My weekend on the farm proved to be quite the adventure and
matched very few of my expectations. I was expecting to be completely "roughing it" but ended up with a quite pleasant stay. Three hours after boarding our minibus on
Friday night, we stumbled out into the quaint little town of Shap. Mr. and Mrs.
Chalmers, my host parents, warmly greeted us as soon as we touched ground, and by the time we had arrived at their farm they had nearly learned
everyone's name. We learned later that they bring in students like us nearly
every weekend to escape from University for a few days and enjoy the outdoors.
In the summer, they use their farm as a summer camp for children with
disabilities, so they conveniently had a bunkhouse that provided enough space
to house all 8 of us!
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| Mr. and Mrs. Chalmers |
Despite our late night arrival, Mrs. Chalmers had prepared a
full pasta dinner for us when we arrived, complete with a cupcake dessert! I’m
sure it would surprise few to learn that we seemed to have tea offered to us
before and after every meal! Tea time led to some great dinner table
conversations about farming, our Scottish roots, the changing times in regards
to technology, and Scotland’s upcoming referendum that proposes independence
from the UK. According to Mr. Chalmers, independence would be a complete
economic disaster for the nation, and I would tend to agree.
I was expecting my weekend at the farm to be a complete
outdoors affair and had packed accordingly with sweatpants and old tennis
shoes. I believe we were all a little surprised when on Saturday morning we
loaded up the van to be brought into the town center. Our morning and early
afternoon was dominated by window shopping and tourist attractions. The first
stop was to the Appleby Farmer’s Market where we picked up some fresh vegetables
for our chicken dinner. Continuing on with the food theme, we stopped at a
chocolate factory and indulged in a little dark chocolate. My favorite item for
sale was a box of chocolate that you could eat the box after finishing the
chocolate inside!
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| Chocolate Factory |
After our chocolate stomach had been satisfied, we quickly
visited the Appleby Grammar School where, believe it or not, George Washington’s
older brothers went to school! We were not done with our history yet because
after grabbing some baguette sandwiches, we had a picnic lunch in the remains
of King Arthur’s father’s castle. I’m sure you all remember the stories of the
knights of the round table and young King Arthur pulling the sword out of the
stone, but I didn’t realize that a real King Arthur existed! Little did I know
I’d be eating a sandwich in his father’s Pendragon Castle…
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| Outside Pendragon Castle |
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| Farmer Bob Milking the Cows |
Another highlight for me on Saturday was taking a walk with
Ginny, the farm dog, through an enchanted looking forest with magical looking
streams darting in and out the path we were following. Had Ginny not been so determined to have a speed walk, I would have taken more pictures of the
terrain! When I arrived back at the house, the rest of the crew was putting on
their wellies for a trip to neighboring Farmer Bob’s cow farm. I had asked naively
the night before if we would be able to milk any cows, and the Chalmers had
gone out of their way to set up an appointment! We weren't actually able to do
the milking because there was a pretty intense milking system in place, but we
stood right alongside the cows and herded them into their place when it was
time for the next one to get in line! It was fortunate that we ALL smelled of
the same stench at dinner because we had quite the odor to us for the next
couple of hours!
We had another long dinner Saturday night that consisted of three courses: chicken
curry, apple crisp, and cheese and biscuits. It took me a while to rationalize
the order of the courses and the overall theme of the meal, but the taste made
up for it in spades!
We didn’t have a ton of time on Sunday, but with the time we
had we toured the farm and learned about the types of camps they host for
disabled children during the summer. You wouldn't naturally imagine farms to be
wheelchair accessible, but because of the many grants the Chalmers had
received, nearly all areas of the farm could be enjoyed by boys and girls with
various disabilities. After a couple of rounds of bananagrams and a long
exchange of hugs, we parted ways with the Chalmers and slept the majority of
the bus ride home. Now, about that reading I had brought along to do…
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| Good Thing I Always have Cute Sheep Photos to Look Back On... |
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