Haying

I helped the Wilsons gather two truckloads of hay today from their own hayfields--fields being a relative term here, as they are perched on the side of a mountain--and unload them into their barn. Piddling amount of hay compared to their normal work day and overall season, only about one hundred forty-pound bales. I can't say I wish I was around to chuck more into the barn, though I am glad to give the Wilsons an extra hand; it is extremely hard work. I haven't figured out the best way to stack the bales so they don't tumble off the truck, and I don't have the back and arm strength to toss them ten feet over my head, so I did a pushy-shove thing that resulted in a spray of hay in my face. I got hay everywhere and found it to be a rather gritty and painful exfoliant, and not too tasty (don't tell the sheep).

There is always an enormous amount of work to be done on the farm, including weeding the massive organic gardens, feeding the sheep, and basic household duties; I always feel I'm quite the lazy one when I arrive. The Wilsons were a second family to me when I attended Dartmouth, and since then I've spent several summers helping hay (though the mystique has worn off!) and knitting and playing with their children Aurora, Dave, Grace and Justice. They are often kind enough to drive me up to Middlebury, a college that's impossible to get to without an automobile, as no trains or bus services connect to it. Argh.

For those not in the know, I will be spending my third of five summers at Middlebury College in the wilds of upstate Vermont this summer, working on my master's degree in English literature. Technically, of course, I am taking classes through the Bread Loaf School of English (so named because a nearby mountain top is shaped like a perfect rectangular loaf). Bread Loaf is a spin-off campus that is located on the top of a mountain several miles from the actual town of Middlebury. Not being one to plan all the details, I did not discover until my arrival that not only is it impossible to reach this little eden without a car, but also there are absolutely no stores or kiosks there at which one can purchase such necessities as toothpaste, granola bars, or sheets for one's bed. No tvs, no cell phones, and no snacks between meals seems to be the rule, and although I can abide by the first two, I'm definitely not sticking to the third! (I never go five hours without at least a snack - I mean, I've got to keep that metabolism up!)

I am much better prepared this year and looking forward to taking my courses on British Romanticism (Keats, Coleridge, Blake, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, plus some lesser-known, non-canonised poets) and Varieties of Modern Indian Prose. Am happy to report that I finished Rushdie's Midnight's Children, which got interesting around page 250 and won me over by the end. It could alternatively be titled "A Brief, Self-indulgent History of India Since Partition" in 1947. Worth it once I got used to the highly stylized, repetitive, self-pitying narrative voice.

In other news, my AP syllabus was approved by the College Board and I am now officially allowed to teach my AP course in the fall! Very good news.