Summit

I apologize for not being as active as I use too!  My internet connect is not as consistent, but by next week it hopefully will be - I'm moving (again)!  I'm actually kind of excited about it.

This past weekend I had to work.  No it wasn't haying (though my last entry lied, I am not done haying. Long story and I'll get into that later).  But The Ranch had it's Strategic Planning Summit.  It was a good weekend in the end.  Though I don't feel that The Ranch is going to necessarily be supportive of my ideas of work program, it was great to be a part of this.  I've never had a job that's been organized enough to sit down and plan 3-5 years from now.  Kind of crazy, and gives a good feeling of hope that not all jobs are unstable as the ones I've had in the past.

I brought up my opinion on a stronger work program, which I think was received well.  Though I had supporters, I felt that many people thought that our work program was "cutting edge" enough (those words were used).  I wish I had been able to form the following thought at the summit instead of last night, but I finally figured out how to put what I feel is missing into words:

The Ranch was started to support people with mental illness.  It provides a caring, supportive, empathetic, nonjudgmental environment for those individuals. But now we take people with addiction issues.  A completely different population than that of mental illness.  People with addiction issues are not stupid - they have been manipulating the system for years.  Unfortunately the same thing happens here at The Ranch.  I don't believe our work program is providing enough stimulation for the addicts in our system.  While people with mental illness may be incapacitated by their illness and medications, the addicts I've worked with are not.  Why not provide more stimulation for them here?  Work program is the best place to start.  

I know I have to be careful with what I say.  But it finally feels good to have words with the feelings I've felt for a few months now.  Whether or not I can expand the farm program I don't know yet.  I think that I could.

Meanwhile, remember that garden I started earlier this summer?  Here are some yummy veggies from there!  It's done decent with broccoli and green beans.  The tomatoes not so much.  But I'll throw a bunch of compost on it and it should be fantastic next year!