The end of my WWOOFing
I meant to title my last post "Electrocution and Spilt Wine" after my first impression on the Graaf farm. As Femke showed me the cows within my first hour I leaned forward and a surge went through my body. Literally the past several minutes rewound in my head as I was knocked back. A faint red streak appeared on my neck and a fresh tiny exit wound above it. Good times. Then at dinner I knocked over my glass of wine, always a classy move.
So my WWOOF stint is officially complete. It's all leisure and pleasure from here until August 28.
My previous post ended at the birth of Stuck, and Snip's weakness after giving birth to two canned. She was quite weak and ill up until a couple days ago. Gery and Marcella bought a powder that stimulates muscle contractions ruminants need in order to regurgitate and chew cud. Otherwise, ruminants become sick from what is essentially a poisonous byproduct. Before I left she seemed much more willing to stand and graze. Stuck is the sweetest little bull who bounds around the field and occasionally attempts to play with one of the cats, who are not amused.
Pretty soon after my arrival I began to contract a horrible cold. I never get really sick, and shrugged my itchy throat to another ear infection. By Friday it was full blown head cold: runny, itchy eyes, cough, the need for something cold on my face, sneezing, head pressure. By Sunday I felt much better, though unfortunately the cold had spread through the family since before my arrival, minus Mirte, and Gery was feeling its intensity as well. This post week I think my body has experienced all the issues one gets while traveling. I was pleased a bee sting was not on the list.
Overthere Farm works to be as sustainable as possible. The pig food is collected from the neighboring hotel food scraps and added extras from the grocery stores, as I previously mentioned last post. Every extra is utilized. Whey from cheese making is divided among the chickens, pigs, and cats. Plastic bottles are saved for excess milk or to bottle feed. Even the salad bowl is the glassware from a washing machine!
Meals were their own treat. A typical lunch was tea with fresh milk. A slice of homemade bread, with any of the options: homemade butter, cheese, blackberry jam, avocado picked from the tree, or fried egg from their resident chickens. The Graafs were kind enough to let me leave with a liter of milk and chunks of the orange zest and mint cheese I made.
There are many stories to tell about the animals. I want to write a short murder mystery from the animals' perspective. Dad, will you be my editor? Each species has its own set of characters. The hissing gaggle of geese, the different gangs of chickens, the lumbering and loveable big pigs, Billy the leader of mischief among the goats, and so on.
And then of course our downtime stories. Apple cobbler and milkshakes at Pam's tea garden in the village, learning to play Settlers of Catan, conversations at the dinner table, kittens playing by the fire, being prolonged at the waterfall because of routine fire burning in the grasslands surrounding us, Marcella brushing out my dreadlock wannabes, and the cafe where I may have helped a local girl print out an illegal document.
So now from here? I am in Durban for a few days. My clothes are clean again. Liz's mom rinsed the dirtiest shirt, my only long sleeve covered in molasses, mud, milk, and whey. From another room she called out, "This shirt is disgusting! How have you been wearing this?" Liz and I laughed. She had helped me handwash my clothes weeks ago with a similar response. And now more school items to take care of. I got a small scholarship! This trip has been such a reminder and a fuel for inspiration for why Ecology and Conservation is so important to me.
My Visa actually expires on the 26th. So Rodolphe and I are meeting in the Drakensburg to travel Sani Pass (look up this beautiful drive into Lesotho) and spending some time in Lesotho before I have to head to Joburg airport. This will give me a slight extension on my Visa when I re-enter South Africa.
The day is near when I can Skype and learn about what all had been happening with you. The summer adventures, the wedding planning, the trip to El Salvador, life in Austin, wildfires, the cutest niece and nephew in the world, and all other stories!
So my WWOOF stint is officially complete. It's all leisure and pleasure from here until August 28.
My previous post ended at the birth of Stuck, and Snip's weakness after giving birth to two canned. She was quite weak and ill up until a couple days ago. Gery and Marcella bought a powder that stimulates muscle contractions ruminants need in order to regurgitate and chew cud. Otherwise, ruminants become sick from what is essentially a poisonous byproduct. Before I left she seemed much more willing to stand and graze. Stuck is the sweetest little bull who bounds around the field and occasionally attempts to play with one of the cats, who are not amused.
Pretty soon after my arrival I began to contract a horrible cold. I never get really sick, and shrugged my itchy throat to another ear infection. By Friday it was full blown head cold: runny, itchy eyes, cough, the need for something cold on my face, sneezing, head pressure. By Sunday I felt much better, though unfortunately the cold had spread through the family since before my arrival, minus Mirte, and Gery was feeling its intensity as well. This post week I think my body has experienced all the issues one gets while traveling. I was pleased a bee sting was not on the list.
Overthere Farm works to be as sustainable as possible. The pig food is collected from the neighboring hotel food scraps and added extras from the grocery stores, as I previously mentioned last post. Every extra is utilized. Whey from cheese making is divided among the chickens, pigs, and cats. Plastic bottles are saved for excess milk or to bottle feed. Even the salad bowl is the glassware from a washing machine!
Meals were their own treat. A typical lunch was tea with fresh milk. A slice of homemade bread, with any of the options: homemade butter, cheese, blackberry jam, avocado picked from the tree, or fried egg from their resident chickens. The Graafs were kind enough to let me leave with a liter of milk and chunks of the orange zest and mint cheese I made.
There are many stories to tell about the animals. I want to write a short murder mystery from the animals' perspective. Dad, will you be my editor? Each species has its own set of characters. The hissing gaggle of geese, the different gangs of chickens, the lumbering and loveable big pigs, Billy the leader of mischief among the goats, and so on.
And then of course our downtime stories. Apple cobbler and milkshakes at Pam's tea garden in the village, learning to play Settlers of Catan, conversations at the dinner table, kittens playing by the fire, being prolonged at the waterfall because of routine fire burning in the grasslands surrounding us, Marcella brushing out my dreadlock wannabes, and the cafe where I may have helped a local girl print out an illegal document.
So now from here? I am in Durban for a few days. My clothes are clean again. Liz's mom rinsed the dirtiest shirt, my only long sleeve covered in molasses, mud, milk, and whey. From another room she called out, "This shirt is disgusting! How have you been wearing this?" Liz and I laughed. She had helped me handwash my clothes weeks ago with a similar response. And now more school items to take care of. I got a small scholarship! This trip has been such a reminder and a fuel for inspiration for why Ecology and Conservation is so important to me.
My Visa actually expires on the 26th. So Rodolphe and I are meeting in the Drakensburg to travel Sani Pass (look up this beautiful drive into Lesotho) and spending some time in Lesotho before I have to head to Joburg airport. This will give me a slight extension on my Visa when I re-enter South Africa.
The day is near when I can Skype and learn about what all had been happening with you. The summer adventures, the wedding planning, the trip to El Salvador, life in Austin, wildfires, the cutest niece and nephew in the world, and all other stories!
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