Sugar and Sheep

Holy moly. I'm tuckered out. Today was healthcare for the sheep. I literally feel like I just played in an intense roller derby bout. From 7am to 12:30 today I held sheep horns while Ashley checked their eyes, ears, body, trimmed their hooves and gave a shot. It was intense. My arms and back are sore from being bent over all day and being tossed around by a few of the really strong ones like Zeus. Because the Santa Cruz and Iso Santa cruz herds are pretty big I really don't know too many of their names but I was able to learn a few today. My favorite, mainly because he gave my arms a rest, was Ed. He just laid down and rolled over for us. Thank you Ed.

After healthcare I went up the people barn and started on a crazy baking project! Sophia is teaching a "Why Vegan?" class tomorrow in Chico so I was put on baking duty! Which is always fun because I love baking. I rocked out to a little Lady Sovereign and made brownies, two batches of marble cupcakes, peanut butter cupcakes and rice crispy treats. Phew! I'm sooooo tired! Will probably spend the evening with the Desperate Housewives :)

You Gotta Be....

This morning I opened. *deep and wonderful breath* I LOVE opening. It was such a crisp morning everything smelled dewy and I always enjoy my morning walk to the shelter office when the sun is just coming up. I look behind me to see the cattle already grazing on the hilly pasture and look below to see the geriatric cows, Joni, Neal, and Hank doing the same. Then I try to contain my giddiness. I would have thought, a month into this internship, that the excitement would wear off, but it seems to be growing. When I played derby, after practice I would always say that my lungs felt happy from such a good workout. They really did. They felt filled with fresh oxygen and really strong. I felt my best after practice. Anyways, Farm Sanctuary is to my soul what derby practice was to my lungs. Whoa check that analogy out...haha! So yeah, still loving every day here.

After I opened I helped Leanne wrap Curly's busted horn, one of the sheep from the Iso Santa Cruz herd. I had to pretty much stand with him between my legs and hold his good horn with one hand and his chin with another. He did a really good job :) I really am enjoying any time I get to assist or just watch the caregivers with different treatments.

I then drove the scary van to Chico to drop of fecal samples at the vet and pick up feed. There was also a failed pit bull rescue mission between Orland and Chico. Two of them were running up and down the farm street and I tried to get them but they were scared and ran off. Hope they are okay.  As I was driving into town "You gotta be" by Des'ree came on the radio. Nostalgia! Took me back! That was my first ever cassette tape. I remember cleaning up all my barbies that were scattered around the room to that tune. Let us reminisce:



By the time I got back I had a couple hours of barn cleaning to do and then we had our monthly Chico shopping trip.

I'm going to throw in a few more photos. These are nothing new to people who I'm friends with on facebook, but to all you other readers out there:

 

Me and Coco. This is that goat hug I was talking about in a previous post. YES they hug, and it's the best thing in the whole wide world! Far better than any human hug!

Buddy and Chili playing with my shoe laces. 

 I don't know who this pretty lady is but I think the picture turned out well.

If that isn't just the best smile ever...and that's coming right out of a nap! That's Johnny :)

 Bo looks a little freaked out here! Hahah!

Okay, more photos later. Blogger uploader is being super slow!

Uncharted

It's going to probably be a two post kind of day. I woke up early this morning and was super excited because Sara Bareilles's new music video for Uncharted was being released. Sadly, I was kind of disappointed in the video. I love the concept behind it and Sara's commentary, but it was a miss for me. What does this have to do with interning at Farm Sanctuary you ask? Well, her recent cd, and more importantly the song "Uncharted" was pretty much my mantra while out of a job, completely broke and totally hating my life. All I knew was I wanted to really do something that I was passionate about whether it made me money or not, because finding a job to just "have a job" seemed so meaningless and depressing. I remember sitting in Brewed Awakenings, doing nothing with my life, angry with myself for giving up my only independent source of income. I think I'd lost any hope in doing something I really loved with my life. I started filling out job applications for cleaning services, fast food joints, gyms, the temp agency, and grocery stores. At this point I'd been out of a job for around 7 months and my bank account was begging me to grow up. So, I was filling this crap out, beboppin' to Sara's new cd, Kaleidoscope Heart. And Uncharted came on in the mix. There were so many inspiring moments in this song. Most notably: "Compare where you are to where you wanna be and you'll get nowhere". I do that all the time...and not only that, I also look at where everyone else is in their life compared to where I am. That's a recipe for disaster.  I kind of took that entire song to heart. And amidst all my crappy applications I decided to fill out the intern application for Farm Sanctuary for the second time. Because THAT is really what I wanted to do. Forget that I didn't have any money and there was no way I'd be able to fund an unpaid internship. That's what uncharted is about...going for it. Being "scared shitless" as Sara so eloquently puts it :) Anyways, so I guess the rest is history. But between filling out the app and actually getting the internship there was a lot of self doubt and wonder about whether or not I'd have to give up on a dream purely for the sake of money. "Everybody has to get their hands on gold, and I want Uncharted." I still have no clue what I'm doing with myself after this internship...that's the uncharted part. And yes, I'm a little scared about that, but I feel that if getting this internship was possible so is whatever else I decide to do. So, that's why this song is relevant to the internship. Here's a performance of Uncharted that I really love:



And you can click here to see the official video. While I didn't like the video, I really loved what Sara had to say about it and I'll leave you with that.

"This video is about my journey as an artist who looks up to the people around them. This is about being a fan of people who take chances, who are fearless, who have integrity, and go off into the world saying yes to what's around them."