Greetings and Salutations!

"So just what is an adventitious farm girl, aside from you?" This is the first question I think my imaginary readers would ask. "Adventitious" is a synonym for "accidental," and in botany it means "structures that develop in an unusual place," such as roots growing from leaves; in medicine, it refers to a condition developed after birth, such as diabetes.

You see, I was born in Portland, Oregon. You may have heard of us. If not, that link will take you to the Wikipedia page. My family moved to Eugene for a couple of years, but I don't remember that very much. When I was two years old, we moved to Lake Oswego, Oregon. If you don't bother to read the article, it's a snobby, new-money-rich, self-obsessive little town filled with much the same; most of my classmates and friends called it "the bubble" and couldn't wait to get away to college. My freshman year of university, my roommate happened to have horses. I love horses, and used to ride! What a crazy random happenstance. (Also, her mother loves Joss Whedon.)

A couple of years later, here I find myself, sitting on the couch in the house on her 50-acre farm. She and I just got back from a morning spent at an appaloosa barn, which is where we work. Then it was back home, where she cleaned out the ponies' stalls and I worked on drainage ditches.

Yeah, I said ponies. She has two ponies (Smokey and Starfire), four horses (Bugsy, Rev, Spencer, and Lucy), two dogs (Chip and Lucky), and four cats (Leo, Mia, Princess Fuzzball Kitten Person, and Spike Thunderpaws -- yes, seriously). Most of their land is unused, but I'm working on a vegetable patch near the house and I'm hoping to get chickens this summer. Eventually I'd like to produce a lot of food here.

Those chicken coop plans aren't going to draw themselves!