Day 11: Day off!

This morning was amazing! I slept till I felt like I could stay in bed no longer! I thought I had been sleeping half the day away because I felt so refreshed and renewed! I had kept waking up a little and then purposefully not looking at a clock and going back to sleep. I could hear distant thunder and the clatter of rain on my tin roof, and finally when I felt that I had been in bed long enough I decided to get up, a decision, largely motivated by my rumbling belly! I finally looked at a clock and it was 6:50 am! which still means I got 10 hours of sleep because I went to bed at 8 last night! I began to feast properly and build on what Tina started last night by cooking breakfast for dinner, but now I was having breakfast for breakfast! I had 6 scrambled eggs and 8 pieces of bacon washed down with some home brewed blueberry green tea.

Then I had a huge delicious organic apple that was about the size of my head, and I cut it up and put it in a bowl with 2 large spoonfuls of peanut butter and washed all that down with half a quart of fresh goats milk! My belly was in heaven and I promptly laid back down to read but was asleep again in about 10 minutes. I think I fell back asleep around 8:30 because it took a while to cook breakfast, during which I was reminded of the cardinal rule of never cook bacon in just your underwear, because hot grease eruptions or very unpleasant! So after a good 45 minute slumber to digest my big breakfast, I woke up for a second time, feeling possibly more refreshed than the first time and continued to read. It was about 9:15 for my second wake up and I purposely ignored my pile of dishes to do, cutting my self some complete slack for the morning, I knew I would get to them eventually.

Oh this is stubbs, the most personable of all the barn cats. He is appropriately named stubbs because he only has half a tail! He is sniffing around my unwashed bacon pan, the picture isn't the  best quality but he is the skinny black object up on two legs.

I decided to go to my next important order of business which started and ended in the general vicinity of my porter poddy, I made the unwise choice of walking there in just flip flops and underpants, because at the time it was not raining, but during my visit, its started raining!! It should have been a mad dash to get back safe and dry to my room but I didn't feel like running so I just let my self get pretty wet and cold. It didn't last long though, when I got back to my room I pulled on my favorite purple sweat pants and my favorite hoodie, grabbed my headphones and decided to make a casual walk to the laundry room! Pictured below:

When I was walking to laundry I was reminded of an noteworthy event I saw yesterday, but forgot to tell you guys! I saw my first wild tarantula which was cool in and of itself, but what was crazier was that one of the wild peacocks that hang around the farm all the time was chasing it around and eventually ate it! I was in shock! It was so cool! And in recollecting about that, I remembered one OTHER thing that I forgot to mention yesterday, probably because my brain was fried at the time when I was writing yesterday. Anyways, what I remembered was something that happened at the farmers market that made me realize I was becoming more and more a farmer! I normally wear my cowboy hat for 6 days of the week and wear my baseball cap when we go to the market, but what happened was I kept reaching up to adjust my ball cap, but I was grabbing the crown of my head as though I were trying to palm a basketball rather than adjusting my hat by the bill the way I have done my whole life. But after 10 days of wearing a cowboy hat non stop I have completely converted to adjusting my hat by the top of it where there is an easier hand hold! I guess that actual act of grabbing the top of my head on accident isn't actually that important, but why it stood out to me, and why I feel it is worth writing about is because I do feel profoundly changed after being here for just 10 days, and in more significant ways than just the way I adjust my hats. But I guess that was the first time that my own personal change was obvious to me, because that can be a tricky thing to monitor; personal habits and what not, because we are so close to ourselves our change is almost invisible to us. I guess that's why I was taken by surprise when I had the moment where I thought, "Whoa, I'm changing!" or whatever it was I thought at the time, because those aren't normal moments for us to have, or at least for me to have. Okay, enough introspective philosophy, for now :)

On my return trip from the laundry room/garage I saw some cows out of the pasture so I opened up the gate and herded them back in! It was my first time dealing with the cows but they were pretty easy to manage. I told Jim about it later and he said that those two cows are always getting out because they were born here on the farm and never learned to "respect the fence" as he put it. He only has three wire fence all the way around his pastures where as the other cows he bought from a guy who raises cattle in a 5 wire fence, meaning there are five rows of barbed wire on the fences versus three rows. He said the cattle that grew up here, as babies learn were able to crawl through the fences so now they get out whenever they want, "Those bastards" that's how Jim described it to me. He is a funny guy!

 And then  I was privy to another wonderful display of what I call  "Goats, being Goats." I think if I got enough footage or slide shows, I could take the show on the road.

What's going on here is that there is maybe a half inch layer of grain on the bottom of that bucket, and they all keep fighting for it! I was cracking up at the time because they were just going nuts! Bleating and head butting whoever had their head in the bucket in the bottom. Like I said, Goats, being Goats!

Actually the animals have taught me many things. For example the pigs taught me a lesson about greed. And it wasn't ever a lesson I hadn't heard before, but when the pigs acted it out, it made it a lot clearer of a lesson for me. I normally feed all the pigs first and then Asher, their guard dog, second! But one day I wanted to see what happened if I fed Asher first! Normally the pigs and Asher all rush me when I  have a bucket of food and then they all crowd around the first feeder squealing and hitting each other until they hear or see me fill the next feeder, then the crowd around the first feeder cuts in half as they divide between the two feeders and so on and so forth until all 5 feeders are full and there's about 3 pigs to each feeder. Then semblance of order comes over the field while they all munch away. But the day I fed Asher first, who's dish is farther away from the pig feeders, They all just crowded around him and squealed their heads off,  while he just kept nipping anyone who tried to eat with him on the nose! I quickly realized my experiment could turn into Asher mauling half a dozen pigs so I sprinted over to the pig feeders and filled them all, but no one came, they were all so focused and the tiny pile of dog food, when 20 feet away there was five feeders full of pig food! Their greed blinded them! They were willing to just sit and squeal while getting chomped on the snout rather than recognize the fact that I go out everyday and feed all of them without fail. Now of course I don't hold it against the pigs that they didn't reason through the situation logically, and think, "hmm, the human fed the dog first today, But I can be patient and wait for him to feed me as well." No, not at all, there is a reason the expression "You eat like a pig" is around! They are programmed to see food and chow down as much as possible and as fast as possible before anyone else gets their share. Which I guess works for farming and being a pig, but I don't think that should ever be the mindset of a human community. In the end I guess this whole story amounts to a pretty circuitous way of reinforcing the saying about how greed blinds you to the good that surrounds you! I was grateful to the pigs for showing me this lesson. As for the unfoldment and conclusion of my experiment, I tried shaking the feeders and everything like that to get the pigs attention but to no avail, I eventually had to go forcibly run them off from Asher and his food and herd them in the direction of their food. I apologized to Asher for the whole thing and gave him a little extra food as compensation for the whole ordeal.

Around 11:30 I decided to finally do my dishes and just some general clean up, sweep floors, take out trash, etc. While I was sweeping Tina came by and brought me my mail as well as some fresh melons that some farmer had give them! Yum! In my mail was a knife that I had ordered! It is by Opinel, a french company and its a really simplistic knife but it's really good steel and can be easily sharpened. It was recommended by Jim and he was the second farmer I had met who had one so I figured it must be a good knife!

 I baked some more bread for my sandwiches and packaged up my other knife that I already own to ship back to the manufacturer for sharpening. Then I switched my laundry and swept the breeze way, which is the section of the barn right outside my door which I have to sweep everyday if I don't want a billion barn flies every where. The goats poop there, and the wind blows straw and stuff in there, and the free roaming chickens also poop there. But as I was sweeping today, the goats were all just standing in a pack at the other end watching me clean their poop! I said to them, "why don't you stop staring at me and grab a broom.." but they just kept on staring. That experience reminded me of something that happened a couple of days ago, forgive me for the constant flash backs but since it's my day off and I have lots of time and a fully present mind, I feel a bit like I have to recap all the stuff I wanted to say the past couple days but was to tired to include. Anyhow, a couple days ago, when I was screening compost a border patrol truck just pulled up next to the farm right on the side of the road and watched me for about 30 minutes. At the time I wasn't sure what was going on, and I didn't even know that it was border patrol. When I over heard Jim talking to that one customer about how much he dislikes BP and how sometimes they watch him do chores early in the morning as though he might me an illegal immigrant hired as cheap farm labor, well that was when I put two and two together. So I spoke up and told Jim that, that was what happened to me too and he just shook his head slowly and said, "Well next time they do that, I want you to go over to the truck and politely say, 'I have another pitchfork in the shed, why don't you hope out and spell me for a bit while I sit in your air conditioned truck and watch you break your back to produce good wholesome food' and then if that doesn't make him leave, you come get me!" I said, "Duly noted." and laughed. I was just amazed though that they had actually staked me out for 45 minutes. I was amazed that Americas tax dollars were paying this guys salary to sit there, drink Gatorade, listen to the radio and check me out to see if I was illegally hired labor.

I decided to do my once a month shave today, since I had so much free time on my hands, it seemed like a good thing to do, but it was hard to find a reflective surface, to watch my face in, I ended up just using my phone. It was just another hygienic experience on the farm, with a beautiful Arizona skyline in view, it was very pleasant! I'm enjoying the growing list of outdoor hygienic experiences! Oh and I shaved with my new opinel knife!!

Around 2 I was ready to be productive again so I asked Jim if there was any work I could do. He said I could do some home improvement, by that he meant installing a new counter top in my room! I was stoked! I love building things. So he gave me about 5 minutes of instruction and left me with all the tools, I was on my own from their. It was fairly easy actually. I just screwed the braces into the pre-existing saddle rack, and then using construction glue I fastened blocks onto the bottom of the braces, where they extended beyond the saddle rack. Then I measured out how long I wanted the counter top, made my straight line, made the cut and then carried it in and set it on top. Everything came out pretty level, which is always good! Then I fastened the counter top to the braces from underneath and that was all there was to it! The hardest part of the whole thing was definitely screwing in the far left brace because it was in a corner, and the saddle rack was right in my way. It was just a cramped working space in general, but that was the only bump in the road! See below for pictures.

One of the aspects that I love most about living on a farm is the many opportunities for jobs like this one, whether it's building a counter, screening compost or loading and unloading the truck and trailer for market. Its the kind of task that I can throw my whole arsenal at, mind, body, and soul, and when the job is done, It is only ever done to the absolute best of my ability. Now call it immaturity or whatever you want, but the only time I was ever stimulated like that during school was when I was working in the garden, or out in the forest with the  land stewardship crew. In school the ratio of my fun work to homework was skewed heavily towards homework. I would find my self in class, counting down the seconds until class was dismiss and I got to go mow the lawn in the garden! So it's safe to say that I'm extremely happy now that I am here where I get to work for 8 hours a day, and then to my own personal learning at night if I want to! God bless Jim and Tina! :)

A huge storm blew in right as I was finishing this whole project up! It's incredible to watch those things move over the mountain!

I just got the word from Tina, that my good friend Guy Walker, will be joining me as an intern on October 1st! Hooray!

Dinner tonight was reheated beef mac and tom, and I watched a documentary on the rare qualities of planet earth that make earth livable. Stubbs watched it with me, he was on my lap the whole time! Although he was more focused on my dinner than the movie. Oh and I accidentally had half a loaf of my bread. What happened was, I was carrying it back from the house to my barn, but it was raining out still so I had it under my shirt, and I could just feel its warmth radiating out of it. So I decided I better try a piece while it's still warm, and then I had half the loaf. :)

Ps: I was just joking about shaving with my knife everyone, I used a normal face razor.. :) I hope I got some of you though!