The summer odyssey has begun

Well, wwoofing season has started. Left Kitchener on Tuesday morning only half an hour late. But we didn't forget anything and we didn't leave with the housesitter's luggage. Already an improvement on last summer. We drove through rain and sun and arrived in Clinton New York around 4pm. Checked in, walked around town, shot photos with the camera we didn't bring with us right now that we're blogging with then back to the b&b for a cold beer. While we're sitting on the back porch an enormous thunderstorm starts up. We head out to dinner 20 minutes away in a little town called Waterville. Population 500 (not counting the numerous dairy cows). On the main drag is an unassuming place called The Huddle On Main. Used to be a sports bar. Inside - looks like it used to be a sports bar but the food was one of the best meals we've ever had. Truly fine dining including palate cleanser between courses. If we hadn't gone online to check the menu we never would have guessed what this place offerred.

On the way home from dinner we had a surreal moment. The road was two lanes, paved and traffic in both directions had to stop and wait for a herd of dairy cows being moved from the pasture to the barn. It felt like we were in an Irish travel shot without the accents. Left town about 9 in the morning on a quest to buy a cheap U.S. cellphone. Gotta love America (as my brother says). Sprint phone for 16 dollars that lets us send and receive in the U.S. supercheap, text, and call canada for 10 cents a minute. Take that TELUS and ROGERS. The drive from Albany, New York to our final destination was beautiful. Vermont is gorgeous. We passed through the town of Bennington and wish we could go back but it's a bit far from the farm.
Arrived at Snow Farm around 3:30 and received a very warm welcome. David, his wife Apple and two daughters Lucy and Zinnia are sweet and caring and made us feel right at home. What a change from Nova Scotia last year. We got a tour and a wonderful meal and chilled for the rest of the evening.

We have already had a broader range of work experience in two days than we had last year. We know how to feed and water the pigs, sheep and goats. Kevin worked with the beef cattle today. We learned how to disconnect, uproot and replant a lot of portable, electrified fence when we moved the sheep and the goats. We learned how to lop trees and we did some weeding and transplanting too. There are currently two wwoofers already here. Jess is 26 and from Missouri. She's hear for 6 months (May to November). Jenny is from Annapolis, Maryland, 20 years old and has never wwoofed before. We all seem to be gettin' along. The top photo is the cabin we are staying in. It was built around 1940 and the farm owners lived in it while they were building their house.

The cabin has hot and cold running water (and it's not running down the walls like it did in Nova Scotia), washer, dryer, microwave, electricity and a nice bathroom. Kevin and I have a large bedroom on the main floor with a view out the window just like the photo on the left. The views from all the windows are gorgeous. The main floor is very spacious and the two girls each have their own spacious room upstairs. The fridge is "stocked" but that means different things to different people. There are lots of eggs and cheese (I warned them about Kevin the Proteinator) but not too much that a paleo can graze through. Wanna guess how fast we found a grocery store? We finished work at 1pm and were in the grocery store in Brattleboro (20 minutes from the farm) by 2pm. The food co-op is not exactly your typical grocery store.
It's very organic, new agey, EXPENSIVE so we didn't buy much. Fruit, veggies, and chicken thighs. While we were down at the house having dinner last night 20 boneless chicken thighs were roasting in the oven of the cabin. This morning's breakfast (we do our own breakfast and lunch) was chicken thighs and stir fried kale. Our hosts have both heard of the paleo diet and Crossfit so Kevin was in his element. Saturday we only have to feed the animals in the morning and then the day is ours. There's a community wide garage sale happening tomorrow and then we are going to take off for the day sightseeing, photographing and trying to find the ingredients for Vietnamese Pho which I hope to make next week. The church photos are from the little town of Newfane about 5 minutes drive from the farm. We don't have cell phone reception and they only have dialup so we have found a really nice cafe/deli here in Newfane in which to do our blogging. If you haven't fallen asleep yet, reading this, stay tuned for more.