a new view

(The Beehive Collective house. It's a very old house, 100+ years and was the home of a lumber extactor- which is ironic. Apparently the Beehive is the first non-blood relatives to own the place. It's way larger than it looks here and has strange things in it- like this super windy tight stair case that goes from the kitchen to the upstairs (in addition to the main stairwell). I can only assume it was for servants to use.)


(This is one of those funny fancy things about the house. You can tell it's a metalic wall paper- but what you can't see is that the pattern is velvet! It's all fuzzy! It's SO strange...)


(my bed room! i'm sharing it with 2 others right now. one of which is- presumably- very short term- and the other has the same time line as me. it's possible someone will move out into another bed room- but for now at least- bed, sweet bed.)


(this is the bad little falls. it's where fresh water meets salt water. this is about a 3 min walk from the house, and is right below the grange hall. it's super pretty!)




(and just a shot from the bees at the ussf- so many folks around all the time- it was great!)

gill

when i was in gill, massachusetts we went strawberry picking. the you-pick down the road was at the end of the season and said we could pick for free! we didn't stay that long, but there were still tons of strawberries hiding in the field.







the next day, erin's housemate made strawberry jam. we had some for breakfast and it was so! good!

a good sign

today, i braved the world of listening to my 'athens' playlist. music from athens. i had to stop listening to it the day i left, because it made me feel too sad and made me miss being there too much.

but! today was a good sign. when i turned it on, the first song to play was naturally 'so much fun' by spooktober but the magical part, was that it didn't make me sad, it made me really happy. i figured this is a good sign that my summer has been going well.



since leaving Erins farm in Gill (she let us take her car- which is a stick shift- so i was really nervous to drive it and had to be the only driver), we headed out to meet up with everyone else near stranton (ME). And on the 4th a few of us went out with Kehben to the 4th of July parade in athens, ME. We missed the parade but caught the end of this totally ridiculous and wonderful skit thing the folks there put on every year. each year, it has a different theme- this year it was about the oil spill.

i wish i had photos, but i don't. so image a bunch of people all decked out in america gear, cheering on a diy theater presentation that basically says fuck you corporations and government- this is our country. it's way more crazy than that just made it sound. damn, i really should have taken a photo.

then today we left straton and drove to machias. on the drive, the car almost broke down! i'm not even kidding. it had a really hard time going up hills or downshifting, so we pulled off. we pulled out the owners manual and found out it was the a) belt or b) alternator. a fella who worked at the truck stop told us it was the alternator and we would be able to drive it home without it breaking down. this makes it- 4/4 cars i spent time in since leaving athens ohio that have had a least minor problems. i blame my mother for this super power.


and now i'm in machias. erin and i made dinner with a fella who was taking care of the cats and then i got a tour of the HUGE house. it's insane. i'm going to get a tour or town and bike to the beach tomorrow! so exciting!

the story of jessica

I took very few photos on my yellowstone adventure, but took a few gems.


(amazing cinnamon rolls, courtesy of sonia, providing a much needed breakfast after trying to sleep in a tent during the worst thunder storm- ever- in Missouri)


(big sky)


(our amazing camp site, one of the few nights without any rain, after driving 14 hours on 2 hours of sleep, in wyoming. most stars i've ever seen)


(stopping to look at cool rocks and the sunset, near Wyoming, maybe in it)


(our own little water fall, at our campsite we had after backpacking almost 1000 ft up a mountain. lovely.)

it feels like it was so long ago already, that it seems strange to write about it. and i have a lot of work on my plate already, but wanted to get a brief update out there.

i'm currently in a coffee house, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, hoping that the car gets fixed soon and i can be on my way to Maine. This is the third car I've been in since leaving Athens that has some sort of malfunction. the car to yellowstone got low on transmission fluid and we had a scare (that ended up being totally fine). the truck i left detroit in had a broken fan, which also runs the coolant pump and almost killed it's self as we pushed it a little too hard. then the car i rode to out of toledo in and towards maine, had an engine misfire and erin and i have been stuck in Gill since. With some very serious luck, it will be fixed today and we can carry on. but, more likely we'll be here at least another day (and hang out with baby ducks at the farm our friend lives on!).


woah.