A Message from the Farm

On Sunday night, I called the farm where I will be working to make sure that the farmers would be able to pick me up on May 9th, when my train will arrive in Baker City, the largest town near to their farm. I left a message and did not expect a quick reply, so I was surprised to hear that they had called me back yesterday and left a long and somewhat apologetic message explaining that had been busy and had not seen the email message that I sent them a few weeks ago. They assured me that May 9th would be fine. They also told me that I will be able to use their internet, so I can continue to post updates on this blog.

Just to Make it Clear...

...this blog is still going to be updated--there just isn't much to say at the moment. As far as the ongoing count-down is concerned, there are five weeks left until I leave for Oregon. I still have to make sure that the farmers that I will be working with know when I will be in Baker City (where my Amtrak connector bus will be stopping) so that they can plan ahead to pick me up. I am thinking of calling them at around 10:00 pm (or 7 p.m. in Oregon), as they have not responded to my email.

I have not written very much about what I will be doing while I am in Oregon, but of course I have mentioned that I will be working with draft horses. The breed that they raise and train on the farm is called the Belgian, shown below. This is obviously not a picture that I took, but hopefully I will be able to upload pictures that I take of the farm where I am working.

Interesting Conversations

I have recently joined a forum for people interested in draft animal power and its use in sustainable farming (www.draftanimalpower.com). I enjoy reading the conversations on there, and I have even posted myself (mostly to ask questions and ask for potential job opportunities).

Last weekend, my mom, my sister and I went to a draft horse pulling competition put on by the Southern Draft Horse Association. Such an event literally consists of horses pulling heavy objects (in this case, a specially designed hydraulic truck). I was glad to see draft horses in harness, though pulling for show does seem a bit of a waste of their talent and energy, as compared with plowing a field or pulling logs out of a woodlot. Still, I am always excited to attend an event where people might share at least some of my interest in draft animals.

There is some controversy over the practice of making horses pull at competition, however, as I learned when I posted a comment about going to the pull on the draft horse forum. There were even a few vehemently negative comments by one user (who obviously had a grudge against someone involved in the sport) who seemed to suggest that all owners of pulling horses are abusive egoists. Many other users protested against his (I just assumed the user to be male for the sake of convienience, but I do not know if this is the case) comments. Some members of the forum take their horses to pulls occasionally, and view certain, informal pulls as friendly events where draft horse enthusiasts can enjoy each other's company. All users condemned any horse "pullers" (as people in the sport are called) who abused their horses to win, however, as one would expect from the users on such a forum.

I do not know if the pullers at the competition I went to were good teamsters (people who drive draft animals) or not. I wished very much that I had the skill to identify the talented and the untalented, as well as the caring and the uncaring, but I am obviously too inexperienced to judge others on their horse driving skills at this point. All the more reason to be excited that it is only nine weeks until I leave for my internship.