Matt's Blog

Red sky at night, sailor’s delight…

mattontherun — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:22:27 +0000

Nearly done…

Farmyard Dogs

mattontherun — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:58:57 +0000

Red

Ace

Veet

So strictly speaking lovely Framboise here isn’t a canine but her incredible temperament and affectionate nature mean you could easily mistake her for a big friendly dog, were she not actually a Jersey cow. But still… have you ever hugged a cow whilst it licked your face?

Pablo is the farm cat. I’ve had to clean up after him numerous times when he’s accidentally been shut in the workshop overnight. When this happens he generally shits all over the place, probably out of annoyance at us for leaving him in there. His poo usually consists of half digested mice. Worth mentioning are his freakish extra toes on both front feet which give him the appearance of humanoid hands. These ‘thumbs’ allow him to give vicious Chinese burns to anyone who slights him. True story.

This pair are the latest addition to the farm. People advise giving animals being raised for meat names that prevent one getting too attached to them, so we named these guys ‘Cheney’ and ‘Rove’ after their neo-con political name sakes. Probably much as in real life Rove is the quieter of the two though seems to be in charge, fond as he is of regularly mounting Cheney and clinging on as his poor porky friend attempts to shake him off by running around the pen oinking loudly.

Right on Sal…

mattontherun — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:44:57 +0000

“I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn’t know who I was- I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I’d never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn’t know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn’t scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost. I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future, and maybe that’s why it happened right there and then, that strange red afternoon.”

Suicide Kings, Virgin Queens and One Eyed Jacks…

mattontherun — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:44:11 +0000

This week has largely been about poker as the wild card title of this post suggests. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Conservative talk radio…wow. That stuff is incredible. If you want an enlightening slice of American culture, of which we don’t really have an equivalent of in the UK, then check out Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh. Scary stuff, but entertaining nontheless.

Images

mattontherun — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:55:02 +0000

Few random images from the past week or so.

I got dropped off here on the way from Portland

Tach the pitbull

ANIMALISTAS!

Shopping is patriotic

Two constants of my trip thus far. Frozen dairy products and used books

Applegate River

mattontherun — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:26:58 +0000

I took a trip with Susan (one of the farm’s owners) and a bunch of her mates down across the northern California border to the Applegate River a couple of days ago. After a few miles of gravel forest road (which blew out one of our trucks tires) we ended up at an incredible swimming hole and waterfalls in the middle of the woods. The drop over the falls was about 25 feet and the surrounding cliffs anywhere up to 40 feet plus. We spent the day throwing ourself over the falls and off of the cliffs, swimming, climbing, drinking beer and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Good good times.

Back on the farm

mattontherun — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:32:04 +0000

So, after leaving Portland I hitched a ride with a great couple from Seattle, Ron and Michelle and their dog Tach (tak, as in tachometer- Ron is a petrol head and builds hot rods, his passions are short bed truck conversions and old Chevy Impalas). Tach is a 80 pound pitbull, who at 6 months old still has a fair bit of filling out to do but is already a massive, maniacal ball of solid muscle. And 80 pounds is heavy enough when said ball of muscle decides to spend most of a five hour car journey asleep on your lap or jumping on it to get a better vantage point out the window. He was the sweetest dog though (NB British authorities- instead of banning pitbulls, how about banning idiot owners who breed them purely for fighting?) Anyhow I made it to southern Oregon and got dropped at a truck stop just off I5 where I hung out in the diner eating pancakes and drinking coffee. When I rolled in dragging my stupidly heavy bags the whole place seemed to stop and stare and when conversations resumed I heard more than one whispered discussion about ‘hitch hikers’. I’d forgotten I had my ‘Ashland/SOUTH’ sign in my hand when I walked in. Talk of the truckstop.

The farm is really laid back. We get up at seven to take care of the chickens, then eat breakfast, work for a few more hours until lunchtime. The afternoon is generally a write off as its too hot, a consistent 40 deg plus every day so far. The schedule is pretty much based on the question ‘would you rather be working in the stifling heat of the afternoon, or do stuff later when its cool and lay about in a hammock for now instead?’

So yeh, pretty good so far. Been to a couple of farmers markets with Ken and Susan which were real fun. Ashland, a nearby town where the one market takes place is a proper old hippie community. Greying ponytails and faded tie die abound here. There’s even a shop called ‘The Hemporium’. Right on.

Highlight so far though was probably meeting the 1000lb bull they have ‘Shipley’, and getting to pet him for a few minutes. That is until he decided he didn’t want to be petted anymore and basically tried to gore me before slowly headbutting me out of his field. I didn’t argue with him. That said I’m pretty sure if he’d really wanted to cause me harm they’d still be scraping bits of me off his horns.

S’MORES

mattontherun — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:34:22 +0000

I shared a bonding experience over these things recently. I didn’t even know what they were until camping out in Haines before the ferry ride. English childhoods are definately missing out on the campfire snack front here. A random kid camping out nearby had shared his freshly caught coho salmon with me for dinner and we’d gotten chatting. Somehow s’mores came up in conversation and on discovering I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, he dragged me with him across town to find a store open late to buy graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate. I’m glad he did.

The Ferry II

mattontherun — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:22:12 +0000

More ferry pics.

I slept on a sun lounger up on deck for five days with the other hobos who didn’t splash out on a cabin. Pretty sweet vibe out here though, just like a big floating festival. Going to sleep looking at the stars ain’t all bad neither. Spent a lot of time reading, just watching the world go by and getting off every day or so to explore some of the small fishing towns en route that we docked at. Downsides to sleeping on deck are the tannoy announcements that go off every hour or so day and night and with speakers above our heads there was no escaping the crew calls and passenger announcements that wrenched me awake on a regular basis. That and the heat lamps that hang from the ceiling on deck and come on automatically each evening until the following morning. The sentiment is nice but the red hot halogen glow left you sweating given that it wasn’t actually that cold once you were in a sleeping bag. Jesse likened the deck full of people in their sleeping bags under the halogen lamps to cheap burritos under the hot lamps at Taco Time.

The last couple of days of the trip saw orcas, dall porpoise and humpback whales riding alongside us, coming up for air and doing a few tail splashes for kicks which of course was amazing to see. I didn’t get any photos and I’m glad. I don’t think they wanted to be photographed and a grainy splash in the middle of a zoomed in digital frame wouldn’t do justice to how beautiful those creatures really are.

I’ll upload some more stuff on the ferry when this computer wants to play nicely. For now… probably just going to hang outside in the garden, soak up some sun and enjoy my last day in Portland. The guys putting me up need their space back and I’m getting a little too comfortable here. If I don’t go soon I won’t want to leave. Not sure where I’m headed yet but hopefully I’ll be hitching down I5 to Santa Cruz CA. Just have to wait and see whether a particular farm there will host me.Fingers crossed.

Peace out.

Steinbeck

mattontherun — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:26:18 +0000

‘I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty and security- out of which grow a bored and slothful cynicism, in which rebellion against the world as it is and myself as I am, are submerged in listless self satisfaction.’

Not a strictly travel related post, though sort of, as I found this quote on the wall of Jesse’s house whom I’m staying with right now. I’d never seen it before, and I really like the words and the sentiment. Travelling like this, whilst incredible in so many ways certainly can’t be said to be ‘comfortable’, so I suppose the words take on a certain relevance in that sense. Hitch hiking around a country won’t necessarily turn you into a revolutionary, but it’ll definately provide a different perspective from which to view the world, removing you from your ‘comfort’ zone.