Sunday September 11th, 2011

The exercise:

Today we write about: community.

It's looking like it'll be a quick harvest tomorrow morning for our local orders, which is all right - because it'll give us more time to work on the house.

Mine:

This evening Kat and I hosted the first Prana Farm BBQ. Though it will be the only one this year, we're hoping to make it a regular event, likely a three per summer sort of thing.

We invited friends, family, and local customers - some of whom I'd like to consider friends by this point in the year - and had seventeen people come out to enjoy hamburgers, salads, and a tour of the garden. It was a better turnout than we expected, but I think we might have underestimated the power of free food :P

It did make for a long day for both of us. Kat spent the entire afternoon making a huge potato salad, putting together fruit bowls, and slicing up a monstrous tomato and cucumber salad. And I was kept busy setting up the location next to the garden with our market tent and tables, all the chairs I could get my hands on, and fetching last minute things from town. Plus doing the barbequing once things actually got underway.

Overall I'd say it went great - people seemed to enjoy the food, conversation was flowing all evening, and the garden tours went over well too. As a community building exercise, which was what it was intended to be, I think it was a definite success.

And now Osoyoos feels a little more like home.

2 comments:

Greg said...

Is there much left to do on the house now, apart from the painting? I remember all the work you did to make it habitable again when you first arrived :)
The BBQ sounds like all kinds of fun, and spending all day preparing for it is what makes it all go so smoothly at the end! The salads sound amazing, and I think using the market stall tent was a nice touch, given where much of your produce goes.
I learned how to hand-make ramen noodles yesterday, but somehow it doesn't sound like such an accomplishment when put against your BBQ!

Community

The long-house was fashioned from oaks
Because they were already standing there,
Possibly in the way,
But perhaps it was fated.
Men came together, huge muscles
Rippling as they hewed, sawed and hammered,
A stink of sweat in the air,
An honest odour of long days' work.
The women sighed and tutted,
Clicking tongues under their breath,
Calling it primitive and pointing out
The places where mistakes had been made.
It just hid their jealousy
That the men had made a long-house
And in the making had forged a community
Amongst themselves.

Marc said...

Greg - unfortunately the exterior is stucco and it had some pretty bad cracking, so step one is to seal all those cracks. That's basically finished now, so it's on to painting. We're also hoping to build a deck on the south side of the house, but that's going to be a matter of weather and money if it's going to happen this fall.

Inside is pretty much done, though I should really get around to putting up some extra shelves.

Really enjoyed your poem; it definitely resonated with me. Very well executed.