Farm Sitting

I am now in full swing of my daily farm sitting chores for the Goldstein's. This is a really great opportunity where I get to live at their house and truly experience the daily chores of caring for animals. The Goldstein's own a small farm about 10 minutes south of MFAI and on this farm they raise sheep, approximately 50, 30 or so chickens, and one Jersey cow named Kua. They also grow numerous fruit crops including pears, peaches, apricots, persimmons, hazelnuts and more. My daily responsibilities include milking the cow twice a day, bottling the milk for members to pick up, filling the water tanks for the cow, sheep and chickens, feeding and letting the chickens out of their coop, collecting and washing the eggs, and closing up the chicken coop again at night. Although this adds a lot of work to my already busy schedule, approximately an hour in the morning and an hour at night, it also provides me with an invaluable hands-on learning experience. This opportunity allows to be fully immersed in the farming lifestyle that I plan to continue for the rest of my life. I am able to realize how much work goes into raising animals whether it be for milk production, meat, wool or eggs. It also forces me to recognize how doing farm chores in the early morning, farming all day and repeating the chores at night is a tiring yet rewarding ritual. Other great upsides to this opportunity is that I have ample access to nutritious raw milk, all the eggs I can eat and the amazing companionship of animals. Another  perk is witnessing the playful nature of a new litter of kittens who live right outside the back door. Please bear with me while my blog posting slow down, I will be more diligent about posts when my schedule slows down.