A day in the life...

WELCOME

It has been a little while since I last posted here. I need to be better about not slacking on this blog, but on the bright side, I have been really busy and productive. Life has been full of fun and exciting things, which have kept me away, but Im back! For this post I wanted to give you an inside on what my days are like here at the farm. I have been here now for almost 5 months and have definitely set into a routine. We also have a new batch of volunteers that arrived a couple of weeks ago, so I am no longer one of the "new kids". I am one of the "old volunteers" now, but that doesn't mean that I am not constantly learning here. Everyday there is a new adventure to take on, and I end each day with a bit more knowledge. Its fantastic!

But enough about that... on with my day.

No matter what schedule I have each day, I try to start all days with some sort of exercise. I am training for a 1/2 marathon at the moment, but I balance all that running with yoga as well. I get up very early to fit either of these exercises into my day before our morning meeting at 8am.

Running Time!

Namaste

One of the perks of getting up that early, is being able to see beautiful sunrises like this. It makes it all worth it. 

Beautiful sunrise

After our morning meeting, I would go a start the chores for the day. All the volunteers help with the feeding, checking, and care-taking of the animals. This particular morning, I helped milk the goats which is something that we do this time of the year to keep a couple of our female goats producing milk so we can continue to milk goats with our participants that come to the farm. 

Typical schedule for the day

Milking the goats

This particular day I also worked in the garden a lot. Being on the Education Team means that when we have down time, or there are limited programs that day, we can join other teams and get to do different jobs. I really appreciate this because it changes up my day and allows me to learn new things outside of my job. We are in the middle of the harvest season, so my day included harvesting lots of great veggies. We also have a weekly farm stand that we sell some of our veggies that we cannot consume on the farm. 

Beautiful Squash

BEANS!

Dill Flower

Our Head Gardener, Liz Jo, giving us the day's agenda

The garden, in all its glory

Taking a rest, with a great view

Our Thursday Farm Stand

Being silly with some bean leaves

Krista bring our veggies to the kitchen 

Hannah next to our GIANT cabbages

Some beautiful swiss chard

For lunch, the New Volunteers and I ate in our Global village. Today we had the Ghana Meal, which is Fufu and a tomato-based, sweet potato sauce. Its very delicious! We are practicing for when participants start to come. Its really fun to cook over an open fire and get to see the meal from beginning to end. Doing this with participants is also a fun process because many of the children have never cooked on their own, much less outside over an open fire. Plus, exposing them to new foods like Fufu (cassava flour), can be a fun experience. 

Our Fufu balls

Patiently awaiting lunch

Our goats in the Ghana site

 After work, which is right after our 4pm chores (feeding and checking the animals again), we went our to our weekly local Trivia Night at "The Tavern". Its a great local restaurant/bar that holds a very competitive Trivia Night. This was the first time our New Volunteers, so we wanted to make sure they got to see the sights and the sounds of Rutland, MA. The trivia gods were in our favor this evening, because my team (The Shut-Up Sheep) won FIRST PLACE! Which is a $25 gift card to "The Tavern". It was a great way to wrap up the evening.

The winning ticket!

Part of our team

 Once we returned from our epic win at Trivia, I celebrated by making some Butternut squash (from our garden), lentil curry, and later, some beer-bread. Both where great successes and first-time recipes for me. I have taken on a new love for cooking around here. I hope it something I take with my for the rest of my life. I also sat down to play a bit of my guitar. Ive been trying to keep up with practicing regularly... some weeks I do better than others.

Dinner Time!

Regular Beer Bread and Nutritional Yeast/Dill Beer Bread

La la la la... 

And that sums up a typical day for me. It has been an incredible 5 months and I am looking forward to spending couple months enjoying my time here with my friends and all the furry beasts that live here at the farm. Never letter a day go by without learning something new and interesting! 

Life is good