May 21,2013
Aaron:
As an apprentice, one of my goals at Windward was to become more comfortable around animals, both in physical proximity to them and confidence in my ability to keep them alive.
Before coming to Windward, my main experience with domesticated farm animals was at an organic dairy farm that I worked at for several weeks about a decade ago when I was a freshman in high school. I had some experiences with the cows there that turned left me turned off to future interactions with farm animals.
My first week here, I was instructed on how to care for the chickens and ducks. This was really a good starting place for me, as I don’t find either bird type to be all that intimidating. (Although the spurs on the roosters certainly gave me pause!)
After several weeks of caring for the birds and learning their quirks and eccentricities, an as yet still unknown predator wiped out the Indian Runner duck flock, killing all five birds in a week! The Indian Runners are flightless breed, which is likely why they were all killed and eaten while Mama Duck, a Muscovy duck who can fly, is still alive eating insects and stray kernels of grain that falls from the occasional bucket. This experience with the unseen predator has left me with a fresh respect for the ingenuity of nature that the farmer or homesteader must guard against and potentially try to harness.
After getting comfortable with the birds, I was taught how to care for the rabbits. The rabbits recently had babies and watching the babies get bigger and begin to eat hay and weeds from the garden was been a really awesome experience.
Some of the rabbits have gotten used to me holding them, and that level of trust from an animal that knows that I can do serious injury to it is really profound. It would speak well of the human race if we could learn to be so trusting of one another.
While learning about the rabbits and birds, I also spent some time with the goats, and to a lesser extent, the sheep and pigs. The first time I fed Pancake, the abandoned lamb which lives with the goats, the baby goats cautiously approached and investigated me, sniffing at me and nibbling on my shirt.
The older goats have become accustomed to me as well, as I occasionally "assist" Andrew with the goat milking. In addition, I helped Andrew rebuild the fence for the goat area, and it's really satisfying to watch the goats enjoy their newly enlarged and enhanced space.
This past week, Lindsey has been away and I've been taking care of the pigs in her absence. This is kind of the final exam for me, as pigs are really the one animal at Windward that occasionally views people as food.
As far as the pigs know, they are the top of the food chain, both animal and vegetable! The first few times I had to get into the pen with them, I was super nervous, but it's been almost a week now and the worst thing that happened is that Willie, the pregnant sow stepped on my foot by accident. She isn’t light, but I managed to get my foot out of the way pretty fast!
Reflecting on my experiences, it's really amazing to me how distinct each animal's personality really is. Dora the goat is super mischievous, like Loki of Norse mythology, whereas Pancake is a super excitable lamb with ADD who can barely concentrate on a bottle of milk.
Every animal is an individual in the same way that people are. It makes it harder to think of "goats" or "sheep" or "chickens" as monolithic units, and much harder to imagine treating them the way that so many animals are treated in our society's current systems of industrial agriculture.