^^View from the top :)

Wow! I am having an amazing time out here in Colorado! I spent a week in Boulder with Gab and Marley and wandered around a lot. I ate at a few awesome places! I’m loving the green movement out here. Everyone is so chill too. I’m so glad I got to catch up with Gab and Marley. Gabe came and hung out with me for an afternoon as well. I experienced the nightlife of Pearl Street with Marley on my last night in Boulder and then Gabe picked me up and we went into Golden before heading up to the mountains. I went with him to a little brewery and to his house and everything and then we hit the road to get up to Breckenridge.

So great to see Jeremy!! His dad was here with friends and they took us out to dinner and drinks which was awesome! And then one of his dad’s friends offered to pay for my ski pass for yesterday, so I was able to board with Jeremy and his Dad and got a feel for the mountains. The view from the top is absolutely amazing! The view of the Rockies is just amazing. After skiing we went to one of his dad’s friends 2 million dollar house and played pool and drank some delicious wine. It was a great day! I’m definitely learning the bus system out here too so I can get around, its so easy. And its free!! I am loving this place, and I can definitely see myself living here for awhile if I ever felt like doing that. So many cool people and not to mention skiing all the time. Wahoo! Too bad the snow is melting pretty quickly but I am loving the warm weather so I’m not complaining. Wow. Its just so exciting to be here!!

This weekend was just what I needed!! Mom and I skied a half day at Sugarloaf on Saturday and the day started out warm, but ended pretty cold. The top of the mountain was chilly but bearable. It felt so great to be back on my snowboard cruising down the mountain again. There is barely any snow up there though, its really sad. Not to mention today its like 50 degrees outside in February! Weird!! We had lunch at The Bag! Yay for Mexi-skins! So good!! Then we headed over to Rangeley and stayed in the Rangeley Inn which was this really cool old hotel. We got dinner and drinks in the little tavern connected to the hotel and talked to the girls working there about the pond hockey tournament that was being held out back. It was a really cool place. Then in the morning we went up to Saddleback to ski, since it was Maine day, tickets were only $30 which was awesome! Saddleback was definitely really cool, the set up of the mountain is interesting. The very bottom is all greens, and then over the right is all blues, and then the top left is all black diamonds. So the mountain is really split up by difficulty. But it was a beautiful warm day to ski and the mountain was pretty empty, which was really nice. It was a great weekend!

Today I went to Phoenix Farm in Monmouth, Maine to visit with the owner Nancy Chandler and talk about working there this summer. I loved it! I think it was a really good fit for me, and Nancy was awesome. I can definitely see myself there. The apprentice quarters are in the house, which at first I thought would be kind of weird, but Nancy is so nice and great to talk to, so I think it would work out fine to live in her house. The farm is smaller but still a lot of room to grow and has a big barn which most of the space isn’t even used, but the washroom is in there. There is also another apprentice room upstairs in the barn which was nice. I would totally live in there too. I had a great visit with her and she even made me lunch. We talked about all sorts of interesting sciencey stuff. I can definitely see myself there.

But tomorrow I talk to the farmer of Morning Dew Farm, and then Wednesday I am visiting Pork Hill Farm in New Hampshire, which I think I am going to love, but we’ll see. I’m guessing its going to be between Phoenix and Pork Hill. Stacy at Broadturn Farm said they need someone who can stay the whole season, so that’s out. And I’m afraid that Pork Hill will say the same thing, so it might end up being Phoenix Farm after all. Nancy said that she doesn’t mind the shorter term because she has high school students who will work in the fall. I am just so excited for this summer!! In one month I will be in Colorado!! So much to look forward to!! Life is beginning to get exciting again! Thank god!

So I have been doing a really awesome job eating healthy since this round of chemo started. And it is making me feel a little better. I have been avoiding the normal cheesy comfort foods and going for the healthy veggies! And it always helps when my moms on board which she is doing better at.

24 days left until my last treatment!

42 days until Colorado!

I can’t wait for the adventures to begin.

Today I made a stew: YUM!

Organic vegetable broth (2-3 cups) (added a little bit of water too)

1 large beet

3 small carrots

2 potatoes

1/3 white onion

1 kale stalk

1/2 tomato

Rosemary

Italian all seasoning

2 bay leafs

Its making my stomach feel at ease, which makes me really happy. I am so close to be doing with this beast, I can’t wait. I know that healthy, awesome days are coming. Thanks to Adena, I have become really interested in Ayruveda and healing with nutrition in general. (Adena, I think I see that farm compound/ayruveda center in my head, haha) It just makes so much sense to me. I’m really excited to learn how to farm this summer, I think it is the first step to really figuring out what I want to do with my life. Who knows, maybe I won’t like farming so much and something else will interest me, but I think its a good start to get my back on my feet. I am going to learn so much! I wish I could just fast-forward through the rest of this bad part and on to the fun part and then press slow motion. Ha! Wouldn’t that be wild.

ps. here’s some cool websites I’ve been into that you should check out