Duck Duck Duck!

Oh me oh my what an update this one will be (retelling it here will do it no justice).

Yay for native flora and fauna

But here goes:
Where were you? I was in the small farming region in the Waitahora Valley next to a small city: Dannevirke.

What were you doing? Wwoofing of course

What type of tasks did you get to be involved with? Oh let me tell you that the first day I got there started what would be 3 weeks of FUN!

After hitching into Dannevirke I got a ride to the farm and had no idea what was in store
Lets just summarize: young bull is being moved to another paddock to feed along with the rest of the bulls, unfortunately it decides to run through the bush and has no idea there's a 80 foot drop down into a creek. Well after 3 goes at trying to pull the body up with a tractor (yes it was not alive by the time I got there) and having the straps break each time it was time for some hard working wwoofers to get in there.

Nothing to do w/ the task but interesting nonetheless

2 other wwoofers from the US were there, I got out of the car, was told to get my boots on so I did and put on an overall and got down into the creek. To be quick lets just say it took 5 of us to bring up the different parts. Even though it was a young bull it was a heavy one.

I appreciate now people who produce and sustain their own sources of meat and vege. Be sure to find out where your food is coming from (remember that it may not be the most cost efficient and environmentally friendly). Transport costs and chemicals used in production of food need to be questioned by the consumers or else nothing will change.

**No pictures will be posted for those with weak stomachs and those who are vegetarian or vegan ;) **

Fun Fact for you though to get your mind off the last part

The second day of work was a nice change and brought me back to working on the conservation projects in the first few months. We got to work alongside the local country school and be supervisors/chaperones for the kids as they learned more about the wetland a local farmer had started and wanted to expand and sustain. This project is being adopted by the school and students got to learn about measureing the water visibility, temperature, pH, see the different creatures living in the wetland to measure how healthy it was and also plant some native plants along the slope next to the road to help protect it and stop any runoff from flowing into it without being filtered.

Wetland project

Look who gets to get a water sample

to the bottom for different test

back we go

now you can measure the water clarity

here's a daily overview of animal chores:
morning - feed calf, feed some of the ducks and then let them out to free range (so you can gather eggs in the area) feed chooks allow some out for free range (gather eggs), feed turkeys who are free range already, feed mother duck sitting on chicken eggs, feed chicks. Wash eggs
early evening - feed calf, round up ducks and feed them all, feed turkeys a bit, (gather eggs anywhere you see them).

Duck Duck Duck (3 of 20+ free range ducks)

During the week we got to work with the wwoof hosts' neighbor who has over 5000 sheep! It was just lambing season so Chloe, the other wwoofer, and I got to go help round them up so the lambs could have their tails docked and their ears tagged.

This time though instead of rubber rings the tails were ironed off (don't worry though the lambs were ok). It was a fun day getting to see sheep dogs do their work; it is amazing how well they listen to their owners and a different wistle from them will mean something else that the sheep dogs translate when rounding up the ewes/lambs. One of the most memorable days of my travels through NZ was this day, actually having the opportunity to work alongside a born and raised sheep farmer and his assitants and all of their dogs.

View from the top of Old Man's Face Rock (too windy to hear)

Lamb docking



On the way home

lamb tails and beer?

you betcha

Here are some of the adventures on the farm and in the bush:

bush and creek

Glow worm hike


Natural Pools


What the Glow Worm Hike looks like during the day

Meet some of the Fam:

Jazz and the pup (3 days old) (Ben was named first, the brown one, black and white one suggested name by me after a week)

Charlie and Elvis

Mother Duck (one of many)

The local Tom has a great talent ;)

Max with eyes open after 2 weeks (Maximus in my heart)

Ben had his open first (teddy bear)

This a bonfire

Did I mention that it snowed! It hasn't done this in a few years and it has never been this much! No one expected it but it was nice in a funny way. It's true what they say over here: you may get 4 seasons in a day in some countries but in NZ you can have 4 seasons in an hour

the beginning

Keeps piling up

The last week and a half I was there 3 more wwoofers came after Chloe had left so it was a packed house. Some tasks included weeding, mowing the lawns (with a sit-down mower, fun stuff), digging up water pipes to apply clay tiling to them to prevent cattle from squashing the pipes and preventing us from getting water at the house, composting, daily animal chores, etc etc.

Plucking Turkey feathers w/ wwoofers from Japan and Korea

This was just a quick summary, many more an adventure happened but not enough space to put it on (and by this time you are probably only looking at the pictures and watching the videos)

One of many delicious meals!

Very fun time here, GREAT wwoof host, great company, lots of stories, lots of time spent with animals (all of whom are free range! that's the way to go, not feedlots!)

Off to the South I go, for how long who knows?

Until next time Planeteers,


Cheers


P.S. Enjoy ;)