A typical week at the Bullocks

Our typical weekly schedule
Breakfast is served by interns around 7:30, lunch at 12:30, and Dinner around 6:30pm. We're not always on schedule but I'm pretty surprised at how well we do follow a schedule. I used to eat dinner between 9pm or 12am when I lived in the city!

Here it goes:
*so much goes on that I forgot what we did, so I'll double check the examples here

FRIDAY: Our farm week (these are our "weekdays") begins.
We start out with a meeting ideally around 8:30 at the Aloha lodge figuring out what has been done and what needs to be added to our to-do list. The Bullocks usually keep us aware of needs and priorities. Then we just get into it. We have planted potatos, moved the electric fencing larger-scale chicken and duck tractors to new areas, grafted, pruned, fixed water pumps and solar panels, etc. It all depends on the week and there is no shortage of things to do.

SATURDAY: is Nursery Day.
The Bullocks have a nursery that helps fund permaculture and other basic projects on the site. One of the interns is the main manager of the nursery and sells the plants on-site and at Eastsound Farmer's Market. So, this is the day we help with the needs of the nursery (spread into several parts of the homestead). We have potted bare-root trees, put up a new nursery fence (to protect from deer), fertilized (organic) fruit trees and all sorts of other plants in the nursery, set irrigation up, weeded, mowed, etc. I'm super biased, but if you are in the area, this is the place to buy plants. These are some of the most nerdy and knowledgeable people on plants, micro-climates, and all sorts of serious and absurd stuff. Lots of the best fruit varieties (because they are super into it), rare plants (plant-maniacs), and amazing tips and tricks. Also, if you come to the site to buy plants, you can check this blissful place out! Some nights we do parties, usually in appreciation to the Bullocks, who invited us to live and learn on their home, and are welcoming, patient, and fascinating people. Great people to know and study under/with.

SUNDAY: Sunday is community potluck day (except when there is a course).
We start the morning with a cleaning party, and try to make the place look nice and tidy. You don't want to invite people to a hippy place thats dirty, it can ruin the experience. Then we jump into more stuff that needs to happen, like building projects and preparing for the Intro to Permaculture Course that will happen this weekend. Sometimes we take the afternoon to work on our gardens.

MONDAY: Overflow day.
We just keep going and finish up projects that need to happen, garden, and enjoy the last day of our farm days. Today we continued on necessary building projects. We also have weekly intern meetings after dinner where we breath together, address general logistics, do the food order (last week we order $800 worth of food for at least the next month), have a skill share or presentation (e.g. how to facilitate effective meetings, how to tie essential knots, Thai massage, living and managing a greenhouse in Antarctica, etc). Also, maybe the most important part of the meeting is a check-in. Its a space where the whole group listens to whatever you want to say, but usually geared toward how your week was, feelings and emotions, experiences, gratitude, needs, etc. Its a very beautiful space and I think not only helps groups function but it is also necessary for the evolution of people and communities. Today we started the meeting by grouping into pairs and doing a 7 minute massage that turned out to be 10 minutes each. What a great way to start a meeting. Imagine people in corporate board meetings giving massages to each other in their suits, and taking breaths to be present, clam, and aware.

TUESDAY: Unscheduled? or free? days.
This is when people rest, hike, eat, go to town or other further places, garden, hangout, eat, work on personal projects, snack, work for money, etc.

WEDNESDAY: same as above.
In the past weeks Yuriko has been inviting us for onolicious (as they say in Hawaii) dinner, prepared with two of us interns.

THURSDAY = same as above - Yuriko's dinner party + Movie night (so far we watched, Dark Crystal, Best in Show, Men Who Stare At Goats, Office Space. Of course, this is part of permaculture).

And back to another exciting farm week of action packed learning, fun, and transformation.