
and sometimes people fuck with you just coz their wacked...

ugh.

but i was on the road for three minutes before a VW van swung around and came back round to pick me up

a hippy couple: patrick and natasha
been travelers
now settled here a few years
with two young kids!

they thought i was a friend of theirs
i did my best to be

they took me directly home
and i gave them 5 bucks..

(grin)

in all the other writing i did yesterday
i forgot to mention
this is Two Weeks

and i feel like i understand things more clearly
and know my place

-- a few days go, when i was freaking out... the moon was conjunct saturn... Ahhhh ahh ahh...

i look forward to being here for a few months
and ...
Working.