Ok, so I'm not a logger yet. I've been more of a wwoofer this past week. BUT BUT BUT tonight at six I leave for the Marlborough Sounds to jump start my logging career. It'll only be a two-week long career at the moment because dad comes in two weeks, but one never knows where leads like this will take me. Carolyn and I spent the last week doing farmy things and making-over Thomas' room and watching him play rugby. Thursday marked 6 days since I'd seen Maggie and in a miraculous surprise she just walked in the kitchen while I was cooking dinner that night! I was so surprised that I forgot to smile; instead I went with a disgusted "who the hell do you think you are" sort of look. Then my brain caught up and we hugged and talked for 3 days straight. It was great. I didn't realize how much I only felt half-present. The Lentz fam mailed Carolyn a bunch of Martha Steward Living magazines and we spent an inordinate amount of time studying their pages, memorizing tricks to add seasonal spice to our homes this fall and lusting after the cake recipes. It was actually sort of weird how into it I was. But I mean, pumpkin vases?! Christmas light jack-o-lanterns?! Snow votives?!!? Score. I drove Mags to the airport this morning for her commute to Wellington to get her to work on time. It was so worth being up for sunrise because the sky was cloudy pink with a bright rainbow trapped in the pink that made it an illuminated hot pink streak in the sky. Words don't work as well as eyes, in cases such as these.

One night this week Thomas took me on my first pig hunt! Whoa, right?! He was just going one evening and I think he was joking when he invited me, but I ended up going, so careful when you joke with me because I might take you too seriously. We went up to this ridge near their house and the drive there was a four-wheel drive adventure that was sort of an appetizer to the redneck-badass fun. We went through one padlocked gate to get there and when I locked it after us Thomas seemed to disapprove. When I offered to get out and leave it unlocked he just mumbled something about, "no she'll be right, it was just in case we need to get out of here in a hurry." He didn't elaborate on why we'd need to get out in such a hurry, but it gave me a little extra kick of fear to get me started. Thomas gave me no instruction ahead of time, but sometimes he'd just hold up a hand to get me to shut up and listen. We took two of his dogs and went up to a hill top and then just sat under the trees with the dogs, just listening, waiting for it to get totally dark. After a few minutes the dogs started freaking out and we let them off their ropes and they shot away into the woods. Then we got ready to run and listened for their barks. They did manage to bail a pig and brought it close enough for us to chase it at one point, but we didn't get there in time, probably on account of the "bloody slow yank" trailing behind. But I think it was great fun because we didn't catch anything. I didn't have to see how I'd respond to the trauma of actually killing something, and instead I got to run through the woods at night with a gun slung over my shoulder, which is neither something I've done, nor is it something I could have imagined myself doing a year ago. Eventually the dogs got too far away and the barking died down and we headed back to the car and waited. Thomas called them and whistled for them and sure enough, about 15 minutes later Blaise hobbled back. Then we drove down the main road with me holding tracking gear out the window and listened for the beep that meant Swazi was somewhere near by and eventually she found us, too. It was so cool to actually use my ears. So much of it was just hard listening and I can't think of another time that I've had to practice being so quiet or so aware of exercising my hearing. I'd do it again, at least until we actually kill something and I scream and cry and commit myself to veganism.

Thank you Carolyn for inviting me back! Thank you Thomas for taking me hunting! Thank you Maggie for visiting! Thank you sky for pink sunrise rainbows! Thank you Martha for the handy home-making tips! Thank you Wayne for your abundance of laugh lines around your eyes! Thank you world for being so full of life and surprise!