Farm life

My friend Shawna and her baby daddy Attila are small organic farmers in northern Virginia--very close to Harpers Ferry, WV. They just had a baby (named Ruby) in June and I really wanted to see them and give Henry an opportunity to check out farm livin'.

Shawna and I were interns together at the BOEC (www.boec.org) in 2000. Since our internships we've caught up with each other in New Zealand (2001) , Orcas Island (2004), and Austin (2006). After a couped up summer in Texas of endless 100+ degree temperatures, I was ready to be outside and breathing some cool air. Henry was too, he just didn't know it.

I took about 300 pictures but will try to post under 50 and I'll spread them out over a few days.

These first ones were taken at a small farm near Shawna's--owned by a Mennonite family. This was Shawna's version of grocery shopping. First we got raw milk (to drink and make yogurt and cheese), and some grass fed beef--sold to us by a young girl so healthy looking I wasn't sure she was real.

Henry introduced himself to the calves. They thought his fingers were nipples.









Here's where you get the raw milk -- Henry helped:


And on the way out, a young boy (about 11) spotted Henry staring at the tractor and asked if we'd like to have our picture taken on it. We did and afterwards he drove off in it. My friend asked him, "Are you looking forward to winter? What do you guys do?" His response was, "We have fun!". Wow. He lives in a world where driving a tractor is regular drudgery.