Y’all, its been a while since I shared an update–my apologies! Now I understand how some folks make a blogging their full-time job. Anywho, here we go…
Saturday afternoon we headed into Phoenix as our last stop before heading to our next farm stay. I found this bar/restaurant that focused solely on mead, and since AC has talked about possibly making mead on our farm one day, I decided we needed to do a little “research.” We had the option to each pick 6 meads to create our own flight which was difficult because they had like 30+ meads to choose from. When we finally made our decisions and ordered, the waitress informed us that their head mead-maker was onsite answering questions and allowing people to try their reserve bottles. So I went first and asked lots of questions and sampled one too many meads. Come to find out, a 1 ounce pour of a 13% ABV beverage packs a pretty strong punch! After a delicious dinner of arepas and fries, it was AC’s turn to go speak to the head mead-maker. We discovered that the mead process requires lots of attention and cider might be easier. If we do decide to make mead, we’ll keep it simple and add bubbles to make it sparkling because we both preferred the sparkling mead.
Of course, a Saturday evening in November means football. So after dinner, we headed to a little sports bar downtown, nestled right between the Arizona Diamondback stadium and the Suns’ arena, to watch LSU play Bama. LSU lost and it was time for bed.
We drove around to a couple different places trying to scout out the perfect spot and settled on a parking lot next to the Marriott hotel. The next morning we woke to some commotion of people talking and cars pulling into the grass field next to us. We quickly realized there was a road race getting ready to start and we were right on the route. Event staff we’re starting to set out cones to block access so we sprung out of the truck before we were trapped. It was a quick wake-up that morning! We headed to Planet Fitness for a morning workout and, more importantly, a shower!
We went to church and then headed out to Papago park to visit Hole-in-the-Rock. Once we pulled into the parking lot we found the only spot with some shade and backed in to enjoy a picnic lunch on the tailgate. After lunch we took the short hike up to Hole-in-the-Rock, which is exactly what it sounds like: a giant rock structure with a hole in it. Through the hole you could see the Phoenix skyline. We took a few pictures then headed back to the truck. It was time to report to our next farm stay.
Our fourth and final farm stay is located in Florence, Arizona, about half way between Phoenix and Tucson. Our host, Annabelle, and her husband, Bob, live on 9 acres with tons of Nubian goats, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, 7 dogs, 3 pigs, 2 horses, and 1 cow. When we arrived, we were greeted by Annabelle and shown our little casita where we would be staying for the next month. We unloaded our belongings, then Annabelle gave us a tour and introduced us to all of her animals. After the tour, it was dinner time, at least for the animals. Annabelle showed us where to get the hay and how much to feed each pen. Once we finished evening chores, we sat on the patio and visited and watched the sunset. Then we ate dinner and called it a night.
It’s been a full week on the farm now and we have:
- Helped with morning and evening chores
- Milking goats by machine
- Making cheese
- Preparing the garden and planting vegetables
- Cleaning up the orchard and digging radial trenches to help water the trees
- Mucking plenty of poo as we muck all the pens
- Assisted with goat surgery! Poor goat had a tumor in its teat. We’ll spare you the details 😉
Needless to say, we’re learning a lot from Annabelle!
Until next time,
Charli
Goat surgery! You both do it all!