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During this first week we all settled into our little camp
and began to create a routine. Every morning we rose at about
6:30 am to bike up the hill on Grout Rd. for a lovely morning
swim in the pond at the top of the hill. The bike ride was
relatively strenuous and we were all really warmed-up by the
time we reached the pond to swim.
The first couple of days we gathered large amounts of wood
from the nearby forest, fixed our bikes, and made knife handles
out of deer antlers.
We also went for a two-night bike trip to gather food from
local farms. It took us about 6 hours to bike 16 miles over
Putney mountain to Westminster.
The journey took us twice as long as we expected, because
various breakdowns halted our progress. We camped the first
night at Pauls Harlow’s farm and worked the next day
among his Jamaican farm hands. We found the pace of the farm
very fast and at times when we were packaging and sorting
it felt like a factory. Paul was very generous and it was
incredible how many veggies we received after just one morning
of work.
After lunch, we biked about 4 miles to a Twelve Tribes community
living on Basin Farm. I think we all found the experience
fascinating as we celebrated their Sabbath with a beautifully
delicious dinner and Hebrew dancing. We took a different and
less tiring route home through some lovely landscape and when
we returned to Kroka it really felt like we were coming home.
We found out on Saturday that Elijah had decided to leave
our group. It had been discussed previously that he was unsure
of his decision to do the semester, family issues finally
drew him back to California. We were all sad to hear this
news but in our hearts I am sure we are all glad he has been
able to decide what he wants and we all wish him the best
of luck at home.
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