This weekend was fun, filled with so many adventures. I
traveled down to the town of Galesburg, in central Illinois, to play a show at
a family friend’s wine shop. It’s only about 3 hours or so from Chicago but it
felt like a breeze since I slept the whole way.
I played 2 shows at Vintage’s in downtown Galesburg, one at
night for a little wine reception and the other the next afternoon for brunch.
The owner, Julie, moved to a new location not too long ago so I was privilege
that she invited me out to the new shop…which was absolutely beautiful by the
way!! The crowd was great and we
had an amazing turn out for Galesburg!! I actually sold out of cds, which was a
bonus.
Probably the best part of the weekend was Julie’s farm! If
you don’t know this by now I’m a huge animal lover and I was in heaven at the
farm! After driving for about a half an hour out of Galesburg through what
seemed to be pure darkness besides the headlights from our car. We pulled up a
drive way and there was a house to my right and a few barns ahead. An adorable
white cat with grey spots trotted up to the car, his name was Sir William. I
was told the reason he got his name was he led about 20 to 25 cats over to the
house from a neighbors that had left them when they moved. He was the only cat that stood up to
the dog Zeus that instinctively ran up and chased all the other cats away.
Hence how he got his name, Sir William Wallace (from Braveheart). He’s the only cat that allowed in the
house since he holds his own around the dog.
After unpacking the car with the few things we had, Robert,
Julie’s husband, took me in back to see the barn and all the animals that lived
in it. I opened the barn door and the cutest kitten walked up to me. Her name
was teacup and it couldn’t have been more perfect. A little tiny thing that was
the friendliest outdoor cat I’ve ever seen. I picked her up and held her in my
arms as I ventured around the rest of the barn.
Let me preface this next part:
So this past summer a bunch of baby Peakin ducks somehow ended
up in our front yard. There were 5 of them and they couldn’t have been more
than a few months old. There was no mother in sight so after feeding them my
mom brought them down to Julie’s farm. Well they were not little baby ducks
anymore. They were full grown Peakins. They were in a stall in the barn with a
few chickens where they sleep at night. They seemed very happy.
As I walked through the rest of the barn I saw more chickens
and a rooster but then 2 goats came in from the open door at the end. I guess
they were miniature goats so they only came up to about my knee. Then a huge
animal came to the edge of the door. Robert said, “Oh that’s just Lenny”. Lenny
was a full-grown LAMA!!!! He had to be over 6 feet tall but I didn’t get very
close to him. Unless you have food in your hand he really doesn’t like people
that much.
I went into the other side of the barn to find like 15 cats.
Some were very nice and let you pet them but others were a bit skittish. I set teacup down to eat and headed
back inside. They had a super hyper dog that was so much fun. He gave the best
kisses ever…even when you didn’t really want them. The rest of the evening was
just relaxing with all the cute animals around.
The next morning I was actually woken up rather early, not
to my liking, even though I did get to take a nap later in the day. But I did
get to do something I really never thought I would do. I got to shoot a GUN! It
was only a small rifle but it was actually really fun. I could never get myself
to shoot an animal with it but I did hit the pumpkin we were shooting at (it
may have been on the 3rd try but I’ve been told that’s always the
charm)!
We had to leave to head out to the wine shop for the brunch
that I was playing at. I was a bit sad to leave the farm. I was having so much
fun with all the animals. I wanted so badly to take Teacup, the adorable tabby
kitten I was playing with all weekend, but I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to
have a 10 week old kitten in my arms for the three hour drive.
At the shop I played a few songs in the beginning of the
brunch as people were coming in. My mother asked me 5 minutes before I went on
if I knew any Christmas songs…I looked at her with a puzzled look and said ummm
not really!! I fiddled around and learned a very interesting version of Jingle
Bells (in about 5 minutes remember) that I played and it actually didn’t turn
out that bad.
I had so much fun down in Galesburg. I hope I can get down
there every few months to play again and of course get to play with all the
animals! I think I would have been a good farm girl besides all the gross
things like picking up poop. I’m not very good at those things…trust me…many
people would agree.
I would love it if you could share your stories of being on
the farm or even fun stories of animals. I love hearing stories from all of you.
XOXO
Sarah VonderHaar