The Baldwin's farm in La Vall de Laguart consists of a large vegetable garden, a paddock with two horses, a donkey and several goats, and a cherry orchard. While I was there, there were three HelpX volunteers, including myself. Daniella, from California, had been there the longest; four months or so. She did a lot of very good cooking, she watched over the kids at times, looked after the dogs and milked the goats. Aldis, from Latvia, got there a week before I did. He was a general handyman and looked after the animals in the paddock. Aldis is a tough, New Age mystic pilgrim; he travels penniless most of the time, and almost always sleeps in the open. His destination was the vicinity of Granada, where he hopes to find a community to live among. As for me, the not so tough, Quaker pilgrim, with a host more often than not these days, and usually at least a little money, and a tent and a sleeping bag for the nights when I have no host, my job was digging the garden. I was a human tiller, which I enjoyed. I found it meditative, and I liked seeing the slow but sure results. Phil Baldwin taught me the basics of milking goats, and I managed to get about half of what he or Daniella got out of them, but I never felt comfortable milking the goats, and they didn't feel comfortable with me either. One goat in particular, Scruffy, though I tried to bribe her with choice weeds dug from the garden, had it out for me. She routinely bit me or butted me with her head. I found digging easier. The ground may have been hard at times, but it never pushed me around. |
| The meditation house, which became my house for most of the time I was at the Baldwin's farm. |
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| The view out my front door |
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| The main house and caravans |
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| The paddock |
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| A friendly goat |
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| Philip Baldwin milking a goat. Phil milked goats the wu wei Way, then made curds and whey, though when asked couldn't say how much the curds and whey he made weighed. |
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| Linda, the donkey |
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| The garden, ready for planting. |
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| Scruffy, the goat who bit me. I did not milk her the wu wei Way. |
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| Wijnand Boon, the pilgrim journalist who inspired my own pilgrimage, pulling weeds. |
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| Me, posing... I mean digging. |
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| Aldis, fellow HelpX volunteer, getting ready to feed the critters. |
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