Tata Papanui

As the sun has set on our last night here on the farm we are reminiscent of the many beautiful sunsets that we have seen and the life lessons that we will take with us upon our departure tomorrow.

1. If anyone every calls you or someone that you may know an egghead it is quite alright. That is because eggs come in all shapes and sizes and we can live to prove it. Over the three weeks that we have been here chances are we have collected upwards of 40,000 eggs and we have seen round, oval, bumpy, you name it, shaped eggs. That is we have yet to see a square one.

2. Wet chooks smell worse than wet dogs. Hands down.

3. Adorable little baby calves will run away from you no matter how much you want to be their friend or however much you sweet talk them. They do not want to be pet, they just want to be fed.

4. The local pub of Merriwa is an extremely friendly place and it further supports our theory that local bars will forever and always be better than that of a large metropolis city.

5. The animals here are dangerous so: if you ever see a brown snake do not scream and be scared watch it patiently and then shoot it. Unless it continues to slither under the porch of your house where you will not chase it but rather just be paranoid about it everyday, which is more of our story. And always remember to shake out your shoes because red back spiders WILL be hiding in there waiting for yummy little toes to slip right in.

And finally in the wise word of Mark:

"As long as the driver is next to the line on the road, you know you are doing it right."
-and-
"Curiosity didn't kill that cat, it killed the chook. Curious little buggers they are."

Mostly we would just like to thank Mark and Di for welcoming us into their home, onto their farm, putting us to work, introducing us to some wonderful people (Jim, Leslie, the fellows at the pub, and all the ladies in the egg shed...but most importantly Sampson and Delilah)and filling our tummies with wonderful food and our heads with everlasting knowledge.

Until the next stop,
Jes & Brian.

Cows, calves, and us

There is a large group of calves that were being weaned off the mothers milk when we arrived at Papanui. Each morning we have been heading up to the cattle yard to feed them hay bales. We learned from Mark that when you separate the bale into pieces called biscuits and they brake that way because of they way it was out together. Pretty interesting stuff!

So some of these calves weren't doing so well last week. You may notice that some of them have on eye patches (and if you didn't look before chances are you will now!) and this was because many of them had a pink eye infection. So after we marked which ones showed symptoms, carefully separated them out over a few hours times, we eventually were able to help Mark give them some shots in the eyelids, apply and intent, and glue on the patch.

This evening we finally set the little calves free into the pasture. We herded using the shaggy red dog named Sandy. We moved them probably close to a mile or so out and about where they will now be able to graze freely. It was challenging as out atv blew a flat tire about ten minutes into the process and the whole path was covered with nice green grass and the calves were more interests in chomping down than moving along. It made for a long adventure but we did it in the end. They all made it safely and none were left behind. Success!

Until later,
Jes & Brian

Ps. You won't see any smiling photos of Brian near the calves and their yummy hay breakfasts because we recently discovered he suffers from hay fever :(

Chooks

Here at the Papanui farm we have daily jobs that we have to complete. One of these lovely jobs is tending to the chooks, also known as chickens. Each morning there are five stations of chooks that we must visit, also starting from the youngest and ending with the oldest to prevent spreading any sickness that many be present. At the two youngest areas that are right near the main property we have to feed and water the groups. Them we get to take out the ranger which a little off road atv to visit the other three sites where we must check the feed, water, and calcium pellets. We also have to check the grounds for any eggs on the ground and make sure to pick them up. This is important because if we leave them there it encourages the chooks to lay their eggs on the ground rather than in the laying boxes.

In the evening we return to the three converted buses in the pasture to collect eggs. Each day we collect between one and two thousand eggs per day. It's a quite therapeutic job really and the best part is visiting our favorite guard dogs Sampson and Delilah.

Keep in mind these are just a few of the short and simple tasks that we accomplish each day. For example today we had to feel the feeders where we were up to our armpits in chook feed making sure that it stayed level as it was being poured in. Also delivering six barrels of water, one at a time makes for a lot of driving the trailer back and forth. But it sure does give us enough to e to chat!

More to come!
Until later,
Jes & Brian

The Love Shack

...is a little old place where we can get together. But more realistically it is actually the name of the our that we are staying in at the Papanui farm. It's was dubbed this wonderful name as it was being built by Mark, the man who owns the farm, and some of his helpers at the time. Apparently they would continually ask what they were building and he would respond "a love shack of course!" Ever since the project was completed the name stuck. But it important to mention that our house stands separately from Mark and his wife Di's house.

Anyways, we are staying in a nice double bed right off the kitchen of the house (perfect for a midnight snack of course) and right outside is a wonderful deck that has both a pool table and a ping pong table if we still have energy left over when we are done with a full days work. The other door connected to the deck allows access to the living room where we have found ourselves watching some prime time Australian cable in the evenings to wind down from the long day.

The gardens right near the houses are beautiful. I even picked a lemon right off the tree from just five steps from the edge of the deck. Along with citrus there are spices and vegetables all available for our personal consumption.

The living quarters we have been provided are more that welcoming and it is more than we could ask for. We are currently watching a typical sunset over the horizon of the farm just feeling how hard we worked today and now how much we love to feel relaxed.

Until later,
Jes & Brian

New Year's in Newcastle, New South Wales

This years theme for the first of the year seems to be new. A whole new world for us really. Went spent the good part of the day in a state of relaxation (the is once the guy with the really stinky feet got moved out of our room and two lovely girls from Germany moved in). We were able to explore the downtown area of Newcastle, although most of the shops were closed because of the holiday it was nice to just roam around in the sunshine. Eventually we found ourselves at the beach where I was proud to note the red and yellow flags that allow safe swimming between them. Yet there were also black and white checkered ones and we aren't quite sure what those ones mean yet so we safely avoided that area. There were loads of happy people sprawled out on the beach as well as a handful if surfers who were fun to watch. I say in envy of there skills thinking about how we want to go surfing before we leave.

It's safe to assume that we were on the beach for jut over and hour and liberally applied sunscreen, and yet still got burnt. But we are happy to report that it is hardly painful and we got our full supply of vitamin d for the day. We both are really starting to feel the effects of the large amount of travel we endured bit none the less will be on a bus bright and early in the morning to head to the farm. We are red, stinky, and tired, but most importantly we are happy.

Until the next stop,
Jes & Brian.