Home in Homer

I have been swept away my first few days here. I made it in time for the 20^th annual Shorebird Festival. I checked out a few free workshops discussing sea birds, tracking birds, environmental journalism by the author of “The Big Year”, and viewing a live bird presentation.

The day before my flight, I found out I got the paid position at the Farmers’ Market on Saturdays. It’s only 8 hours a week starts May 26^th – Sept 29th. My 1st day here, I met with the yoga studio owner and for 1.5 hours worth of clean up work, I get access to 5 classes a week.

I met with Kyra who runs Sustainable Homer, where I will volunteer. She is awesome and knows so much. She did Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. I am excited about the few projects we discussed. She said, “I don’t want you to go home the next day. I’d like you to stay till January.” Her org has an AmeriCorps position that started in Jan that I actually got but later declined to move to VT. It’s funny how things turn out. It’s also amazing how quickly things have worked out for me.

On my 2^nd day, I borrowed a bike and biked 6 miles. Man, I am out of shape. I have not biked in a year and was never a biker before. I’ve been having knee issues and the doc says biking is great for hit. I saw a moose and wondered what I should do. I was far enough so I felt safe and whipped out my camera with the awesome new lens (thanks dad).

Later on, I then got to visit a local family who are very creative minded as they never went to tradition school. The guys build awesome structures for the family and tons of farm animals they have (ducks, chickens, goats, sheep, yak, donkeys!) to live in. They drink donkey milk and swear by it. They are not too far from my new home and hope to visit them some more.

On Saturday, I met the kids that I will nanny for about 15 hours a week in exchange for a lovely studio, attached to the lower right of their awesome house. I can get in via the sliding door and we have great views of the bay and mts. There are 5 kids ages 6, 4, 2, and two 4 month old. So very busy and hands are full and I am tired. Their house is further out than I expected and up a huge hill, so I am looking at some solutions as I don’t think I can bike it both ways. Homer's pop is 5,800 but the small town is spread out.

Summer is the best time to be here. It’s not easy and all good times living here year round. I am excited to be here but at times I wonder what the heck am I am doing and get sad. Its kinda lonely and I miss Honey. And naturally I miss Dave. I guess sometimes, you can’t have it all…click here for pix