I think farms with animals could be more fun if they could do something about the smell there.

But I understand why there’s a smell.

But still, it’s probably the worst part of farm visits is the fecal air.

You get it.

Your Daily Lex.

So my kids are in on spring break.

And, you know, as you may recall, I work for myself.

So I’ve been trying to figure out ways I can block my own schedule while still getting work done that I want to get done, but have extra time with them.

And I’ve done a pretty good job with that, I think.

And of course, we also just had a true weekend.

So the weekend of spring break, you know, it’s low key and fun, good times.

We didn’t travel for spring break because it’s Passover.

It’s annoying to travel on Passover if you’re going to observe Passover.

So we yesterday, Sunday, I know the days of the week, Sunday, we went to an alpaca farm.

It was called Out of Sight Alpacas, I believe, which is not true.

You could see them.

But we went to this alpaca farm.

And I don’t recall if I’ve met or pet alpacas before.

But so when you first are gathering, they’re like, make sure you arrive on time.

Your tour will leave promptly, which indeed it did.

We were the last family to arrive, although I will note we were still several minutes early.

And there were some other Jewish families there, very visibly kind of observantly Jewish, because it was Easter Sunday and Passover.

So there were finite options of what you could do for fun that day.

And so there they were.

And then there was just other, you know, normies there.

Not that we Jews are normies.

You get it anyway.

So the tour guide is passing out food.

So here’s food that you’re going to give to feed to the alpacas and make sure it’s, you know, it’s in a little brown bag.

It’s like, this is only for the alpacas.

You’re going to see other animals.

Don’t feed the other animals.

And you’re going to feed some.

First, we get the male alpacas and then later we’ll see the female alpacas.

And so you get just this food.

So distributed to everybody.

And then one, that more observant family.

And I say, I know that they were more observant because they were all wearing yarmulkes and they were wearing, you know, other indicators of their observance level, their religiosity, if you will.

I will not.

But so the guy walked up to the tour and he’s like, we actually can’t have this food.

So in Passover, if you have a passing familiarity with it, you know, you’re not supposed to eat bread.

You’re not supposed to have certain kinds of food products, not even not consume them.

You’re also during the course of Passover, not supposed to own them, possess them.

And so this gentleman was of the feeling that holding onto this food was violating the rules of Passover because he was now in possession of this, this grain that he shouldn’t be having on holiday.

I understand that he was not allowed to eat it, but I understand that.

I don’t don’t begrudge him his decision.

My family did not see it that way.

We were like, we are not owners of this and we’re not eating it.

We are custodians of it.

We are, we are a delivery vessel.

We’re basically unemployed labor or unpaid labor, delivering food from the farm to the farm animals.

But at no point did I consider the food to be mine.

I belong to the farm and really to the alpacas.

And boy, you haven’t lived until you’ve gotten alpaca saliva all over your hand.

Let me tell you, um, no, the feeding process was gross.

And the tour guide had this line that has really stuck with me.

I was talking to my parents on the phone yesterday.

I mentioned it to them too, but he’s like, yeah, alpacas are kind of a, uh, evidence of God’s sense of humor.

Cause they’re really cute and they’re really adorable.

They’re really fun to pet and they have absolutely no interest in interacting with humans in any way.

They don’t care if you pet them, they don’t really want you to pet them, uh, but they will allow it.

They will tolerate it if they’re being fed at the same time.

And that turned out to be super true.

I didn’t think the tour guide was a liar and he was not.

Um, but so yeah, there, there was the tour guide and he was, uh, uh, you know, showing us what to do.

And so we got to feed alpacas and pet alpacas and man that for is great for wall wall.

You get it.

Um, we met some emus, fed some emus, uh, some, some Romaine lettuce, uh, emus were a little bit jerky, a little bit, uh, rude, but it was fine.

Uh, then we met some pigs, some piglets.

They really liked their bellies rubbed.

If you’re wondering, did the observant choose pet the pigs?

Yes.

Uh, we met some sheep, some goats, a very small cow.

Um, I think it had some name that made it, you know, that it’s, it is a small cow.

Uh, it’s a special breed of small cow, very sweet cow.

We saw a very pregnant donkey.

Um, and, uh, yeah, it was a, it was a good time all around.

I enjoyed the experience.

Um, it is pretty, like I said, disgusting to have a, uh, alpaca lick a bunch of food out of your hand and they know the sound of those crumbling paper bags.

They know when the people come tromping through that it’s probably feeding time, but it’s interesting.

Some of them hang back and some of them are a little more aggressive, not in the aggressive in the sense of like you feel endangered, but like they’re coming right up to you.

Hey, do you have food for me?

Uh, but man, the amount of wool on those animals, the sheep, just, you couldn’t feel their bodies because there was so much wool there.

It was crazy.

Um, it made me feel less hairy as a man.

I don’t even know what that means.

Happy Monday.