Alaska: June 21

Summer solstice! Longest day of the year! Let’s talk about the light here. It is even weirder than I imagined. It’s almost indescribable. For instance, it is nearly midnight right now, and I can still see everything outside my window. Everything. It looks like it is 6 p.m. still. It really never gets dark. When I wake up at 3 in the morning, I can still see the mountains and trees. It is just dusky.
Josh dropped me off at the Homer Stageline bus station at 7:30 a.m. It was in an industrial, ghetto looking area, but the receptionist was nice. After a couple hours some more people showed up. One girl named Annie was also WWOOFing in Homer. She was from San Francisco. I must say it was nice to talk with a fellow novice about our uncertainties about just showing up on a random farm and working. There was also a guy named Tim. He grew up in Anchorage but now works at REI in Denver. Small world.
The bus ride was…long. We had to swing down to Seward on the way, which adds about 2 hours, but overall it was good. The fellow passengers made it interesting. Chuck brought his blue heeler dog; Geraldine had the most hair I’ve ever seen on a head and was a bit crazy; Meryl was from Hawaii and on vacation; Zach was a commercial fisherman on his way to Halibut Cove to work for the summer as a sandman. The drive, though long, was peaceful. Nick, our driver, played classical music that made quiet introspection easy. THE MOUNTAINS! Everywhere you look is so beautiful. I feel my heart expanding into all the raw wilderness.
Willie picked me up from the bus station. He looks like a farmer: jeans, boots, suspenders, scruffy beard. We went to SaveUMore, one of the local grocery stores, and met Evelyn there. The girls, Lou Lou, who is 12, and Genevieve, who is 15, were also there. I went with the ladies to Evelyn’s sister’s house. Sue has a dry cabin northwest of town. There, I also met Ev’s parents, Hank and Marietta, and her other sister Louise. Marietta is French-Canadian and has a thick accent. We had a great dinner and then went back to Earth Acre’s farm where I saw my little cabin.
My cabin is also a dry cabin, so I have no running water. I use an outhouse about 40 feet up the mountain and use a jug of water to brush my teeth, make my coffee and wash my face. It is cozy, though. And simple. With no internet and a view of the Kenai Mountains and the Katchemak Bay out my window, I am forced to slow down. This is good. I had not realized how incredibly addicted to the internet I had become. I really don’t need to be “connected” at all times. I hope I take that lesson home with me.

A sign at the Seward, Alaska, visitor's center. That's a long way.

Dinner with my Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) host family, plus a few extras.

My little cabin in Homer, Alaska.

The view of Katchemak Bay from my little cabin in Homer, Alaska.