Americorps update, more goats!

Wednesday June 24th
I literally feel like I am wilting. My energy levels are like this...(picture me making a hand motion of an airplane crashing and the sound effect of it "burning." Thus, the "crash and burn").

Got up early to feed the goats, as the majority of the farm crew went on that field trip. Had to give some of the kids some medicine, which was kind of weird to shove a syringe down their throats. Wait, you've never done that before either? Weird.

We attempted to finish winnowing and threshing the wheat today. Threshing is completed, but winnowing is not. I had to hang up my basket early so that I could go lay down..the heat is just really getting to me. Part of the problem is that I left my Nalgene at home this past weekend, so it's difficult to measure how much water I am really drinking. I usually got for 3 nalgenes per day, which is about 96 oz. Without it, I am probably drinking half of that simply because I don't force myself to drink as much. My body can definitely tell that I am lacking water!

Decided to take a break this afternoon and am currently at my apartment just relaxing, blogging, doing some research on Master's programs/DI's. DI = "dietetic internship," aka what I have to complete in order to sit for my Registered Dietitian's exam. Also need to drop off my Americorps application at the office in downtown Waco. Not that that's far away.

Everything in Waco is so relative. Everything is maybe ten minutes away, at absolute maximum. Is there traffic? Not really. Do you have to plan to arrive 15 minutes early in case there is? Absolutely not.

I am cold with the A/C on. This is grand.

Tuesday June 23
Wowza! Long day today again. Woke up around 6ish (it just seems like it gets earlier and earlier...getting harder to wake up that early after a long day!) to milk the goats. Swathi and I are starting to get into a rhythm, so that was nice. We got some help herding the goats this time, which was wonderful! Helps to have a few more bodies just to guide the goats down to the main pasture. Granted, they sort of went crazy once they got to the main pasture (before we led them to the southern most pasture where they were supposed to be), but nothing as crazy as last time. I don't think I will ever get used to getting goats to move by either:

a) pulling their chain around their neck
b) gently/not so gently pushing them front their backside (think: goat hips)
c) using their ears to pull them forwards, or
d) pulling their tail upwards and pushing

Surprisingly, d) often works the best. Very strange! Certainly do have a mind of their own.

Went back to weed whacking today. Man, I really love that thing. MUCH easier than that darn push mower. Chris said I looked scary with my garb on. Granted, I wear a brimmed hat, safety goggles, and a bandana covering my entire face. And my body is completely covered in dirt. Got a really cute dirt tan, showing where my socks ended and my pale skin began. How is that scary? ;-)

After lunch, I drove Chris to the doctor and swung by the FCS kitchen to borrow some knives for the WHR fundraiser banquet on Thursday. The dean's secretary was there...please note that I did not shower before I went to do this. Secretary looks at my face, then glances at my legs, then looks back up at my face again. Ha! Guess she was not expecting me to be a student. I was kind of glad that my dean wasn't there. Not that I think she will judge me, but I think that she would get a real kick out of my filthy state.

Drove back to the farm, did some emails, some Americorps application stuff, then I went off to feed the kids again. Last night I got lucky, as someone else volunteered to feed the goats while I was driving to/from Austin. But I still have one more morning and, potentially, one more evening to feed the goats. Then, Esther comes back and I will be free!

I am not supposed to feed the kids until 6pm, so I had a little time to kill before then. I decided that a good time killer would be the new farm sport: killing flies. Now, I am a quasi-coordinated person, so I figured it wouldn't be so bad, and it actually turned out to be a lot of fun! Well, ok, maybe not a lot. But pretty fun. After the genocide of the flies, it was like a fly graveyard in their. One way that I would sucker the flies in: wait for them to "care" for their dead, then, WHACK! SUCKER! Every once in a while I would yell "SUCKER!" just for a little gratification. I think the milkers in the next room started to think that I was borderline crazy. Can't believe it's taken them that long to realize this fact.

Tonight/tomorrow the farm gang was invited to go on a "field trip" to another farm and see how they run their operations. There will be cheese making and other fun activities. I decided to stay behind, as someone had to feed the goats in the morning and deliver food to the Palladium for our benefit Thursday evening. Takin' one for the team.

Now I am all showered and clean. It's nice to get rid of that ol dirt tan!

Monday June 22
BIG INTERVIEW DAY!!! AH!!! (scroll to the bottom if you really want to know!)

First off, I signed up for landscape chores this week, meaning...more weed whacking! YES! Today, my landscape power tool of choice was the lawn mower...gives me a little variety from the weed whacker. I drove the farm truck down the street and picked it up from the repair shop, then brought it back. Should've known that it was going to have trouble all morning long. Whenever I took it on a slope or the weeds/grass got to tall, the thing would stall out. To prevent it from stalling, I had to pull the blade in the air, let it spin out, then proceed with mowing. As you can tell, this trick did not work everytime, and the engine just stopped. I thought that I would easily be able to start it again...just push the choke/gas lever and pull the cord, right? NO. Had to get a boy to pull it everytime. Probably asked someone around, whoever was just right there, about 10 times during an hour and a half to get things moving again! Good grief.

Only worked outside for that short time because we had another World Banquet. Remember last time how the kids were given a card: low, middle, or high income...and had a meal/seating arrangements that corresponded to their income level. High sits in a chair, has a table, silverware, a server, plenty of food on the plate. Middle sits in a chair, no table, with a bowl of beans and rice with spoons, small plates, and a small glass of water to drink. Low sits on the floor, with a bowl of rice, use fingers to eat with. This group of kids was wonderful. They were probably middle school aged (like the last group) but were from a church in Ft Worth. Some great discussions afterwards about unequalities, fair trade, corrupt corporations, etc. Wonderful to see the kids slowly grasp it.

A funny thing that happened: the upper class guy wanted to give his food to the lower class, but only after he had eaten the pasta (what he considered to be the best part of the meal). What a great symbol for the upper classes' world view! We are given so much, and are only willing to give once we had have the best part of the lot. Just simmer on that for a bit ;-)

Ok, here's what you really wanted (and had to scroll all the way down here for)...Americorps update! I had the interview today at 3pm at Baylor. Made sure that I was clean, combed, and had dry hair (this was truly an effort, btw!). The interview was more of a "does Americorps want Campus Kitchen as a partnership organization?" instead of "is Christine the best person for the job?" Now, the latter question was part of the equation, yes, but not the majority of it. The interviewer still has to talk to her supervisor about the situation, so we will see what goes on. I really do not want to disclose any more information at this time, so, if you have any other questions or want to know more about it, then feel free to ask me. But I just don't want that information floating around the net, ya know?

After the interview, I scrambled back to WHR to gather some cold goods to drive to Austin for the chef for the WHR fundraiser banquet on Thursday evening. I had to put lots of lbs of meat in the freezers, jet over to the gas station for bags of ice (so cheap, who knew?!?!) and then drive to Austin. I was nervous about traffic, as I didn't leave til 4:50 or so. I was having a case of the "bad attitudes" while I was driving, as I was extremely tired from driving to Houston and back over the weekend, and driving to the Woodlands and bk (meaning Houston). So I had already driven about 7 hours over the course of the weekend, and here I was about to add four more. No one was around to go with me, so the "sickness" soon spread to my mood.

I got a call about 35 miles into the drive (while I was at Subway...hm..meat!) that I had forgotten to bring the fair trade purple rice and quinoa with me. There was a debate as to whether I should turn around or not. I ended up calling the chef and she told me to not worry about it, just keep going. Thank goodness! My bad attitude slowly lifted after that call, as Swathi was so nice to me, informing me that I could call her later on if I needed help staying awake (I didn't have to that, but it was nice to have the option). Also, Amber was really nice on the phone, which made me feel guilty for being such a poopy pants! I arrived in Austin at 110 miles, dropped the meat off with the chef's husband, then drove back to Waco, arriving there at 8:50 pm.

So that was my afternoon slash evening! Wow. Can't believe how quickly it went by! One minute you're mowing the yard, fightin off the heat, the next minute you are at Baylor getting interviewed for an important position that affects your entire future, and the next you are driving to Austin wondering why there is no Buc-ees truck stop! Haha!