So here is a little rundown of the daily routine. There are two groups A and B made up of staff members and interns. Each with different tasks for the morning. There are currently 3 interns and 5 staff here at the moment. I am actually only the third intern they've had. I thought the program was going for longer but they actually just started the intern program around June of 2007. So the first intern Yuta (from Japan) arrived in October. Then Ryan, from the US arrived in November. And myself in February. So needless to say the program is still fairly new and evolving as the time goes on. The farm itself is still in the developing phase as far as infrastructure goes. They have only been on the property for about 3 years, and given Geoff's busy schedule of teaching, consulting, and aid work around the globe somethings have moved slower then everyone would like. That said, it allows for an open ended learning situation because there is so much potential work to be done that there is no shortage of projects to get involved in.
Back to the routine.
one group has animal duty:
Which consists of feeding the cows, horses, ducks and sheep.
Milking the two dairy cows.
And checking all animals for ticks.
They have two types of ticks, one relatively harmless and one is a paralysis tick, which if left on can kill an animal in two days. It basically affects the brain causing the animal to be paralyzed and ultimately it just dies. They have lost a cow and dog to this type of tick already.
Then moving the animals into one of the fields (called paddocks here) to feed for the day. And also bringing the animals in at night.
The other group has garden duty:
Weeding of the two gardens. Milking and feeding the goats, feeding the chickens and collecting eggs.
- Wake up around 6:30-7:00am
- coffee/tea
- either animals or garden duty
- 9:00am-9:30am breakfast (called brecky)
- 9:30-12:30pm work on farm projects or help out staff *
- 12:30pm-1pm lunch
- 1pm-3pm Intern research time. Basically 2 hours free time
- 3pm-6pm work on farm projects
- 6:00pm-7:00pm dinner
- 7:00pm-? free time. most people go to bed by 10pm.
So this week I milked my first cow, and my first goat. It rained pretty much for the first 3 days I was here, then was sunny off and on for like 4 days. Apparently it hasn't rained like this for the past 15 years. Needless to say there is no shortage of water on the property. Some of the rivers and creeks around the town had huge floods. the water level raised nearly 20 feet. You can see the path of destruction in the river valleys, tons of debris stuck on still standing trees and then lots of trees all bent in the direction of the water flow. Some of the bridges even had water flowing over them and they have to be at least 30 feet to the ground.
Needless to say erosion control is a big concern. So one of the first projects I worked on was building a rock and concrete reinforced pipe crossing. The creeks on property have a pipe buried to allow water to flow through without running over the land so you can cross to the other fields (called a pipe crossing) Well on one of the crossings the outlet side was eroding away so to prevent further erosion and in case the water level rose and flowed over the land we built a rock and concrete spillway. We started by digging a trench to direct the water, then used the clay and soil displaced from the trench to fill in the eroded hill. We then placed rocks onto the soil and then poured concrete on top to fill in between the rocks. Basically creating a skin of concrete to lock it all together. You'll get a better idea from the pictures.
I also did some work in the main crop, A large garden designed for production of produce. Mostly pulling out the plants that were grown for mulch and weed suppression. Then picking through the soil for remaining weeds, and placing the pulled plants onto the footpaths in between the garden beds. This accomplishes a few things, mostly reinforcing the edges of the beds and creating mulch which will eventually be added to the beds for fertilizer.
There is also tons of bamboo growing on the property so I decided one of the things I wanted to focus on was Bamboo. So I decided to build some shelves out of bamboo for the nursery area. Between the rain and the other things going on I've only had a few hours to work on it. I have the support posts up and secured and have the first shelf nearly completed. It's quite a bit more work then I anticipated. They have this special tool, similar to an apple slicer for separating the bamboo into flat pieces. It works amazingly well, once started it splits the round bamboo into 4 equal parts.
Saturday is cleanup day where everything gets a "hospital style" clean.
Then Sunday is a day off. Its basically considered a holiday in Australia where most business are closed. Group A and B rotate each week so every other Sunday one group does all the morning duties so one group has the complete day off. There is a town market once a month, like a farmers market on steroids, so the market was going on and we spent the day there. Lost of booths for local arts and crafts and different food vendors and locally produced goods. Its quite an interesting mix of people as it is not uncommon for folks to drive 45 minutes to come to the market. Moslty from the more urbanized coastal cities and towns. Its also quite a bit of a hippy fest culminating in a drum circle at the end of the day. Good times.
So quite a week. It feels like i've been here a month. All good stuff though. I have no doubt I'll learn a ton before my 3 months is up.
Oh and Australia has some crazy creatures. Aside from some of the worlds deadliest snakes, two of which you can find on the farm, The Taipan and Brown Snake. There are no shortage of biting insects. One in particular called the jump ant, is closely related to the wasp and actually stings with its tail. They hurt like hell and the little bastards happen to be quite aggressive. I was following Tom (the farm manger) around the fence line while he used the weed wacker (called the whipper snipper) and i took out what he couldn't with a machete. Although he tried to take out nearly everything. Anyway while attending to a jump ant bite to my foot i was then struck in the face with debris from his whipper snipping.
quite a day indeed.
Oh I nearly forgot. During dinner on my first night on the farm, after nearly 30 hours of traveling. and in the pouring rain. Geoff was kind enough to inform me of the two deadly snakes in the area and waht to do incase of a bite. He says. if you get bit don't panic, try not to move and wrap some cloth around the bite area to restrict the venom from getting into your blood stream. Then wait, We'll come get yeah. Don't worry. But if you get bit in the face or neck well there isn't much we can do.
Good intro huh?
seeyah soon hey (aussie speak)
check out some images Click Here
Sick video of a kid juggling a soccer ball at the market.
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