It felt we had a babysitter today. Let me explain how odd this felt, considering that I’m a responsible 29 year old woman. In the morning, Ellie and I went out to do our morning chore of feeding and watering the chickens. Angela joined us to see what the chore was all about. At around that time, the neighbor came to keep an eye on the farm (this is the woman that was in a way our suto-babysitter.) She was mostly coming to make things seem regular, and because the House Mother and the Head Farmer made these arrangements long before they had gotten to know us. We walked up the house, and the whole group watched me wrangle with the pigs for feeding and watering. Then we sat inside and had tea.

She and Aizhan came around with us to collect the eggs, and it was enjoyable to teach them how it’s done. Once again, I fed and watered the pigs, and then we went in with the eggs. At some point soon after I’d finished washing and sorting the eggs, we decided to go to Farmington to go to the shoe store so I could purchase new flip flops, since mine had fallen apart last night during our walk to the pond. (This was the same shoe store I’d been to yesterday with Lisa.) Angela, Ellie, the neighbor and I all piled into Ellie’s car and rode over. We had a great time doing some shoe shopping.

The neighbor had asked if we could stop at the alpaca farm on the way back from Farmington. This place was AMAZING! There was a little store with knitted and woven products made with the alpaca wool. The farm owner, Futon Butler, then proceeded to give us a full farm tour. He separates this males from his females so that he had know who fathered each baby; that way he can register them. We got to see the barn, loads of hay, and baby alpaca, so cute! As it turns out, he and his wife run the farm alone with very occasional help from their nephew. We were all a little astonished and saddened to hear that he manages the entire 28 acres at over 80 years old.

Angela and Ellie dropped us off at the house and went on a quick trip to the post office while I took care of the animals and threw a pizza in the oven. We all casually sat around and enjoyed our pizza. After lunch, we played go fish and then I checked on the animals again.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching netflix tv shows like “Orange is the New Black” and “New Girl.” I talked on the phone with Joshua, Doug and my mom at different points in the evening, and overall had a very casual night. But look at the sunset I got to witness while on the phone.