"It's great to have Adam our new farm worker writing about his first year experience on the farm. His comment, "I will continue to learn new things every day this summer and into the future" is a line that resonates with me and one passed down from my great grandmother, to my father, to me and now on to my children. It is so true and such a positive and motivating way to look at life, learn something new every day. When life and work become routine and structured and repetitive it can become difficult to recognize what there is new to learn every day.

Freshly weeded carrot beds

"That's not to say I don't have a lot to learn working on the farm since this is only my second year but there is a lot of repetition. For instance, in a job like weeding which is overwhelmingly repetitive if you can imagine weeding beds 300 feet in length with 2 to 3 rows of plants to be weeded around in each bed and even more difficult, imagine anything new to be learned from doing it more than one time. Well one thing indeed that I am learning about is stamina. One experience I had while weeding...it actually seemed to fly by as I crawled along on my hands and knees through the dry dirt I was seduced by the warm sun on my body, the soft breeze carrying with it the sounds from around the farm from innumerable different bird songs to the different sound of the tractors, insects buzzing, cars sounds, animals, peoples muffled voices and so on and on till before I knew it the job was done, well at least that one bed and for that day because the weeds will return.

Harvesting cucumber

"Another day however while weeding, I had a completely different experience. It was raining and I was bundled in slicker gear and boots and as I moved steadily through the bed bent at the waist, in one hand a knife I used to stab into the earth and loosen the soil while the other hand gently pulled the plant till root and all released from the ground. One after another, on and on in kind of a trance, a dance, creating a rhythm and when someone yelled "lunch!", it was amazing that for a moment I didn't want to stop, there was more to be done but then there will always be more and the moment was over. Until next time and whatever the new experience will be..."