Thursday Dec 5th

Today was the coldest day yet on our Farmstay. Perhaps it was the coldest day this winter so far. The high was nine degrees but the real feel was -20. It was incredibly windy and that made any outdoor activity miserable but it was good that we all suffered together. We had a photo hike, which was not too bad because the snow that had stuck to the trees had turned to ice and they made for beautiful photos.  Also it was fun to take pictures of the chickens with there feathers puffed out (to keep warm.) And once we started to give the llamas treats they suddenly turned extremely photogenic. Though today was a very cold day, it was also a very beautiful one and certainly a memorable one.

The photo hike and the weather were all interesting but nothing especially memorable. The memorable pat was when we took a long hike in Andy’s occupation group. We started out in fairly high spirits but the horrible weather soon slowed us down. When we got on the trail, we had loppers and we chopped everything in the way of the trail. However, this soon got tiring and cold so as a result we just walked along while Andy told us about how to identify different types of trees. We figured out that yellow birch tastes like wintergreen gum and this lifted our spirits. We trudged along slowly, losing feeling in various parts of our bodies. After what felt like many, many hills we finally reached the home stretch. As our spirits were lifting higher and higher, we found a big Aspen tree completely in the way of our trail. Then we had to cut our way through the tree with our loppers and headed for the homestead. Then we realized we had to go to the long barn to put our loppers back. This was a big setback, and groaning the entire time, we did it. Finally, we headed back to the homestead for good, where we all fixed ourselves a cup of hot chocolate (not thinking twice about the 50 cents fee) while we brought back regular blood flow to the edges of our bodies. Like I said, memorable experience.

by Mehek