Life on the Farm

My gardening did not go exactly to plan! 

I couldn't find a rake, nor a stiff brush. 

The soft brush from inside the bungalow just filled with grass the instant it touched the ground and then took five minutes to clean.

An hour later I dismissed the idea of gardening completely and looked for something else to do. 

I swept and moped the floor of the large reception room of the bungalow and was just finishing off when the doors of the bedrooms opened and out came a girl from one room and three boys from the other? 

This was definitely NOT the family who had arrived with me and moved into the rooms the day before!

We made our introductions, the girl was having a holiday from her city job and the three boys were on a Christmas college break and had come to the farm to help out. 

I asked if they had any ideas on what work we were able to do but they just said, “Today is the first day, today we rest!”

I got out my laptop and began to catch up on my Blogs!

When the sun began to dip on the horizon, the girl popped her head into my room to say they were going to feed the cows and did I want to come too. 

I happily closed my laptop and headed out into the cooling air.

First stop was Mataji's Market Garden with her and her husband to collect the vegetables not good enough for the market.

Her husband proudly showed us the things that they had been growing.

Long beans and gourds hung from long lines suspended over posts hammered into the soft ground.

Fertilizers and manure had been placed in long channels which in turn were covered with plastic to try to keep the weeds under control.

In the gaps they had planted the vines upon which their future depended.

Three boys worked for them, building, picking and packing. 

They had had more workers but two had quit just the week before to go home to their families for Christmas.

Neither the Mataji or Prabu blamed them. 

“It is hard work” they agreed, 

“The heat, the mud, the mosquitoes. It is our business so we enjoy it but the work boys they find it hard.”

We collected the damaged beans and gourds and headed up to the cow feeding area.

This evening ritual of cow feeding has turned the cows into happy hand eaters. 

No pushing or shoving just gentle tongues that wrap around your fingers covering everything is sticky slobber!

The sun was now casting a golden light over the land illuminating the cows and ourselves in its wonderful soft glow.

With the last of our supplies handed over

we emptied the last of the containers into the food trough.

I took a few photographs of the young Mataji trying to be artistic

but just ending up with silhouettes. As the sun dropped the final foot darkness rapidly descended in its absence.

I wandered down to the kitchen to eat wondering what I would do in the morning.

My first day at the farm hadn't been that productive but there was always tomorrow!

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