Eagle Tree Farm!!

Eagle Tree Farm thus far is everything we had envisioned, and then some, eh?

     Our first few uncertain moments of being here after pulling in to Sherry's spacious driveway, 20 minutes from town, have turned out to be accurate indicators of what times together are like. We found Cally, the occasionally affectionate farm cat, and Bailey, the champagne, voluptuously thick coated, Wonder Dog, sitting together by the front door waiting for us. As soon as we came in, Bailey ran towards us, tail wagging to greet us, and Cally semi-interested, looked on from the comfort of her chair. Shortly thereafter, our amazing hostess Sherry came out to greet us herself, and as her bright blue, smiling eyes made us feel immediately at home, we knew felt deep down that we had come to a special place.

Cally and Bailey next to the pile of wood we would later chop, welcoming us to Eagle Tree Farm

      Sherry lives at her farm with just Bailey and Cally as housemates in the off seasons when she doesn't have WWOOFers helping her, and she is a remarkable woman. Hers is not an uncommon situation in this area, we have come to find-married at one point, and now running a spacious farm and home mostly on her own. In addition to her considerably large home, she tends to her 26 chickens, 2 young goats (Spirit and Buckey), 2 young sheep (Windy and Dandelion), 2 adult goats (Calysto and Io), and 3 adult sheep, and 2 vegetable and herb gardens-not to mention the several required projects that require tending to on a property this large (160 acres) that experiences such dramatic differences in climate throughout the year. That is one thing we have learned is a BIG source of interest and conversation here in 'The Cariboo' as they call it: the weather. It can reach -40 Farenheit for several weeks at a time, and can get up to 90 in the summertime. As so many people here have produce/herb crops or animals on their property, the weather is not just conversation pieces-it's a valuable and necessary exchange of experience and knowledge that may help each other have a more successful winter than last year. But, I digress-back to Eagle Tree Farm.

Windy, Spirit and Buckey, L-R

The view of the farm from the chicken coop, with the 2 gardens, not shown, on the left

     We have been lucky enough to have a wonderful Irish couple here helping us with the transition of taking over their responsibilities, Katie and Aiden. We have shared the bottom portion of the house with them since our arrival on Monday, having our totally private bedroom and a bathroom we share with them, and will have the area to ourselves once they leave on Sunday. They have become friends and mentors to us city folk, as they show us how to chop wood, care for the animals, and learn which plants are actually intentional and which are weeds. We have shared dinner with them and Sherry every night thus far, a highlight time of the day, and we will be very sad to see them go. Dinner is a time we all get to share our stories and misadventures of the day over candlelight and delicious, carefully selected wine and a 3 course meal, and with the view overlooking the lake as the sun sets over the treeline it doesn't get much better.

Enjoying dinner with Sherry at the head of the table, Katie and Aiden to the right

As I could ramble aimlessly on and on about life here, I'll instead give a brief look at what our first week has been like, as it will likely contain many of the same elements in the remaining 2 or so weeks:

Monday, our arrival day-arrived late afternoon, met Sherry over delicious soup lunch, met Katie and Aiden over vegetable lasagne and salad dinner.

Tuesday-Sherry insisted that we take the first 24 hours completely off, just getting familiar with the farm and what we will be doing. Austin and I followed Katie around in the morning as she fed/watered the chickens and gathered their eggs (the eggs under their butts are SOO warm!!), prepared all the other goats open grazing areas and let them out of the barn for the day, weeded the gardens a little/got to know which plants were what, took all the goats for a walk and relaxed the remainder of the day finishing off with a Frozen Planet episode

Walking the goats with Katie around the lake on property

Wednesday- went through the animal morning routine with Katie, weeded the garden, and had a 'field trip' to a friend of Sherry's farm, Ann. Oooh, Ann-so much can be said about this incredible woman! She has a property over twice the size of Sherry's, which she also runs totally alone if no one is there to help. A main difference is that since Ann doesn't have as large of a home as Sherry, she can't bring WWOOFers to help since she wouldn't have a place to board them. A 63 yr old, born in Scotland raised at a boarding school in England woman, she too had a husband once, and is now happily caring for her MASSIVE herd of sheep, goats and a llama, her stallion horse, Shetland ponies, and several mares with her farm cat and 2 loyal dogs. We helped her erect a huge electric fence, then met up with several 'friends of a friend' at Littlehorse Lodge for dinner, where I have never felt more like a city girl in my entire life. The food was excellent and the company grand, and it was in those moments that for me, I truly realized that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

Austin weeding

Thursday-tried to take the goats on a walk, which was wildly unsuccessful (we're in the process of building trust with them now), learned how to chop firewood which I greatly enjoy, took the canoe on the lake, made our signature Indian Curry for dinner with freshly picked potatoes from the garden, and prepared for Market Day in the late afternoon/evening by learning how to make Irish Soda Bread and kale chips.

View of the house and land from the opposite side of the lake in the canoe

Friday, today-opened and manned the booth at Farmer's Market for most of the day, 8-1 or so, and met lovely people from town. Had the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had in my life, and came home for a needed nap. Tried taking the baby goats on a walk by bribing them with food, more successful than previous but still not quite all the way, and took the adult goats on a walk with them fearfully bleating to the other animals and one another the whole time, but the bribery payed off with them and they followed us on our short trust building walk. We're now sitting in our cozy home as Sherry takes Katie and Aiden out for a last meal together before their departure early Sunday morning.

Our booth at Farmers Market. We had kale, kale chips, Irish Soda Bread, Amoretti cookies, eggs and cinnamon rolls

Some of the goodies being sold at our booth

     In all of our spare moments, the peace and joy of the place are slowly seeping into us as we breathe in the Cariboo. Sherry is very insistent that we only work 5 hours a day, which we occasionally ignore to continue helping with needed chores, and we are finding the natural pace of our hearts is adjusting to the slower rhythm of this farm life. Words like 'harvest, tractor, animal feed, and frost warning' are finding their way into our vocabulary and out of just the country songs I first heard them in. The doors of her home are always open to the calling neighbor, and we are greatly enjoying the unhurried nature of the visitors here. I can feel my heart expanding in the expanse of land here, and my hands are joyfully responding to the physical work I am asking them to do.

The view from the back door of our lower portion of the house, where we are staying

     Well, I can hear the baby goats bleating like crazy since it's about time to put them away, so it's time for this lengthy post to end, then for leftover Indian. Until next time, as our Irish friends say frequently, 'Cheers!'