i can't think of a title

Hellooooo!
A lot has happened since my last blog post. We went hiking in Idaho and I saw a bear. I was a bit scared but it was really cool. A fox got to the baby chicks I told you all about. Kara and I went to feed them one morning and all but one of them had been killed. It was a really sad day. During our last week at the farm with Rick we helped him finish building a greenhouse. It was a lot of fun and we got to use a lot of really cool power tools. One day when he was gone the ram and the goat got out of their fence and kara and I had to chase them back in. I think it would be the most popular video on youtube right now if we had been able to tape it. It was hilarious. I am afraid to give too many details about it because it would probably end up in my senior skit but let’s just say there was a lot of barking involved and it didn’t come from the dogs. Rick also helped us make our own cutting boards. They are really hard to make and I had to keep asking for help but I am really proud of it now. We left his farm on June 11th and drove to Portland, Oregon. We both really enjoyed Portland. They are called the city of roses and were having a big rose festival and parade while we were there. We then drove to the second farm in Alsea, Oregon. Jesse and Eva owned the farm. They were a couple that had just met the summer before in Mexico doing the same thing that Kara and I were doing . We agreed before we got there to stay at least 48 hours. I think we would both agree it was probably the most miserable 48 hours of our lives. I will have to show you all pictures so that you can really understand how awful it was. They did not have any running water so we had to bathe in a freezing cold creek. They also used the creek as a fridge since they didn’t have any electricity and they used the water to cook with. They did have some well water that they claimed was for drinking but it was yellowish and smelled like sulfur so Kara and I were afraid to drink it. There was a plant there called stinging needle that hurts a lot if you touch it. I kept accidently grabbing it and Kara even fell into some. They had a composting toilet that was half built so we were somewhat exposed while we were peeing and we were worried that we might fall in. They had us help them build some of it and we just tried to ignore all of the hazard labels on the lime they were making us touch and breathe in. They also had us putting rabbit poop on top of everything there were trying to grow. It smelt so bad. Thankfully, nothing was actually growing so we didn’t have to eat any of their food which probably would have tasted like poop because they don’t wash anything. Their dog killed the neighbor’s chicken on the first day there and they decided to butcher it and serve it for dinner. Fortunately, when they asked Kara if she wanted to watch them, she told them that she was vegetarian and I was a vegetarian too. It was too soon after the chick incident for me to eat chicken that their dog had killed. There were also snakes everywhere and I was scared the whole time we were there. The first night we slept in a van thing they own that had a couple of beds in it. The second night we saw rats crawling round everywhere and even own the sleeping bags so we left the van, walked through the snake-infested grasses, and slept in Kara’s car. The next day they had to go to their jobs in town so we did our work, cooked them dinner, wrote them a note, and left the farm to go to a hotel. We passed them on the way to town but we don’t think they saw us. We were both so happy to be rid of them and their farm that we didn’t feel bad at all about leaving the way we did. Just turning on the faucet in the hotel was enough to make us really excited. We then left the next morning to head to Colorado where Kara’s family lives. We camped overnight at a campground in Nevada. It was really nice and much warmer than our camping experience in Montana. We stayed with Kara’s grandma for a couple of days in Colorado. It was so nice to be with family after such an awful experience even if they weren’t my family. We went to see Toy Story 3 and we both cried. If you haven’t seen it yet, you really should. It is so good. We then found a farm in Boulder, Utah to go to. The farm helped produce food for a local restaurant so we got to eat at the restaurant. They mostly served us leftovers but it was still good. The farmer’s name was Nathaniel. There were also some people working on the farm around our age which was really nice. We did a lot of planting and harvesting and a whole lot of weeding. We had to live in our tent for the first couple of days and then we moved into an airstream which is sort of like an rv type thing. We had two days off, which were when we were allowed to go to the house where a lot of the other staff live and do laundry and shower. On other days we just washed off in the pond on the farm. We went to a summer solstice party which was probably one of the strangest things I have ever been to in my life. We left pretty early because it was nearing our 9:00 bedtime(haha, but seriously) but they seemed to have a lot of fun after we left. Overall, I really enjoyed the farm in Utah and the people. We went to a Mormon church on the Sunday before I left. It was a very interesting experience. I won’t say I loved it but I definitely learned a lot about Mormons and it seems they are at least slightly more like us than I thought. On the 29th I flew out of salt lake city at 7 in the morning. I definitely cried when Kara left me there. When I got home I decided I wanted to go see Eclipse with Jessica(my roommate from last year and good friend) so I bought our tickets and met her there at 9 to wait in line. I was so tired but it was worth it. It was nice getting to talk to her and I thought the movie was the best one yet. Since then I have been mostly relaxing at home. My grandma has knee replacement surgery while I was gone so I have been visiting her and going to doctor’s appointments of my own. The back doctor told me that I don’t have to go back to him until 2012. That was exciting. I hope to go to the beach soon and bible school is coming up soon at my church. I also have to start looking for a job for when I get back to Chapel Hill. I miss you all a lot and I can’t wait to see you.
BWL,
Brittaney