Day 1

This morning was strange.  I slept at my cousins house in Baltimore for the night because it is only an hour from Emmitsburg, Maryland.  I woke up in a different bed, the house was being remodeled, and their cleaning lady also scared me to death.  She started yelling Hello is anyone in this house?  Is anyone here?  and I was still in bed and quickly threw some shorts on and found her just about in my room when I tried to explain my story still half asleep.  Yea Hi I am Sandy's (my aunt) nephew and I am just staying over the night before I blah blah blah.  She probably didn't register the part about the farm anyways.  Right before we left I can clearly remember thinking to myself: am I really going to be farming for a month?  I felt as though I had been intoxicated for the past two months when I conjured up this plan, and now I was finally sobering up.  But hey, whatever I am ready to experience something new.  So after she left, and I showered and packed up some more, my mom and I were on the road.  After doing countless U turns and such ( classic cath ) we finally found our way and within an hour or so we found Simmons Rd.  We rode about 4 miles down streets and different driveways to land out my destination: Whitmore Farm.  The gravel path led out to a beautiful looking house with a very commanding red barn, and I was immediately ecstatic.       We were greeted by one of my farm owners, Kent, who was taking pictures of a baby ram on the farm for the farm's website.  Kent introduced us to his partner, Will, who graciously showed us around the place they live in, which they call a house ( more like a 4 star hotel if you ask me ).  It is positively beautiful.  It has a very warm, homey feel to it, and it compliments the pristine peacefulness of the farm perfectly.  He showed me my room, which I am currently writing from, which is extremely nice, with a beautiful wood floor and lovely window to look from.  He showed me to the bathroom, which is a nicer bathroom than I have at my house.  Then Will showed us the barn, the animals, some newborn pigs, and the beautiful scenery.  It was seriously breathtaking.  There is something about this lifestyle, and scenery that makes me feel so euphoric.  Its hard to explain, but it kind of just happens.  It probably has something to do with all the cartoons I used to ( and still ) watch that include young children exploring countryside, i.e. My Neighbor Totoro.  So, after some time my mother decided that she had to leave to go pick up her sister at the train station.  Will had showed us enough to make my mom jealous of where I would be spending the next month.  I walked with my mom to her car, and I knew the water works were about to come.  It was hard saying goodbye to her, because me coming here is kind of a new chapter in my life, a place where I am going to grow up, but I never want to grow up.  After we parted ways and I had surreptitiously cleared my eyes, I walked into my new "home" and closed it's big wooden door.  Of course it was only minutes until my mom was driving back down the gravel because she forgot to give me something.  classic.  After my mom left for good I started unpacking and quickly asked Will if he needed any help with the farm, or with anything really.  And he told me I could help with the afternoon routine, which I would be performing everyday for the next month.  First, he introduced me to these caged buckets.  These are the buckets for collecting eggs.  Whitmore farm is famously known for their amazing eggs.  They have many different breeds of chickens that they keep in different coops, that all lay different eggs.  So my first task was to collect all of the eggs that had been layed in the afternoon from all the different coops.  It is common on farms that farm owners place fake eggs in these small rooms for the chickens so that it is more comfortable for them to lay eggs there.  During my first go around, Will instructed me to collect all the eggs from this stable and embarrassingly I collected 3 fake eggs remaining in my batch...classic noob.  I collected eggs for a good hour and then came across my last coop.  These chickens were the most valuable because their eggs sell for the most, says Will.  However, these chickens that lay these eggs are not very friendly.  Maybe they realize how awesome their eggs are, and don't want to give them up, because they sure put up a fight.  It was my first real encounter with an animal on the farm, and it was kind of awkward to say the least.  I reached for the eggs, but the chicken was standing its ground didn't allow me to obtain the eggs.  I kind of nudged the chicken a little and finally touched an egg, but that feeling of happiness only lasted a second.  The chicken was full on pecking at my hand while I was trying to reach under its body.  I was conflicted because I had never really been in a situation where I needed to force an animal physically to get what I wanted.  You learn something new everyday I guess.  So after that I brought all the eggs back to the barn, washed them thoroughly, separated them, and counted them.  After I had recorded the numbers, I was done with my first afternoon routine.  Hooray!  Then I kind of settled in some more, took shower and then it was time for dinner.  A time that I most look forward to, being the 18 year old growing boy I am.  Kent had made some Baba Ganoush, a light chicken noodle soup, and had some goat bleu cheese to dip crackers in.  What a welcome, right?  Not only that, but to make things better the whole meal was accessible from the farm.  The meal was divine, and I ate way too much.  Oh, I also had a glass of wine with my meal to top of the amazingness that was happening.  Seemed like a grade A idea.  After I stuffed my face, Will had managed to prepare a peach cobbler type deal with a Marscarpon whipped creme topping.  Goodness gracious, you'd think that they were trying to fatten me to be slaughtered... So after all of that I went with Will to go let one of the guard dogs off her leash for the night.  She is just 6 months old, and she gets super feisty with the chickens so they put her on a leash in the day.  We were about to get our boots on, and we hear..( the clincher )..the rain.  Oh how I love the rain.  I don't understand how you can't.  It's just marvelous, and it makes everything so beautiful.  So we finished our nighttime activity with the pitter patter of rain outside, and then came back in to get a good nights rest.  This must seem like a long post, because I feel like i have written a novel by now.  The posts will easily get shorter and shorter, but this was my first so why not go big.  So yea, that was day one, and I am super excited to see what day 2 brings.  Nighty.