{"id":230,"date":"2022-08-25T19:27:24","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T19:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/?p=230"},"modified":"2022-09-11T17:49:55","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T17:49:55","slug":"week-9-one-last-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/week-9-one-last-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 9: One Last Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sunset over the production barn<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Learning Highlights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Final days in the calendula field and honestly, I’m not too sad about it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And just like that, this whirlwind of a summer has come to a close. My final week at Moon Valley was much less frustrating than the previous week; while still filled with calendula harvesting in the heat, we also had more time to work in the drying room, finally got a tour of the production barn, went to support owner, Kim, as she harvested honeycomb from her beehives, and even were used as models for Moon Valley advertising. It was an exciting week to end my WWOOF experience on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was really grateful for the opportunity to tour the production barn before leaving Moon Valley, as I had been working around it and interacting with the employees but never fully knowing what was going on. We saw the giant soap and salve-making containers, the lip balm and hand soap machines, the packaging process and the shipping warehouse. We saw and learned about how they source their oils, how oils from abroad may be considered organic in whatever country they are coming from, but must be checked by the USDA to be considered organic in the US as well. Giant jugs of essential oil lined the shelves, the production manager made sure to point out two 10-gallon jugs of lavender essential oil that cost around $4000 alone. It was really cool to finally get to put all of the pieces together, bridging the gap between the work I was doing and the Moon Valley products lining store shelves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later in the week, I even got the opportunity to help out in the production barn, first helping to clear out space in the shipping warehouse and then screwing hand soap pumps into newly filled bottles of foaming hand soap. We had to learn the right placement of the pump, to work slowly and listen for the click into place. It was exciting to get to be a part of this production process, to know that my hands helped to create those products that people could be using within the next few weeks and months. All of the herbs we have harvested and dried this year will most likely be used in next year’s batch of products, so it was cool to have what felt like a more immediate impact on this company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A part of being a WWOOFer at Moon Valley that I was not expecting was being used as a model for Moon Valley advertising. Throughout the entire summer, WWOOFers have been whisked away by Jerad and Nick, social media managers for Moon Valley, to model products or the process of herb harvesting. This week was the big finale while there are still WWOOFers around, so Wednesday morning had a 7am start in the calendula fields to model with the flowers and certain Moon Valley products. I modeled chapstick, being directed to do different poses all with a cheesy smile on my face. It was honestly a pretty fun and silly experience, it’s clear that Jerad and Nick are super passionate about what they do and were super grateful for our participation. I am excited to see the final product once they’re finished putting it all together!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My super cute beekeeping outfit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Enjoying the rewards of our work!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally, a big highlight from my week was getting to tag along while farm owner, Kim, checked on her beehives. It was so clear in this moment that Kim is full of knowledge and love for these creatures, it was a really inspiring experience. It was an empowering experience too, I used to be very afraid of bees when I was younger but felt very little fear even when one somehow made its way inside of my bee suit while out with Kim. I watched how Kim used her tools to open the hives, and she even allowed me to take the lead and open a hive in order to find the queen bee. Upon opening the hive and searching through all of the frames, we discovered that this hive had TWO queens, which shocked Kim immensely. If a bee colony is unhappy with a queen, they will create a new queen bee and kill the old one, or the two queen bees will typically fight until only one remains. But these queens were not fighting at all, we watched them for a good ten minutes in anticipation of something big happening, but they just walked right by each other. It was a crazy experience, definitely something I wish to follow up on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from this crazy encounter, Kim showed me the difference between a frame filled with honey and one filled with new bee cells. She pointed out the younger bees and the drones, it was crazy to see these creatures so up close and to notice how unique each one really is. She told me about different diseases and mites and about the signs of an unhealthy or dying beehive, which include deformed wings, a lack of worker bees, or a small number of bees to begin with. The entire experience got me inspired to go home and help my dad with his beehives instead of always just watching from a distance, I think he even already ordered a suit for me! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, this week of work was much more enjoyable and manageable, I am grateful to have ended on a high note. While I still think the conditions of last week’s work were unacceptable, I am glad that our concerns and frustrations were actually heard and taken into account, and I’m glad that all of us voiced them to begin with. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning Highlights And just like that, this whirlwind of a summer has come to a close. My final week at Moon Valley was much less frustrating than the previous week; while still filled with calendula harvesting in the heat, we also had more time to work in the drying room, finally got a tour of … Continue reading Week 9: One Last Week<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"geo":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/ilc-su22-dewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}