Dorothy and Rick run a small Blueberry farm just outside portland on the edge of a small city called Camas, although you’re only about 20 minutes from the city the view over the Columbia Gorge and Mount hood from behind the house makes you feel like you’re in the wilderness.
The view from behind the farm on a clear day: Mount Hood and the Columbia Gorge River
The farm’s not huge but there was plenty to do. Mostly tending to the blueberries which are definitely not in season right now but need a whole lot of prepping to get ready for the summer. We were doing a lot of weeding, clearing, finding old berries that had gone bad and more excitingly using a wood chipper to make pine straw, as well as putting compost on everything. The woodchipper was a bit temperamental when it was wet meaning that we’d often have to unblock it, i was too busy concentrating on not touching the blades that i didn’t realise i’d ended up with a bruise ring around my arm that looked somewhat like a huge love-bite.
Trips to the food coop
Once we’d spent time tending to the blueberries, which took about 2 weeks we moved on to other areas on the farm. This was mostly various trees including cherry trees and walnut trees, one day we rented a tractor/digger and i learnt how to drive and operate it. After we’d done lots of digging the tree guy came and that meant learning how to use a chainsaw, it was pretty addictive albeit very hard work. With my ever growing collection of plaid, tank tops and plaid i appear to be on the track to becoming some sort of a stereotype lesbian lumberjack!
Staying with Dorothy and Rick was also really lovely, they’re both semi retired but Rick still works as a contractor. They both have kids from former marriages, one who was still at home and was one of the grumpier teenagers i’ve met but we gradually bonded over silly boys who pay too much money for designer clothing. Another son came to visit while I was there and taught me all about the world of video-gaming and comic-con! In a peak of Yael knowing everyone hilarity, Dorothy’s eldest actually lives in London and as soon as she mentioned that she’s queer and plays roller derby I found the 3 mutual friends we have...of course! Dorothy was slightly astounded, she thought London was a big city.
I really enjoyed the hours at the farm talking with Dorothy about politics, she’s recently been inspired by Bernie Sanders to get involved in politics, although she’s always been a big progressive. She’s busy educating herself on the power of big money in politics and we had a lot of chats about how the UK might not be a utopia despite the NHS. It was pretty cool that she was so keen to get into politics at this later stage in life and i definitely enjoyed her hope and optimism about things being able to change. Rick is also a bit of a folk singer so i got to enjoy many a night by the fire playing guitar with him and singing lots of old folk songs.
Aside
from working on the farm (which i did for about 4 days of the week) On
my days off I was able to explore the surrounding area. I went on 3 big
trips out into the Columbia Gorge which is absolutely stunning, the
first had too much rain so we mostly brewery hopped around the area
enjoying the best of Oregon’s ale. I then was lucky enough to go on some
amazing hikes, the local lake lacamas, Cape Horn and best of all Dog
Mountain on a perfectly clear day. The dog mountain day was great as it
was with Chris and Chris who i’d met while i was hiking in Hawaii (on
Kauiu), i’d got chatting to them on a trail bottleneck and mentioned i
was heading out to Portland area, they said they were from there and if i
had a free day they’d love to take me out hiking. True to their word
they picked me up and off we went to Dog mountain, Chris had hiked Mount
St Helens, Mount Rainer and Mount Hood and he ran a nursery so was able
to tell me EVERYTHING about the local flowers, geology and hiking
trails of the gorge, it was amazing. They’d been travelling themselves
and had grown up kids said they relished the opportunity to show other
travellers where they lived.
View of the Gorge from Cape Horn
The top of Dog Mountain
Multonomah Falls
I spent the rest of my days off going into Portland which is a really fun city, i’ve completely fallen in love with the atmosphere which is somewhat transient due to lots of young people moving there, but also highly open minded and political. I ended up at a lot of awesome events, including a feminist event in a tomboy styled clothing store, a couchsurfing event and a women’s soccer game with a ‘small’ attendance of 5000 (apparently they usually get 13000 people), so incredible.
The famous Vodoo Donuts
I also explored all the bookstores, my favourite being a philosophy bookstore called ‘mother foucault’, did a pretty extensive coffee tour and continued to drink as much oregon ale as possible, they really do know how to brew here.
'Mother Foucault'
I also got to go to a Bernie Sanders rally which i’ve written some separate thoughts about here: http://yaelsamericantales.blogspot.com/2016/04/travels-during-us-presidential-election.html
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