The First Few Days

After a few road construction delays, I made it to the farm about 4 PM on Wednesday. *lots of pictures and videos (which are loud for some reason, turn down your speakers)!*

Construction delay #2 on I-81 N through Wilkes-Barre

Just over the Pennsylvania/New York state line

The Hudson River, about 20 minutes from where I live

The view 180 degrees from the Hudson shots

Nancy was running late from work when I got to the farm so I hung out in my car and let everyone back home know I made it. When she got home, I met the family and got a tour of the house and farm. By then, it was time to make dinner. Lentil soup and homemade bread! It was delicious and exactly what I needed after the long day of traveling.

Chore time was next. Night chores are pretty easy since there are 3-4 of us. Let the dogs out, feed the cows, goats, chickens, and cats, clean up cow poop, collect eggs, and close up the chicken coop.

After that, we watched a nature documentary in which a couple lived in the wilderness for a year and filmed animal life, mostly wolves. We all went to bed a little after 9 and I was asleep shortly after.

Morning chores are much of the same except it's just Nancy and I and we have to milk the cow. It was easier than I expected, although I'm not as fast as Nancy. It took her about 5 minutes to fill up the 1 gallon bucket. Imagine having a gallon of fresh milk every day! Even their family of 6 can't use it all so they also sell some for $6 gallon!

Smidge and her calf

Breakfast was yummy with scrambled farm eggs, toast from the leftover bread, and a banana. I think about 90% of their food here is organic, either certified or from the farm. As you'll notice, I'm eschewing my veganish diet for the time being in order to truly experience all the great products that come from my backyard, however I still don't feel comfortable eating meat.

After breakfast and sending the kids off to school, we drove about an hour upstate to pick up some feed, turkey poults, and hay. The land nearby is too rocky and steep to grow crops. We managed to get 35 bales into the small bed of the truck by being creative with our stacking method along with some help from the farmer. Nancy, a midwife's assistant, had to go to a home visit when we got home and was notified that she would be attending a birth later that evening, so I was left to unload and stack the hay by myself. It's pretty hard work and I forgot to ask for a pair of gloves so my hands are sore and my forearms have lots of scratches. I hit muscle failure after about an hour so the last few bales took quite awhile. Had a great sense of accomplishment when I was done, though!

It was super easy to find yummy things for lunch. I had yogurt with granola, blueberry sauce, and flax seeds and a salad with dried cranberries, apples, walnuts, and a soy ginger sesame vinaigrette. I love talking about (and eating) food!

The good news is that the only other thing I had to do was clean out the last chick pen. They have about 160 chicks (and now 4 turkeys) indoors under heat lamps. They're a couple weeks old now and peep constantly. They're starting to jump up on the ladder rungs and fly over the sides of the plastic pools. Soon we'll be building a tent and setting up fence to put them outside. I'm trying not to get too attached to them since they'll be processed for meat at the end of June.

Nancy's daughter Laura and youngest son Collin and I did the night chores. We went out a bit early so the chickens didn't want to go into the coop on their own and refused to be herded in. We played tag with the goats while we waited. Soul loves it; he jumps around, charges, and even seems to know who's "it." Lots of laughing and screaming ensued.

Nancy was out all night at 2 births so I have the day off while she's sleeping. Will probably be doing some meditation (no yoga because my hands are killing me!) and exploring town a bit. I have a hike scheduled for tomorrow at Wonder Lake which is about 5 miles long. Exciting!