so it's kind of a cold windy day here in Peach and Vermont and I'm honestly getting ready to say goodbye to Peach and Vermont it's kind of a weird feeling it always is so as you can tell I'm actually not at the farm right now I just left
. I'm actually driving and on my way to Burlington because I'm heading towards the airport. I've got to leave the farm for a couple of days, and I'll talk to you guys about that in just a minute and explain the why and what's going on. Hi guys, hi! Going to miss you guys. It's just always really hard to leave the farm whenever I have to leave the farm, and occasionally it happens, like a couple of times a year. It's not a lot, but a couple of times a year I have to leave the farm. Like, I might have a business trip I have to go on, or, you know, I really do try to make sure I keep to my promise to my wife about taking like one vacation a year where we go somewhere for a week or so. And then there might be another trip or two with friends or family for a night or two here and there. And the trips for a night or two are not that big a deal and not all that stressful.
But I'm going to be gone for almost a week. Anytime I have a trip where I'm almost gone for like that long, anytime that's more than three days, I think I get so stressed out. Like, I'll typically have the dates circled on my calendar, and like a week or two leading up to that day, I will start to get like a little bit antsy and make sure I have all the preparations necessary for my farm sitter. Like, for example, one of the things I do, and I think everybody should do if they are ever leaving their farm or homestead and they have a farm sitter taking care of things, is I try to like just craft up a document, and it explicitly spells out all the major things that they've got to know. It talks about all the things that they need to consider. It like just gives them all the depth and detail that like if something comes up, they have it all in one spot. Typically, I just use the same basic document with like contact information for myself, emergency contacts, you know, details about various things related to the animals, like that sort of stuff that doesn't change. And then I'll also, like one morning while I'm doing chores, I'll just like actually dictate to myself all of the things I'm doing step by step, like clinically, and then I'll typically transcribe that recording, and then basically that's what I'll leave for my farm sitter so that she's able to just like have a list and walk through it and know what to do. So if you're ever wondering how to get away, I think that that's actually one of the important steps.
But even though I feel like I'm really well prepared to leave, and even though I have a lot of faith and confidence in my farm sitter, I think she's great, every time it gets to be about the point where I have to leave the farm, I get so stressed out. Toby dog continues to remark his territory. Fresh Toby patch, watch out where the toes go, and don't you eat that yellow snow. Pablo, what are you doing? Get out of there. Hey, go! Not allowed to eat the dog food. Guy, come on. And so my anxiety about leaving the farm isn't a logic thing; it's an entirely emotional. Like, I don't know. I think it's about the disruption of my routine and just how anchored I am to my routine. I think that's a huge part of why I get so anxious when I'm getting ready to leave the farm. That anxiety builds and builds and builds. Like Allison, my wife, will always tell me that I seem way crankier the days leading up to the farm, and she'll ask me like, "Why are you so stressed out?" And I'll be, "I'm not stressed out," which whenever I say that, that generally means I'm really stressed out. And so the idea of leaving stresses me out, but then it always happens. My last day on the farm, I don't feel any stress anymore. All I feel is this tremendous sense of sadness and worry. Like, I'm, you know, like it's the same feeling if I'm like going away from my wife for a few days, or if like, you know, my nephews come and they spend a couple of days on the farm and then they're leaving, and then I feel sad. Like, it's always that kind of feeling that I have, but it's about leaving the farm itself. I mean, yeah, I'm going to miss Toby dog and Abby dog, and I'll even miss the barn cats. And so that's definitely part of it, but it's not just the animals. It's like everything, like everything about the farm kind of serving as one big organism. I don't know. I get really sad, and I feel like I'm going to miss it, and I do.
So now you guys might be wondering where am I going? And uh, I'll give you a countdown of three to leave your guess in the comments. Three, two, one. Pause the video if you're not done writing because here goes the answer. I'm actually on my way to Washington DC. You might notice that Allison is not with me here in the truck. That's because she's already in Washington DC. She left uh a couple of days ago, and so I'm actually heading down there now to go meet her down there. Her sister is getting married this weekend, and so uh you know, it's like kind of like a big family event, and you know, she's got stuff to do with the actual wedding, so it just kind of made sense for her to get down there early. For me, I tried to stay up here in Vermont as long as possible, and so I'm just now leaving on a Friday, got to get there for like rehearsal stuff and rehearsal dinner tonight, and then tomorrow is the actual wedding, and then there's like a brunch. So it's like kind of like one big weekend uh of wedding for for Alison's sister, and I'm honestly really happy for her. You know, she's great. Her fiance, he's a really great guy. They're going to make a really great couple. So yes, that is actually the primary reason I'm leaving the farm this morning.
Now, because Allison and I used to live in Washington DC, and her sister lives there now, you guys might like think that Allison's actually from there, and she's not. Allison and I are both from from Central Connecticut, like suburbs of Hartford, basically. So is Allison's sister, but it just so happened that after we moved down to DC, her sister moved down there too, and then we left in like 2017, 2018, I think. I've gone back only once since then, but I will say I have a lot of anxiety going to Washington DC right now. Like, I still have a ton of friends down there, and from all the things I'm hearing, the vibes are just not good. You know, yeah, we lived in DC for about four years, and so I don't know, it just it seems like a community that's really struggling right now given kind of all the turmoil of the world. You know, something you guys might not know about Allison is she actually used to work not at USAID, but like uh she would like subcontract but for us. Like, when you see all the headlines and vast misinformation out there right now about what's going on, it's just really frustrating for us because, you know, Alison, she has lots of personal experience with USAID and particularly the projects she worked on where her job was coordinating programs that distributed, you know, AIDS drugs and Ebola drugs and malaria drugs and supply like controls like mosquito nets and that sort of thing to countries mostly in Western Africa, some things in sub-Saharan Africa, but mostly Western Africa. She did that for years, and she has lots of friends still kind of within that system, and a lot a lot of those F like most of those folks, if not all of those folks at this point, have been laid off with like little little cause or little explanation, and a lot of the really really good projects that they've been doing have been halted. And and I don't know, that just sucks. And so it definitely puts a dark cloud over our trip down to DC this weekend.
You know, the one thing that did stress me out this morning that happened that was unexpected and uh not a good thing that happened is I was actually releasing the quacky in and the door to the hoop coop broke. Just it's been like scraping up against ice and frozen duck poop and just been kind of hard to open and close lately, and I I don't know, I probably should have just tried to readjust it. I did my best to try to melt things down the other day, but I think that only made it worse. And uh so yeah, I was opening it today and it like broke off of its hinges. And so it should be fine based on the way the door is designed. It's not a huge deal. I concocted a backup system using an old rubber tire to keep the door closed at night, and really it's only to keep the draft out more than anything else. And you know, the dogs handle the security part of things for the hoop coop, and so I'm not too worried. But I was like, "Gosh darn it, it's always those little things that you left hanging out there that that come to bite you." I mean, the funny part is, I actually over the last two or three days, I did like lots of little farm fixes. Like, I readjusted some gates, and I came through with the snowblower to clear out some more trails. I actually uh gave all of the cattle like a ton of hay. Like, I gave them, I don't know, I think it was like seven bales of hay, which is like enough hay for a week for them basically. Abby, come get over here. You're going to fight him over his cow poop? Really? She is a weird dog. Is that that same piece of cow poop? Why is it so valuable? Love you, pal. Bye, Abby. Come here. Say bye. All right, you don't want to say goodbye to me. You just want to pew on that cow poop. What's up? I love you, girl. Bye, Abby. She's such a weird dog.
So I'm here at the airport about to head down. I did not mention the other thing that I'm going to be doing while I'm down there, and uh it's actually still a secret for just a little bit longer. But after DC, I've got a stop to make before I head back to the farm. And so for me, it's like this weird duel feeling of really missing the farm and where I live and where I call home and being really excited about what's next, which you guys will find out in the next video. Oh, can't forget my bag or a camera.