FARM SITTING AT RETROGRASS FARM

Whenever I write a blog post, I go back to my photographs and journal to help me remember what happened and where.  That's how I remembered this part of my travels.  In an effort to catch up with posts (I'm now in California), I'm going to send this one out right away, and the next few posts in close succession (I hope). 

One of the things I thought about doing when I began my travels was farm sitting.  Having lived on a farm in Kansas and taken care of farm animals there, I am very aware that having farm animals means you can never leave, even for a morning or evening, without having someone to take care of the animals.  And having experience caring for a variety of animals, it occurred to me that I might offer my services as a farm sitter, to stay at someone's farm and care for their animals, so that they could take a vacation or whatever they might need to do off the farm.  When I mentioned this to my friend Karine, she asked me if I might be available for a week in early April, so that she could go on vacation with her family over spring break.  I left my rental April 1st and I stayed in Karine's comfortable house eating up all the food she had kindly left in her frig.  

Each morning and afternoon I fed and watered her 75+ chickens, a small herd of pygmy goats, two milk cows (neither of them was milking), 3 kitties, and a small, sweet old Clydesdale horse named Christie.  

I also collected the eggs and put them into cartons, which were sold at the farm store in her garage and at a local coop.  

The three chicken houses.

One afternoon's collection of eggs.  Chickens lay a lot in the spring.

  Karine had a bunch of young chickens just beginning to lay -- notice the tiny pullet eggs.

The heaviest chore was cleaning up as much of the cow and horse manure as possible from the yard to keep it from getting nasty.  I scooped the manure with a pitchfork into a cart, pulled the cart to the compost piles (at the far end of the picture here) and dumped it, morning and evening.  

I have to say, after a mostly sedentary winter, the chores were right at the limit of my physical strength at first.  It was good exercise, though - I'm much better at working than going to the gym.  And I got paid to do it.  

One of the anthroposophy exercises involves meditating on a mineral and an animal and attuning to the difference in energy between these realms.  I certainly had lots of opportunity to do that living with so many animals.  

Adapting to life on this beautiful farm was a good way to get ready for my travels.  

Sunset over the farm pond.  

Before taking off for points west, I spent a couple of days in Northampton, going to the dentist, seeing friends and enjoying the spring flowers.

MaryJo's spring garden

Cherry tree by Marty's house.

My last night, I spent at a campground in Florida NY, bleaching out my water system and getting all ready for my trip west.