Snowboarding

Arlington High School has a snowboarding club that takes place in January. It's every Tuesday after school to 10 pm. I think that they allow you full freedom on the mountain. They also allow you to take lessons on the mountain which could be fun, but I think I would probably just ride freely. I'm not even 100% sure that I will be able to do the club because my work is still going quite slow and we are still trying to get in to the swing of things. But when we do, I hope i will be on the mountain in January. I'm also hoping to meet up with my friends in New Jersey, and if we all have the money, possibly going to Snowmass, Colorado for a week long trip or so. I realize however that I need to work hard in order to gain the privilege of such a luxurious trip.

Week 6:

This week wasn't great. I caught a bad cold which has effected my attitude towards work. I've also had to miss out on two days at the farm. Wednesday, I watched a movie called the Cove. The movie is about a dolphin trainer who travels to Taiji, Japan in order to free the dolphins that were being used for their meat. I found it hard to watch this movie because I hate to see dolphins die, and there were some fairly graphic scenes of the cove filled with blood in the water. The farm on friday last week, we had to vaccinate the cattle. The whole experience was a lot of fun because i had never seen anything like this happen in real life. I've only seen people herding cattle in movies. I actually got to inject vaccines into the cattle. I was shocked at how thick their skin was. At the end, when i thought we were done, I won't go into detail, but we castrated 2 bull calves. It was a great day, and i never thought i would be able to say I'd ever done either of those things.

Week 6: Day 1

Yesterday, I had a vision. A vision of me in 20 years, living on a farm, and farming for a living. At the farm, 20 minutes before i left, a goat went into labor. I was begging to stay and have my parents pick me up a few hours later so that I could see a goat give birth. Today, I am more excited then i have ever been to see a few hour old baby goats. I will take a lot of picture so I can share the beauty. We are also still waiting for lambs which I can't wait for either. I leave for the farm in about an hour and I feel like it will be the longest hour of my life. Tomorrow is also and exciting day. My friend and I are hoping to start a holiday in the name of our favorite food in the whole world, Goldfish. Tomorrow, all I will be eating is goldfish, all day. I hope to find out how to post pictures and i hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I will.

Week 5:

The main farmer at Codman Farms, Eric, is pretty funny. On Monday, we moved the sheep from their pasture to the barn. Their pasture is across the street so we had to stop traffic (which in Lincoln was 1 car). Eric gave me the bucket of grain and told me to stand across the street shaking it. When he opened the gate, all the sheep came charging at me for the grain. I was surprised, i thought they would leisurely walk towards me and i would just keep walking, but no, these sheep are like a vicious mob. I had to run side by side with a hungry ram. Good experience? Yes, now I know next time to get a better head start then the width of a street in Lincoln.

Reflections on Volunteering

Volunteering at Codman Farms has been a great amount of fun. Later in life I sure hope I can one day live on a farm with pigs, chickens, cows and all those cool animals. For now however, volunteering is a great way to farm without having my own farm. Soon, the sheep are going to start giving birth and the past two days I was there, the farmer Eric and I have been working on insulating the sheep barn and hanging up heating lamps. I can't wait for the lambs to come, i don't think I've ever held a lamb before.

Volunteering at Ironstone has gone well. I'm actually going to start taking riding lessons there. When I've gone riding before, I've only done western. At Ironstone, they teach english and english is supposed to use a lot of muscles that some people never knew they had. The program is supposed to be great and I can't wait for the exercise.