Last weekend was great fun. Dan had a surprise staff event planned for Saturday night that we anticipated all week long - so much mystery! Before the secret event happened we went swimming in the warm tropical water for a few hours at Butler Bay - but that was after Joe - a professor at UVI that lives on the farm - lead a yoga class in the morning.  After snorkelling for a bit, we headed back to the farm to meet up with Dan and Jen to start the evening’s adventures. The water was amazing that day - it was like swimming in a giant pool. When we arrived back at the farm, there was a note in the Community Center listing all the items we would need with us for our secret evenings festivities.  Items needed for the night:

1: Funny hat
2: Favorite pair of clean socks
3: Something that you own that no one on farm has seen before
4: Good luck charm

Dan took us out for drinks at Norma’s, the bar with the beer drinking pigs. We then piled into our cars and went BOWLING! It’s been so long. Needless to say it was Men vs. Women, and there was hours of heckling one another. Everyone looked amazing dressed up, especially with our funny hats on.

On Sunday we spent much of the day recovering from the night before (we were out quite late). Claire and I ended up staying on the farm the whole day just lounging around, doing a little work here and there, reading our books, and swinging in hammocks.  On Monday someone on the farm shot a wild pig, yesterday was the first day in over eight years that I tried pork. RIBS! Delicious!

This week has been a lot like the last. We’ve spent most of our time hanging out with our friends on the farm working, playing, and eating. I play Chess against Dan from time to time (I’m 0-5). Claire has been working in the Secret Garden and the Mandala garden, weeding, sowing seeds and creating paths with mulch. I’ve been working up at Ben’s new house, sanding wood and putting finish on it. All of the wood I’ve been working on will be used for the wood ceiling of his new home, which over looks the whole farm.

So, as you can see - this island and this farm are a little chunk of paradise. We eat so much food from the farm; it makes you realize how good fresh food is and how horrible most of our store bought food is. It also makes you realize how much packaging we use on a daily basis; at the farm we go through so little packaging - it’s incredible. Here you have to be mindful of the water, if we use to much we have to pump more out of the pond. We also have to be mindful of the electricity at the community center, since it runs on solar power and if we over use it we have to turn on a generator (which we have to fill with gas, and that’s not fun). We go to the beach at least every other day, if not every day, and spend our afternoons swimming in the ocean and relaxing after a hard days work. We eat as a family at almost all the meals, but lunch is our big meal. On Wednesday nights, we have a family dinner and invite any friends on the island to come eat with us.

The crazy thing is, we’re 179 days into our trip. We get home in ONE week. But we’ll keep writing for a while. The videos should keep coming as well. We’re super excited about being here for another week, and equally excited to go home.