Sunday morning we attended mass in Bayfield at a very small church at St. Bartholomew. We arrived at 8:28 for the only mass of the day (8:30am) and the parking lot was full. We entered just before the mass began and an older gentleman waved to us to join him in the front row. Didn’t he see that we had an infant and a three year old with us? Surely he didn’t or he wouldn’t have invited us to the front row. Mass was great and followed by a celebration of Father’s 50th birthday with a brunch in the hall. After mass we joined everyone and met a lot of really nice folks. We met one couple who attended college in Stubenville, OH and now live in Bayfiled, CO. We are running into a lot of folks from OH out here. There we young families and older couples in the parish. This parish is much different than our home parish in OH, but I can see us fitting in quite well and easily adapting to the rural change of it all.
After mass we headed out to La Boca Ranch for an open house. We arrived around noon and stayed until about 6:00. Having the RV came in handy today for the children (and Jonathan) to take naps so that they could make it through the day. I spent time catching up on both children’s baby books.
The ranch visit included a hay ride around the farm to see the chickens, alpacas, goats, sheep, peacock, horses, calves and lots of dogs. We met a lot of “interns” who are living on the ranch for free and have their meals provided in return for the work they will perform and the education they will give and get about organic farming.
We met a lovely family who sold everything and set out in their Toyota minivan six weeks ago to travel and discover which farm they wanted to work for the summer. They have a little girl, Keva, who is one month older than Nadine. Her mother, LeeAnne was delightful and did face painting for the children. Nadine had her face painted for the first time. Nadine was a cat and Keva was a puppy. Jack and Nikki (two boys from Heartwood) were frogs.
There was also a tour of the gardens and the living quarters of the lnterns (a yurt, a tent, a shack, a trailor). After the meal goat meat stew with potatoes carrots and other greens from the farm there was live music played and folks listened and sang along (I didn’t know any of the songs, but people there did.) There was a wonderful river that looked very inviting, but we didn’t plunge in, however the interns would jump in to wake up or to bathe.
–>One funny thing (pretty in-genius actually)about the intern housing area was the bath tub up on a lift that s used for bathing. They first light a fire under the tub fill it with water get it hot and then extinguish the flame and they have a hot/warm bath.
A very enjoyable day!