Is VERY difficult. I guess I should not be to surprised by this, farming (or actually herding) is supposed to be a very difficult job, that I have had next to no exposure to. A typical day in my brief 3 day stay, we rose with the sun (which sounds challenging but is really around 9 am in November in Mongolia, but would be an issue in the summer when the sun rises about 4 am) in a freezing ger. Fortunately, peace corps provides all PCVs with wonderful sleeping bags that trap body heat and are supposed to keep you alive at -20, so the freezing ger (about 32 degrees) was tolerable as long as I didn’t get out of my sleeping bag. It was so cold mostly because it was really windy, and contrary to popular belief felt is not wind proof (also this has been one of the coldest weeks so far but it is now November so it is supposed to be cold). One thing I am grateful for is that I have a house – that is mostly wind proof, don’t get me wrong my house is still cool in the mornings, but I have yet to be able to see my breath inside, so it is a step above a ger. Then my host dad would go milk the cows, now they get very little milk because it is almost winter. Apparently milk is seasonal (as are eggs), who knew? Then we made tea, the ger now being tolerable warm for me to get out of my sleeping bag, and let the sheep and goats out of their night pen. 700 sheep and goats is a lot of sheep and goats (I know that sounds stupid, but have you ever seen 700 sheep and goat all together being let out of their night pen so that they are all very close together, they take up a lot of area). My host dad is still pretty young (30) so his herd is actually on the small side, but it will grow (hopefully), a from what I have gathered having 1000 animals is kind of like being a millionaire. What really amazed me is that he seems to know all the animals, and can recognize his and not his by looking at the animals. While I was there, our herder and another herder were not being too attentive and two herds met. This is a very easy way to lose sheep and goats, so on the second morning my host dad spent a long time looking at his animals, at one point the not so attentive herder stopped to help, and he would point to a goat and say “Is this ours” and my host dad would say yes or no only by looking at the thing. I don’t know about you but most goats and sheep all look kinda the same to me. I mean there are black goats, white goats, poke-a-doted goats (I know it is cool isn’t it – probably the technical term is spotted) and brown goats, but beyond that they are all very similar, oh I guess there are big goats and small goats too. And the sheep are even worse. Because it is school break my host dad didn’t actually have to herd because the kids who are normally in school herded, I think they are his nephews. Girls will herd for a short time, on foot, but the person that actually herds all day on horse back is always a guy. Then we did normal work like get water, and clean the ger, and clean the animal pen. The animals come home around six or seven (which would be after dark for those wondering), they go back in their pen for the night and are amazingly quiet. We cooked dinner by candle light and ate and then went to bed, because there was no electricity making doing anything relatively difficult.

Though Hodoo life is hard, it is extremely beautiful. We saw lots of birds, quails, and eagles or hawks (I am not sure which) most notably. But no wild animals, I think you have to go further out into the hodoo for wild animals, although wolves apparently attack the animal pens sometimes, I am just as happy that didn’t happen.

Since this is probably going to be my last post before Thanksgiving. I want to let everyone know that I am very thankful for all the thoughtful e-mails, letters and packages I have received. It really means a lot to me to hear from home, and I am grateful for everyone that has contacted me. And most especially for my parents who have been really really great, despite not initially be fans of the PC idea.