Follow the Journey

In our final week of our long journey through the South Pacific, we were lucky enough to stay on the Hart Family Farm and spend time with our amazing hosts Greg, Rachel, their kids George, Bill and Emma, as well as their four dogs. This week was a real eye opener for many of us, learning a lot about the way we make and consume food and how unsustainable this process is. Greg and Rachel showed us a number of documentaries discussing regenerative farming and how we can be a positive change in this world that makes and consumes food in a manner that nature agrees with. One of the documentaries we watched actually had Greg in it discussing what he does on this property, so it is super cool we got to stay at a celebrities house this week. When we weren’t learning about regenerative farming on the Hart Family projection screen, we were helping out with various responsibilities that needed to be done. On day one, we were split up into three different groups to take turns being on meal prep duty and early morning cow milking. It was an interesting transition to be going from being surrounded by animal feces to prepping everyones food for the day, but we’ve known each other for 11 weeks now so we’re used to this kind of environment. I unfortunately only got to milk the cows once, but it was an experience unlike any other. There aren’t too many people in the world that can say they woke up one morning, and thirty minutes later they were surrounded, literally surrounded by cow butts pointing at you in every direction ready to fire. The best part of that situation is that you’re in the most amount of danger when you’re hooking up four huge pumps to their udders while your head is underneath their tails. My favorite part was spraying the disinfectant spray on their teats after they were done being milked. I’m not sure if the spray was cold or stung them a little, all I do know is that if it weren’t for the metal bar by their legs, I would’ve had my head kicked off at the first spray. I can thankfully say I never got hit by the cow feces, but I will add that for the rest of the trip, Coopers new name is now Pooper for a very very very good reason. After the cows were done being milked, the rest of the morning was spent feeding the calves, the pigs, and the chickens. While milking the cows was fun, I was happy to be away from those stress inducing cow butts facing me every which way. Once all the animals were fed, the morning milk crew returned to where we were staying to eat breakfast and then start prepping the other meals for the day (after they washed their hands). While the morning crew cooked our food the other groups spent time on the farm weeding vegetable gardens, assisting the growth of newly planted trees, and other various farm work they had for us. Our evenings were spent laughing and loving as we ate amazingly fresh food from this farm, watched movies, and playing a new game called Werewolf that George and Bill taught us. This was a relatively easy week in regards to work load, but a week that gave us plenty of opportunity to enjoy each others company, and reminisce on the incredible journey we have been on. The end is near and while we may be sad when it comes, I have every bit of confidence that we all will have zero regrets on what we did, learned, and will bring back home with us. The Hart Family Farm gave us a space where we could enjoy being the family we have become, and gave us the perfect place to end our journey.