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| Meeting the kids |
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| Trying to keep track of two is tough |
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| Still trying to find food |
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| Meeting JuJu |
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| I got to help dry this little guy off right after he was born. |
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| He keeps yelling and sticking out his tongue as far as possible |
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Babies!!!!
Milking again this morning. Getting a little better at it, it's pretty relaxing when I do get it right. After that picked weeds for a while and then helped with the afternoon feeding. Today was the first time I collected eggs, had to move the chickens and check around after them. Carrying back the eggs I really felt like a farm girl. Not sure why the milking and goat care hadn't, go figure... Now I just need to get some overalls. Had a pretty easy afternoon, just went and said hi to all the animals, especially the dogs. Unfortunately I went to see the puppies after petting their mom for a while. Bad idea. They started squeaking and running around because I think they smelled her. Oops. After that though things got pretty excited. I was walking by the pen with the soon-to-be moms and noticed one up against a wall, not looking so good. I had one of the other girls nearby come look at her and she said the goat was in labor! About 20 minutes later two little goats were born! I got to watch the whole thing which was incredible. Not as bloody as I thought it would be and the goat didn't even make any noise. She was a champ. The babies started trying to walk within minutes of being born. 10 minutes later and they really had the hang of it. Learning how to feed wasn't nearly as easy. Probably took 30 minutes and lots of trying before they finally found a teat. And then the second try took a little effort too. We get to name the babies and because the mama is Dallas, the boys will be Aberdeen and Arlin (spelling?), two other Texas cities. They get to stay with their mom for 3-4 days and then they'll be separated with the other newest baby and bottle fed 4 times a day.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Living the Farm Life
Day 2 and I got around to taking more pictures (and I'm sure there will be plenty more to come). First thing in the morning I was on the milking shift. We herded the ladies into the milking room where we milked them four at a time. The milking part was easy once you got the hang of it. It's really all of the cleaning before and after that takes the most time. Once the milking is finished you have to wait 2 hours and in that time the milk has to get below 40F or we can't sell it. During the down time I was just able to relax since I knew my tasks later in the day would take up plenty of time. After the 2 hours were up we checked the temperature of the milk and poured it into bottles. Seriously took 15 minutes.
Next up: canning peaches! I've never canned before since I thought it was a pretty involved process. It does take some time, but not as much as I thought especially with 5 of us working on it. My job was to dunk the peaches in hot water to help take the skin off, apparently they just taste better without the skin. They get sliced up and then sugar water is added to fill the jars. We made 45 jars in 3 hours, not too bad.
After the marathon canning I had some more down time until the evening feeding. All the animals get fed except for the alpacas, they can still graze in their pasture. Had one mishap when the teens' gate got left open to the barn and they made a bee line straight for the hay piles. Managed to drag them back into their pen where they had their appropriate portion of food.
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| Pen C - the waiting room for milking |
Next up: canning peaches! I've never canned before since I thought it was a pretty involved process. It does take some time, but not as much as I thought especially with 5 of us working on it. My job was to dunk the peaches in hot water to help take the skin off, apparently they just taste better without the skin. They get sliced up and then sugar water is added to fill the jars. We made 45 jars in 3 hours, not too bad.
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| Their favorite place to hang out right in the shade |
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| When you need a better view |
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| This soon to be mama is ready to pop |
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| Sometimes you get a whole herd following you |
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| You gonna feed me yet? |
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| Our littlest baby and her mama |
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| My morning greeting! I love saying hi to these dogs every time I head to the RV |
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| Also get to walk by the bucks. Not as excited by that since one of them will pee on people. Apparently they get incredibly gross in the fall - breeding season. |
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| Chuck and Kramer |
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| The chickens, one just had 7 chicks! Have to get a picture of them |
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| The garden area and the RV |
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| Some preteens cuddling |
Meeting the Goats
First day working on the farm, assigned to AM feeding and afternoon chores and water. With 11 wwoofers currently at the farm, I guess the schedule and ways of organizing everyone keeps changing. Eventually I think I'll get it (somewhat) figured out. Basically you have to work 6 hours a day - huge change from last year - so it's the shifts you're assigned to plus odd projects.
Morning feeding involves giving a certain type of hay - local, alfalfa, or orchard - to all of the animals plus dog food for the dogs. The babies get bottle fed which is extremely cute. They all come running out of their house and the play around you/try to get to the bottles while you feed them one by one. One, Pistachio, loves being held. He'll jump on you till you pick him up and then he just lays there, happy as a clam. He's the goat version of Riley, and about as small. Later on baby chicks were found in the babies' pen. Tiny little things, and all different colors. One even has a black body with a bright yellow face. Huge hit with everyone on the farm.
For the afternoon chores we cleaned some water buckets, mucked out a stall, and watered the animals. Also saw a bit of the milking process which I'll be doing tomorrow. After all of that I went back to something I am quite used to doing - killing unwanted plants. There's a lot of sticker bush (a tall prickly plant) in the pastures that needs to come out so I did that for maybe an hour. Further case of deja vou later when we had farm dinner. 12 people, 2 cooks, and a short meeting. Sound familiar? The food was awesome! Souffle, a fancy salad, good pasta, and delicious brussel sprouts. Even had homemade strawberry lemonade. Couldn't have asked for anything better. After 2 early mornings in a row I was exhausted so off I went to sleep.
Sorry no pictures for today. More to come though. Just need to charge my phone.
Morning feeding involves giving a certain type of hay - local, alfalfa, or orchard - to all of the animals plus dog food for the dogs. The babies get bottle fed which is extremely cute. They all come running out of their house and the play around you/try to get to the bottles while you feed them one by one. One, Pistachio, loves being held. He'll jump on you till you pick him up and then he just lays there, happy as a clam. He's the goat version of Riley, and about as small. Later on baby chicks were found in the babies' pen. Tiny little things, and all different colors. One even has a black body with a bright yellow face. Huge hit with everyone on the farm.
For the afternoon chores we cleaned some water buckets, mucked out a stall, and watered the animals. Also saw a bit of the milking process which I'll be doing tomorrow. After all of that I went back to something I am quite used to doing - killing unwanted plants. There's a lot of sticker bush (a tall prickly plant) in the pastures that needs to come out so I did that for maybe an hour. Further case of deja vou later when we had farm dinner. 12 people, 2 cooks, and a short meeting. Sound familiar? The food was awesome! Souffle, a fancy salad, good pasta, and delicious brussel sprouts. Even had homemade strawberry lemonade. Couldn't have asked for anything better. After 2 early mornings in a row I was exhausted so off I went to sleep.
Sorry no pictures for today. More to come though. Just need to charge my phone.
End of the Line
Super early start this morning, out of the hotel by 4:45. Only in an airport hotel would you see other people (multiple people too) this early in the morning. After only one unsuccessful go around we managed to find the departures area, and the only traffic anywhere near the airport. Kevin made out fine getting on the plane. His layover in Boston was delayed a couple hours, but I guess other than that no problems. Though you would have to ask him more about that. I went back to the hotel for a while since it was still absurdly early and I it was only going to take me an hour to get to the farm. After one more great shower I said goodbye to hotels for a while.
My impulsive need to be early all the time got the best of me once again and I made it to Eatonville way too early. Rather than chancing no one being there to meet me I drove around the area. The town was bigger than what Kevin and I saw on our way to Mt Rainer so that was reassuring. Then it was time to get to the farm.
Meet a lot of people as soon as I got there. A little bit overwhelming but everyone was really nice. One of the girls showed me around. Everything is all on one property. There's the house, a barn, all of the pens, cabins and an RV. I was given the choice of the RV or a room in the loft of the barn. As I thought the RV was going to be cold I went with the barn loft. Bad choice. Being a barn there were a lot of flies. The final straw was a VERY large spider right above the bed. RV it is. Cold as I expected, but not until the morning. The first day I floated around and got to see all the animals. About 100 goats (I think) - babies, preteens, teens, milkers, little bucks, and bucks. There's also a horse, 4 alpaca (one of which I have to get a picture of because it is the goofiest looking animal I have ever seen), and lots of dogs. One just had puppies which are adorable! Everyone wants one.
My impulsive need to be early all the time got the best of me once again and I made it to Eatonville way too early. Rather than chancing no one being there to meet me I drove around the area. The town was bigger than what Kevin and I saw on our way to Mt Rainer so that was reassuring. Then it was time to get to the farm.
Meet a lot of people as soon as I got there. A little bit overwhelming but everyone was really nice. One of the girls showed me around. Everything is all on one property. There's the house, a barn, all of the pens, cabins and an RV. I was given the choice of the RV or a room in the loft of the barn. As I thought the RV was going to be cold I went with the barn loft. Bad choice. Being a barn there were a lot of flies. The final straw was a VERY large spider right above the bed. RV it is. Cold as I expected, but not until the morning. The first day I floated around and got to see all the animals. About 100 goats (I think) - babies, preteens, teens, milkers, little bucks, and bucks. There's also a horse, 4 alpaca (one of which I have to get a picture of because it is the goofiest looking animal I have ever seen), and lots of dogs. One just had puppies which are adorable! Everyone wants one.
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| The view from the barn loft room. |
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| Just a friendly head but. |
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| The cabins |
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| A true cuddle puddle |
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| Preteens |
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| The barn |
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| Feeding time |
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Found the Troll
We had a relaxed morning at the hotel. Ate breakfast there and then checked out. Ready for Seattle Part 2. We had heard about the Fremont district and how they had a market on Sundays, so we thought that could be a good place to start. It was great! Lots of artisan crafts and clothes plus food vendors. There was also an indoor section that was more of a flea market. After seeing this area I definitely thought this was someplace I could happily get used to. In the area we saw a lot of sculptures and we went to see the Fremont Troll under the bridge.
After that we headed back to Pike Market. I guess Kevin really liked it. He even got pizza at the same place as yesterday. I got some awesome mac'n'cheese. There were just as many vendors and performers today, though a slightly smaller crowd at first. Until what appeared to be a mob of people just off a bus, all rolling suitcases. That was fun to navigate. Didn't stay much longer after that happened.
Next we went to the University of Washington area just to see some more sights. It's actually not a bad city to drive in and it was fairly easy to find the area we were looking for. Not a lot to see once we got there, but still nice to check out. I decided I wanted to go see a park while we were there. Somehow this resulted in us finding the Afro festival. We promptly left. And that was the end of our Seattle adventures. We never even ran into the hemp festival (not that Kevin or I were very disappointed). We had a nice hotel for the night near the airport and we spent the rest of the day there. Kevin packed and then went out to the hot tub - he had been wanting a hot tub for forever. Unfortunately though it was quickly taken over by little kids which he was not so pleased with. Oh well he got some time in the hot tub without them. Other than that we had an early night because we had to get out of the hotel by 5 for him to get to the airport.
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| The Fremont Troll, casually destroying a car. |
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| The bridge he guards. |
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| Lenin |
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| The market |
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| Best food truck we saw. |
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| More beautiful flowers. |
After that we headed back to Pike Market. I guess Kevin really liked it. He even got pizza at the same place as yesterday. I got some awesome mac'n'cheese. There were just as many vendors and performers today, though a slightly smaller crowd at first. Until what appeared to be a mob of people just off a bus, all rolling suitcases. That was fun to navigate. Didn't stay much longer after that happened.
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| Post Alley, a tiny alley right next to Pike Place with some neat restaurants and shops. |
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| Seems like the perfect store |
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| An urban garden right next to a restaurant's patio |
Next we went to the University of Washington area just to see some more sights. It's actually not a bad city to drive in and it was fairly easy to find the area we were looking for. Not a lot to see once we got there, but still nice to check out. I decided I wanted to go see a park while we were there. Somehow this resulted in us finding the Afro festival. We promptly left. And that was the end of our Seattle adventures. We never even ran into the hemp festival (not that Kevin or I were very disappointed). We had a nice hotel for the night near the airport and we spent the rest of the day there. Kevin packed and then went out to the hot tub - he had been wanting a hot tub for forever. Unfortunately though it was quickly taken over by little kids which he was not so pleased with. Oh well he got some time in the hot tub without them. Other than that we had an early night because we had to get out of the hotel by 5 for him to get to the airport.
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| Our last hotel (this was the back entrance, the front the was even better!) |
Rattlesnakes, Bears, and Cougars, Oh My!
Headed back into Portland today. Assigned Kevin with finding things to do since I knew I could come back. He came up with Voodoo Donuts and Forest Park. Found Voodoo Donuts without much trouble, Portland isn't a bad city to drive around. Just a lot of one way streets. The parking was pretty cheap too. We got there around 9 and there was a line already. We decided it was worth the wait anyway. The building itself was neat, glittered bricks and a bright pink sign with a neon light Voodoo Donut. Inside was even crazier with tons of color and glass cases with rotating shelves full of crazy donuts. Kevin got a chocolate frosted and old fashioned and I got a toasted coconut. Pretty impressive (though I think Hole in One in Cape Cod was better). Many people came out with multiple boxes of donuts and the line had doubled by the time we got ours. Still decided that even one box would be excessive.
We tried to find the downtown after that, but we completely unsuccessful. Gave up and headed to Forest Park. We couldn't find a real entrance and our GPS was having a hard time finding it at all. After a few wrong turns we eventually found a pull off with a trail head. The circuitous drive was certainly worth it. The trail was beautiful; huge trees and lots of smaller ferns filling the understory. It was hard to believe you were still in the city limits. It actually has 80 miles of trails throughout 5000 acres. No wonder they call Portland the greenest city. It's also the self proclaimed bicycle capital of the world. After a nice walk we figured it wasn't worth going back into the main part of the city to find the downtown. Instead we left Oregon to go check out Olympic National Park in Northwest Washington.
It was about a 4 hour drive since our gps took us to the very northern most point, rather than the visitor center in the south. Good job gps (and us too for not really checking out the park map). It was a beautiful drive though along the Pacific Coast Highway. Definitely some more small towns, but Im sure they were bigger than 10 people (unlike Emblem, WY). Olympic was amazing - enormous trees, giant ferns, mountains, and valleys. We camped in the mountain region. There is also a portion of the park that is a temperate rainforest and some areas along the ocean. We had a great campsite (with water) near a river at the base of a valley. Didn't really do much once we got there. Kevin read and I walked along the river. The campsite was not bear proof like Yellowstone, but there were warnings about cougars. I guess each park has there own predators, be it rattlesnakes, bears, or cougars. Not that we encountered any of these luckily.
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| Feels like home |
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| Me: "There really are a lot of bikes here." Kevin: Points to sign... |
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| The famous Voodoo Donut. The bricks were glittered! |
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| The Chinese Garden. Not the Japanese Garden we were actually looking for. |
We tried to find the downtown after that, but we completely unsuccessful. Gave up and headed to Forest Park. We couldn't find a real entrance and our GPS was having a hard time finding it at all. After a few wrong turns we eventually found a pull off with a trail head. The circuitous drive was certainly worth it. The trail was beautiful; huge trees and lots of smaller ferns filling the understory. It was hard to believe you were still in the city limits. It actually has 80 miles of trails throughout 5000 acres. No wonder they call Portland the greenest city. It's also the self proclaimed bicycle capital of the world. After a nice walk we figured it wasn't worth going back into the main part of the city to find the downtown. Instead we left Oregon to go check out Olympic National Park in Northwest Washington.
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| Kevin willingly going back into nature |
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| The trees were so large I couldn't even get an entire one in a single shot. |
It was about a 4 hour drive since our gps took us to the very northern most point, rather than the visitor center in the south. Good job gps (and us too for not really checking out the park map). It was a beautiful drive though along the Pacific Coast Highway. Definitely some more small towns, but Im sure they were bigger than 10 people (unlike Emblem, WY). Olympic was amazing - enormous trees, giant ferns, mountains, and valleys. We camped in the mountain region. There is also a portion of the park that is a temperate rainforest and some areas along the ocean. We had a great campsite (with water) near a river at the base of a valley. Didn't really do much once we got there. Kevin read and I walked along the river. The campsite was not bear proof like Yellowstone, but there were warnings about cougars. I guess each park has there own predators, be it rattlesnakes, bears, or cougars. Not that we encountered any of these luckily.
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