First interview!

Today I traveled an hour east for my first interview with a farmer. (Mary, if you're curious, I was near Parker.) The drive to the farm was crazy! I borrowed a car from one of the guys in the program, so I was driving an unfamiliar car on unfamiliar freeways--not a good combination. You know how you see the freeways in the movies where they look like they're stacked on top of one another? Yeah, that's what I was driving on. For most of the drive there were at least three lanes on each side of the road.

So, I was nervous driving and nervous about the interview. Luckily, the farmer, a woman around 50 years old, was super nice. And talkative. She gave me a tour of the farm and then we went inside a small, air-conditioned barn and talked for over an hour. She is very passionate about building relationships with the local community and educating people about agriculture.

The farm is small, only 4.5 acres, and it has sheep, alpacas, chickens, and a small vegetable garden. I think it was my first time ever seeing an alpaca--they're really cute! The chickens are all egg-laying hens (some even lay green eggs!) and the other animals are raised for their wool, so there's no animal killing on this farm. (Unfortunately, that will be interviews later this week.) They spin wool at the farm, give tours, give presentations in elementary schools, and sell eggs and wool fiber.

This particular farmer gave me permission to use the name of the farm in my research. (It's free advertising, you know.) If you're interested, send me a note, and I'll email you the farm name along with a link to the web site. The farm would be a fun place to visit... if you're ever in northeast Texas! Here are a few photos of the animals.

Alpacas!
Jacob's sheep with the long horns.
The chickens right after getting let out of the barn
The chickens had a watermelon treat yesterday and this fella was hoping there was a little leftover
This little contraption is used so that the chickens can free-range and run around but also be safe from predators. (There are coyotes, bobcats, and raccoons nearby.) It gets moved to a different location every day. During the hot afternoons, when the predators are resting, they're also allowed to roam around the entire farm.
Another safe guard from predators--the (very hot) guard dog! And yes, that's a bathtub... in the field...

After the interview, I drove back and typed up my field notes. (Basically, that included anything I learned or observed that isn't on the actual audio recording of the interview.) That took a couple hours. Now I'm working on transcribing the actual interview. So, I listen to about 5-8 seconds of the recording, pause it, and type what was said. Then I repeat the process hundreds of times until the entire hour-long conversation is typed up. The director of the program told us to plan for 5-6 hours of transcribing for every one hour of interview. Ugh.

On Wednesday I leave for a short road trip. I'll be traveling out near Amarillo to a huge cattle ranch. Then I'll spend the night in Lubbock, and on Thursday I'll visit a large farm that has an annual corn maze and other fall festivities. It will be about 15 hours of driving during those two days! (That's precious time that I should be using for transcribing!)

I am looking forward to seeing a little more of Texas, though, and I hope to also stop in at Palo Duro Canyon State Park. It's the second largest canyon in North America. You can look forward to those photos this weekend! But, in the meantime, you can check out the photos on Wikipedia.

I'll get back to campus on Thursday night. Then on Friday I'll drive an hour and half east to another small farm. I also hope to stop by Bonham, Texas on Friday. (Yes, there's a town named Bonham!) It's a little out of the way, but it just seems wrong to spend ten weeks in northern Texas without visiting Bonham.

Next week I'll visit a vineyard and maybe interview someone from the agricultural extension services.