Bye Bye Amanda
While Godot watches over Mrs Flowers as she sits on her eggs. Mr Flowers swans about the garden eating zucchini flowers or sleeping on the front door step watching us through the window. He is a magnificent bird. And so tame.
Amanda drives home to Texas today and her car bears the marks of frequent peacock roostings. I asked her what she will remember about her stay and after a moment of thinking she said the lack of waste. Everything is reused, composted or fed to an animal. What an interestig answer. Every person who comes to stay on the farm (and there are many – all are welcome) takes away a different thread from the tangle that is our farm. Every part is interwoven and it always interests me what comes into focus for a person. 
We will miss Amanda. She is an intelligent woman – I do like an intelligent woman. I will miss our talks.
Tomoyo is here for another ten days though so I am not alone yet.
Yesterday while Amanda planted the twelve new raspberry canes, 
Tomoyo began to dig the potatoes and I think we may have quite a crop under there.
The sick piglet has perked right up. Perked up enough to lead an escape into the Yards where the dairy cows were standing. Ton tried to herd them back out and Boo was exceptionally well behaved and just lay and watched them, touching noses with a giggling piglet as she shot past. I got them all back in their run then as I was milking later -there they were back at the door watching the goings on. Poppy was deeply unconcerned and slept under the tree weeds as her children wreaked havoc with my cows. And OH HOW THEY LOVE rolling in Cow manure – even at that early age.
So now they are all locked back up in their pen until they are too big to fit through the holes in the pig panels. Tomorrow I will open up the barn so they can run about in there instead. Chasing chickens is their favourite.
Tima must have been just hot the day before yesterday because now she is fine.
The calves are doing well, though Little is feeling very little and sank onto his bed with relief when I brought him in for the night. That Naomi does like to play and Little is only Little.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm,
celi
35 Comments on “Bye Bye Amanda”
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thekitchensgarden 
Amanda’s observation reflects a facet of the farm that we can well use as an object lesson in the wasteful society so many of us live in.
I’m so glad to hear that the sick piglet is well enough to escape – the bit about manure made me LOL 😉
I like the image a calm Boo, a giggling piglet and noses touching.
How lovely that you’ve made a friend so treasured as Amanda. I hope it will be a long friendship. Good morning to you all! xx
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Amanda is very perceptive. I’m glad she enjoyed her stay, and hope that we see her again.
I suspect that those pigglies will do a lot more escaping and rolling in cow muck before they’re much older.
Good for Tonton and Boo – true to their genes.
Jock’s portrait of Mister Flowers is up on my blog: https://vivinfrance.wordpress.com/2015/08/01/mister-flowers-and-mister-jock/
Have a great weekend,
love,
ViV
What a beautiful piece of work he’s made – the two of you share such a creative household!
You have touched on something that I have suspected since beginning to read this blog, something that I know personally even though I have not visited in person…sharing lives and stories and laughter with friends changes the world and you are doing your part to be directly in the middle of all that change.
Thank you for bringing Amanda and her perceptive mind and observant eye into our lives.
I would pay hard cash to see footage of a giggling piggly shooting past a well-behaved Boo, but I don’t suppose they’d hold still for their take, Mr De Mille.
Glad Poorly Piglet is back to his normal rambunctious self and that all is well in the Farmy.
I have a rotten cough and heaps to do, a big bakery order to do tomorrow when I’d so much rather tuck myself up in bed. A breath of fresh Farmy air is what I need….
I hope you feel better soon. Take good care of yourself .
Oh you would love the farmy air – why is Australia so far away!? c
My thoughts exactly! Count your blessings; if it was closer I’d be turning up all the time!
Thank you – the cough is a bad one, but I don’t feel too unwell, luckily, because I have a busy day ahead!
Oh poor Kate – as if you don’t have enough to try you. Do take care of yourself.
love,
ViV
Thank you Viv, I’m throwing everything I can think of at it, but these things have to run their natural course.
I remember when they was hardly any trash in my little village in Germany.
Oh, taters! Always wonder what I will find under those plants–spuds, or nothingness. Hi, you! I love the lack of waste…and that you inspire others to find a way to put that into place in their niches.
Zero waste … I wish, well done 🙂 Safe travels back home Amanda, I’m sure you will return. Smooth sailing this weekend you C and the farmy. Laura
hehehe… how one can be ‘deeply unconcerned’ is a mystery to me but the best is touching noses with a giggling piglet… I’m with Kate on that one and would pay good money to see one such go shooting past… Ah dear, I feel so blessed having been directed to your blog, Ms C — you never fail to make me smile or, even better, actually chuckle as a first each morning activity.
Yes, it’s true, we do live in a throw-away society. I still rinse out and re-use plastic bags, re-use foil that isn’t too mangled, boxes — well, all manner of re-useables that most people seem to toss out. I can’t say I go as far as you do, in your use of corn cobs to make a soup from (that’s ingenious!), or vegee trailings to feed a menagerie, but then I don’t own a menagerie that needs feeding. So I suppose, like most everything else, we are all at different stages of the throw-away society and age seems to play a factor as to what degree we fall into. My experience has been that youngsters are more likely to toss everything out, but that may actually be a result of environment instead of age. In any event, we can all learn from your experience. Thanks for showing the way….and hope you have a lovely day too! ~ Mame 🙂
I’m very glad everyone is feeling well again!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Amanda is a very observant and insightful young woman! Wishing her well where ever she goes!
I popped in to see the peacocks 🙂
Aren’t they lovely!
Yes 🙂
I love that people are coming to stay with you and learn by doing!
For some reason, I didn’t receive this blog until now. I figured you were super busy or something was wrong. And here I see others have posted in the early early a.m. I’m a bit worried about Boo. I know the antibiotics are working, but it isn’t like him to not chase the piglet. Unless he is (sadly) maturing.
Good luck to Amanda-and safe trip back to Texas. That is a trek! Hope she has an a/c car! She is quite an extraordinary woman.
I agree that Boo is not his normal self yet. He sleeps a lot but still leaps tall buildings on request.. c
Digging potatoes was always one of my favorite chores. Like looking for buried treasure.
I think we have hit the mother lode too!! yay. I love potatoes.. c
But it is not the first time you planted and have potatoes, is it? – When I was a little girl we were invited by “our” farmer of the village to harvest potatoes with them. We had a lot of fun. At the end, after all the work had been done, there was a nice and lovely custom to collect all the potatoe green (what was dry and brown of course) put it to piles and in the evening at dusk we started a big “potatoe fire” as we called it. Every participant of the great work was to put some (naked – there was no aluminum foil then) potatoes into the fire, we sang old songs while the potatoes cooked. Later we grabbed them out of the ashes, cleaned them just a bit with our fingers and ate them fresh out of our hands with a deep content and comfortable feeling. The smell of that night was beyond comparison. Never forget that.
That is a beautiful memory Irmi.. just beautiful – thank you for that.. c
🙂 – Good morning to you!
Although we know about Amanda just through you, your reporting and even some pictures, I think we’ve got a very special impression of her being and her presence at the Farmy. I feel that she also left her footprint as Fede did, but on her very own way. And that has even an impact to us readers or onlookers imho. I take from her a very balanced, sensitive and a friendly image. – I wish her all well!
Bye bye Amanda, I’m sure she will be missed. A great answer! She would say the same here too! I’m so proud of my recycling 😄 happy days
Lovely potatoes and good news abot the little piggy 🙂