Day 118: Sheep Are Stupid

27 Decembre 2009 (Day 118)
Today Brooke and I slept in for a while and then we went up and had some bread for breakfast. I had a goute (taste test) with the neighbor and the parents of some pate (like a meat paste sort of thing). They are working on making a new recipe. It wasn’t too bad. Here the Bonnards make spice cake, honey, and do some stuff with meats. We made fries and cooked oysters for lunch. It took a long time, but they were really good. Brooke and I make excellent fries and I really do like oysters. After our late lunch we went out in our muck boots and took down the temporary sheep fencing so it wouldn’t get buried in the snow. It is so beautiful here; the air is fresh, there are mountain-like objects, and we truly live a simple life. It was great to be outside working again. It may be dirty work, and I may be terrible at it, but you just get a real sense of accomplishment when you work on a farm. I also realized how much I just adapt to different lifestyles. When I’m a farmer I like having larger breakfasts and showering in the evenings, as well as going to bed early. When I’m French I can go to bed later, shower in the morning, etc. Maybe that is more of who I am, someone who adapts to whatever situation, not necessarily a farmer, or frenchie, or soccer mom, or business woman- whatever the title may be, but someone who adapts to what life brings (except getting lost. I don’t deal with that well). I do think I am becoming a little less pent up about having things perfectly planned though (apart from how to get to places).
Brooke and I got a tour of some of the farm. We went and fed the sheep and visited the horse. Sheep really are so stupid. They would go running around like crazy. They were also jumping around like mad sheep when we put hay in the troughs. They also have geese and chickens. The honey making area was the most interesting. They have a machine that spins the combs really fast so that the honey comes out and it goes into some piping that puts it in giant vats and they clean it and then make different honey. Some of their honey is really thick and golden, some has crème, and they have another type of honey that they make that is almost white.
We had pumpkin soup for dinner with the usual option of cheese, plain yogurt with sugar, and/or fruit. They watched some army show and I figured out how to get the wifi to work on my computer. Brooke and I ended up staying up very late working on Brooke’s paper.