Kings Day!

New volunteers and Kings Day

After the Easter weekend the next batch of volunteers joined us at the farm with the old ones heading out. Rachel joined us from England and Jessica and Leonardo came from Italy. It didn’t take long to know that the new team worked well together and we set the rhythm right away.

We were very delighted when Jessica cooked Danish pancakes (crepes) for us the one evening. They didn’t last long, but we got the best of both worlds and even had desert crepes!

This group seems to be a bit more social and we like to cook group diners together and have some drinks after some of the long days. It’s a welcomed change.

The days are defiantly getting warmer and even getting up to +25 a few afternoons this week, which was a little bit too much for this Canadian one day.

The one-day we had to go to the other field and weed and cut down the roots of the Christmas trees, which as work was pretty easy. But as the temperature rose in the afternoon and the farmer let out his chickens, not quiet the whole 30,000 of them – but a good hundred at least. Thankfully most of them stayed on the other side of the fence with only about a dozen getting through to annoy us. As you were weeding they would creep up and get in the way to get all the bugs and worms that wiggled there way out – and they were pretty brave chickens too.

If you had to leave the fenced area into the area with all the rest of the chickens, they were excellent at shadowing you and following you to wherever you were going – obviously they new humans meant food. Thankfully that day was my Friday and a few beers after work with the crew was much enjoyed by all, we even followed it up with pizza from the cob stove!

A much needed rest day with some running around, which was suppose to follow with the Kings Day festivities, was cancelled due to the thunder and lightning storm – we were not brave enough to venture out that night.

Kings Day (which was called Queens day until she retired just two years ago) is a celebration of the King and his family. Everyone where’s orange, which I’m not sure why orange to be exact and then on the actual Kings day all the stores close down so that everyone gathers around the city centers and puts whatever they want out on the street to sell. I’m told in the larger centers, people even sleep out the night before to get a good spot – sort of like what some would do for concert tickets. Then everyone wanders around and buys super cheap stuff. This is combined with food, games and some live music to celebrate the day.

I and the Italians were not brave enough to take in Amsterdam at this time, apparently the city which is already over 1 million people, explodes into something around 4 million and the streets are packed with people barley moving from where you started.

We on the other hand ventured out to Amersfoot, which were just enough people that at times you were shuffling along. Then we headed back to Leusden to have a beer and listen to the live music.

After some diner and a quick bonfire that Muuse wanted to lite up back at the farm, we headed out back to see the live music in the evening and have some drinks. I think I seen more older people grooving and shaking it to all the music and having a good time. The music was all English pop and they didn’t sing the whole songs, a few lines or half of the song then onto the next so it was a full on mix. I’ve also learned that Dutch people are super tall, especially when trying to see live music, ha ha!

But a good time had by all and an interesting bike ride back made for a sleep in day the next morning – especially since it was non-stop raining.

A good weekend and my first Kings day experience!