All the Single Ladies

Meet the ladies:

The ladies are Bella (front center), Mabel (horned), and Annie (only her rear is visible), and they are GREAT.  Annie is currently very pregnant, due in late March, and the most elegantly pregnant and matronly creature I've ever met..  Bella is milking and gave birth to Mabel about five months ago.  I learned how to milk Bella this morning, which was a hilarious endeavor. Debbie, one of the farm owners, takes care of the goats and is hoping to have a cheese workshop in the next week or so.

So I am learning to become a goatherd -- but hardly a lonely one.  I didn't realize it, but there are about ten people working on the farm right now.  Our work thus far has been varied: we've harvested loofahs, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and braising greens, processed (i.e. washed and bagged) for market, prepped the new beds for planting, and hung out hardcore with the ornery and endearing Bella.

The basics:  I'm working at Sleeping Frog Farm right outside of Tucson.  This is the view from our front door:

 

Gorgeous, right? This is the view of our front door:

 

The WWOOFer house is also known as the Lily Pad.

As for me, I'm still getting used to it.  Today completed day 3 on the farm, and I'm slowly figuring out how to roll with things around here.  All the shoveling and weeding and peeling loofahs leaves me more thoroughly exhausted than I've been in a long time, and figuring out dinner from whatever's growing outside is a challenge.  Given these things, though, I think this change was a truly necessary one for me.  My goal in farming over these next fiveish months is simple: to understand exactly where food comes from.  I've never been dustier in my life, but as for now I wouldn't trade it for much.  Being forced to think on a very basic level about how to live simply is remarkably refreshing -- not to mention an experiment in culinary creativity! The juxtaposition of cactus and dust against beds of greenery is initially a jarring one but one that you can get used to.

 

That's it for now, folks.  I will keep you posted on the delicious things I create in the future and any more adventures that come along! Bella says goodbye (isn't she cute?).