Our new home and our new workmates – the horse and the guest dog
Monday, 20th of February 2012
Since the day we arrived here our life has been a completely different one. I will now explain a typical day working for food and bed in Adrenalin Village, Fethiye.
We arrived to our home.
The bikes were only used to get into the city or to the small shop. Instead we used our feet to walk the terrain. My first duty of the day was now to take care for the animals. Our stock: 6 big chickens, 3 weird chickens (RIP January 20th, guest dog ate them), 4 small chickens (1 missing, 1 RIP fever), 4 bunnies (1 RIP got an infection), a grumpy Horse (fed him fruits and oat until he became happy and nice), 2 cats (1 missing), 9 dogs (7 recently born puppies, the mother dog, one shy dog and sometimes a guest dog ) and several aquarium fishes that are no fun at all. At first it took a while to figure out how I could avoid that the chicken ate the shy dog’s food, the less shy guest dog tried to eat the chicken, the horse and the chicken-eating dog ate the chicken food while the horse tried to eat, bite and kick whatever came in it’s way.
Solution: the horse ate tied on the fence (it took me a while to be brave enough to come close enough to put the lead rope on him and walk next to him) and while the dogs ate a big bowl of food that they would need to chew a long time I ran to feed the chicken. First the small ones, than the big ones, otherwise they would fight each other. Luckily fishes, bunnies and cats were more easy-going about their food envy. While I was busy feeding the animals and avoiding fights, Roberto prepared the breakfast for the five human beings: Eda, Emir, Orkun and us two. Every morning Roberto came up with a different dish sometimes accompanied by Quesadillas and Mexican salsa. All of them loved him for that. So did I. We carried the food to the Saloon BarN, that also belongs to the hotel and is open in off-season also. Roberto’s challenge was to cook for every taste. That includes Orkun’s who is used to the typical Turkish breakfast: bread, white cheese, olives, tomatoes, one cooked egg and of course çay tea. So in order to hit the spot Roberto asked Orkun what he could cook for him that he would enjoy and he answered with his knowledge of english: “Egg. White cheese. Mix.” Orkun ended up liking the cheese quesadillas in the end.
The Saloon BarN. No horses and cows allowed inside.
After breakfast I regularly went to the neighbor’s field. All neighbors grow vegetables and the ones on our left side had a lot of weed growing in their field. So I went to their place with a big wheelbarrow to pull up the weeds. So I had collected some free-food for the horse and bunnies and the neighbors had less work to do.Then we went on doing some other improvements. Sometimes we worked in the garden plowing the fields and carrying the soil to other fields or to fill the holes the dogs have dug.
The chickens were happy about the extra portion of worms in the fresh soil. Other days we carried around big stones to construct paths for walking, chopped fire wood, built a bamboo wall to cover the toilets, planted some plants, constructed street signs, cut the palm trees’ leaves or cleaned the kitchen and the restaurant that now was used as a storing place. Some other times we chased the chickens away from the restaurant area, here Roberto managed to create a solution for it (watch video below). Roberto also helped to built the homepage for the Saloon BarN and Adrenalin Village and design a flyer for events in the bar. He also cleaned the horse’s poop away. On the other hand I cleaned the bunny’s and chicken’s stables, brushed the grumpy horse trying to avoid it’s bites, served the Saloon BarN customers and did some laundry.
After sunset we usually played Okey, Dominoes or surfed in the Internet in the warmest place at night: by the Saloon BarN’s chimney.
It felt wonderful to be surrounded by so many animals and lovely people. Sometimes when I got up I opened the door found the cat miaowing for me. When I looked around the corner there was the horse interrupting his grass-eating only for a few seconds to send me an evil eye. The dogs came running soon and after feeding the chicken they would follow me anywhere I went expecting more and more food. All of this in the wonderful atmosphere of a farm surrounded by green and white covered snow mountains near a crystal clear stream that feeds the fertile land of our home.
Some days we just spent sitting in the sun and relaxing after a hard mornings work. Tuesdays we have our official day off. Unfortunately in our first month in Fethiye we have only had very rainy Tuesdays. But still we are hoping for some Tuesday’s-sun to make a nice bike ride through the surroundings. Until then we keep watching movies, reading books and dining out. Tomorrow it’s said to rain a little less.
This is too funny! Thanks for sharing.