Techno makes you work faster!

This morning I woke up to a very rainy day. It was overcast and rainy heavily; quite a change from the previous few days of intense wind. The weather website told me it was going to low 50's and rainy all day, but when I got outside it felt a lot colder. It was a damp sort of cold. The kind that makes it feel especially nice to come inside. 

I spent the morning, as usual, with Richard working on "farm" stuff. We took a trip to the recycling center with a trailer full of the rusty old bits of wire from the old fence. It took about 20 times longer to unload the trailer than it should have because it kept getting tangled. After we returned we started a new project of cleaning out the barn. It is a large stone building filled with anything and everything you can imagine. It needs a lot of help in the organization department. An Australian guy named Matty, who also lives on the farm, came to help us out. Think of any stereotypical image of a cluttered attic. That's what it looked like in there. Only worse. There were 3 boats, about 5 bikes, tons of farm tools, boards, lamps, petrol cans, chairs, tables. Just about everything. So anyway, we cleaned that out until lunch, filling the trailer right back up again, and then some. 

Then it was off the the work shop to help out with the jewelry. Adam and Rich (I am going to call him that from now on so we can differentiate between him and Richard; Diana's son.) the tunes balsting and I was set right to work. I was retying knots on the little bags they give customers with their jewelry. They are made from old tartans. I probably did over 100 of them. Halfway through, Adam made some really good coffee that gave me just the swift kick in the pants I needed to get going. Then Diana's grand daughter, Rachel came over to help out. She's about my age and is going to art school in Edinburgh. 

Adam cranked up the techno and we all got working on our own seperate projects. I tied those knots, used the dremel tool, and sanded the backs of the gems. We were all working in this really good techno induced groove. It was just a really fun time. The atmosphere was light hearted, fun, and productive. I enjoyed myself quite a bit. It was so rainy outside, it was nice to be inside. 

Just another picture of the farm buildings. I can't get over how cool they are.

Again I had dinner up in the tree house. Matty came and Adam's friend Josh from London came as well. He brought Ben & Jerry's phish food. So not only did I have a great dinner with some cool guys in a tree house, but I had phish food dessert. 

Adam and Matty told this great story about a time they went fishing out in the fourth in a crappy old boat that started to sink. The wind, the tide, and the boat for that matter was against them. So they were rowing and rowing trying to get back to shore. Adam then asked Matty to throw the anchor over, that way they could at least stay put and figure out a way to get help. Matty did. Only Ada, had forgotten to tie the anochor line onto the boat. Nice. Anyway, the story is not as good retold by me, it's better to hear it live, but I though I had to share it. I really enjoyed hearing it and had a good time hanging out with them.

 

Crappy iPod picture, but that is Shiraz, Adam's cat sitting there.

 Sidenote: The whole time while we were eating, Shiraz was lying on her back just rolling around, showing off her spotty belly, giving that Puss in boots look. Meaning this:

 

It was totally adorable. Anyway, see you tomorrow! 

 

A wee Scottish hike

Today was a wonderfully relaxing day filled with nothing but hiking and exploration. I was able to wake up at my leisure and take my time getting ready because on Sundays, WWOOFers get the day off. It was really nice to get up slowly and plan my day.

And that plan was to for a hike, then visit the town of Kinghorn. After a nice breakfast (where I made the shittiest cup of coffee I've ever had.) I made a picnic and packed my backpack then set outside. It was incredibly windy and rain splashed out of the sky in intermittent bursts. Then the wind would send the clouds through and the rain would stop. It was some wild weather. 

The start of the route I took.

The start of the actual trail.

 The trail ran along the top ridge of a small hill. On the right hand side were sprawling green fields lined by old crumbling stone walls. On the left a spectacular view of Edinburgh and the Firth of forth was visible.

Some cool rugged old stone wall.

The wind and the rain continued to whip off the water as I made my way towards the end of the path. At the end was a ruined stone house. 

One of my favorite things ever; old decrepit buildings. So so cool.

I wonder when this building was constructed, who lived here, what it was like then. Such a cool thing. It was a nice highlight of the hike. 

Another field picture. I can't stop taking them. Each day the look so different, but they always give us such a rugged feel.

I took the return path back and wandered around the ecology center paths for a while. I found a neat little bench in the woods and had my picnic. Which consisted of a kind bar and a nutella sandwich I made before I left for this trip. It had been sitting in my backpack since Wednesday afternoon...

Best sandwich I've ever had!!

 I came inside, dowloaded my photos and headed right back out. The rain clouds had passed at this point and were replaced by white puffy clouds and sun. 

The tree house. I still think this is the coolest thing ever.

A view of the farm house on this nice sunny day.

A view down the road to the loch.

White caps on the loch because it was THAT windy.

 I walked down to the loch and sat by the waters edge for a while. I was just enjoying sitting there smelling the fresh air, looking at the gorgeous horizon, and listening to the splash of the waves. It was such a nice day, it was sort of a "pinch me I'm dreaming situation" as I sat by loch. 

The farm and loch.

 After I spent while enjoying the serenity and scenery of the loch, I decided to find way into the actual town of Kinghorn. I have been looking at it from the fields for the past few days, so it was time to check it out for real. 

The road to the town.

 

 Here are pictures I took as I made my way down to the coast. None of them are terribly artistic, but the buildings are just so cool here and so different from back home, I took tons of photos. Enjoy!

I read somewhere that this building has great historical significance, but I can't remember...Sorry.

 I made my way through the streets of Kinghorn, not really having any plan, just wandering towards the coast. Finally I found the picturesque beach of King horn. Think of it as the postcard image of this small seaside town. 

Looking back towards the town. The postcard image if you will. Totally beautiful.

Cool rocks.

Relaxing on the beach. Found some awesome sea glass. Blue sea glass no less.

I'm not sure what these are, but they are cool.

 The views from the beach was spectacular and I most definitely plan to return. I want to do a portion of the Fife coastal path on my next day off. Here is a link to that if you're curious. http://www.fifecoastalpath.co.uk/

 I returned back to the farm and sat outside and enjoyed the view yet again for little longer. Then I came back inside, had dinner, and watched a crap ton of DailyGrace videos. Yay for YouTube wasting your time!

Anyway, thanks for reading and I will see you tomorrow!

Second day of WWOOF

I woke up at 9 and Mike and I had breakfast. Then we were sent over to go help out Adam in his jewelry workshop. Shorty after giving us our tasks, he left for Edinburgh where he sells his jewelry on the weekends. I spent the morning roughing up the backs of stones with a dremel tool so the glue would really stick when they were put onto pendants/earrings/bracelets. They were are beautiful oval shaped stones of Scottish marble. Each one was unique and special and very cool. They ranged from light sea green to dark emerald green. I'm going to have to buy me some jewelry...

The wood pile project.

Then afterwards, we headed up the hill and continued on the wood project. There are about four piles of miscellaneous wood bits and our job is to sort through it, split it, and bring it up to either the sauna or the tree house. It s pretty fun, mostly because the view of the loch is incredible and Adam's cat likes to hang around.





After about an hour of splitting, gathering, and transporting the wood, we worked on repairing the netting around the garden. This became somewhat tedious, mostly because of having to tie knots above my head. Try tying to sections of netting together that is about a foot above you for a while; tell me how your arms feel afterwards. I will tell you. Tired. But the best part about this was every time I would pull the extra length of string, Adam's cat would run and pounce on it. I stopped a few times to rest...and play with the cat. 

Then Adam's business partner Richard made us lunch in the tree house. I think i can safely say, it is the coolest place to have lunch. He made an amazing stir fry and we had some nice fresh salad. 

The tree house.

Another view. How freaking cool?

Lunch! (Not the line of alcohol. The steaming plate above.) :P

 After lunch, Richard Mike and I had a very interesting conversation all about sustainable living, global warming, and our part in all of it. Richard had a lot of great information to share. He's a very interesting guy, whose opinions align very closely with those of my dad's. I feel like they would get along so well it's stupid. I wish they could meet. Anyway, this conversation lasted over an hour, and it was very fun to be apart of. And hang out in that cool tree house. I want one. 

We had the after noon off, so Mike and I went to go check out the Earth Ship on the Ecology center land (which they rent out from the farm.) An Earth Ship is a building that is completely self sufficient and environmentally sustainable. It is built with old car tires packed with dirt. Then a regular type house is built around that. It is really hard to describe. Here is a website about it. http://www.sci-scotland.org.uk/earthship_centre.shtml

Then I went for a hike and explored the grounds further. Here are some pictures of that and more of the farm buildings. Enjoy! My camera was acting up, so some of them are a little darker or lighter than they should be..but anyway:

A view over the loch.

The dirt road I was following.

F

A sign on the grounds of the ecology center. Local food y'all. That's the way.

The loch! See Nessie? Oh wait...wrong loch. See...Horny? The Kinghorn loch monster.... okay. Bad joke. Sorry.

The Earth Ship.

Another view of the farm buildings.

It was another wonderful day here in Scotland. I met some more cool people and learned more about sustainable living than I had known previously. See you tomorrow!