Onward!

I’m done with my dairy job now, after two and a half weeks working for Hennie and Kerri Verwaayen, and I’m on to the next thing. Basically, here’s minor plan in outline form, as I want this post to be mostly photos.

-It’s now Sunday. I’ll be staying in town with Ann and Murray until Wednesday or Thursday, when I’ll take a bus down to Wellington.
-I’ll spend somewhere around a week in Wellington, exploring NZ’s capitol, seeing the museums, and if I’m lucky, stumbling onto some of the work being done for The Hobbit, which started filming last week!!
-While in Wellington I’ll catch up with the Stray bus and then ride over to the South Island with them and continue on in their route, which, I think, goes to Abel Tasman national park next!

And after that I have no idea. The footloose and fancy-free life of the road is calling.

But here’s what’s happened on the farm while I was around, and I’ll hopefully have some pictures of Ann and Murray and their place in my next post.

P.S. Some of these photos are blurry because they were taken through a plastic bag, as I didn’t want my camera to be covered in manure and other viscous fluids.

Here’s the milking shed at the farm:

A pen full of my charges. That bunch in the back is the mob of Fresian heifer calves.


Taking the four-wheeler and walking the in-calf cows out to their paddock:


One of the numerous paddocks on the farm. Pretty, though!

Bringing in the milking herd. You can’t see it here, but there are cows as far as the eye can see all lined up. I’m tempted to re-write that Cake song and call it “Long Line of Cows.”

Hennie and Lucy helping deliver a breech calf:

A couple of pics of me and my calves!





My white board, outlining the different pens, and who’s where:

Me in my coveralls in front of the milking shed:

My calf bite (ok, she didn’t really bite me, she was just sucking on my arm and then butted upwards like she’d do if she were really drinking, and happened to graze me with her baby teeth):


So yeah! Here are a couple more points of note from the last week:
-I was apparently in my first earthquake, even though I didn’t feel it. I was milking with Hayden and there was a squeaking noise that I thought was the milk pump, but Hayden froze and looked at the ceiling. I said “what’s up?” and he said “didn’t you feel that?” and I said no, and he said “that was an earthquake! A tiny one. It moved the shed a bit.” And I said “oh!” And that was that!
- I got cut with a rusty wire a couple of days ago. As I was measuring it Hayden walked by and tripped over it, pulling it through my hands, and it was all rusted and frayed and it ripped my right hand up a bit. So the next day I checked my immunization records and found that I hadn’t had a tetanus booster since 2000, so I called the clinic in town, and after getting my name, birthday and permanent address they told me to come in the next day. The next morning I went in, got my shot, waited the 20 minutes to make sure I wasn’t allergic to it, and got out of the office in half an hour! And the shot was free! Under some accident insurance scheme in New Zealand, if you’re injured on the job you get most medical treatment for free, even if you’re not a resident! They didn’t ask for my visa or passport or anything! It was amazingly efficient and pain free. Except for the shot itself, of course.
-This isn’t really news, but I’m super in love with Brandi Carlile and her music. I posted a song of hers in the last post, and I hope you all listened to it. She’s all I’ve been listening to lately.

I’ve been feeling homesick lately, as well. I guess this happens whenever I’m in between things. But I really miss the people and places back home. More than ever, I wish there was a way to transport back and forth seamlessly, but then life would be too easy. I was saying to Kerri on the way into town today that I think people are constantly torn between their desire for adventure and new-ness, and their need for comfort and routine. When I’m home I want to be out, and when I’m out I want to be home. It’s part of the human condition, I reckon.

Also, I’m picking up Kiwi phrases like “I reckon,” “I’m knackered,” “I’m gonna go have a feed,” “I haven’t heard that in yonks,” and “pardon?” when you haven’t heard someone. We’ll see if I can bring them back to the States. :-)

And lastly, here’s a video of birdsong in the morning on the farm. This one’s for you, Dita!