Angel Arias Silk
Tree Farm 6/17/13
*This will be my last ost for the
blog, as this Thursday was my last day interning on the farm, at least for the
school year.*
That being said, today wasn’t really a “working day” as much as a day to just
enjoy ourselves and find something to do that wasn’t work. Initially we’d
thought we would go to the beach, and I’d brought swimming trunks in case we
fell through with that. But, swimming in potential rain probably wouldn’t have
been too enjoyable. I actually don’t think it ending up raining that day, but
even so, there was the risk as well as the not-so-ideal weather. We pondered on
what next to do, and ended up deciding to go hiking. We were also to going to
go “crabbing”, which as one might infer, meant catching (and probably eating)
crabs. However I’d never gone crabbing, so as how we could go about that I was unsure.
Of course we went over it, and by tying a chicken wing (Yes, an actual
chicken’s wing) to a string or something like it and tossing it out to sea, you
can attract a crab who will attempt to jack your bait in a nonchalant manner;
unknowingly walking into a subterfuge, which is the point at which you attempt
to capture him in a timely manner so as he does not elude you. We grabbed a
frozen chicken’s wing and a bucket of hot water to accelerate the thawing
process, and we were pretty much set to go. I forget the exact name of the
place, but it was a very large area that had previously been a military
facility of some sort, complete with an airstrip and all. There were some paths
that lead around the more natural parts of the area, so we parked and started
following the pathways. It was a pretty versatile path, so there were frequent
dichotomies in the path where you could go one way or the other. We walked over
to a bridge and saw some blue crabs; I forget what their actual name is. Though
they were rather unresponsive to the bait, and upon further investigation it was
discovered that they were indeed, dead crabs. We tried to crab further out and
in a few different spots, but didn’t end up catching anything. Other than that,
we walked around the path and just looked around at all the interesting things
there were to see. We found a tree that Cathy described as, “Something you
would see in a horror movie,” and, “That looks like it would wrap itself around
you.” I climbed up it for a little while before getting back down from it and
getting back to the path. After a while of walking, nearer to the end when we
were starting to leave the path, I started inquiring about poison ivy again.
I’m not sure if I mentioned in my other reflections, but I don’t believe I’ve
ever contracted poison ivy. I never really thought about it since Tom mentioned
it on the farm a few months back. Since then, I’ve tried to see if I actually
was allergic to it as I was curious. I tried once, but nothing, and then again,
still, nothing. So this time I wasn’t trying to let anything get past me; it
had to be the right plant, I’d have to rub it thoroughly. I had to be
absolutely sure, vehemently positive, that I had touched, for sure and
definitely, a poison ivy plant. So then, with identification assistance from
Tom, I did. But so far, like I was kind of expecting, nothing. I’d say it was
shortly after that that we left and got some ice cream. The place we went to
was interesting because not only did it have ice cream, but it had copious
amounts of chocolates and baked goods that were kind of unique. It even had
gummy octopi, which were particularly interesting to me. We all got some ice
cream, and then we headed back to the farm where we had lunch, ground pork
hamburgers. Although I suppose that they would technically be porkburgers, not
hamburgers. The pork meat was course-ground, meaning that is wasn’t really as
texture-consistent as other ground meat, which was something that I was not
familiar with. After we ate, we more-or-less just talked and not else until my
ride arrived, for the final time. This sums up my day at Silk Tree Farm, and I'll be seeing everyone next time.
