Rooster's Revenge and a Fond Farewell

First of all, roosters crowing ain't no joke. You might know the sound from some kind of childhood cartoon, where you see a rooster perched majestically atop a fence post, raising his head and letting forth a grand cry to greet the sun as it crests over the hilltop in the background. The reality of the situation is that roosters are the worst alarm clocks ever. Last week I had to move to a different barn loft due to construction getting started in my first barn loft, and I was like, Cool, I'm flexible, no prob. To the right is the dung heap; not really a problem, since the smell of cow dung doesn't really bother me.


To the front is the horses; again, not really concerned about the smell. To the left, the chicken pen; I thought, oh how charming, they'll wake me with their soft coo-cooing. What I didn't consider was the goddam rooster. And this isn't one of the young cockerels we did for a couple weeks ago - this is a full-blown rooster out of Central Casting.


And he is loud as shit. He starts crowing at about five in the morning - before sun comes up, mind you - and doesn't stop until they're all let out of their roost and fed. It. Is not. Cute. Like, take that really annoying buzzing alarm clock on your bedside table that you can't stand the sound of, make the sound more obnoxious and persistent, set it for a couple hours before you want to wake up, then remove the snooze button. You now have an approximation of what I've been living with for the past week. Some of you may be thinking that this is karma for the bird we ate, and you're probably right, but I've still got beef with that chicken.

Speaking of karma, I want to take a moment to say that I have a LOT of good-host-karma to make up for after this trip. Everyone I've stayed with has been amazing and basically taught me that I've been a terrible host in the past and need to get my act together. So thank you (in advance for some) to Andrew, James, Betty, Sabine, Alex and Susanne and family, Familie Leopold, Sonnwendhof, Theresa, and Giulia. You've all been incredible and I'm a better person for having stayed with you.


Speaking of Sonnwendhof (see how I did that?), I'm moving to a different farm tomorrow! I may have mentioned this previously, but my time at Schwalbenhof has taught me that vegetables may not totally be my thing (besides the eating part); it's the livestock here that really captures my interest. However, although they have a nice little herd of cattle and a few laying hens, animal husbandry is definitely not the focus here. So I decided I wanted to head somewhere where it is. Enter Sonnwendhof ("Solstice Farm"), a small farm not far from here that has cows, milk sheep, pigs, a large flock of hens, and goats. I'm going to learn how to make cheese! Put that shit right on the resume.

It's certainly bittersweet to leave Schwalbenhof, but I feel as though it's time to move on. The people here have been incredibly warm and welcoming and I won't soon forget them. Thank you again to Susanne, Jogl, Tobias, Julia, Afra, Fabi, Prinzy, and my buddy Momo.