I am amazed at how the time has flown by here on the farm! Tomorrow is my last day and I leave early Thursday morning for Rome. I am extremely excited to go back to Italy (and to see my friends who I haven't seen in AGES!!!!), but I am also very sad to leave the Fourés family. I have had several adventures since I last updated the blog, and they include (more) cherry picking, (more) cherry de-pitting, and (this one is new) lamb killing.
Yes, lamb killing. Not me personally, but Jean Louis. There have been 4 lambs killed in the past week here, and my experience with the process has been a growing one.
I was not present for the first 2 killings because I was at the market in town, but I found out about them that afternoon! When I walked into the barn to milk the sheep, I bumped my head on something that was hanging over the sink. I looked up and there was a little lamb hoof, hanging from the rafter. Aaaah! It was then that I noticed the bucket of blood at my feet. Ginnette then pointed out that one of the dogs was knawing on the head over in the corner. Lovely.
A few days later, Jean Louis informed me that he was going to kill another lamb to sell the meat to a friend. This time I was there, and I intended to watch for my education. He and Ginnette took the lamb and hit it over the head with a large weight. While it was stunned, they lifted it up onto the container where we keep the grain, and cut its throat over a bucket. All of this in front of the other sheep!!! Because the lamb didn't cry out, the other sheep didn't think anything of it and weren't traumatized at all. I, on the other hand, almost passed out. Watching the little thing shake and tremble as it bled out was a little too much for my body to handle, and I started to feel light-headed. I quietly excused myself as they hung the lamb up to skin and gut it, and returned to the house to lie down. Luckily I avoided fainting face first into the mud and the manure! I watched Jean Louis cut up the meat that afternoon without a problem and decided that, if he killed another sheep while I was here, I would try to watch again because, after all, it was not my brain or my heart that rejected the experience, it was just my stomach and my blood pressure!
Yesterday evening we were milking the sheep when Jean Louis noticed one of the older lambs drinking the milk of one of the sheep. ''For this one, it's the knife tomorrow morning,'' he said as he chased it away from the other sheep. So this morning I had my second chance to attend a killing. I made sure the other sheep weren't there this time (too weird) and positioned myself in full view of the scene of the crime. Because this one was bigger Jean Louis was very careful to hit it over the head just right to make sure it didn't come to before he had a chance to cut the throat. Apparently he hit one over the head one time, and she got back up and kept eating the grain they had put down to distract it! He did an excellent job with this one, I must say. I did much better too :) I watched the whole thing without even feeling queazy. Afterwards, I watched as Jean Louis skinned it and took out all the guts. As he and Ginnette carried the carcass down to the meat cooler, I was given the task of holding the heart. It was still warm. And yet, I had no problems! I believe I can now say that I am an informed and confirmed carnivore.
In more pleasant news, we have a new wwoofer here: Carry from Wales. She arrived yesterday and I have been showing her the ropes before my departure. She is here in France to learn cheese making in the hopes of returning to a cheese making job where she is from. She is very nice and I am impressed by the amount of French she knows considering that she hardly learned it in school and has only really picked it up from travelling here and from her son's experience with it in school. She will be here for 3 weeks like I was.
On account of all the rain we have had lately (literally every single day for a week) the department is no longer in a draught, but I was also unable to climb the great peak of Cagire. Their son, Louic, just stopped by and said this just means I have to come back, preferably in the fall, so we can take 3 days and really mae a trip out of it. Doesn't sound like such a bad idea to me :) It is good to know that I have a place to stay here in the Pyrenees mountains. And with great people to boot! I overheard Ginnette talking to a friend on the phone yesterday and she said some very nice things about me. She also said I spoke French very very well! Yay! I was blushing upstairs in my princess bed (their grand daughter, Louise, calls it that because it is seperated from the rest of the room by a blue curtain). I have made bracelets for everyone in Louic's family and I will be leaving key chains for Jean Louis and Ginnette (bracelets aren't very practical for people who milk cows and sheep twice a day). I am honestly going to be very sad to leave. I really do hope I can make it back some day.
Tomorrow I will be making the cheese for the last time, and I am hoping I can get Carry to take pictures of me doing it so that I can post them!
