WWOOFing in the Berkshires

I'm so behind on writing posts it's not even funny. I will work hard to get up-to-date over the next week....maybe...

After spending some time in Amish country, Pennsylvania (details to come later) and driving through Pennsylvania, New York, seeing New Jersey but not going in, Connecticut, and finally Massachusetts, we are now deep in the Berkshires in the western part of the state. This is a very cool progressive area, apparently.

We're staying on a rural farm with a cute little sprite of a vegan chef named Heather, her three dogs, and her two horses. Over the next week we will be helping her with some spring farming chores that are a bit too much for one person, and in return we have a room in her house to sleep in and she cooks for us (but we'll help if we can).

We arrived yesterday. As we neared our destination Karen the GPS led us to a tiny little hilly road that seemed too narrow for two vehicles to pass by each other. We soon found out that it wasn't though, when a laughing guy in a car inched past our travel trailer going the other way. Soon though, the pavement disappeared off the narrow road. We got a bit worried - what if Karen was wrong? What if the road became impassable? We kept going.

Luckily, the farm was right where it should have been and Heather's three dogs were running up to us, barking in greeting. Heather came out of the house and we all launched into excited conversation for about five minutes before we thought to introduce ourselves...I take that as a good indication that we'll get along well for the next week.

Heather was hosting an outdoor dinner party that evening with a few people from the vegan cafe that she works at. We ended up eating in a clearing near the house that was banked on one side by stately Oak trees and by a rambling garden on the other side. At one end of the clearing was a roaring bonfire, and eventually at the other end we watched the sun go down. As it became completely dark, a drum started to beat as one of the dinner guests danced with burning "poi". Poi are balls about the size of a baseball on the end of a little chain. You hold one chain in each hand and swing the balls around in insane patterns. Anyway the girl was very good at it and the poi slowly went from bright burning balls of flame to blue, guttering orbs, and then went out as she continued to dance. It was stunning and surreal.

I'm sitting in Heather's cafe now and we are waiting for her to finish up working for the day so that we can go home and trim some hedges and mulch the garden. I'll have less internet access than usual this week but I want to tell you guys about the Amish, so I'll write something up and post it as soon as I can.