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| The Barn |
Friday started with breakfast at Jean’s (the director of the centre) house. We met the boys in our group over a delicious meal of fried eggs, bubble and squeak and fruit. Our first task at FBC ended up being spreading 50lbs bags of dolomite (lime) on the CSA field, where we will be growing our food for the summer. Ow. The plot isn’t that big, but damn those bags are unwieldy. That took us until lunch, after which our intern coordinator spent the afternoon keeping us busy and away from the director. His plan was to ease us into the centre easily and buffer us from the director to start. During the afternoon he gave us a tour of the grounds and talked to us about axe safety. He is such a character. Imagine the stereotypical hippy in the army who taught the men about survival skills.
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| Spring in NB |
Friday evening we all got together and had our first supper as a group. I’m really liking the people so far, we are an interesting group of interns. West coasters to East coasters and places in between. 5 guys, 4 girls, ages from 22 to 30 with backgrounds ranging from teachers to engineers. Conversation has yet to lack in depth or interest.
Friday night everyone sort of scampered off after dinner to do their own things. We planned to meet for breakfast the next day before our first workshop. MUSHROOMS. Yay. Anyone who knows me can imagine how excited I was about that.
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| Neighbours |
Morning came around way too early, as usual, but S was kind enough to ensure that there was coffee for us all. And breakfast. The workshop was open to the public and all about how to grow your own shiitake mushrooms. The mycologist who ran the workshop was a really fun guy. Fun-guy… Fungi…!!! Had to do it. Sorry. He started the day off with a little lecture on mushrooms and then explained how they grow and what we would be doing later that day. After the lecture, we went for a walk in the woods to where the FBC mushroom stand is located. The mushroom “patch” is basically a clearing in the woods with a pile of 3-4 foot long logs beside a wooden platform with 5-6ft long bathtubs and ropes ending in nooses to hang the soaked, shocked logs from. We lunched with the public who came to learn about mushroom growing. Luckily, the lunch was shroom free. Phew.
That afternoon, we sawed logs with a big two-man/woman saw, drilled holes into them inoculated them with the spawn and growing medium and then sealed them with beeswax. These logs will be left in the woods until next year when they’ll be shocked/soaked in cold water and then the mushrooms will flower.
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| Neighbours |
Sunday we had the day to ourselves and E and I started it off with an amazing dance party. The subject of dance parties had come up before and we had both agreed that we were keen on the idea. When people left after breakfast, I pulled out my Ipod and asked her if she knew what time it was… DANCE PARTY TIME. We rocked out for a solid 30-45 minutes, while the rest of our intern group sat on the picnic table outside, too afraid to enter our cabin.
The dance party was followed by an intense yoga session with our resident yogi intern, P. He does incredible things with his body. Bends, folds, twists and balances in the most impressive ways. I couldn’t believe it. Sunday was really the only NICE day we’ve had since we’ve been here. It was bright and sunny and allowed our solar panels to recharge the batteries so that we have Internet. Sunday night was our first bonfire of the season out at the Rec centre, which is off-site and the designated party place. It has since been renamed the “Ay-Papi!” centre… Long story.
Not really… basically one of the guys said “Ay Papi!” without realizing that it’s not really a male thing to say. We have since been making fun of him. E and I also started a quote list and after less than one week, we’ve already filled up one page. We are a pretty hilarious group of people. My abs are already stronger.
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