I got a lovely surprise the other day when I checked my email and got an invitation from Patty to come and stay with her on the farm where she was Helpxing! How cool!
I drove about four hours north to a farm outside Thames, owned by a lovely couple who bought it about a year ago and are fixing it up. The farm is quite old and charming and reminded Patty and me of Grandma and Grandpa Denner's farm in Iowa. It was a fantastic place to spend my weekend, and I understand why Patty extended her stay there instead of moving on to other Helpx locations.
Patty had been feeding the Dexter cows pears from the tree every day, and by the time I got there, they came over when she called. In fact, if she didn't come and feed them, they started mooing for pears! This particular one was very greedy, so we had to be sneaky to get pears to the others.
Patty made friends with the two donkeys which the owners had inherited with the farm. They were a bit skittish at first, but they warmed to Patty and became quite lovely - especially this one.
The first day, this donkey seemed to have something in its teeth, and kept sticking out its tongue to the side, and Patty was so entertained that she joined in the fun. She also took pity on it and tried to get whatever it was out of its teeth; she never found anything, but it stopped looking uncomfortable, so we were happy.
Patty had jumped right into farm life, and even learned to drive a tractor!
These are peaches from their peach tree. Notice that they are fuchsia! I thought they were very beautiful looking, but didn't get to try one, as they weren't actually ripe yet. Maybe next time.
One of the jobs Patty had been doing was making dinner each night, which the couple really appreciated (as would I). She was directing me through boiling potatoes, making cold apple salad, and cooking silver-beet (swiss chard) and squash when it started to rain. She immediately dropped what she was doing and ran to get her donkey friends out of the rain, leaving me in charge of the kitchen. In case anyone has forgotten, I should never be left in charge of the kitchen; I don't know what I'm doing!
Luckily, I managed not to destroy anything while Patty was gone, and we ended up with a quite delicious dinner of things almost entirely produced on the farm, and resembling the delicious food that Grandma Denner used to make. I didn't contribute any skill to the process, but I also didn't actively ruin it. A resounding success!
After dinner, Patty and I took the cow dog (one of 5 or 6 dogs on the farm) on a walk through the cedar forest.
As it started to get dark, Patty told me how she'd gotten lost in the dark while walking the other night, and how it had been a bit scary. But the woods were so beautiful, and we were enjoying wandering...
... and we got lost. In the dark. Good thing Patty had brought her head lamp. Patty was a bit worried about being lost, but I was still feeling invincible after my non-destructive exploits in the kitchen. Perhaps a busy kitchen should actually be less scary than a forest at night, but I would pick it any time! So we kept walking and chatting until we found our way out. The only downside was that we had to climb over a barbed wire fence, and I tore my jacket. But I've stitched it up and it looks okay, so no harm done. Also, we weren't lost for long, because Patty came up with the good idea of finding the river bed and following it back to the lake near the farm.
So ended a very lovely day on the farm, with another one coming.
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