Not a whole lot out of the ordinary has happened over the last five days!
We switched from 13 CSA members to 20 so now we have bigger harvests and longer Saturdays which is when we bag everything into nice packages for them to pick up at Sunday market.
Some clouds rolled in on the morning of 10/24 which marked the end of the record highs for the month of October and started us more towards fall weather. But it still was in the lower 90's for a couple days.
Stubbs has lost his sleep over privileges because a few nights back he mistook my duffle bag for a litter box and left me an abnormally large "present" for a cat his size. It stank something awful and we couldn't find it for about 5 hours. All we knew was that He had either throw up or pooped somewhere in our room. Eventually the smell got strong enough that I was able to follow it with my nose back to it's source, which was my bag.
I disced six fields with the tractor, which is just a step of breaking up the earth before we plant winter forage crops for the cattle. The discing took two full days of bumping a long on the tractor in 4 hour segments. I have grown to like it a lot though! :) maybe I'll start a business where I allow people to drive a tractor for 4 hours straight and then pay me, I'll call it "tractor therapy" or something like that!
Yesterday was kind of a big day, we butchered two goats for some friends of Jim and Tina. It was my first experience with killing and skinning and butchering up the meat into certain cuts. Although Sundog was the one who pulled the trigger on both goats it was pretty intense to be three feet from the goat when it was shot. Because then I hoisted it up by a rope flung over a rafter so it was hanging up side down and then we cut it's throat to bleed it dry. The first introduction to killing was rough because the first goat took three bullets to the head before it died and it was making a racket and bleeding everywhere the whole while that it had the first two bullets in its head. It was kinda hard to watch, but the second goat died immediately and it just felt like a much cleaner kill.
So Sundog showed me how to gut it, skin it and then cut all the meat off the body into usable portions. It was pretty straight forward and it is something I have wanted to learn how to do for a while so I was happy to have the information in my head. He also showed me a "sure fire way to get the ladies" as he took one of the lungs after we had eviscerated the goat and blew into it from the esophagus end causing it to inflate the lungs. It was pretty funny.
After we finished the first goat he killed the second one but I did everything else, it was fairly easy once I had the proper instruction. It made me think of the time in college when I tried skinning a road kill deer that I found, just for practice not really intending to use the hide or any meat. I ended up giving up after 2 hours because I had no idea what I really should be doing and it smelled awful. It was a much more pleasant experience with a proper mentor and a fresh animal.
Sundog put both hides into a freezer bag and stuck them in the freezer so hopefully he will show me how to tan the hides at some point in the future!
All in all despite the first goat killing where it took three bullets, the whole experience was really interesting and I am really glad that I have some more practical knowledge. It may sound morbid or grotesque to some of my readers but I think that it is far from morbid or grotesque. It may be an unfortunate reminder to all of us meat eaters out there that for us to live, other living breathing creatures must die but I think that rather then swearing off meat or anything like that I will probably continue to eat meat, but I definitely have a better mind set about it and be as grateful to the animal that I am eating even if I was not the one to kill it and butcher it. I think the Native Americans were pretty spot on with the way they would say thanks and prayers for animal as they hunted and killed it, as well as while they were eating it.
It is Thursday morning and I am on my "day off" but in an hour I will be heading to another couples house where I will be doing some work and raising some money for Thailand adventures!
If you are curious about the finer details of the goat butcher, or anything, feel free to email me or leave a comment with questions!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Day 44-49: Farm Life goes on. :)
So I last left you guys on the eve of my two "Days Off" working for a man named Alan and his wife Suzanne. They ended up being such great host's and incredibly nice people. Suzanne is a doctor and Alan is a "house husband" who know how to cook up some great stuff! They do medical missionary work in the Solomon Islands twice a year which is really cool I think. Alan let me watch a documentary about them that was made about there trips, the documentary is up for an Emmy nomination. They paid me well and fed me well and all in all it was a successful two day trip! It was also hard resisting their tempting king size bed and hot shower they offered me. I haven't had a hot shower in over a month and a half now, so while there I made sure I took a cold shower so I wouldnt get spoiled! I also opted out the the king sizes suit and pitched my tent, much to the dismay of Alan and Suzanne, as I had originally planned. They were obviously quite confused about why anyone would turn down such luxuries!
After my two "days off" Thursday and Friday, coincidentally enough I got another "day off" on Sunday! By that I mean Guy and I did chores in the morning as usual, and chores in the evening as usual but from 10 till 5 we were on an Ethnobotany Hike through Sycamore Canyon which is south of us. Sundog was our guide and Carla, Artemis and Scott, all friends of Jim and Tina, also accompanied us on the hike! Sundog is extremely knowledgeable about all the different plants in the area and all of there medicinal uses, it was a great hike I learned a lot!
Sundog teaching about the uses of the Agave plant:
As Tina put it, we were a fairly "Motley Crew". It was a fun, odd collection of people! Everyone brought something very unique to the hike! It was also a funny distinction between Guy and I and the rest of the group. Where everyone else was decked out in hiking boots, backpack, wide brimmed hats, with 2 water bottles each and a full packed lunch, Guy and I were in sneakers, with one water bottle each and a bag of peanuts to split that we carried in my drawstring shoe bag. But we did just fine! Ha, I think everyone else just got excited for a big hike, but it ended up being fairly tame!
There was a lovely, but freeezing water hole at the turn around point of the hike.
Sundog set the tone by stripping down to nothing and jumping in, so Scott, Guy and I followed suit! It was extremely cold water to be skinny dipping in, and Scott and Sundog hurried out as soon as they had hurried in. Once again Guy and I stood out from the crowd. We climbed up high onto some over hanging rocks and started jumping off them, it was very fun! Of the two girls, Artemis and Carla, only Artemis went in the water, but she had a swimming suit. Carla later told Tina that it felt like the scene out of the Diseny movie Mulan, where Mulan, who is masquerading as man in the army to save her families honour, finally gets a moment alone from all the men and his having a bath in the river, enjoying the solitude and serenity, when allll the dudes come charging through, naked, and go jumping in the river! It was a pretty accurate analogy I think.
In other news we have had record highs for the month of October this past week, which means by midday it is cooking at around 95 degrees!
Monday I went with Tina to do some errands. We had to dump the trash trailer at the land fill which was extremely depressing. It was my first time at landfill and I had never truly realized that a landfill is literally a mountain of trash. And to be the actual person who was throwing trash bags out on the dirt was an awful feeling.
After the depressing land fill we went to go pick up the new turkey we bought. They were big turkeys and required a fair bit of wrangling! One of them actually clipped me in the mouth with it's wing and made my lip start bleeding, which isn't actually saying a whole lot considering how dry and windy it is here. But still, it was the first time a bird has drawn blood from me!
On Tuesday, 10/18, the first leaves started to fall, it was a cool moment to all of the sudden see cotton wood leaves on the ground and realize that even though it's 95 and it doesn't feel like it, that fall is actually on it's way!
On a similar note, in general I feel much more in tune with the cycles of nature since I have been here. For example, since I beat the sun up every morning I notice the change in time that it rises (as well as sets since I am usually still working then as well). Also I have been watching the phases of the moon ever since I got here and it is fun to notice the change in it's rise time as well! I have no real knowledge of the stars or constellations yet, but it is still fun to gaze at them as well as the milky way! Arizona skies can make you feel quite small, in the best possible way of course!!
Tuesday night Jim broke out the aerial shot of the farm and diagrams and projection charts and gave me and Guy a wonderful big picture reminder/update of where he wants the future of the the farm to be headed. He talked with us for about an hour about different plans he had, some as long term as 10 years off. It was a really great talk though and it definitely rekindled some of my passion for being here. I suppose over the last week or two, I slipped into a bit of a mental rut, feeling like I had "seen and done it all". Which of course is not true, but it is a fairly easy mental trap to fall into, yet fortunately, just as easy to get out of! To be clear, it was never a feeling of boredom or resentment, it was just a feeling of routine, and comfortableness. Which to a certain extent is a good thing, I'm grateful chores feel second nature now, and that I can do them rather quickly, and I'm glad harvesting is really easy and fun for me now as well as weeding and planting. But Jim's talk reminded me that we are making moves and steps towards more and more sustainability and regenerative practices each and every day and that although progress is slow sometimes, it is still progress!
After our great talk to cap off a wonderful evening, Jim gave me the backpack that he had promised me, and Oh My goodness it is the prettiest thing you have ever seen! Although it is about 20 years old and has a bullet hole in it, I love the thing! It is an awesome teal color and I will be most excited to travel around Thailand with this beauty on my back! I tried expressing to Jim how grateful I was in words but in the end all I managed was a moment or two of speechlessness and then many "wows" and "thank yous" as he showed me all the ins and outs of the bag and the nifty things it could do!
The next day, today, was a fun day of electric fence set up for me! I spent all morning weed eating around the perimeter and interior of the the fencing making sure no grass was making contact with the fencing and grounding it out, essentially lessening the shocking power of the fence. It was a good solid 4 hours of weed eating! At one point my spindle at the end of the machine got twisted up in some of the line and I immediately shut off the machine and began to unwind the fencing. It was pretty tangled in there and I ended up spending 2 or 3 minutes getting lightly shocked while trying to untangle the mess! It was a odd sensation in my arms. Similarly, When I switched from the perimeter fencing to the interior, where the electric lines were much lower and closer to the grass I was getting shocked pretty often through the weed eater. I didn't realize it at first though because as anyone who has ever operated a weed eater knows, they come along with a certain amount of numbness and heavy vibrations in the arm. But when I switch to the interior fencing I thought at first that I had been hit with a wave of fatigue because my arms were absolutely numb for the first 20 minutes of it. Then I got smart and realized that the metal head of my weed eater had been conducting electricity into my arms for the last 20 minutes!! Although as I mention, the interior fencing was much lower than the perimeter, so even when I was aware, it was still quite difficult to keep the weed eater in the 5 inch margin between the ground and the electricity, so I still ended up getting shocked quite a bit.
I made a new batch of cheese tonight after milking Missy Moo, it is such a cool feeling to be the one that feeds and waters her, milks her, and then makes delicious cheese and butter (which I made Tuesday night) from it, as well as drinking the milk straight! Such a close connection to that animal!
Well, Tina is going through her final Yoga Teacher Immersion Course so I don't get to do any hired out work over the next two days off, but I will be doing chores tomorrow since Jim needs at least some help while she is gone, as well as going to market with him Friday morning, so the streak of "days off" continues! :)
Feel free to email me or leave a comment with any questions!
After my two "days off" Thursday and Friday, coincidentally enough I got another "day off" on Sunday! By that I mean Guy and I did chores in the morning as usual, and chores in the evening as usual but from 10 till 5 we were on an Ethnobotany Hike through Sycamore Canyon which is south of us. Sundog was our guide and Carla, Artemis and Scott, all friends of Jim and Tina, also accompanied us on the hike! Sundog is extremely knowledgeable about all the different plants in the area and all of there medicinal uses, it was a great hike I learned a lot!
Sundog teaching about the uses of the Agave plant:
As Tina put it, we were a fairly "Motley Crew". It was a fun, odd collection of people! Everyone brought something very unique to the hike! It was also a funny distinction between Guy and I and the rest of the group. Where everyone else was decked out in hiking boots, backpack, wide brimmed hats, with 2 water bottles each and a full packed lunch, Guy and I were in sneakers, with one water bottle each and a bag of peanuts to split that we carried in my drawstring shoe bag. But we did just fine! Ha, I think everyone else just got excited for a big hike, but it ended up being fairly tame!
There was a lovely, but freeezing water hole at the turn around point of the hike.
Sundog set the tone by stripping down to nothing and jumping in, so Scott, Guy and I followed suit! It was extremely cold water to be skinny dipping in, and Scott and Sundog hurried out as soon as they had hurried in. Once again Guy and I stood out from the crowd. We climbed up high onto some over hanging rocks and started jumping off them, it was very fun! Of the two girls, Artemis and Carla, only Artemis went in the water, but she had a swimming suit. Carla later told Tina that it felt like the scene out of the Diseny movie Mulan, where Mulan, who is masquerading as man in the army to save her families honour, finally gets a moment alone from all the men and his having a bath in the river, enjoying the solitude and serenity, when allll the dudes come charging through, naked, and go jumping in the river! It was a pretty accurate analogy I think.
In other news we have had record highs for the month of October this past week, which means by midday it is cooking at around 95 degrees!
Monday I went with Tina to do some errands. We had to dump the trash trailer at the land fill which was extremely depressing. It was my first time at landfill and I had never truly realized that a landfill is literally a mountain of trash. And to be the actual person who was throwing trash bags out on the dirt was an awful feeling.
After the depressing land fill we went to go pick up the new turkey we bought. They were big turkeys and required a fair bit of wrangling! One of them actually clipped me in the mouth with it's wing and made my lip start bleeding, which isn't actually saying a whole lot considering how dry and windy it is here. But still, it was the first time a bird has drawn blood from me!
On Tuesday, 10/18, the first leaves started to fall, it was a cool moment to all of the sudden see cotton wood leaves on the ground and realize that even though it's 95 and it doesn't feel like it, that fall is actually on it's way!
On a similar note, in general I feel much more in tune with the cycles of nature since I have been here. For example, since I beat the sun up every morning I notice the change in time that it rises (as well as sets since I am usually still working then as well). Also I have been watching the phases of the moon ever since I got here and it is fun to notice the change in it's rise time as well! I have no real knowledge of the stars or constellations yet, but it is still fun to gaze at them as well as the milky way! Arizona skies can make you feel quite small, in the best possible way of course!!
Tuesday night Jim broke out the aerial shot of the farm and diagrams and projection charts and gave me and Guy a wonderful big picture reminder/update of where he wants the future of the the farm to be headed. He talked with us for about an hour about different plans he had, some as long term as 10 years off. It was a really great talk though and it definitely rekindled some of my passion for being here. I suppose over the last week or two, I slipped into a bit of a mental rut, feeling like I had "seen and done it all". Which of course is not true, but it is a fairly easy mental trap to fall into, yet fortunately, just as easy to get out of! To be clear, it was never a feeling of boredom or resentment, it was just a feeling of routine, and comfortableness. Which to a certain extent is a good thing, I'm grateful chores feel second nature now, and that I can do them rather quickly, and I'm glad harvesting is really easy and fun for me now as well as weeding and planting. But Jim's talk reminded me that we are making moves and steps towards more and more sustainability and regenerative practices each and every day and that although progress is slow sometimes, it is still progress!
After our great talk to cap off a wonderful evening, Jim gave me the backpack that he had promised me, and Oh My goodness it is the prettiest thing you have ever seen! Although it is about 20 years old and has a bullet hole in it, I love the thing! It is an awesome teal color and I will be most excited to travel around Thailand with this beauty on my back! I tried expressing to Jim how grateful I was in words but in the end all I managed was a moment or two of speechlessness and then many "wows" and "thank yous" as he showed me all the ins and outs of the bag and the nifty things it could do!
The next day, today, was a fun day of electric fence set up for me! I spent all morning weed eating around the perimeter and interior of the the fencing making sure no grass was making contact with the fencing and grounding it out, essentially lessening the shocking power of the fence. It was a good solid 4 hours of weed eating! At one point my spindle at the end of the machine got twisted up in some of the line and I immediately shut off the machine and began to unwind the fencing. It was pretty tangled in there and I ended up spending 2 or 3 minutes getting lightly shocked while trying to untangle the mess! It was a odd sensation in my arms. Similarly, When I switched from the perimeter fencing to the interior, where the electric lines were much lower and closer to the grass I was getting shocked pretty often through the weed eater. I didn't realize it at first though because as anyone who has ever operated a weed eater knows, they come along with a certain amount of numbness and heavy vibrations in the arm. But when I switch to the interior fencing I thought at first that I had been hit with a wave of fatigue because my arms were absolutely numb for the first 20 minutes of it. Then I got smart and realized that the metal head of my weed eater had been conducting electricity into my arms for the last 20 minutes!! Although as I mention, the interior fencing was much lower than the perimeter, so even when I was aware, it was still quite difficult to keep the weed eater in the 5 inch margin between the ground and the electricity, so I still ended up getting shocked quite a bit.
I made a new batch of cheese tonight after milking Missy Moo, it is such a cool feeling to be the one that feeds and waters her, milks her, and then makes delicious cheese and butter (which I made Tuesday night) from it, as well as drinking the milk straight! Such a close connection to that animal!
Well, Tina is going through her final Yoga Teacher Immersion Course so I don't get to do any hired out work over the next two days off, but I will be doing chores tomorrow since Jim needs at least some help while she is gone, as well as going to market with him Friday morning, so the streak of "days off" continues! :)
Feel free to email me or leave a comment with any questions!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Day 39-43: Farm life :)
Wow what a long, fun, intense couple of days!!
Tonight is the night before my day off, but I'm actually going to go work tomorrow off the farm to make some cash for Thailand. I'll be driven their by Tina tomorrow morning, work all day, pitch a tent in the back yard for the night and then work all of Friday when they will take me back to the farm at the end of today. All that being said, this will still be a fairly short post since I actually have no days off this week.
We got our milk cow, her name is Missy Moo, she is fairly gentle but can be painful if she steps on your foot! Also she as horns that she will accidentally bonk you in the head with while you try to clip the lead rope into her halter.
We also had a frost a couple of nights which damaged a good amount of our crops because the weather only said 40 degrees so we didn't put out row covers, this also meant the last couple of days chores have been literally in freezing weather.
We traded a raw foodist $200 of raw beef for is beef smoothies (seriously), for 3 gallons of raw honey because he is a bee keeper. The honey is the best thing I have ever had especially when mixed with hot milk that is as whole as it can be, often times with a layer of cream just resting naturally on top.
On the drive to and from Sunday market, Me, Jim and Guy had some really good talks. Jim is incredibly knowledgeable about other religions and it was fun to pick is brain about that. He also said that Tom Cruise picked him up one time when he was hitch hiking through some city in California, he said Tom Cruise tried getting him to be a Scientologist. That Sunday started at 4am and I didn't go to sleep till 12am so I was up for about 20 hours!
Oh and I made sure to take a picture of my blueberry muffin this week so you guys could see it. It's about the size of a softball!
Over the next couple of days, Monday and Tuesday, I was on the tractor all day. I logged about 16 hours of tractor time and feel quite comfortable up there. I was mowing all the pasture so that we can plant our winter cover crop of alfalfa. While walking out to the tractor one day I had to go through the middle of a herd of cattle and felt quite small and vulnerable, if any of them wanted to they could have trampled me. Later on when I was in the tractor trying to mow a field they were grazing, the roles were reverse and I had to make sure I didn't snap any legs on accident with one wrong twitch of my foot on the clutch. The power of diesel and hydraulics completely turned the tables. It was an interesting glimpse into the human temptation of not wanting to feel vulnerable to nature.
Bull getting frisky:
Wednesday it got to 95 degrees and it was the day we were trenching alllll day! We started chores at 5am and then Jim went to town to rent the "Ditch Witch". We trenched about 3,000 feet of earth, thank god for the Trencher otherwise that would have been an insurmountable task for 3 people. I personally hand dug about 200 feet of trench, it was just when I had to follow behind the machine and clean up areas it didn't get or when we were crossing a potential electric line or water line that Jim didn't want to risk hitting with the trenching saw.
For Dinner tonight Tina showed Guy and I how to marinate some meat and then slow cook it in the crockpot. We marinated two packs of Walking J short ribs, and we through in a Walking J round roast to split. We let it marinate over night, and then stuck in the slow cooker first thing this morning, it was sooooo good! The fat was actually my favorite part of the meat which is odd because normally I don't like fat at all.
To end things on a beautiful note, here is a sunset that occurred with a full moon next to it. Gorgeous!
Goodnight everyone!
We got our milk cow, her name is Missy Moo, she is fairly gentle but can be painful if she steps on your foot! Also she as horns that she will accidentally bonk you in the head with while you try to clip the lead rope into her halter.
We also had a frost a couple of nights which damaged a good amount of our crops because the weather only said 40 degrees so we didn't put out row covers, this also meant the last couple of days chores have been literally in freezing weather.
We traded a raw foodist $200 of raw beef for is beef smoothies (seriously), for 3 gallons of raw honey because he is a bee keeper. The honey is the best thing I have ever had especially when mixed with hot milk that is as whole as it can be, often times with a layer of cream just resting naturally on top.
On the drive to and from Sunday market, Me, Jim and Guy had some really good talks. Jim is incredibly knowledgeable about other religions and it was fun to pick is brain about that. He also said that Tom Cruise picked him up one time when he was hitch hiking through some city in California, he said Tom Cruise tried getting him to be a Scientologist. That Sunday started at 4am and I didn't go to sleep till 12am so I was up for about 20 hours!
Oh and I made sure to take a picture of my blueberry muffin this week so you guys could see it. It's about the size of a softball!
Over the next couple of days, Monday and Tuesday, I was on the tractor all day. I logged about 16 hours of tractor time and feel quite comfortable up there. I was mowing all the pasture so that we can plant our winter cover crop of alfalfa. While walking out to the tractor one day I had to go through the middle of a herd of cattle and felt quite small and vulnerable, if any of them wanted to they could have trampled me. Later on when I was in the tractor trying to mow a field they were grazing, the roles were reverse and I had to make sure I didn't snap any legs on accident with one wrong twitch of my foot on the clutch. The power of diesel and hydraulics completely turned the tables. It was an interesting glimpse into the human temptation of not wanting to feel vulnerable to nature.
Bull getting frisky:
Wednesday it got to 95 degrees and it was the day we were trenching alllll day! We started chores at 5am and then Jim went to town to rent the "Ditch Witch". We trenched about 3,000 feet of earth, thank god for the Trencher otherwise that would have been an insurmountable task for 3 people. I personally hand dug about 200 feet of trench, it was just when I had to follow behind the machine and clean up areas it didn't get or when we were crossing a potential electric line or water line that Jim didn't want to risk hitting with the trenching saw.
To end things on a beautiful note, here is a sunset that occurred with a full moon next to it. Gorgeous!
Goodnight everyone!
Friday, October 7, 2011
Day 34-38: Day off!
The last couple of days were fun, but hard! I have begun to notice some more shifts that show my month of experience is starting to pay off. Firstly, the other morning the goats got out of there pen before I was ready to let them out, and instead of chasing them around like I used to do. I was able to properly command Cristos and I got him to round them up for me! It was a cool moment! Another exciting thing about my month of being here is the progress I see in my hands. Let me start by telling a story from Jim. He was working on a ranch when he was about my age. The rancher he worked for was a really hard core, tough old dude, and although Jim never complained to him, his co-workers did. They would complain about how the fencing they were putting up was to splintery and rough on there hands and wanted the old rancher to buy them some leather gloves. His response was, "Leather costs, money, you can grow more skin for free." and that was the end of it! Jim told me this story after he had bought me some gloves, and although he bought me them, I still have gotten much tougher hands because I don't use the gloves a much as I could. While I was working with some really splintery wood I got about 4 or 5 splinters which are actually still in my hands right now but they are shallow enough that I don't feel them thanks to all the tough skin I have developed since I have been here.
On Thursday I was off the farm all day with Jim and the kids. We had to go to the butcher and packing house to pick up the steer that Tina dropped off. While we were their, Jim was in the trailer organizing the freezers and putting the beef in them while I shuttled to beef to him from the big freezer. While Jim was in the trailer the butcher came around the corner and gave me a weird look. "Umm, can I help you?" If I had been paying attention I would have been able to tell by her tone that she thought I was up to trouble. "Sorry, what?" I didn't hear her that well at first. She was wearing a revolver on her hip and pulled her jacket up over it to make sure I got a good look at it and repeated, "I said, can I help you!?" I caught on to her accusatory tone this time and realized she thought I was robbing her or something, she obviously didn't know who I was. I wasn't sure of what to do, I had never been threatened by a female butcher with a gun before, "Uhh, Jim?" I called into the trailer, he came forward and poked his head out. "OH my gosh, haha, you scared me, I didn't recognize your helper, I thought I was being robbed!" She patted her gun re assuringly, "Good thing I'm always armed though." She smiled at me. I found out later from Jim that she is the only female butcher to complete her butchering school or whatever it's called, in the state of Arizona.
I ended up working the majority of the market myself Thursday night which was interesting! It shows a lot of trust on Jim's part which I think is a good thing!
Today was my day off, but, since Tina is in Canada right now, Guy had to go with Jim to market, so Jim could watch the kids, same reason I went with him to market last night! So I was all alone at the farm which meant I had to do chores in the morning. While doing chores I was listening to music and singing at the top of my lungs again like I did around day 5 of being here when I was on the farm all alone. It was a good morning of cruising in the Golf cart and singing to the animals all of my favorite songs. When I was watering the turkeys, a song by Temper Trap came on and their lead singer has a pretty high voice, so to keep up with him, I switched to my falsetto range. I guess the turkey's didn't like it because they started gobbling and making a whole bunch of racket when I was singing. I stopped at first and looked at them, they got quiet and looked right back, then I started singing again, and they started making a bunch of noise again! It was pretty funny!
After chores I was feeling lazy after yesterday's easy day of driving around, and today being my day off, so I went for a run, and ended up doing an 8 mile run, which is twice as far as I have ever run in my life! I just set off in the beginning of the run telling myself I would go till I got tired and then turn around. But I just didn't really get tired. I turned around eventually because I realized I was very dehydrated, all I had, had to drink since 8 o'clock the night before was a small cup of coffee. So I turned around and headed home, it was cool not really getting tired!
That's all for now!
On Thursday I was off the farm all day with Jim and the kids. We had to go to the butcher and packing house to pick up the steer that Tina dropped off. While we were their, Jim was in the trailer organizing the freezers and putting the beef in them while I shuttled to beef to him from the big freezer. While Jim was in the trailer the butcher came around the corner and gave me a weird look. "Umm, can I help you?" If I had been paying attention I would have been able to tell by her tone that she thought I was up to trouble. "Sorry, what?" I didn't hear her that well at first. She was wearing a revolver on her hip and pulled her jacket up over it to make sure I got a good look at it and repeated, "I said, can I help you!?" I caught on to her accusatory tone this time and realized she thought I was robbing her or something, she obviously didn't know who I was. I wasn't sure of what to do, I had never been threatened by a female butcher with a gun before, "Uhh, Jim?" I called into the trailer, he came forward and poked his head out. "OH my gosh, haha, you scared me, I didn't recognize your helper, I thought I was being robbed!" She patted her gun re assuringly, "Good thing I'm always armed though." She smiled at me. I found out later from Jim that she is the only female butcher to complete her butchering school or whatever it's called, in the state of Arizona.
I ended up working the majority of the market myself Thursday night which was interesting! It shows a lot of trust on Jim's part which I think is a good thing!
Today was my day off, but, since Tina is in Canada right now, Guy had to go with Jim to market, so Jim could watch the kids, same reason I went with him to market last night! So I was all alone at the farm which meant I had to do chores in the morning. While doing chores I was listening to music and singing at the top of my lungs again like I did around day 5 of being here when I was on the farm all alone. It was a good morning of cruising in the Golf cart and singing to the animals all of my favorite songs. When I was watering the turkeys, a song by Temper Trap came on and their lead singer has a pretty high voice, so to keep up with him, I switched to my falsetto range. I guess the turkey's didn't like it because they started gobbling and making a whole bunch of racket when I was singing. I stopped at first and looked at them, they got quiet and looked right back, then I started singing again, and they started making a bunch of noise again! It was pretty funny!
After chores I was feeling lazy after yesterday's easy day of driving around, and today being my day off, so I went for a run, and ended up doing an 8 mile run, which is twice as far as I have ever run in my life! I just set off in the beginning of the run telling myself I would go till I got tired and then turn around. But I just didn't really get tired. I turned around eventually because I realized I was very dehydrated, all I had, had to drink since 8 o'clock the night before was a small cup of coffee. So I turned around and headed home, it was cool not really getting tired!
That's all for now!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Day 33: Windy Day!
I beat my alarm this morning but didn't feel like starting chores with out Guy, so I laid awake in bed for about 20 minutes watching the window go from black to a dark shade of blueish gray. By the time I was up, around 5:30 the sky was still a deep blue and I could still make out a few stars. The sun was up, but still behind the mountains so there was ambient morning light coming out of the the east. It was a very chilly morning, and I got to wear one of my favorite sweaters. I have been here for over a month now I still am amazed by the natural beauty around me. Each period of the day brings with it new things to love! In the mornings its cool crisp air and sunrises, in the hot heat of the day it's bright blue expansive skies, with clear mountains in the distance and the occasional breeze that reminds you fall is coming. Then in the evening it is a perfect temperature and the sunsets are always gorgeous.
Breakfast was as delicious as yesterday, and very peaceful. Guy and I are able to pass hours talking about fun subjects, but are just as capable to not say a word for over an hour and not feel awkward. He is a good roommate because he understands that I love my solitude and he enjoys his just as much! .
From 8:30 to twelve I was weeding in the garden, it was a good block of solitude to just work hard and think. While weeding the saying about a banker doesn't need to know what every type of counterfiet money looks like, just what one real dollar looks like. Same when for me, as long as something didn't look like lettuce or spinach, I pulled it. It was strange though, as I was weeding, My mind got freed up and I just tried keeping it fairly blank and let thoughts come to me, rather than trying to think about something. What came to me was an odd collection of moments out of my childhood. Things I haven't thought about since they happened, but I obviously still remember. One example is when I started crying during the movie "The Never ending story" when the main character's horse gets pulled into quicksand and the protagonist can't save him. I have no idea why that memory decided to surface today, but it did!
We broke for lunch right as the wind was picking up and had another good hour of each of us doing our own thing. I researched tents and backpacks for my time in Thailand, while he read a book!
The afternoon was incredibly windy! The day averaged 15-20 miles an hour pretty constantly, and then peak around 30 probably. If I didn't have both feet planted during those gusts, it would have knocked me over!
After lunch we were in the garden pulling old corn stalks, trellising beans and pruning back squash plants. It was a full afternoon of work. We worked non stop till about 4, right as we sat down for a rest outside the tepee, Jim pulled around the corner in the truck. Guy and I both were amused at how the timing of things like that always seem to work out. After 3 and a half hours of solid work, the boss comes around the corner when we had literally been sitting for not even 30 seconds.
We had a little work left to finish up before chores and we decided to just blitz it and get it done! Chores went by in regular fashion, and then the chicken round up at sundown.
I got an email today that said my WWOOF.com account has expired today, which means it was exactly 1 year today that I started my search for an organic farm to work at! It's kind of a cool feeling to look back and see the progress I have made in a year!
Well, it's been a month of non-stop posting, and thus far everything I have written I felt would be of some level of interest to people, as well as an enjoyable process for me! I feel though that the subject matter is starting to be repetitiveness, even though each day is still very fun and fresh for me. That being said, I will be decreasing the frequency of my posts, and really only capture the coolest of the cool happenings!
Breakfast was as delicious as yesterday, and very peaceful. Guy and I are able to pass hours talking about fun subjects, but are just as capable to not say a word for over an hour and not feel awkward. He is a good roommate because he understands that I love my solitude and he enjoys his just as much! .
From 8:30 to twelve I was weeding in the garden, it was a good block of solitude to just work hard and think. While weeding the saying about a banker doesn't need to know what every type of counterfiet money looks like, just what one real dollar looks like. Same when for me, as long as something didn't look like lettuce or spinach, I pulled it. It was strange though, as I was weeding, My mind got freed up and I just tried keeping it fairly blank and let thoughts come to me, rather than trying to think about something. What came to me was an odd collection of moments out of my childhood. Things I haven't thought about since they happened, but I obviously still remember. One example is when I started crying during the movie "The Never ending story" when the main character's horse gets pulled into quicksand and the protagonist can't save him. I have no idea why that memory decided to surface today, but it did!
We broke for lunch right as the wind was picking up and had another good hour of each of us doing our own thing. I researched tents and backpacks for my time in Thailand, while he read a book!
The afternoon was incredibly windy! The day averaged 15-20 miles an hour pretty constantly, and then peak around 30 probably. If I didn't have both feet planted during those gusts, it would have knocked me over!
After lunch we were in the garden pulling old corn stalks, trellising beans and pruning back squash plants. It was a full afternoon of work. We worked non stop till about 4, right as we sat down for a rest outside the tepee, Jim pulled around the corner in the truck. Guy and I both were amused at how the timing of things like that always seem to work out. After 3 and a half hours of solid work, the boss comes around the corner when we had literally been sitting for not even 30 seconds.
We had a little work left to finish up before chores and we decided to just blitz it and get it done! Chores went by in regular fashion, and then the chicken round up at sundown.
I got an email today that said my WWOOF.com account has expired today, which means it was exactly 1 year today that I started my search for an organic farm to work at! It's kind of a cool feeling to look back and see the progress I have made in a year!
Well, it's been a month of non-stop posting, and thus far everything I have written I felt would be of some level of interest to people, as well as an enjoyable process for me! I feel though that the subject matter is starting to be repetitiveness, even though each day is still very fun and fresh for me. That being said, I will be decreasing the frequency of my posts, and really only capture the coolest of the cool happenings!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Day 32: Farm life :)
Believe it or not, I got used to sleeping on the futon, I actually miss it. Being up on the bunk isn't that bad, except it's to big. I feel like I'm sprawled over a king size bed, but it's just a twin. Compared to the to two foot and a half foot width of the futon though, it feels king size. I am much more aware of myself moving around at night, and I always wake up huddled against the wall. Not to mention climbing down that 10 foot ladder at 5:30am, that its a whole other adventure!
Guy and I both woke had set alarms for 5:30 but we both kept "snoozing" them until around 5:50, it was a bit of a late night last night. We did chores as usual. I'm still showing Guy the ropes, he is picking it up pretty quick though! When moving chicken tractors Jim came out and we split up the laying hens into two seperate pens so that they'll stop plucking eachothers feathers out. This batch of laying hens weren't brood mates as chicks so they never really got a chance to establish a pecking order. We also through a young rooster in each pen in hopes that they help bring about some order in the cages. Although Jim doesn't have too much hope for the young roosters, "What'll most likely happen is the old hens won't take well to a new young rooster and they'll just beat is ass." So stay tuned for more news on the fate of the two roosters!
After chores we took breakfast, I finally got some granola and yogurt which is nice because I was getting tired of oatmeal! The other good thing about the granola is there is no cooking necessary, and not a huge clean up either. I also through some pomegranate in the mixture, it was really tasty!
After breakfast Guy and I both mucked out the goat stalls for about three hours, as well as doing some clean up around the barn, running stuff to the "Bone Pile and other miscellanous tasks!
After Lunch we were in the garden for some harvesting work untill 3:30 when we had a mandatory Yoga session with Tina! It was a lot of fun, and actually good yoga since Tina is an actual teacher! It was me, Jim and Guy in a line with her at the front instructing us, it was a hard 90 minutes and afterwards we were late for chores (Which I just did in my Yoga outfit of spandex and nothing else), and we still had some harvesting to do. The work day didn't really end until 6:45 ish.
Guy and I worked out and showered, and then started cooking dinner. I handled the sauce, while Guy made coffee and rice. We get all the reject produce that customers don't want, and then Tina and Jim don't want. So interns are one tier above the pigs on the order of food hand-me downs. I chopped up a bunch of tomatoes
for the base of the sauce, then I threw in some onions and garlic, sea salt, and a bell pepper. When the sauce was done we fried up some okra and eggplant which was delish because it all went over top the rice!
It's gets really hot in our room with the stove going, so I was sweating pretty profusely while cooking! That's always an interesting thing when you sweat right after showering. We also have about 50 flies in our room!
I tried going to bed earlier tonight but it looks like I'm just going to have to get used to going a little later!
Guy and I both woke had set alarms for 5:30 but we both kept "snoozing" them until around 5:50, it was a bit of a late night last night. We did chores as usual. I'm still showing Guy the ropes, he is picking it up pretty quick though! When moving chicken tractors Jim came out and we split up the laying hens into two seperate pens so that they'll stop plucking eachothers feathers out. This batch of laying hens weren't brood mates as chicks so they never really got a chance to establish a pecking order. We also through a young rooster in each pen in hopes that they help bring about some order in the cages. Although Jim doesn't have too much hope for the young roosters, "What'll most likely happen is the old hens won't take well to a new young rooster and they'll just beat is ass." So stay tuned for more news on the fate of the two roosters!
After chores we took breakfast, I finally got some granola and yogurt which is nice because I was getting tired of oatmeal! The other good thing about the granola is there is no cooking necessary, and not a huge clean up either. I also through some pomegranate in the mixture, it was really tasty!
After breakfast Guy and I both mucked out the goat stalls for about three hours, as well as doing some clean up around the barn, running stuff to the "Bone Pile and other miscellanous tasks!
After Lunch we were in the garden for some harvesting work untill 3:30 when we had a mandatory Yoga session with Tina! It was a lot of fun, and actually good yoga since Tina is an actual teacher! It was me, Jim and Guy in a line with her at the front instructing us, it was a hard 90 minutes and afterwards we were late for chores (Which I just did in my Yoga outfit of spandex and nothing else), and we still had some harvesting to do. The work day didn't really end until 6:45 ish.
Guy and I worked out and showered, and then started cooking dinner. I handled the sauce, while Guy made coffee and rice. We get all the reject produce that customers don't want, and then Tina and Jim don't want. So interns are one tier above the pigs on the order of food hand-me downs. I chopped up a bunch of tomatoes
for the base of the sauce, then I threw in some onions and garlic, sea salt, and a bell pepper. When the sauce was done we fried up some okra and eggplant which was delish because it all went over top the rice!
It's gets really hot in our room with the stove going, so I was sweating pretty profusely while cooking! That's always an interesting thing when you sweat right after showering. We also have about 50 flies in our room!
I tried going to bed earlier tonight but it looks like I'm just going to have to get used to going a little later!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Day 31: Relaxing day off!
Today was a good day off, a nice restful day off of sleeping and eating, as well as a little celebrating. I slept late, till 7 am, then I cooked up my breakfast of eggs and pancakes, when I was sufficiently full I went back to bed. It is such a nice feeling to lay around and do nothing for the first time in few weeks.
I did some educational reading, some creative writing, as well as a little drawing, here is the end result:
I drew until I smelled smoke. I went to check it out and remembered that it was Maggie's Big party! It was a lot of fun, good food, fun people and lots of throwing little kids in the pool!
When it was time for cake, Tina brought me, Guy, and Jim some pieces. "Oh, thanks Tina!" said Guy.
"Thanks sweetie." said Jim.
"Thanks sweetie." said I. and then, WHACK!
Jim happened to be holding a coiled lasso in his hand and used it to whack me! But he was laughing as he did, it was a well timed joke I think.
Tina said, "That's thank you Ma'am to you mister!" also laughing. I have gotten pretty close with both of them which is fun
After the party and everything Guy and I did chores, he is still learning the ropes otherwise I would have been in the room continuing to relax! After rounding up the chickens Tina came by to work out a days off schedule for us so that I could begin the process of raising money for Thailand. Also it is worth mentioning that I talked to Sundog today at the party and I am hopefully be going out to his place in Arivaca, the near by artist's community and spend a day off or two learning some primitive living skills like hunting or trapping which would be really cool!
Today was really my last relaxing day off from here on out I think, for the rest of the time here I will either be doing work for other people to raise money or having enriching days at Sundog's place.
It's been a short couple of post's these last two days but things have gotten busier with Guy here, but it's fun having a roommate besides Stubs! Hopefully as our routine smooths out and things get back on schedule with the normal work weeks I'll be able to get back into a better routine with my posting!
Some updates on the workings of the farm:
-Asher has killed a couple of the chickens in their with him so we moved him from the piglet/chicken pasture to the two sows pasture.
-Tina put a down payment on a milk cow yesterday, so we will be getting a milk cow on Wednesday which means she will be milked twice a day, which means Guy and I will be milking her.
-The turnips Jim and I planted a couple weeks ago will be ready for harvest by this Saturday
-The Summer CSA share ends next week and we start the Fall season
That's all for now!
I did some educational reading, some creative writing, as well as a little drawing, here is the end result:
I drew until I smelled smoke. I went to check it out and remembered that it was Maggie's Big party! It was a lot of fun, good food, fun people and lots of throwing little kids in the pool!
When it was time for cake, Tina brought me, Guy, and Jim some pieces. "Oh, thanks Tina!" said Guy.
"Thanks sweetie." said Jim.
"Thanks sweetie." said I. and then, WHACK!
Jim happened to be holding a coiled lasso in his hand and used it to whack me! But he was laughing as he did, it was a well timed joke I think.
Tina said, "That's thank you Ma'am to you mister!" also laughing. I have gotten pretty close with both of them which is fun
After the party and everything Guy and I did chores, he is still learning the ropes otherwise I would have been in the room continuing to relax! After rounding up the chickens Tina came by to work out a days off schedule for us so that I could begin the process of raising money for Thailand. Also it is worth mentioning that I talked to Sundog today at the party and I am hopefully be going out to his place in Arivaca, the near by artist's community and spend a day off or two learning some primitive living skills like hunting or trapping which would be really cool!
Today was really my last relaxing day off from here on out I think, for the rest of the time here I will either be doing work for other people to raise money or having enriching days at Sundog's place.
It's been a short couple of post's these last two days but things have gotten busier with Guy here, but it's fun having a roommate besides Stubs! Hopefully as our routine smooths out and things get back on schedule with the normal work weeks I'll be able to get back into a better routine with my posting!
Some updates on the workings of the farm:
-Asher has killed a couple of the chickens in their with him so we moved him from the piglet/chicken pasture to the two sows pasture.
-Tina put a down payment on a milk cow yesterday, so we will be getting a milk cow on Wednesday which means she will be milked twice a day, which means Guy and I will be milking her.
-The turnips Jim and I planted a couple weeks ago will be ready for harvest by this Saturday
-The Summer CSA share ends next week and we start the Fall season
That's all for now!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Day 30: Guy's Arrival!
This morning started early again, I keep waking up before my alarm goes off and just end up starting chores. It was unusually warm out, and there were thick clouds everywhere. While I was moving the chicken tractors, one of the Laying Hens was dead. So I had to carry her to the edge of the property and chuck her in the woods.
I have been slowly feeling a change in my mind, that is to say, the way my mind operates when I'm not actively engaging it. Since most of my chores don't require intense thinking, my mind is allowed to wander, this is part of why farming is perfect for me, because I love to let my mind wander. I think that most people do like to let their mind wander but find it difficult to find times where it's allowed to wander. I find my mind regressing, and I mean that in the best possible way! I have found that my mind is starting to be more childlike, more creative and imaginative.
For breakfast I had more raw eggs and a pomegranate! Here is a picture of the pomegranate that I picked apart!
I realized something about my life today, part of why I am so happy here. For so long I remember telling my dad that I just wanted to focus on the basics of life! You know, the key components that we absolutley require to stay alive, water, sleep and food! I would tell my dad, "Those things are the building blocks of healthy lifestyle, yet into day's busy life I feel like all get shunted to the back burner because I'm always focusing on some other commitments I have." I finally realized today that I am focusing on the basics and it feel so good!
Guy arrived around 11 it was fun to see him! I gave him the tour of the farm and we saw a horned toad along the way!
then we settled in a little in our room. It's going to be pretty tight quarters in this room. After we settled in we went back to work preparing for tommorow's market. It was a busy day, and a late dinner.
I have been slowly feeling a change in my mind, that is to say, the way my mind operates when I'm not actively engaging it. Since most of my chores don't require intense thinking, my mind is allowed to wander, this is part of why farming is perfect for me, because I love to let my mind wander. I think that most people do like to let their mind wander but find it difficult to find times where it's allowed to wander. I find my mind regressing, and I mean that in the best possible way! I have found that my mind is starting to be more childlike, more creative and imaginative.
For breakfast I had more raw eggs and a pomegranate! Here is a picture of the pomegranate that I picked apart!
I realized something about my life today, part of why I am so happy here. For so long I remember telling my dad that I just wanted to focus on the basics of life! You know, the key components that we absolutley require to stay alive, water, sleep and food! I would tell my dad, "Those things are the building blocks of healthy lifestyle, yet into day's busy life I feel like all get shunted to the back burner because I'm always focusing on some other commitments I have." I finally realized today that I am focusing on the basics and it feel so good!
Guy arrived around 11 it was fun to see him! I gave him the tour of the farm and we saw a horned toad along the way!
then we settled in a little in our room. It's going to be pretty tight quarters in this room. After we settled in we went back to work preparing for tommorow's market. It was a busy day, and a late dinner.
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