Oh Shenandoah.

Sundays are for hiking.

My first weekend here I bought a one year pass to Shenandoah National Park hoping to hike a different trail every weekend while I'm here. So far I'm 3 for 3. While some people might prefer to relax on their one day off, I prefer to exhaust myself further by going for 4-5 hour hikes! The first trail I chose was recommended to me by several friends and it was just as amazing as they had promised. The 8.8-mile circuit I hiked included part of the Whiteoak Canyon Trail, the Whiteoak Fire Road, and the Cedar Run Trail past dozens of waterfalls and a natural rock slide. 

the lower falls at Whiteoak Canyon

Last weekend I attempted to hike up Hazeltop Mountain and down around the Rapidan Camp area, but I made a wrong turn right at the outset and just hiked the Appalachian Trail from Milam Gap up past Fishers Gap and back. Unfortunately there were a lot of people on that part of the trail, but it was an otherwise beautiful hike. 

lots of dead hemlock, pretty eerie. 

This weekend I hiked the trail I had intended to hike last weekend along the Mills Prong and Laurel Prong Trails up Hazeltop Mountain and then back down along the AT. The trail was shorter than I expected, only 7.4 miles, and it only took about 3 hours which was kind of a bummer. The best part was that there were so few people on the trail that I really felt like I was out in the wilderness. 

headed North on the AT

two weeks and counting.

dusk settling over the fields.

I did the math today to figure out how many hours I’ve worked so far (mostly to see how much money I’m making), and I figured out that I am averaging 12-hour workdays; and that doesn’t include the time I spend doing chores around the house like cooking dinner, tending to the dogs, general cleaning, etc.  It’s kind of ridiculous when you think about it. I’m also averaging about 6 hours of sleep a night, which is really not working for me. The good news is that even though I’m not making anything close to minimum wage, I’m racking up a bit of money with all the crazy hours I’m working.

To avoid the inevitable burnout that comes with working such intense hours I'm taking off again this weekend (well, I'm taking off Sunday anyway). I'm thinking that another big hike in the Shenandoah is just what I need to rejuvenate me. 

I still have to work tomorrow though, and I have my work cut out for me with mowing around the vegetable plots, transplanting some seedlings, and tons of weeding. Thankfully because I'm house sitting and taking care of a dog for some friends this weekend I get to start work a bit later, so hopefully I can sleep in a bit. 

this is Cara our new herding dog, still just a puppy though.

life and death on the farm.

This has been kind of a rough week because we had a couple of animal deaths on the farm; death is a very real part of farm life, and, in a way, it’s been a really important learning experience for me. The first to go was one of our chocolate turkey poults; after days of refusing to eat, it had grown so weak that it couldn’t hold it’s body up anymore, so we decided to euthanize it rather than have it suffer any longer. Even though there was nothing we could have done to get it to eat, I still felt responsible for it’s death, which made it particularly difficult for me to accept.

A few days later a similar problem was spotted with one of the goat kids who appeared to be sleeping all the time and never eating. After a couple of days like this we tried bottle-feeding her, but she started having seizures and passed on shortly after. It’s really amazing to watch nature run its course through life and death. As humans we evade the natural course of our lives and cheat death time after time, but it just doesn’t work like that in nature; nature won’t let live what isn’t meant to live and that’s that. 

And, to be honest, one death in an entire herd of goat kids and in a whole clutch of turkeys isn't really that big of a deal. Some deaths are to be expected, and the vast majority of the babies are doing great. So far twenty of our goats have had their kids, and the barn looks like a nursery with all the kids bouncing around.

At just over a week old, the turkey poults are already getting their feathers and attempting to fly! It's amazing how quickly they grow!

Frederic is still alive too! And his eye is starting to open up slightly, so maybe he'll make it after all!

The Full Report

Since things slow down a little around here on the weekends I've finally had some time to take in my surroundings, compose my thoughts, write some letters, and just breathe a little bit. Things were moving at such a breakneck pace early in the week I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't have anytime to just enjoy where I am and what I've been doing. Other than taking care of the baby turkeys, the only other thing I had to do today was visit the Madison and Charlottesville Farmer's Markets so I could get a feel for them before I start running our booths there next week, and that was really more fun than work. The Charlottesville market is pretty cool because there are people selling art and handmade things in addition to the typical vegetable and plant vendors. There were lots of musicians too, including these guys who were playing amazing bluegrass/folk music. 

The guy sitting down was playing guitar, harmonica, tambourine, and using a foot pedal to play his suitcase like a bass drum--now that's skill!

Back at the farm things are going really well. We've been tying up berry bushes to get them ready for picking which should start next week, doing a lot of weeding and basic maintenance of the fields, and we've been trying to finish the last of the planting for the fall harvest. We're just getting into the really productive part of the season, so we should be starting to harvest a lot more in the coming weeks.

My daily responsibilities include feeding all the animals in the morning, collecting the eggs from the hen house, washing and packaging the eggs, and taking care of the turkeys. I was also just given the job of kombucha maker, so I have to start new batches of that every few days so we have enough to sell at the market. 

A lot of our attention lately has been focused on the many new arrivals to the farm. Twenty or so of the goats are pregnant right now and every day a couple of them have their kids. So far we have about a dozen or so goat kids (moms usually have twins or triplets) and we're still awaiting a bunch more. These were the first two to be born. 

Then came these...

The best part about having all these baby goats around is that if you're having a bad day you can just go outside and hold a baby goat and all your problems just melt away.

Tomorrow's my day off, and I'm going hiking in Shenandoah National Park!

New Mama.

So I've been crazy busy since I arrived, we're working from 7am until 9pm everyday, so I haven't had anytime to post pictures or anything; all I've really had time to do is eat, sleep, and work! Hopefully this weekend I'll have time to post a full update, but for now I'll just introduce you to my new babies!

My 20 baby turkeys finally arrived yesterday! Technically, baby turkeys are called poults, but we all think that sounds dumb, so I'm going to keep calling them babies turkeys. I've been put in charge of brooding them, so basically I'm  the surrogate mother turkey to the little babies. I've spent the past two days watching them, feeding them, and making sure they are warm enough in their little brooding coop, and man are they crazy adorable. 

They arrived via overnight air mail from Iowa and were less than two days old when we picked them up at the post office.

We are raising seven different heritage breeds: Red Bourbon (my favorite!), Broad-Breasted Bronze, Chocolate, Spanish Black, Blue Slate, White Midget, and White Holland.

This is a Red Bourbon...

This is a Chocolate one sleeping...

This is a Blue Slate one...

This is a Spanish Black one...

This is a Broad-Breasted Bronze...

This is a Midget White...

This is a White Holland...

And finally, this is Frederic, a Red Bourbon that I named because he only has one eye. They say he's probably not going to make it... I think he will, but either way for now he's my pirate turkey.

Animals are the best.

So I went down to visit the farm a couple of days ago and man is it awesome. Unfortunately, we somehow managed to only take pictures of the chickens so I don't really have much to share other than about two dozen photos of the same hens. Oh, and the speckled hens lay green eggs. Yea, GREEN! Animals are the best.

Dean threw a line of feed on the ground to distract them while he moved the henhouse, and they were plenty distracted.

One of them got so excited when we filled the feeder that she jumped right inside.

This is Sophie, the mama; she just had several dozen chicks, one of which was taking a ride on her back. Precious right?

This is the crazy rooster who fathered Sophie's chicks. He's a weird mix of breeds, so the chicks came out with a really interesting coloring; they're mostly golden with grey spotted wing feathers, crazy.

Oh, right, I lied. I did manage to get one picture of me and my yurt. This is definitely the coolest and fanciest yurt I've ever seen. It's built on the side of a big slope next to the vineyard and one of the berry patches, has a full deck built all the way around it, and it overlooks a river. Pretty damn awesome. 

Me and my yurt.

Relocating to a new "here"

"What We Need is Here"

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

Wendell Berry

 In a matter of days I'll be starting over again; not for the first time ever, but for the first time in a while. I'm packing up and moving to a yurt in the woods where I'll be for at least the next 6-8 months.

This blog is for me to keep track of this next year of my life while I'm working and living on a farm in southwestern Virginia. In the end most of what you'll find here are photos of my plants and animals along with tidbits from my daily life and ruminations on life's bigger questions (which I'll no doubt be pondering ad nauseum in my ample free time in the woods). 

I don't have any pictures to share just yet, but I do have a huge stack of books I've collected to take with me this summer. Here's my reading list so far:

Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays, Wendell Berry

Home Economics, Wendell Berry

The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian essays of Wendell Berry, Wendell Berry

The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture, Wendell Berry

The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land, Norman Wirzba

Last Child In the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, Haruki Murakami

The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon

La autopista del sur y otros cuentos, Julio Cortazar

Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys, Leonard Mercia

Whittling Twigs and Branches, Chris Lubkemann