gainful and joyful employment
I have a wonderful problem. I have two jobs that I really enjoy, and there aren't enough days in the week to work at both of them as much as I'd like.
Late winter started out kind of grim. I had arrived back in Maine after an extended winter vacation, and moved into a room in a house with a housemate/landlord who was a stranger to me, in a new town, with no income. It was depressing. Mark had told me that he would probably have work for me starting in March, but I had no sense of how much work there would be, or how fast it would pick up (to be fair, neither did he--it all depends on the weather). So I basically moped around the house, wishing that I had another job, but hopeful that the farm work would pick up soon. I ended up working Thursdays and Fridays during most of March, and I looked forward to those days all week long.
The first big task was seeding thousands of onions so that they could germinate in the greenhouse. Then there was harvesting over-wintered spinach, forking up last year's beds in the greenhouses, harvesting parsnips, uncovering the garlic beds, weeding and harvesting new crops of baby lettuce and mustard greens. Today, finally, we transplanted the first crops outdoors. Tomorrow and next week we will be transplanting onions. The weather has finally moderated and it looks like I will be working near full time at the farm from here on. Which is bittersweet, because it means I will have to give up my second job.
Sometime near the end of March, I visited the boat shop for some much needed socializing. I mentioned to Bobby that I had seen a sign in Troy for a wooden boat builder, and of course Bobby knew exactly who it was, and told me that I should contact him. So, emboldened by the knowledge that I could name-drop the boat shop, I called him and left a message with his wife. He called back the next day, and while he didn't have any work for me, he said he'd given my name to a nearby woodworker, who happens to be teaching a class at the boat shop this summer. After visiting his shop, Jim asked me if I would work for him for a few hours a week. Four hours became eight, which became two days and then three. The universe smiled on me and I pieced together full time employment at two activities that I love, each within a 15 minute drive from my house. This schedule was really only in place for a couple of weeks, but it makes me happy just thinking about it. Alas, the nature of seasonal work is that it is always changing, and it looks like I will have to cut back on my hours with Jim even sooner than I expected. But hopefully I can still work for him on rainy days, and again in the fall when the farm work drops off. Life is good.
Late winter started out kind of grim. I had arrived back in Maine after an extended winter vacation, and moved into a room in a house with a housemate/landlord who was a stranger to me, in a new town, with no income. It was depressing. Mark had told me that he would probably have work for me starting in March, but I had no sense of how much work there would be, or how fast it would pick up (to be fair, neither did he--it all depends on the weather). So I basically moped around the house, wishing that I had another job, but hopeful that the farm work would pick up soon. I ended up working Thursdays and Fridays during most of March, and I looked forward to those days all week long.
The first big task was seeding thousands of onions so that they could germinate in the greenhouse. Then there was harvesting over-wintered spinach, forking up last year's beds in the greenhouses, harvesting parsnips, uncovering the garlic beds, weeding and harvesting new crops of baby lettuce and mustard greens. Today, finally, we transplanted the first crops outdoors. Tomorrow and next week we will be transplanting onions. The weather has finally moderated and it looks like I will be working near full time at the farm from here on. Which is bittersweet, because it means I will have to give up my second job.
Sometime near the end of March, I visited the boat shop for some much needed socializing. I mentioned to Bobby that I had seen a sign in Troy for a wooden boat builder, and of course Bobby knew exactly who it was, and told me that I should contact him. So, emboldened by the knowledge that I could name-drop the boat shop, I called him and left a message with his wife. He called back the next day, and while he didn't have any work for me, he said he'd given my name to a nearby woodworker, who happens to be teaching a class at the boat shop this summer. After visiting his shop, Jim asked me if I would work for him for a few hours a week. Four hours became eight, which became two days and then three. The universe smiled on me and I pieced together full time employment at two activities that I love, each within a 15 minute drive from my house. This schedule was really only in place for a couple of weeks, but it makes me happy just thinking about it. Alas, the nature of seasonal work is that it is always changing, and it looks like I will have to cut back on my hours with Jim even sooner than I expected. But hopefully I can still work for him on rainy days, and again in the fall when the farm work drops off. Life is good.
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