Sunday, August 23, 2009

Last Night at Peaked Mountain Farm

As I clean and pack up my things, it's really hard for me to believe that it is my last night to spent here at the farm. Yes, I know that I have to leave; I have completed my internship and I now must move on with my life, but it's hard. I really have come to enjoy Max and Leigh (Max is the other full-time intern left, Leigh is his g/f), and also the animals.

I used to hate sheep. Yes they are incredibly dumb animals, but they are also easy to handle. You can make them do just about anything you want, as opposed to cows that outweigh a person by 1,000 pounds usually. I have made some pets out of the sheep and I'll definitely miss the dogs too. It's a beautiful place here and I never fully appreciated it until recently and it's odd to think that I won't be here anymore.

One thing I forgot to mention about a few weeks ago... We've been keeping the donkey in during the day because he's been having issues with his hooves and with getting too much nutrients. Well, he has his own bucket of water which is left there during the day. One morning after milking but before clean up (Max and I were taking the sheep out), I heard a squeaking noise similar to the sounds my chinchillas make when they're distressed. I look and there's a waterlogged chipmunk trying to swim (or 'doggy paddle') for his life. He couldn't jump out so if I hadn't saved him he would have drowned. I picked him up and put him in the inside pocket of my carhartt sweatshirt for a few hours and he recovered. The funny part is when I was holding him, he spit out a water-logged piece of corn into my hand; the little bastard was stealing our corn. He obviously mistook the water bucket for a corn bucket which is what is normally in the basement of the barn. It was amusing to me. I rehabilitated a chipmunk.

Anyway. Enough being sentimental. The pigs were out this morning. I walk out of my house this morning to see a pig walking up our road. They had plowed through the fence we made (literally plowed) ... They had piled a bunch of dirt in front of the fence and pushed with a ton of force; I know because I had to dig up that fence and pick it up. But anyway, somehow I managed to get all three of them back in by myself. I was so proud of myself! And then Bob had me go pick up a total of 12 fences, 3 of which were the pigs'... And build 2 sheep pastures. It's alright though, the only issue I had (besides the buried fence) was the terrible bugs.

Today was incredibly rainy... It never stops, and when it does it's so hot and humid out! I'm not sure if I prefer the rain over the warmth... But I'm going to guess that yes, I actually think the rain is okay comparatively.

Alright, bed time. We're trimming the milkers hooves tomorrow and running them through the foot bath before I leave I guess. So yeah, early wake up time! Woo!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

I am so frustrated!!!

So Bob and Ann came back on Sunday night and were around for Monday morning chores. The bad intern was to be leaving Monday evening. Since it was my day off, I was going home with Mark (since I don't have a car)... I had a job interview on Tuesday for a job in Liverpool which went very well... Then I came back to reality (by stealing my mother's van).

Since I didn't get to sleep until 12:30 on Tuesday night (technically Wednesday morning), I didn't work until 7. I called them several times to see when they wanted me to work and they didn't return my calls until at least 8 that night. It's a four and a half hour drive from my house, if they had wanted me to work early, they should have let me know. Anyway.

I cleaned up yesterday morning from when Ann had milked and she kept giving me task after task of stuff to do. First, I had to go refill the footwash bottle that we've been spraying the sheep with that have footrot. We set up a foot bath, but for some unknown reason they won't FINISH setting it up (aka, put the bath IN it). So then she tells me that I need to bring more grain to the holding area. Ok, not a big deal, I can do that. However, after I had cleaned the parlor was when she told me that I had to go and clean out the hoppers for the grain in the parlor because the bad intern had put corn in them... But if they had originally told us from the start that corn doesn't go in there, or at least had told us that feed was even being delivered while they were gone, we wouldn't have had this problem.

And so, I spent about twenty minutes in the hopper, shoveling out feed, which shouldn't have been there in the first place... only to replace it with pellets. And then I had to go down to the parlor and put it through the hoppers to finish out the corn. It's not my fault that it happened, but I fixed it...

At this point it's about 90 degrees out with no breeze. The next chore you think would be a low-key one that doesn't involve much exertion, right? Because I'm already sweating my butt off? Wrong. Use the push lawn mower (which is NOT self-propelled, btw) and mow two areas in front of the house that are on a hill. Ok, But the sun is clearly going to be beating down on it. When it's 90 degrees. With no breeze.

So I complete that task and she's like 'well, this part over here needs to be mower too... sorry I didn't tell you'... And this area has a STEEPER slope. So for a 'break' I got to bag hay chafe on the barn floor because its supposed to be 'easy'... except that the barn floor is in direct sunlight at this time of day. So I spent another 15 minutes sweating off my ass only to go back and mow the part of the steep lawn in front of the house.

Get done with that, and it's 10:30, I figured she would give me the rest of the morning off right? Because, you know, I look like I have heat stroke and probably wasn't far from it. I only had one glass of water and no breakfast. Yeah... instead she tells me to take the sithe to the stinging nettles. So again, I do as I'm told. After I was done, I came in and had 5 glasses of water and went straight up to bed.

Afternoon... Do the chores (rams, pigs, set up)... and before I do set up (which takes place at 2:45), Ann tells me to go and use the sithe on the ragweed that is on the pasture side of the rock wall (NOT the road side that ppl see). She goes 'Well I spent an hour doing it in the blazing hot sun earlier'... I was half tempted to say 'no shit, you think pushing that lawnmower was any easier???', but I stopped myself.

Milked, cleaned up, and was then given cleaning the house as my last task... Or basically to sort out bottles and cans and recycling. Wouldn't have been bad but A) Bob told me to do it and B) there was probably a months worth in there because nobody else had gotten around to it. The reason I say that Bob told me to do it was one of my issues was because HIM of all people to tell US about cleanlines... well, that's like the pot calling the kettle black. Half the time he doesn't clean up after making scones (pans left in the kitchen, uncleaned until the next day)... And when they do get cleaned, it's usually us interns that have to clean up after them.

So this morning... milked. Cleaned up. Took out the sheep. Came and got changed to send out a cheese order. Which means I had to work with Ann. I am so sick and tired of her treating me like a two year old also. It seems like ever since I told them that I wanted to leave when my 600 hours is up (which is this weekend), they have been absolutely miserable to me (mainly Ann)... They're trying to get me to stay another week, but honestly, I don't want to just because of her. I can't stand working under her most of the time now. I mean, people should understand the difference between cool weather work and warm weather work. Mowing the lawn with a push lawn mower with a ridiculous incline is NOT warm weather work!!

Good lord... And to top it all off, I have an interview with the business I interviewed with last Tuesday on this Tuesday. When I go home for it, I will certainly have a hell of a hard time coming back here. Hopefully tonight I will sit down and tell them this.

Although, in addition to all of this that has just happened, I then sit back and think. If they had fired that intern like they should have, I wouldn't have had to shovel out the hoppers or probably clean the recycling. I understand that they kept him for a reason, but honestly... Somebody who wrecks your car, has no work ethic, gets out of work as much as possible, shows up to work late, messes up a batch of cheese, and also is a pathalogical liar would not be somebody I would defend.

Of course, there has been a severe lack of communication on their part. And lack of preparation. Like when they went away for the week and didn't order more flour or buy more cream and eggs so some of the baking was thrown off... And how they didn't tell us that an order of feed was coming. And while we were packing cheeses today Ann was criticizing me, and I can accept criticizm when I'm actually doing something wrong that I've learned before but I have only packed cheeses ONE other time, and she was treating me like a five year old and showing me how to do it (but it wasn't portrayed as a nice way when she was doing it)

And the whole week they were gone, the only thing we had to drive was the dodge truck. It's stick and I can't drive stick. At the beginning of this internship when I applied, they said we could drive farm vehicles, so this prepared me if my car ever did die. And when my car dies, they take one cross country and they let the other sit in an airport all week, and yes, both were automatics. They knew I wasn't going to have my car. And also when I was gone on vaca, they never told me they were leaving early or anything. And never told me they were changing the schedule. It's been so much all in the last two weeks that has been bothering me but I've been trying to be good and ignore it or brush it off. I can't anymoreeee.

I just want out. And if I didn't have 12 more hours of work till they gave me my evaluation for this semester, I would just leave. I feel like they are showing me no respect at all and I am not their slave. I am trying to hold my tongue until they evaluate me because I don't want a bad grade this semester for all the busting of my butt that I have done. I've worked my ass off for them this summer and this is how I get repaid... Awesome.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Another week or so has flown by...

My vacation was last week, which was nice to get away from the farm for a few days.

However, my return was not so good. It's so frustrating that they make a schedule and tell you what you're supposed to be doing, and when you come back the boss' are gone and one of the other interns (my least favorite) is telling me what to do. I got back Friday night and they weren't supposed to leave until Saturday afternoon. I understand plans change, but I do carry a cell phone. It's just extremely frustrating. I have so many milking times its not even funny. I think there are only three times where I'm not milking the whole time they're gone. Ugh.

I can't wait to be done. Another thing that has bothered me is their lack of planning about this trip. It's like they ruminated over the schedule and changed it so many times, but they left things undone like the cleaning of their house (which Max had to do), and the ordering of flour so bread and scones can be made, and not getting more cream so we can do the baking. And the feed also came today which NONE of us knew about or where to put it.

Oh well... I've only got a few more weeks here, but after being here and doing everything for them while they're gone will make it much harder to go back to work for them when they come back. I don't like it when they supervise me and tell me what to do because I can think and figure stuff out myself. I guess I think a part of this internship is learning how NOT to manage people also.

Don't get me wrong, I still love them, but I'm just counting down the hours... Only 112.25 left to go which shouldn't take much time at all with the amount of time I've been working and the hours I will be working to come. It's so exciting! That's all for now!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Time seems to be getting away from me and I've become so much more tired. Lately I've been working on my days off so I can get more days off to actually do something with my free time. I call it paid vacation. ;)

Last Thursday Doc Shelley came to visit and looked around the farm. It was good to finally have her come and I think she liked it. I showed her everything except for the lambs, which we couldn't go see because we would have had to walk like a half of a mile up a mountain in a downpour.

I've also done cave work, which was interesting. I haven't made cheese a lot lately, though today I made romano.

One of the other interns is extremely difficult to motivate, though this is also the intern that totaled bob and anns car and has done some other areas of the work and didn't complete it up to par. A few weeks ago he broke some equipment on the milking machine and caused us to be late which made me furious. It wouldn't have been so bad except that was one of the days when Bob and Ann had to run somewhere to do something so him and I were the only ones working.

Bob said the next day when I told him that I should come up with a management plan for dealing with his behavior. However, I have seen him work and know what he cuts corners on and doesn't do right and I told Bob that there would be no managing that I would do because if I were given a way to deal with him, I would fire him. He clearly doesn't care about his work and he isn't required to do this for school; it's just a summer job. There's more to it also, but I'm done writing about it for now.

Next week we're supposed to be getting out load of hay, which will be a semi I believe. However, this is when I will be taking off my days for my extended vaca to Mark's dad's dairy farm which will be exciting. And the week after that Bob and Ann will be leaving for a whole week to go to Wisconsin to visit a cow dairy that he has part ownership in, so we will be responsible for everything for a whole week. I'm excited about it because we will finally be able to do our own schedules and such.

It's been incredibly rainy here though I suppose it has been in most of the Northeast. Kinda sucks when the sheep are wet and they rub up against you... They also look so ridiculously pathetic that they're cute. I often wonder if they get uncomfortable when it rains at night and into the early morning and the sun comes out at 8. Lol You know, wool and a dryer kind of. They are cute though.

I think that's all to post on for now. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since the last time. I'll try to do a better job on keeping up with it.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Another week flying by...

Wow, this is just not a top priority for me apparently.

In the last week we've done the usual milking and all that. The ewe that is pregnant still has not had her lambs yet, but she has managed to get a sore foot so we've wrapped it. The llama's halter started to rub on his nose and it was a little tight to begin with so that didn't help. We brought him down off the mountain and treated him for that. We had to go get sawdust. I've milked countless mornings at 5 which kind of sucks. Lol

I don't think I've made cheese since the cow's cheese last week. We've also been working on staining some decks as well. Bob has put me in charge of finding hay, which I am rather reluctant to do. I almost feel as though it's such a hassle and he doesn't want to do it so instead he'll give it to the intern to do.

My car has now died and the mechanic doesn't know what is wrong with it, so my full day off I worked so I can save it up for another week (hopefully this coming week!)... Other than that, everything is going good.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Last few dayyys

So I have been completely exhausted the last week or so... Fourth of July was fun. Mark was here. Bob and Ann love having him around because when he comes to visit me, he always works with me so we get more accomplished! =)

So the farm house dinner was interesting as I have previously stated. There were around 20 people who came and we made about $50 a person I guess which is good. It was kind of weird explaining why I am here to people. The other interns are here because they thought it would be a fun summer job, I am here to complete my degree. It seemed interesting to me to explain it to some of the people that showed up (rich people from like, CT and stuff)... Telling them I grew up on a farm and that my major at college is animal science, but no I'm not going to be a veterinarian. It always seems hard for people to grasp that. But all in all, the night was very exhausting and I got done at 9:30... and I had to milk at 5 the next morning.

I had some family issues so I had to go home over my day and a half off to be with my parents... Wednesday I worked at 7. Did chores and stuff, weeded garlic, planted grass seed. Wednesday night I milked I believe... The last few days have been a blur, I really need to keep up with this blogging thing or else I lose track. Today we made cow's milk cheese. Ann is making sure to teach me how to make it in case I decide to go make cheese for Mark's dad when I get done with college. I don't know if I really want to do it, but I guess I can keep my options open. But anyway, making cheese can be complicated and there is DEFINITELY a lot of dishes that need to be done as well as cleaning which can get very redundant.

Anyway, I need to get to bed. Work at 7 tomorrow... We have to catch the llama to treat it's halter sore and for some reason Bob chose me for the job because I have experience with animals... but llamas are completely different from anything I've handled before... Oh well... Good night!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Long time, No write!

I've been working and have been so busy the last week I haven't had time to write. I've been getting in my full 8 hours every day with the exception of Monday (my half day) and Tuesday which was my full day.

The farm house dinner was very successful but also stressful. It was an interesting experience and hopefully the second one will go smoother.

Seeing as I'm still exhausted right now, I should go sleep. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up on my journals from now on... Ugh. Have a good night!