Internship Complete!

I write you today from the road, per usual. The difference, though, is that we are not headed to another farm. Though we will never stop learning, we have officially finished the “internship” portion of our adventure!

Over the past four months, we have lived at, worked on, and learned from 4 very different farms. Starting with the 166-acre, multi-family operation in Canada and ending with a 9-acre goat dairy in Arizona, we have collected invaluable experience, tips, and tricks that will help us on our own farm and we are indebted to our hosts who taught us along the way.

This last farm, the Arizona goat dairy, was a bit different than the others we experienced. It felt more “homesteady” for several reasons:

• We were here for a full month so we were able to more fully immerse ourselves in the day-to-day routine.
• We had morning and evening chores everyday so we didn’t take weekend trips this month. (Also, were in the middle of nowhere so there really wasn’t much we could get to easily even if we did have weekends off.) This also helped us save money.
• This homestead was the smallest of all the ones we’ve visited.
• Despite its small size, this homestead had the largest variety of chores and projects that kept us (mostly AC) constantly moving.

Our host, Annabelle, was a wealth of goat and chicken knowledge and she was more than willing to share everything she knew with us. She was great!

AC and I are beyond ready to put some of our new knowledge into practice on our own homestead, but there are a few more steps in between now and that exciting time. First, we’ll head to Angel Fire, New Mexico to stay with the Caraways for a month and a half of ski season. AC has landed a job at ski school–for those who immediately started worrying about her Louisiana blood surviving the cold, don’t worry, she’s working an indoor position! I’m sure she’ll have lots of funny stories about kids so I’ll share the best of those with y’all as they come.

Until next time,

Charli