Our farmer is HOME! She's a little tired of answering questions about the camp, but from what I can gather: she loves goats, small animal care was her all-time favorite chore, but she also washed dishes four times and is on the record as saying "I will happily do any chore you want me to at home. I'll even take out the compost". (I feel it would be taking advantage of her post-camp high to hold her to it, but it was fun for a minute to consider.) She loved the ferrets, tea in the Evening Yard, Richard's night-time stories (Mom, they were odd), and she was really grateful to her bunkmate for falling out of bed the last morning and waking her up so she could make it to goat milking one last time.
Mostly, she missed us a lot, and/but was really happy. The creek walk, the chute down from the hay loft, the food...we had a dicey moment the other night - her second night home - when she realized that I'd washed her laundry. She burst into tears as she examined the pile of folded camp shirts: Richard told us to put them in a ziploc bag and save them for a winter day and take them out and they'd smell just like the farm! I even rubbed a bunny on my shirt! She gets this sentimentality from me, I'm afraid, and I was so sad that I'd already washed her clothes. Luckily, in the middle of the night I realized that there had been only 4 shirts of 6 in the wash, which meant....YAY!!! There was a stinky, dirty shirt balled up in her hat!! It's now in a ziploc bag in the bottom of her pants drawer, waiting for some wintry day's dream of summer...
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| Ani and her beloved Rosalie |
I have to include this picture, 'cause it just makes me LAUGH! It's the last in a long line of squinty pictures in the parking lot of a huge Amish-run market stand and petting zoo where we met for a quick ice-cream before heading home, but what's cracking me up are the wee kiddos in the ginormous chair, and the huge mamas in the front, sassin' the photographer...and I am loving that my friend of 20 years is in my life and that our kids just love each other...
2 comments:
I love, love, love this post! Oh, I felt for your girl when you washed those clothes…and was so happy when you found the stinky shirt! I totally have breathed in smells on clothes and remembered precious moments (and I've also breathed in smells I wished I hadn't!).
It sounds like she had a wonderful, wonderful time. Reminds me of when my son came back from jazz camp. It's just so cool isn't it, to see our kids lit up from the inside by something they experienced, something that was their very own? And it's lovely to have them home, too. I'm so pleased for you all :)
love this — what a fantastic idea, farm camp. :)
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