Dark monsters

Who knows if I've matured at all this year. But one thing I can say is that I'm no longer scared of the dark like I used to be. Don't hold me to my word if I'm stuck inside a haunted house or in a creepy alley but on the farm, I've come to really enjoy it.

Glamour and glitz

Rawley was a little bummed today when I told him he missed his chance at fame while he was away at market. It was a strange day, the crew didn't come so the yard was completely empty and very quiet. The only people that did show up to work besides us interns (obviously) was a chef and her camera man who were working on making a promotional video for her new cookbook. Aside from the prettier-than-normal tablecloth at lunch, the day carried on as usual despite the presence of the camera man and we even managed to give him a memorable scene of us all chasing a 1000 lb pig across the yard.

In the morning, Greg cleared out the field just below my Pinky and secured the fence so that we could walk Harriet over from her pen to the pasture. Not being sure how she would react we had all hands on deck, each of us waving big sticks and hollering as the massive, wart-covered sow made her way over to the pasture. I can imagine we made a very funny youtube video, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't quite the material the guy was looking for to put on his cookbook video.

Peepers

Months ago as I was walking home to my trailer one night I shone my headlight down into the meadow below only to find four or five pairs of glowing green eyes fixed on me. I stood frozen for a minute staring, until the adrenaline must have kicked in and I found my legs again, taking off as fast as I could towards my trailer and slamming the door shut behind me. I have since learned that those eyes were probably harmless, just a handful of feral cats that like to prowl. But ever since that night I started thinking more about eyes.

In the thick of lambing season, I compared the almost reptilian pupils that goats have to the slightly tamer lamb eyes I became so familiar with. I then moved on to noticing the funny chickens whose eyes only have one lid that closes from the bottom up and later the cows with their gargantuan eyeballs. Then one day when I brought this all up to Rawley he pointed out how unsettling the pigs' eyes were with their uncanny human resemblance.

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Following these discussions and observations I have decided that a photographic study of farm animal eyes is in order. So far it has proven easier said than done due to the bad combination of a slow camera and fast moving/disobedient subjects, but I expect a final project sometime in the next week.

Burros on the court

Not a PETA-friendly event

Donkey basketball is like walking into a bizarre dream, a warped Dalí painting. Excitement is in the air as the saggy looking donkeys are pulled around the court, slipping on the gym floor and being bumped around as competitive kids shove each other for a swipe at the ball. Over-eager parents shout from the stands, "Come onnnn Donna! The basket's on that side!!" "Oh for crying out loud, get on the donkey!" "Shoot already!"

Some of the kids struggle at getting on the donkeys with the ball in one hand and fall to the ground while others jump on swiftly with impressive ease. Two or three fat men wearing big "Buckeye Burros' Donkey Basketball" jackets hobble behind the donkeys, hitting their legs with a stick to get them to hurry in one direction or the other.

For the first fifteen minutes, you sit mesmerized by the commotion around you: the shouting parents, the excited kids, the stupefied donkeys, the energetic MC's voice over the loudspeaker. And then all of a sudden you find yourself in the thick of it too, shouting for the blue team's burros to move faster.

When it's over, you step out from the heated gym and gasp a breath of cool air, at last the dream is over.