July 28

Another day on the farm. Yesterday was eventful! I got to show the art director my hand-drawn mazes and he loved them. I got excited hearing about all the production ideas he was considering for them. We talked about printing them off on the new industrial printer Shambhala purchased this year. He also considered laser etching a maze on wood which would be sweet. Either way he wants to use them in the new food court building in the middle of town. It would be a good addition to the new coffee/smoothie bar being built there now.

I got my first taste of wet weather yesterday. The afternoon was engulfed in storm. Biggest hail I've seen in years. I can tell you working under a tin roof, hail is deafening!

I clocked another 14 hours yesterday which, in a kitchen, would usually send me batty but this kitchen vibe is much more enjoyable. Art is a fair boss, but I am noticing his temper flaring up. I'm starting to thing cooking as a job has the ability to get to anyone. Sometimes I think that all my kitchen experience has made me handle stress better, but I'm still done with it. I can't enjoy a life funded by kitchen work. I wonder if I would be a twig that would snap at any soft pressure had I not put all those years of kitchen work on my resume. Either way I need a new gig, but this particular one is probably as good as it gets.

I got a little midnight tour of the stages last night. Got to see all the 15 foot video mapping screens in the shape of giant sunflowers the Fractal Forrest is installing, checked out the new stage additions. if you thought the Fractal Forrest had a packed stage last year just wait! It will be covered in celebrators this year. The village is getting a serious overhaul too. As it was midnight the village crew was hard at work when we got there. The stage will be brand new this year, I can't wait to see it finished.

The beach stage is being rebuilt too. It seems like everything is getting bigger and better. The high water this year did a number on the beach so there's a lot of ground that was washed away.

It is foggy today. it was wet last night. My micro tent survived. I am relieved about this, but I still need a tent upgrade should I expect to maintain my sanity.

As I write this it's 7:30, I'm sitting on the beach enjoying the running waters. I just heard Art blow the conch letting everyone know breakfast is served, but I don't work till 9 so I think I'll spend the next 90 minutes hunting down a good rock stack patch and then maybe start the diamond maze on the generator building.

Yesterday was busy! I put in a solid 12 hour shift and now I'm up early to open the kitchen at 5am. Definitely didn't want to do the early shift out here but I don't mind helping out based on the circumstances. Art is interviewing someone today with the hopes that he will start soon and take over the early shift. That will let me go back to evenings and prep work like I was expecting to do from the beginning. The farm is slowly getting busier, our service numbers are slowly growing. We're serving just over 100 a meal now. I'm told it will be closer to 500 just before showtime. This number scares the crap out of me because of the size of this little kitchen. Should be interesting.

I met up with my buddy Dave who was tasked with painting some buildings. he was nice enough to let me design a maze for the front of the generator building. Yesterday he painted a big white diamond on the front of a bright green building. Hopefully my early start today will give me time to start working on that this evening. I'm glad I got a decent paying job out here, but if I do help out at Shambhala again I'd like to do it in some other way as opposed to cooking. The food's pretty good though. And I do have a ferocious appetite.

The ovens are almost hot! Time to heat up some breakkie for the farmily! What will today look like when I fall back asleep in my micro-tent?

I made it to the Salmo River Ranch! My ride from Nelson was half an hour late and I was almost certain I'd have to make new travel arrangements on the fly to make it to the farm. Luckily two girls who were also waiting for rides showed up and informed me that my ride was indeed coming. She eventually showed up and we hit the road. Made it here at 7:30, just in time for breakfast. The original plan was to start work at 4pm today but I learnt that the sous chef quit unexpectedly yesterday. I was greeted with a promotion! So now I'm the sous chef for the great Shambhala 2012 staff. All this energy put into making an amazing party will be fuelled by my work!
Because of my new job I was required to work as soon as breakfast was served. I immediately regretted not getting a good sleep last night, but I did OK during lunch prep and service. After lunch was done I was relieved for three hours and I took the opportunity to set up camp. Found me a nice spot under some cedar trees with a view of the empty field that will be full of shambhalaers in two weeks. What a change from the last time I saw these grounds. Feels more like a construction zone right now. I may move camp, but as of now, this shady cedar will be my neighbour. Now that I'm set up, it's time to explore!