Zen, chickens and 20 somethings

After a full week of farming, I'm deeply in the groove and finding myself loving it. In my previous life, my mind was extremely active, filled with ideas, worries, and idle obsessions. But here at Serenity Acres, I'm allowed to fully focus on the present and my work has a zen- like quality with hyper attention to detail. As a result, the mundane becomes pleasurable. I find myself thanking the hens for the eggs that I collect, conversing with the goats as I clean their pens, and valuing thoroughness over speed in all my tasks.

A typical day for me is a long day. I awaken at 6:40 am and begin my barnyard tasks by 7 am. The early morning routine consists of checking on the animals, feeding the animals, and cleaning their pens. Breakfast is around 9:30 am. After that, chores continue until noon. At 2 pm, we begin chores again and work continuously until about 6:15 pm. I usually help with the collection of the eggs, something I enjoy, because it resembles an Easter egg hunt. The chickens here are extreme free range and we find eggs in the pens, hay lofts, a random chair, and occasionally in the woods.

Of all the animals, I like the chickens least of all. But I am grateful for their eggs and have finally found the courage to reach my hand under the hens to take their loot. Chickens will lay only one egg per day, and when it is cold, they may only lay one egg every three days. For some incomprehensible reason, some nests are more productive than others. I found one bed with 9 eggs in it at a time. The processing of the eggs is time consuming. They have to be collected, soaked, washed, and candled, which means inspecting each one for imperfections such as blood clots, stains, cracks or oversized air pockets. Afterwards, each egg is weighed and placed into container according to their size. It is definitely not a money making proposition for the farm, at least without the help of the intern labor.

I'm slowly getting to know the other interns. Right now, we are all women, 5 of us, plus 2 women managers. One lucky guy, a former intern named Brock, joined us for a few days. Apparently, the ratios are constantly changing between male and female so I cannot make any observations about the future of farming. However, everyone is generally young, 20-something, and I and another intern, Lani, are the exception.

Lani is 57. Unlike me, she is married. Like me, she is empty nested. I asked her about her motivation to Wwoof and her reasons were pretty straight forward. As a New Englander, she wanted to escape the cold winters and had wearied of the winter vacations to the beaches. Like me, she shares an intense interest in food and farming and wanted to spend concentrated time in one place. She will be Wwoofing for 5 months at two different farms while her husband holds down the fort up north. Her husband, a bit older at 70, took it all in stride and was ok with it. Wwoofing is hard work and Lani does not shirk from her duties despite a physical condition that prevents her from really heavy lifting. I have found her to be an inspiration as well as a great teacher and guide in my initial days on the farm.

It's an interesting dynamic to be spending so much time with young people. In the evening, during our shared dinner meal, I find myself watching the younger interns and managers and feeling hopeful about our future as a country. With their adult lives fully ahead of them, with all the pressure of earning money and becoming established in the collective version of the American dream, these young people are making bold and radical choices. They are learning first hand how to produce and prepare food, care for animals, and live in community with little material possessions. Brock, for example, has been traveling for years. I asked him about his traveling. He hitchhikes, travels with a backpack and tent, and moves from farm to farm soaking up knowledge and meeting interesting people. In March, he will begin a paid internship with a farm in Sacramento. His dream is to have a farm someday, but he doesn't seem to be in a hurry, nor does he seem to be particularly goal focused or strident in any way. I would say that is true for everyone here. There seems to be a healthy balanced attitude about the future. There are dreams. And then there are eggs to be collected and pens to be cleaned.