One evening, we took the house to Camphill Hudson. A talent show was organized there by the coworkers and residents. On Pride Day, there was a big LGBTQI parade in Hudson, which our house unfortunately didn't go to. Instead, Camphill Hudson took part in the parade and took to the streets in support of diversity. They still had lots of T-shirts left over from this event, so our residents and we were given lots of Pride T-shirts. As a historian, I particularly like the shirt that tells the story of the LGBTQI movement, including the Stonewall protests in New York City. The talent show featured dancing, karaoke, sketches, storytelling and lots of laughter. I particularly enjoyed the final song, Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. Even the resident I look after most of the time knew this song well and started singing along. A great evening!

Photos from the talent show:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8uiYA5RCgz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

During the Covid period, the son of our house parents had a part-time job at Whistle Down Farm, which is adjacent to our farm. He picked blueberries there and was paid a certain amount for a full container, which he used to earn some pocket money. One Saturday, our whole house went there and we all picked blueberries for our house. With our large team of 10 people, we collected a decent amount of blueberries, for which we ended up paying $93 for 11 1/2 pounds (5.21 kg). The picking was a lot of fun and for lunch we made our pancakes with blueberries. We also ate the blueberries for dessert the following days and mixed them into the waffles. Versatile and very tasty!

Photos from our trip:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/tUxCqi2rXz973pDE/

On our day off, I went with the Spanish coworker to Lake Taghkanic, which is only 12 minutes away. It's a beautiful lake with clear water that's perfect for diving and a large beach. We lay on the empty beach and read our books. At some point I jumped into the water and dived through the clear water. At some point, a US park ranger suddenly stood in front of me and waved me out of the water. He looked like the park rangers you see in movies and I wasn't sure what I had done wrong. He explained to me that the season hadn't started yet, so there were no lifeguards on duty and I wasn't allowed to swim on the beach for legal reasons. I apologized and went back to my book on the beach. We had assumed that it was only so empty because our day off was a Thursday. We have two new volunteers who are still at school and will be helping us during the summer vacation. The special thing about the Hiberniaschule Herne is that the students can combine vocational training with the Abitur, just like in the GDR. The two students learn the trade of carpenter and continue to go to school at the same time in order to obtain their university entrance qualification. A great system that more schools should offer. Their technical skills in working with wood have already been gratefully appreciated. With the two newcomers, we drove to the Catskill Mountains and hiked to Newmans Ledge, where we enjoyed a fantastic view of the Hudson Valley. 

On Friday, I was invited to a colleague's birthday party, where I celebrated her 19th birthday together with the house and some other guests. She wants to become a teacher in Saxony-Anhalt, and I had lots of interesting conversations with her about the German education system and told her a lot about studying to become a teacher, which she is really looking forward to. We played badminton, danced to music, ate burgers and cake and enjoyed the campfire.

On June 27, the first Presidential Debate took place, where the two rivals for the office of US President met live. Current President Joe Biden (Democratic Party) against former President Donald Trump (Republican Party). While the German volunteers were all behind Joe Biden, there were also fans of Donald Trump and Robert Kennedy, the nephew of John F. Kennedy who is running as an alternative candidate for president, among their American colleagues. When 81-year-old Joe Biden took to the stage, I had to check whether I had accidentally switched on a Saturday Night Live parody. He took to the stage with so little energy and charisma that it came across as a parody. His sentences were often difficult to understand, he often floundered and lost his train of thought, didn't finish sentences and got confused with the numbers. He is the oldest US president in history. When his rival spoke, he didn't seem confident, but confused, staring into space with his mouth open. At 78, Donald Trump seemed mentally very fit and focused compared to Biden, he was able to make his political ideas understandable and did not speak as gruffly as we remember from previous speeches. Biden quoted numerous statistics that portrayed Trump as the worst president, called him a liar and recalled the storming of the Capitol. Trump appeared very composed and was not rattled by this. The fact that the questions were always faded in often made it clear that Trump preferred to answer his own questions and respond to Biden's statements instead of answering the moderators' questions. According to a poll by CNN, where the duel was broadcast, 67 percent of viewers thought Trump was the winner. In an editorial, the New York Times called on Joe Biden to withdraw his candidacy: "To serve his country, President Biden should drop out of the race". He is to be officially declared the presidential candidate at the party convention in August; he has already collected the delegate votes in the primaries. Nevertheless, there are calls for alternative Democratic candidates to be given the chance to run against Trump. For this to happen, however, Biden would have to voluntarily withdraw, which is considered unlikely. We were very disappointed by Biden's performance, who damaged himself with his weak showing. I don't need to go into why Trump is not a good choice for the office, but he cut the better figure that evening. Personally, I doubt that Biden can win against Trump in this state and hope that the Democrats find a younger and more powerful alternative. However, since the unwritten rule is not to run against the incumbent president from your own party, I am keeping my fingers crossed that enough people will rally behind Biden to prevent Trump from winning a second term.

Our Off-Day group is very lucky that the 4th of July falls on a Thursday. July 4 is the national holiday in the USA, celebrating the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia. This was the first time that the British Thirteen Colonies were referred to as the "United States of America". 

A colleague got up early especially for us and drove us to the train station in Hudson at 6:00 am. After our arrival in New York City, we went to Battery Park, where we watched the Independence Day Parade of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association. The parade was a little smaller than expected, but it was still nice to watch. There were bagpipers, re-enactors of the American Revolutionary soldiers, veterans, cheerleaders and a high school band with drummers. A colorful mix that marched through the streets of Lower Manhattan. I am happy to send videos on request! After watching the parade, we walked to the Staten Island Ferry and took the free ferry to Staten Island and back. From here we had a great view of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. 

When we got back to Manhattan, we took the train to Coney Island. Coney Island is a peninsula in the south of Brooklyn on the Atlantic coast. It was originally an island, but in the 1940s half of the strait was filled in so that it is now just a peninsula. The district, which is mainly known by Russian immigrants, is famous for its large amusement park and the most beautiful Atlantic beach in New York City.  The largest contiguous amusement park was built here in 1903, until it was later surpassed by Disneyland. Millions of residents visited the amusement park and the beach at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1944, the park was destroyed by a fire, and two years later it was closed and demolition was planned. Fortunately, the park was saved and in recent decades, the park has been reinvested in to make it an attractive destination for New York families. It's a large amusement park with carousels, roller coasters, fairground stalls and snack bars, where I treated myself to a deep-fried Oreo. On July 4th, Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs also held their Hot Dog Eating Contest here, a hot dog eating contest to see who can eat more hot dogs in 10 minutes. This year's winner was Patrick Bertoletti with 58 hot dogs, the best woman was Miki Sudo with 51 hot dogs. We walked along the promenade and looked for a nice spot on the beach to go for a dip in the Atlantic afterwards on the hot day. The sea is very cool and the waves are very high, but it was great fun to let ourselves be carried away by the waves. After swimming, we lay on the beach and warmed up in the sun. 

On the way, we made a stopover in Dumbo ("Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass") and took photos of the Manhattan skyline. In Manhattan, I bought a new cell phone (iPhone SE3) with an American number, as my old cell phone crashes more often and the battery is draining very quickly. If you would like to have my new number, please write to me! We visited a well-known chocolate store (Max Brenner), but were horrified by the high prices and decided to visit a German kebab store instead. Then we went to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and took the bus to New Jersey. From Hoboken 14th St Pier, we watched the big Independence Day fireworks display, which we were really looking forward to. Every year since 1976, the department store "Macys" has organized a huge fireworks display for New York City, which is said to be the largest 4th of July fireworks display in the USA. Fifty pyrotechnicians on five ships (barges) on the Hudson River shoot 60,000 rockets in 30 colors. The fireworks were planned for a year and the 75 miles of cable used is enough to wrap around Manhattan twice. It's a fantastic firework display, probably the biggest firework display I've ever seen!

Video fireworks:

https://youtu.be/6xHzGJu4EcI?si=OOAgnAvSDI6eG5LM

After the fireworks, we wanted to take the bus back to Manhattan to catch the train to Hudson. But one bus after the next passed us by without stopping, the public transportation was hopelessly overcrowded. After a while, we realized we wouldn't make it to New York City in time and were forced to cancel our train tickets for a refund. We were stranded in New Jersey and would like to strongly warn all volunteers not to travel to New Jersey in the evening. You will get there in any case, but you can only cross the bridge by car or bus and you shouldn't rely on them. Some time later we made it to New York and had to wait for the first train in the early morning. It was very exhausting and we didn't arrive in Triform until 10:00 in the morning, an hour late, where we immediately started working, as I was responsible for preparing food for a house. I haven't been this exhausted in a long time, but I'm happy to be spending the holiday in New York. The other day we made chicken drumsticks, which was delicious! Now that the theater group is over, I'm taking part in the movement group. Having already taken part in the eurythmy group once, I was very excited about the movement group. We dance lots of group dances in a circle or in pairs, dance to music and go on nature walks where the teacher points out interesting details in nature.

My time at Triform is slowly coming to an end. I spend a lot of time on the farm, where we are currently moving the cows and pigs from one field to the next to give the fields some time to rest. We recently got turkeys, which we are raising as farmers. Our daily tasks also include feeding the chickens, goats, ducks, pigs and the horses. There is a riding group who look after the horses and ride them in the afternoons. In the mornings, we look after the horses and ponies as farmers, which is particularly exciting for me. As a historian, I've read a lot about the use of horses in history, but I've never had any direct contact with horses. We give them food and water, we bring a horse into the stable where it can eat undisturbed, on the way back to lunch I bring the horse back to the field. I would like to ride a horse if the opportunity arises. Otherwise, we repair fences on which trees have fallen in the current frequent thunderstorms, dismantle fences and roll up the wires and build new electric fences elsewhere. The plants grow back quickly and have to be trimmed regularly when they touch the fence so that not so much electricity is lost. It is currently very warm here, with temperatures often exceeding 30 degrees Celsius. We now have ice in storage, which we were very happy about after a particularly strenuous day on the farm. In the garden, we remove weeds, harvest plants, wrap cucumber vines on a trellis to grow and treat the beds with biodynamic mixtures to comply with Demeter guidelines.

I also help with the numerous moves in Triform to prepare for the next year. People come and go, so some houses have to be moved. While tidying up, I found a toad in a pile of leaves in the garage, which I released into the wild.

Since I've been working on the farm, I can appreciate the nature around me much more. I can identify more plants, enjoy particularly beautiful cloud formations and carefully observe nature and the many animals here. On my daily 5 km morning run, numerous deer, squirrels and rabbits cross my path, standing just a few meters away from me and looking at me curiously. Our swimming pond, where we often go swimming in the evening and enjoy sandwiches for dinner, is now also coming to life. If you stand motionless in the water for too long, little fish come and nip you in the leg. Turtles wander across the road into the water and on the other side of the pond you can see the deer drinking. 

On 6 July, we said goodbye to my colleague from Nigeria, who arrived in Triform a week before me and with whom I have worked every day in the house since then. We visited a great restaurant in the Roe Jan Brewing Co. brewery and ate delicious burgers from an open kitchen. We looked back on the past year together and had a round where he could express his appreciation. The next day she said goodbye, but she won't be going back to Abuja where she grew up and studied International Relations. Instead, she is moving in with the boyfriend she met that year and will be studying social work at SUNY College Schenectady near Albany. We wish her much success in her studies and congratulate her on completing the one-year foundation program at Camphill Academy! We really enjoyed our time with you at the house, we were a good team that stuck together even in difficult times.