Footprints on the Web

Today marks the first week of my farm living. Most people I know either grew up in a farm or do it as a weekend or month getaway. I decided to rent out leave my comfort zone, rent out my home, quit job searching and settling for an income and go to a remote farm in an even more remote island where the population is below 500. There is not a single restaurant, bar, shop on the island unless you count the general store that is not even quarter the size of most bodegas in NY. Just wanted I needed and wanted for the next 6 months while I discern. And along for the ride is my 14year old puppy.

The farm is a sheep farm with over 500 sheeps. They used to be in the 1000s but with time due to financial constraints, had to sell almost halve of them. It is family owned and run. A small family, just like any other family with its dynamics and personalities. Everyone is super nice to my dog and I. They are very passionate about what they do. Clearly because they are trying hard to make this work and not taking the easy way out and selling it and pocketing the proceeds and moving on.

My accommodation is in an yurt. The yurt was built and hand painted in Tibet and imported. I couldn’t love it more. The doors are painted bright red. The pillars in the inside have hand painted patterns and prints. The floor of the yurt is bright yellow and it really brightens it up inside. There in a backdoor and front door. The backdoor has glass windows to peek into the pastures where the sheeps and lambs graze. This is my view. This is my peace. This is my zen.

My toilet was an outdoor room with a big bucket that I filled up with wood shavings as I made deposits. I had a place for a toilet roll. And I hung a plastic bag for my trash. Right next door was my outdoor shower with hot water. Woohoo! Kitchen was outdoors too with a barbeque grill and one stove. There was a sink between the toilet and shower but non functional. There was a sink in the kitchen area that had a mind of its own as to when it wanted to work. Who was I kidding – I really didn’t need anything more. I have always been kinda low maintenance. So the bugs, ants, spiders everywhere didn’t bother me. By the end of my first week, I even got used to passing by little snakes everywhere without freaking out. Once I was told they are not dangerous, ofcourse. My brilliant dog couldn’t care less as he continued to step on them as he romped around the farm rolling around on and eating grass, cow or sheep poop deliriously.

My first day after settling into my yurt and unpacking my single suitcase I started walking around the farm. I met 2 of the employees who were, again, such nice and friendly folks. In less than an hour, thanks to their training, I was zipping in and out of a gator that the farm had named ‘Lucy’ and power washing tractors. Both of which I was doing for the first time in my life. We strapped on a large fridge to a standing up dolly and took it to the basement of the main farm house. There I met Ted, the turtle who was swimming around in a tank by itself. 2 of the 6 guard dogs were close to the fence and I tried to introduce my dog to them. One of them definitely had a fierce growl and showing teeth. By the third time we came around, she could not be bothered. The puppy on the other hand was excited to see us.

The next morning and most of the day I did probably one of my least favorite jobs thusfar. Digging a long and deep trench to lay down a long and wide plumbing pipe. Did I tell you I was digging it manually? With a shovel? I had one of the family members help me and ofcourse being born and raised on the farm, digging trench was 2^nd nature to him. My 20 minutes of work was to put to share by his merely 2 minutes of work. I got to blow a gas flame gun few times to help mold the pipes into each other. Again first time doing this. First time doing any of this! At the end of the day, I did the best to cover the pipe up once we hooked up the plumbing lines and tightened the bolt screws. And I will be the first to admit I did a shitty job. There is a dip in the soil and I really couldn’t be bothered to perfect it because my back was fucked.

I did get to participate in a sheep drive midway through this back breaking, every muscle in your body being on steroids job. So what is a sheep drive? It is where the shepherd (a specific family member) leads a flock of sheep driving in an ATV to a desired lot where they are to graze for the next few days. Behind a flock there will 1 or 2 individuals in an ATV to ensure that the flock doesn’t stray off and goes in a pack and line. Best way to get a sheep to go where you want it to is by going in the opposite direction because sheep tends to steer away from where humans are. But they are so cute, why don’t they want to be petted?!?! Unless ofcourse they think you have food, grains to be specific. In which case they will tread towards you. At the end of the sheep drive, we left 2 of the guard dogs with them and then I went to visit the home of  one of the sons and his girlfriend. They had ducks and 3 cats. They were so hospitable and I got to know more about the farm and them.

Next morning was awesome. I got to go on chores which is where you feed all 3 flocks, 6 guard dogs and the sheep and lambs in the barn. The barn feeding was mostly by hand because there are so few of them. They eat hay and their water needs to be refreshed. One of the pregnant females was so crippled from being pregnant that she was constantly laying down and we had to help her stand up atleast once a day for few seconds. My dog while excited that he got to roll around in sheep poop, got a little too close to lambs and so got head butted by one of the sheeps. Ofcourse with him being so smart, he went right back for more poop and too close to the lambs so I had to go lock him up in the yurt. The 2 large flocks were always fed using a snacker which was loaded using some sort of math (that I am yet to understand) calculated by automated switches, towers and mixers. Corn, pellets, etc. all mixed. We also had to take mineral and salt as a prenatal vitamins for the pregnant yewes (female sheeps; the male ones are called rams). The dogs got fed once a day a mix of kibbles and what the owners of the farm made in a slow cooker with all sortsa meat, veggies and fruits.  Pulling the tug on the snacker as the sheep came running and lining up in an organized and disciplined manner was such a beautiful sight. No fighting. It was such an easy and fulfilling morning. Back on the main farm, I got to help flatten boxes that had products for the wool shed that sol farm merchandise. One of the super friendly staff showed me where the ‘burn pile’ was along with the sewer where I was to dump my porter potty-bucket as it filled up.  She also showed me a tiny home that was purchased by one of the sons. It had to be cut into halve because it would not fit into the ferry. The plan was to have a carpenter volunteer to stay in it and fix it up but it was stranded for now. To wrap up my day, I loaded Lucy up with my dog and all the cardboard for recycle and drove upto the burn pile. As I was walking away from the burn pile, I had my first fall in the farm. Not too shabby. Just a few cuts and bruises.

Next day was a gardening day. Not my favorite. Pulling out the weeds, digging trenches with a ho-mi garden digger (love this tool), watering the soil, putting down manure, etc. Did this in 2 different sunflower beds. The second w=one was larger so I had to use a shovel again. Ugh this tool needs to be better built for petite people with no strength!

The big due date for the lambs was just a day away which meant the day before we what is called sheep dividing. We divided up the sheeps to different lots and this meant steering them to that lot with some of us driving on ATVs and others standing as guards where we did not want the sheep to go. There were quite a few on limping sheeps. For these their hoofs had to be trimmed. No easy job. Trying catching a 200-300 lbs pregnant sheep who wants to be nowhere close to you let alone be touched and have her hoofs trimmed. We had to take 2 of them to the barn as they were cases who needed special care. We also left 1 guard dog in each lot to protect the herd from the predators.  

On due date, we started doing regular checks. I went with the farmer with medical knowledge. We spotted the first 2 lambs. They were so tiny. Smaller than my 10lbs dog. How can you not want to run and hold them? Only one of them was by its mother. The other one was off on its own and the farmer picked it up by the front 2 limbs and put it close to its mother so that the mother would learn to recognize its own baby and start licking it and nurturing it. If the mother sheep rejected a lamb, to avoid the risk of it starving, the farm had a foster lamb program where people could sponsor a lamb, name it and receive pictures by paying a fee that would go to bottle feeding these lambs and giving them the nutrition the mother sheep failed to give it. Later that day, I went on another check with the shepherd and we found a lamb in one of the other lots. Later that day we tried inducing the sheep who could not stand up. After few pain killer shots and trying for 3 hours of having a hand up her butt, we were not successful. The poor thing was groaning the whole time and fought us hard to get away but had too many of us holding her down. She was a trooper.

People and animals around me are resilient, tough and sincere. I have seen these traits before so recognized them. But definitely not all at the same time and in everyone at the same place.