Jim drives up to the Hillsboro light rail station at seven in the morning, as Tom steps off the train. How was your trip? Fine, I walked from the condo to the station and the whole trip took about seven minutes from Orenco. Tough commute.
Jims turn the old blue Chevy pickup west, well nows the tough part, the farm is about twenty minutes from here. The pioneers from the city should bee arriving at ten. I thought I'd show you around the property a little before they stream in. Nice Chevy, sixty four? 1965. Even I can work on the engine. Yeah, you can open the hood at sit down on the fenders and just about rebuild the engine yourself. I think I need your help, Jim smiles while making a wide turn off the main highway onto a smaller paved road that runs up Chehalem Mountain.
The two men are standing on the highest point of the property. The view is stunning, looking east over the forests and vineyards to the east, Mount Hood rises behind the west hills of Portland, and maybe fifteen miles of all shades of green, brown and grey in between them. The color spectrum runs pink and yellow as the rising sun moves up over the volcanic mountain in the east, light filtering through the thin even cloud cover down through the forest greens to the purples and blues of the valley floor. I didn't know anything this beautiful exists. Wait until you see the outbuildings, the tools and machines, everything we need is here.
Mei is a take charge person. At ten o'clock, she steps off the train and hands jim a clipboard with fourty names and a release form for each visitor. Can't be too careful, some of these folks are crazy. The train empties out and most of passengers begin circling around Mei, Jim hands the clipboard back to her and Tom is standing off to the side surveying the diverse looking group of Oregonians with a wry smile. A sleek, full size tour bus pulls up, painted brown and gold, on the side it says wine country tours. Mei gets everyone loaded in and Jim and Tom drive ahead the old blue truck. Twenty minutes later, everyone is standing in the morning sun in front of one of the many outbuildings at the farm.
The old farmer, with Tom's help, had set up a field day for the visitors - there were activity stations spread across the property. A few of the neighbors were helping out. Outside the chicken house, the visitors were encouraged to take turns catching chickens in the yard outside the coop - the young people were surprised to learn that after loud commotion and effort expended in actually chasing down and cornering a chicken, and grabbing it by its legs and holding it upside down, a chicken will remain perfectly motionless and quiet when you stand there holding it. Collecting eggs in the hen house is fun - you still have to find the eggs in the straw, and they don't look like the storebought eggs - some are larger or small, darkley colored or have very thick or thin shells.
There was horseback riding, and using the horses to move the small herd of cattle up and down the north pasture, over the neck of land between the large lake and the creek. And inspecting the cattle up front for health problems, getting used to being around the intimidating size and power of the animals.
At the plowing station, Mei and her friend Marti Day are watching a young man who calls himself Flash run the tractor up and down the field, he's harrowing the plowed area, dragging an array of sharp looking shiny circular disks over the sweet and musty smelling moist ridges and breaking the furrows down into smooth earth. Flash is a self-described geek who works on computers and telephone systems, he's obviously enjoying running the powerful machine and works the field meticulously, overlapping each long pass of the tractor and working the big black furrows of overturend earth into a fine powder that is ready for planting.
Jim walks up and starts watching Flash work, and takes in the scene of the whole farm - everyone is having a good time, and people are saying, wow, I never knew you did things like this on a farm. The old farmer has brought his wife, who is sitting in a wheelchair, next to Jim and Mei and Marti. The farmer's wife is beaming, she says, it's been a long time, since the children were young, and their friends helped with the harvest and chores, that it felt like the farm was so busy and satisfying, everywhere you looked the place was being enjoyed.
Marti is peppering the old farmer with questions - how many outbuildings are there, what equipment is working or not working, what were the production numbers when the farm was running at its peak, what has the been the market price for selling filberts and raspberries over the last decade? Jim finds out Marti is a civil engineer by training, and she has a pretty analytical mind and wants to know all of the facts. Mei is checking her clipboard and trying to faces with names and remember which guests have visited which activity areas, and watching the time and getting ready to head back out to the fields and forest.
They all stop talking and there is a satisfied silence as the group watches Flash turn up the throttle on the little Ford Tractor as he finishes up a row and cuts the wheel. He turns the tractor right in front of Mei and Marti, he flashes a big smile. He's kind of cute, says Marti.
