Strange and wonderful things

A:

I decided what I would write in my blog today while I was standing in the river by the old mill, with four camels behind me observing as I laboured about - splashing all over the place - to wash 3 sacks of newly sheered sheep wool (or is it shorn?). Anyone who has ever washed wool by hand will know that to get the grease grime pee and poo out of it is quite a task and leaves your hands and arms particularly slimey. As I persisted on, losing bits of wool to the flow and slowly becoming more slimey and more wet I took note of the audience to my struggle. A few chickens, taking pauses inbetween slurps of water to note my progress; the 4 camels continuing to look unimpressed at my presence in their river; and visitors to the farm peering down from the bridge wondering what the woolly beast in the river is.

The strange scene made me think about all the things I have done at the farm that I could have never foreseen (even being at a camel sanctuary for a start), and new skills I never imagined I might have acquired.

I was called out of my washing duties in the river to go and spin some wool in front of the public during the wool demonstration. I would have never picked myself out as a spinner, let alone imagined myself showing French grannys how to do it. Yet spin I can.

The unpredicted duties and lessons are not limited to just wool related activites. I have also learnt for example that Male urine is a strong deterrent to foxes. As we have recently heard fox cries at night - and given the amount of ducks/geese/small animals on the farm - the men of the household have been required to quite literally mark our territory around the farm (particularly by the duck enclosure naturally) which keeps the foxes at bay.

I have learnt how to keep animals, how to keep a camel at bay, how long an egg needs to be in an incubator, how to mix concrete, the best methods to pick up pig poo, that every french village has at least 3 hairdressers, how to clicker train a pig, animal related french vocabulary, that acorns are poisoness for llamas, how to catch a piglet, how to get an alpaca to lie down, how to take a goat round an assault course and various other strange and wonderful things - some useful and some that I'll probably never need again.

We have 3 days left on the the farm...