End of it all

March is the final month of my ECHO internship.  Responsibility for the ducks and rainforest was handed over to Ruth in February and I am not on the schedule for tour or nursery during the last month, which leaves me many hours to wander around the farm wishing I had spent more time on this or that.  There is a lot of office work to finalize, variety trial write-up to complete, exit interviews to conduct, books to buy, and people to say goodbye to.

It's an understatement to say the year went by quickly.  Breaking the time into three month blocks, with a set of interns arriving and leaving each time, makes the time go by even faster.  The fact that Noah and Kate are senior interns after it seems like they just took over their areas blows my mind.

An interesting part about March is that due to the unusually warm winter we had (save December), everything on the farm is about a month ahead of schedule (compared to last year).  That means I got two full rounds of mulberries and strawberries.  That also means Noah and Kate might get two full rounds of lychees and will probably get a decent amount of mango before they leave.  In any case, it's shaping up to be an outstanding year for growing.

Among the things I got to do in March that I had been waiting for the whole year:
1. Harvested honey from ECHO's bees

Golden nectar of the gods...or bees

2. Almost won at Agricola (by that I mean I didn't come in last)

As I move on to Nashville and consider how to structure the next ten years, it will require deliberate effort to stay on top of planting methods, technology, latest research and current problems of small scale farmers.  To make sure this happens, one of my goals will be to get a garden established to keep my hands in the soil.  The other will be to get my hands on the right journals.  And I plan to stay involved with ECHO, reading development/tech notes, attending conferences, and sneaking onto the farm as much as possible.

New experiences in the last month:
1. Harvested honey from real live bees (it's worth mentioning again)

Bees love honey soooo much.  It's amusing.

2. Participated in Moustache March for the first time ever

Not as creepy as it could be

3. Participated in my very last Army event (it was underwhelming)
4. Made purple yam chips in the rainforest

Goodbye, ECHO, I'll miss you.