A Weekend at a Yurt

 

So, a week ago our friends invited us out for the weekend to their parents' yurt.  It's out in a beautiful part of T-land and Bobbie had never been so we jumped at the chance.  This post is all about our fun/hard-working weekend on the farm.

These are our friends, you may remember them from past posts.  He was my first language helper, and she works as a psychiatrist in the asylum here.

 The best thing about these summer trips to people's yurts/ranches is that the boys have all the room they could possibly want to play.  After being cooped up all week in a 700 sq. ft. apartment, suddenly they have this:

Like most T ranches, they have a separate summer kitchen building.  It's too hot in the summer to cook inside, but then when winter comes and you already have a fire going in your cabin it's better to just use that to cook.

This is what it looks like inside the kitchen; it's just boards with cardboard lining the walls to keep out the wind.

The boys enjoying the T tea, which is milky and salty instead of sweet.  Just the thing for a windy day to warm you up.

Of course, for Steven and Matthew the best thing was the animals.  Steven couldn't get enough of the calves, and anything we did that involved them he would volunteer to come "help."

It was also a time for work.  The owners actually left a couple of hours after we got there, so we had to do all the regular work to keep the farm operating (with the help of our friends who also live in the city who had come out with us).  There was chopping wood, ...

... breaking off the sharp teeth of the pig (pigs can really hurt each other when they bite if you don't snip their teeth off when they're little) ...

... milking cows (which Steven had to try too), ... 

and Matthew, having seen Steven, was not going to be left out ...

... churning butter (which, without a proper churn, is HARD work), ...

... patting butter into nice round balls for storage, ...

... and herding.  There was actually a LOT of herding to do; I spent most of the day the first day herding sheep.  We left early in the morning and walked all over those mountains you see in the background chasing sheep that fed any direction they pleased with no thought to the fact that they were going to have to spend the night in a corral at some point.  Ugh.  Stupid sheep.  I was exhausted when we got back; shepherding in a mountainous area is hard work.

 Bobbie, of course, took the chance to get in some fishing.  Not catching, but fishing at least.

The lone fish, caught by my friend A, was not exactly a monster.

All in all, it was a great weekend.  Great to have a chance to catch up with A and S, great to have a chance to speak so much T, and great especially for the boys to get outside in the great outdoors.

And for anyone who thinks that we "suffer" out here, take a look at these two pictures and ask yourself if you'd rather live here or where you do.

OK, fine, you still want to live there, but there are benefits here too, I think you'd have to admit!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your online "visit" to a T sheep ranch.  I'll leave you with a video of Steven learning how to wrestle, T style.  He struggled at first but as the weekend wore on he eventually managed to pin Aldin instead of the other way around.

See you in a week or two!