We rose @ our traditional 5:45am (yes, we did!) and were in the cafe to meet our mentor, Ella, for a quick morning snack befoe chore training. And before we could say "who let the cows out?" we were separated into 3 chore groups: Cow milking, goat milking and cooking! The milkers wentto the barn to follow closely along and learn for afternoon chores. The milking process is almost identical for cows and goats, although the goats are ushered into "the parlor", where they are elevated and then mechanically milked. The cows are also milked by machine, but in their stalls,...and everyone (critters) gets to eat while they are milked, thus making it a possitive and friendly experience. A cow can produce up to 50 pounds of milk in a session (!) so between the two, there is lots of milk captured. We took to this task of cleaning teets, hooking up the machines and cleaning again very well (someof us) and bravely left our comfort zones to try (others of us). After lunch and a fun craft activity, we were on our own to do what we came to do...be helpful and learn.
Our cooks, in the meantime, were busy in the kitchen, and the chicken coop! They went to collect eggs (63 chicken and several duck), and went into make an a amazing dinner of fresh macaroni and cheese, fresh chocolate brownies and hand-whipped cream!
Our evening started with reflection and journaling. And then,..the real treat. We went out into a pasture for a country astronomy lesson! The stars were amazingly brilliant, and we were able to share information that we all had about constellations and how they've been used before GPS!
No comments:
Post a Comment