Leaving Sunny Pine and Twisp : (

Derek and I left the farm yesterday and made it to McMinnville, Oregon where we are staying with Uncle Thom for a couple days. Leaving the farm (and Twisp) left us with  bittersweet feelings and overall, the internship was a great experience. I am very fortunate that we got to live and work at the farm, working with goats and eating lots of cheese. Taking care of animals is hard work but so rewarding in many ways. I enjoyed so much being around the goats (especially the kids) and as much as they can a pain in the butt, goats are so friendly and funny, that in the end, i forget most of the not so good moments. We probably had around 100 kids and i wanted to keep 20 of them…I was a real sucker for cute little babies; it is really easy to get attached to them, especially when you bottle feed them. I miss the little ones already and I hope someone is going to take good care of them (probably no one will take care of them the same way I did, i know because i was a bit doing it over the top…). We got to take some cheese with us when we left so we better enjoy every bite of eat while we can.

Being in the country made me really appreciate the slower pace of life, peace, quiet, tranquility, nice and friendly people: everything you don’t find in the city! Driving back to Oregon (especially around Portland) definitely made me miss the country even more: freeway packed with cars , noise, pollution, fast food everywhere, etc. I am a country lover and i want to get back to it asap. No way i am moving back to the city.

One thing that i really liked about the goats is that each of them had a unique personality, just like people. Some were curious, shy, sweet, mischievous, bully, daydreamer, pushy, Miss attitude, friendly, grumpy, etc. By the end i could recognize most of them. During kidding season, watching their rear was a daily task so i could easily recognize them from the rear end too. Goats also have different places in society (kind of like pecking order with chickens), with a couple older goats being leaders, always the first ones going to the milking parlor, with the other goats following them (goats would not follow just anyone), and some goats being at the bottom of the ladder, with other goats being not too kind to them, pushing them around. Little Lulu, the younger shy goat who gave birth to 3 kids, is at the bottom, being pushed around and being mostly a loner (it makes me sad to watch but it is the life of a goat).

Giving birth was also an amazing experience and i have both happy and painful memories. So rewarding to give or save a life, but also very stressful, sad and frustrating too not to be able to save a life too…I feel  very fortunate that i had the chance to do that once in  my life. Seeing some of the goats experience excrutiating pain made me really never want to experience birthing on my own.

The physical work involved with a dairy is impressive and i had trouble moving straw and hay bales around. I had to use the rolling technique (vs. the carrying technique), and to bring hay to far away places, i had to use the sled, even when there was no snow…Plus, all the other activities involved such as fixing fences, digging trenches, cleaning the irrigation ditch, etc. were very physical and demanding for a small/weak person like me. I still did the work though but i would not like to do it on a regular basis; no fun for me. Few days before we left, we had to trim the hooves, again, and this time i had to do some…i hated it and unfortunately, it is something you have to do every month. I guess it is true that whatever does not kill you, makes you stronger!

Having a dairy is a lot of work, 24/7,  non-stop; not only you have to take care of the animals (including special care of sick goats), feed them, milk them twice a day (that includes a lot of cleaning), making cheese every other day (also includes lots of cleaning); if you grow the food for the goats like they do at Sunny pine then you have to grow straw and hay and harvest it, irrigate, fix fences, and other random things (market, deliveries, supervising workers, etc.). All this work is to a warrenty to be successful; if you are lucky, you may be breaking even….

After working for three months on a goat farm, i am definitely not ready to commit to have my own dairy farm. Unless i am ready to give up everything else, and i am not, I don’t think i am ready to make this type commitment at this point in my life. How am i supposed to go to France for 6 weeks if i want too? I am so glad we interned though, instead of spending money and time trying to start a dairy, to find out this is not really for us.  

Working with Derek has been great and he is an awesome worker. Okay, i am a good worker too and i am confident that whatever we start together, we are going to succeed because we are motivated and we are hard working people. And if whatever we start does not work, then we will start something else. We are at a very exciting point in our lives, and even though it is scary to not know what is going to happen tomorrow, i see endless opportunities ahead of us. There is a saying that says that the sky is the limit, and i always wonder why the sky?  there is really no limit…

So that’s it, as far as the goat farm goes, but i am sure life has plenty of surprises for us and i will try to share and keep the blog updated so people can keep up with what we do. When i find out what is next for CC and DZ, i will let you know… Check back in a little while. Thanks for following our adventures; it was a good motivation for me knowing that people where interested in what we where doing and it was a real pleasure to share what we did, the good and the not so good part.

Until the next,

Peace.

CC