*My computer isn't letting me upload any pictures at the moment =( i will try to put them up sooon!*
Wow. It has been entirely way too long since I updated! My original plan had been to keep updating at least once a week while up here at the farm, but I have been so extremely busy, and when I am not, the Internet connection is a whacked out and I can't get on! It has been so frustrating, but also so good! Not only have I not had Internet alot, but I also dropped my phone last week when I was on my run, and of course, even though I have dropped it a zillion times, it decided to break this time. Which stinks. I literally haven't been able to contact people some days.
But then I praised God! An excuse not to be tied to people! Hooray! Haha just kidding. It has been great though, just having to communicate in other ways. I have been writing lots of letters :)
Anyways! Yes, I decided to be farm girl for a month this summer! I am up here in Loudon County, Northern Virginia with some friends I have known since I was 5. Their oldest daughter and I grew up together and were best friends for many years. She is away now, living in Pennsylvania, so I am actually staying in her old room while I am here. Her cousins are the ones who live on the farm. The main thing they do here is hay and selling milk. There are also pigs and chickens and goats and produce, so its definitely a full working farm.
I came here for the first time about four years ago when my mom drove all of us up for a visit (she and my "Aunt" Melinda are best friends) and I have loved it ever since. Just the whole atmosphere of farm life and being away from so much of the hustle and bustle of life and just living a peaceful, quiet, simple life up in the country. For years now, I have dreamed about making that my lifestyle. So this summer, the Lord really opened the way for me to be able to come and stay here, just so I could get a real taste of what it is like, and see if indeed it is what I'd want.
And I know now, beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is.
First of all, the scenery. I am up here in the middle of the Blue Ridge mountains. Which in itself is amazing. I have always loved mountains. Then there are all the rolling green hills, wild flowers, dirt roads, picket fences, old barns, and little shops. Just the picture of simple life. Another thing I love is that you have to drive kind of a long way to get to places. Like in Chesapeake, we complain if we have to drive more than 20 minutes to get someplace! But here, that's like taking a five minute zip up to the corner store for some milk. So yes, just another element that adds to the laid back way here. There isn't alot of hurrying and rushing around. Just time to drive, think, pray, and enjoy the breathtaking view all around you.
So, I really wasn't sure what to expect coming up here working wise...but I have found hat I have stayed pretty busy! The family I am working for is just amazing. Love them so much. I met them about five years ago, so yeah, jt has been great getting to hang with old friends. We pretend that they are like my cousins and aunts and uncles, so its good.
First off, let me say that farm work is not for the faint of heart. Hahah oh. my. gosh. it is tough. I thought it was like the worst thing ever when my mom would ask me to come out and help her weed her little front flower bed for thirty minutes...until I faced not one, but two ginormous vegetable gardens. Which we weed and work in every day for at least two hours. of course, I start sweating like a pig not ten minutes in, and my farmers tan begins to emerge....but I love it. I seriously like enjoy hard, gritty, dirty, sweaty work! Weird i know. So yes, theres the gardening. Oh! And Andy (he's the youngest) and I set up a little Farmer's Market in a little barn they have in the front, and now we not only have the milk that customers pick up every day, but we also have baskets of produce for sale! Very fun. I am quite pleased with how it all turned out.
The two most extreme things I have done would defiantly have to be bailing hay, and butchering or what the call "processing" chickens.
Okay, so the hay is awesome! It's first grown, then cut. We leave it to dry and turn brown, then with a rake hooked up to the tractor (which I successfully got to drive by the way ;) ) its raked into rows, then bailed by another machine hooked up to another tractor. Behind this second tractor comes the crew! Ther is someone in the truck driving about 3 mph, and attached to this is the hay wagon. While driving up and down the field, there are two people walking alongside the moving truck, hoisting these like 60 lb. bails up to two more people standing on the wagon, stacking the hay. And yes, I was on the moving truck hoisting hay. Very proud of that fact. However, what I was not so proud of was the fact that I had not been informed I would be bailing hay, so I showed up in gardening attire, aka shorts, t shirt and flip flops. Yes people, flip flops.
Don't ever bail hay in shorts and flip flops.
Good gracious, my legs were a sight to behold after about an hour of this....and not a pretty one. The hay scratches you so bad and makes you break out in this hives like rash wherever it touches you. After about tree rounds around the field though, the boys had mercy on me :) and I got to drive the truck and later the tractor. I was singing one of my favorite songs the whole time, and it was awesome because the tractor was so loud, nobody could hear me ;) "I can take you for a ride in my big green tractor! We can go slow, or make it go faster down through the woods, and out to the pasture: 'Long as I'm with you, it really don't matter!" ;) So yea, we were probably working for about 5 hours out there, and then we had to deliver it down the street. I felt bad for all the cars stu k behind us. But Jon was making it go as fast as he could....i think we reached 8 mph going downhill at one point. When we got there and the man we were delivering the hay to saw me jump down with all the boys, all sweaty and dirty, he just shook his head and laughed saying, "I tell you what...girls are just too hard core these days!"
Awwwww yeeeeaaaaaaaa!! ;) I'll bail hay any day.
OH!! And before I forget, GOD ANSWERED A PRAYER OF MINE that I seriously forgot about until this hay bailing adventure! So, my whole life, I have been really, really, really, allergic to hay. Like I immediately feel my lungs close up, I break out in real hives, and I get really serious asthma attacks. Because of this, I really haven't ever been able to go near hay, much less like go into a loft or heaven forbid roll around in it and play in it etc. etc. And that really crushed me the first time I came here to the farm because the kids had all built these mazes in the lift in the barn and were having so much fun, but of course the second I climbed up the ladder, I had to leave because I instantly started having an attack. Since then, my farm dreams were quite lessened because I was like there is no way I can have a farm and be this allergic to hay. So I prayed! I prayed fpr Jesus to heal me of my hay allergies and to just take away all the asthma related to it.
And oh my goodness, it hit me as I was heaving a bail up to the top, all the dust and loose hay falling into my face and mouth and all over me...
I was totally fine. No asthma. No heavy chest. No hives.
God hears the simple requests of His children dear friends!!
And then we come to the chickens.
I'm not sure if my stomach can handle even recalling it. It truly was the most disgusting thing I have ever witnessed and taken part of. There is blood, feathers, guts and flies everywhere. The unfortunate chickens are taken out of the bed of the truck, hung upside down in a cone thingy, throats slit, put in the scalder, transferred to the plucker, then plopped down on a metal table for the thrilled Hannah to scoop out all their insides.
I have no idea what I was doing or what possessed me to help...but I did. And wow, was it hard core. And for a person who as a little girl would cry and cover her face with a cloth every time her mom took her to the petting farm because she couldn't stand the smell of cows...I'd say that girl no longer exists. Will I ever do chickens again? Probably not for a fun activity on the weekend...but I shall when I have my own farm i suppose. I'm just happy I made it through without throwing up. Not saying I didn't dry heave once...or twice....or five times. Hahah but I made it, and golly did it feel good to conquer the grossness. OH! And I only broke two gallbladders which apparently is really good for a first timer. Everyone was saying the norm is to break five. Oh yeaa :)
Another thing I have learned about myself this summer is that I actually do enjoy gardening! It always seemed like such a daunting task...probably just because I know so little about it. But as I have been up here working, I have grown to really love and appreciate the feeling of satisfaction that comes with having a little patch of earth that you can care for and grow fruits, vegetables and flowers in. I have been reading tons of gardening magazines, books and tutorials, and am SO excited to start my own garden when I get home! My mama and I are all excited for me to grow vegetables to can and such, and I am thrilled too! I want to do herbs, flowers, and possibly some apple and peach trees, along with berry bushes. We will see!
Well, there is much more to share and talk about, but I don't want this post to carry on for too long ;)
More to come!
Thanks again for all of you who read this. I love having readers. Feel free to share my blog with others! Its always SO exciting getting mew traffic :)
God bless!
