he's north.

Hey, y'all--

I just wanted to let you know that Eric got to Endicott safely this evening at around 6:30pm. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

busy, busy, busy

In the past two weeks we have been very busy, here's an update with some of our activities.

• Saturday the 13th my father came down to get a truck load of stuff to take back home.
• My mother drove down following him to stay the week, more on that later.
• Sunday the 14th we went to speak at the Lower Beech Fork and Thousandsticks UMC where Steve and Dianne Springer serve. Sarah's home church has a supportive relationship with them and my first interaction with Appalachia Kentucky came on a mission trip to their church. We told them some about what we are doing and had a great lunch afterwards.
• Our friends from the Park Terrace Community UMC in Apalachin NY came for a week of work camp. I worked with them most of the week. We sided a home, and were done on Thursday, I had some tasks of building greenhouse tables, picking gourds and catching some loose piglets to keep us busy on Friday.
• On Tuesday night we took a late night road trip to Cumberland Falls state park for the moonbow, My mother and Mike Tupper joined us, it was well worth staying up until 1am. We were disappointed that Sonic was closed on our way though.
• Last weekend Sarah, my mother and I went to Nashville for the weekend. We got to see a show at the Grand Ole Opry, go to the Country Music HOF as well as trip to a good music store, and dinner with live music.
• This week I am finishing up projects and getting ready to head north. I am driving up Sunday and have several interviews next weekend. It's not easy to leave the friends that we have made here, but it is exciting to have new possibilities. Sarah will be staying here for a few weeks while I interview and if that is successful find an apartment, it will be odd as we have only spent a few nights apart (besides sleeping on the couch due to snoring) while being here.

not ready

Eric is leaving in a week for some job interviews, and I don't think that he's coming back, except to pick me up. This means that our time at Henderson Settlement is quickly coming to a close. It's been on my mind a lot this week, and it really hit me hard at the closing worship for work camp this evening.

I'm not ready to go.

I'm not ready to leave Mike & Lori, Mark & Linda & Rachel, Kim & Lisa, Lona & James.
I want to see what happens with the Settlement.
I hate for the library to be left hanging in limbo.
I'm not thrilled about living in Binghamton.
I'm afraid that I'm not going to find a job that I love.
I'm nervous about going back to the way things used to be.

I know that there are good things about going back north, and I know that it's time to go. Right now, though, I feel really sad about leaving this place.

farming

This past weekend I took some mums, ornamental corn, gourds, apples and the last of our sweet corn to a farmers market in Eagan TN sponsored by the woodland community land trust. It was a great day, there were other folks selling quilts and jerky and baked goods and produce. I bought a pumpkin roll, pears, tomatoes, eggs, and some deer jerky. I met some neat people who are working there doing some of the same work that the settlement is doing a little further south. Someone brought their banjo and others just belted out a few songs without any accompaniment.

Being at this market along with other time spent thinking over the past few weeks has me thinking about agriculture as an occupation. Some of this probably comes from the job hunt that I am going through currently as well. I hate the cliche, but it's in my blood, I have zero formal education in agriculture but between growing up on a farm and working for my uncle I know enough to be dangerous and not enough to be employable. So I'm not sure what my future involvement in agriculture looks like but I know that I would like it exist.

haircut

Every now and then we'll have someone come to the Settlement that offers services to the community beyond home repair. This week we have a couple of hairstylists, along with a manicurist, that have been offering free appointments to the local folks. Monday morning was set aside for staff members, so I hopped on the bandwagon (just in time, too, because I was beginning to look like one of the Hansons again).

Here's the result: