Things were getting tense at the farm in Oregon. There were clear disagreements with us and the people there. Despite all the work we had done on the property, we were being treated as though we were the biggest burdens. We were some of the thinnest people on that property, and the people that were fattest were complaining that we were eating too much. We did our best to find our own way off that property, although we were almost forced to leave one day, just a few weeks after we got Rebel.
The day started off tense with those on the property. In an attempt to get away from it all for a little while, we went off to a nearby creek with Rebel to dab. Just as we were starting to calm down and unwind, we heard R calling for us. He told us that Hippy had called and that she had a job for us. It was time to pack our things, as she'd be there in an hour to get us. With the excitement of work on the horizon, we set off back towards the property to pack up our tent. We had everything piled by the porch, ready to go when she pulled up. Despite our excitement though, we had somewhat of a sinking feeling about the day to come as Hippy has been known to be just about anything but reliable.
R told me to follow him inside at a point, where he intended to give me some of his cannabis seeds like he had promised earlier. He also had a crocheted bag that his wife had made, for me. The whole thing seemed a little weird but I did my best to be optimistic.
Hippy showed up with her boyfriend in a car that was so tiny, we questioned if we would fit without our stuff. She gawked at the amount of stuff we had, as she's the travel with nothing hippy type. They discussed us having to leave stuff behind, that we could come back for later when we had a means to haul it away. As time progressed, it seemed less and less like there was a job for us.
At some point I walked in the house and accidently interrupted a conversation between Magic(what I'm now calling the woman who owned the house) and Hippy. They were having a semi vague conversation about people taking out more than they're putting in. With how they responded to me walking in the door, it was clear these talks were about John and I.
What's crazy is up until the day all of this happened, I was still spending 6-8 hours a day cleaning and cooking. John was still in the midst of chainsaw work. There was a lot of talk behind our back coming from people who do nothing, going to people like Magic. She was working all the time paying for everything but honestly wasn't around to see the reality of the situation. She went off what she heard, and her little birdie Carl was telling her we were eating everything and doing nothing. He even went as far to say we were rude to her children, which was the opposite scenario as I was teaching her daughter to bake.
I went outside and told John about what I had just walked in on. He said his short interactions with hippy really made it seem like this was all bullshit, that there was no job. She approached us and our fears were confirmed. She went on a rant about us burning bridges. The things she was saying to us were pretty ridiculous coming from her, knowing her history. I can't remember many specifics because we were honestly pretty emotional about the situation. She told us she intended to take us to Ashland, a city evidently friendly to homeless people. There we would have to figure things out ourselves, or face whatever fate the "universe" had to throw at us.
She gave us a lecture about doing what you have to to make shit work, and even gave us shit for the situation she was in, even though the fact that we were stranded in Oregon happened to be her fault. We refused to go and be left in a city, considering we were on the run.
Things eventually escalated to us yelling at each other in the front yard, John and I both in tears. R eventually came out and asked what was going on. When we told him of Hippy's plan to leave us in Ashland, he gawked. He said that there was a misunderstanding, that he thought that she could get us a job. It was clear that wasn't the plan, so instead of following through with kicking us out he changed his mind. He told us to set our tent back up, that we'd figure out another way to handle things.
With that, Hippy and her dirty hippy boyfriend left the property. That was the last of Hippy in our lives, honestly. With her gone, we set back up our tent and took to figuring out a backup plan. It was around this time that John did research on sturdier tents and portable wood stoves, in case we should find ourselves living in the forests of Oregon for the winter. We both decided we'd rather be homeless in the forest than a major city while on the run.
Upon further analysis, it seems that Magic told R to get rid of us, that we were just too much of a cost as well as a risk. He called the woman who was responsible for us being there, Hippy, and told her to make it happen. Her idea was to just remove us from the property and leave us in Ashland, in an attempt to get us to "learn from our mistakes". Despite the fact that we were technically family, there was no love from her in regards to what we were going through. She gave us her word with no action and we suffered for it at the end of the day.
In the weeks after this, we managed to get the one big dab job we did in Oregon, which I'll share about soon. Had I not found that job on Craigslist, who knows what would have happened to us. While we didn't make it terribly far in the truck, that job gave us the confidence to leave that property once and for all. Mexico or Bust.
