One Week (Weak?)
Well, I have officially been here for one week! I am still enjoying myself and it is SO BEAUTIFUL in Vermont! The leaves are all orange and green and sumac red… and rivers and creeks all over the place here and rainy but warm… it’s gorgeous. Don’t worry I”m taking pictures, but I can’t seem to figure out how to post em on this thing and my internet connection is so slow anyways it would take like 3 hours. No joke.
Ok, so typical Janet daily activites include: most days I work for the farm about 7 or 8 hours. Morning and evening chores are so easy! Just feed everyone and water and collect eggs. Most all the animals are outside so no real stall cleaning or grain. The rest of the morning and afternoon I generally collect veggies from the gardens, pick lots of tomatoes (climb THROUGH the sprawling tomatoe plants), pull apart garlic cloves to plant later this week, and pretty up the veggies (lots of scrubbing and peeling and weighing). And if I finish everything and still want to work, there’s always beans to shuck!
With the rest of my time, I’ve been running and biking some cause it’s so pretty out! Also, mushroom hunting, although it’s a little late and the turkeys already ate most of em. And of course botanizing some. Trying to figure out what I”m doing next in life. And I just started Anna Karenina, which in really good and I’m already totally into the charactors and the storyline, although I stupidly already know the ending… I hate knowing endings! Especially to books like this one!!!!!!!! Anyways….
So the family I”m staying with, so far as I know, is really nice. I say so far as I know because so far I”ve only met the husband and son for about 2 hours if even. They are coming back tomorrow. The animals are of course also great. There’s four cats. Pat the Cat is a barn cat and friendly but hardly ever seen. Tuttie is a wild animal. His idea of being petted is attacking me and me beating him up. And he likes to stalk around like a tiger. Mr. Snuggles is totally not snuggly, although he wishes he were. He walks back and forth around me purring but whenever I try to pet him he shies away. And if I just grab him and shower affection on him he struggles free and sits safely out of reach staring affectionately and kneeding his claws and purring. Wierd cat. He’s the same with his owners….. And Atticus is my favorite, orange tabby, really affectionate. He likes to curl up on or next to me whenever I”m watching movies or reading. And purrs. A happy cat is a happy Janet. The dogs are Cody an old border collie full of border collie sweetness and love. And Neil is a German Shephard Rotweiller something else mix who I guess his old owners were druggies and Neil got into the Crystal Meth or something and, well, he’s really nice…. and that’s about all that can be said for hiim. He’s generally so excited begging for affection that I can’t possibly pet him even if I try. Besides all the cows and birds which I don’t have a real affection or relation to yet anyways, there’s also Patrick the calf who is in the barn “being weaned” although mostly he just looks pitiful and says “MoooOOOOO” a LOT. And when I pet him he tries to suckle off me. SO CUTE!
I am learning some about sustainable gardening and also practical garden plant identification and variety and cooking lessons. Today I spent the morning cleaning off these “Celeric” roots (I’m not sure on spelling). I guess it’s related to the celery. The roots look a lot like Mandrake roots, I kept expecting em to start moving and crying. And they taste really good, like… um nothing else. Maybe like a cross between raw potato and water chesnut?
More later!