Stuff around the farm

Monday/Tuesday

Hello my little chicks and ducks :)
Monday was a half day for me at the farm. I came in early, got to work for a bit with the new intern, Mika, and said goodbye to my new people and animal friends around 2:00. It was strange seeing the place empty of visitors after the busy weekend. It felt empty...calmer. Phil says it's way better that way, but I kind of enjoyed meeting so many new people. There are volunteers who come to the farm every week- some from Woodstock, some from Brooklyn and others from even further. The family who brought one of the pigs, Miss Piggy, to the farm (because they found her hurt on the side of the road and kept her until she grew just too, too big) comes to see her almost every week and helps out. The sanctuary is able to stay open purely on donations, which is pretty cool, and everyone working there or volunteering there honestly wants to be there and help. It's so nice!
So now I'm home for a few days to sleep and regroup and be here for my little sister's 11th birthday. It's really nice to be home and to see my friends and family again. Everyone's home from college! yay!
It took about three hours to get home, which is kind of long to be in the car by myself, but when I got home there were two baby cows in our pasture! AHH! THEY ARE SO ADORABLE! We got them from a dairy (and beef) farm that was going to sell them to become veal. That's also how the steers at the farm were rescued. Not a lot of people see the connection between dairy and veal, but since cows have to have a baby in order to produce milk, they are just constantly being made pregnant and then having their calves taken away to sell to make veal. It's horrible. Anyway, they're about two weeks old and still only drink milk which we have to give them from a bottle. It's going to be an adventure trying to raise them, but it makes me feel so, so happy and wonderful that we're doing this.

Pogo

Jean, Miss Piggie, Sophie

Don't know his name yet

Joe and Micky

Don't know his name either... :/

So now today is tuesday and I guess I'll be going back on Friday morning. Maybe I'll post some more pictures in the next few days and give you guys updates on how our little cows are doing. It's a very exciting time!
Going to see Letters to Juliet tonight with Rachel, Lina and Stephie! yay!
Love you,
Sarah

SUNDAY!!!!

Oh my goodness! You guys would not even believe the fantastic day I've had. I woke up this morning and I just knew it was going to be good... I don't know how... and I didn't say it out loud in case of jinxing it but woah was today a great day. I don't even know where to begin this story of fantasticness. For starters I guess I woke up and it was so beautiful outside I could have died. BEAUTIFUL and it stayed that way all day. Just perfect. I ate some breakfast at the house and then went to the Garden Cafe for coffee and got a scone for lunch later. Oh my god that scone was delicious. with earth balance! I could have cried. ANYWAY I went into the cafe and the guy working there (D.B.) was like "oh I'm sorry, we just ran out of coffee, do you want to wait for me to brew another pot?" and I was all "sure" and he's all "It'll take about seven minutes."so there I was, sitting at the counter and I left my phone in the car so I was like SO bored but then we started having this conversation, the two of us, and I was telling him all about the sanctuary and he was all "oh man, do you know Rebecca Moore?" and I was all "Sure, she's great, I met her chicken yesterday." and he's all "yeah well have you HEARD her???" and I was like "Girl what chu taking 'bout?" and he goes on the myspace and plays this song. and she. is. AMAZING. Here, look at this
http://www.myspace.com/rebeccamoore


I was just blown away. I had no idea. and then he gave me my coffee which was DELICIOUS and HE put the soymilk and sugar in it for me and it could not have been a more pleasant interaction, I tell you.
So then I drive the remaining ten minutes or so to the sanctuary and this volunteer, Eric, who is super nice was there and we were talking and Rebbecca comes out and I was all "YOU ARE REDICULOUS!" and she's all "Aw shucks." and anyway, she's wonderful and so nice and everyone is so secretly talented. Like Jean, another volunteer, is a writter and Stevie, who I met today and who comes from Brooklyn every Sunday to help out(and is awesome), is a lawyer and D.B. was a friggen musician himself and didn't tell me and so is Phil and no one will tell you these things them self. You gotta ask around, like.
Today was great animal wise as well. There is no cell phone reception in that area and while at first it was annoying, you really do get this sense of freedom. I was like picking clover and dandelions for the bunnies and it was so peaceful. All of the visitors were really nice and helpful and I'm always just amazed by everyone's kindness... and we're really making progress with the rock field (and my scrawny arms) I feel like. I spent time with the goats and the ducks-some critters who I hadn't really gotten to know before today.



I feel like I'm getting more and more comfortable around them. Even if they can be intimidating at first.

Stevie is in love with this one goat who was found wandering the streets of NY when he was just a little kid. He had marks around his ankles, like his legs had been tied together, and was really really hurt and had to have half of one of his front legs amputated and I hate myself right now because I can't remember his name but I know it and I'll remember it in like an hour or so maybe. Anyway, they are adorable and she's known him since forever.
We just went around and fed everybody and hung out with the turkeys and cows and chickens and bunnies (bunnies LOVE carrots and apples but no one will touch either peppers or mushrooms) and all of these places donate food to them which they are so happy to get.

All the animals are so happy here, but it's not always perfect. I had to break up a rooster fight (not a bad one) today because peanut butter is a jerk sometimes and phoenix and Alfonso (turkeys) don't get along so they have to be separated. But the girls (Petunia and Sphinx) are getting more comfortable with me every day. They're unnatural. they're experiments of the farming industry and genetically disfigured. They've been debeaked and suffer from the heat because of their weight and the feathers and is so sad, but they are just so amazing, expressive and sweet creatures.

The goat's name is Albie.
Anyway, today was just a good day. I took over two hundred pictures and although I am very excited to be going home tomorrow to for a few days I know I'm going to miss it here.






After I left the farm (around six), I went back to the Cafe, (yeah, I'm a regular) and had the best dinner ever. Then I killed some time taking pictures around town (You can to go my photo blog to see those if you'd like) until the movie started. That's right. Sarah Duff went to see a movie in a real movie theater by herself. and it was incredible. The film, I mean. I wish there had been somebody around to talk to about it later, but it just blew me away. You should all go see it as soon as you can. It's called The Secret in Their Eyes, and it won an Oscar for best foreign film (and it totally deserved it in my opinion). Go see it now. Seriously. Oh, and you should see it at the Tinker Street Cinema because that's where I went tonight and it was wonderful and tiny and just made of character from the ground up and the people running it are just awesome and it might be better than the County. Which is saying quite a lot. Oh, it was just beautiful. The weather, the film... whole day. I love Woodstock.
XOXO,
Sarah

SATURDAY !

Today like a billion and twelve exciting things happened. First of all, have you ever heard a goat sneeze? well I have. It's adorable. And a pig getting sun block applied? almost as good.
Today was surprise permaculture workshop day! If you don't know what that is, you should cause it's pretty friggen awesome. Pretty much when applied to agriculture, the idea is to mimic naturally existing mutualisms within an ecosystem and set the garden up so that the pieces support each other. For example, legumes (like peanuts and soybeans) foster Rhizobium bacteria which fix nitrogen for other plants (thank you APES). By careful planning and observation, in a perfectly working permaculture garden there would be no need for inputs, such as fertilizer (which can run off and be extremely harmful to aquatic ecosystems, causing eutrophication. High levels of nitrogen in ground water is also potentially toxic to infants), and no waste.
So when I found out that the farm sanctuary is starting their own permaculture garden I was super excited! and I was invited to sit in on their discussion today. We first talked about the basic principals of the practice (earth care, people care, fair share ect...), and then started plotting the space. Alice Lo, Monica Ibacache and Gary Tuttle were the people in charge of the planning and are all extremely nice. Also, there was a guy taking the workshop that was, I swear, Ryan the temp from the office... just with nose piercings.
A lot of the people at the farm remind me of other people I've noticed.
Anyway, we used this thing called a solar pathfinder to figure out what portions of the space will be in shade at what times of the year/day. It was all very confusing math and reminded me of this time I went to a planetarium and was shown one of those star charts that you turn depending of the season. Anyway, very cool stuff. Another tool we used was an A frame, which is a simple contraption which helps determine where the slopes of the area are. This is helpful when planning irrigation, because you want the garden to be able to naturally store rain water within the soil, so it doesn't have to be watered. We started with the first stages of that, plotting tiers of levels, and Alice recorded all of the points.
Other factors need to be taken into account as well- sunlight and drainage are important, of course, but also wind and noise and future factors, like trees that will grow bigger and give more shade, and things like where the beds should go and what shape they should be and a thousand other details. And that's all before you can even start thinking about the plants and how they're all going to interact. So, as Ryan and his girlfriend said, sometimes it's better to just get the basics planned out and then just start and learn along the way. It's impossible to foresee everything, but permaculture is an exact science. Yes, there's an underbelly of respect for life and the idea that humans need to start acting like a part of nature instead of the rulers of it. But it's not all spiritual and vegan hippie talk with nothing to back it up. People need to accept that modern day agriculture cannot go on as it is. It is simply not sustainable. The fossil fuel and water used, the soil erosion and pesticides, the deforestation- the main huge problems involved in trying to feed seven billion people are avoidable. All of these problems can all be hugely minimalized if not completely stopped with permaculture. Especially vegan permaculture; if all the space and energy used to grow food to feed cattle alone was instead used to feed people directly, there would be an overabundance. world hunger? say what? And permaculture is specifically designed to take up less space, less inputs and put out zero pesticides. It's organic, it's super interesting, it's possible (prefered!) on a small scale, it's the future and I love it.
Anyway, here are some pictures!

The blue tube thing is a home made water level. Everyone's hands got stained blue. Anyway, I was given lots of suggestions for readings and websites and stuff from them so I hope to learn more about it in the near future. and I hope that the Sanctuary's garden is awesome! I'm so excited and happy about it!

So that took up a great deal of the afternoon. After that I ate the most fantastic bagel with tofuti better than cream cheese and oh my goodness I could spread that stuff on a couch and eat the whole couch and it would be delicious. I did the usual chores around the farm, I refilled all the waters and checked up on everybody and then I and some other volunteers (I meet new people everyday here!) picked up all the rocks from the pig pen (my arms hurt just from typing this) and I brought in and fed all the roosters all by myself! And that's a huge deal, even if you don't realize it. Only this one was a real jerk and totally bit me. and it hurt a lot. but I feel like I can cut him some slack considering.
I met Nellie, Rebecca's favorite chicken. He follows her around and has feathers like a poodle but can't be around the other chickens because his feet are deformed and they pick on him. Anyway, they are adorable together! she loves him so much. Sophie and Peter the pig are also pretty much to die for. He can walk further every day!
Today was also a big one for the cows. There are four cows at the farm, all rescued, all huge. If they hadn't been saved they would have been veal, which, I probably don't have to explain, involves taking baby cows and putting them into stalls where they can't move and can't see the sun until they are fourteen weeks old when they're slaughtered. The cows here are the most gentle things but you also have to be careful because three of them have horns and don't know their own strength.
Spending time with the boys here makes me very excited to get home and help acclimate our own rescued cows! yay!!! oh my god. I'm so excited. They're just babies. and it's amazing that we're able to do this. They would also just be sold to make veal if it weren't for the fact that we have some space and a barn and a fence and care about them. It makes me feel really good to be a part of this. I hope we can take care of them and make them happy. Sophie gave me a book that I'm going to real about raising cattel, but this is all just a sort of new science for everyone. Animals rescued were not genetically bred to live long and happy lives. They were bread to get really fat really fast and it doesn't matter if they die before they're a year old. So a lot of the farm animals have problems here, but vets and people like the ones at the sanctuary are getting better and better and dealing with these unexpected issues.
I almost forgot! today people flooded the sanctuary! tours and children and talking and everything else still having to get done! it was very fun and the day went by really fast. It was beautiful and sunny and I helped put a tarp up so that Pete could have some outside shade after he knocked the tent over and I got bit by a rooster and had my face scratched by a cat with just a stub of a tail (we made up afterwards) and even though I'm having a lot of fun here and I'm learning a lot (especially after helping on one of the tours today and really hearing indepth about the animals) I'm kinda starting to get a little tired out from these ten hour days. and I miss my house and my kitties and the people that I love. So I think it'll be nice to go home for a few days next week. but not before I hit up the indie cenema here in Woodstock. Oh man. So excited.
I'm out,
Sarah

FRIDAY

Today I went to fill up a chicken's water dish (first thing in the morning) and the water came out of the pump super fast and I got just absolutely soaked!
Then I picked dandelion greens and clover for Potter (pictured above) and the other bunnies and made friends with the goats. They're pretty cute.
Today was slower than yesterday and hot hot hot! So my allergies went crazy and I took some benadryl and had to take nap. I don't sleep very well in unfamiliar places so I didn't get much rest last night but everyone was super nice about it and was like "oh man, that happens to me all the time! Don't worry about it." and then we mucked out the sheep's stall and put some hoof guard on the pig's hooves and brought in the roosters and basically just spent a while walking around and giving attention to the animals. The turkeys are by far my favorite animals because they will follow you around everywhere and they really do make that "gobble, gobble" sound! I also learned that the thing on top of their beak is called a snood which I think is pretty funny and like something out of a dr. seuss book.
A new intern came today which is exciting, and I think it'll be fun working with her. She seems very nice and her name is super cool. Something like Nica or Miko... I can't remember.
Anyway, tomorrow is Saturday! which means that the sanctuary will be open to the public. I expect it will be quite packed. I've never been there during a weekend so it'll be pretty interesting. A hundred people milling about is sure to throw a wrench into our schedule...
Promise to tell you all about it!
kisses,
Sarah

Thursday, May 13th. DAY UNO

So even though Senior project officially started on Monday (when I didn't show up at school), it's taken me basically half of my first week to actually get started with this monster of a project. First of all, Woodstock isn't exactly a skip and a stroll away from my house. Secondly, I had to stick around to take my APES test and then my little sister caught a horrible 24 hour bug and mum didn't want to force her to be in the car for that long while she wasn't feeling all that great.
So Wednesday, late afternoon we arrive. I had to drive myself so that I could have a car to get back and forth from the sanctuary to the house I'm staying in. (I've got this adorable little room with the narrowest little bed and my door is held closed right now with a thumb tack and I'm really quite pleased with it.) I listened to a book on tape about wizards (I'm sure you haven't heard of it- it's very obscure) and Wilco and the drive went by pretty quickly. My mom and grandma and little sister were in the car ahead of me making lots of noise.

So once I dropped all my bags off at my temporary home and met the family I'll be staying with (who is simply Charmant) we drove to the sanctuary (it's about a 25 minute drive). Anyway, Woodstock is just BEAUTIFUL did I tell you that yet? well it is. Water and trees and clean air and mist and just yumm. I'm planning on going out to take some proper pictures very soon. (that's right, I'm a photographer. What of it?!)
Anyway, once I got checked in there, and met Sophie (one of the many lovely people working there) and some of the goats we went to the Garden Cafe, my most favorite place in the world to eat. DEElicious!

I ate myself into a vegan, fair trade coma and still had left overs for lunch the next day.

So now I'm on my own. I slept very little in a strange place all by myself but was very excited to start my first day. I got up, left the house, (drove back to the house to get my lunch) and then stopped at a natural foods store for breakfast. mmm

I had lots of fun on my first day but soon found out that it's exhausting work. I was there for ten hours- running around, feeding the pigs, lifting whole bails of hay all by myself, that sort of thing-meeting the animals, meeting the people (who are all really nice!) and doing little chores that look a lot easier than they actually are.

I got there at about 9:45 and was introduced to the caretakers there. I helped bandage a goat named jumper's knee and found out that goats are very strong and don't really like getting their knees bandaged. Then I washed out some buckets, and helped clean out and put fresh bedding in one of the chicken coops with two girls who were volunteering for the day. That took a long time. I washed some dishes and helped set up a tent for the pigs and met a pig named Pete who is a sweetheart but can't walk very well which is sad. There are a lot of animals here with problems, but most of them still manage pretty well and look happy to me. There's a goat and a kitty cat with three legs and an orange barn cat with only a little stump of a tail. He looks like a mini bobcat. So cute. The animals love attention and will follow you everywhere.

We took a break for lunch and the turkeys watched on with jealousy. I swept up the grain barn and cleaned the turkey's stall and did some more dishes. Then I met an 18 year old cat named Bug that I can't stop petting and a very nice gentleman named phil who used to be a professional vegan baker. I plan on stealing all his recipes.

I picked up sticks in the duck and rooster inclosures (the roosters are HUGE!) and visited the compost piles which are very impressive and not at all smelly. There are two ducks that never leave each other's side names Micky and Joe (adorable!). I helped feed the cows (who are huge) and met some more people and swept the floor inside and held a rooser while he got his eye cleaned out and I changed all the animls' water and did about a billion things until it was time to start closing up. It's important to put the birds either in their houses or in cages in the building because there are coyotes and black bears and foxes and cougars and who knows what else out there in the wild that would love to make a snack out of them.

The chickens love getting fed and the broiler chickens will literally eat themselves to death, so you have to watch them carefully. They hate going in their houses, however, and I had to catch and carry inside about seven roosters. I learned how to properly catch and hold them and I feel that I'm now fairly comfortable with it, which is pretty cool.

Work at the sanctuary is never done, but at about 8:00 I was just about falling over and really, really needed a shower so I folded up the last of the towels, fed the barn cats, helped do one last check of al the barn doors and headed home.

Instant noodles for now, but soon I will be an amazing vegan cook and will make a huge delicious dinner for you all! I feel a veganomicon dinner party coming on. After I sleep for a year and I half of course (if this project doesn't kill me). Love you!