fog, rain, an allergy attack, and an exciting surprise!

So, as I was finishing up yesterday's post and having to constantly explain that I had no photos of that day because my camera inexplicably vanished into thin air, Sally came in with...my camera! See someone had found it on the side of the highway (what? How did it get there from the picnic table where I non-stupidly left it?) and brought it into the Police Department. They looked through the photos and noticed that a lot of them were from Sally's farm (this farm used to be a town building or something and is pretty historic, so people know what it looks like) and so let her know. I love small towns! But then I wondered maybe something really embarrassing was in the photos? Like some horrible self-portrait I was thinking of making my profile picture? As I was looking through them, the first fifteen or so are of the same cat, which is...kind of embarrassing. But it's a small price to pay to have it back.

one of the many, many photos of this cat that was saved

Also, I just want to point out the miraculousness of the fact that my camera sat on top of my car for over a mile as I drove down Fairgrounds Road all the way to Route 9--now that's safe driving (hi mom and dad! Are you reading this?) I'm guessing it fell off right after I pulled onto Route 9 and accelerated to 65 mph in about 6.1 second, tires screeching, smoke flying from the back, and laying down two long streaks of rubber pointed in the direction of a hot sandwich and a totally oblivious driver (joking! But dad you did always tell us the squealing tires are happy tires.)

Wednesday morning's fog

With that, let's return to yesterday. It was raining on and off all day. In the morning we had to throw some drywall up in the barn in order to have it meet inspection (add drywalling to my new list of macho talents that I've gained in the past few months (in addition to truck-driving and (swamp) carpentry)) but I had a mega allergy attack and had to leave the barn (seriously, I need one of these.) After doing non-barn stuff that needed to be done, like putting new shavings and hay in the chicken coop and cleaning out five wheel barrows full of cow shit from the barn, I was just moping about my stupid allergies. But then! I remembered the sign at the farm stand said "Ice Cream Sandwiches" and I decided to investigate.

intriguing...

Turns out, that Betsy--Sharon's partner from last week who made the life-alteringly good apple cake, also makes ice cream sandwiches! Is there anything this woman can't do? Sharon is a lucky, lucky woman.

Somewhat pathetically, the ice cream sandwich made me feel way better (am I five?) and I was ready for the task of digging a four foot hole in the afternoon. Four feet! Not easy. The holes are for the supports for the handicap ramp that Sally is building for the barn.

This job kind of sucked to be honest. But at least I was being useful. Also another kid that's doing a long-term wwoof (a year) at a nearby farm came to help out and he was interesting to talk to. His name is  Sy (real name) and his family owns land in Cummington that they are going to break ground on soon.

After we were done digging holes, Sy drove K and me to Notchciew which is part of the Trustees of Reservation to pick apples at the abandoned orchard there (I think technically you are supposed to pay a small fee to the Trustees of the Reservation out there but no one bothered us.)  It was on a really lovely piece of land, the apple trees were planted in an expansive meadow on hill right beyond the caretaker’s house that looked out on the surrounding area. The trees here are just starting to turn gold, with a few maples here and there already a vibrant orange and red. I will definitely be going back, likely this weekend, with my camera so you can all see it. And the apples! So delicious! One tree in particular had perhaps the most delicious apples I’d ever tasted. Sy asked if I wanted to join him at 3am Saturday morning and get a whole bunch (bushel?) for the pigs at the farm he is staying at but I'm thinking I'll pass. A 3am apple run would be fun, but so would sleeping through the night. 

After the orchard we drove to Manda Farm where Sy has been staying since the start of summer. First, we gave some apples to the pigs—they have Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs which are so adorable. They have big ears that hang in front of their eyes. I guess they don’t use their eyes much, just their noses. Also, really blond eyelashes! And the most perfectly pudgy bodies, they look just like pigs should. Oh also there’s Charles, who is the enormous 500 lb boar and looks kind of scary but really is just a big teddy bear. At the farm there are also two pretty stupid but sweet dogs—one of which is missing a leg from the time he was hit by a car. As we were driving away from the farm, he ran in front of our car, and the missing leg made total sense. They also have some Narragansett turkeys which are actually quite beautiful—something I never thought I’d say about turkeys before. They sell them for Thanksgiving as a heritage breed. Also, they have baby turkeys which make thoroughly adorable squeaking noises, all-black Dexter cows which are short and mean-looking and also just mean, sheep that had dark brown spots, two ducks, and goats! This was the first time I had any real affection for goats; in general they freak me out with their square horizontal pupils and penchant for eating clothing. But these were Nubians with really soft floppy ears and little lips that would close around my finger, and itchy heads that they would rub against my leg. I liked these goats!

We also harvested some oyster mushrooms while we were there, and looked for shitakes that they cultivate but none were showing. Then Sy drove us back to our farm for another quiet evening, briefly interrupted by catching four idiot chickens that still didn't go back to the new location of the coop. Hopefully by tonight they will have figured it out.

Today was mainly spent in the barn, where I discovered that Claritin actually works for me! I felt like a living commercial for Claritin all day. Anyway, we put up a whole bunch of drywall. I drilled some stuff. It was pretty lowkey. Oh also, K took off this morning kind of unexpectedly, so he's no longer around.

About to go pick up some pizza for dinner! It's pouring here, but I think it's supposed to be the last day of it. I didn't take any pictures because everything's dreary, so sorry for the low-picture post.