Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Working on the goat farm has been nothing but fun since I arrived late January. I've gained muscle, farm know-how, a greater lust for life, and many wonderful memories with wonderful people and animals. I have tested myself with the elements and managed to keep a smile on my face when it was dark and rainy for days at a time.  

Waking up at 5:30 to do an outdoor shift in the 30 degree rainy weather was no easy feat at first. My fingers were numb (my toes more so) and everything was frozen making work difficult. Add in the fact that at this point I could also barely make a hay bail budge and carrying two buckets of water made my arms muscles spazzy. I had my work cut out for me. I went about slipping on ice, and trying to lug heavy bags all around the farm before the milk came up from the milk room to be processed. Often times I had barely gotten anywhere in my list of things to do and would have to work a long while after processing milk. My work was cut out for me!

Now I lift things easily, and everything is a breeze. The animals love me and come up for their daily dosage of love (now that I have WAY more than enough time I sit down with them and give everyone hugs, kisses and scratches behind the ears).
Being in the milk room has improved drastically since the beginning as well. No longer do I come out of the room covered in goat poop and frazzled. I recognize each of the goats teats and can tell when one of them feels sick. I can open the milk room door and holler "Come on down for milking my friends!" and have a mob of my newly found goat friends running at my door.

I remember when I was heading out here I was worried that I would be lonely living on a farm. How wrong I was! Not only have I had wonderful interns (that are very very different than I am) to share my days with, but I have had an entire farm full of life to hang out with. Animals are the best company. Hands down. On days I have felt down I go to the tent we have the goat kids in and sit in their hay feeder with them. Hooves go flying across my face and tugs are felt at my head as they pull my strands of hair every which direction. In fifteen minutes I can easily overdose on baby goat love and feel back to normal.

Now I'm preparing myself to leave. Slowly cleaning up my trailer and tidying my belongings together. I look out the window and feel pangs of sadness knowing that I'm going to be leaving chickens clucking me awake in the morning, and being chased out my door by a ferocious turkey. No longer will I have to wake up at 530 to feed animals or milk out fifty goats. Working on this goat farm has been the best impromptu adventure I have had and I will definitely be coming back for stints whenever I can.

Next week I will be heading out to Oregon where I will be working on a mini horse farm for a week before ducking home for a minute and beginning my next adventure of living in the Grand Teton National Park for six months.

Life is exciting and brings a smile to my face constantly.

...I'm going to have to start brushing my hair again. :)

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