Final Adventures

Well, my time here is nearly at an end. I am flying home in two sleeps and I have rather mixed feelings about it. I am terribly excited to go home and be with family and friends again but I know that I will miss this farm and the Mieraus very much. How will I adjust to city life again after being a hillbilly all summer and fall?

Life in the last week has not slowed down much at all. There is still work to be done on the farm and new experiences to be had. Yesterday I got to watch Terry shear the ram, which was very exciting (for me at least). I was going to put up pictures but they will have to wait because I forgot to bring my camera up to the computer with me. Shearing looks a bit uncomfortable for the sheep but ultimately not a painful process. The whole process took under two hours, even with time taken in the middle to fix the shears when they wouldn't work. Terry said that this was an improvement on previous times and eventually he may work up to shearing in five minutes like the professionals. Monique is now planning on washing the wool and then felting it to use in different home projects.

A week and a half ago, we also got a new puppy whose name is Tor! He is very cute and is a mix of Border Collie and German Shepherd. He has almost the exact same colourings as Tjerk, our other dog, except that Tor has short hair and Tjerk has long hair. So far, Tjerk is not so sure about being friends, but like most animals, I suppose it will take a bit of time. Tor has been lots of fun and it is amazing how quickly they start learning things. Terry had pretty much taught him to sit within the first five minutes that we had him home.

Today, we finished pulling up all the carrots and storing them away for the winter. They were very tasty and had so much more flavour than the ones bought in the store that I almost want to pack a suitcase full of them just to bring home and eat over the winter. Now the only things left to be harvested are the beets. Then the garden will be empty except for the garlic which we started planting today. It will have a nice dormant winter under some straw and will grow nice and big next spring!

Well, I will try to post a couple more pictures but after that, it is the end of this blog! Thanks for reading, and I hope that I managed to convey a bit of my experience here.