Hello again friendies! We are writing from the public library in Santa Fe NM! Probably contrary to what you think, it's kind of cold up here! There is snow on the ground--though nothing like what's going on back East. Lizzy and Alexa are working at the Santa Cruz Farm and Greenhouse in Espanola, NM--about 45 minutes north of Santa Fe and a little bit more towards the mountains. It's a 3-acre farm with three really really big greenhouses. And the land has been in the farmer Don Bustos' family for 400 years. We actually still haven't met the famed Don Bustos, and apparantly he's a really big deal around here. He has worked to get Santa Fe public schools eating organic vegatables from farms in the area including the one were at. We've been working with a couple that manages the farm Roni and Jorge who are oh so sweet.

On Monday on the farm we added compost and tilled and then built up three big beds in one of the greenhouses and then planted lettuce seeds. And Tuesday we helped another long-term volunteer Serafina transplant so many plantitas!!! Adorbale baby plants--tomato, basil, broccoli, jalapeno, onion--all very adorable--into bigger containers in the greenhouse. We were aided by Don's grandaughter Alexis, 5 years old and the coolest lady. ALSO--Alexa drove the tractor! Soon Lizzy will learn how to drive stick-shift by driving the tractor. (Roni told her she had to).

We guess we should back up a little since it's been so long (sorrrrry!)We have been in Memphis staying with J-Dub,a sweet friend of Lizzy's brother. A highlight of that adventure was going to the civil rights museum in the Loraine Motel. It was intense and not without fault, but a pretty amazing experience.

Next we stopped over for two days in Blountsville, Alabama with a couple from the Directory for Traveling Quakers. Turns out Sara and Daryl live on a coooool intentional community and we got to have dinner and Meeting with their very small group of Friends. The house is solar-powered and we slept in a bed on stilts that were at least 8 feet high! We got to walk around Birmingham and see some historic places from the civil rights movement, which was very moving. on the way back, we saw our first armadillo!

Then we went to Biloxi, Miss (Home of Biloxi the Dog! Kind of) and worked with an organization called HOPE Community DEvelopment Agency. Being in Biolxi was weird for a lot of reasons, one of which is that we lived at a Church wtih a group of evangelical folks (from York, PA! Home of Marcy Seitel) there on a mission trip. That was definitly the most scared some of this party has ever been to be..different. Mostly gay. It was funny that the group was from "up north", just to teach us that not just people from MS can be conservative Chirstians. By the end of our stay though we had made some friendly acquantinces of the York people and became pretty close with director of the camp and his family. At one point when we were helping to clean the church he told us he really appreciated our relationship, that he could see we really took care of eachother and stuck together. it was sweet. did he know? Another reason it was hard to be in Biloxi is that the town is still totally devestated from Katrina and there are empty lots all over. But tanks got the Casinos are already built!!

Next was New Orleans, but an hour away! We stayed with our dear friend and ex-landlord Mac! He showed us around that amazing and magical place, and then we volunteered for about a week on a community garden/alternative school in the Lower 9th Ward. Being at the garden/school was the first place we got to learn a lot about what's going on in NOLA.
Oh now e're out of INternet time! More later!
LOVE Y'ALL!

Chappy Channukah!

This is Alexa and Lizzy writing from Williamsburg, KY (but really a swanky coffee shop in Knoxville, TN where we're stealing internet). We just left the Knoxville Farmers Market where we helped Janice, the owner/sole farmer at Musick Mountain Farm sell the veggies that we picked together yesterday. Even in December, we spent Friday picking arugula, dill, parsley, lettuce, beets, kholrabi, bok choy, turnips, three kinds of kale and mustard greens. Wow!! She has most of her garden beds under floating row cover (a big sheet of gauze-ish fabric that lets in light and water and keeps out the cold) so things are still growing, just a little slower than in warmer weather.

Janice has a pretty small farm with two big gardens, chickens, two dogs and three cats! We are staying in a room above her workshop that's full of drying herbs and jars for canning. The farm is nestled in the Appalachian Mountains--there's a nice view and pretty sunsets from the front porch. We haven't had that much time to explore, but hopefully we will soon. Walmart and Goodwill are about the only businesses in town, aside from a Pilot with gas for $2.39!!! It's been pretty cold since we arrived--it was even snowing at last weeks farmers market!!

We pretty much love Janice, shes a hard core pioneer lady, knowing so many things she can do with her hands! we just love learning from her, like how to dry herbs, and can food. she's also really fascinated by us, and we talk for hours everyday just asking each other so many questions about our lives.

Also we've fallen in love with the chickens! Dolores is the chicken that gets literally pecked on by the other ones! and shes so sweet and blind in one eye! and then there's Tigger the cat who only has a little part of her tail and half closed eyes! (alexa does a really good impression of what her voice would sound like). and Cupcake the cat follows us everyday to the chickens and back. and of course Bo-Bo the dog rocks.

If any of you were worried that we wouldn't be celebrating Hannukah, you sure are wrong! Lizzy made a playdough menorah for the house and yesterday we grated some of Janice's homegrown potatoes and onions to make....LATKES! And it is a very Chappy Channukah indeed. Literally, our hands are very chapped from working outside in the cold and wind.

It is a little isolated out there though, with no internet or cell service, so we want to tell you that we miss you all so much and are loving you. And of course we are SORELY missing our 3rd tricycle wheel.

If you want to write letters, we're staying at 1782 Jellico Creek Road / Williamsburg, KY 40769. We leave around Dec 19, so write soon!

"so, how's the job search going??"

Since leaving Earlham in June (and for several months before) we've been asked countless questions like, "what kind of job do you plan on getting with that degree?" "when will you be starting graduate school?" "what are your plans now that you've graduated?" After careful consideration we've decided that these questions can kiss our butts. WE'RE GOING ON A ROADTRIP!! And not just any roadtrip-an epic journey of discovery. We'll be WWOOFing (www.wwoof.org) on several farms across the US and visiting friends and family along the way. We hope that seeing new and different lives and communities will help direct our own paths. We're not delaying the real world, this is the real world. And we're living it.

Alexa and Lizzy left Poughkeepsie NY on October 23rd. Here's where we've been so far:
-Philadelphia, PA
-Baltimore, MD
-Alexa's home (Silver Spring, MD)
-Pittsburgh, PA
-Columbus, OH
-Oberlin, OH
-Richmond, IN
-Chicago, IL
-St. Louis, MO

We saw a lot of friends and some new places, and are so glad to be with our third muskrat tear, EMMA. So here we are together at last in beautiful Columbia, Missouri! we miss you! Things we have learned so far:
-you can extend a chicken's laying season by putting electric lights on in the henhouse
-in MO they call it "toasted cheese" instead of "grilled cheese" and "dressing" instead of "stuffing"
-there are no teeter totters left on any playground in the U.S
-When you are reincarnated you choose your astrological sign based on what you struggled with in your past life. (For reference: Alexa=Scorpio/ Libra moon, Lizzy=Scorpio/ Sagittarius moon, Emma=Taurus/ Sagittarius moon)
-At the Cool Stuff store in Columbia you can get 2 super sour gumballs out of the machine for the price of 1 because the guy who put it together messed up. he admitted it.
-how to make pecan pie
-In the Art Institute of Chicago they have an exhibit of tiny rooms of different time periods!
-how to play tetris attack on super nintendo
-baby bottle pops put holes in your tongue
-if you go to a parade in the midwest they will throw candy at you
-what emma's mom looked like when she was giving birth to emma
-alexa looks really creepy under a black light. also, black lights bring out your freckles-and lizzy has a lot of secret freckles.


We've been here since 11/20th and Alexa and Lizzy will be leaving on Tuesday to WWOOF on a farm in Williamsburg, KY so Emma can (be a good girl and) finish her grad school applications. We will be reunited after Christmas to continue the journey as a threesome!

We love you. A big thank you for all those who support this journey and a big un-thank you for all of you who don't. a-cha-cha-cha-cha.