Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Rob

Rob with Jennifer, Kai Hei and Turkey
These pictures are misleading because Rob Rodriguez parked and covered his bike as soon as he arrived until he took off.

A gentleman from Louisiana on a cross country quest, Rob called and asked to stay a week as a HelpXer.

He had skills we could use, painting the bathroom and doing carpentry repair.  He made a mean guacamole using a bag of end of season Surprise avocados from the fruit stand.  Open to learning, lots of good positive energy, laughter and stories from the road.

I almost got him to stop calling me M'mam.

He enjoyed exploring Exeter,  hiking to the top of the hill with Kai Hei, Sunday Swap meet and Quaker meeting with Sal.

We wish him well on his travels and adventures.


Sunday, January 12, 2014

Dan & Emma


Dan and Emma were here for a little more than a week.  She is a student from China and he lives and studies in Oregon.  He drove 12 hours straight from outside Portland to Harmony Hill.  In a short time they did much valuable work harvest- ing goat food and organizing the firewood.  Each learned to milk a goat and groom a horse.  Since they had a car they could explore the area and National Parks.  Emma had a riding lesson at Sierra View before they drove back to resume school.  Emma had a beautiful singing voice and taught me the first verse of the haunting and lovely Chinese song "My Heart Represents the Moon."  (I am learning the rest of the song from Kai Hei our next visitor who arrived with a ukulele, the day after they left.)

Dan spoke some Chinese and had traveled there. We enjoyed learning more about the Chinese countryside and culture.



Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Spring Rolls with Thu

 What a great treat to have Thu come visit with Elisha and Enoch and all the fixings for a spring roll feast.  She taught me how to assemble and roll Viet Nam style spring rolls with rice noodles, chicken, shrimp, and greens.  She brought everything including her home made peanut sauce and a beautiful salad.  The trick is the way you soak the wrapper just enough to soften and put a small fold in the bottom before adding the fillings, folding in the sides before rolling.  We had as much fun assembling then as we did eating them.  Thank you Thu!

The Fixin's





Amazing lunch spring rolls salad home made peanut sauce

O Canadians

Cheese class
We were so happy that Kaylie and Dani stopped by Harmony Hill on their spontaneous Sister's roadtrip.  They arrived in time for a Thanksgiving  Feast and stayed 3 weeks, learning to milk goats and care for horses and chickens and also for Allen, during the week I was in Aptos.   Kaylie loved to cook and made brightly colored mostly Vegetarian food, healthy and delicious.  They worked hard on the wood pile and harvesting goat food among other projects to improve Harmony Hill.

They met lots of our friends and explored the Park and Exeter.  We enjoyed a banana pancake farewell breakfast as they headed north.  Kaylie is a plant biologist and she explored the new property in Aptos where they spent a couple of nights and she shared her observations and suggestions.   We were happy to learn they made it across the border and  back to Courtney BC for a white Christmas with their family.
Exeter Home Tour

On Morro Rock

orange tasting Lindcove
 

Turkey Loves Dani