May 03, 2009

10:34 a.m.

What I Did on My Spring Vacation

I went to Farm Camp! My visit to S&J's house in northwestern CT was so much fun. They have all sort of animals, so I got to pet goats, watch a hive of bees, play with two rats over and over again, pet a dog and a kitty, wear a snake, and hold a (rather apprehensive) chicken. Cluck cluck!! S made ice cream from goat's milk and fresh eggs and local maple syrup, and we had gift venison and trout that J had just caught for dinner. S and I took a long walk with her doggie by a lake and through woods. She showed me her painting studio and unraveled some of the mysteries of watercoloring for me. Her kids are 11 and maybe 8 or 9. It's hard for her to get a few minutes in a row of uninterrupted time for painting or adult conversation. So, for various and sundry reasons, we both really enjoyed the visit.

They have three white goats. One is the mommy of one of the others. The daughter of this mommy goat is pregnant and going to have her kid any day now. The other is their milker, and I got to learn to milk a goat!!!!!!!!! I got to milk a goat!!!!!!! I milked a goat!!!!! I caught on pretty fast, too, and milked her all the way down til she was empty.

Their two rats started out life as potential snake food, but they fell in love with the rat babies and kept them as pets. S asked me if I wanted to have them, because it wasn't their intention to have rats; they just couldn't bear to use them as pet food. I said I couldn't take them right now because there's no one to take care of them here when I'm away a long time, but that I'd reconsider if I got the house. They were SO FUNNY. They'd crawl up my sleeves and into the neck of my shirt and rummage around in my clothes, poke their noses out the sleeve hole, duck back in, come out my neck, sniff my ear, try to go behind the sofa cushions, all the time with noses and whiskers twitching away. Then I'd put them back in their cage and they'd curl up in their hammock. Later I'd walk by the cage and they'd leap onto the sides like static electricity, wanting to come out again. Of course I would take them out. Absolutely, completely adorable.

The chicken yurt is in the background. They sleep in this moveable object. It has two rickshaw-like poles through it, and one person on either side can lift and move it to a new part of the yard. There's a different place where they go to lay eggs.

This is the one that's with kid. See how her tail's up? That's a sign that she's close. Her udders have gotten bigger, too. They don't know exactly when she got pregnant because it was from a visiting buck rather than from taking her to be bred somewhere.

Oh, they're so sweet, though. Friendly, and they like to be petted. And their little voices are beautiful.

I learned to tell the difference between a worker bee and a drone. The drones allegedly don't have stingers, so you can pick them up.

The house doesn't have television or computer games, and the kids are growing up on fresh milk and eggs. I taught her son how to blow through a blade of grass between his thumbs to make a noise. We all played our Grass Band out on the front lawn until we were laughing too hard to play any more.

Oh, they have fruit trees and raspberries and blueberries, too. J has done a little tree grafting, which is another fascinating subject.

Late in the night, sitting around the living room with glasses of wine and rats padding about the sofa, we talked about my deceased ex who was S's boyfriend for a year before he moved on to me. She hadn't heard some of the stories about what I went through with him. This was twelve years ago that he died, and 17 years ago that she was with him, so it's pretty long-ago history now -- long enough for there to be no sting or residual horror. They parted amicably, though after hearing a few tales, she thanked me over and over again for "taking him off her hands." As tumultuous as their relationship had been, she still escaped the worst of him. After Ex, she got a puppy and was all done looking for romance, and then suddenly she met J. The rest is a much happier history.

Well, it was just a great visit. They'd invited me to stay over, but I knew I had to meet Marc today for soldering lessons, and I still wanted to sleep in my own bed. We kept almost saying goodnight and then talking more, so I left very late indeed. I got to bed at 3am! Very difficult drive back. I stopped in my bank's parking lot for 15 minutes of shuteye so that I could make it all the way home -- it was about an hour and a half, I think. Amazingly I woke relatively early (for me) and Marc wants to do yard stuff before it rains later. I don't have to go over until threeish or fourish. I can take my slow time, fuss about on d'land and facebook and have my tea without rushing. Perfect.

And did I mention that I milked a goat??????!