Normand Cow

I seem to have landed into another world all together.   Yesterday I left the farm L_ G_ M_ with G_ and we have found ourselves in a much better situation.  We spent yesterday exploring the small city of Granville on the Atlantic coast and today we arrived at another farm.  This farm is composed of two couples that rent the land and each couple has their own animals and their own yurt on the land.  They share a garden as well as the surrounding farm buildings.  One of the couples, W_ and L_ have been here for three years, they built their yurt which is quite big and they raise the pigs for the meat as well as the veal.  A_ and L¹ (another L)_ have been here since last October and they also have a yurt, although they eventually hope to build a house on the land.  A_ is in the process of starting a dairy from the milk from the cows (which currently feeds the veal) where he will make and sell milk, butter, and cheese.  L¹_ works with A_ at the moment but would eventually like to start her own large vegetable garden.  Like V_ from the first farm I was at, L¹ knows the local plants as well.  L¹ also works with the vegetables at a agricultural high school in a nearby town, is a private tutor, and a volunteer firewoman.  She told us today that she likes having various different jobs and like I’ve realized working in Normandy farms, it is important to get off the farm every once in a while.  At the farm they milk the cows twice a day, but like I said at the moment the milk is only then given to the baby cows.  There are lots of pigs as well that are separated into various pastures depending on their ages.  Right now there are three mama pigs with piglets and these older females are separated from the males.  Then there are the slightly older piglets who aren’t quite old enough to be with the full-grown pigs, and lastly there is a pasture for the full-grown pigs who are getting ready for the slaughterhouse…little do they know.  There are cows as well (maybe 30 or so) and at the moment there is one that is particularly vocal because she lost her baby this morning and so she has been mooing consistently since we got here.  Apparently cows that are sad can also produce tears.  Who knew? 

While there doesn’t seem to be that much laborious work (mainly weeding so far) the farm is much more fun and interesting to be at.  The people are great and seem to enjoy what they have set up for themselves.  They only take WWOOFers when they want to and otherwise they enjoy having their lives to themselves.  And thankfully, they understand as both G_ and I do that WWOOFing is not only about working but also an exchange of culture, language and knowledge.  While the conditions are much wilder here than the other two farms, the atmosphere is great and having already had a number of good laughs and numerous smiles with the people I have met I know this will be a nice place to spend the last two weeks of my time in Normandy.