Kentucky - Environment Day 3

Day 3

Written by Ethan Voyles

Bacon, scrambled eggs, and good directions helped get us to our site early today. It was a beautifully executed morning on everyone's part. We played ninja in the parking lot as we waited for our new friend Emily to show up and give us our new favorite form of identification – LBL BUTTONS WITH OUR NAMES ON THEM.

We worked at the Homeplace – a quaint little village founded and sustained by folk who really love their mid-1800s Kentucky history. Our leader was an "interpreter" at the Homeplace, meaning he dressed in the traditional attire, carried out their daily activities, and shared information about their way of life with visitors. His name was Bob, and he made sure we got all the information he could stuff in day. We were quite informed.

We met Proctor, a palomino mule who is smarter than any horse around. Then we were given our task – we were to load hundreds of wood shingles onto a large trailer and unload them in a barn on the other side of the field. We quickly developed a process – we had gatherers, passers, stackers who all acted as cogs in the machine that was ASB Kentucky. Everyone had two choices that determined the muscle group they targeted most while passing shingles – the platter technique or the sandwich technique. Two people who were passing shingles to each other could not both be sandwich passers or platter stacker. As Caitlin pointed out, "alternation was key." While the task was a tad monotonous, we found ways of making it entertaining. My favorite was we would play a form of telephone where the gatherer would say something to a passer and it would go all the way down to the stacker at the end of the assembly line.

We took a short break to meet and feed sheep from England. We also observed how freaky sheep's pupils are. We quickly discovered Chris Bill's hair is the exact same texture and consistency as their wool.

We finally finished stacking the shingles in the barn and ate some lunch. Parents, you can rest assured your kids are staying regular! Then we were given more shingles to move! WE CAN HAZ MORE SHINGLES?

Then we got to see how tobacco is dried in a barn – we are all now avid chewers. But, really, we learned a lot about drying this famous cash crop, and learned that the tobacco plant they grow there can be so fresh that some have tried chewing it and passed out, only to awaken the next day in a haze.

We met some cute piggies that gave Chris Bill a kiss and also ate their own fecal matter. Max was a pig whisperer as he was the only one that could get them to calm down. Then, we were given yet another task to move wood out of a barn and into a different one. Caitlin and Matt passed the wood down from a shed to Nathan and Emily who then gave it to the rest of us one by one to transport. Essentially, handling lumber was our expertise by the end of the day.

Some lovely ladies who were also interpreters at the Homeplace gave us a long explanation of how essential lard is on an 1850's replica farm and that a smokehouse is mainly used to add flavor to meat – the salt was the most important preservative used, not fire.

After making sure Bob did not have any more wood to move, we said our somber yet relieved goodbyes and left to use the rest of what we thought was supposed to be our half day at about 4 pm…

We headed towards the big tree at Bennett Cemetery deep in the LBL woods. Emily from LBL told us it was big – we had to go. We took fun pictures and got scratched up climbing the big tree and enjoying the great wide wilderness.

Then, we headed back to the cabin and when we got there, everyone did there thang – Caitlin killed it on the chicken parmesan – DELISH. Bill and Mitch caught a fish in Kentucky Lake right outside our cabin – YEA BOYZ. Then we ate happily, showered, went to Walmart and replenished our stock, and laughed the night away playing some Spoons and Psychiatrist (a highlight was when all of the patients had a disease of turning into Asian Carp). A very successful day.

We miss family and home, but we are living quite well out here in the Kentucky backwoods. We're learnin, laughin, and livin – and lovin e'ry second of it!