Farmwork|Watering the chickens
When I told my roommates that I’m going to do a farm stay, they said, “You’re going to do indentured slavery?” Which is true… but hey! I’ve never been a slave before! It’d be quite an experience.
Having grown up in the convenience of a city, I’ve gotten used to taking everything for granted since my life is too comfortable. That was until I found out about Helpx, a site where volunteers can do farm work for farmers in exchange for food and stay. Although Helpx requires a membership fee for volunteers to contact the farmers, my host Nick contacted me first!I didn’t have many plans for the summer before my internship starts and wanted to get my hands dirty at least once in my lifetime, so I decided to go on this new adventure of a lifetime.
The momma cat who milks not only her own litter.
We work Mon-Sat 9:00-12:00, 13:00-15:00. In the morning, each of us usually has a daily job that will keep us busy for an hour or two, so Nick can “take a shit in peace.”
With my little experience in gardening as a child (and drowning a potato because its roots couldn’t breathe when I plugged in the pot by accident), I expected to get involved in some irrigation work. After all, plants need water to grow. I water the water spinach, mint, and chickens – yes, chickens – while Nick wanders around with a Fujifilm point & shoot or chills in the loo.
Watering the chickens through the fence.
I start with watering the water spinaches that are growing in three blue tubs.
They are called 空心菜 in Chinese, which literally translates as “hollow vegetable,” because their stems are hollow. My mom usually sautés it with sesame sauce. Ugh I miss homemade Chinese food. I fill the tub with water until it covers the dirt. The three tubs are located in different areas in the garden, so I always have to drag the hose to get around the raised beds. The hose isn’t that heavy alright, but when it’s 10-feet long… it’s pretty much like dragging half your own body weight around.
The hose shoots out several different types of sprays, and I use “shower” for water spinach and “full” for the chickens. By “watering the chickens,” I really mean filling the chickens’ bowls with water. There are two bowls in the chicken yard – a big and a small. I fill the small one all the way and the big one four fingers to the top so A tub of water spinach.
that the geese don’t dive in and splash
everything out. I also found a couple of bricks in the bowls when I was emptying
them once a week. Nick said those are for the little things to stand on so they don’t drown. Smart thinking.
Indeed, when I water the chickens, I don’t just water the chickens. The water is shared by all the animals in the yard: the geese, a turkey, and the guinea fowls. The guinea fowls usually fly out of the yard during the day and fly back in behavingly at night. Like guinea pigs, they are incredibly noisy. The single turkey often walks around proudly and opens its tail while audibly saying “gobble.” Its red skin hanging beneath its beak would quiver with every stomp it takes, along with the tiny stick of meat on top of its head that resembles an undeveloped unicorn horn. It seems like an intimidating animal with all its redness and unfriendly face, but the real threat is the geese. They are generally friendly, but sometimes they would chase you around for no reason. I have never been attacked by a goose, but I heard that there was a male goose on the farm who actually chase and bite its feeders. It died before I came here. Moral of the story: attitude gets you a long way.
Afterward, I hang up the hose at the outdoor shower rack. The other girls like to take outdoor showers for some reasons. The hose does not give hot water, but the water it holds actually get heated up by the sun during the day so they’d have hot water to shower after work. Speaking of sustainable living!
Then I grab a bucket and “weed” for the chickens. No, they don’t smoke pot. I pull out weed in the field to feed them. They say that eating weed gets you high, but obviously, this isn’t the type. As concerned as my friends are that I’d become a pothead, as long as the chickens keep their sanity, I should be just fine.
I fill the bucket half full before I go into the chicken yard and pour the weed to the chickens. The chickens gather around the pile right away. They are also such chickens – every time I walk behind them, without even thinking of touching them, they would scurry away making funny chicken noises.
The pulling usually takes me about 45min. Then I fill the bucket 1/3 full with water and water the mints growing on the sides of the house. Nick hollowed out a gourd to use as a water scooper to scoop water out of the bucket. It works really well and is organic – although the handle gets slimy sometimes.
When I’m done with the usual watering & weeding, I would either find Nick chatting with someone or stop by to help someone else with their chores. Stay busy!
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